Warp 11 Interview

Although recovering from a long Tranya binge on Rigel IV, I managed to squeeze some answers out of Captain Karl (bass, vocals) of the rogue Starfleet Corps of Rockers infantry division, Warp 11. The band was hungover, so apparently only Karl had the power of speech. John Merlino (drums) gave up an answer under torture, however.

(For more on the band, check out TruePunk’s band profile of Warp 11 and album review of “I Don’t Want To Go To Heaven As Long As They Have Vulcans In Hell”)

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BIJHAN: Warp 11 is a nationally recognized name, and your music has been heard all over the world. So when does the whole country get to see the live experience? Or will we forever need to make pilgrimages to Sacramento to see your performances?

CAPTAIN KARL: We’ve talked about doing an Alpha Quadrant tour for some time now. I guess it just comes down to getting the timing right. We’re all pretty busy in our non-band related lives. Brian raises and sells pedigree tribbles, many of which have repeatedly won Best of Show. Kiki is busy teaching Klingon martial arts self-defense classes to exotic green Orion women. John is an alcoholic. I’m busy working on an actual holodeck which admittedly at this time is an old shed, a RealDoll I got on e-bay and some Pirates of the Caribbean costumes someone left at my last Halloween party. But hey… you gotta start somewhere.

BIJHAN: What was it like to have “Everything I Do I Do With William Shatner” played in front of the man as part of a tribute to his career?

CAPTAIN KARL: It was like having a quantum torpedo fired directly into the pleasure center of my brain. Now all I need to do is have kinky borg sex with Jeri Ryan (Using lots of my home homemade borg love attachments of course.) and I can die a happy man.

BIJHAN: Your promotional material usually depicts you wearing the 1960s Starfleet uniforms. Was the Original Series your favorite series?
CAPTAIN KARL: Most definitely. Though I do feel a certain bald affinity with Captain Picard, I have to go with the original series. Besides Shatner’s bald too; he just hides it under a toupee. The original series was all about kicking ass and taking names and getting laid. They didn’t need a holodeck to make interesting episodes. All they needed was Kirk, Spock, Bones and an alien girl in a bikini.

BIJHAN: You sometimes dress up in costumes other than Starfleet uniforms, though, such as the Borg or Cheron. What have been your favorite costumes to perform in?

CAPTAIN KARL: Our costumes are irrelevant. Only Kiki’s costumes matter. See the website photo section if you don’t believe me.

BIJHAN: What’s the creative process like for Warp 11? Does one member of the band come to the others with a fully-written song, or does it emerge from jamming, or what?

CAPTAIN KARL: Everybody writes and everyone has their own process when they do it. My writing style consists of loading up my DVD player with about 40 random Trek episodes and opening a bottle of Jim Beam. Then I sit in naked in my living room with a pencil and a pad of paper and press play. I don’t really remember much of what happens after that but the next morning I usually have about 6 or 7 songs written. (Strangely they never appear to be in my handwriting.)

BIJHAN: Fans have been eager to accept John “Number One” Merlino as a crew member. But it marked the departure of beloved Chief Medical Officer Jeff Hewitt. Jeff still has writing credits on your latest album “I Don’t Want To Go To Heaven As Long As They Have Vulcans In Hell”, though. So what’s the story? Why did Jeff leave and how did you find John?

CAPTAIN KARL: We wrote some of the songs before Jeff left and we always give credit where credit is due. As for why he left, I can assure you it was on good terms. Jeff dislocated a groin muscle whilst practicing for a Full-Contact Klingon Origami match. I always told him those things would be the end of him but he was obsessed. What can you do? After that he had a lot of issues playing the drums and graciously bowed out of the band. It was a sad day for all of us. Not really sure where we found John. I think he answered an ad or something. Or maybe he’s someone’s cousin. I don’t really remember.

BIJHAN: (To John Merlino specifically) What was it like to join a band that had already developed a dedicated following?

JOHN “NUMBER ONE” MERLINO: Warp 11 fans are the best. They buy us drinks whenever we ask and they treat me like the rock star that I always knew I was. What more could I ask for? Other than to stop bringing up that damned Jeff guy – FOR EXAMPLE!

BIJHAN: Some fans want to see you in the next J.J. Abrams Star Trek film. I must say I would be excited. Have you been approached? Even if you weren’t, what kind of roles would you want to play?

CAPTAIN KARL: Are you kidding? I’d give Jeff’s other groin muscle to be in the next film. If anyone reading this knows J.J. tell him were interested. As to what we’d play, two words — ”Red Shirts.”

BIJHAN: In your promotional video for “I Don’t Want To Go To Heaven As Long As They Have Vulcans In Hell” we can see what appear to be Enterprise badges circa 2266 tattooed on Captain Karl Miller’s chest along with his Vulcan companion. Who is the man in the Spock mask? And are those tattoos real?

CAPTAIN KARL: Yup. The tattoos are real. I always said that when this band made me my first million I would get the Starfleet logo tattooed on my chest and I am not one to break my word. As for the man in the Spock mask… It’s actually Leonard Nimoy! He owed me a favor. Don’t ask for the details.

BIJHAN: What’s next for Warp 11?

CAPTAIN KARL: Probably more songs about Star Trek, I imagine.

BIJHAN: Thank you very much for your time and answers! Live long and rock hard!

CAPTAIN KARL: Lick long and proper!

Warp 11

This band breaks the time barrier. They’re so hot they’ll make an android hard. And their music is definitely extragalactic.

Mark S. Allen of Premiere Radio Networks said of Warp 11 “not since KISS has a band had this level of shtick, and an amazing sound backing it up”. He was right.

In 1996 Karl Miller was working for a small video company, editing together promotional footage. Hoping to find just the right music for a little slice of footage he was assembling, he started looking for Star Trek-themed bands. Finding none of any quality, he decided this was a travesty of epic proportions. He pulled up his boots, tore off his uniform’s sleeves, and began writing original punk songs on his bass guitar all about Star Trek.

Soon Miller began styling himself “Captain” and looking around for a crew. He found it in guitarist and Chief Engineer Brian Moore whose fusion of AC/DC-like hooks and old school punk chord crunching fit right in with Miller’s throbbing bass lines. Chief Medical Officer Jeff Hewitt, a long time friend and collaborator of Miller’s, joined up when it was discovered that, in addition to Vulcan physiology, he was an expert at smacking sticks on drums. With the band’s sound filled out, there was only one thing left to do: refine the image.

Chief Science Officer Kiki Stockhammer doesn’t offer the band a tremendous level of musical skill - that’s well taken care of by the other members. Instead she brings to the table a high level of energy, a seductive and raunchy sex appeal, and edgy feminine vocals to counterpoint Miller glam-rock wail and Moore’s more gruff masculine voice.

Warp 11 found immediate acceptance in Sacramento (their home town) on the science fiction convention circuit, as well as in traditional rock venues. Their first album, “Suck My Spock”, was released in a limited pressing and rave reviews. As the name suggests, the album was chock-full of rough sexual metaphors and lewd double-entendres. The raw rock and roll at first shocked traditional Star Trek fans, as they were unused to hearing Kirk and Spock’s names surrounded by words like “cock” and “fuck” and “shit”.

Through tireless work the band made a name for themselves in the Sacramento scene and have been playing shows almost non-stop. A local Sacramento evening magazine show, hosted by Discovery Channel pseudo-celebrity Mike Rowe, did a feature on Warp 11 after the release of their second album, “Red Alert”. That, combined with the college radio success of their first single off the album “Everything I Do I Do With William Shatner”, launched the band to a new high in their careers. In 2006, ten years after Miller first got the idea to make a Star Trek punk band, “Everything I Do I Do With William Shatner” was played in front of the man himself as part of the opening montage of the Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner.

After hooking up with Reboot Music, a small but devoted Sacramento record label, the band was able to release two more albums - “Boldly Go Down On Me” and “It’s Dead Jim” - and re-release their previous albums. They also went back into the studio to re-record the first record as a new release called “Suck My Spock Some More”. Now the old recordings are no longer available on CD, making physical versions of “Suck My Spock” perhaps the only punk collectible that is also a Star Trek collectible.

In 2007 Jeff Hewitt either suffered one injury or multiple injuries (there is no official statement on the matter, only an aside made by Miller at a September 2007 show) that made him no longer able to perform with Warp 11. Initially drummer John “Number One” Merlino was only a temporary replacement, but after it was clear Jeff Hewitt was not returning Merlino became a permanent member.

Now the band is promoting their new album, “I Don’t Want To Go To Heaven As Long As They Have Vulcans In Hell”, (which TruePunk reviewed here) and their new sound, with drummer Merlino, is much more mature than their previous releases. Combining influences as diverse as Metallica, the Pogues, and the Ramones, they have developed a sound all their own that is instantly identifiable.

Already the band has lasted over a decade, and they show no signs of slowing down. They’ve reached radio waves across the country, and downloads of their songs are tracked to nations around the world. With Star Trek now introduced to a whole new generation via J.J. Abram’s revitalization, Warp 11 doesn’t appear to be going anywhere soon.

Warp 11 – “I Don’t Want To Go To Heaven As Long They Have Vulcans In Hell”

Anyone who has looked around the Sacramento punk scene or been to a Star Trek convention in the area has heard of Warp 11. They’re the punk band that dresses in 1960s Starfleet uniforms and roared to the mainstream with their hit single “Everything I Do, I Do With William Shatner” which even saw play on Comedy Central’s Roast of William Shatner. Yeah. They’re awesome.

Now, almost a decade since they first started playing, Warp 11 has seen the departure of drummer and Chief Medical Officer Jeff Hewitt and the welcoming of “Number One” John Merlino to fill in the percussion section. Also, it appears Chief Science Officer Kiki Stockhammer has taken a greater role in the music creation process.

The result: the most mature punk record I’ve heard so far this year. Warp 11 has patched together punk into every other rock genre flawlessly, evoking simultaneously the Misfits and AC/DC in the very first song, “I Make It So”. Front man and bassist Captain Karl Miller can wail like an 80s glam rocker, or croon like Joey Ramone, and shows every angle throughout the album. After a soaring first track the album takes a left turn with the bratty and poppy titular track, which sounds like the musical lovechild of the Buzzcocks and the Briefs, but with a signature style that only Warp 11 could produce.

The lead single, “Sulu”, is a first-person love-fest from the eyes of everyone’s favorite Japanese-American of the 23rd Century. It’s also got more firepower than the Defiant (for non Trekkies: a lot). But the jaunty and carefree fun of “Sulu” is quickly put aside for the heart-racing and epic “They Put Creatures In Our Bodies”, where pounding drums and ape-like chanting will make you feel like you’re on the final frontier – of rock.

Perhaps the most interesting tracks to me were the ones where the band stepped back for a minute and sang songs about themselves. Kiki Stockhammer took lead vocals for the song “Beam Into Me”, a sexy first-person in which she cries out the trials of being a woman in a nerd punk band and the target of so much sexual attention. And the final track of the album, “Yet Another Song About Star Trek”, is sung by Miller, Stockhammer, and guitarist Chief Engineer Brian Moore in which they vocally question why they are in a Star Trek themed punk band anymore, and seem to come to the conclusion that they can do nothing else.

Luckily for them, none of us would want them to do anything else. This album is only knee-deep in these young musicians’ careers. Star Trek premiered nearly a half a century ago, seeing a critically and financially explosive success in JJ Abram’s revitalization of the franchise. Warp 11 appears to have the longevity of its cult origins. Though nerdy trendy bands have come and gone, the concentrated musicianship and energy of Warp 11 has guaranteed that you don’t even have to like Star Trek to think these guys will live long and prosper.