Pennywise

by Wade Chamberlain

Pennywise released their fourth (third for Epitaph), and possibly best album last month. And in the tradition of any hard working punk band they promptly set out on the road. They came through Salt Lake in Friday the seventeenth. I had the opportunity of speaking with Fletcher the guitarist about the band, the punk rock scene, and a few other things.

RAD: Obviously you got your name from a Steven King film, are you guys big Steven King fans?
Fletcher: Well, we actually got it from the book and not the film. We're all into Steven King, I mean we're not like huge fans that collect all Steven King's shit or anything. It was basically like one of our friends came over to one of our practices and said, Fuck! You've gotta name your band Pennywise!' He just kept barkin' at us so we were like what ever dude cool.' But it also has a little bit of meaning because we all read the book, and it was like Pennywise was like you're worst fear. The guy would figure out what scared you the most and turn himself into that and then fuck with you. So it's like if you can get over your worst fears and the shit that scares you the most then you can go on with your life. And that's the ty your life. And that's the type of thing that we're into the most.
RAD: I noticed a lot of your lyrics are really about being positive and moving on with you life. Do you think they are more introspective or observational?
Fletcher: I think they're more introspective, Jimmy writes a lot of stuff from his point of view which is baisically the band's point of veiw. When Jason And Jimmy write the lyrics they're writing almost every thing from personal experience. Some of the lyrics are about other people, but they're the ones about drugs and shit. He touches on other subjects, but I think mainly the lyrics are about his life experiences.
RAD: Are you guys affiliated with the straight edge scene?
Fletcher: No!, well I've been like a huge fan of Minor Threat since the 80's. We've always partied and never ever said we were straight edge. We're into the positive side of straight edge, but we're not really into the preachy end of it.. The straight edge movement, I think, is more like about not fuckin' with people and bein' more like into not doing drugs and just having a clear head. But when straight edge gangs start carrying it like too far, and beating up a kid because he's drinking a beer that's not cool at all! That's almost like a fuckin' type of racism. We're more into like doin' what ever you wanna do and bein' cool to the people that deserve being cool to.
RAD: I read an interview with you guys last year when you came, and you said something to the effect that back in the 80's the punk scene was pretty much lame, but now days it is a lot more positive.
Fletcher: I actually liked the punk scene in the 80's more than now, but there's good and bad about both. The cool thing about the 80's is that it was like different. It was original and about being an individual and now it's just like you do it because it's the cool thing to do, just like with any other kind of music, you get a lot of people that aren't genuine fans of the music they're just doing it because that's like what every one at their high school is doing or what ever. The scene now is a lot more positive, like you get a lot of surfers, skaters, and snowboarders listening to this kind of music, so they're not all wacked out on drugs and shit. They're more positive people that are into like sports and stuff. They'll go and they'll go off just as hard as any guy in the 80's that was on black beauties and gin That parts better for me cuz there is more kids that are just like fully into it. I've had a ton of friends that up until like recent years gave me shit for playing punk rock, they'd always be like why don't you play something like Bang Tango or something that's gonna sell and we were like fuck you! I've been playing in punk bands since like 1980 and I always just loved like really fast, loud, distorted music. Now it's like come full circle and now it's huge and all the people that were givin' us shit are like can we get back stage passes. So in that way the scene has changed a little bit. But we've also had a lot of friends that have supported us. We're still tryin' to keep a hard core approach even though we're sitting here talking in the luxury of our tour bus it's do to the fact that we've done 9 fuckin' tours out of a van! With seven people and all of our equipment in a fuckin' van with no trailer it's hard to come out and do shows when you've traveled 8 hours in a van. And every one gets sick from each other. We're still doin' our shit for the fans really, I mean I heard they're playing us on the radio which is really uncool, but what can you do? Evidently the record companies sent out CDs to all the radio stations and they we're like uh, we don't really like it's a little too hard core and shit, and then like the week the cd came out we showed up at #96 on the billboard top 200. And every one was like well we better start playing them! They we're all jumpin' on the band wagon because we've had all of our success do to like touring and doing it for the fans. We try to do everything fan based. At our shows people try to tell us what to do and we usually tell them to fuck off! You'll see tonight some shit will happen. We've 'll see tonight some shit will happen. We've already had security guards leave during the show and leave it open to complete mayhem it was great! We've had a couple of stages collapse. There's already been about $40,000 worth of damage on this tour We've had two stages collapse from the weight of the fans being on them because we always invite them up to sing along with the the last song (Brohymn).
RAD: I first heard you guys on a snow board video a couple of years ago Do you guys snowboard?
Fletcher: Yeah, all of us do. I've only been into it the last couple of years, but I like it a lot. I surf in the summer when the waters warm, But we've all gotten into snow boarding a lot. We snowboarded Alaska this year. Byron skates as well.
RAD: I noticed Epitaph has a home page in the Internet, are you guys into computers?
Fletcher: Jimmy our singer was the first one to get a computer. Now I have one and I've been cruzin' the Internet . It's cool to see what the kids write about our band and others. Like one kid will write in and say I wanna see Pennywise on MTV and then 30 kids will write in and say Fuck You! We already have Green Day and Rancid. It's trippy being able to talk to people all around the world. It's definitely the wave of the future and I wanna learn more about it, but I'm a shitty typer so I talk and my chic types for me.
RAD: I noticed your first album is noticed your first album is a lot more eclectic, it's not just straight punk. What made you decide to go with the punk thing?
Fletcher: Our first-first album?, That's kind of a bullshit thing. We're always fuckin' around with stuff. We're always writing songs and being experimental, but the guy put all of these out takes on there, like Stand By Me was an out take Maybes was an out take and he put those on there. That was when we were less focused. But when we put out our first release for Epitaph we we're like let's concentrate on the straight out hard core stuff. We still fuck around and write different songs, but hopefully they'll never pop up any where.
RAD: I love Stand By Me, though.
Fletcher: Yeah that was a cool one. That's like our song now we're gonna play it tonight!
RAD: How is it touring with Joykiller?
Fletcher: Joykiller rips! One of the first gigs I went to in like 1980 was TSOL. I've been in to them for years, I mean Jack, he's been like my idol and now they're opening for us! DFL are great too. I like to tour with all Epitaph bands because we're like a big family and there's no attitude and shit!
RAD: Have you guys toured Europe?
Fletcher: Yeah we've toured Europe like four times. The scene over there is really cool cuz there's no fights and shit. The people are all friendly and they are there to hfriendly and they are there to have a good time and they watch out for everyone else. Over here it can get lame cuz you get a lot of tough guys who like to hurt people and you get a lot of gangs and shit. The whole point of the music gets lost by people who are only there to be fuckin' kooks! America is getting better though, this tour hasn't had a lot of fights and shit. I think it's cuz there are a lot more cool people getting into this scene!
RAD: Are you gonna put out a video for any thing on this album?
Fletcher: The thing is we really didn't want to, but the record company really wants us too. It's kinda like a catch 22 I mean the record company does a lot for us and then we're like fuck you! We don't wanna be on MTV or the radio and we wanna stop selling records. You have to work with them. So we compromised, and we wrote and directed a video for Same Old Story, I mean it'll say some one elses' name, but me and Jimmy we're givin' the orders. The video is about some kid who gets into an argument with his dad and takes off on his skateboard. It's kinda like a day in the life of a skater kid. The opening scene is actually something that happened to me. You know like my dad smacked me for drinkin' out of the milk carton, then chased me out of the house so I took off. I think I went to a Black Flag gig that night. The kid actually ends up at one of our practices. So hopefully you'll see it. The fully you'll see it. The kid who skates in it fuckin' blows doors! We mainly make our videos for underground stations like with Homesick we didn't think MTV was gonna play it because it had guns and dead bodies and shit in it.
RAD: It had a really powerful message though the stats about guns were devastating!
Fletcher: Isn't that fuckin' sick! I mean 240,00 deaths in the U.S. last year because of guns!

The conversation was then broken up as people started flooding the bus preparing for the show. Pennywise did put on a great performance that night despite the bad acoustics and sound people. There were also no fights, the security guards didn't leave, and the stage didn't even collapse under the weight of all those kids during Brohymn.-SUEDE