LWL Interview:
The Skels
From Episode #12
INTERVIEWED BY KRISTEN BENNETT
Kristen: Would you guys please go through and tell me your names, what
you play, what you like to drink, or whatever…
Henry: Henry Ryan, bass.
Tim: Tim “Chick” Ross, I play banjo.
Chris: I’m Chris “The Champ” Freid, and I’m the singer and guitar player.
Scott: Scott “Train” Heath, mandolin/tin whistle.
Rich: “Buddy” Rich Perry, drums.
Kristen: Very good, so you take all those instruments together and how
would you describe what you’re playing?
Chris: Shit.
Henry: Train wreck?
Kristen: Well, “Irish punk rock” is how you get listed in the media…are
there any nuances to that? [band laughs]
Rich: There are no nuances…
Chris: [laughing] Yeah, there are no nuances, as we were told when we
were recording recently…
Kristen: Alright, well let’s think about it from this perspective: you’ve
been compared to Flogging Molly, Big Bad Bollocks, bands like that…how do you
feel you fit in with those kinds of bands?
Chris: I think we’re a lot different than those bands. They actually sit
and play traditional music, traditional tunes, where I don’t think we do.
Scott: We stand up!
Chris: For starters…It’s similar, it’s in the same vein, but they’ll
actually know how to play an Irish traditional tune, put some words behind it,
make it sound really good….
Scott: Whereas we kinda fake it.
Chris: Right, we fake it.
Scott: We don’t have the traditional talent.
Chris: We can’t sit and actually play the jiggamareel precisely the way
it’s supposed to be played, so we’ll just make up our own and let it pass for
that.
Tim: See what happens…
Chris: Yeah, it’s much easier too!
Rich: They’re real musicians!
Scott: The only musicians in this band are him (pointing to Henry) and
him (pointing to Rich).
Chris: The rest of us just kind of follow along.
Kristen: So why Irish music? What brought you to that?
Chris: It’s fun. It’s fun to play – it’s fast or slow, lots of emotion
involved with it, you can do whatever you want with it, you can make it your
own.
Scott: Gives you an excuse to be drunk…
Tim: I don’t even think we have an Irish sound anymore!
Chris: We kinda lost a lot of the Irish sound.
Tim: We use to play Irish traditional tunes when we first started, but…
Scott: When did you guys first start?
Tim: First started in 1995, Scott. You were with me? Remember?
Chris: We played for a year without a drummer, it was just a four-piece.
Tim: [laughing] Yeah, exactly! People liked us much more then!
Scott: We started playing at a bar in Hoboken, called “Finn MacCumhail’s”, we
played there every Sunday. It was supposed to be from 4-7….
Rich: Tons of chicks…
Scott: Yeah, same five guys at the bar like every week.
Tim: Yeah, us!
Scott: If we were lucky. I don’t know why they kept having us back! But we’d
play til 7, then we’d stay there til 3 o’clock in the morning, spend all the
money we got paid back in the bar! [laughs]
Chris: That’s why they had us every Sunday!
Scott: Yeah, I think so! And we kind of practiced as we played and there was no
drummer…it was absurd!
Chris: And then after a year we added Rich and the drums and we still did the
same thing for another year there, and then we started playing bigger shows, so…
Kristen: Is that when you broke into the “punk rock scene” down there? How
involved are you in the punk scene?
Chris: Well there really isn’t much of a punk rock scene…
Henry: Not a lot going on down there…
Scott: Well we’re all older now, too…
Tim: That’s right, Scott, we are older. [laughs]
Chris: There might be a scene we don’t know about!
Tim: Everybody is six years older from when we started!
Kristen: So how does it feel to come up to Boston where you usually end up
playing with punk rock bands?
Chris: It’s great! It’s always (knock on wood) it’s always a good show up here.
Scott: For a while we were having a problem because we’d play festivals and
stuff, and it’d be too much for the Irish crowd and then we’d come up here and
play a punk show and it’d be not enough – too folky. So I think up here we’d end
up doing ok
Kristen: How do you feel about the Boston punk rock scene?
Chris & Tim: It’s great!
Tim: When we first started playing here we were playing in VFW halls, which
actually went pretty well, then we migrated to…The Kells, then we played at the
Middle East and now we’re doing this kind of stuff.
Kristen: Now, a lot of young bands watch this show, so, you’re talking about
your progression from starting in a bar in New Jersey and then moving up into
bigger shows in Jersey and coming up and moving into the Boston punk scene. How
did that happen? Did you network through other bands, was it sending out demos,
or…?
Chris: Well, when Henry moved up to Boston a couple of years ago, we got hooked
up somehow with the Big Bad Bollocks, [they] gave us a call to do a Sunday night
show at the Middle East…
Scott: And they haven’t called us since! [band laughs]
Chris: They haven’t called us since!
Scott: There was a mishap…
Chris: Well, we got a little drunk and ran on the stage during their set….
Tim: We thought we could help them with a couple of songs and they didn’t need
any help! [laughs]
Chris: Didn’t work out too well! But that’s how it started, that was our first
show. And then from there there just happened to be a couple of people in the
audience that would set up shows, and then from there that summer they set up
VFW shows, all ages shows, where we played…who played that first show with us?
Henry: Tommy & the Terrors.
Chris: Tommy & the Terrors, The Jacks, that band from Jersey…I forget who
else…the Hudson Falcons. Then we had another show at the VFW with the Big Bad
Bollocks. And then from there we just started calling the guys at the Middle
East, hooking up with some of the bands, Kings of Nuthin’, Darkbuster would give
us a call when they needed a band to help out, and it just blossomed from there.
Scott: But there’s a big difference from bars because in bars we’re doing three
sets, playing all night, just kind of more relaxed. We usually get progressively
[rowdier], ease into the faster stuff. And this is kind of a big change,
especially sitting around til 11:00 waiting to play. Normally we’re drinking and
playing and going…But we have some problems – I think nobody’s gonna argue that
– hitting the bottle and all of the sudden trying to play, and it’s only a half
hour [set] for the whole night! [laughs]
Kristen: So what would be your dream band to play with and how would you go
about getting that show?
Henry: Well you’d have to dig up Joe Strummer….
Tim: You put a load of words in that, jesus!! [laughs] That’s nice! Well what
about the Clash, how about that?
Henry: That would have been one of my ideal gigs, actually.
Tim: Well that would’ve been the best, yeah!
Kristen: Well say now, in real time…
Scott: Now you’re gonna put parameters on our dream?? [band laughs] You know
what, I’m so tired of this!!
Tim: Don’t tell us what to do!! [laughs]
Scott: Don’t tie us down, man!
Kristen: Ok, well let’s go back to Strummer…your ideal show is to play with the
Clash…how would you have shopped for that?
Chris: I’ll tell ya how!
Tim: You’re gonna put us on your f-ing show, you…
Scott: First of all, somebody would say that we’re gonna do it, and would never
make a phone call. Second of all, if they did get a call, they’d never call the
guy back…never ever happen!
Chris: Well, now, do you remember we saw Joe Strummer at Irving Plaza a couple
of years ago? Turns out he was sitting there drinking at this bar Shades of
Green on like 15th street or whatever. He was just sitting down right there
having a drink with a couple of people. We would have sat right down with him
and said “We want to play with you.” It wouldn’t have happened, but we would’ve
tried it.
Tim: But then again we didn’t know he was there, we never talked to him…
Chris: Oh I knew he was there!
Kristen: Well we were talking earlier about the role of “ass-kissing” in punk
rock…do you feel like you’re caught up in that at all?
Chris: I don’t really even think it’s a thought, at least it’s been our
experience…If you’re a good band - you don’t even have to be a good band - I
mean look at us! But if you’re a band that has fun playing, that people like and
will come see you, and if you’re easy to deal with – I think we’re pretty easy
to deal with – you know, just say “Hey, can we play with you guys?” If they say
no, ok, fine. And then if they say yes, even better. But you just gotta be
yourself!
Scott: When do they ever say no? [laughs]
Tim: Remember when some band tried to bribe us to switch sets? That was funny!
Don’t say who it was, now…[laughs]
Henry: Drop the name!
Chris: Nah, nah nah…we don’t have to go there….
Tim: New Years’ Eve we were playing with Darkbuster, and there were four bands,
we were going on before them, and they offered us $100 to switch slots. We said
no.
Kristen: So Henry, how is it for you being up here in Boston and having the rest
of your band down in Jersey?
Henry: I miss these guys a lot, but…I don’t know, I’ve made the trip so many
times, it’s like second nature. It’s really not a big deal I go down there – I
love getting out of work early to go down to Jersey for shows.
Chris: It’s really only like two times a month.
Henry: Yeah, it’s only like two/three times a month, so…
Chris: And then we’ll try and come back up here and try to do a Boston show.
Henry: Yeah, as long as we get one show here every couple of months I don’t mind
too much. But the shows down there are great, we always have a great turnout, so
it’s definitely worth the trip.
Kristen: Well tonight you’re playing an all ages show here at Axis, in Boston,
with the Kings of Nuthin’, Suspect Device and the Hudson Falcons who are also
from Jersey. How do you feel about all-ages shows in Boston? This is a rare
event tonight…
Chris: We haven’t played one in a while, I think it’s great! When we were
growing up there weren’t too many all-ages shows, so it’s when the opportunity
arises as a kid, you gotta go and make it to that show. So, we haven’t done one
here in probably about two years, over two years…at the Kells in the basement.
And you know, it’s exciting…I’m curious to see (a) what kind of turnout we’re
gonna have and (b) what kind of response we’re gonna have. I know for the older
folks that are boozing it up, we usually sound pretty good, but for the kids
that are drinking soda I don’t know if they’re gonna like us or hate us!
Kristen: Do you participate in the all-ages scene in Jersey at all, or is there
one?
Chris: There really isn’t one.
Tim: Actually the shows we played when Glenn was doing ‘em, they were all ages.
Chris: He did like two shows.
Scott: Yeah, I don’t know as far as the scene there… I mean all the people our
age, there’s not much going on there.
Chris: There’s a couple of bars, I mean there’s right where we live maybe three,
four, five places to play and we just kind of rotate around. They’re not big
places, but they’re good for what they are – it’s a place for people to go and
have a few drinks…
Kristen: Now what’s this about your career as Chippendales? [band laughs]
Tim: It was a short-lived career!
Henry: Where’d you get that question?
Kristen: Oh, I don’t know, probably your website…taking your clothes off?
Scott: I think the quote was “Each body was worse than the next in its own way…”
Henry: It was our idea of a Halloween costume.
Tim: I had no problem with that until I went to work the next day and someone
put a picture of it up…
Kristen: What kind of touring experiences have you had and where have you been?
Chris: No touring experience.
Henry: Zero! Between New York, Jersey and Boston, that’s pretty much it.
Chris: Providence, Albany one time – at a festival. They wouldn’t have us back.
They loved us, but they wouldn’t have us back Two years in a row!
Kristen: So what was the craziest experience you’ve ever had at a show and what
other bands were involved?
Tim: Big giant speaker fell on Scott once, that was funny!
Henry: On St. Patrick’s Day! At Flannery’s in Manhattan every year we play for
like 8 hours on St. Patrick’s Day in New York City. It’s just insane!
Scott: Somebody bumped one of the big speakers and it fell…
Tim: Right on his head! [laughs]
Scott: Right in the temple!
Henry: I was running to pick it up, I gave Scott my bass…there were still stars
flying around his head.
Scott: He was like, “Hold this, hold this!” I’m like, “I’m gonna pass out!”
Kristen: So how did you recoup from that? Did the show go on?
Chris: We had another shot of whiskey and we were good to go!
Henry: The Skinheads vs. Pipers battle, that was pretty cool, a couple of years
ago.
Kristen: What was that?
Henry: A bar gig we did in Jersey, some skinheads got into a fight. There was
this one town’s St. Patrick’s Day parade and we played at this one bar that was
on the parade route. This was at the end of the night, and we found out someone
was at the front door for getting beaten up in the parking lot and we run out
and it’s just flight jackets and kilts all over the place! Some guys in a pipe
band got into a fight with ‘em…
Kristen: You mentioned you’re playing a St. Patrick’s Day parade this year.
What’s that parade all about?
Tim: We tried to play on a giant float, but they wouldn’t let us!
Chris: Each town has their own St. Patrick’s Day parade, so in New Jersey we’ll
play that city’s parade that day. There’s one in Hoboken, there’s one in
Teaneck, Bourbon Fields, and then obviously we’ll play St. Patrick’s Day itself
in New York City. We do it every year.
Kristen: Now how did you start doing that?
Chris: You know, an Irish band for St. Patrick’s Day…
Tim: We played in a bar a couple times and they said, “Hey, you wanna play St.
Patrick’s Day?” Alright!
Chris: Like idiots we said yes!
Tim: “You wanna play for like 13 hours on St. Patrick’s Day?” Sure!
Chris: And it’s true, we do like 7 or 8 sets.
Scott: There was at least one or two years where no one remembers the last set
we played. We get a bus to take us in every year and take us home…we’ve
definitely woken up like, “Did I even bring anything home?” People come out
later for the night at like 10 or 11 o’clock are like, “What the hell are these
guys doing?” It’s hard to pace yourself.
Kristen: So that’s cool that you’re involved in the town that you live in. I’d
like to get back to more about the difference between scenes, and what you’ve
experienced between Jersey, Providence, Boston, where you think it’s going…
Chris: Well as far as the scene goes, I really think coming to Boston is so
great because almost immediately the Boston people liked us – they embraced us
and asked us to do shows. Every show – again, knock on wood – is a great time.
We really look forward to playing Boston. Everybody comes out, we’ve made a lot
of new friends here, not only from the bands, but from the people that just come
see us over and over again, and that’s really the best thing about it.
Scott: Chris, I guess the Boston people aren’t a bunch of pale-faced idiots with
stupid accents when they’re right in front of your face! [band laughs]
Tim: It was good that the kids that were coming to the shows would invite us to
set up the next show, invite us on their radio show, you know, and everything
they were doing. They just pretty much included us immediately.
Scott: Yeah, it’s been a hell of a roller-coaster ride, lemme tell ya!
Kristen: So tell me about your releases…your CD releases?
Chris: We have two CDs out, the first one we did we did a limited pressing of
500 copies on “Book of Skels”, and then we released the follow-up, “Stoney Road”
which was a little bit more readily available. Both of those sold out, and so we
repressed them as one.
Henry: In five years!
Tim: [laughing] Five years later, we sold out!
Chris: We started working on the third one last week and hopefully it’ll be out
by May or so.
Kristen: What’s your strategy with the CDs? Are you looking for distribution,
are you selling them at shows, or…?
Chris: We do everything ourselves. We pay for everything ourselves, we do all
the recording ourselves, we do all the production ourselves…that’s why it sucks
basically! [laughs] And then we get them reproduced, pay for that ourselves and
sell them ourselves and it’s 100% profit. Some record shops will call up and say
“Can we have 10 copies” or whatever, and we just put out there to do it, but
this one we’re thinking about maybe trying to hook up with a label at least for
distribution purposes just to get it out there, so…
Rich: We need a manager, if you know anybody…
Kristen: I might! [laughs]
Sean: [off camera] Kristen, I’m gonna set you up with a question here: I would
like to ask the band about the Boston tradition of when you’re really loved, why
the band’s audience loves to throw beer and trash at you?
Tim: Cause we like the Yankees?
Scott: We’d like to know why they do that, actually!
Henry: We first started seeing that at Darkbuster shows, that’s the first time
I’d seen it.
Scott: I couldn’t understand…
Tim: “Hey, here’s $5, gimme a beer so I can throw it on these guys!”
Scott: Especially New Year’s Eve…we’re sitting there, waiting 25 minutes in line
for a cup of beer, costs $5…and everyone’s like – WHAM! throwing the thing!
We’re like, “What the hell’s their problem?”
Tim: Then they run back to the line, get another one, and WHAM!
Kristen: Now is this a phenomenon unique to Boston?
Chris: I think…
Tim: No, because unfortunately Boston people come down to our New York shows and
do it, and people think that’s great!
Scott: I think that’s where it originated though…do you guys know where it
originated?
Kristen: No, I know many that partake in that activity, but I don’t know where
it originated.
Scott: And what’s going on with that Karate kick business?
Tim: The hardcore dancing style of Karate kicks and such.
Kristen: What kind of dancing style do the kids have at your shows?
Scott: This brings up a funny story…
Rich: What is it?
Henry: Dirty Old Sweatpants… [band laughs]
Rich: There was one show in Teaneck, a college bar in Teaneck…the dancefloor was
completely empty, and some guy stumbled into the bar completely wasted out of
his mind, and he was dancing all by himself. He had real dirty sweatpants on. We
were doing “Dirty Old Town,” and we started singing “Dirty Old Sweatpants”….
Tim: The kids loved it!
Chris: Until somebody de-pants him!
Scott: It wasn’t pretty…it was like moths flying out…
Kristen: Well, I know I’ve experienced this at at least one of your show – how
do you feel about everybody jumping up on stage and singing with you?
Band: No problem with that!
Chris: They don’t do it down by us in New Jersey, they just don’t do it.
Scott: Some people do it!
Chris: Well again, the Boston people that come down.
Scott: Just – take a mint, first!
Kristen: So it sounds like Boston is a little different than some of the other
towns in that people seem to be crazy from your accounts…throw beer at you and
jump on stage…
Tim: The best place we’ve played, that’s for sure! You gotta take it in stride.
I mean, someone threw a Sprite at me once, I wasn’t very happy about that!
Chris: No, cause that’s sticky!
Kristen: So would you ever think about moving up to Boston and joining Henry?
Band: Nah! [laughing]
Kristen: What’s so great about Jersey?
Scott: Taylor Ham, hot dogs, Texas weiners, high car insurance, lots of
traffic….
Kristen: You said you played in Southern Jersey…what’s the difference with the
people down there, cause they’ve had Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi…I know they
have a lot bigger hair!
Scott: Down in the shores of Jersey, it’s really crowded - all the bars are
packed. We went to this place, it was like a labyrinth – all different bars &
stuff – they just hated us! It wasn’t like a club or anything, it was just a
regular bar, but…
Chris: They wanted to hear the Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead.
Henry: It was also a shore town, a shore gig in the middle of winter.
Chris: Right. That didn’t help.
Kristen: Going back to the new release, you’re thinking about a record label…how
would you approach it? Do you have any ideas?
Chris: Well, we’ve gotten approached by a couple of labels that are interested
in putting us out, but we can’t tour, we all have full-time jobs and
responsibilities, so…that’s gotta be part of the contract, just to put out the
record, basically, with a couple of shows here and there, on a case-by-case
basis. So maybe just for distribution, we might do it for the distribution
aspect, but we’ve got about three or four inquiries that I’ve said, “Well, wait
til it’s done, because you may not want to do it, you may hate it.”
Kristen: So would you consider short-term touring to promote the record?
Chris: Yeah, I mean we couldn’t go all over the country, it’s more of a weekend
here, weekend there kind of thing. Quick trips. We got asked, there was a place
out in either Washington or Oregon asked us to come out and do a west coast
tour, but you gotta incur a lot of expenses to do that. We’re gonna go over to
England in June to do the last Holidays in the Sun in England. So we’ll maybe
try and pick up a gig or two while we’re there, but we need to investigate that
a little more.
Kristen: Excellent! Do you know who else is on that again?
Chris: That show, it’s a three-day thing, a festival that they do all over the
world, and they did it in America last year at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park,
and we played it there, so they asked us to come out to the one in England.
Henry: Business, Beerzone, Cock Sparrer, headlined the one in England.
Kristen: So what was your experience like last year?
Chris: At Holidays in the Sun? It was great! Good sound, great reaction from the
place. We lost Rich for a while, we almost had to forfeit the set, but everybody
came up to us and told us – well, not everybody, but three or four people came
up to me and said –
Tim: [laughs] Everybody came up to you? There was a line around the block! “Hey
you guys were great, thanks!”
Chris: I’m trying to tell the story! They said us and the Addicts were the two
best bands, and the Hudson Falcons, were the best bands that played out of the
three days.
Scott: I tell ya, walking up to that place was like, there was like two groups
of people getting arrested, two other guys getting CPR, paramedics, people
baking…
Tim: We got there at nine o’clock at night, and it started the day before!
Kristen: How was it working with bands from all over the country?
Chris: Well, a lot from Europe came.
Scott: There wasn’t a lot of interaction cause they had it really scheduled
tight, but everybody was cool. We got our own cordoned off area…with warm beer!
Kristen: Back to a question we had talked about earlier…
Tim: Heroine?
Kristen: No, not heroine! The etymology – not entomology – of the “skell”?
Chris: It’s a word that New York City cops used to describe a bum or a lowlife
or scumbag on the street., and I had heard the term when I was going to college
in New York…
Scott: You didn’t go to college, Chris!
Tim: Stop lying to the people! [laughs]
Chris: I said to myself, “Self!” What a great name for a band if I ever form a
band, and there it is.
Kristen: So how did you all find each other?
Chris: Well, I was lonely!
Scott: I met “Chick” Ross in County College.
Tim: And I met Freid and Henry at Barleycorns shows that we used to go see.
Scott: And you guys played in a band when you were kids, too!
Henry: I met Rich when I was like sixteen. We were in a band together, we played
a lot of Who, lot of Zep, lot of classic rock stuff, with a friend of ours, Mark
Stern.
Scott: But the Skels, if I remember right, the Skels name we were just supposed
to use until we found something better.
Henry: I also found out we spell it wrong!
Chris: Nah, we spell it right!
Henry: Well, according to the Dictionary of New York Slang it has two “ll”s.
Kristen: I didn’t want to bring that up!
Henry: Aw, that’s ok.
Tim: [To Kristen] Carry a Dictionary of New York Slang, do ya? [laughs]
Kristen: It’s a hobby. So how are you feeling about tonight?
Chris: Nervous!
Kristen: There’s tons of kids downstairs, it’s already packed…
Tim: I look forward to it!
Chris: Well we have about a half hour til showtime and I think my first priorty
is to drink as much as we can in that half hour.
Kristen: Alright, well, we’ll see you downstairs! Thanks a lot guys!