First Base

     Toronto's First Base have been producing driving, jangly, rough around the edges power pop since 2009 with a number of releases to brag about in their ammo case. If you need any further description of their sound, the cover of the band's newest effort: You've Got A Hold of Me EP, released earlier this year on another one of our favorite labels, Hosehead Records, is a brilliant homage to the late ‘70's Irish punk/power pop band Rudi's debut single "Big Time," which came out in 1978. Much like The Undertones, Buzzcocks, the Boys and even Generation X: First Base put just as much of the pop aspect in their music as the punk. When done up right; that mixture ladies and gentlemen is the sound that I have a particular soft spot for in my hardened heart for, and First Base manage to pull it off oh so flawlessly!

Interview by J Castro

Let’s start of by telling me who’s all in the band right now and what does everyone do in it?
MIKE: There's been a few different lineups but the current line up is: Connor on drums, Nick on guitar, Fraser on lead vocals and guitar and me on bass. We generally all sing back up vocals too.

How did you all meet and decide to play music together?

FRASER: About eight years ago I was compelled to start a band for some reason. I had recently moved, and didn't really know any musicians so I just started the "band" by myself, recording songs and putting them on Myspace. Eventually, a couple of guys I worked with found out what I was doing and offered to join. So Shinnosuke joined on drums and Shota joined on second guitar and that was like the birth of First Base as a real band. Since then, Shota has moved to Japan and Shin now lives in Montreal.

MIKE: I met Fraser for the first time at the second ever First Base gig. When I saw they didn't have a bass player I offered to play with them and a few weeks later Fraser messaged me on Myspace (hee haw!) and asked if I was still interested. As for the other guys, I had known Connor since high school and had already been in a few throwaway bands with him so I already knew he'd be a good fit. All of us met Nick by seeing his band Brat Kings play a few times. Connor had switched over to drums and we needed a new guitar player so we asked Nick to play with us and he was into the idea. And that's where we are now.

Is this the sound you had in mind when you got together and started playing or did the music just kind of take on a life of its own?
MIKE: Well the music all comes from Fraser. It was his project before any of us were involved and he writes the songs. We make slight changes or add/subtract certain things to everything as a band once we start to play them together generally. It was always the kind of music I personally wanted to play and I think all four of us mesh really well together. This is probably the best the band has ever sounded in my opinion.

FRASER: I write the songs and record them all before we ever play them together as a band. I have fun recording my own version of the song, then we take that and make it suit the band so we can play it live and eventually record it together. I think we've been getting better at translating the songs that I record on my own into the band's songs and getting the band's own sound out of them.

Tell me a little about living in Toronto. What’s it like playing there and are people there supportive of what you guys are doing musically?

MIKE: Toronto's a weird city. I don't want to trash talk it because I love living here and it's a rad city but the scene for the kind of thing we're doing isn't particuarly great. Right now Toronto is really into weirdo/experimental/grungey kind of music. The hardcore scene here is really good too. There was a time when the hardcore and power pop bands played together, but that doesn't seem to happen anymore which is unfortunate. That being said, there are a handful of amazing bands from Toronto doing something similar to the kind of thing we are.

We joke that we're actually an Ottawa band because our records have been recorded there, mixed there, artwork done there (by our friend blood brother Ken from Mother's Children - Ottawa local) and the Ottawa scene just seems to be a lot more in touch with the kind of sound we have.

Can you remember as a kid who first inspired you to want to pick up an instrument and learn how to play/write music?
MIKE: The first band I was ever really into, probably like a lot of Canadian kids, was Rush. Ha, ha. I started on bass because all my friends wanted to play guitar. My first band played our grade 8 assembly a few times. We stole a riff from a Misfits song. Ha, ha. I found out about punk very young and instantly connected with the Ramones (and the Germs - oddly enough) about the same time I realized I couldn't play like Geddy Lee because it was way too hard. All down hill from there.

FRASER: Probably the Ramones for me. First Base is basically the entirety of my musical output and almost all of it stems from the Ramones somehow.

I was reading an interview with Kim Shattuck from the Muffs and she said when writing song lyrics she stays away from politics because nothing dates a song faster. What sorts of things inspire your songs and are there any subjects you try to stay away from purposefully in your lyrics?

FRASER: I just try to make "love" songs. Anything about relationships seems to be ok. Any song I've made about anything else just doesn't work for us, so I stay away from that. I don't think we'll ever do a political song, although I guess we sort of have one? I made a song about the oil refineries in my hometown for the "Bloodstains Across Ontario" compilation. You could say it's about environmental issues, but it was really just a Beach Boys parody. 

What sorts of things distract you the most when you’re playing a show? Is there something in particular that annoys you the most that someone in the crowd always seems to do?
MIKE: People in Toronto just generally stand still and cross their arms when they watch you, (with the exceptions of our friends who are always sweethearts at our shows). You can't tell if they love you or hate you. It doesn't annoy me but the first couple times you play live it can be intimidating.

FRASER: Someone up at the front with their phone out. It's kind of depressing to see while you're playing.

You guys recently played with Forgotten Rebels, how did that go? Were you fans of their music prior to your show together?

MIKE: I was and still am a huge Forgotten Rebels fan. I remember listening to Reich N Roll from the Tomorrow Belongs to Us 12" in the car with my mom on the way to grade 9 summer school. The chorus is just "I wanna be a nazi" (all tongue in cheek - not actually promoting any sort of nazi-ism) repeated over a few times. It's a miracle she put up with that kind of shit from me. The show itself was weird. Forgotten Rebels seem to attract a lot of crust punks for some reason. Oh, and we had to play in front of all the Rebels gear which gave us next to no breathing room.  I didn't feel like the crowd really enjoyed us that much but we sold a ton of merch that night so who knows.

There’s an old folk story I’ve heard about the first time Bob Dylan and John Lennon first met. Lennon was a huge Dylan fan and he asked him what he thought of The Beatles music and Dylan responded by saying “you’re good but your music doesn’t say anything.” So The Beatles started to move away from their pop music about love and girls and came out with Rubber Soul soon after. What do you think about Dylan’s response, do you feel rock n’ roll has to say something provocative to be relevant?

FRASER: I like the story of John putting down Paul with the song "How Do You Sleep," and Paul responding with "Silly Love Songs." 

MIKE: I think the best Beatles material is when they were singing about love and girls. I prefer songs without any kind of political or social message and I know saying that's going to piss a bunch of people off. I see enough of that shit in the rest of my everyday life. I don't want to have to listen to it in my music too. Obviously there are exceptions, I'm just speaking generally. Bring on more songs about chocolate and girls.

FRASER: And hot dogs.

Where are the best places to go to hear your music and buy your records?
MIKE: You can like our Facebook page @ https://www.facebook.com/FirstBaseToronto  or listen to some songs @ https://firstbase.bandcamp.com/. You can buy our newest 45 from Hosehead records @ http://www.hoseheadrecords.ca/p/webstore.html and our LP from HoZac Records @ http://hozacrecords.com/store/

What does the near future hold for First Base?
MIKE: Right now we're just writing songs to record for our next LP, which might end up being more singles - but we're aiming for an LP. We've got a handful of them written. Hopefully we'll be recording late summer and have the LP out early next year but nothing is set in stone yet.

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Chain Letters

Chain Letters are really a band for the digital age. None of the members live in the same city and yet the band was still born. A few years ago, Chris Parker (guitar/songwriter) got the idea of writing songs for a band much like Darrin Raffaelli did for The Donnas while driving in his car. What happened next, other than learning guitar and writing songs simultaneously, was a demo that was sent into the stratosphere and attracted the likes of ex-members of Vice Squad and Young People With Faces. Bad Reflection, the debut single, which sounds like a mix of Avengers, Buzzcocks and Generation X was so catchy and highly praised it made fans wondering when the follow-up was coming. 

Who’s answering the questions?

Chris Parker, guitar-player and songwriter.

Give us a brief history of Chain Letters musical background, some other bands you have played in and currently do play in?

Singer Sophia was in Young People With Faces, a punk band from Hailey, Idaho, with three high-school friends. Bass player Johnny was in first-wave Toronto punk bands Tyranna and The Wayouts. Violet has played in multiple punk bands including Vice Squad. I had never played in a band or played an instrument at all before forming the Chain Letters.

Where is Chain Letters from and how did the band start?

The thing about this band and the record we made is that, logically, it should never have happened but somehow it did. I’ve been obsessed by punk since I was eight, totally into records all my life, but I never played an instrument. I just got a crazy idea into my head one day that I wanted to make a record. I heard about Darin Raffaelli, and the way he got the Donnas to record his songs. I didn’t know he had played guitar in Supercharger, I thought he was just some random creative person with an intriguing scheme. I loved the idea that you could be a songwriter for other people, but on a totally lo-fi garage level. That really caught my imagination, so I thought I could do something similar. But then – how do you get a song across to other people if you can’t play? So I had to learn the guitar, which I did by watching people play Ramones covers on Youtube. But then the other problem – the main one – was that I didn’t know a single person who wanted to be in a band OR liked the same kind of music as me. But still – I really wanted to make a record! So once I had put a rough guitar demo together, I sent it to some people whose music I was really into, and miraculously they liked the songs and we became the Chain Letters.

Who is in the band and what instrument do they play?

Sophia Dilley – Vocals

Chris Parker – Guitar

Johnny Bubblegum – Bass

Violet X - Drums

What bands did you have in mind when starting this band?

I love the Zeros, Pointed Sticks, Real Kids – all those bands that put out killer 7-inches that were raw but had really good songwriting. The Avengers blew me away when I first heard them (many years after the records first came out). The first Donnas album was important too. Part of what makes it great is, it seduces you into thinking – how hard could it be to sound like this? And I’m heavily into ‘60’s songwriters from Joe South to Ellie Greenwich.

Since the band members are pretty spread around globally (LA, Toronto, UK) how does Chain Letters get together to practice, write songs and play shows?

We have never played live. I can’t play well enough yet. When we made the record, I just put the songs out there and asked the others to do what they wanted. Luckily Violet is an amazing drummer so we had this really solid foundation for it all. And Sophia came up with some really great vocal stuff that I would never have thought of. I’ve always liked records where you get these little new elements thrown in just as the song is coming to an end – so it feels like everything is getting more intense – and you want to play it again before it’s even finished. I was really pleased with the way the vocals and drums did that on both the songs on the record. I don’t know anything about producing beyond making things louder or quieter. We just slotted it all together and what came out is what’s on the vinyl.

My favorite review is where it claims Chris wrote the songs before he even knew how to play guitar. What is the story behind this?

That’s totally true. I had a habit of making up tunes when I was driving. It was something I did without thinking about it. Sometimes I’d come up with a tune I liked so much, I’d worry about forgetting it. So the first thing I did when I got a guitar was to figure out some chords and words to go with these songs that only existed in my head. And that’s how the songs on our first 45 got written. I think everyone has certain chord sequences that they respond to more strongly than others. This is probably as obvious as saying “the sky is blue” if you are a musician but it was a revelation to me. It seemed like just about every song I had obsessed about had some variation of D-A-B minor-G and those were the chords I instinctively reached for when I started writing the Chain Letters stuff.

What are some things you like about all the digital avenues presented to musicians nowadays (Bandcamp, blogs, blog writers, Facebook, smaller record labels, internet magazines, etc.) to help bands today?  And some things you don’t like?

I don’t think there’s any downside if you’re a tiny band like us. Maybe the pre-internet era was great if you lived in a city with a great punk scene where lots of people were making records and forming bands. Most people will never get to experience that. Blogs like Mick Fletcher’s excellent Just Some Punk Songs, Josh Rutledge’s Faster and Louder, and fanzines like Ripple Rock in Finland and Kevin McGovern’s Fear and Loathing in Long Beach are great because they help build a community of people who like the same stuff. Their enthusiasm encourages music fans to pick up an instrument and start a band themselves. They reflect the scene way better than any pre-internet music magazines did.

The Bad Reflection single was highly praised in reviews, is there any plans to do a follow-up single?

We’re working on it right now.

What was the decision to release the single on the band’s own label Pogo Time? Was this the plan from the beginning or did Chain Letters shop the demo around to other labels before?

I never considered that anyone else would want to put our record out, as we had never gigged and we came out of nowhere. It was always going to be on our label. But we’d definitely consider putting a record out with other people in the future.

What’s next for Chain Letters and where can people hear the band?

Working on the next 45.

https://soundcloud.com/chain-letters/bad-reflection-7-inch-version

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Average Times

     Mere moments into the opening song from Average Times debut album the band quickly and eagerly throws back the curtain and reveals all of the fantastic influences they’ve collected over time. These are sons and daughters of punk from the last 20 or so years, the salad days of Rip Off, Dirtnap, Sympathy for the Record Industry, Crypt Records and many others. What Average Times seems to have done is gone and gathered everything that was great about so many of the bands from that time and the unique sound they created that set that era apart and discard the dead weight. They seize all they have learned and experienced, melt it and shape it into a crude yet sharp prison style weapon and stab you in the forehead with it and after they’re done you beg for more!

Interview by Jay Castro

Please introduce yourselves and what you throw into the Average Times band?

CURTIS: This is Curtis (Guitar, Vocals)

STEPH: Stephanie (Drums)

Where are you all from originally and how did you all meet and decide to play music together?

STEPH: We're all from Ottawa and surrounding areas. I started playing drums as a hobby a few years ago, then jamming with Curtis for practice. Soon after, we started playing with Todd as a three-piece and Seiji replaced our first bass player (Tim) about a year ago.

CURTIS: Well Steph is my better half and we met Todd and Seiji through friends.

Your debut album is out on Hosehead records (or at least it will be by the time this comes out). How did you hook up with those fine folks?

STEPH: Our friends in Ketamines invited us to play a show in Toronto last fall at the Silver Dollar Room. That's where Pat and Mike approached us about releasing a full length based on our tape released on Bruised Tongue.

CURTIS: The first time we met those guys, they were really chill and all of us clicked right away. They are definitely two hard working guys and it shows that they love what they do.

What’s the Rock N’ Roll community like in Ottawa these days?  

CURTIS: I think it's totally rad - a lot of awesome bands and super talented people all working together to make the city an amazing place to play music.

STEPH: Ottawa has always been a great city for punk bands and I feel like in the past couple of years, the scene has GROWN. So many wicked places to play and to party with more on the rise!

In your opinion, what bands do people need to know and understand in order to appreciate your music more?

STEPH: All of them.

Who are some bands you would like to take with you, or open up for on a world tour?

STEPH: David Bowie

CURTIS: 2Pac hologram

When you aren’t Rock N’ Rollin’ all around Ottawa, what kinds of things do you enjoy doing?  Hobbies etc..?

CURTIS: We never stop.

STEPH: Don't stop the rockin’ (nods head back and forth in a no position).

What’s been the most unforgettable show you’ve played, good or bad and what made it so memorable?

CURTIS: The Death House in the industrial part of Montreal - it was a super wicked punk squat. The front door was 3 feet away from some train tracks. It was also pissing rain and people were slipping on the plywood sidewalks all night.

STEPH: One of my favorite shows was our second show ever - we were opening for Natural Child. The Death House show was also super fun - lots of indoor smoking.

The cassette is making a raging comeback.  Do you think it’s a viable and collectable form of music or just another hipster trend that will soon go hobbling back to its dark cave of obscurity and take a seat next to the 8-Track where in belongs?

STEPH: Tapes were the first format of music that most people our age collected so I think it's pretty rad to be able to collect them again. Maybe one day soon, CD's will make a comeback.

CURTIS: Whether they stick around or not . . . time will tell.

What does the band have in store for us in the near or not so near future?

CURTIS: Just gonna keep on playing shows, and most likely record again this summer.

STEPH: We have a small Ontario tour coming up this June and hopefully Europe in the next year or two!

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Transistors

     I first saw these guys open for Rock ‘N’ Roll titans Guitar Wolf in the fall of 2012.   I had never heard of them prior, but after listening to some of their songs, I was looking forward to seeing them just as much as the headliners, and they did not disappoint.  Three young guys from New Zealand that play punk rock music that sounds considerably better the higher the volume gets.  Its fast, extremely catchy and they seem to be having the time of their lives doing it, which in turn makes anyone listening to it have a blast as well.  What more can anyone ask of a stellar punk band?  It’s a little Ramones, a little Angry Samoans, a little Buzzcocks, and a whole lot of fun!

Interview by Jay Castro

Who’s answering the questions here?

James

Who is in the band and what instruments do you play?

Olly plays drums and sings, Colin plays bass and sings a little bit and I play guitar and sing.

What parts of New Zealand are you all from?

We originally hail from Rangiora which is a small town in North Canterbury on the East Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. We all live in Christchurch which is about half an hour away from Rangiora and is a big small town.

How did the band come together?

We all met on the first day of school at Rangiora High and we were in the same class. We started playing music a few years after that as a means of getting out of class and escaping small town tedium.

What music did you have in mind when starting out the band?             

When we first started jamming in Olly's garage we thought we were playing sixties influenced pop music, The Kinks and The Beatles were some of our earliest influences but it turned out that the music we were playing was pretty rough sounding (due to our overwhelming lack of musical prowess), we got into punk and other weirder sounding bands pretty quickly and went from there.

What non-musical influences inspire you?

Lots of things really, people we know, relationships, getting older, crummy jobs. All the classics...

I know very little concerning New Zealand’s current cultural affairs I’m afraid.   I know Flight of the Concords, and The Cramps concert video Rockin’ and Reelin’ in Auckland New Zealand.  Is there a lot going on there musically you wish more people knew about?

We actually know two guys who were at that Cramps show! They said it was amazing. FOTC and Lord Of The Rings were the two things that were probably brought up the most about New Zealand while we were in the states and we were kind of expecting that but interestingly a lot of people would come up and ask us about Flying Nun bands, so that was pretty cool. When we played in Portland the singer of Mean Jeans hugged me when I told him I knew Alec Bathgate, because he was such a big Tall Dwarfs fan haha. There are a lot of sweet bands around at the moment that everyone should check out, some Christchurch bands off the top of my head would be: Salad Boys, Teen Fortress, Zen Mantra, X-Ray Charles, Ipswich. Up north there's Street Chant, The Situations, Rackets, Shaft, Beach Pigs, No Aloha, God Bows To Math...I know I'm forgetting a bunch, sorry guys...

I saw The Transistors when you opened up for the infamous Guitar Wolf last year.  How did you guys land that prime position?

We were really lucky to be asked by The Wolf. We had already supported them on their NZ tour in December 2011 and Seiji liked us and was nice enough to offer us the spot on the US tour. He said we should go to Japan but that we "must harden liver first".

Was this your first time in the U.S.?  If so, what did you think?  Where was your favorite place you played?

I had been briefly when I was a kid but it was Olly and Col's first trip over. We loved it and had the best time. It was just the three of us with all our gear in a hired car and nothing but the incessant chatter of our faithful GPS guide, Tom, to steer us in the right direction. We played 27 shows in about 30 days and travelled 12,000 miles across 33 states. There were hardly any bad shows that I can remember but some highlights for me were Minneapolis, New York, Memphis and Philly. One of the best shows was definitely the Portland show and I'm not just saying that. We had a wicked time in Portland and we stayed with our friend Ruban and his awesome family, so that was really cool.

How do American audiences compare to the fans back in New Zealand?

On the whole the audiences were pretty responsive which was awesome, plus we sold a heap of 7"’s. It was cool playing in a place where nobody had ever heard of us or knew what to expect. Having said that, a guy in Bellingham asked why we didn't play Caving In, which is a song from our first record! That was crazy.

I recently read that out of all different art forms, music has the power to alter a person’s disposition the fastest.  Do you agree with this?  Do you have any favorite music that you can put on that will always lift you up from a slump?

Yeah I'd definitely agree with that. Often with certain songs or albums that I put on, I'll be instantly taken back to the time that I first heard them or a period of my life when I listened to them a lot. There are definitely certain records and bands that always make me feel good when I put them on, Wild Honey by The Beach Boys, the first Modern Lovers album, Let It Be by The Replacements are a few that come to mind. I always find the first two Big Star records really inviting, like a warm blanket. The third album not so much haha, I like that for very different reasons, if I'm in a slump and I put that album on I feel myself slumping down further.

Do you think Rock ‘N’ Roll can still be a vital and influential force for kids in this disposable age we live in now?

I think so for sure, I think loud raucous music will always have its place. If you look at any era of music there has always been a huge amount of disposable crap out there but bands have always been there doing their thing as well. I guess nowadays there's just an even bigger amount of disposable crap around.

It sounds very cynical but I feel like the overwhelming majority of kids these days are probably spending all their time on the internet liking their friend's "selfy" photos on Facebook rather than doing anything worthwhile but I'd like to think there are still heaps out there who are using the internet to discover exciting bands and just generally expand their minds. There's a vast wealth of information at everyone's disposal and this is how things will be from now on so I suppose it just comes down to how you choose to use it all.

50 years ago people used to buy music and get their water free, now people pay for water and get their music free. How do you think this affects the music industry?

Like I said, there are definite pros and cons with the internet as a means of getting your music out there and it really depends on what you see as being important. The internet has completely changed the way the music industry works now and it'll probably slowly start to kill off the major labels and their whole model for doing things because like anything in evolution, if you don't adapt you die out and so far they seem to have just fought it as much as possible, it must have hurt them already. Smaller labels seem to have a much more sustainable approach and I think bands now more than ever can be their own gods and do everything for themselves. The perceived downside of everything being available online is that nobody's paying for music when they can just get it for free. As a band, we've never really made any money anyway so that doesn't bother me. If someone on the other side of the world can find out about our band and hear and download our music for free then I think that's awesome, I don't think being able to get music for free is necessarily devaluing it. I like how sites like Bandcamp allow you people to 'pay what you want'.

Where can people hear the almighty Transistors or purchase your music or merch?

All our music is available for download at our Bandcamp which is transistors.bandcamp.com

If you're a purist and you want Vinyl or CD’s off us you're best to email us at thetransistorsnz@gmail.com and we can send stuff out.

There are also a bunch of videos and live clips of us on YouTube, some good, some not so good - so beware!

What’s next for the band?

Our second record Is This Anything? is finally due for release soon on Arch Hill Records here in NZ and we're getting underway with demos for our next album too. Hopefully we'll be able to make it back to the states in the near future!

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Cyanide Pills

     Cyanide Pills have one of the cleverest bios ever written in the fact that it isn’t a traditional bio at all. But when it comes to musical influences there is no messing around. They mix classic era Buzzcocks with a touch of Briefs and Dickies thrown in for good measure to create a catchy hook driven sound. The band has a new LP Still Bored coming out on Damaged Goods. For a band that “just try and play stuff of a decent standard” they are doing a good job of raising the standards beyond decent to must listen.

Interview by Ed Stuart

Who’s answering the questions?

Phil Privilege

Where is the band from?

Four of us are from Earth.

Who is in the band and what instrument do they play?

Phil Privilege - Vocals

Sy Pinkeye - Guitar

Alex A - Guitar

Alaric ‘The Trick’ - Bass

Chris Wrist - Drums

How did the band start?

No big story, just a group of like- minded people thought they would form a band.

What bands did you have in mind when starting this band?

We are all fans of 1970’s punk rock, I would like to think if we were around at that time we would be up there with all the good bands from that era. Our ambition is to be on Top Of The Pops but in the year 1978! Step 1 is to write the songs, step 2 is to build some sort of time machine.

Step 1 is going ok.

More contemporary bands we like. The Briefs, Guida, Cute Lepers, Sharp Objects, The Gaggers, The Barreracudas, Mean Jeans, Clorox Girls…there’s loads of good stuff out there, go find it.

The band’s bio is the most unique and creative, I’ve read. “A gang of c***s from a desolate land. Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the band... CYANIDE PILLS.” Why the desire to do a poem instead of the traditional band bio.

Most bio’s I read are boring.

They really get me snoring.

Don’t care where you’re from.

Just play the Fucking song…well. You get the Idea.

The band’s favorite shows they have played this far?

We have a great time everywhere we play, From Gateshead to Berlin, Bologna to Bradford. All good. There are some great punk clubs and great people out there. Go.

Do you think music can still be a vital force in such a disposable age?

“Without music, life would be a mistake.” Nietzsche

Rip it Up describes Cyanide Pills “approach to their sound seems a little bit like the way the Japanese manage to observe, assimilate, refine and eventually outdo any new technology that they discover.  These guys have clearly spent their [mis]-spent youth poring over every scratched 7″ copy of ‘Marquee Moon’ and ‘Promises’ that they could find down the local secondhand record shop – they have produced an album so full of riffs [Buzzcocks], ‘OoohOoohs’ [Ramones], and catchy hooks [Dickies] that it almost hurts!”  Do you feel this is an accurate regarding the band’s sound and songwriting style?

It’s a compliment indeed! We just try and play stuff of a decent standard, bands like the above mentioned Television, The Ramones, Buzzcocks, Dickies set the bar pretty high.

Can you tell a little information about how the recording went for Still Bored? It looks to be released next month on Damaged Goods?

We always record with the great Carl ‘Razorblade’ Rosamond. We got it done in a few   days and its came out well. We didn’t think we would make a second album. Then Damaged Goods asked for one.  So, we made one. It’s out April 8^th.

How did you guys connect with Damaged Goods? On their website they think, “Cyanide Pills may just be the greatest band in the world.” It seems that the label really likes the band since they have released both LP’s and a series of singles.

Ian Damaged saw us play one night, afterwards he said “I want to put a Cyanide Pills record out” We thought he meant one! But he had other ideas.

50 years ago people used to buy music and get their water for free, now people pay for water and get their music for free. How do you think this affects music in any way?

Personally I like my music on vinyl. It looks and sounds better and I don’t mind paying.

Personally I don’t like water I prefer wine. It looks and tastes better and I don’t mind paying.

What’s next?  
Fuck knows

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