How's the tour going?
It's great this is our fourth show, tomorrow is Glasgow, it's a three week tour.
So then twenty years, how do you think you have managed so long? It hasn't been too hard, not for me. This is fun, when you're doing something you love the time flies by. It really has flown by. It's crazy to be sitting here talking about twenty years of being in a band, it doesnt feel like that at all.
Do you think you can do another twenty?!
Another? I don't have any other plans!
How long have you known each other?
Pete and I were in rival BMX gangs when we were little kids. We grew up in a small band together, everybody in the band, well the original four, me, Pete, Greg and Shal.
I read somewhere that you all lived in a huge house full of punks in New Jersey and had gig parties to pay the bills?
Yeah, totally true. A punk house, it's like some sort of right of passage you know, or it should be for any band. We lived together for a lot of years, so anything that could come up between us did pretty quickly and was resolved quickly.
Which do you prefer, outdoor shows like festivals or intimate venues like this one? I like them equally, and I'm happy that I get to do both. It's that simple of an answer really, I like them both equally, for different reasons.
You guys have the Chunksaah Records label, where does the name come from?
It's named after Timmy Chunks, a friend of ours. Timmy Chunks was living with us at one of those punk houses. No body had any money, but Timmy did as he had been an electrician, a proper, union working electrician. When we talked him into coming and living with us in New Jersey and fucking off and surfing, he had money saved, so he leant us money to put out our first CD, so we named the label after him.
Which bands do you have on your books?
Yeah, check out the World / Inferno Friendship Society, they're a cool band. We have a handful of stuff, a lot of good stuff.
Do you still play with the old bands, like 7 Seconds? 7 Seconds are playing four shows with us in August, two in New York City, and two in Philly. They were my heroes in high school.
I heard there was a problem with 'The Good, The Bad, And The Argyle' and the printers; they nicked all your stuff?
The printers did disappear with my artwork man, the original artwork of 'Maniacal Laughter', our second record. They had my artwork and it's gone. We had to scan the record, now we keep making it but it's a second generation, it looks fine but it hurts.
You have been going as a band for so long, and music has changed so much over that period, do you feel the need to cater to fans changing tastes or do you stay loyal to what the band wants and believe the fans will stand by you?
Nah, fuck that shit. Fuck their changing taste. We wouldn't be any good if we weren't being honest and true to ourselves. And you can't sit there guessing what people are going to like. Besides that's so fickle anyway. Anyone who does that is cheating themselves and is cheating their fans, if they have any.
Do you think that is why you are still lasting as long as you are?
Yeah, that's the secret to our longevity, and it's the secret to everything, because it never gets old. When you are being honest and expressing yourself and all you're doing is being yourself that's not a job either. It's just so easy if your honest. It takes some guts, like when we were younger we didn't have that type of self confidence, it takes years to achieve it I think. People who like us will understand us and that's it.
You released the excellent DVD 'Do You Remember? 15 Years of the Bouncing Souls', are you going to do that for this milestone? Or wait for year 30?
I am trying to compile a book by the end of this year, sort of one more way of celebrating the twenty year anniversary, it's like a retrospective pictorial photo book with stories and little submissions from people in our lives and people that have been around the Bouncing Souls. I just got a really nice one from Tom Gable from Against Me; he wrote something really nice, Brian Baker from Bad Religion's writing something, Fat Mike's writing something, Green Day; all of those guys are writing something, I got some cool people. And then all of our family like Kate Is Great, and Johnny X and all these characters that are our family and are all together still, they've all written something. I've got about twenty submissions or blurbs or whatever you call is so far, and I have a list like this long [suggests quite a long list]. We have an Editor, a layout specialist, professional people doing it, it's gonna look good.
Are you doing any drawings for it? Yeah a bunch of my artwork will be in there, memorabilia, and some rare photographs. The hard part is encapsulating twenty years into a book, any sized book. This is going to be a big book. Trip [Underwood] from The Unseen is our Editor actually.
I hear you like The Specials, I saw them last month for the first time and was blown away.
We tried to cover that song ['Little Bitch', referencing my Specials tour T-shirt] in our first year as a band, and even now twenty years later it would be difficult for me, the bassline is [plays a difficult air bass riff] it's octaves all the time.
[Singer Greg Attonito appears from having a nap and joins in.]
Greg Attonito; We couldnt understand the words anyway!
Bryan Kienlen; Now we have the internet we could find the lyrics, but back then...
Who are your other musical influences?
We mentioned a couple before, 7 Seconds were pretty big. The Descendents were also a big one. Fishbone was a big one. Even though we never had a fraction of the talent to play anything like they play, their live show was a huge influence on us. So was The Cramps.
You have had a split with Anti-Flag and now Greg has his vocals on their track 'The Great Depression'. How long have you known those guys? We've known those guys forever man, for so long. We've toured together; we did that split 'Out Of Friendship' in 1993. I discovered them at ABC No Rio which is a very punk club in New York City. I would go there every week and they were one of the few bands that wouldn't suck.
Did you ever play CBGBs?
Greg Attonito; I don't know if you have heard about it, our tourman has said it, they're doing like a bar slash museum, it's gonna be in New York Bryan Kienlen; Yeah, like they're got the bar and everything dissembled and stored in a warehouse.
Greg Attonito; There's plans for it to be a music education thing.
Bryan Kienlen; If it's something lie that, preserving something that's cool. That would be the best possible thing you can do with it. We played all the Save CBGB benefits and rallies and stuff.
With musical downloads taking over these days how important is it to keep Bryan's artwork involved with Bouncing Soul's releases? I prefer physical CDs but many don't.
We're going to go back toe the world of CDs; this year we are releasing one song every month, as a way to make this year exciting. We're gonna put them all onto a CD, I've gotta get cracking on the artwork. The Twenty year anniversary artwork, it's a version of the broken heart cross bones, it's got a twenty on there. I sat at a computer with Artuoro Vega, who is very much involved with CBGBs, he lives around the corner from where the club was in the Loft, where the whole Ramones' existence was. He designed The Ramones logo, with the eagle in the presidential circle. That guy is like punk history. So weve been using this logo all year for the anniversary, I suppose that the CD will have it on it and some other shit. I designed it to be on the back of a jacket, like a working Dickies jacket. The Butterly was meant for the back of a jacket too. We also have this one too, points to his anchor tattoo of the 'Anchors Aweigh' album.
That's an amazing album.
Thanks man, I think so too. It seemed like it wasn't received well. In my opinion I think it's awesome. It's a lot more deeper and darker. I love the sound of it, We did a so much work on that production.
NOFX have said the same thing about their 'So Long And Thanks For All The Shoes', how not many people got it but it's their favourite album. We toured with them on that album release so I love it.
I have just watched the 'Bouncing Souls 20th Anniversary Special TV Spectacular Volume 1' video on Alternative Press; very funny! Did you confer with The Beastie Boys for costume ideas? When is part 2 out?
It is pretty funny! It looks like a Beastie Boys video right? It was supposed to come out in sections all throughout the year, but the guy who we made it with, we just haven't gotten any more than the first bit, we have the opening scene, then it goes into the 'Airport Security' video, and that's all we've got. There's actually a dancing robot and all this cheesy shit too. We're going to premiere the whole thing in it's entirety at these August shows with 7 Seconds and Lifetime. I don't know if you have heard of Lifetime, they are a legendary New Jersey. There was us and them in New Brunswick at the same time. Early on neither of us were very good but they got good sooner than we did. They released two awesome albums, one called 'Daneurysm' [completely random but I tell him that this is my roller derby name!] and the other one is called 'New Jersey's Best Dancers'. People are gonna freak out when they see both of these bands live.
You're back for the Reading and Leeds Festivals in August, did you approach them or vice versa?
I don't know how that worked, we have a booking agent out here, Destiny booking, so he must have sorted it out. I think it started from the Deconstruction tour. Mike Davies of the Lock Up Stage [BBC], we're friends with him, and we always do the show for the BBC, so we get the Lock Up Stage. We always love playing it.
article by: Danielle Millea
photos by: Danielle Millea
published: 23/06/2009 11:04
FUTURE GIGS
sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.