LINKS:
litlounge.com

Lit is one of those bands that just seems to represent fun and good times to me. Not only are they from that happy land known as Orange County…that’s part of it, but their image, their attitude, and their songs, even while sometimes being self-deprecating, are much more upbeat than a lot of the stuff that’s out there. They’re just refreshing to the ears with their guitar crunch, melodic songs, and vocal harmonies. And who could forget the hysterical video with a larger-than-life Pam Anderson eating the band...

I got a chance to get on the phone with bass player Kevin Baldes a while back when he was doing press for the newest album, simply titled Lit. So here’s another of my famous, rambling, stream of conscious interview/conversations with one of today’s popular musicians. Enjoy.

Christine Natanael: You called me a minute early, even!

Kevin Baldes: My mom and dad brought me up right.

CN: That is so amazing, because most musicians cannot tell time properly.

KB: Were you betting that I wasn’t going to call on time?

CN: No, it’s just that I know how things go sometimes. Usually, if you’re doing another interview you might run overtime.

KB: I actually have another one later, so you’re going to be the interview that runs overtime.

CN: I usually do. Am I your first one today?

KB: Yeah. I only have two. My singer and guitar player are doing a bunch today too.

CN: Yeah? Where are you right now?

KB: I’m at home, doing laundry. And I just got done making an emergency number list for my refrigerator. So, when I’m on the road, if a water pipe breaks my girl will be able to get that fixed.

CN: There you go. I've got the home office thing going on here myself. I alternate between checking email, transcribing interviews, doing laundry, dishes; making the kid do his homework...

KB: I don’t know how people survived back in the day with non-wireless phones.

CN: Yeah, it was intriguing. I remember those days, though. Don’t you?

KB: Yeah, but I wasn’t doing interviews back then.

CN: That’s true.

KB: I would just lay on my bed and talk or whatever.

CN: That’s what I’m doing now, because my phone is next to the bed, which is right across from the office. I have two computers on one table. I sleep on a futon in the living room because my son has the bedroom.

KB: If it ever comes to an end with the band and I have a job, I hope I’m working out of my house. It’s so convenient to do things at home.

CN: Yeah. But I tend to get a little hermitous, though, you know? Eventually I’ve got to go out and deal with daytime people, to get groceries and stuff. It’s different in New York than it is where you are.

KB: Oh, I love New York. We’re going to be there for three days coming up.

CN: Well, I was asking you where you are because I know you’re a huge Kiss fan.

KB: I am.

CN: I’m going to Gene Simmons’ record release party tonight.

KB: Oh, are you?

CN: Yeah. Here in the city.

KB: I've got to tell you, though. I don’t know about that guy. I’m a huge fan of Kiss in the seventies. But they really overdid the whole toy thing. They licensed themselves out like crazy.

CN: He’s the god of merch.

KB: I own just about every item from the seventies, Kiss-wise.

CN: If Gene could bottle his ball sweat and sell it, he would.

KB: Oh, absolutely.

CN: He’d probably make a lot of money off of it too.

KB: It’s pretty ridiculous.

CN: He’s a character. I was doing PR for this band once –I think they were called Rockhead – and we had a big billboard in Times Square of the guys in Rockhead. One of them was holding this bag of Mardi Gras King cake mix. It’s a yellow bag with a dollar sign on it. They all look like that in New Orleans. Gene calls me up, telling me that I need to talk to the band because they have violated his copyright on this trademark for the logo of Simmons’ Records. I was like, “You’re out of your mind, dude! You do not own the copyright on every moneybag with a dollar sign on it. You own a copyright on the caricature of a moneybag that is your logo.” But the manager was sitting right there when I’m telling him this, and she was like, “Who are you talking to?” And I’m like, “Gene Simmons.” She was like, “No”! So I handed her the phone. It was pretty funny.

KB: We did a video where there’s a quick, little, subtle reference to our background, growing up on rock and heavy metal. It’s really hard to explain, but long story short: the video is us in a rehearsal hall, and there’s posters on the wall. But we had to make sure every poster was ok’d. A handful of those posters were Kiss posters. So we had to okay their likeness or whatever. They fax over a sheet and people just sign off on it and it’s done. Gene Simmons actually signed the fax we sent over. Our management called me and said, “Hev, you’re never going to believe this. Guess who signed the Kiss one?” And I’m like, “Probably Gene.” There’s no mystery behind that guy anymore.

CN: Well, he’s always been that way. I met him in the eighties. I met Eric Carr first. I used to hang out in this little café called Bebop Café. It was a 50’s-inspired place. It was literally half a block from Electric Lady Studios. This was ’85. I think they were recording Asylum. That’s how I met Eric, because he came into the bar.

KB: I heard he was nice, though. I’ve never met him. I’ve met everybody. I’ve met all of them, except Eric Carr.

CN: That’s because he passed away. But he was awesome. He was totally awesome.

KB: That’s what I heard.

CN: He was the nicest guy I ever knew in the music business, hands down. The second-nicest guy is Frank White, the photographer. Eric was definitely the nicest.

KB: Where do I fare? Am I in the top ten?

CN: I don’t know you well enough yet, but I'll let you know. Also in that pantheon would be Richie Stotts from the Plasmatics because he once helped me move into my apartment and carried my bed up six flights of stairs.

KB: That definitely puts him up on the list. He’s definitely tied for the top three.

CN: Anytime you can find somebody to move your shit for you, you’re cool. They just rank automatically.

KB: You know what? I think I would have that guy bump Eric Carr down to number two. Six flights of stairs, moving the bed… that’s a tough gig.

CN: Yeah. Well he’s 6’5’’ or something like that. Richie’s really tall. That ranks right up there with when I had a motorcycle accident and had surgery on my leg. I would go to the clubs with crutches and a cast and everything. I was in the back of this one small bar called Sanctuary and it was really crowded. The next thing I know, I’ve got Joey Ramone on one side of me and Richie Stotts on the other. They were like the World Trade Center towers guarding me.

KB: Do you have a photo?

CN: No. I wish I did. That’s a great memory, especially for a kid who was too young to come to New York to see them in '77 when they were both playing CBGB.

KB: I had lunch with Joe Strummer in Italy. My camera was ten feet away and I didn’t take a picture with him.

CN: Isn’t it funny how you forget to do stuff like that?

KB: I’m like a whore when it comes to taking a photo with somebody I look up to. I have no problem going, “Hey, mind if I get a photo with you?”

CN: Do you still get flabbergasted and star struck?

KB: Oh, absolutely. Depending on who it is. If somebody famous walks in front of me and I’m not into him, I could give two shits. I’m not going to treat him like shit or anything, but I don’t get that funny feeling.

CN: The only person who ever gave me that feeling was the night that I met John Entwistle at the China Club. I totally goobered up.

KB: Oh, that would be pretty nice. I met Pete Townshend and his son in a shoe store in England. He let me take a photo with him. He was totally cool about it.

CN: That’s cool.

KB: If Fred Durst walked in front of me, I wouldn’t get that funny feeling. But if Eddie Spaghetti from the Supersuckers walked in front of me, I’d get that funny feeling.

CN: The Supersuckers rule, that’s why. I can’t take Fred Durst seriously at all. Do you know why? Because he’s from Gastonia, North Carolina. I went to high school in Charlotte. Gastonia is a little north of Charlotte and it’s the land of white trash rednecks. We don’t take anyone from Gastonia seriously. It's an old city rivalry thing.

KB: I was just trying to make an example of a huge star who I just wouldn’t get that funny feeling about. But somebody I really look up to is to The Supersuckers. When I’m in their presence, I definitely get that funny feeling. Like, “Aww, dude, The Supersuckers! That’s so bad ass.” To me, they’re the real deal. One guy could be playing in front of millions of people, and people think that’s the real deal. But The Supersuckers play in front of a hundred or five hundred people a night. To me, that’s the real deal. They’re older than I am, and they’re in a van all the time.

CN: The Ramones used to travel in a van too. Joey used to say, “No, I’m saving money. I’m taking the van this time.”

KB: That’s just real. I mean, if you can afford a bus, get a bus. Don’t be silly. But if you’ve got the heart to stay in the game for many years, even rolling a van, to keep playing rock and roll, that’s rad. I hope to God I do that.

CN: How old are you, now? 33?

KB: Easy. I’m 32.

CN: So you've got a few years to go. Besides The Supersuckers, what are some of your favorite bands?

KB: Besides early Van Halen, and growing up on Kiss – those were my favorite bands back in the day and they still are my favorite bands. But the band I listen to the most now is The Supersuckers?

CN: Yeah? That’s cool.

KB: I’ve been into the The Supersuckers since ’95.

CN: They’ve been around a while.

KB: They’ve been around since the early 90’s.

CN: Did you like Betty Blowtorch?

KB: I dated Bianca.

CN: Really? Wow. What about Nashville Pussy?

KB: I love Nashville Pussy. I like Jet. But to me, The Supersuckers are the real deal. Jet are just a carbon copy of AC/DC.

CN: Yeah. Well, they’re from Australia. What do you want? But I like Jet for what it is.

KB: I’m not knocking them.

CN: I’m also into psychobilly and thrashabilly. Here in the city, there’s this big psychobilly/trashabilly thing going on. And it kind of grew out of all of our bands from the eighties, like Rocket Angel and the Cycle Sluts from Hell. It’s all the same people. Now they’re just doing a little bit of a different vibe.

KB: Did you know Betty Blowtorch?

CN: I didn’t, not personally, but I knew their music.

KB: They were pretty rad.

CN: I was out of the loop there for a minute with my son. When you’re a single, you’ve got to do it all.

KB: Sure, yeah.

CN: You can’t really go out and party every night. It doesn’t work that way.

KB: It gets tougher and tougher. Sometimes, after shows, I just want to go back to the hotel and watch TV.

CN: Oh yeah, I can dig it. It’s sensory overload.

KB: I’m not 22 anymore. We play with younger bands. They’re tearing it up all day long. I did the same thing, though.

CN: The other guys [in Lit] have vintage Cadillacs, right?

KB: Jeremy sold his Cadillac, Alan still has his. Jeremy actually traded in his vintage Cadillac for a newer one. And he was never driving the older one. His older one, which was on the back of our A Place In The Sun album and was in a few of our videos; it was such a showroom car. It had a brand new paintjob, an awesome paintjob with ghost flames. It was a sick car. I wish he wouldn’t have gotten rid of it. He had nowhere to keep it. This friend of his has it now, so it’s still kind of in the family. They said, whenever you want it, whenever you need to use it, it’s yours.

CN: You don’t have any classic cars, do you?

KB: I don’t, no. I don’t have anywhere to keep them. I would have probably gotten an Impala. Everybody in my band is all about Cadillac. Speaking of classic cars… Jeremy got rid of his Cadillac because he didn’t have room for it and he couldn’t really drive it around. He pretty much drove his newer Cadillac all the time. But then he went out and got a ’79 Trans Am. I think it was an anniversary edition.

CN: Oh! Those were great when I was in high school.

KB: Yeah. He bought one of those. And to be honest with you, I don’t even know if he still owns it. I know he was trying to sell it. As soon as he bought it, he was trying to sell it.

CN: I like your new record.

KB: Thank you very much. To be honest with you – not that I never liked any of our other albums, and of course I’ve listened to them here and there. When you go on tour, you play the songs a million times. You don’t really pick up the album and listen to it. I actually love listening to the new album. A lot of people, when they record their own albums, don’t listen to them because they’re constantly playing them. It’s kind of weird. But I’m admitting that I do listen to this album more than I ever listened to any of our other albums. I’m pretty into it.

CN: I like your bass work in this one. I noticed that in some of the songs there’s really good spacing and phrasing. It’s a big warm tone. I crank it a bit on the bass as well, because my stereo’s a little funky. Sounds good.

KB: Thank you. Very cool.

CN: So you better be prepared to be making a lot of money with this one.

KB: Knock on wood.

CN: No, I’m serious. I know these things. I just got a CD from this chick called Gretchen Wilson, who’s a country chick who sings a song called “Redneck Woman.” I heard it on TV one day, and I called up the publicist and had her send me a copy. This was a month, before it came out. I’m like, “Be prepared for it to go to number one.” She goes, “We hope so.” Well, the other day it hit number one. I know these things because I grew up on pop radio, that three minute, AM format. And you can just tell. If you’ve got that in your head, you can just tell.

KB: I’ve been getting a lot of good feedback. It’s been rad. So, we’ll see.

CN: What’s your favorite on the record?

KB: My favorite is a toss-up between “Needle and Thread” and the song “All or Nothing.”

CN: You helped write “Needle and Thread,” didn’t you?

KB: Yeah.

CN: Well that would be why it’s a favorite, I guess.

KB: Is it weird that I say that one of my songs is one of my favorites on the album?

CN: Not really. “Looks Like They Were Right” sounds like your earlier stuff. But I like the heaviness of “Too Fast For a U-turn.”

KB: Yeah, a lot of people have been saying that.

CN: I love that Elvis Costello-esque “Forever Begins Right Now.” That’s a good one. That would be a good single.

KB: That’s total Elvis Costello.

CN: I’m sorry to say I never was a Cure fan. But I can actually tolerate your version of that song “Pictures Of You”. I hated The Cure. I was like, “Oh, all New Romantics must die!” back when that came out. It was called New Romantic back then, I think. Yeah. I don’t know what they call that style of music now. They call it ‘goth’ but it’s not really goth.

KB: It was weird, because we picked a lot of songs and I wanted to do “Let’s Go” by The Cars.

CN: Ah, that’s a good one.

KB: I still want to do it. I’m hoping somewhere down the line.

CN: My favorite Cars song is “Just What I Needed.” You know why? It reminds me of sitting in the back of my friend’s ’69 Mustang, about 3 o’clock in the afternoon. We just got out of school. We’re hauling ass down this road, blowing joints. All the windows down with it cranked. Every time I hear that song, I am in the back seat of that car immediately. So that was really cool. It was a really nice summer day. All that kind of stuff. I think a lot of your music is very pop, but it’s also going to be classic.

KB: Thanks, yeah. I’d like to think that our music is real. It’s not formulated for radio or anything. It’s four guys sitting in a warehouse writing songs. It comes from the heart. We know what we like. I hope it comes off that way.

CN: I like the way it has a whole lot of 60’s-inspired structures to it. Some of the stuff that was popular in the 60’s, which you probably heard in the 70’s as a kid and just internalized it and didn’t realize it. When you listen to a lot of that, you’d be surprised how much you internalize it. It just comes out that way. I love the vocal harmonies as well.

KB: Yeah, Jeremy does really well with that.

CN: But it’s also that thing with siblings, you know?

KB: Yeah. Ever since I can remember, those two guys have been bouncing off each other with melodies and stuff. Their dad was a Top 40 DJ.

CN: See? What did I just say? If they were at the radio station a lot, then they internalized all that stuff. It’s a good basic structure to motivate from. A lot of kids that are in music now never listened to that stuff. Sometimes I find their compositions to be meandering. So, you still have your warehouse, then?

KB: Oh yeah.

CN: But no parties in the warehouse anymore?

KB: No.

CN: Who brings what to the table first, as far as writing?

KB: We usually start with a riff or whatever. It comes in different forms… a riff, a lyrical idea, maybe just a song idea.

CN: I was reading something online where you were talking about you got this little 8-track thingamajig so you could actually start bringing stuff to them.

KB: Yeah. That is true. And that was for the last album. Now, with this album, I actually hooked up with some friends of mine. My friend Dennis actually worked on a couple of songs on the album, I believe. I was actually in his garage and I recorded “Needle and Thread.” He played drums, I played all the other instruments. That was the first time I ever brought a CD to the band. I said, “Guys, I want you to hear something. It’s a song I wrote. I want to know what you think of it.” And everybody was totally into it. It ended up being a song on the album, which was rad. But now I just recently got Pro Tools in my room, so that’s going to open up all kinds of situations.

CN: Oh yeah, Pro Tools is great. I know many musicians who sit on the edge of their bed with their computer in front of them, just working. It has really radically changed the way the music industry works. It has taken it out of the hands of the studios and producers - who kind of had an iron fist on it – and made it more accessible and more affordable. You know, when you’re struggling, you really can’t afford to go into a studio and goof around. You got to rehearse it all up, go into the studio, and bang it out. With Pro Tools, you can noodle a bit.

KB: I’m still learning how to use it.

CN: I don’t know a thing about Pro Tools. I’m one of the antiques who studied audio engineering a long time ago. So when are you guys going to take this on the road?

KB: We are trying to book a tour right now. We’ve got so many little one-off things coming up. It’s so weird. That’s how the summer works. When you’re going to the radio with a song, you tend to get a lot of phone calls here and there from people wanting to book you for a show. There’s a lot of holes in our calendar. It makes it really hard to actually book a tour if you didn’t book it already a long time ago.

CN: Yeah, because all the summer stuff was booked by January, basically. So you’re not doing Warped or anything like that.

KB: No. We are playing, it’s just a matter of when and where.

CN: Well, when you get to New York I’m sure you’re going to do Craig Kilborn or Jimmy Kimmel or some crap like that.

KB: We’re doing Carson Daly and we’re doing Cold Pizza. But we’re doing Bowery Ballroom too.

CN: Oh, yeah, that’s downtown. It’s not that big, though. That sounds like it will be cool. Then, of course, after the show you’ve got to go to Motor City and Manitoba’s.

KB: What’s the bar that Degeneration owns?

CN: Oh, that Jesse Malin owns? That’s Niagra. It’s about a block from Manitoba’s, which is owned by Handsome Dick Manitoba from the Dictators. There’s also a bar here called Lit.

KB: Oh really? We should go there.

CN: That would be funny. It’s boring as hell. You really don’t want to. It’s kind of a combination art gallery / drinking hole I guess. I’ve been there once or twice. It’s always been entirely frightening. But the more hip crowd that would be into you guys would most likely be Motor City.

KB: Usually when we go to that place that the Degeneration guy owns.

CN: Niagra. Do you sit in the tiki bar downstairs?

KB: Yeah! I love that place.

CN: The guy Steve Bonge, the bartender, the big biker with long blonde hair. He was in the movie A Bronx Tale, you know?

KB: Oh really?

CN: Yeah. He was one of the bikers that came into the bar in that fight scene in the movie. He’s also a great photographer.

KB: I’ll have to keep that in mind next time I’m there.

CN: Jesse’s a cool guy. Jesse also helped me move my apartment once, him and Elf. I, in turn, wrote their first bio for them. And I did their guitar endorsements when I worked at Gibson. We go way back. I like those guys a lot. Good people.

KB: Very cool. Yeah, I love New York. Everybody there is really cool.

CN: We’re just really real. I had a real problem when I went to L.A. because those people aren’t based in reality. Even the bums. You know, here a bum’s like, “Yo, dude. You got a quarter? I need to get a beer.” Out there, it’s like “My car broke down up the street…”, you know? They give you this story. It’s like, “I can tell you’re a bum. What do you want?” I guess it’s just that we have no patience for all of that. Because everything here is stressful and time is money in New York. It’s one of those things. So, what kind of gear are you using now?

KB: I’m running an SS2R 750 head, using carbon cabinets. I don’t even know what I have. A Dunlop EQ pedal. I don’t even know what kind of wireless I use. I just kind of show up and plug in.

CN: What’s your favorite bass these days?

KB: My P bass. I have a rad crusty black P bass with studs all over it. I’ve been playing it over the years, so it’s all rusty and everything.

CN: That’s the only one you ever play?

KB: Right now it is, yeah. I actually have a silver sparkle bass I’ve got to bring back out on the road. It actually has a picture of Bianca from Bettie Blowtorch on it. You know she passed away? She was a really good friend of mine, and after she passed away I had this picture of her and put it on my bass. Now she’s onstage with me all the time.

CN: That’s just awesome.

KB: I've got to bring her back out.

CN: Yeah you definitely do. I was wondering because when I worked at Gibson they had Tobias basses. I guess they’re a little more heavy metal-looking. Great tone, though. Oh my God, they’re awesome. You get to choose your own wood, the whole nine. They’ve got all this crazy zebra wood and purple heart and woods from Africa. It was fun working over there.

KB: I bet.

CN: God, it’s hard being the interviewer.

KB: I think it’s better to hang out and chat, so you can get a good feel for the person. I’m an interviewee, I’m not an interviewer.

CN: I really have no structure to my interviews, in case you couldn’t tell by now.

KB: It’s free-form.

CN: You don’t listen to as much Frank Sinatra as Jeremy, I’m sure.

KB: You know, I probably do, because I’m usually just sitting around. I love having friends at my house; drinks and talking shit. When I do that, when I have friends over, I usually don’t jam out on the latest Slayer album. I put on something that puts people in a chatty mood, like Sinatra or something.

CN: Tony Bennett rules. Dean Martin rules.

KB: Art Pepper.

CN: Dean Martin’s voice, though.

KB: Chet Baker.I put on a lot of good stuff.

CN: And my favorite, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, his really old stuff. “Motorhead Baby,” that’s a great song. That’s an awesome song.

KB: There’s a time and a place for heavy stuff and lighter stuff. And I think that when I have friends over for drinks I tend to play something a little lighter.

CN: Yeah. What’s your guilty pleasure, music-wise?

KB: Most people would probably think that eighties heavy metal is a guilty pleasure. I listen to that. Not all the time, but quite a bit.

CN: Yeah, me too.

KB: I love throwing in Screaming for Vengeance or Live After Death. Probably my worst guilty pleasure is that I have nothing against Warrant, believe it or not. I like their Dirty Rotten Filthy Sticking Rich album, and their Cherry Pie album. I’ll put those on.

CN: I hated those when they came out, but I appreciate them more now. My friend Bobby Borg did a tour with them.

KB: The drummer guy?

CN: Yeah, he’s great. Bobby was fun. He used to live here in New York. Nice guy. But, you know, I could appreciate Warrant later. Now that I’m distanced from that whole eighties thing; when I was in it, I hated it. It was just the antithesis of everything I was about. I was into Cro-Mags, Sick of it All, Testament, Suicidal Tendencies, all that stuff. But my biggest guilty pleasure is country music and bluegrass. I grew up in the South.

KB: When you’re older, you tend to enjoy a whole wide variety of music. You’re not just limited. I feel bad for young kids; they’re so tunnel-visioned. If it’s not Good Charlotte, it’s shit.

CN: Yeah, they’re so ghetto-ized and marginalized in their mind.

KB: But you know what? They’ll grow up and they’ll realize all the music surrounding them. There’s so much good stuff. It all depends on what your mood is; if you want to be cheesy, listen to some 80’s cheese metal.

CN: It’s true. I live in Spanish Harlem because it’s really cheap. All my neighbors listen to salsa and hip-hop. So my other big guilty pleasure is Sean Paul. But I like him, because he’s dancehall which is actually on that far, extreme end – you know, dancehall, ska, reggae, punk, it all flows in the same way that bluegrass and country flows into rockabilly and psychobilly, and it gets back to rock and roll. It’s all ultimately connected. Who’s your biggest influence on the bass? What bass player has influenced you the most?

KB: My favorite bass player right now, and has been for quite a bit, is the bass player for The Descendents and All, Karl Alvarez. I love that guy. His playing is a little different from mine. But when I hear him play, it just amps me up and makes me want to sit around and fuck with the bass. I grew up on heavy metal and early rock: Micheal Anthony, Steve Harris from Iron Maiden, a lot of good bass players. There are bass players I like who I don’t even know their name.

CN: Yeah. Usually most bass players will come out with Jaco Pastorius though.

KB: Yeah I don’t own anything by him except a book.

CN: He was an interesting character.

KB: Yeah. I read the book. He was.

CN: No, I mean literally. I’m from the South, he’s from Florida and I knew him from down there. When I moved here to New York, I was at the Be-Bop Café one night. It had these big picture windows, facing 8th street. And it had the back end of a 50’s Buick, looking like it was crashing through the floor. And I saw this guy walking by with really long hair, no shirt, barefooted. And I’m like, “No, that can’t be!” So I went outside, and I’m like “Jaco?” And it was him! So I brought him into the bar and the first thing that happened was my friend who worked the door and the bartender flipped out and thought that some homeless guy had walked into the bar. And they were trying to get him out. I’m like, “No, dude, I know this guy.” And they’re like, “What?!?!” The next thing you know, the DJ came out from the back and he was like, “You know Jaco Pastorius?” And I’m like, (unassumingly) “Yeah.” I didn’t get what a big legend he was to people at the time. I just thought he was a cool guy, and I liked hanging out with him. Eccentricity can be stimulating sometimes, when you’re around it. They think of things in a different manner than we do. Their creativity comes from a different place than ours does. But they can be the jumping-off point. So it was always good for that. I was very sad when he died, and for the way he died. He was beaten to death in an alley outside a nightclub in Florida. That just sucked. But that’s almost exactly how they treated him when I brought him in the bar: “Oh, no, you can’t come in here.” Perception of the image.You know what I mean? Like, you guys have this really slick, cool image.

KB: You know, back a couple of years ago it was probably a little slicker. Sometimes we like to get dressed up. It depends on our mood. Sometimes we have shows where we go onstage with just shorts and a shirt. There’s other shows where I feel funky and dumb and festive, and I’ll throw on a suit. It depends.

CN: There’s also AJ with his slicked hair, sideburns, and bowling shirts. He’s very stylized, The Creepers and stuff. But it’s a good look. I remember when it was kind of out of favor. When you guys first came out, people here were like, “Whoa!” Because some people dressed like that here, but it wasn’t as prevalent as it is where you are.

KB: Yeah. Here you have Social D and the hotrods and the whole bit.

CN: I think it has a lot to do with the sunshine out there. You live in Anaheim itself?

KB: I was actually born in Anaheim. I don’t know if it’s east or north of Anaheim, but I live in Fullerton now.

CN: What’s it like there? I’ve never been there.

KB: It’s rad. The town we live in – we all live in Fullerton – it’s very old school, very traditional, and it’s stayed that way. You don’t drive through Fullerton and see graffiti and all that crap. People here really take pride in the community. It’s getting harder and harder to find communities like that. So, a lot of people want to move to Fullerton because there’s just a lot of pride here. There’s a lot of cool things going on. And it has a really cool feel to it, like a 40’s and 50’s feel. It’s kept up really nice. Pretty rad.

CN: That’s cool. It’s suburban, obviously. How far apart do you guys live now?

KB: I could throw a rock and hit my drummer’s house. My guitar player lives just on the hill, and I’m at the bottom of the hill. My singer lives on the other side of the hill. We’re all literally within two miles of each other.

CN: Did you plan it like that?

KB: No, it kinda happened. We’ve been with each other since we were young and it would be too hard to leave each other. We’re like best friends, you know? We’re brothers, really. So it would be really hard for us to split the pack up.

CN: So how are AJ and Jeremy dealing with being dads?

KB: It’s rougher. It’s harder to go away. It’s just a handful, as I’m sure you know.

CN: Dude, I totally know.

KB: You’ve got to be fair to the wife, and you got to hold up your end of the bargain You can’t just be hanging out with the guys all night, playing cards.

CN: You’ve got to do the dad thing. How old are their kids now?

KB: Jeremy’s is a little over 2. And AJ’s is about one and a half.

CN: Oh they’re still real little. It’s still pretty hands-on intensive when they’re that age. It’s amazing. You want them to walk and talk so bad when they’re little. But as soon as they do, the only thing you want them to do is to sit down and shut up. You end up running around in circles behind them.

KB: They really lucked out. They have beautiful kids.

CN: Kids are great. Kids make you realize why you’re here. I didn’t realize that until I had my own. It explained a lot. It changes your perception. Besides procreating and furthering our race, the other reason I think God intended for us to have children is because if you don’t have kids by the time you’re in your mid-30’s or 40’s, you’re just a crotchety old fuck. And no one wants to be around you anyway. Children have that way of bringing out the child in you again. And making you love life again.

KB: I don’t know if I’m going to have a kid or not. I don’t know. We’ll see what happens.

CN: Ah, you will. Trust me, it’s a good thing. A little rough in patches, but it’s good.

KB: That’s rad.