Stretsch Armstronng

by Su Chon

RAD

Tell me a little about your band, I remember when you started about the time that Swim [another local ska band called Swim Herschel Swim which recently broke up] did... How bad we sucked.

RAD

Why did you change the spelling of your name?

Stretch Armstrong is a doll by Hasbro, it came out in the '70s. The reason that we even named the band cause that was kinda reminiscent of that doll. Well, they just re-released it so for copyright reasons we changed the spelling so we didn't have to worry about it.

Maybe we could still get busted for commercial appropriation but we don't think anyone will ever notice us.

We're German.

RAD

Don't you want to go all the way? You guys have talent, and I think you can take it further. How committed is your band?

We're doing everything we can with this CD especially, we're really into promotions, sending out to radio stations, record companies, blah blah blah and next summer we're going out of state as much as we can.

RAD

Are you going to be touring with, say, Skankin' Pickle or something like that?

Probably not Skankin' Pickle, we'd like, I don't know, we'll see what happens.

We've had different opportunities here and there that we're just unable to take, being in school and being married.

Actually, not to diss Skankin' Pickle because they're one of our favorite groups of guys, but we'd actually like to tour with somebody even bigger than that, to get more exposure cause they do a lot of bar shows. We've had opportunities, we've been asked to tour with Rancid and Citizen Fish. We just entered discussions with Offspring, we might be opening up for them in December. So I mean, if we could be getting bigger gigs like that - they're not ska bands but I think our live show is good enough that we can compare you know.

RAD

What kind of ska do you classify yourselves as, two-tone, East Coast, West Coast?

Us. We're our own breed.

There are very few that are doing two-tone band stuff right now. A lot of people are turning like, kinda the Bosstones thing. They want to be Bosstones fans or Fishbone fans.

A little harder edged or the Fishbone thing, funky or something like that. They're two things we tried and screw up every time we do it so we just stick to whatever we do.

RAD

I read an article about you guys being one of the happiest bands that someone had heard about and that's why he joined.

We actually have a lot of pain.

Deep, deep, deep within.

We're sick of experience.

We feel like him inside.

Everyday is like Halloween. I think that was one of our sax players though that thought we were the happiest band.

RAD

And that's why he joined.

Well we're not angry, I don't know whether we're the happiest band. We're not like happy shiny people or anything...

...but we're not warped.

RAD

So how did this band start up?

Very carefully.

A HA! (Laughs) Scott is the only original member in the band.

Just a bunch of friends got together, we liked ska, we wanted to do a variation of ska.

RAD

How did you survive because it seems like you guys got really big, like Swim got really big and then it kind of died down a little bit?

I think what happened, to be honest with you, is that we rode the coattails of Swim for a really long time. We went from zero to 500 - 1,000 people shows the first two months we were a band y'know. Then Swim and us kind of parted ways and there was a good year and a half to two years where we weren't doing shows together and we actually had a chance to gather together to become our own band and to build ourselves up again.