The Vandals

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....................... ...........8/2002

Official Music Publication on The Web Representing The Bay Area

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INTERVIEW WITH Warren Fitzgerald of The VANDALS

Q: All You guys really have a background of doing everything else. I read here that you actually say it's good for the longevity of the band to have all these side projects?
A: Yeah. It takes the pressure off whether you either make it in show biz as a band or to have a bunch of pressure to have that is your only source of income and stuff like that, so we can keep it fun.
Q: What's the new CD called?
A: There's quite a few. We should do them alphabetically, but the new record is called "Internet Dating Superstuds." That came out Tuesday.
Q: Now this has something to do with you guys setting up a dating thing?
A: It has more to do with ... reflective of our own pathetic personal level and the desperate measures we went to, to solve that. Me and certain unnamed other members of the band have actually done internet dating. Well, the unnamed guy is actually Dave the singer. But him and me have. Not with each other.
Q: Are you guys keeping score?
A: Yeah. Yeah. He won't fess up to it, so it's hard to really keep track of how well he's doing.
Q: I heard you guys on Loveline the other day. What was that like?
A: It's fun. We've done that before. The best part is during commercial breaks; Dr. Drew just cussed like crazy. He's like "... oh you know these fucking people blah blah ...." It's pretty funny. It's kind of surreal seeing that, because he seems kind of square on the air.
Q: You're right, he seems like the laid back one, where the other guy is the one I would expect to swear a lot.
A: Exactly. I felt like I had a lot more in common with him and it took him off his pedestal a bit. So I thought it was a good thing.
Q: Was that in New York? Did you have a show in New York at the time?
A: No. Actually, they broadcasted it. It's syndicated across the United States and it's done in L.A., which is convenient for us.
Q: You guys mentioned on the show that you're pretty tight with No FX.
A: Oh yeah. Absolutely. Actually today we are in San Francisco attending Fat Mike's ten-year renewal of vows thing. The whole band came up to check out his thing. So, we're all staying here and attending the ceremony, or whatever it is. We're not quite sure how it goes down, but it seems to be loose and casual and punk rock kind of vibe.
Q: Are you're keeping punk rock alive still?
A: Maybe I'm on an iron lung or respirator. Something like that.
Q: I didn't remember, were you guys on the last Van Warps?
A: Not 2002. We did 2001. We tend to do the odd years. We're in it next year ... it seems to be in the cards. Every other year. You kind need about a month or two of psychotherapy afterwards because it's very long and intense.
Q: But you're going to be going on your tour headlining?
A: Yes. We're going to start on November 1st going across the U.S and then going to England right after that.
Q: I'll be looking forward to seeing you in San Francisco.
A: Yeah. We'll definitely come through here.
Q: I saw NoFX this year and I was wondering how one can see all 30 or 40 bands.
A: You can on that whole tour for all 45 dates and still miss a large portion of the bands. There's just too much going on. It's overwhelming.
Q: Now are you the chief writer of the band?
A: Yes. It's some how or other that that has fallen into my lap over the past couple of albums. Which is fine. I enjoy it.
Q: I notice a lot of your lyrics to the songs on this new album, "The Internet Dating Superstuds" is pretty humorous. Did you have to go to some comedy clubs ahead of time, are you just naturally a funny guy?
A: Yes, I would actually equate that to writing sketch comedy probably. So a lot of my friends actually do that for a living. So, it's a similar scenario where you go like ... okay, where can I have a set up, a middle and an end. But most of our lyrics that are ... like especially the pathetic ones as far like bad ways of dealing with relationships or stuff like that. Those are based on reality though.
Q: That's great.
A: That's true.
Q: You've written some film scores too?
A: Yes. I've done a few of those and me and Joe have Kung Fu records and Kung Fu films and we've all put out a few DVD's of films and soundtracks for things like that. And I've done scores for other films also. So that's another kind of supplemental outlet or whatever you want to call it. The best thing about that is you get to work alone. You just watch a movie over and over and try to make up music to it.
Q: How do you plan out your day. You guys are so much into something. Is it every hour is devoted to a particular chore?
A: It depends. Like when you're tour, you're on tour and that's pretty much all you can do and then the rest .... when a record comes up. Like for me, if I'm producing a record, I'm generally writing most of the material. So that's usually a two month process of where I'm very concentrated on that. I'm waking up every day. I have a studio at my house. So I'll be writing and doing demos and then putting it together. It's definitely - then once it's over, then I get back to my TVO and my internet pornography. Decompress.
Q: Are you the guitarist for Tenacious D, or is that somebody else?
A: Yes. I play guitar on their album. I play all the electric guitar on their album.
Q: Who does the live shows?
A: They usually do it as a duo. Like the way they've done it originally. The album comprised a full band. It was Dave Grohl and me and Steve McDonald from the Red Cross. And it was fun. They are one of my favorite bands for it was a big thrill to play on that record.
Q: Were you down with them in Coachella?
A: No, actually I wasn't there for that. I've actually performed with them ... we did MAD TV together with a full band and then I've done a few shows with them here and there. Actually one up here in San Francisco, like you know where you come out and play a song or two and that kind of thing.
Q: Who are you going to be touring with this time?
A: We are touring with Kung Fu ... well its basically called the Kung Fu tour, which is currently on. Me and Gerald or the owners of. We have two bands that are doing very well. A band called Tsunami Bomb. Their record came out a couple of weeks ago and they're kind of on the verge exploding maybe and then another band called Audio Karate which their debut record came out a couple of months ago and they're great also. So, that's the package for it.
Q: I've seen Tsumami Bomb. They're good. Now you were guitarist for Oingo Boingo before?
A: This is true also. It's an obscure reference. If someone's under 25, I guarantee they've haven't heard of them. But I did that for there last two albums. It was fun. It was actually really interesting for me because it was very different from my punk rock upbringing. It was more of a new wave kind of thing.
Q: Now Kung Fu Records, is that actually your guys label?
A: Yes it is. Me and Joe Escalante have that.
Q: That gives you a lot of flexibility. Doesn't it?
A: Exactly. It kind of keeps when the band is on the same label that we have, it kind of consolidates and gives you an opportunity that everything is taken care as opposed to yelling at the people who are supposed to be helping out and then yelling at a whole other group of people because they're another record label. It's good. We have less laryngitis from that.
Q: What's your remedy for having 100 percent energy like your band does? Is it tons of coffee or what?
A: I would attribute directly to being emotionally immature. And if you never break out of that phase, you tend to have maybe some sort of tab like enthusiasm towards everything. So, that's the trick. So it's not drug induced that's for sure.
Q: It keeps your adrenaline going.
A: Yeah exactly. It's like where you can continuously laugh at potty humor or anything and just never growing out of that. It's the sound of youth.
Q: I think that advice should be spread around to everybody.
A: In today's musical climate too, it's been very popular the past couple of years in the metal scene to be very angry and very somber and all that kind of stuff. I think it's ridiculous. I think it's ridiculous for a lot of reasons the main point being everyone had a crappy childhood and miserable. That's not impressive. That's nothing to sing about. You know what I mean. And just the fact that you're still blowing on it, just shows that you're even dumber and in addition to that, it's thoroughly contrived because they're tring contrive some sort of angst that teenagers can relate to. Which is condescending and patronizing, which I find offensive. I'd rather have people just be stupid and fun.
Q: That's great. But actually, the first song with Sex Pistols, they were pretty angry?
A: Yeah. It was done ... there was a certain amount of tongue and cheek. It's so funny. The humor in part was always what I gravitated towards. They have attendees and stuff like. They weren't a joke then, but there were humorous elements involved. And of course, because we're goof balls, we lean towards the humorous aspects always.
Q: I guess the best advice is for people not to take you to serious.
A: Yeah. Exactly. Than you just look ridiculous. And if people are laughing at you and you're not trying to be funny, that's pretty embarrassing. So, we save ourselves that humiliation.
Q: Does this album differ from your previous albums?
A: It's kind of a continuation of what we've done. There's nothing really so out there, that they go wow, what are they doing now. I wouldn't say we have a formula, but it definitely says that we have a consistency in what we're doing. We didn't write a record, going oh wow; this is going to be the big pop punk hit of the year. We just do what we do and try to make it like we like it. Which I'm sure pretty much every band says it about every album in every interview, but it's actually kind of true.
Q: You must be doing something right. 400,000 records on previous releases on Nitro records. That's pretty good.
A: We've been amazed. Usually if I like something, I'm pretty certain it's going to fail. Or it's like if you see a movie you really like and it's not going to do well at the box office or you hear a song you really like, and it's not going to be a hit record. The reverse psychology kind of thing.
Q: Now is there a single on this one that they're throwing around?
A: Well we're not really single oriented, but we did we took the first song on the album and decided to call that a single because it's the first song on the album. Then probably the second song on the album will be ...
Q: Then the tenth song will be ....
A: Exactly, zero minus one.
Q: There's the minus. What is that a phone number?
A: It's actually, some bands count off songs 1,2, 3,4. Some count them off 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. Some count off 4,3,2,1. So we just made up our own one. So that's actually the most innovative thing we've ever done in our entire career
Q: Well, this one song "My Brother's Gay." Who's brother's gay.
A: That's actually ___ claimed his brother's gay, but he doesn't have a brother. So, we're trying to figure out whom he's talking about.
Q: This song here, "My Brain Tells My Body."
A: Yes. Actually, that's one of my favorite one's on the album. Actually we stole that from somewhere, but I'm not going to where we stole it from, but my brain tells my body that line, which happens to be the title. It's another song that has bad advice about how to solve your problems in a very short sighted way. If you can't stand to look at someone, poke your eyes out kind of thing.
Q: Sure, sure. Makes sense. Have you done the radio circuit yet?
A: We're not really radio friendly ... actually radio is not very friendly to us is maybe how it works. We don't really - to be on a commercial radio play list, it requires tons of money and major label support and all those kinds of things that we don't have and we're doing fine without it. And the cool thing is that we don't have to go and play for free at all these kind of weenie roasts or acoustic Christmas type of things. It minimalizes the ass kissing is what it does basically. Because whenever we have to ass kissing, we're obnoxious. It's a certain form of blackmail or whatever you call it. If they offered it to us, we'd probably do it, but they're going to offer it, so we're going to act like we don't want it.
Q: There's a station in San Francisco - Live 105 that would play your music
A: Yeah. It's a mess. So we just say thanks and go directly to the kids. Go directly to the tiny club.

By Randy Cohen

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The Vandals

David Quackenbush
Joe Escalante
Warren Fitzgerald
Josh Freese

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The Vandals