Undead Apes
Leave a commentNovember 28, 2013 by Wasted Opportunities Zine
Appears in W.O. Zine Issue 5:
What’s an Undead Ape? Some kind of zombie simian? Brain-addled baboon? I’m not sure but I do know music should be fun. Not in a let’s all laugh way, but in a way that makes you smile, makes you appreciate things, that you can enjoy. Undead Apes are a band that are fun. There’s not much of a pop punk scene or following in Australia, not one I’ve come across anyway. Sure, there are those who wear camo shorts and ‘Defend Pop Punk’ shirts but that doesn’t really count, does it? That’s far removed from the Ramones, from the raw power of hammered chords, racing drum beats and melodies. So it’s great that Brisbane’s own Undead Apes tap into the classic buzzsaw punk tradition, not only of the notables- the Ramones, the Screeching Weasels, but also the likes of Australia’s Hard Ons and Australian proto-punk types like the Saints and Radio Birdmen. Their songs have that universal quality to them, songs about girls, about love, jobs, brains. They also have a predilection for raising things from the grave, whether apes, the Ramones or George Harrison. The group has crafted a great garage punk sound that can be mean and lean but still melodic and playful. Like their music the band is sharp, energetic and knows when to laugh at itself. I sat down over a few beers with Adam and Simon from the group to talk about great sci-fi movies, the music scene in Brisbane and the undead…
Undead Apes are: Adam-Bass, Vocals
Simon- Guitar, Vocals,
John- Guitar, Vocals,
Renae- Drums
J- How did the band come together? Was it a musical affair of the heart or did the band begin without receiving a scarlet letter?
A- We started about 3 years ago, and it wasn’t exactly a clean slate. Simon’s band Sekiden weren’t really playing shows anymore and I had just moved back from Melbourne. John was still playing with (Brisbane thrash/punk band) Dick Nasty but they have been playing forever and he’s always liked being in multiple bands. We decided to start a band and talked together about who to get as a drummer and Renae was the best option but was overseas so if she ever came back we’d ask her.
J- Would you have started the band without her?
S- No, we were just going to try and find the most capable drummer we could …not flattering Renae (laughs)…just anyone who could play fast enough to do the Ramones thing properly was a candidate. There’s probably only four in the town we could think of who could play that tempo, not the galloping pony of pop punk, but the Ramones…
A-…the constant beat on the hi-hat…
S- …which is way harder than it seems.
A- We hadn’t even decided on who to ask, went out to a gig and Renae was there- “How long are you back in town for?” She was back for good so, “you got be in our band then!”
J- Is Unded Apes a focused, directed band?
S- Its got its own momentum. It makes it easy when people ask you to do stuff. So people ask and we do stuff and it just keeps going.
A- We practice once a week. Not always [laughs]. There’s the theory of practice once a week
S- Only if there is a show. I’d like to practice once a week but I predict we won’t practice tomorrow
J- ‘Undead Apes’- am I missing a pop culture reference with the band name? Is there much of a story behind the name?
S- I record lot of stuff at home and I give a style of song a different band name. Electronic stuff is called- “The Dial Up”, all these fake band names for things that I recorded, and all the punk stuff was under ‘Undead Apes’. So we needed a name for a poster by the end of the week and that kinda stuck. I really kinda hate the zombie culture thing at the moment, it’s killing me.
J– So it was just a last minute, put the name on the show poster?
S- Well we like the Groovie Ghoulies, I’m probably the only person in the band that likes the Misfits, but I think it’s funny to have the horror theme
J- You riff on the sci-fi and horror stuff in some of the songs too
S- Adam’s always had a horror/sci-fi bent to his stuff. I kinda come along for the ride… [to Adam] you have songs about molecules
A- I think that’s the only way I know how to write songs, to use comic book and science fiction imagery as a metaphor for sexual frustration
[laughs]
J- Like ‘Radiate on You’ ?
S- That to me is not as dirty as it sounds [laughs]
J- It does sound dirty
S- I honestly thought it was a drug reference- Adam?
A- I don’t know? It’s a mixed bag of metaphors
[laughs]
J- It taps into that great pop punk tradition of sci-fi and horror songs, whether it’s zombies, aliens and the rest. If the Undead Apes were curating a movie festival what are some go-to movies in the genre that would be on the bill? Undead Apes presents….?
S- ‘Planet of the Apes’, ‘Withnail & I’, ‘Omega Man’… ‘Head’ by the Monkees is another movie I’d curate. I think Jack Nicholson wrote and produced it. Apparently the story goes he would harangue them about being a fake, shit band all of the time on set- ‘Why don’t you write some real tunes like Neil Young!’ [laughs] Brow beaten by Jack Nicholson about how your bands a fucking sham. It’s a fantastic film. None of that was sci-fi I think?
J- ‘Omega Man’ and ‘Planet of the Apes’
S- I’ve written about both of those [laughs], John writes about comics a lot. I’m trying to think about what John would pick…Avengers [laughs]. He often says ‘I could be watching Avengers instead of- insert annoying thing-’. I want to know Adam’s films…
J- …yeah…
A- Well I’m not much of a movie buff. I tend to rewatch the same crappy movies…
S- …neither am I. I would prefer to play video games then watch a movie…
A- ‘Bill & Ted’ movies, the ‘Back to the Future’ movies, ‘The Princess Bride’. That movie ‘Moon’ was really awesome; David Bowie’s son directed it. It’s really worth seeing, it’s very reminiscent of 70s, ‘2001’-type stuff.
S- Like ‘Cool Running’?
A- The Jamaican bobsled movie?
S- No!..’Silent Running’! [laughs] [sings] Jamaica we have a bobsled team!
J- Just stick the bobsled team on a spaceship, John Candy as the captain
A- They need to make Cool Runnings 2: Jamaicans in Space
[laughs]
S- That’s what we’d curate- Jamaicans in Space. Lee Scratch Perry would go up as well. John Candy and Lee Scratch Perry in a buddy film in space.
A- What I’m really keen to see and I don’t know if it’ll ever happen is the book ‘Neuromancer’ by William Gibson. Apparently its been trying to be turned into a movie for the last 30 years. There’s a bit that always sticks with me and I think would look good in a movie is Rastafarians that live in satellites, duct taped satellites listening to dub, I really want to see that on screen.
S– I’m not sure what John and Renae would cater. Cater?
J- Curate…
S- Curate sounds so pretentious, I’m going to cater a festival. If I was curating a music festival I’d have ELO headlining, I’d also somehow reanimate the corpses of Dell Shannon and Roy Orbison.
J- Isn’t the dude from ELO with the perm, Jeff Lynn, isn’t he dead?
A- Jeff Lynn’s still alive. The cellist from ELO was actually killed a couple of years ago. An integral member of the band. He was driving through the English countryside and this big hay bale got loose on a hill and rolled down and landed on his car…
S-…No! [laughs] Rock’n’Roll deaths! So ELO would be there, Roy Orbison reanimated, Dell Shannon and then you’d have an impromptu Traveling Wilburys bit during an ELO set.
A- So you’re going to find technology to bring the dead back to life and the first thing you want to do is a Traveling Wilburys reunion? [laughs]
S- Yeah! And maybe kill some of the living members of the Traveling Wilburys
J- [laughs] Who out of the Traveling Wilburys would you bring back from the dead and who would you kill?
A- (Bring back) George Harrison
J- and Roy?
S- Yeah, and you’d take a chainsaw to Tom Petty’s face
A- Oh he’s not that bad. ‘Free Falling’ is a good song.
S- Well you hate Dylan, so flip a coin! [laughs]
J- Surely Dylan these days deserves death?
A- He’s had a good run
S- Curating is like a Fatwa. I’m going to curate a festival by killing everyone not playing my festival.
A- It’s taken you two seconds to go from organising a festival to playing god
J– Back to the band, did you have a clear idea of how you wanted the band to sound when you started? Is that what brought the band together to do something around that buzzsaw punk sound?
A- Our bands all played together over the years. John and I played in a band years ago, Simon and I filled in for (Brisbane band) the Fancy Boys, and we knew what each other were into. So I don’t think we had a discussion about what it was going to sound like
S- It has evolved. I think the first stuff we did sounds like 3 different songwriters and then they slowly…there’s a sound now! We all know now if something is going fit.
J- Your first album ‘Grave Consequences’ seemed to have your influences seep out a little more, it mixes things up a little here and there, while ‘Killed By Deaf’ is more lean, garage powered, no nonsense in style. How much was that just natural progression and how much was conscious decision?
S- I know what this band sounds like now, so I can write for how people are going to play it. I can ask John to do a pick squeal and he’ll do it there. I know what we can and can’t do. It’s easier now. So hopefully it influences itself.
J- With 3 songwriters/singers how do you go about selecting songs for an album? Do you try and keep everyone happy or is there a ruthless process for songs to pass muster?
S- No we’ve never had to cull anything…
J- …so nothing where you’ve said- “That’s not really Undead Apes”?
A- There was one of my songs that I think you culled
J- Controversy!
[laughs]
S- I didn’t will it, I just ignored
A- I’ll use it down the line one of these days…
J- So there’s no general aesthetic to meet?
S- I think it’s getting more open
A- I think so
S- I’m less ashamed… I’ve got some more Replacements-y stuff, there’s a bit more Marked Men-y stuff too, less Groovie Ghoulies, more chord changes. Still hopefully fast.
A- I write songs that I think are hardcore songs and sound like Devo playing hardcore, and then when we play it still sounds like the Riverdales or something.
S- We’re not changing the world or anything songwriting wise
J- No, but ‘Killed by Deaf’ is more powered, garage punk
S- The first one we recorded was all the songs Renae knew before going away for a long time again. I guess some of those songs we didn’t really know until the day. Where these ones had time to be songs, live songs, before recording.
J– On Stage, with three of you singing, it keeps things interesting from an audience perspective because you never know what’s going to get thrown at you next. It adds a level of the unexpected to each gig. Who gets to control the set list pen? Does it allow you all to take turns depending on how you’re feeling that night? Or is your set list pretty set these days?
S- Whoever feels like doing it, it’s a chore. Whoever wants to do the chore. We also had the rule you bring it you sing it. I think John tried to palm off singing a few times at the start, the hardest part is coming up with lyrics as if you’re going to write some lyrics for someone else- its like “get fucked buddy!” [laughs]
J- Who’s the biggest smartass in the band?
S- [Points at Adam]
A- Apparently its me. John talks a lot in his other bands but he likes to keep quiet (in Undead Apes). If you’ve seen Dick Nasty you’ll know he’s quite the smart ass and quite the public speaker
S- He’s hilarious, he’s fantastic too at practice. We should podcast the practice. We’d never work in this town again [laughs] I have no idea of these people that he’s talking about at practice but it’s entertaining nonetheless.
A- John’s got a lot of grievances to air
S- He could have his own gossip column.
J- There seems to be somewhat of a band aesthetic, a uniform of sorts. Is that a nod to some of those garage and punk bands?
S- That’s just tapping into…any good band all dressed the same, had a look. There are no good bands where everyone fucking chose whatever they wanted. From Devo, Ramones, Beatles, the B52’s- had a style and a look…
A- …that’s what I was about to say…
S- …its streamlined, it’s not so much about punk or anything like that. More like a team, like a team sport kind of thing.
A- Its getting into the team spirit.
S- Or like a gang…
J- with flick knives?
S- We do have flick knives! No we don’t actually (laughs). I have a multitool in my guitar case
A- When you go out to see a band, you’re going out to see a band. You don’t say you’re out to listen to a band. None of us look like Johnny Depp or whatever, though Renae is pretty good looking. We put all this work into how the songs sound, we can at least put on an nice shirt
J- Is it for your own entertainment or a serious ‘let’s put on a show’ mentality
S- Value for money!
A- Really its just about having fun
J- Do you think people forget to have fun with music? To have a sense of humour about it all? That everyone is wearing waist coats and taking themselves a little too seriously?
S- Well music is serious and novelty joke bands are horrible. Music’s not a comedy. A joke’s only funny once where music is to be listened to multiple times. So I can’t stand ‘funny’ bands. On the same token you can’t take yourself seriously. There’s this weird fine line where you’ve got to be- music should be light hearted, fun and funny but not a joke.
A- Yeah, having a sense of humour doesn’t mean you don’t take things seriously. I think there’s an idea about what being mature and serious about music is. Especially if they’re young and still figuring out that to be mature and serious means to be completely non-humorous and to take things deadly seriously and even in a band like the Birthday Party, there’s a sense of humour. Nick Cave shrieking about releasing bats that has a little bit of humour in it, not a lot, just a little bit but there’s so many serious, black clad young bands trying to be a young Nick Cave and missing all of the humour in it. Cause they think that to have any humour that’s immature, you’re not doing it properly.
J- How do you find the line between being sincere and having fun?
S- You’ve got to be aware that you’re 18 and other people have felt the same things before you [laughs]
A- Well it’s not just about young people…
S- …that’s true..look at us, these emotional retards on stage singing about brains [laughs]
A- You’ve got to have a sense of your own ridiculousness. Getting up on stage and singing about anything is sort of ridiculous…
S-…pay attention to me and my amplified voice for 30mins!
A- Whether you’re singing about the girl who broke your heart or whether you’re singing about whatever computer game you last played, it’s still ridiculous on some level. Trying to reduce any complex idea and emotions to 2 or 3 minute song lyrics is on some level ridiculous but some people think that if you’re serious and sincere enough that means you’re not ridiculous at all but actually it makes you more ridiculous.
J- It has the opposite effect
S- Is that the Luke Steele (Empire of the Sun) effect? [Laughs]
A- Even if you look at Silverchair, when they were a shitty grunge band at first, that’s slightly ridiculous. At first thinking they’re Nirvana or Pearl Jam, but then ten years later they’re doing this overblown orchestral thing…
J– …which is even more ridiculous. Simon you’re a postman and Adam you work with the government, do you like your jobs? Does it keep the band’s humour intact?
S- I think we’re all various forms of shit kickers
A- I don’t mind my job but I think if we didn’t have the band to do outside the job then I think we’d all go on killing sprees…
S- …petty crime
A- I notice a reoccurring theme in Simon’s songs where they’re about frustration with jobs.
J- That’s why I asked, as it’s always interesting to see where people are at. Seems to be a reoccurring theme that people often can connect with, frustrated job, crappy life
S- It’s kind of a weird therapy I guess….it’s nice to hear Off With Their Heads, that guy just complaining about his life constantly made me feel good listening to it [laughs] Maybe to a certain extent Jawbreaker. It’s not that bad, I could be earning $7 an hour in America.
J- And I guess it puts the band into a bit of perspective. Do you guys still have dreams of making it big somehow? Say some big offer got laid down in front of the band so you could play fulltime?
S- Well no. I genuinely had a good, hard go at that. I’ve been on a major label once (with Sekiden), that whole professional/semi professional band finished I was like ‘Fuck! What the fuck do I do with myself on the weekend?’ Undead Apes has always just been what I like to do. And this band is the one I’m going to enjoy and put my name on it.
J- More fun than job?
S- Exactly, I don’t think the business exists anymore.
A- Someone told me the other that Rob Younger, the singer from Radio Birdman, he works in a call centre. He tours Europe every year but that’s how he makes his money in the down time. There’s nothing wrong with working in a call centre, I’ve done it in the past and fucking hated it, but that’s serious commitment to rock n roll, and he’s in one of the most influential and important Australian bands of all time. That’s what the rock n roll lifestyle has reward him with. I’m not talking down on working in a call centre or anything. I think it shows incredible commitment
S- Then Ben Weasel bitches about only getting $40,000 a show!
[laughter]
J- I guess it shows the stark reality of pursuing that life…
S- I…i’s the reality of having fun- come on! [laughs]
J- I saw somewhere that a new album is in the works, is that right?
A- Just recorded, so we’ve done 6 songs, so that’ll be three 7inches. The first one will be a split 7inch on Tym Guitars Singles Club, that’s out in November. That’s a split with the Hymies, an old Brisbane band. I think technically still around but haven’t played in a couple of years. Then another split 7inch on another single’s club but we don’t know who that one’s with yet.
S- That’s on Mere Noise. That one is a charity thing too which is sweet
A- And, we’re doing a 7inch of our own with the remaining 4 songs and that’ll be out before the end of the year.
J- Did you go in to do just the one 7inch and figured you’d do more, was it to change it up instead of doing a full length?
S- This is how our band works [laughs]- John entered a raffle and won a day of recording and so we did that. And I had apparently been asked to do this Tym Guitars thing but didn’t find out until we were recording I guess, we just bumble our way through.
A- We have a deadline for the Tym Guitars one, and we sort of thought about it and thought about what we could do.
S- It’s nice to be able to space it all out. Not putting all our effort into pressing a record and having the radio play a couple of songs and forgetting it exists.
J- In terms of time then, is the band it’s own worse enemy? Is it the shit-kicking jobs? Both?
A- I think it’s mostly jobs and other stuff getting in the way. Everyone’s got commitments
S- We’re all grown up [laughs] And that’s one of the advantages as we’re not dropkick kids, we turn up when we say we’re going to turn up for things. It’s nice you know?
J- Going back to the new songs, what’s the progress from ‘Killed By Deaf’ to the new songs?
S- Sound a little more tough. Not tough in a hardcore band way, but they do sound tighter somehow? Maybe its cause we’re getting better, finally getting good at our instruments [laughs]
A-[To Simon] I can see your songs are getting more of a 60s feel to them. More coloured chords, I don’t know? You know the 7ths and I don’t know what they are, as I’m playing the bass and don’t have to learn the chords.
S- I’m getting bored of the 3-chord shake thing, I figured we could throw some stuff in without losing our cred. I’ve got a song that sounds like Herman’s Hermits for fucks sake!
A- I love Herman’s Hermits
S- And so did the Muffs!
J- With the 7inches, did you guys pick out songs with more punch given the format/space?
A- We knew the ones we were going to do before we went in there so we picked out 2 songs that we thought would go well on the splits and kept the other 4 we’d do ourselves.
S- The one for Tym’s guitars has got Lisa from Pastel Blaze singing on it, which is different for us. We’re trading lines, It’s better than Kiki Dee and Elton John!
[laughter]
A- That’s a big call
S- It is better than ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’
A- Have you heard The Mr T Experience and Kim Shattuck version?
S- That’s exactly why I used it as a reference point
J- Do you have your own studio for recording?
S- I don’t have a studio, I set up some mics for the last album but I don’t have a studio or anything. I’ve just got a bunch of shit I’ve bought over the years
A- Simon recorded the albums. The first one we did the drums in a studio, and did the rest of it in various places with Simon recording. The second one we just set up at Tym’s Guitars in the rehearsal studios and Simon recorded it all.
S- It’s not a studio, it’s laptop and gear.
A- We’ve got some good gear. The new recordings though were at Nowhere Audio Trading Company and they do have a studio in their house.
S- That was awesome! I also was enjoying not doing it for a change. I’d like to keep that going.
J- With that set up is it a ‘get in, get it done and get out’ approach?
S- That was the best part about doing it. When we’ve done it ourselves there’s been no deadlines which is bad as it could take forever
J- The band’s had two releases via Mere Noise, are you signed to the label, is it an informal agreement?
S- Technically we never signed anything
A- It’s a handshake agreement
S- A gentleman’s agreement even. Is that sexist? Can you say gentlemen’s agreement?
J- Gentleperson’s agreement perhaps? Would you self release a future LP or would you shop that around to other independents if Mere Noise is less active?
A- I can’t see too many independents being interested
S- Unless something’s flying over or under my radar, I don’t think anyone’s putting out pop punk records in Australia yet.
J- What about overseas labels?
A- We probably should of sent some stuff overseas. We probably should do that at some point and if something did come up in Europe or the States we’d probably go for it
S- The greatest conundrum is why put out a band from a whole other country who may never get to tour that place when you can sign a band from in your neighbourhood? And there’s tonnes of great bands coming up from everywhere so I think its good that all these labels are focusing on their areas
A- Good point
J- Which is why I asked about Mere Noise as it has some label diversity. How did that relationship come about?
S- They’re huge music fans, really appreciate just big fans of music. They gave us our first show before Pete (from Mere Noise) had even heard us. He was like- ‘I knew you’d be good’
J- He trusted your previous bands and experience?
S- I had never really met him before
A- I had. I think I said “If you need another band for that gig we can play it’ (laughs). With them putting out the record, with the first one as Simon said we were just trying to get the songs recorded before Renae went overseas for 6 months and it turned out that we got them done in time and had enough for an album. Then Pete and Ben from Mere Noise heard the recordings…
S- They had offered to put it out before they heard the recordings…
A- Really?! I thought they had heard it?
S- I remember giving it to Pete. I remember them wanting to put it out before it was finished.
A- Really? Wow!
J- A leap of faith
S- They had seen the songs live, I guess, so its not like we were going to do an electronic version of those songs with break beats and guest rappers and stuff
A- Maybe we should, there’s not enough guest rappers
S- But yeah, they’re fans of music, they know what we’re doing and it was a mutual agreement and it’s good. I think we moved a bit too quick with the 2nd record, they were like ‘oh it’s done already?! Oh shit!’ [laughs]
J- The band always appears on diverse bills too. Is that a necessity with the Brisbane music scene that it’s a mix bag of bands all trying to get by? Or is it more from the networks and connections from your other or previous projects?
A- I think we’ve all been playing in bands for years, all those bands played with different kinds of bands. Dick Nasty, John’s other band, is kinda of a hardcore band and they’ve always made an effort to play with different kinds of bands and not just play to one group of people.
S- I assume that’s why we always play with Tear Gas and Last Chaos all the time but I can’t imagine that their fans would enjoy us.
A- (laughs) whenever we play with one of those bands there’s like fifty 17 year old hardcore kids sitting out the front when we play
J- They can’t spin kick to it?
S- You can spin kick to our music
J- I ask as to whether it’s the nature of the Brisbane music scene- anyone and everyone- let’s get on a show? Where you might have more of a niche in a bigger city?
S- The town’s not big enough for niches really
A- There still seem to be niches though. There’s whole scenes of emo bands and hardcore bands that we hardly even know about. One of the things about Brisbane for as long as I’ve been here is people are into different kinds of music and they’ll be in different sorts of bands. I know people in hardcore bands and dub bands at the same time.
S- It’s by necessity
A- Its sort of like a mental disorder to just listen to one type of music I think. You don’t have to be one of those ‘oh I listen to all kinds of music, I’m really diverse’ people either…
S- When the average joe asks you ‘what do you listen to?’ you don’t want to be the ‘I listen to everything guy’
J- You want to have a ball park
S- Yeah, you want to listen to everything, just not… intently
J- Talking about Brisbane, what changes have you seen to the music and punk scene here?
A- We still get gigs, we gig regularly. We still have to turn down a reasonable amount of gigs. Not that we think we’re too good for them, we just can’t do them for whatever reason. So its not hard for us but the venue situation. When we’re looking to put on a gig for ourselves, its quite difficult. If you want to bring a band up from Sydney or Melbourne that then gets pretty difficult. There’s a few venues but most of them have various flaws and problems. The one that we play at the most is The Waiting Room and the capacity is 80. And that’s the only downside to that is that it’s not very big. I think its great. But then there’s other venues that are bigger but you cant have a good time in, then there’s venues where the organisers are real flaky and never return emails.
S- Or the venue take a huge cut of the door. Its almost pay to play basically. Though that venue is now gone. The room hire was $600! That’s like 60 payers before you even make a cent to pay the support bands or to cover the posters or any of that.
A- I think its more than that if you want to play at (long running Brisbane music venue) The Zoo too.
S- I don’t know if The Zoo has a room hire does it? I think it’s just a cut. I can understand a venue that doesn’t want to let your sisters semi-professional jam band who doesn’t bring anyone out on a Thursday night and you’ve got to cover the bar but yeah its prohibitively expensive to put on a gig.
J- Would that be the one thing you’d change about the Brisbane music scene?
S- I’d change the liquor licensing so it’d be cheaper to put on gigs
A- In Melbourne there’s no shortage of venues to play at and the main thing about the places is that the people who are from bands, or still play in bands, from that whole band scene , it’s their name on the license, its their name on the lease. They may even own the building in some rare cases. So the buck stops with them it doesn’t stop with some dickhead landlord who thinks they
can make a few extra bucks by turning the place into a strip club or whatever.
S- Its easier to start a venue in Melbourne, I assume, from the liquor licensing perspective
J-Its interesting to compare cities, the differences between them
S- Sydney has this whole warehouse thing going on. Like Marrickville, all the warehouses at Marrickville. We played at Red Rattler and Black Wire, its that reaction. Obviously they cant get past liquor licensing so they put on some warehouses. I think Brisbane has a problem with any land within range of the city is now a high-rise apartment block…
J- or owned by Coles (major supermarket chain/corporation).
A- I think the other weird thing about Brisbane is to have a bottleshop you have to have a hotel license, so Coles and Woolworths own all the hotels, lots of places don’t want to have the good night from just having bands in there, they want to get the imaginary night they think the Normanby is having. Where they think they can get 1000 people in a 500 person capacity place and have them all paying for $10 drinks all night.
J- Lastly, The magazine is called Wasted Opportunities which is a play on words, bit of a pun. I ask at the end of each interview about a time that you can recall where you let an opportunity go to ‘waste’, or a time when you were ‘wasted’ and an opportunity came your way?
[long pause]
S- Does it usually take people a while to answer the question [laughs]
A- Nothing’s coming to mind to be honest
S- I have yet to assassinate…
J- …you’ve yet to receive god-like powers
S- I haven’t had a chance to host a festival and reanimate corpses. To reanimate the Ramones!
J- Traveling Wilburys or the Ramones who would you reanimate? We’ll finish on that.
S- Surely I’d have enough juice to do both and force them to be in a band together
A- You’d have to reanimate the Ramones. But I like the idea of reanimating George Harrison for the Traveling Wilburys
J- I’d expect him to not be really down about being reanimated
S- ‘This is not what I expected at all’ with his Eastern philosophies
J- Didn’t he turn Christian?
S- I heard that about Bill Hicks too, but will refuse to believe it
J- I hadn’t heard that, but I’ll refuse to believe it too…
S- …I think he repented on his deathbed to make his mum happy. You say a lot of weird shit when you’re dying.
You can use that to end it- ‘You say a lot of weird shit when you die’
Wasted Opportunities 