Less Than Jake Interview

WBGU = WBGU 88.1 FM Punk Department (Kyle)
LTJ = Less Than Jake (Vinnie, drummer)

WBGU: Hey this is Kyle I'm at the Warped Tour I'm here with Vinnie from Less Than Jake. I just got a few basic questions for you. First starting off, who were your musical influences growing up towards your music?

LTJ: For me personally I would say Slayer, I would say Metallica, and I would say The Ramones.

WBGU: Really, that's interesting then.

LTJ: Not really, I'm from New Jersey, so I mean its old metal. I mean metal is punk, I mean if you look back you know punk rock very quickly turned into metal, so it's not really that surprising. For awhile in the mid-eighties it was very metallic, punk rock was very metallic, like GBH and the IQ's and things like that. So it's not really that surprising. It's surprising for right now, considering when people say, "I like punk rock," they mean NOFX and Rancid and then that it.

My Friend Tim: If you think about it stuff like Anthrax and stuff like that, that's pretty much punk rock right there.

LTJ: I mean Anthrax used to be a punk rock band, a long, long, long time ago mind you, but still.

WBGU: Also, on the same note then, what are you listening now mostly?

LTJ: I'm listening to, well, I gotta think of the five things that are in my CD player right now. I'm gonna say Dillinger Four the new record, that I first got, actually Situation is Comedy is their last record, so the new D4. I would say, the new NOFX, War on Errorism or whatever however you pronounce it. Uhh, what else? Like Punjabi M.C. which is like this weird like sort of East Indian guy from the U.K., puts like crazy skip-beat, like drum and bass stuff to it. Which I like it a lot. Uhh, Asian Dub Foundation which is like again, like skip-beat like drum and bass stuff, but it's mixed with like punk rock and reggae and ska, super super super cool. And then, the last thing I would probably say, probably, the last thing I listened to, which was this morning, was Slayer, Hell Awaits. Which is great.

WBGU: The new album out Anthem, you guys said you had 27 songs to start out with and then you ended up putting 13 on the album. How is it different, that album, compared to like the ones you've all done before?

LTJ: Well I mean, I'll go briefly. You got Pez Core, we recorded in 19 hours. It was quick, and we just did it all live basically. Then you had Losing Streak, which was done in three weeks. Hello, Rockview was done in three weeks. Then Borders and Boundaries was done in two months. And then this record was done in a month. So, it was relatively quick comparatively to Borders and Boundaries, and you know, it was more enjoyable then most of our records, to be honest with you, to record. It was just laid back. You know, it was very relaxed to record it was fun.

WBGU: You guys had Pez Core re-released I just wanted to talk about that, why it happened?

LTJ: Well you know, I mean I'll be honest with you, it's that you know, when you do something for 19, you record something and you put it out, we did it in 19 hours and it wasn't to our expectations that it would be around for a decade and still selling super-well. So, we just decided to remix it. You know, just for our sanity purposes. When we remixed it, we just mean that, just went in there and took some of the tape noise out and shit like that, that happens. We recorded in a house.

WBGU: Yeah, because this was on Asian Man.

LTJ: We recorded in like a living room. So, we just went a cleaned up some things to sort of, cuz its gonna be around for a ways longer, so you might as well clean it up a bit.

WBGU: Alright now, being a ska band, can I call you a ska band? Is that. . .

LTJ: You can call us whatever you want.

WBGU: I know when you say ska now sometimes people are. . .

LTJ: We're a punk rock band, we've always been a punk rock band, because ethically speaking we've always been a punk rock band. As far as have we played ska, yeah. Do we continue to play ska, yes. But we also play punk rock, we also play fucking metal if you want to get technical down to it.

WBGU: Now, when you say ethically you're a punk rock band what do you mean by that?

LTJ: I mean we care about the. . . When someone tells me that they're a punk rock band what automatically comes to mind is you're entrenched in a certain scene a community. Like if you're a metal band you're in the fucking metal community, you know dudes in Staind and Limp Bizkit and shit. I consider us a punk rock band in a punk rock community, and ethically speaking off that is that we try to keep our merchandise low, we try to do everything ourselves and in less hands of people. Are we on a major labor, yes, but so was fucking Ramones and so were fucking The Clash, so, and they were punk rock bands. Just ethically speaking we like to do things ourselves and have that ethic to it, you know. We still handle all of our merchandise, we still book half of our tours, and let someone do the business end of it, you know. So it's cool.

WBGU: Alright now also kinda going within the ska music you play, a while ago there was kinda a rise were it got really really popular, and then now its kinda almost like if you say ska people kinda turn their heads away right away, kinda like if you say emo now or something like that. What's it been like as a band playing with those kinds of attitudes being around?

LTJ: Well, you know what, we've never been like that poster child for ska anyway, people took that place for like Reel Big Fish and the Bosstones and things like that. We never really had any hits on the radio, infact even when we were on Capitol when it was super popular all over radio, we very very rarely were played, like No Doubt, Sublime, Bosstones, Reel Big Fish. I mean and again I don't like to. . . People who do that use that sort of mind set are in my book sorta lame, it's like, "Well, its emo, so I don't like it now." I mean that's like saying, "You're white so I don't like you now, I don't like all white people." Its life. You're blocking off, you're being closed minded to a certain sect of music, and music is meant to be enjoyed, its not meant to be dissected and fucking set into little groups and little cliches, I think that was always lame. And that's why I appreciate The Transplants more so then I appreciate a three-chord punk rock band, because they are trying to push the boundaries of punk rock music, you know stylistically speaking by putting loops and things like that in there, because that way you aren't closing yourself off to anything you're just trying to build upon what's there, and that's what everyone's done up to this point anyway. You know so, when someone goes "Less Than Jake they're a ska band so I don't like them." A-I think that's lame, but B-I think that people with that mindset are cutting themselves off to a lot of things that they could be enjoying. If someone says they don't like ska, fine don't like my band, but there's this band from the U.K. called Cap Down. Which are like a New York Hardcore type band but they have like influences of like Dub and Reggae music in it, and they're for all intensive purposes a ska but then you would never find that band and that band is fucking amazing, amazing live, amazing fucking records, so I mean people would automatically miss that. Or someone who'd go "I don't like Metal," or "I don't like emo." Well, fuck you're going to miss out on fucking Poison the Well, you're going miss out on fucking Thrice, you're going to miss out on Thursday. All which are amazing bands. So it's just lame to me that people sort of paint themselves right into a corner like that, its shocking actually.

WGBU: Alright that's cool. Um, that's all I have for you right now, is there anything that you would like to add or say.

LTJ: Not really, I mean, I'll do the plug, our records out in the stores, Anthem, fuck, go buy it. Right on.

WBGU: Alright thanks a lot.