Kristen: I'd like to start off and have each of you introduce yourself, and tell me what band you're from.

Johnny: What's up, I'm John, I sing and play guitar in the Bullets.

Drew: What's up, I'm Drew, I play drums in the Bullets.

Andy: I'm Andy, I play the bass in the bullets.

Geoff: Geoff, I play guitar for Stray Bullets.

TJ: I'm TJ, I play guitar for the BlueBloods.

Greg: Greg, I play bass for the BlueBloods.

Tim: I'm Tim, vocals in the BlueBloods.

Kristen: [To Bluebloods] Now you guys have been together for a long time, you put out two records independently on your own label "Basement Records". How did you come together as a band?

TJ: Well, me and Timmy work together in the same business, and we like the same type of music and we'd both been in other bands, so we decided to start up a punk band. Goose was a friend of Timmy's, and we picked up various drummers along the way. We did a couple albums down in my cellar, and it worked out good - we ended up getting signed to a label in Europe, and things have really taken off! We're having fun!

Kristen: I found it ironic that with a name like the BlueBloods and a record called the "BlueBloods", you have a photograph of the Kennedies on the cover. Can you tell me how that came about?

Greg: When you think of Boston, you think of the Kennedies - they're one of the most famous families in Boston, so it associates well.

Kristen: So tell me about the new release!

Greg: The first two releases we did in his [TJ's] basement, which was just a best of that [the old record] and a couple of new songs...originally we wanted to put out what we recoreded ourselves on the label, but they didn't like it, they said the quality wasn't good enough. So we had to re-record and we just made a "best of".

Kristen: [To Stray Bullets] How did you guys end up getting together?

Geoff: Friends of ours are in a band called Jaya the Cat, and that's how I met Johnny, through his friends.

Johnny: That was back when we were a white-rasta-active-deprogramming cult... [laughs]

Geoff: Here comes the funny stuff!

Kristen: So you guys have been together for not even a year and you've already put out an EP on your own. Where did you record that?

Geoff: We recorded it at Slaughter House in western Massachusetts.

Johnny: With the infamous Mark Miller.

Kristen: Now from that you've gotten some label attention?

Geoff: Yeah, looks like we're gonna...yeah!

Johnny: The kids at Fork In Hand are down with our sound and really stoked about about it, so if they wanna pay to put out our record, I'm not gonna argue with 'em.

Kristen: Can you tell me about your sound? It's pretty unique.

Geoff: What's that three-letter-word? [laughs] Well, I guess that would be the easiest thing to call it is Ska-Punk.

Johnny: That's fuckin' bullshit, man!

Drew: It's straight-up, it's high-energy, it's guitar-heavy, and that skank behind it just makes it drive a little harder and faster.

Kristen: What kind of bands do you normally end up playing with so far?

Geoff: So far we've been playing with our friends for the most part, and, uh, whoever gives us a show! [laughs] But I guess we're gonna be doing some work with Big D.

Kristen: That's Big D and the Kids Table?

Geoff: Big D and the Kids Table, yep. And whoever. Whoever, wherever, whenever, however!

Kristen: So what are your touring plans upcoming?

Kristen: [To Bluebloods] So what are your touring plans upcoming?

Tim: Probably a small East Coast tour this summer. Hopefully we'll play the Eastpack Resistance Tour in Europe next fall. I think it's in November or something along those lines.

Kristen: And where is that?

Tim: It takes place throughout all Europe - it's like a two-week tour.

TJ: Gernany, Belgium, France, England...

Tim: Yeah, the Netherlands...so, we're excited about that.

Kristen: Ok, let's talk about the scene here in Boston. Where do you guys feel you fit into the punk scene?

Greg: It's been really tough for us to get into it...

TJ: We're not in the scene politically, we don't really hang out in the scene, we just like to make friends here. I mean we've been together for four years and this is the first time we're playing the Middle East, so...we're kind of obscure in Boston, but hopefully that'll change.

Kristen: Tell me about the type of music you play?

TJ: I guess if you're gonna label it, people have been labelling us Street Punk, although any artist'll tell you that they hate labels. But it's a necessity sometimes to label something and we fall into that genre probably. Our sound is - like anyone else's - an amalgam of all the stuff that we listen to, from 7 Seconds to Minor Threat to Dropkick Murphys, to everything along the way. But Street Punk music is definitely getting popular, especially in Europe and people are buying up American Street-Punk type of bands, so - hey! That's fine by us.

Kristen: What's your perspective - if you think you're bigger somewhere else than where you're from - what's your perspective on the scene here in Boston?

Tim: As Tommy was talking about earlier, for lack of a better category, people have been calling us Street Punk. I mean, yeah I guess that's kind of our sound, with really heavy guitar...you know? I mean, we're really just kind of a punk rock band...The scene in Boston since '97 when the Rat closed down, it's been hard to get regular things going, and I'd seen a resurgence over the past year...stuff like the Choppin' Block. It's a little hole in the wall, but it's cool though! We played there, hey, whatever! All-ages shows, those are always popular, VFW Halls & stuff. I mean, we've done that before, rented out a hall and got a PA and just had a bunch of bands show up and play. I mean, it's not going anywhere, and Boston has historically been one of the strongest punk scenes in the country. So, it's still going strong.

Kristen: [To Stray Bullets] So what's your take on the scene so far out here? I mean you guys have been in it for six months and you guys have been moving pretty quickly!

Johnny: We've been lucky, man. People like the music and...I don't know. This is like a first-time experience for me where I've played in a band and everyone's like, "You guys are great!" I don't know how to take it.

Geoff: Yeah, me neither.

Drew: It seems as though the right people have liked us at the right times. They just caught the right show and - bang! 

Kristen: So where do you feel you fit in on the Boston punk scene right now?

Geoff: I don't know, it's pretty early in the game yet, so I don't know where we fit in.

Johnny: It's weird, like a lot of kids I talk to are like, "Yeah, I like punk rock, and you guys are ska!" and the ska kids are like, "That's all a hard section, so I don't like it!" So, if you hate the sound and don't want to dance to it, go fuck yourself!

Kristen: So it's interesting that there's this contradiction where you guys kinda got lucky, hit hit hit, and these guys [Bluebloods] have been around for four years and are just coming together now. What's really interesting is that the two of you are actually going to be working together a lot in the future...

Geoff:  These guys mentioned that their demo - well, not their demo, but whatever you want to call it, their earlier recordings - the label didn't think too much of 'em. We went ahead and just did six songs in two days, and we did it with Mark Miller, who's really great, and I think the strength of the demo is what's gotten us the most attention.

TJ: You're right, we learned the hard way that when you try to record stuff in your cellar...sure the technology is out there that we could do it a lot cheaper digitally, but digital just don't sound as good.

Geoff: Yeah, if you ain't recording drums on tape...it isn't the same as analog.

TJ: Exactly! You know, we're the same as you guys, analog is king. And sure, you can go to Guitar Center and buy a hard disc recorder, but you're not gonna get that sound.

Geoff: Yeah, not unless you put some robot music on there! [laughs]

TJ: Yeah, nobody wants that! No robots, robots are a problem!  

Tim: One thing I just want to say about the all ages scene in Boston, you know it's really become part of the punk scene - these all-ages shows. There's a kid up on the North Shore - Paul, I'm not even gonna try to pronounce his last name! I think it's like Scorpisces or something. He puts on shows regularly - every weekend he puts on all-ages shows, they're really well organized, he gets good bands, and I think it's one of the most positive things going on right now!