BOY SETS FIRE
by Christine Natanael

Boy Sets Fire is one of the more socio-political bands to release music in the melodic end of the punk spectrum. For that reason, it was no surprise to find them sharing a bill at the Lollapalooza festival this summer with Tom Morello and company.

Crazy problems with their bus generator breaking down and the passes being all messed up aside, I did get a chance to sit down with vocalist Nathan Gray and pick his brain.
So picture it being about 90 degrees and boarding a tour bus with no power (meaning no air-conditioning as well) to do an interview. Nathan looked like I had awakened him. The place was disheveled (a polite understatement…), but we cleared a small space and delved into some cool and strange topics….

Christine Natanael: So, how is this record a progression from the last record? Are there any ideas that you brought forward into this record as a continuation? Because, I know, sometimes your album title comes from a song on another record.

Nathan Gray: Right. The title came from the poem that’s in the layout that was written by a friend of ours named Shane, who works with Refuse and Resist. The ideas involved and stuff like that are just whatever came out at the time. If it’s personal lyrics or political lyrics or—this one tended to be more political because, number 1, with the September 11th events there was a lot of material, and I hadn’t been broken up with in a while, so I wasn’t really writing any personal lyrics. I was pretty happy in that. I think I tried to—lyrical content—I tried to drag some lyrics from old albums that maybe mainstream people hadn’t heard yet and sort of reinvent them in some songs so it ended up being, probably one of the more political albums that we’ve written. Even though we’ve always been a political band, we’ve always had a lot of personal messages in there, too. And in this one, there weren’t as many as normal.

CN: A lot of the reviews and stuff that I’ve read about you online talk about how you’re hardcore. But I listen to your music and it doesn’t sound ---I guess it’s not hardcore like I’m used to—

NG: I think the only thing that’s ever made us hardcore was that that’s the scene that brought us up.

CN: What was that scene like, that you came out of, because I’m more familiar with the NYHC scene—Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags—it’s a whole different ballgame.

NG: It was great. It was like, I think, outside of NY there’s a lot of hardcore scenes that are just so open that you’ve got bands that are basically pop bands and then bands that are basically metal bands that are all called hardcore, you know? So, they just belong to a certain family of people that love music, and unfortunately, it’s sort of changed and it’s become a lot more narrow-minded. But that’s one of the reasons why we still keep the hardcore moniker, is because we feel that we owe it to the scene that sort of raised us, even though we’ve never really been a “hardcore band”. You know?

CN: I mean, you’re much more metallic---some of the stuff you do sounds like, it could have been done in the late ‘80s.

NG: Yeah. It depends on what album you listen to or what song you listen to, too. Some songs are pretty pop-y, some songs are rock, some songs are metal, some are more hardcore, some are---it just sort of depends on what song you listen to.

CN: I like, what is it, “Release the Dogs”?

NG: Uh-hmm. “Release the Dogs” and “Eviction Article” are probably by favorite songs to play live.

CN: Really? Why?

NG: I just like ‘em. I can’t even---I don’t know.

CN: There’s a lot of energy in them.

NG: Yeah, a lot of energy in ‘em, and I just like ‘em. They’ve got a good groove, and you can boogie to ‘em.

CN: And I give it a “10”; you can dance to it----(laughs over the American Bandstand reference). So, how did you start as a singer in music? NO---let’s go back even further than that---what’s your first musical memory and what age were you?

NG: Actually, it’s a time period of when I was young and I found my parents musical records and folk records, and so, I was listening to Man of La Mancha, West Side Story, and stuff like that and sort of dancing around my living room singing to ‘em. And also, Simon and Garfunkel and Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

CN: How old were you?

NG: I was under 13. Like, it was when I still lived in Newark---anywhere between when I was born and when I was 10 is when I was listening to a lot of that. And then I found the radio and started listening to Michael Jackson and Prince. The first concert I actually went and saw was a Christian concert by a Christian rock band called Servant. At the time, they were like this new wave rock band thing, and um, yeah, that’s sort of how it started.

CN: In school, were you in band or chorus or choir or anything like that?

NG: Yeah. I was in chorus from elementary school until I graduated. I never played any instruments, but I always sang. I was in the all-state chorus and stuff like that—2nd tenor or 1st tenor, I can’t remember.

CN: I had really bad stage fright.

NG: I’ve never had stage fright. It’s weird. I guess I’ve always been pretty full of myself. (Laughs.) Not in a bad way, but in a way, like, I’ve always more been a ham. You know what I mean? Just somebody that doesn’t care if I look like an idiot in front of people. I sort of enjoy it. You know, I guess I’ve always been a part of the 'no publicity is bad publicity' crew. You know what I mean? Like, I don’t care as long as someone’s watching me; it doesn’t matter if they think I’m dumb.

CN: As long as they’re talking about you.

NG: Right. Right. It doesn’t matter if they think I’m stupid.

CN: So, first band or first public performance—when was that?

NG: Um, first public performance was a band called Second Nature that I was in in Pensacola, Florida, and we played at a place called the Night Owl.

CN: I think every town has a bar called that.

NG: Yeah. Yeah. And we were a really goofy metal band. And I couldn’t even explain what style of music we were going for—sort of a Danzig style thing.

CN: What year was that?

NG: ’90—1989-1990, somewhere in there.

CN: That would fit the time period.

NG: Yeah. I didn’t—that was when the Danzig record came out with “Twist of Cain” and stuff, so it was a big influence on us.

CN: You’re the one that likes country, right?

NG: Yeah, yeah. That would be me.

CN: I love country.

NG: Good. Good. Good deal.

CN: So what are your favorite country artists?

NG: George Jones is hands-down my favorite. I warm up to him before we play.

CN: You do?

NG: Mmm-hmmm. And Merle Haggard, obviously. I’m sort of bummed out about some of the new stuff that he’s put out--like, it’s all right. I like If I Could Only Fly, like, only that album is good. Some of the—he did a CD called, New Light Through Old Windows and it was him re-doing some of his older stuff. It was like, ‘Ah, that’s just not the same.’

CN: ‘You just shouldn’t do that.’

NG: Yeah. His best record, hands down, was Sing Me Back Home. I have it on vinyl. It’s the best album you’ll ever hear by Merle Haggard.

CN: What was the one that he did in the early ‘90s? Dirty Water or something like that?

NG: Yeah. I don’t know. I don’t have it. I’m honestly sort of an old-school elitist on that type of stuff sometimes.

CN: I like, obviously, Willie Nelson. I’ve seen him a lot, and I saw Waylon Jennings a lot.

NG: Except for, unfortunately, he did that song with Toby Keith, but---

CN: You don’t like Toby Keith?

NG: I’m not a big fan of Toby Keith at all. I think his songs are disgusting. I just like, here’s the point, it would be different, but there’s other country singers and other singers who have shown their support, for the war, which obviously—

CN: Do you like the Darrell Worley song ("Have You Forgotten?")?

NG: Not really. The point is, is that I’m okay with people sharing their opinions on being for the war, if they don’t do it like that. That’s disgusting. You’re celebrating people blowing up. You know what I mean? That’s sick.

CN: It’s the revenge viewpoint.

NG: Yeah, yeah. I can’t deal with that at all. I can’t ever, in a million years, think that’s okay; to act like it’s cool to bomb people or to kill people. That’s not funny, and it’s not cool. And I think it was in horrible taste, and I think it’s shitty. And he’s just marketing—he’s cashing in on something he knows he can cash in on.

CN: He’s good with a turn of phrase, and he’s good with a melody.

NG: Yeah, well, obviously, I mean, the song in question is hook-y as hell. It’s the catchiest song you’ve ever heard in your life, but it’s just disgusting. Now, I don’t think there’s a problem with other musicians who have put their stance on it.

CN: The Alan Jackson song ["Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)"] is really good.

NG: Yeah, the Alan Jackson song is good. You know, stuff like that. And, even though there’s some songs out there that are still a little skewed in like, how they see things and trying to relate Iraq with September 11th. Their politics are all wrong, as far as not just, their opinion, but their facts are fucked, too. But I can respect people who just tell their opinion and aren’t celebrating the situation, you know what I mean? But um, I can’t deal with people like that.

CN: But the song he did before “Angry American,” “(The Next Thing On) My List,” that was good.

NG: You know what I liked? The “How Do You Like Me Now?” song. That one was good. That was one that I wish I could have sent out to like, all my ex-girlfriends. That was a good one.

CN: I love the video for it, too.

NG: Yeah, yeah. It’s such a mean song. I love it.

CN: But you know, he’s motivated from very personal opinions and standpoints. Like, “I Want To Talk About Me”, that was the funniest fuckin’ song I’ve ever heard.

NG: I didn’t like that song that much. Not because of the content, but it just didn’t hit me as being a good song—

CN: But it’s funny, though. I can be like that sometimes, when I get on a jag. But I like honky-tonk stuff. I like the more honky tonk stuff that Chris Cagle does. He’s good at that when he does it. He’s gone too far into ballads, right now, but on the last album, the best song on there was “Chicks Dig It”.

NG: Yeah. That’s a good song. You know, there’s a lot of stuff on the radio and in like, more popular country now that I can deal with that’s pretty all right. But for the most part, give me Hank Williams, George Jones, Johnny Cash—stuff like that. You know what I mean? Bocephus, Charlie Daniels—stuff like that.

CN: David Allan Coe is one of my favorites.

NG: I love David Allan Coe. I went and saw him live, just recently, in Baltimore and it was amazing. He um, not only did he play a two-hour medley of all his songs—

CN: And he doesn’t take a break. He’ll get up and go get a drink or go to the bathroom and come back—

NG: Did you see his whiskey tech? He would take a shot and this dude with a fuzzy mullet would come out and refill it real quick. It was amazing. It’s like, ‘You’ve got a whiskey tech!’ He made Kid Rock songs sound good. It was amazing.

CN: The first time I saw him was maybe ’78 or ’79 or something like that.

NG: Those were the golden years.

CN: Well, I lived in Charlotte, NC. You know, I had good redneck schooling. I lived on the upper chi-chi side, but I would go hang out in West Charlotte with all the white trash…

NG: Right. Right. That’s how I grew up.

CN: …and the bikers, and my parents hated it.

NG: I grew up mostly in Delaware and in Pensacola, Florida in trailer parks.

CN: There you go. Now you have the right vibe.

NG: That’s where all this comes from, you know what I mean?

CN: Yeah. Well, I went and saw David Allan Coe, and you know who his guitar player was then?

NG: Who?

CN: Warren Haynes (Gov't Mule, Allman Brothers).

NG: Really? Did you know that he (David Allan Coe) used to have a blues band that Jimi Hendrix played lead guitar for? It was amazing when I read up about that. He had like, Jimi Hendrix playing guitar for him. That’s amazing. You know what I recently found? Some old 78s of this guy Cool Hand Luke, and you know what it is? It’s Hank Williams Sr.. It’s his alter ego where he’s doing western music. And it’s so good. I got one 78 in a Good Will. I went out and got a record player that played 78s just for that.

CN: You have one? I have some 78 records; I have some really good stuff from the 50s too. Two of my favorite albums, hands down, Ray Charles, Country and Western 1 & 2--boy.

NG: Oh yeah, yeah.

CN: When I saw Ray Charles and Travis Tritt together, (because I love Travis Tritt), on Crossroads, every time it was on…

NG: I remember watching the Barbara Mandrell show, with Dolly Parton.

CN: I got you beat; I remember watching Porter Wagner with Dolly Parton.

NG: Ooh, nice, I remember seeing Charlie Daniels at a carnival when I was like, 13.

CN: He plays a lot in North Carolina, too.

NG: Yeah, this is back in the day before he became born-again, and all the shows there would be like ten fights that would break out, and I remember being a 13 year old going, “This is bad-ass!” One thing I will never forgive myself for, and why I went and immediately saw David Allan Coe, and why I will try and see Merle Haggard as soon as I can, isI had a ticket to go see Waylon Jennings before he died, and I didn’t go see it.

CN: I saw him at the infamous show at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, where he was drunk and he was throwing bottles at people.

NG: That’s amazing.

CN: People were climbing the fences and stuff to try to get on the infield; it was a riot. It was insane. It was so much fun. So, I come from that background, that living area, but I was the weirdo who also listened to punk.

NG: Right, right.

CN: Did that kinda happen to you?

NG: Yeah, well, see my thing was, I remember for a long time, being sort of ashamed of where I came from. I mean Delaware isn’t that north; they call it the south of the north. It’s sort of a redneck area. All of northern Delaware is just farmland. It looks more like the south than it does the north. But, living in Pensacola, Florida for a while, which is obviously even more right under Alabama, I go back there now-- it’s ridiculous, when I go down there. I mean, the accent busts out –

CN: I was talking to my mom on the phone today, that’s why I sound so redneck today, I was talking to my mom on the phone for like two hours last night.

NG: I do it all the time, if I go back home, I’ll get the accent back. Or if I get really angry or drunk.

CN: Or tired. I think we have such a diverse musical diet from being in areas like that, because even though it’s predominantly Delta blues and Southern rock and homogenized corporate crap on the radio, you’ve got that gospel and all that stuff that’s so rich.

NG: Yeah. You know, my favorite is listening to old Charlie Pride albums.

CN: Ah! The only black man in country!

NG: He’s amazing, like how do you put that much soul and gospel into country? Only a black man could do that. It’s amazing.

CN: I was thinking, where is he now?

NG: Exactly.

CN: I would like to hear what he’s saying.

NG: Well, he plays in Germany and stuff like that and in Europe now. From what I’ve heard he doesn’t play in the states or anything but he’s a big hit in Europe.

CN: He crossed the color barrier, the ethnic barrier, everything. He does not get enough credit.

NG: Yeah, oh definitely not. The only reason I know anything about Charlie Pride is because George Jones was talking about him. He’s actually in one of George Jones’s songs “Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes” singing about all these great country singers, and he brings up Charlie Pride. And I was like, “I gotta hear this guy,” and I pick up the CD and go “He’s black!” My God, I mean… It’s amazing.

CN: The only black man in country music, well, besides when Ray Charles did country. And I think to this day, there’s never been a black woman in country. It’s very segregated.

NG: Actually, you know I’ve met a few black people who are really into country, so I don’t know why somebody hasn’t come back out with it.

CN: And my other favorite, of course, everyone loves Patsy Kline

NG: Yah, well, of course. You can’t get away from that.

CN: Who else has influenced you besides the country stuff? I mean rock-wise, coming up.

NG: Um, as far as like, more like hardcore and stuff like that and punk is fun. Um, Black Flag, Born Against was a big influence on me as far as being, you know, a political band. Um, Bad Religion, um, and even now bands that really inspire me like Strike Anywhere, and um, Against Me, which is an excellent fucking band from Gainesville, Florida that is just amazing. I think they just got signed to Fat Wreck Chords. They are the most incredible band ever.

CN: Yeah, I like Fat, good label.

NG: Yeah. This is the best thing, though. Against Me doesn’t sound like a Fat Wreck Chords band.

CN: Really?

NG: They’re just amazing. They’re a party on a cd.

CN: I like Me First and the Gimme Gimmes; they’re fun.

NG: Yah, they’re awesome

CN: They’re a lot of fun. But I also like, you know, real hardcore hardcore, like Harley’s War, which is Harley Flannigan and his hardcore All-stars

NG: Well it’s hard not to appreciate a good Madball cd or something every once in a while. Every once in a while you gotta rock out.

CN: Your first band, Second Nature…

NG: Uh huh.

CN: That was in Florida?

NG: Yeah.

CN: And then…how old were you then, eighteen, nineteen? So you were living with mom and dad?

NG: Yep.

CN: And…where’d you go from there?

NG: Umm…moved back up to northeast Maryland and lived there for a while. And then I moved back down to Pensacola on my own and became homeless for a while, and decided to move back home. Came back home and was living in Upton, Maryland with my parents, and then finally I think around 19, 20, I broke off with my parents and uh… moved in on my own and then I got married for a couple of years…

CN: Oh, you were really young.

NG: Yeah, three years. I got married when I was like 20, 21, somewhere in there. And we had Simon, and uh, got divorced like three years later, and uh, here I am.

CN: No, there’s something in the middle. How’d you hook up with these guys?

NG: Well, um

CN: Was it while you were married?

NG: Yeah, yeah. And we were all doing, like, bands, like local bands in Delaware that weren’t really going anywhere. And, um, Josh and Chad started the band, or the idea of the band. It was like you know, we should put this band together and grab people that we know we like, that can play their instruments and stuff, you know, and hang out, you know. And um...and so, um...oh, what else...Um, they called me up, and I was in a band I hated, so…

CN: Ha, what kind of band was it?

NG: I mean, it was fine, as far as the music and stuff, but the people weren’t really into the whole political thing. And that’s just what I’ve always associated with music as far as what I do, and they where totally despondent about that, and I was like, ‘this sucks!’ You know, I mean, I’m pouring out my heart here and they don’t care at all about the same things I do so what am I doing this for? Then Josh and Chad called me and were like “yah, we’re starting up this band,” and I mean, I’ve known these guys forever; they’ve been friends of mine forever. We just happened to be in different bands and like, Josh, I’ve known since birth and Chad, I went to high school with at Northeast High in northeast Maryland. We decided to throw a band together, and we all had the same opinions on music and politics and stuff like that, so I quit the band immediately and went to them. And we worked our asses off for nine fucking years to make this happen, so here we are now.

CN: At what age did you start formulating your political views?

NG: Sometime in high school me and Chad sort of bounced ideas off each other. I mean, I had already pretty much cinched up, up at around tenth or eleventh grade, but then…

CN: But how did you discover your path to do that on your own?

NG: I mean, mostly ‘cause my dad just really, uh, pushed me to do that. Like, he’s a very conservative dude and a republican, but he was always really like--he was always a great guy that just wanted me to find my own opinions and not just follow what he wanted.

CN: Right.

NG: And so it was really cool that I had that background. You know, I always tell people, we were dirt-poor but I always had an amazing home life. Like even when all we had to eat was peanut butter, you know? It was amazing. You never once had to worry about my dad hittin’ my mom. Never once had to worry about divorce. My parents are still happily married, love each other to death, you know? Um, are probably my best friends in the world--like, it’s amazing. I just had a great childhood even, like, though, you know, we lived in a trailer park and barely ate. It was still amazing. It’s really funny, I joke with my dad, because I was like, ‘I don’t understand like, when you were poor you were a very conservative republican, and now that you’re…’ He’s actually making money now, and he’s getting more liberal. I was like, ‘shouldn’t it be the other way around?’ You know, you’re like…(laughing) It should totally be the other way around. But I found books by Abby Hoffman, by Jerry Ruben, a lot of the Yippie movement stuff during the sixties and seventies, even up to the eighties, um, just a lot of like material like that--found Howard Zin and Noam Chomsky. Michael Moore has always been a great inspiration to me. I really like the fact that he’s very political, but he’s also a lot of fun to watch.

CN: Hysterical.

NG: Exactly. He’s got a sense of humor, and he’s just a normal dude, you know?. He doesn’t have, like, politics like up his ass. He’s just a normal dude that really wants to help people and has fun doing it, so… And also in high school me and Chad like, would debate each other, sort of bounce stuff off each other, and sort of learn through each other.

CN: Unfortunately, a lot of that stuff, it’s great in theory but it doesn’t work in the world we live in right now.

NG: What do you mean?

CN: Well, sometimes the whole communism thing works great in a commune, but you put it in a bigger society and it builds tension…

NG: The problem is, and I’m… I’m obviously, I’m not a big communist. I don’t think that’s the only way. I think it’s going to take a big amalgamation of a lot of different views.

CN: Yeah…

NG: Which is why it doesn’t work, uh, because people are so uptight and want it their way all the time. But if we could just…

CN: They want to live inside the rules that they’ve made

NG: Right. I would contest, though, that real communism has never been tried on a large scale.

CN: No, the pure form, no.

NG: Yeah, so I, I think that it’s a little unfair to say that it wouldn’t work because we don’t know.

CN: No, I just say it doesn’t work right now in the world we live in.

NG: It hasn’t worked because it hasn’t been used... communism, anarchism, socialism… Well socialism has worked pretty well, to tell you the truth. In Europe it works awesome, you know. I remember getting sick in Europe and being able to go to the hospital without paying a red cent.

CN: Socialized medicine is one of the greatest things…

NG: Amazing!

CN: You know, I wish I was Canadian sometimes for that reason.

NG: Yeah. The only people that could even remotely argue that its bad is maybe doctors, and even then, you’re not goin’ poor. You know what I mean? You’re still getting paid well….to live and to support your family and to be fine, you know? Maybe you can’t drive a Mercedes, maybe you’ll have to drive a very nice brand-new car that’s not a Mercedes, you know what I mean? But you’re still doin fine! You know what I mean? You don’t need that. You don’t need that crap. What’s more important? Like, the good of the nation, or the fact that you get to get a Mercedes? You know what I mean? And that’s what capitalism breeds. And that’s why I’ve always been an anti-capitalist. Like, I think that capitalism, like, from the root of it, like, anyone can argue that communism, anarchism, socialism, things like that, can go awry. Capitalism, from its root, is wrong. Just from its root. Because of the fact that you will never, within capitalism, be able to be what they say you can be. It’s bullshit. You will never--everyone cannot be the CEO.

CN: No.

NG: It’s bullshit. Someone has to clean out the fry pan. You know what I mean? So um, its just not true, the whole bullshit, they say, "oh, capitalism, you can be anything you want to be.” No you can’t!

CN: But when they get to the level they want to get to its not enough for them.

NG: Yeah, yeah exactly.

CN: It’s all that problem too.

NG: Yeah, its all competition--who you can step on and who you can stab in the back to get there.

CN: I’ve always said, and I say this to my son a lot, I tell him, "you know, you have to work to get money to pay for the basic things like clothes and food and a house. Wouldn’t it just be easier to cut out the middle and let me do something like clean the building or work for the landlord doing paperwork in order to pay for my rent?"

NG: Yeah, yeah!

CN: You know I think barter would work so much better.

NG: Oh absolutely, it would be amazing.

CN: I love barter.

NG: Oh yeah, absolutely.

CN: I do a lot of it. I mean, my website, I don’t get paid for it.

NG: Right--its also my girlfriend--you didn’t get to meet her, she’s out there.

CN: The black-haired girl?

NG: Yeah, with the brown shirt.

CN: What’s her name?

NG: Caitlin. Here’s the funny story--Caitlin is, uh, ok, Josh and Chad are married to sisters.

CN: Wow.

NG: Their younger sister is my girlfriend.

CN: Ok…

NG: So the three of us are involved in this family.

CN: Ok

NG: Alright, their mother is a midwife, and a lot of times she does stuff like that, like barter, you know? Like you paint my house, I’ll deliver your baby. Simon was delivered through her, and um, so was Jonah, and several of our kids in this area were, birthed through her and she does stuff a lot through the barter system.

CN: It’s always been that way with the midwives though. Only in the twentieth century have the midwives got, like, cash.

NG: Well, heh, yeah.

CN: Um…lets see. We covered some bases. There’s just so much to talk about when you first meet someone. The hard interviews are when, like, you’ve known someone for fifteen years and you’re like…" I know too much about you. How do we do this?" You were telling me that you didn’t like jam music, like the band I was watching a minute ago (The Music). Why was it that you didn’t get into that?

NG: It’s never been my thing. Its really funny, like, I’ve always hated it. Like, I think its great that the people are talented and they play--that music does zero for me

CN: Just doesn’t hit anything…

NG: Hits nothing for me. I mean it’s long, boring and just pretentious. Not that I think the people are pretentious, but its just the music in general just sounds…yeah, you can play, whatever, you know. You’re boring the crap out of me. But hey, I just don’t get off on twelve-minute jam songs that just go nowhere, you know. I, I just never did, you know?

CN: Who do you think is a great songwriter? It doesn’t have to be in a particular genre, just…

NG: Well, I’m trying to think…I can’t really pick. Within country songs, there’s so many goddamn songs…

CN: Oh, I love they way they write music. Its like, ok, we have two lyrical writers, and about five musical writers, now you five work in this room today, and tomorrow you’re gonna work with her…

NG: Right, right, right it’s weird. Tom Petty is an amazing writer. He just does his thing and he doesn’t, like, do it to make sure he gets on the radio. The radio comes to him. You know what I mean?

CN: He was always huge down south.

NG: He’s just amazing in general; I think he’s an amazing songwriter. I mean all of the stuff that he does. I really can’t think of anything else off the top of my head to tell you the truth.

CN: When you guys compose, do they bring the music to you finished, or like…

NG: Never. It’s a clusterfuck of ridiculousness that writes our songs. People come in with like a note, like, “Hey, listen to this one: nee-nee nee-nee nee,” “Oh, let me try something else. Nee, nee-nee-nee…” You know, it’s like…its ridiculous. It’s always piece-by-piece by piece by piece by piece. And then all of sudden there’s a song.

CN: Do you rehearse a lot?

NG: Two nights a week when we’re home. Like if we have a long break we’ll practice like two times a week, um, we don’t like to overdo it, like everyday, but you know, like at least two times a week, we try to. When we’re on tour, for sound-checking, we’ll put some stuff together, you know, so…

CN: Do you ever play covers?

NG: We’ve done it, but only as a novelty, never as a serious thing. Like, we’d never have our single be a cover, or seriously put it on an album. You know, we covered Dead Kennedy’s “Holiday in Cambodia” and put it on an EP. We did “Rocket Man” by Elton John and it was on a single that we had. Did a Bad Brains cover (???) for a Bad Brains comp., did a Metallica cover, um, yeah, several covers. Um, did a Motley Crue cover…

CN: Which one?

NG: “Live Wire”.

CN: That’s a good one. That is a very punk type of song.

NG: Yeah, well, the funny thing is that we slowed down the music and then I sang over it and then they sped everything back up so my voice sounds like a chipmunk.

CN: Which he does sound like on the old records.

NG: Yeah, its amazing.

CN: Ok… so some bands will do covers live, but not records.

NG: Right, we have, when we just put out a cover song, on a EP or a seven-inch or something like that, on some rarity thing. We’ll maybe play it once or twice at a show, depending, just to have fun with it, but we never let it take over what we do.

CN: I’m really surprised that right now the Ataris have such a hit with this awful Don Henley song, “Boys of Summer.” I hated it the first time it was out and I hate it now. And I reviewed a record recently, the Rise Against album, and they do a Journey cover, “Anyway You Want It”

NG: Yeah

CN: Excuse me, but, wasn’t punk what was kinda invented to like…

NG: Kill that type of stuff?

CN: Yeah.

NG: I like Journey, just because they’re ear candy.

CN: I love his voice, but…

NG:I think that its complete ear candy. Its catchy as shit and I love to listen to it.

CN: Neal Schon was great when he was with Santana.

NG: Yeah. I would never try to cover their songs, though. Not only that, but like, here’s what bothers me about the Ataris. Fine you did the cover. Fine you used it as your single. Wouldn’t do that, personally. But don’t bitch about it when people want to hear it. They constantly bitch about the fact “Ooh, but we don’t want to play…” IT’S YOUR SINGLE! It’s your own retarded fault that you put out a video for that song and now you’re bitching ‘cause kids want to hear it. You know, when you do a cover, and it ends up, and you’re going to allow it to be your single, and make a video for it, don’t bitch about it when people want to hear it. Just play the fucking song, stop being a jackass.

CN: But without that song would they be as popular as they are?

NG: Right. They shouldn’t have done it.

CN: That’s the other side of the coin; it was a calculated capitalist move….

NG: That’s what I’m sayin’. That’s why we don’t do covers. Because of things like that. We’ll do ‘em as a joke, but we will not…we will never have a cover that’s a single. I will say that right now with complete sincerity. I know for a fact we will never have a single that’s a cover.

CN: Unless you do like Nirvana and cover, a Meat Puppets song or someone like that that no one would really know it anyway.

NG: Which I, we would like to do, but I guarantee it will never happen. Like, unless we’re trying to get out of a label thing, and do like Rage Against The Machine--put out a whole album of covers…