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I.
What was the most influential
to you for starting the band
: music or politics ? Which
bands / politics ?
I
think anti-politics is probably
a better way to put it. In
the beginning , we thought of
ourselves as more Dada/Surrealist.
That is until I met some
of the Surrealists who seemed
to be more interested in 'true
poets' vs. 'false poets' more
than anything else. Being kind
of 'country' Surrealists we
had made the mistake of seeing
what for us were the obvious
implications of the Surrealist
Manifestos. It turns out those
implications weren't as obvious
to the Surrealists themselves.
Then Vale from the magazine
Search and Destroy (he now puts
out RE/Search) broke through
my disgust and forced me to
read some things by some people
I had never heard of before
- the Situationists. Apparently
they had come to the same conclusions
and more. I will always be thankful
to Vale for that one.
II.
I think your lyrics and attitude
are sometimes very inspired
by Situationism. Could you explain
a little to our readers what
this is, and how you see it
now in 2003 ?
The
Internationale Situationniste
(you see I can say something
in French besides « creve
salope» - that's what
to say to a flic, right ?) was
the single greatest influence
on us. Their first bold stroke
was to realize that revolution
had to be re-invented. And they
realized in an age of comparative
economic wealth, the poverty
was in our daily lives. In other
words, the possibility that
we might die of starvation had
been replaced by the certainty
that we would die of boredom.
And all aspects of our surroundings
and our own lives had become
a construct based on the needs
of the society that impoverished
us. The saw the Left was
nothing more than the loyal
opposition and were worthy only
of contempt and were part of
the very spectacle that they
were revolting against. If everything
around us and our lives themselves
were occupied territory, then
the terrain of our revolt
could and should also extend
into every aspect of life.
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III.
So how long has
the band disappeared
? I mean between
the 2nd album and
the newer one ?
What did you do
in between ?
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We
disbanded somewhere around around
1989-90 I suppose, I'm not sure.
I ended up moving to Seattle,
Washington and started learning
more about computers and the
'net. And of course, it didn't
take me too long to learn about
the possibilities of hacking.
For example you could take a
major web page and have it advertise
er. something else. As the song
says it's the sabotage of the
new millenium.
And,
after a while, I got the urge
to get back into the fray of
playing music again and attacking
that way and rebuilt the Feederz
with Ben Wah and Denmark Vesey.
Ben
played in Tion and Hippies in Flames, not sure about Denmark Vesey
though.
IV.
Did the reissues on Broken Rekids
help a lot ? How did you connect
with them ?
Yes
they did. Up until the time
of the reissues, people were
selling old copies of our albums
for $350. Now people can get
them for a few dollars or just
steal them. I found Broken Rekids
by asking people who they knew
who was honest, could get decent
distribution and was not in
any way touched by the RIAA
and they seemed the best choice.
V.
You have a song on your new
CD called "Burning MP3s"
encouraging people to burn the
songs off the net. On this same
CD, there are your songs on
MP3 format and your site is
full of free music. Then a question
spring to my mind : What do
you think of Broken Rekids asking
money for downloading songs
from their site ?
Since
Broken Rekids links directly
to our site, it's easy to get
them from us. And if they want
to pay, they can do it that
way too. You have to think,
how many record companies would
even consider putting MP3s of
the songs on the CD without
shitting themselves ?
VI.
What is the RIIA exactly ? Are
you in trouble with this org.
? How powerful are they ?
The
RIAA is the political voice
of the biggest record companies
and all their subsidiaries.
Many so-called 'independents'
are actually connected to them
although they don't advertise
the fact. They are powerful
enough that they are able to
get laws passed to allow them
an immense amount of control
over music distribution and
to keep them from having to
follow the laws most businesses
do.
I
was hoping to get in trouble
with them by putting the MP3s
on the CD. Hell, I even sent
a bunch of their top people
copies of Burning MP3s by email.
There was also the matter of
'Fuck You' off of the first
album. Curt
Kirkwood, who was in the MEAT
PUPPETS (and later in EYES ADRIFT)
and Polygram had done a cover
of the song and, in the process,
copyrighted it. .
I was hoping they were going
to try to sue me for copyright
infringement on my own song.
Then I would have raked their
balls over the coals publicly.
VII.
Do you think the internet should
be totally control-free from
the state / providers / justice
?
Of
course. And some of us will
keep finding ways around their
attempts to control it.
VIII.
My fave song of yours is Jesus
entering from the rear on the
"Let them eat jelly beans"
comp. LP. Some questions about
this one :
1.
How's that nobody tried to kill
you after such an attack against
christianism in such a religious
country ?
As
far as I know, that's only happened
once. At one of our shows, a
person tried to shoot me, but
his gun jammed. It must have
been 'divine providence' ! Hahahahaha.
2.
More seriously, do you think
that religion is more influential
in the USA today (I think it's
quite obvious that the presidents
were elected with a lot of financial
support from these religious
lobbies) ?
I
don't know about you, but I
think someone trying to shoot
me was fairly serious. Hahahaha.
But yes, the new regime in the
US is very deep rooted in the
religious right. It's funny
how close they act to the aliban
and Al Qaeda they say they hate.
After the terrorist attack on
the World Trade Center they
put a new law into effect called
the 'Patriot Act' which gave
the flic the right to search
our homes without a search warrant,
to infiltrate political and
religious organizations, to
access library records, internet
records, try to break into computers,
and to detain people without
trial or charges. Then of course,
they started attacking countries
based on fake 'evidence' - you
people may have noticed that
one. All in the name of fighting
terrorism. Of course you can
see how well that worked.
In
fact, I believe your President
Chirac got a close look at the
discrete charm that is President
Bush, yes ? Over here, they
'patriots' (you should always
spit when you say that word)
decided anything French was
bad. Even changed the name of
'french fries' to 'freedom fries'.
In the spirit of things, I strated
calling 'french ticklers' (plastic
things with bumps to put over
the penis which are supposed
to give women more pleasure)
'freedom ticklers'. Oh.
And I flew a French flag from
my apartment. But don't misunderstand,
I despise the French government
almost as much as the American
one.
3.
Music wise, I think you've recorded
this song third times : for
your 7", your 1st LP and
on this comp. To me the best
version is on the comp. Did
you record more songs during
this session ?
Yes
we did, but I'm not sure where
the original is, or even if
it exists. It was just recorded
on a 4 track in our bass player's
living room by Paul Cutler.
I think people like it because
it sounds closer to live. That's
why our next album will probably
be a live one.
4.
Do you know that the lyrics
were censored on some copies
of the poster coming with the
LP ?
No
I didn't. I did hear that owning
a copy of the 7" was a
criminal offense in England
because of a 'criminal blasphemy'
law they have there. Again because
of the lyrics.
VIII.
Back to our programming now.
It seems like living in the
USA and having political ideas
beyond the Democrats Vs Reps
is quite difficult. Am I wrong
? Do you think there is any
chance that people imagine other
ways to think / act, out of
the beaten path ?
Besides
decorating street poles with
their corpses ? In the meantime,
there's always hacking, throwing
paving stones, looting, sabotage,
theft. You know, the usual.
IX.
What about the punk scene ?
I got some disturbing chats
with punks who were so patriotic
that they would support the
government war in the Gulfe
! That has no sense at all from
a European point of view. Is
this a common attitude to accept
blindly the flag and politics
of the government ?
Unfortunately,
it's all too common here. After
September 11, the Americans
went crazy. Even the ones who
thought they were so fucking
revolutionary. That shows how
brittle their ideologies were.
But you had probably already
noticed how naive most Americans
are regarding politics and revolt.
X.
By the way, do you think you
belong to a scene ? Is this
important to your eyes ?
No,
we don't belong to any scene
nor would we want to. We like
being individuals.
XI.
Many american people say the
US of A are the most free country
in the world because you're
allowed to have a gun. Personally,
I don't get the link between
owing a gun and being free.
Is the NRA so powerful ? Did
you see Michael Moore's documentary,
Bowling for Columbine,
and what do you think about
it ? Was it shown in the US
?
Guns
are a big controversy in the
US. The right to bear arms is
actually part of the US Constitution
from when the country started.
But what most people don't know
(even here) is that it was put
in the Constitution not for
self defense or for hunting
or sport, but so if people decided
to revolt they would have the
means to do it. It could come
in handy in case of an armed
insurrection. The Left generally wants to put more controls on guns and the Right
fights to keep them. But my concern is if guns are outlawed, only cops
will have guns.
To answer
your other question, yes they
showed the movie here but I
haven't seen it.
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Any question you would like
to ask me ? Any other question
I should have asked you ?
When
are you French people going
to have another nice little
party like I hear you had in
May '68 ?
And
remember :
Every
time you put a brick through
a store window, your sex gets
better.
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