Success won’t spoil The Ataris, Kris Roe tells Truepunk. Interview by Steve Tauschke with singer-guitarist Kris Roe. Interview takes place in 2001

When it comes to boy-loses-girl vignettes, The Ataris’ latest – and best – album
End Is Forever is very much a modern day extension of the early Descendents loser-pop mentality. According to the band’s singer and chief songwriter Kris Roe, such days of fickle romance appear to be behind him.

“For me, this album is kind of the last of those break up songs because I just got married last April,” says Roe. “I guess I was trying to get that melancholy out of my system. It was therapy to write this record which is full of depressing songs, haha, but I think our next record will be a little more upbeat and happy.”End Is Forever follows a string of releases for The Ataris on hip California labels Kung Fu and Fat and signals the quartet’s transition from power-pop minnow to genuine contender alongside fast-movers Millencolin and MXPX, the latter having taken the Santa Barbara bunch under their tour wing last year.

Forming the band originally in suburban Indiana, Roe admits to slaving over a hot stereo as a teenager, a pursuit that has eventually paid dividends.

“I remember when I first got into punk music, I discovered (Swedish label) Burning Heart before it was licensed to Epitaph,” he says. “I discovered No Fun At All and Millencolin and then Randy and I thought ‘man, this is great!’. I started mail-ordering all these records from Sweden and when I got all these packages my mom was like ‘who the fuck do you know in Sweden?’.”

While 1999’s debut Blue Skies. Broken Hearts. Next 12 Exits has sold 80,000 copies so far, it’s a statistic likely to be dwarfed by End Is Forever, whose highly infectious set of breezy pop has been given simultaneous worldwide release and ‘watch-this-space’ status. Amid the hype, Roe is trying to keep a cool head.

“It’s kind of overwhelming,” he admits. “We’re really happy to be riding the crest of the next wave, so to speak, but you know that’s hat happens to bands – one minute you’re in one place and then you start moving so quickly you’ve kind of got to go with it.

“I’ve spoken to the guys in MXPX and Blink 182 and for them it just happened so fast and it was so overwhelming that they’ve just learnt to take it as it comes. They said that when your band gets to a point where it’s just that big you kind of learn to give away some of the control.”

But not too much control, Roe adds.

“What I like about our band is we pretty much control the majority of what we do; we do all our own booking, we do all our own email and wrote everyone back personally. We definitely have nothing but good things to say about Kung Fu and we’d like to stay somewhere on an indie level because that’s kind of what our band is about. Like Fugazi, who keep their door prices down and play only all-age shows. For me, that’s what’s admirable about a band and I want The Ataris to be remembered as that kind of band.”

With his band’s flame burning bright, singer-guitarist Tom Delonge tells Truepunk about surviving in the cut throat music business.

Interview by Steve Tauschke with Tom Delonge in 1998

Hi Tom, how’s things?
“Ok, I’m in a gas station parking lot in San Diego. I’m between houses right now so I’m staying at my girlfriend’s house and the only phone people can get hold of me on is a mobile phone number and that only works above her house up on this hill. So I had to pull in here to take interview calls. Haha!”

I seem to hear Dammit wherever I go .. are you living off the band these days?
“We are, totally! It’s better than we’ve ever lived before but that’s not to say it’ll all be here tomorrow so we’re not taking it for granted or anything. We’re not even going to try to say that we’re comfortable because we’re actually all kind of scared to tell you the truth. I mean any band that has any popularity aren’t expected to be here for too long … but we usually don’t talk about money, it’s a taboo subject because the kids get bummed on ya! Haha! I mean if we were to make $10 a show some kids would say ‘oh, that’s too much, that’s not punk, you should be playing for free!’ And if we got a $1000 a show then people would just say we’re taking all their money.”

What are you most scared of … the fame or failure?
“Well, we signed to a major label (MCA) and if (sales) don’t keep going up then it goes down and you’re gone (pause) and then you know that your band failed, haha, well not failed but on a major label you’ve got to sell a lot of albums to make a living off it forever. It’s just weird. It’s an entertainers business.”

I guess it’s just music at the end of the day.
“Totally, but it’s also our livlihood right now and I don’t know how to do anything else except write songs about girls and pooping. So we’ll see how far that takes me!”

People relate to girls and pooping though.
“That’s how our songs start. Usually I or Mark get dumped on by a girl, spat on or kicked when we’re down so then we come crying to each other, hold each other, wipe each other’s eyes and we write a song about it.”

You worked with Mark Trombino (Jimmy Eat World) on last year’s Dude Ranch .. how did you hook up with him?
“He lives in San Diego and he did another band that we really liked the recording of so we decided to use him. It worked out really well. It was something new for him I think because he came from a different musical scene and it was great to get a bunch of ideas that went back and forth. He was really cool, he had a lot of ideas for our songs.”

And you asked Scott Russo from Unwritten Law to help you out on the album too right?
“Yeah, he sings with us, you know, some back ups. Uunwritten Law are a punk band from our hometown, just friends of ours.”

You guys seem to be a product of your environment, a real summer band .. tell me you use the right sun block?
“I don’t use anything because I’m always so pasty white. I welcome any type of UV rays on my body. I don’t mind bronzing up on tour because when I came home I look all hot for my chick. But I don’t seem to get all that many rays. I use Vaseline all over my body, petroleum jelly. Either that or peanut butter!”

San Diego punk-pranksters are back with their second album Dude Ranch bassist Mark Hoppus tells Truepunk.

Interview by Steve Tauschke with Mark Hoppus. – July 1997
Hey Mark, tell us about your idea of a Dude Ranch?
“Well, there’s another definition, like when everyone says ‘yeah, it’s gonna be a great party’ and everyone’s like ‘yeah, there’s gonna be all kinds of hot girls there’ or whatever but when you show up it’s all guys.”
Just sitting around a bong?
“Right!”
So you would you contrast Dude Ranch to your debut Cheshire Cat in terms of your approach to songwriting and recording?
“Well, Cheshire Cat we did in LA in three days and this album was recorded in San Diego over the course of about a month. We took a lot more time to try to get things to sound better and do better performances at each of our posts. I also felt a lot more pressure on this record whereas on the last one we were a tiny small band who’d never done any touring at all and it was our first album. I was just just stoked to have something to sell at our shows or whatever but for this album I felt people expected more from us. I felt we had to make a much better record and still keep our minds together.”
Was moving to a major a big step for you?
“It was a huge step. It took a year and a half to decide exactly what we wanted to do because we wanted to make the right choice. Obviously there was a lot of concern about signing with a major because we grew up in the whole mind set that major labels were inherently evil. The problem with Cargo, they are a great label and they worked really hard but they just weren’t able to get our records out to as many places as we needed them to. We have a better distribution with MCA and they honestly seem like a great label so far. They’ve been completely supportive and haven’t pushed us to do stuff that would be out of character for us.”
Have you kept your Fun With Goats publishing deal?
“Oh yeah, we kept our publishing rights for Cheshire Cat and so we had to make our own publishing company, Fun With Goats. It’s always been a running joke in the band and for some reason we think sex with animals is funny and in fact for a long time we kept telling everyone we were going to name our next album Heavy Petting Zoo and then NOFX beat us to the punch. So now we just look like we’re copying NOFX, haha! I mean we write songs about things that happen to us and our friends and we try to keep a sense of humor about everything. A lot of bands just get way down on trying to act really self-important and have a really strong message and there’s definitely a place for that. But there’s also a time to have fun with your friends and just say ‘fuck everything’.”
So is Blink your day job at the moment?
“Luckily we’re able to scrape by with the money we make from the band. We’re doing pretty good with the band but we’re not able to be the full rock stars, buying cars and things like that. We survive on our band which is all we ever wanted to do, and we get to travel and hang out with our friends so you won’t hear any complaints from us really.”
I saw you on the Warped Tour in Florida last year and people seemed to really warm to you?
“Definitely! And this year is going to be the biggest ever! Warped is doing the US and Europe and it might go to Japan again and Australia.”
So how does the whole skate-punk thing go down in Japan?
“It did ok in Japan. It did three shows there and we played one of them and it was a lot of fun. Japan rules – I love that place.”
Why’s that?
“It’s completely un-Americanized! There’s definitely influences of American culture here and there, like McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken but for the most part it’s all authentic Japanese, just like you would imagine it to be.”
On your recent tour, you had surfer Rob Machaddo on board with you right?
“Yeah, he’s a friend of ours, just through the surfers we know. We brought his band (Sack Lunch) on tour with us a few times. He’s just a great guy.

Fresh off a Hawaiian tour with punk veterans 7 Seconds, Blink 182’s teenage singer-guitarist Tom Delonge tells Truepunk that though shalt not commit adulthood.

Interviews by Steve Tauschke with Tom Delonge.

It must be a pleasure to play with 7 Seconds?

“”Totally! Their music has changed because they’ve been around for like 10 years but they’re an old school punk band with the fast beat and a lot of yelling. But this guy didn’t scream, he’s got a clean voice and a lot of political lyrics about attitudes and racism and stuff. Nowadays there’s more melody too, they kind of sound like Rancid with melodic vocals. A good band, an awesome band and after meeting them anyone will tell you the same thing, you like ‘em even more knowing them as people. They’re just the coolest guys in the world. I honestly got goose bumps watching them play their old songs every single night.”"

You guys obviously take your ‘I don’t wanna grow up’ manifesto from Descendents.

“”Descendents are our favorite band in the world. They’re just the number one Blink influence but as much as they’re our biggest influence every band is going to have its influences in their lyrics and music. But it’s just how immature we are as people that we have all the stupid jokes and stuff. It’s not so much from the Descendents as much as it’s just that we haven’t grown up yet. We’re still trying to act young and not grow into the mature adult stage where everyone gets boring.”"

You’ve covered the important issues such as bad breath and fast food at least!

“”There are so many punk bands out there trying to get their message out, not that that’s bad at all but we don’t have a message and we’re kind of sick of hearing about it.”"

The Vandals songs Soup Of the Day comments on media-generated disposability of bands .. but I suppose that’s happening everywhere, not just southern California.

“”Totally. I find it happening more on the level of the big bands because you’ll see a band get up and sell five, six million albums and their next album comes out and no-one likes them anymore because all the kids have moved on. But when I heard that song I took it on a larger level. I think if you’re a punk band at our level out of southern California, or anywhere at this point, it’s not so much about picking them up and dropping them until the point where they become fairly large. The kids are pretty loyal down here I find until you get to the level of say Pennywise or larger. Pennywise pretty much has a new set of fans compared to when they first started.”"

You’re under their wing on this month’s tour right?

“”We actually went up to Alaska and played with them up there for an extreme snowboarding contest. They know us pretty well because their guitarist Fletcher, this big huge guy, broke into our room and squirted Tabasco sauce in our eyes and tried to shock us with his surfboard leash that he had hooked up to an electrical outlet. He gives younger bands things called ‘treatments’. He gets insanely drunk and tries to kill ‘em - all in good fun I guess!”"

Nine months later … 1996 with Tom Delonge.

When we spoke last year you were doing mostly supports, Pennywise, etc .. how are you finding the headline tours these days?

“”Some radio stuff has happened and since our labels been working harder our album’s been moving a lot faster than before, a lot faster by far.”"

So why do you think your sound is so attractive to US radio right now?

“”Well, we’ve had some but it’s so competitive here. It’s so involved. We’ve been working on a couple of different stations real hard for the past three weeks. But we don’t really know about that, we just play. We have other people to take care of it for us. But a lot of punk bands in the States don’t try to be punk and don’t want to be on the radio because here, if you’re on the radio, people have a tendency not to like you so you may lose the audience you’ve generated. We’ve had some radio here in California but we haven’t gone for a full scale attack. We’re on an independent label (Grilled Cheese) so it’s harder to get on the radio than if you’re with a major label.”"

Does it concern you that the punk-pop thing could be out of vogue soon, that the kids will move onto something else?

“”Well, that’s kind of what we’re hoping for. But the level we’re at now is the most crucial level and we’ve got a lot of fan mail from people asking if we’ve sold out, haha! But the vast majority of people who hear you on the radio don’t care if you’re getting airplay or not.”"

Sounds like there’s a real stigma surrounding radio?

“”You have no idea how bad it is! From our position, there are so many bands exactly like us, you know, punk bands who go rampaging on about how bad radio is or how fucked MTV is or whatever. We assume the punk scene is a place where kids want to be different and do their own thing and yet as soon as punk band gets on the radio the fanzines will say these bands are selling out just to get the money.

“”But as a punk band we want to move on with our career and sell as many albums as we can but that’s the problem. When punk first started no-one cared about selling albums or being on the radio and all of a sudden it’s about how to be politically correct and being true to your fans which is not the true punk philosophy. We don’t really care so long as people like us for our music.”"

Orange County’s The Offspring recently served up one of the year’s most magnetic punk-pop albums in Smash. Bassist Greg K shares a moment with Truepunk.

Interview by Steve Tauschke with bassist Greg K.

Hi Greg, how’s things on Epitaph at the moment?
“They’re great. The label we used to be affiliated with didn’t do anything for us but with Epitaph they promote real well, they pitch in for their bands and you can always go down there and they’ll be real friendly. For us, they’ve done anything a major label would have done. They don’t have the clout a major label has but they treat their bands just as well, probably even better. We’re real happy with ‘em.”

Is it true your label mates Pennywise recently cracked the magic million mark with their latest record?
“No, they’re up around the one hundred thousand mark right now.”

Epitaph’s bio claims you’re the label’s fastest growing band .. are you cautious not to over-expose yourself?
“We’ve been thinking about that. The first tour we’re going on in the States is going to be a small tour playing three to five hundred capacity venues. We don’t want to jump into the big field right away. Like Stone Temple Pilots offered us their tour and The Ramones have been talking and we’ve been turning those down because we don’t want to jump into those big arenas right now. We want to build it up slow. We’re not afraid of being big, we just don’t want to rush it.”

You’ve gained a leg up through various snowboarding and skate videos .. how did that come about originally?
“We don’t really know how that started. I think that’s the music a lot of these guys are into, a lot of skaters and snowboarders are into the Epitaph-type music. So when they do videos they just start picking songs and we were getting put on a lot of them. It’s actually helped us a lot. Our first Epitaph album was waning at maybe 18,000 (copies sold) for about a year and a half but when the videos started happening at the beginning of this year it just picked up to where in three of four months we’ve done 30 to 40 thousand records. So it hit this whole groove that we didn’t know existed really. Plus there’s the positivity of the (video’s) athleticism which we really like.”

You’re a sporting type then?
“Yeah, well I’ve snowboarded a couple of times and we have a couple of guys in the band who surf. But we don’t really have time right now to do much.”

Does the band actually consider itself part of the skate-punk/popcore scene?
“I don’t know, sometimes it seems that on a small scale it’s good to be associated with something because you’ll get that crowd no matter what, which is always kind of nice. But then if you get stuck in a scene you might alienate everybody else. But if they (surf/skate fraternity) like us then that’s fine. We don’t really consider ourselves part of  that scene but we like being associated with it.”

Thrasher magazine describes your sound as influenced by Social Distortion and The Vandals .. are they accurate?
“The Vandals enjoyed most of their success in the mid-80s and they’re still playing around now but I don’t know if they were a big influence on us. We grew up listening to Southern California bands and that’s what we like so when we decided to form a band that’s what we played, that melodic stuff with a hard edge.”

There’s very little that hasn’t already been said and written about the rise and rise of The Offspring, those relentless manufacturers of smash-hit anthems and flagship to a fleet of privatised punk bands.

Despite the quartet’s widescreen profile and impressive portfolio that includes a pair of 10 million-sellers - Smash and 1998’s Americana - soft-spoken bassist Greg Kriesel would appear to have more pressing matters on his mind – golf!

“I like to play golf,” he says on the phone from his home in California. “I remember playing a really nice course in Sydney about three years ago, and one in Perth too. I’m hoping the Sony people will set me up for a round in Japan after Australia but it sounds liketough ticket.”

Both countries are regular stopovers on the band’s Pacific touring leg, a route Kriesel says may be expanded next time around.

“There are pockets of Asia we’ve never hit before, like the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia where we sell really well. It’s always hard to judge your sales in places like China because of the piracy but No Doubt just did Bangkok so we’re gonna try to squeeze that one in next time.”

More familiar territory for the veteran punksters is Europe where the band recently lugged its arena-size shows around in support of their latest album Conspiracy of One, much to the delight of manic French fans.

“This European tour was some of the best shows we’ve ever had,” enthuses Kriesel who formed the band with singer Dexter Holland in 1984. “We played Wembley Arena twice but Paris was by far the best response with 17,000 people. But it goes in cycles, last time Italy was big for us, especially Milan. This time it’s France.”

Kriesel, who formed the Offspring with singer Dexter Holland in 1984, says the band also found time to introduce themselves to new European audiences.

“We also went to Slovenia for the first time which was great,” he says. “We’ve played Poland the Czech Republic before but not Slovenia, although its pretty much the same.. The only time we saw some difference in Europe was when we played the former East Germany a few years ago and the audience just stood there and didn’t know what to do. I think it was all too new to them and they didn’t want to react. It was real strange.”

Back home, the group recently amused themselves with a cameo appearance as the house band in the horror film Idle Hands, belting out renditions of their early track Beheaded as well as The Ramones I Wanna Be Sedated, for the soundtrack.

“The people at Columbia said they needed a band that could play a Halloween party in the movie and we said ‘sure’ after Blink 182 couldn’t do it. The whole movie is about some guy whose hand gets cut off and it runs around killing people. In the end, Dexter gets killed by the hand!”