Transcript (auto-generated, may contain errors; songs left out)
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We are sitting in Sound Guy Nairman's living room, or his fiancée's living room, whose name I'm not going to give you, because you're the creepy internet, and I can't trust you, internet. But we are going to bring you a new show this week. We are going to continue to run last week's contest for Love Me Destroyer, which is a shit ton of stuff from Suburban Home Records. So, if you like shit tons of stuff, you should totally enter. Excuse me as I choke on my own spittle, because it's going to be totally sweet. But this week, we have an interview with Fat Records artist Smoke or Fire. These guys originally hail from Richmond, Virginia, and were originally called Jericho. But then when a bunch of Christians decided it was time to sue them, because they had the name Jericho, they had to switch their name.
And they went with Jericho RVA for a while, and they had the terrible ass idea of holding a naming contest. And when they realized what a terrible ass idea of naming contest was, they just decided to go for Smoke or Fire. They picked it, so if it sucks, it's all their fault. Anyhow, that's the band's history. I hope you enjoyed it. But we have an interview with, I believe, Ken and Jeremy of Smoke or Fire. If you're not sure, that's the tiny one and the bearded one. And so, that'll distinguish if you're ever looking up on the stage, you can point them out. But we also have a contest this week for a copy of Smoke or Fire's new CD, This Sinking Ship. So, you want to listen to the end to figure out how you are going to get that CD.
Alright? So, be sure to tune in to the end, and be sure to tune in to the Let Me Destroyer interview to figure out how to win the shit ton of suburban home record stuff. Alright? So, before we get into the interview, we're going to play a track off of their album, This Sinking Ship, and I decided to kick things off with the title track because it's good. So, listen to it. This is This Sinking Ship off of This Sinking Ship by Smoke or Fire. Enjoy.
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What's going on? We are hanging out at the back of Bottom of the Hill with Smoke or Fire. You want to just introduce yourself? Try and... You want to introduce yourself? Kind of hard to hear in the background. Yeah, absolutely. I'm Jeremy. I play guitar in Smoke or Fire. My name's Ken. I play bass. Alright. Fantastic. I guess the best place to start... Can we get, like, a brief history of the band if you can do that? If there is a brief history. We started in probably 98, 99 in Boston. We were all going to college in the area. I was out in Western Massachusetts, and Ken and Joe and our old drummer were going to school in Boston.
And it basically just started out, like, playing on weekends and practicing, like, once a week or whatever. And playing shows around Boston, normally, like, North Shore, like, north of Boston area. And then we graduated and kind of fucked off for a year after college and didn't really know what to do. And decided that, you know, this is what we wanted to do. So we moved to Richmond, Virginia to do the band full-time. And that's when we, like, wrote our first record that came out on Phat. And started touring, and just kind of what we've been doing since. We just finished recording and releasing our second record on Phat in February. Cool, cool. Do you mind if I ask, so you all graduated then? No, you all graduated, right?
Some of you? I graduated from college. Ken graduated from college. Joe graduated from college. And our new drummer, Dave, didn't go to college. Well, that works out. What are your degrees then?
I was an English major. I was too. Ken was an English major. Joe was a graphic design major.
Yeah. So being an English major, it's a good way to get into a band. Sure, right, yeah. It's a dead end.
There are worse majors, trust me. Oh, yeah, totally. Math. Oh, yeah, right, right. Math. You can be an accountant, math teacher, I guess.
Teach you. Totally, totally. All right, anyhow. CPA. So I want to ask, I had read in one of the interviews, it had mentioned that you guys had talked to a major label that they had contacted you even before Above the City had come out. Is that true? Someone had said that a major label would talk to you guys. I don't know. Does **** count? Totally owned by a major label. I don't know. Yeah, there was some weird... That was like eight years ago. Yeah, it was a long time ago. It was some weird hocus pocus. They called us kind of totally out of the blue, and we were living in Boston, just working like total shit. We were all still in school. It was like summer before we graduated. Just doing stupid jobs. Joe and I were working at a burrito place, and Kevin was working at CPK or some shit.
Waiting tables. Waiting tables. You know what I mean? So we just got called out of the blue, and they're like, hey, do you want to come to California and play some shows and meet us? And we were like, fuck, like we've never been... We don't censor. Sorry, I should have let you know. Dude, let me just throw it out. I was talking about clown raping, so you're good. Yeah, they're on some other shit than us. Yeah, don't worry. Yeah, so we were like, yeah, whatever. We've never been to California. We might as well go out and play some shows, see what they got to say. But we were broke as shit. So we were like, yeah, we don't have any money. If you want us to come, I mean, you have to pay for it, kind of. Yeah, so we took our really, you know, piece of crap van and drove out there and played.
It's weird to say just drove out there because it's 3,000 miles to play. Yeah, we didn't just drive out there. I mean, yeah, we didn't. We were like, what, two, three days' drive on that? Yeah, we just basically drove in shifts, and it was like completely straight, like through, like just drive during the day and during the night. I don't know. It was intense. Yeah, so we drove out there. We played, like, two shows. And then at the end of, like, the second show, we went to, like, their estate, I guess you could call it, or, like, their compound or whatever. And some dude, like, we knocked on the door, like, come by the house. We're like, word, whatever. So we show up and knock on the door, and some, like, 16-year-old dude, maybe not 16, whatever.
Let's say 18, like, just for, like. For the sake of argument. For the sake of argument. 18-year-old. Some dude, like, answers the door in a towel, and we were like, word, really? I don't know. So we walked in and, like, hung out for a little bit, and I didn't really talk to anybody. Me and the old guitar player played some pool, and then we left, went and played another show. And then at the end of that, we were like, okay, I think we're going to go home. And we got back in the van and drove back. So that was the extent of our major label courting. I'm just trying to figure out why there was a dude in a towel answering the door. Like, sorry. I'm just trying to figure out why there was a dude in a towel answering the door.
Well, one of the other bands that ended up on *** was also in town playing shows. And they were actually staying there. So we're assuming that he was just, like, in the pool or something. But, like, the people we were supposed to talk to, like, weren't around. It was really weird. They had us come over, and then they weren't there or something. I don't know. It was very strange. It just wasn't some, like, weird underage boy party or something. No, no, no. They were, like, staying at the house. That's good. Yeah. That'll work then. All right. So, all right, dude. I'm used to having the mic way the fuck. And the sound guy's correcting me. So, your new album, The Sinking Ship, you guys recorded over, what, a five-week process, roughly?
About five weeks, I would say. Yeah. It was five or six weeks in Chicago with Matt Allison. How was that, like, compared to, like, your other albums and stuff you did, like, a couple of days, a couple of weeks? How was this, like, the time-wise? You want to do this one? Sure. I mean, it was an entirely different experience, because, whereas before, when we recorded, we would, you know, we were in Boston, but we'd get up in the morning, go to the studio, record, and then go to the bar, and then go home. But at this, we were living in the studio, so it's, like, all you know. Like, you wake up, and the studio we were in had no windows or anything, so it's, like, you wake up, and you're, you're, you don't know what time it is, you don't know, you just know that you're there to record this record, so it becomes, like, all that you, that you're, that you're focused on at all.
You've got to get out and go for a walk a little bit. Like, it's a, it's a much, it was a much different, for us, it's unlike any other recording experience that we'd had, but it was good. Yeah, and you say it was probably more positive, like, the output, do you think it was probably more positive altogether than previous recordings, or? The output? No, the experience, sorry. Oh, the, the experience was amazing. Um, Chicago's a, an amazing city. Like, everybody was so hospitable, including, um, our engineer, Matt, who was just so fantastic to us, took us out and, like, showed us a good time, like, any, you know, free chance we had to, like, get out of the studio. Um, it was awesome, it was super positive, but at the same time, it was, like Ken was saying, you know, it was basically, like, you were in lockdown, you know, like, you, you woke up, you played, you ran through the songs, you did a take, kept it, or chucked it, and we just did that for, like, you know, 10 or 12 hours every day.
And then you'd go out, drink some beers, come home, hang out, watch some TV, before you know it, it's really early in the morning, go to sleep, and you wake up and do it all over again. So, it, uh, it definitely took its toll. It was certainly positive, like, totally overall positive, but, you know, it was, it was stressful, too, at the same time. Uh, just give the, giving the door a second to close there. All right. Now, uh, you guys don't all live in the same area anymore. You guys are kind of now scattered across the country, is that right? I live in, uh, Salem, Massachusetts, and Joe lives in Boston. Jeremy lives in Oakland, and Dave lives in Portland, Oregon, so it's, so we are spread out, yeah. Yeah, is that, how has that been for the songwriting process?
Does that make it harder for you guys? I mean, I gotta imagine it's harder not just to call them up and be like, hey, let's practice on Friday. Yeah, yeah, it's hard to say. It was definitely harder, but it was also, it was not so much harder, it was just the complete opposite of what we've ever thought about doing. Like, we all either lived in the same house, or within blocks of each other, or, you know what I mean? Like, we rode above the city in my bedroom in Richmond, like, and we all lived in the same house. Um, so, to go from that to, like, you know, me living on the West Coast, Dave living on the West Coast, and two guys on the East Coast, and, like, Joe and I sending, like, four-track tapes back and forth, and, like, burning CDs from GarageBand and shit, like, sending them back and forth, like, it's completely different, you know?
Um, and, I don't know, I don't know if we'd do it again that way. It's kind of like, we did what we had to do. We had to, we did what we had to do while we had to do it, and we, we, we didn't have a choice. It was like, that, that was what we had to do at that, at that point. What we're gonna do for the next record? We'll see what happens. Yeah, I don't know if we'd, if we'd do it that way again, but, um, you know, in a weird way, it was kind of like a, a proud moment, like, to be able to, like, be so far apart, but, like, we all put in so much of our own effort into making this record, you know what I mean? Like, on our, in our spare time, when there's no practice schedule, no one's pushing you, like, you're just writing and playing songs in your bedroom or whatever, you know what I mean?
So, yeah, it was hard, and it was different, but at the same time, it, we had this weird sense, like, pride that we accomplished it, you know what I mean? And Ken's right, I mean, I don't think we'll do it again that way, but. Eh, that's cool. Uh, now, in between your last album and this one, you guys, you lost your drummer, uh, now, you picked up, hold on, I'm gonna get the name Dave, right? Now, did you guys have tryouts, or was it just someone you knew from previous bands and you wanted him? No, no, no tryouts, um, Nick was, uh, you know, some things came up in his personal life that are totally, completely understandable reasons to not be in a band anymore. Like, um, you know, certain things have to be prioritized, you know, you can't always just take care of yourself, you know, sometimes you have to take responsibility for other people, um, that you care about, or, you know, like, your parts, people of your family, you know what I mean?
You can't just leave them, them hanging. So, he had some things that he had to do, and, like, he left on, on totally good terms, and, um, yeah, but when he left, um, you know, we had known Dave just from, he was in from Ashes Rise, and we were huge fans, and we had met him, um, when we were on tour once, um, he came out to a show in Portland, and we all hung out, and he was, um, super hospitable, he was part of, like, one of the shows that we played, um, and we just hung out and broke down and, like, kept in contact, and every time we went to Portland, we got to hang out with Dave, and, like, um, he came down and hung out with me in San Francisco a couple times, um, and we knew he was a rad drummer, and, and a good person, so, when the, when the opportunity came up to, like, make some phone calls, we really only made one, and we called Dave, and we asked him if he wanted to do it, he called us back a couple days later, said he was in, and then, uh, flew out to Boston to start writing a record about four weeks later.
That's a pretty quick introduction to a band there. Hey, what's going on? We're going to take a quick break there from the interview, bring you some more music by Smoke or Fire, in case you're interested, this is the second take of this break, because Sound Guy Nairman douched up the first take, but, uh, eh, he's cheap labor, and, uh, he works for Sprite, mostly, uh, so, I can't complain. Anyhow, we're going to bring you another track by Smoke or Fire's album, The Sinking Ship. Uh, we're going to bring you the track called Little Bohemia. Listen to it, listen to the interview, and then listen to the end. The end of the interview, to find out how to win that free CD by Smoke or Fire, so just stay there, stay, I know what you're thinking, you're like, oh my god, I could be playing World of Warcraft right now, I could be doing Second Life and looking into some pixelated titties, but just stay for the rest of the interview, because you'll get a free CD out of it, and there's nothing on Second Life that'll get you a free CD, at least not a free CD worth a goddamn.
So, uh, anyhow, this is Little Bohemia by Smoke or Fire, enjoy.
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criticism you would make of this album, what would it be, like, of your own album? Is there anything you would change or anything you would critique?
Yeah, we ask those once in a while. It's a weird thing to, like, to think about it like that, because a record is what it is, you know what I mean? Like, you go in and it's a document of a time and a place, and it's like, this is what we did in this time and place, like, we had, like, he just told you about, like, what we went through, like, Dave flying out, he got into our band, flew out, four weeks later, we wrote the record, and we recorded it, so it's kind of like, that's kind of, to me, what gives certain records, like, the charm that they have. It's like, the songs might be good, or you might like certain ones more than others, but all in all, like, it's a document, you know what I mean, of a time and a place for these people, and for me, like, it's kind of like, we did what we did, you know what I mean?
It's not necessarily, I mean, next time we'll do some other shit different, probably, and next time, you know, I mean, it's... Yeah, I agree with Ken 100%, it's like, it's a moment in time, like, those things, like, you know, we're not talking about, you know, a painting, or like, a work of architecture, it's like, once it's built, it's built, and then, like, that's it, it's like, these are things that go through drafts, and like... Songs are like living things. They're like living things, you know, like, if we want to fucking change one, we'll change one. Yeah. Everything, it's like, so much of your surrounding comes into it, your influence comes into it, and depending on the mood you're in that day, you might change something about a certain song, you might scrap it all together, you know what I mean?
So it's like, no, I wouldn't change anything about it, I think it's where we were as people, it's where we were, like, songwriting-wise, you know, talent-wise, and, yeah, I agree with Ken, next time it might be different, but... Might be, but this time, this is what it was, so, awesome. Is there a song off the album that you enjoy playing live the most, that you really enjoy getting up there and just doing every night? Um, I really like playing Shine a lot, it's, uh, yeah, it's, um, I don't know, it's completely unlike anything else we've ever written, or, like, even attempted to write, and, I don't know, it's fun, and it's loud, you know, and it's like, I don't know, there's something really, like, visceral about it, you know what I mean?
It's like, it's not so much, like, you know, verse, chorus, verse, bridge, you know, guitar lead, melody, like, vocal break, you know what I mean? It's kind of like this weird, epic kind of thing for us, yeah, and it kind of, like, spreads and, like, does all these weird things that we never even attempted before, I mean, I think the longest song on our first record was maybe three minutes, you know what I mean? And then this song has, like, an intro that's a minute and a half before Joe even starts singing, so, yeah, it's fun to play it, and it's fun to write, and, like, it's nice to know that you can, like, spread out and do what you feel like doing as a musician, and have people like it, you know what I mean?
And have people respond to it, and not get, like, pigeonholed into writing these, like, tiny little, like, punk opuses, you know? You gotta make the two-minute songs, two-minute songs only, you know? Sure, sure, but it's awesome to be like, you know what, I just want to write this crazy, like, fast part, slow part, rock song, and, yeah, that's my favorite. Awesome. You got one? Ken? Off the new record, I would say that's my favorite as well. I like playing Little Bohemia, too. Like, it's like an older song that we recorded for this record, and, like, playing it live, like, seems like some full circle action going on, like, I like playing that live, too, but I like playing Shine. Playing them right together is rad, too.
That makes your day right there, like, that's it. I was going to ask, Little Bohemia mentions Guns N' Roses in that song. Do either of you have predictions for Chinese democracy, if it'll be any good? No, I haven't. I don't listen. All right, I'm not going to go on the record and say anything about Guns N' Roses, but, yeah, if it comes out, I don't know, I might listen to it. We'll see what happens. That's fair. I'll take that. I want to ask, one of the things you did was, last year you guys did the Fat Tour with Against Me and whoever, I don't even remember who all of us was on that, but that was, like, 50 states in three months, right? We talked with Andrew, actually, at Warped Tour, and he said you guys were probably the most enduring band on that.
He's like, every other band, he's like, they got tired, and they, like, dropped off, or they missed it. He's like, the first show, it was in Connecticut, I think, and, like, Andrew, like, took us all aside, and he's like, come here, we want to go outside, and we're like, what the fuck? What are you doing? He's like, all right, just stand there, I'm going to take a picture. And we were like, why? What are you? He's like, because I want a picture of the first day of this, and I want a picture of all the bands at the end, because I want you to see what this tour is going to do to you, and, like, for us, I felt like it made us stronger. Like, it made us, like, there was never even an inkling of us saying, there's a point where we're not going to do this anymore.
Like, it was, I don't know. Yeah, it was, we started out, we were coming off, like, a lot of touring anyway. Like, we had probably done, like, over a scattered period of, you know, seven or eight months, we had probably done five months of touring already, and one of those months was with against me already. Like, we did a tour with them in April, and on that tour, Tom came up to us and was like, yeah, we want to do this 50-state tour, and we want you guys to do it. Do you think you can hang? Like, do you think you'll make it? And we were just like, we talked for a few minutes, and we were like, fuck it, yeah, let's do it. And, you know, Joe and I have talked about it a bunch, and when we got to the end of it in Toronto, and it was just us and against me left, you know, we were just kind of like, if we had to keep going, like, we could totally do it.
Like, at no point in that tour was anybody in Smoker Fire ready to quit. You know what I mean? The tour is hard. It's up and down. But at no point were we willing to, like, squash it for no reason. You know what I mean? It's such an amazing opportunity, you know? And they're really good friends of ours, so we just wanted to hang with them and, like, and see it through. And to finish that was such an amazing accomplishment for us. You know what I mean? We got to see so much. So, yeah, no, it was rad. It was totally rad. That's cool. That's cool. Now, you guys, was it the beginning of this tour? Recently you had to cancel a couple of dates because of a cracked engine block? Canceled one. One day? Okay. Yeah, one day.
We had to, we missed Denver. But, yeah, just one. Now, do you guys have a lot of, like, I noticed some vans have a lot of, like, van problems, stuff like that. Have you guys had anything like that? Or is that pretty much, is that a standard? Yeah, I'm just going to say yes. I noticed that. We've been plagued with vans kind of since, like, the dawn of us even doing this. And it's really strange because, like, the vans we bought for, like, $1,000 seem to last a really long time. And then you buy one that you think is going to last and it just kind of starts taking money out of you. But, yeah, everybody has van trouble. It just kind of comes with the territory. I mean, you can't, nothing's perfect. And when you buy a used van that's already got, like, 100,000 miles on it and you put another 100 on it in, you know, 18 months, I mean, some shit's going to go wrong.
It's not a usual wear and tear on a van. No, no, it's brutal. It's brutal. So, yeah, the van is kind of a, she needs some love. But.
First day of practice, the van needs some love. She needs some love and she's getting it. So, whatever, you've got to take care of them, you know. So, you guys are all packed up in Love Me Destroyer. At the moment. Yeah, we rode down with Love Me Destroyer from Portland last night. And they're actually on their second van this tour as well. But our tour manager slash savior, Emily, is driving it down as we speak. And she should be here tomorrow afternoon. So, wait, wait, you were like, all right, the van broke down. You stay with it. Drive it down to San Francisco from Portland. No, no, she offered. I mean, we were totally willing to, like, do what we needed to do to get it fixed. And she was just like, no way, you guys can't miss another show.
Like, I'll take care of it. And she got up early this morning and got it fixed for us. And she's going to meet us down here tomorrow. And, yeah, she's just been awesome. Wow. That is pretty impressive. I would have been like, fuck you guys. No, no, totally. That's why we don't manage tours. No, she's totally taking care of us, man. She's an amazing, amazing woman. Awesome, awesome. All right, well, I think we are going to wrap it up here. Is there anything else you want to say? Websites, future upcoming tours, anything like that you guys want to promote? Other bands? Yeah, we have a couple tours coming up. We'll be back on the road at the end of May and the beginning of June. It'll probably be about three weeks.
And we're going to do the U.S. again and some pretty big shows on the West Coast. And then in August, we'll be doing another two or three weeks in the Midwest with some other pretty big bands right now. So we've got a lot of stuff to look forward to. Really excited. All right, man. Well, we look forward to that. And good luck with everything. Hopefully, this will be the last year of Van Troubles for at least this tour. Yes, no doubt. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Thanks, guys.
What's going on? So that wraps up our interview for this week. I hope you guys enjoyed it. And like most weeks, we have a contest. Currently running, we still have our Love Me Destroyer contest for a whole grip of wonderful prizes from the fucking great, great, great people at Suburban Home Records. I can't believe you people don't buy more of their records. They've got a shit ton of good albums out right now. They've got Drag the River puts out a re-release every other week. Tim Berry, Love Me Destroyer, Ghost Buffalo. They are all good bands. You should go over to Suburban Home because they're moving. They may have moved by now. I don't know. But they're moving and they've got to clean stuff out. So go buy all their damn CDs.
Don't be a cheap bastard. What are you going to do? You're going to go buy fucking, what, beer? You're not going to buy beer. You're 14. What are you going to do? You're going to go out and socialize? You listen to the internet. You ain't socializing with anybody. You are sitting at home wondering what you're going to do with all that money you're accumulating in Second Life by selling your body for fucking Linden dollars. Well, here's what you're going to do. You're going to cash in that fucking whore money and you're going to go buy stuff from Suburban Home Records. Do it. All right. So that wraps up this week's plug for Suburban Home Records. And we're going to have a contest for Smoke or Fire, a copy of their new album called The Sinking Ship.
Now, the contest this week, what I want you to do, same as every other week, send us an email, soundscenerevolution at gmail.com, put Smoke or Fire contest in the subject line and for the contest. Smoke or Fire had a contest that they aborted because it was a fucking terrible idea to name their band. They gave away a lot of cool prizes they were going to, like free tickets to their shows, free CDs. We're not giving you all that shit because we're poor and your ideas are going to suck anyway. Anyway, so send us your idea for what you would have named Smoke or Fire had you had the opportunity and we'll pick either at random or the absolute best one out of this, the kernel of corn out of this pile of shit, if you will, the peanut, and we'll give them the CD.
So send that to us and enjoy your week. Have a good time. It's, I think we're coming up on Easter if you celebrate Easter. If you don't, we're coming up on Rosh Hashanah maybe. I don't know. All other holidays confuse me. But we're coming up on Easter, so enjoy that. We're going to leave you with one last track off of Smoke or Fire's album, The Sinking Ship. It is called Shine. It is a fucking barn burner of a track. I hope you enjoy it. We'll see you all next week. We'll see you all next week.
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