LWL Interview: Youth Brigade
From Episode #9

INTERVIEWED BY KRISTEN BENNETT

Kristen Bennett: One of the first things I was wondering was, having watched “Another State of Mind,” and enjoying that a great deal, how has the touring experience changed from then to now?

Shawn Stern: Well, I mean, obviously we were on no budget, I mean, we were pretty much trailblazing…we had a few bands who’d done national tours, and it was kind of creating the whole circuit that didn’t really exist…booking that tour was pretty much about me trying to call up every town that I could find, anybody, band, record store, or radio station, or whatever I could find, trying to get somebody interested in doing the show. The first few shows in Canada we tagged onto Vice Squad, which touring we got onto some of their shows, which they don’t show in the movie unfortunately, but yeah it was pretty insane and pretty lucky. Now there’s a huge circuit and so many different levels, it’s not real hard to get shows – although again, you show up at a show like this…which actually was fairly well organized, but they just didn’t bother to get a decent PA, so…what can you do? But it was actually a pretty decent show. I mean, punk rock’s come a long way in the 20 years since we did that movie. We didn’t make money off of it in those days but now you can actually earn a living if you tour a lot and get popular you can earn a pretty damn good living.

KB: So is touring do you think the key for a band making it?

SS: Oh yeah, definitely! You’re never gonna sell records unless you go out and tour. There’s so many fucking bands nowadays, so many mediocre bands unfortunately. The digital age has made so many things possible that weren’t possible 20 years ago. I mean, you can make a record for SO cheap now, which is great. So a lot of bands back when we were starting out, probably wouldn’t have gotten out of their garage, or playing local gigs here and there, are now making records. Which is a wonderful thing, because there’s a lot of bands in those days that were great, but for whatever reason didn’t get to go out and play and make records. But unfortunately that also means there’s a lot of really shitty bands who probably shouldn’t make records, who probably shouldn’t be out there playing. But what are you gonna do? I mean that’s I guess for everybody to make that subjective decision about what’s good and what isn’t, and support the bands you like.

KB: Well, right now I know it’s difficult to sell CDs, because a lot of music is available online, and kids download stuff….

SS: You know, I don’t really think that’s true, at least not for punk rock. Sales are down for sure, but that I think is a combination of things: there’s so many bands, and yes, downloading and stuff, but I think for the majority of kids that listen to this kind of music, they’re pretty loyal and they understand, a large extent of them understand that it’s important to support the bands, and they’ll buy the CD. If they download a song and they like it, they’ll go out and buy the CD. Not to mention the fact that 95% of these bands are on independent labels, and independent labels keep the prices down, unlike the majors, who jack the prices up. I think there’s still a pretty good understanding in the punk rock community that when you support these bands and buy their records it means a lot, it means they can continue to exist. Which is a good thing, because without them we wouldn’t be celebrating our 20-year anniversary this year.

KB: Which is a major accomplishment for any label!

SS: And it’s our best year ever.

KB: That’s pretty exciting! I’m right now working with Pig Pile Records, and we’re trying to start up, and I was wondering if you had any advice, or words of wisdom?

SS: It’s just the same as being in a band – it’s a lot easier now than it was, but at the same time in a lot of ways it’s a lot harder, just because there’s so many more labels, so many more bands, and downloading and all that stuff…I mean, I think the best thing that you can do is start slowly and work your way up – don’t take on more than you can handle. Work with one or two bands and work locally in your scene and try and make that scene happen. When you help out bands that come through town, they will usually reciprocate when you go out on the road and go through their towns. I mean that’s how we always did it and it’s always worked and it still works that way.

KB: Speaking of scenes, have you noticed any major differences between the scene in California and the scene on the East Coast?

SS: Well, California’s huge, it’s always been really huge. I mean, out here, it sort of comes and goes, I guess. It’s more fragmented, it seems like. And so many kids…

KB: So punk rock doesn’t seem as cyclical on the West Coast, it’s pretty steady?

SS: There’s always a huge scene out there, big bands play and they’ll get thousands of people…and there’s shows practically every night. It used to be just the shows were in LA, now you got shows in Orange County, San Diego, east of LA, in the Pamona Riverside out there, Santa Barbara, which is up north, places like there…Bakersfield, Fresno, I mean, we play in all kinds of little places that we never would have played before. Those kids back in the 80’s would just drive from everywhere out to LA to see shows. So yeah, it’s still pretty big…probably was bigger in ’94 or ’95 when Offspring, Green Day, and Rancid were popular, but it’s still pretty damn big.

KB: So what’s Youth Brigade up to in the next year?

SS: [laughs] I have no idea. We’re working on new stuff, we put that song on the sampler you heard tonight. We’ve laid down about 10-12 ideas for songs so we’re working on them and hopefully we’ll make a record…we’ll see. We’re so busy with the label, Mark and I, you know we run the label, Adam working in graphic animation stuff, so…I’d love to be doing it more, I’d love to be traveling more and touring more, but the label is what keeps us really busy right now. We have 11 bands on the roster right now, which is the most we’ve ever had.

KB: Which is a lot of work! What’s it like working with your brothers for 20 years in the band?

SS: Well me and Mark are only a year apart, so we’re pretty close. We’ve lived together, we grew up together, worked together, surfed together so it’s not really a problem. Adam just plays in the band. He just shows up and plays. [laughs] Drinks, smokes, but yeah, it’s ok….yeah, I mean with brothers you fight, it’s like big deal, who cares. You fight with some guy you don’t really know that well, it’s like “Fuck you, I don’t wanna ever see you again!” So, being in the band with brothers is a lot easier I think – at least for us – but we’re pretty close. There’s four of us altogether. My other brother lives - I got a place down at the beach, an apartment that I own, and he lives there. So we all hang out together, go surfing together, drinking, partying.

KB: Sean actually brought this up, that you were influenced by existential writers such as Nietzsche and Sartre….

SS: And Camus, mostly.

KB: Camus, really? “The Stranger”?

SS: “The Stranger” was the most punk rock book I’ve ever read! [Interruption by kids mooning in the window] Ah, that’s lovely! When I was a senior in high school, I had for English one semester was an Existential Lit class, the next semester was all Herman Hess. At that was 1977-78, and that’s when I got into punk rock, so the timing was perfect. I was reading all that stuff, discovering the Sex Pistols, and going “Wow, this is music that makes sense to me, and this is philosophy that makes sense to me,” and it just all came together.

KB: Anyone else that really motivated you?

SS: I like Kurt Vonnegut a lot, and I like Ken Kesey a lot. I mean all those old hippie guys were pretty interesting…Tom Robbins…lots of different stuff. I mean, Hess was great – this was all shit I read when I was in high school and into college, cause I was an English Lit major in college. And then musically, Jimi Hendrix for sure, and all the English punk rock bands…and the early LA bands too, like TSOL and the Adolescents, bands like that that we sort of grew up with together.

KB: I read also that you said that youth is an attitude, I think it was on “Sink With California” that…did you write the liner notes on that?

SS: On the record? Yeah.

KB: That you were coming to the end of an era and that was about 1986. So if that was the end of an era, what would you call this?

SS: I don’t know man! Believe me, when I was writing that I didn’t think I’d be playing music when I was 30, and I certainly didn’t think I’d be playing music when I was 40, 42. You know, it’s weird, we have fun and the kids keep coming – we played in San Francisco two weeks ago, and there were about 20 little girls in front of the stage – high school and college girls – screaming, it was the weirdest thing. We were just laughing it was cracking us up. Trying to make eyes and me and doing the weird little dances and things….I don’t understand it, I mean we don’t do little teeny pop songs, but I mean, hey, if they like it and they come then we’ll do it, we have a good time as long as we’re having fun and people are interested, sure, we’ll keep doing it. I mean, I always said I’d rather that kids were listening to punk rock, than listening the crap that’s on the radio. And some of these new bands that are calling themselves punk rock – which I just don’t think they are, I just don’t get that shit – they don’t even know what punk rock is. These pop bands that they might as well be N’Sync or Backstreet Boys, someone dressed them up in skateboard looking, punk rock looking clothes, and spiked their hair and colored their hair…they say they’re punk rock, but I don’t buy it – they’re just pop bands.

KB: Speaking of which, what do you think of [shows like] American Idols [which] is going on right now?

SS: [laughs] It’s pathetic! A bunch of girls I know love it and they went down to it, they got tickets and they made me watch it one night. A bunch of us went out to a show, and they dragged us over to their house and they turned it on and made us watch it, and I just couldn’t believe…it was pathetic. But the sad thing is is the majority of the people in this country just buy into that shit. That’s why I like punk rock, you know? At least it’s for people who think – you hope, at least. I don’t really find any of that [American Idols] very interesting. I mean the English guy is kinda funny because he’s usually ripping everybody to pieces, that was kind of amusing. This friend of mine was telling me, in the first couple of episodes there was a girl, and she sang and he stopped her and said, “Listen, did you take vocal lessons?” And she said, “Yeah, I took some lessons.” He said, “Do you have a lawyer?” She said, “No I don’t have a lawyer yet.” And he’s all, “Well you should get yourself a lawyer and sue that vocal coach cause that is the worst thing I’ve ever heard in my life!” That is just fucking funny! But I mean the TV these days is all about humiliating people, so…I don’t really understand why someone would want to go on one of those talk shows and be completely humiliated and air their dirty laundry. I’m sure that’s the highlight of their life, and that’s really kind of sad. I’m sure they videotape it and have their friends over – “Check me out, I’m on TV, watch me make a fool of myself!” I don’t understand that.

KB: [laughing] I guess I don’t either. Well, is there anything else that you’d like to say? The Boston punk rock scene?

SS: [laughs] The Boston punk rock….I just think you gotta think for yourself and enjoy what you do and if you don’t then change what you do, cause you’re not here very long. A friend of ours who’s in a band called Aggression, that we put out their first record – they just recently got back together about six months ago. Their singer died a couple years ago from drinking and they got back together and got another singer, it’s kind of cool to see them out again. Henry, the guitar player, just got diagnosed with Leukemia a couple weeks ago – I just got a call two days ago that he died. I mean, yeah, I’m only 42, but at the same time, you never know how long you’re gonna be here, so do what makes you happy, cause you’ve only got this life as far as I know.

Sean: Where do you think the punk scene in general is, right now?

SS: It still exists – it’s still an alternative to corporate crap. There’s still little kids as you saw tonight and I see everywhere we play, there’s lots of little kids who’re discovering old bands and there’s new bands like the Unseen out there. I mean most of the bands that we’re putting out these days in my view are carrying the torch as you might call it – still making good music, have things to talk about cause there’s still lots of problems in this world. Probably more than ever after what happened last year in New York. Yeah, I think punk rock’s still very viable. It’s gotten watered down by major labels trying to bring in bands like I was saying before, but they always try to do that. They did that with the GoGo’s. The GoGo’s were a punk rock band originally! People decide that they want to make money, and that’s more important to them, so they buy into the whole thing. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with making money, but for me and the people I work with, our motivation is not the money, it’s the music, and what we’re saying and how we’re living. If we make money, great, but we don’t go into it thinking “Oh, I’m gonna make a lot of money!”

KB: Is that what you were trying to articulate in “Old punks don’t die, they just cash in?”

SS: Yeah, I guess, to a certain extent. When I wrote that song, which was in ’96, it was right when the Offspring, Green Day made it big and everybody was saying “Aw they sold out,” Why worry about it? Who cares? I think Billie Joe is a fucking great songwriter, he’s a super nice guy, I’ve known Brian for a long time, he’s a nice guy too. I don’t particularly agree with signing to a major, but if that’s what they want to do and that makes them happy, then that’s their choice. If you like that band and you think that what they did is wrong, according to the ideals that you hold dear to yourself or to what you thought they were, then don’t support them anymore! Don’t buy their records…sit around bitchin’ and moanin’ about it. It’s not gonna change anything, they made their decision, they’re gonna make their money and there’s nothing you can do. Both of them started labels and both of them put out good bands on independent labels, so that’s cool. It’s their life, not yours, you gotta do what’s right for you.

KB: Well, I have one more question: everybody wanna go get a beer?