CN: Cool. Jessie Malin actually helped me move my apartment once. I love that guy.

TB: That’s cool.

CN: So, The Distillers. It’s been the solid line up now for a while. I mean, there was change earlier on. You’ve been in how long?

TB: Well I’ve known Brody for like, five years, and I was their roadie for four and a half years. I just joined the band last January right before we started doing the record. So, that’s when I started actually being in the band, but I’ve been Brody’s guitar tech for years.

CN: So you knew all the songs anyway.

TB: And knew everyone, so it was easy to just get in there.

CN: You see that’s the way to do it. I mean, John Tempesta started as Charlie Benante from Anthrax’s roadie, and then he moved around to like every band known to man.

TB: Yeah there was this English guitar magazine that did a write up on us, and they did a whole thing on roadies that started their own bands. And there was like, fifteen people, and I didn’t know half of them were roadies. So it was pretty cool. Like Kurt Cobain used to roadie for the The Melvins, and, I dunno, just like tons of people…

CN: It’s a good job, and it’s a good thing to do. When did you start playing?

TB: I was in the sixth grade, so I don’t know how old I was. I think I was like twelve or something like that.

CN: How old are you now?

TB: Twenty-eight.

CN: What was the first kind of music you got into?

TB: When I was really young I grew up in Rhode Island, so I wasn’t really exposed to a lot of different kinds of music. Like, I grew up in the woods. The middle of nowhere, so…

CN: That’s alright you’re uniquely enabled to survive after the holocaust.

TB: Yeah. (laughs) I mean, I grew up listening to the radio mostly, and then when I got into high school I started getting into bands like, you know I was a freshman in ’91 so, Nirvana and The Pixies and shit like that, and Fugazi and stuff like that, so that’s kind of what I listened to in high school, and ever since I left high school I’ve been getting into different kinds of music. I like all kinds of shit.

CN: I listen to everything. The only thing I don’t like is “bad.”

TB: Yeah, exactly.

CN: I can find something good in most music. Even if it’s not my style I can find something good in it.

TB: You don’t want to listen to one kind of music. It’s bad for you. You wanna be able to listen to different kinds of shit.

CN: What was the first stuff you learned to play on the guitar?

TB: The first things I learned were like AC/DC and old Metallica songs. Kind of like what every kid learns on their guitar—stuff that I could play like AC/DC and stuff that wasn’t too hard technically but that got you excited. It wasn’t just scales or boring shit. It was actually songs that you knew.

CN: Right. I think the thing with most people is wanting to be able to play and master a song that they really adore.

TB: Cuz playing all that scales shit and doing just exercises is boring for a kid. You wanna learn something that you heard on the radio.

CN: Do you read music or do you play by ear?

TB: I grew up reading music, and I went to music school and stuff when I was in college. I didn’t do that on the guitar, though. We just learned it on the piano or whatever, but I never applied it to the guitar. I wanted to be only self-taught on the guitar. You know what I mean? Cuz I didn’t want it to ruin the way I thought about music or wanted to write music. I think sometimes when you learn jazz and blues and scales and crazy chord progressions that it starts to affect the way you write it and shit.

CN: Not only that, I think it kind of hinders your ability to be a little more creative because you know too much theory and composition, and I think that’s where my problem was.

TB: Yeah you wanna be able to think outside the box and not be in the box where everyone else is.

CN: Like someone says the key of B, and in my head I see the flats on the scale.

TB: Yeah, yeah.

CN: You know what I mean because you read music. Ninety-nine percent of musicians cannot read music. You’re one of the rare few.

TB: I think it’s a good thing. Music is not going to progress and go anywhere different if everyone’s learning the same shit.

CN: It’s true. It’s very true. Then again there’s something to be said for people who should maybe learn a little more.

TB: Oh yeah. I’m not knocking it. You know what I mean.

CN: No but there are some out there that need to know that certain notes don’t go with other ones.

TB: Yeah.

CN: Alright. So, first band tour…

TB: The Distillers. Actually, that’s not true. The first band I was in was a band called Darker My Love that was me and Andy and Timmy from The Nerve Agents—that’s actually Timmy’s band. The Nerve Agents broke up around the same time Andy joined The Distillers. So Andy and Timmy used to be in that band, and Timmy started this new band called Darker My Love. It’s a little different. It’s really cool, like weird rock and roll shit. Me and him and Andy and his brother Shawn started the band, and then me and Andy had to leave to do The Distillers. He’s got a new band now, and it’s coming out this year. That was kind of my first band. That was just over a year and a half ago.

CN: So how did it come to that you changed gears with The Distillers? I know Andy wasn’t…

TB: Well they used to be a four piece when Rose was in the band—the guitar player. And then she left, and they did, I think like three or four tours without her, just as the three piece live. But when Brody wanted to do the record, she wanted to have tons of guitars and tons of guitar shit going on. She could have done it by herself, but she wanted to have a four piece as a live thing, too. So they were trying to find a guitar player, and they were like, ‘Who could we get?’ And they were like, ‘Why don’t we just get Tony?’

CN: ‘We know him already!’

TB: ‘We know him already’ and she liked what I did with Darker My Love, I guess, and it just kind of happened that way.

CN: Do you find it intriguing being in a band with a female up front because the press so focuses on her?

TB: Not really. It’s how it is, you know. She’s talented as fuck. She can play the guitar, she can sing, she’s beautiful, all those things--of course the media’s going to focus on her. And that’s great; she deserves all of it. We don’t really think of it like that. I’ve been like her best friend for years. I never think, ‘I’m in a band with a chick.’ You know what I mean? It’s weird.

CN: Well, no. You wouldn’t. But what I’m saying is the press tends to focus on it like “Ooooo!”

TB: And they’re trying to pin her with this, ‘You’re the new Courtney Love!’ and ‘You’re the new savior for women in rock.’ I don’t think she’s too into it. She’s into being in a band, and she tries to keep it away from the whole girl thing.

CN: There are certain tones in her voice that do remind me of Courtney, but her writing is different.

TB: Yeah. I can see where people would say that they sound the same or stuff like that.

CN: Well similar, but not the same. She’s a little grittier, actually. She’s more powerful vocally.

TB: Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah.

CN: I think Courtney really likes Brody a lot.

TB: I think she does.

CN: I mean, I think at this point Courtney and Brody have similar things in common as far as they’re females, they play guitar, they sing.

TB: Mmmhm.

CN: The difference is Brody doesn’t do drugs anymore, and Courtney does. Once you bring yourself out of that, why would you want to go back?

TB: Yeah, totally.

CN: You know, you gotta have focus in your life. I have the focus of my magazine. Brody has the focus of her music. Courtney seems to have lost her focus.

TB: Yeah, and it’s like she’s a mom now, ya know.

CN: Yeah, but the thing is, she had no film to do, no music to do--she had nothing to focus on again.

TB: So she just went inside.

CN: I guess. I saw you play at Lollapalooza. I was supposed to interview you that day, but I think Brody told me last night that she was sick or something, so they cancelled.

TB: Yeah. It was at…

CN: Lollapalooza, Jones Beach.

TB: Jones Beach. That was my birthday. In New Jersey, right?

CN: No, no it’s Long Island, NY.

TB: Oh…OK.

CN: Where you've gotta go through that maze to get to the backstage...

TB: Oh that’s right, yeah, Brody was sick, and we were so late. Like, we seriously got there like five minutes before we went on stage. It was horrible.

CN: Boy Sets Fire was late too. I had to interview them, and their generator on their bus broke down. So I’m on their bus, and it was fucking sweltering. And I’m talking to Nathan, and the place looked like a bomb hit it. Really literally, I’ve never seen a tour bus that bad.

TB: Once the generator on a bus goes, it’s over.

CN: They also had all the clothes and suitcases and shit everywhere.

TB: Ours went in Texas, and it was like a hundred and ten degrees out there. Oh my God, it was so bad. It was blowing heat. I’d have to go on there just to get something, and I’d walk on and already be sweating.

CN: Yeah. And I think you played in September here?

TB: Yeah we played at The Bowery—or CBGB’s. I think it was. Oh wait. CBGB’s was July. That was when we did Lollapalooza. I remember we did CBGB’s really fast, and then we came back and did the Bowery in September with The Bronx. Yeah, that was the last time we were here. We’ve been in Europe for a while, so…

CN: How are the shows over there for you.

TB: Like, way better than here.

CN: I couldn’t believe that The Bowery Ballroom was so small. It was the first time I’d ever been there.

TB: Yeah.

CN: And it’s like, what, five hundred capacity or something?

TB: It’s like six or seven or something like that.

CN: I doubt that. On a good day maybe.

TB: Yeah I think it’s like you can pack six in there or something. But yeah, we’ve been doing way better in Europe and stuff and really, really good in England. We did Brixton Academy in England. We went there. So it’s like it’s way better for us over there right now than it is over here. We’re doing really good everywhere, but America kind of…

CN: Been to Australia yet?

TB: Yep.

CN: And how did they like you there?

TB: It was cool, man. We played with the Queens (of the Stone Age) there. We did like really big venues with the Queens like supporting. And then we went back to Melbourne and did a couple of our own shows, and they were pretty good shows. There was like a lot of people there.

CN: Did she have any family show up, Brody?

TB: Yeah we hung out with her family on New Years day which is also her birthday, so we went and had a big family cookout at her house and had all her family and shit.

CN: Now see that’s cool.

TB: They’re really cool people. Really nice.

CN: The way they book gigs up here is bizarre. You’ll do New Jersey, Pennsylvania, ya know, New York.

TB: The routing is so weird.

CN: Instead of doing it linear it’s just all over the place, so you can technically go all the way to Washington D.C. and back and then hop off in New Jersey again. So that’s what I would do with like Faith No More and stuff.

TB: That’s cool.

CN: Do you like touring now?

TB: I love touring. I hate being at home, actually. I just want to be out here. Oh, there’s my tour manager.

CN: Oh that’s Dean? It doesn’t even look like him. You can’t tell.

TB: He has the hat on.

CN: Yeah. I’m used to the dome. How long have you known Dean? Has he always been the tour manager?

TB: He started with us in the fall last year. So he’s done like four tours with us. But he works for this guy Curley who used to do us, used to do The Queens, and we sort of know him through that, so he’s a rad dude. He takes care of us.

CN: That’s what they’re supposed to do—be big babysitters. (Laughs)

TB: It’s true.

CN: Coordinate everything. And if they can’t take care of you just call the concierge. (Laugh) What are your favorite music magazines?

TB: Honestly, I really don’t read many. If I’m bored I’ll grab a Spin or a Rolling Stone or something like that. I really don’t read them too much

CN: Well I guess that’s probably what’s around. I mean did you ever read Maximum Rock n Roll or Flipside?

TB: Well when I was in high school I read Alternative Press, I read Rolling Stone—just the main ones I could get my hands on. I grew up in Rhode Island, so I didn’t have ‘zines and shit like that.

CN: I think that you guys really got the short end of the stick when Creem stopped being the way it was originally. I mean, I wrote for Creem when it was total different management, and it was more serious, but the Creem I grew up reading was, you know, Lester Bangs. It was totally irreverent drug-addled crap half the time, but it was fun, you know, to put people’s pictures and write snide comments underneath them. All they did was just entertain themselves. And everyone loved it.

TB: Which is cool. That’s why people like the Buddyhead shit so much. The Buddyhead site, cuz they’re like doing it for themselves, like bagging on people they hate. You know, it’s like this whole crazy thing that they’re being honest and I think that’s what people are into about that shit.

CN: I agree.