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Chiatto: For the beginning, this
is what-your 2nd, 3rd European tour?
Chris: 1,2,3…fourth.
Chiatto: Already?!
Chris: The first one was in 1993…
Chiatto: Before the first album?
Jord: Just as it was coming out.
We came with NOFX for a month or something.
Dulles: How was that?
Chris: Aaaah, it was interesting,
but it's a different way of touring than we're used to.
Chiatto: So, has this tour been
any different than the previous ones?
Chris: It`s only been a few days,
so it's hard to say, so far it's been fun. We're traveling with our friend
Markus from Germany. He`s the one who arranged it all, called everybody
and got us the shows.
Chiatto: When did you leave Canada?
Chris: One week ago…We played Vienna…(he
mentions two more cities, I couldn't understand)
Chiatto: So, what's the story with
your nude water pistol fights in the van(laughter)
Chris: Oh, that was Markus` idea.
There has been a couple of pistol fights, but no one got nude yet.
Chiatto: Who's kicking whose ass?
Chris: Actually, it's our sound
guy who keeps blasting people with water guns.
Dulles: OK, the next one. We wanted
to ask you a few questions about John (K. Samson, ex bass player).
Chiatto: First of all, why did he
leave the band?
Chris: We just had different ideas
about music, and connecting politics to music. I guess it has always been
that way, but it finally came to the point when we couldn't go on anymore.
Chiatto: In what sense?
Chris: Well, Jord and I grew up
on kinda heavier, faster music…
Chiatto: So, the music element was...
Chris: It was the biggest thing,
yes. But also his way of putting the songs together. He doesn't really
integrate politics as overt, and that's sorta what we wanna do.
Dulles :But the politics are a big
thing in his new band, the Weakerthans.
Chiatto: So, it's just that he was
putting it more poetic, and you kinda overtly, or…
Jord: Yeah, that's a good way of
saying it. And I think, ultimately ,with our last record ``Today's empire,
tomorrow's ashes`` and what John is doing with the Weakerthans, both sides
represent the styles that both parties are into.
Dulles: I just can't imagine John
playing songs like ``The only good fascist…``or ``Fuck the border``
Chris: Todd just fits in with us
in every other aspect much better.
Dulles: And what about ``Ska sucks``,
was that a joke when you said that John wrote it, or…
Chris: Yeah, it's just a joke.
Dulles: I thought so. Will you be
playing it tonight?
Chris: If people yell for it we'll
think about it, but we'd rather not.
Dulles: I hate that song. Sorry,
but…
Chris: Hey, don't apologize ,I hate
it too.
Dulles: But I'm gonna yell!(laughter)
(for the record, they have played
it, and there was just a little bit of yelling, and it came from-you're
guessing it-Dulles!)
Chiatto: So, speaking of that, do
you still play any of the songs that John wrote?
Chris: No, but we used to. We did
one song for a bit, the ``Showdown song`` ,I was singing it. But the lyrics
don't mean anything to me, so why bother singing something you don't believe
in.
Chiatto: And you think there's a
big difference in understanding politics between you and John's Weakerthans?
Jord: Probably not. Some things
are different, it's just more in the presentation, we present it differently.
It's not like we're far left wing and he's right wing or something We're
pretty close.
Chiatto: I kinda thought so, `cause
they are on your label after all. So, about Todd, do you think that he
contributed a lot to the changes of sound, because the new album sounds
a lot harder than the previous two?
Chris: It`s like we say, just the
change of having John not being in the band helped open things
up for Jord and I to move ahead with the stuff that we wanted to do for
a long time. And adding Todd to that, he wanted to do the same kind of
thing.
Jord: It was another guy in the
band who wanted to think a little bit more about the music…
Dulles: And with the same beliefs?
Jord: Yeah, with the same political
beliefs, and taking a little more time to think about how the songs will
be organized.
Chiatto: So, the crusty sounding
songs on your new album, is it because of Todd or is it something that
the entire band wanted?
Chris: We didn't think `let's play
heavier`, we just came up together and that's how we played `em.
Dulles: Did Todd write some of the
lyrics?
Chris: Yeah.
Chiatto: We've mentioned your label(G7
Welcoming Committee) a little earlier, so speaking of that, I had a chance
to listen to some new G7 stuff like Che Chapter-127 and Hiretsukan. Is
that the future direction of G-7, or is it just accidental?
Jord: Yeah, there's no set direction.
If something is interesting it doesn't matter what style it is.
Dulles: I recently got the Greg
McPherson band. Who is that guy?
Chris: It's a guy from Winnipeg,
kind of a singer/songwriter.
Dulles: His drummer also plays with
the Weakerthans.
Chris: On the record, yes, but he
doesn't tour with them. But we've put out a hard core record, we've put
out Greg McPherson, and the newest record is a hip hop band called Warsaw
Pact. We just do anything that's good and honest.
Chiatto: So, the basic idea is that
it has to be reactionary regardless of style?
Jord: Not necessarily, I would say,
but it was definitely one of the ideas that was around founding the label,
to support political artists, because so many non-political artists would
get preference amongst labels, its just the way it's all gone. And our
interest in political music comes from a long time ago. In the early nineties,
when Green Day and Offspring came, all the political stuff just got left
behind and we just wanted to support it.
Chiatto: On to the next one. Actually,
Dule wanted to ask you this one…
Dulles: Which one? Oh,about the
barcodes. On `Less talk more rock` there’s no barcode…
Chris: Yeah, there`s no barcode.
It was just to see what would happen to a record without a barcode, to
see if anyone would take it.
Chiatto: And how did it work?
Dulles: Do you have any idea how
many copies of `Less talk…` did you sell?
Chris: We sold less of that record
than the other records, but there could be any number of reasons why tnat
is, it`s not necessarily because of the barcode.
Chiatto: So, the new album is distributed
by some major label distros?
Jord: Well, there is one specific
distributor in the U.S, that didn’t take `Less talk…` that is taking it
now. And they do maybe half of all the distribution through Fat, and they
were previously owned by Sony, they’re called R.E.D.(I guess that’s what
he said-chiatto).Sony now owns only a tiny part of the company, but with
the way all these companies have merged and with our situation being on
Fat, we are able to reach a lot of people and we thought that by including
a lot of political information on the CD-rom and the LP insert, it was
the stuff that we felt really had to be heard, especially by young American
people. So we wanted it to be distributed and accessible to anyone who
wanted to pick it up. And for smaller distribution and mailorder distribution
in other countries they can get our record through G7 instead of Fat Wreck
Chords. So, we tried to cover all the basics, and use the CD-rom technology
to make that information more accessible.
Chiatto: So, you thought that it’s
the only way to do things, in order to allow a huge number of people hear
what you had to say?
Chris:Yeah.
Chiatto:And the LP booklet is a
lot different than the CD-rom?
Chris:Yeah,it only has the Ward
Churchil essay and the William Blum essay.
Chiatto:So people should buy your
CDs instead of Your records?
Chris: Aaaaaah…(looking funny at
me)…They should? Maybe, I don`t know…
Chiatto: I mean, in order to get
the information.
Jord:It`s on both. The CD has a
little bit more to offer, but if people don’t have access to a computer
then they can get most of the information from the LP booklet.
Dulles: We had a chance to speak
with the guys from SNFU. We asked them about you and they said like- `Propagandhi-great
band, great music, but the guys are crazy, you don’t really wanna know
them`, so…
Chris:Well,we`ve never met anybody
in SNFU, except for Ted, the old drummer who is a friend of ours, so they
don’t know what they’re talking about. Plus they’re washed up and they
suck and…
(and now the newspaper-reading bass
player named Todd joins in to share a couple of wise words with us)
Todd: Do you know what the other
funny thing is? The guys from SNFU, they would have no idea who I was,
but the two guitar players, I probably talked to them every single time
they played in Regina, like enough that they would say hi to me, but they
obviously don’t know anything about Propagandhi.
Jord: They live thirty hours away
from us, so whatever they say is based on some rumors.
Chiatto: So, it’s just gossip?
Jord: Yeah, pure gossip.
Dulles: And I’ve told the girls
from Chumbawamba how you’ve sent me the Noam Chomsky CD and the Chumbawamba
CD, and they told me to say thanx to you, and how you’re great and they
love you.
Chris: We love them.
Jord: They’re some nice people.
Chiatto: Your CD on G-7, `Where
quantity is job No.1`, I don’t know if you’ll agree with me, but I think
it’s a little less representative to your studio albums.
Chris: Absolutely.
Chiatto: And you have advertised
it like that, `it’s so embarrassing` and stuff like that, so why did you
release it anyway?
Chris: I guess for two main reasons.
One, to raise money for G-7.
Jord: The band makes no money from
that CD. All the money goes back to the label, to put out other bands.
Chris: And second of all, it may
not seem representative but it actually is, because that’s the history
of the band, that’s how stupid we actually are. So it just shows you another
level. When I really like a band I like to hear some of that weird stuff,
so some people appreciate it.
Chiatto: To me it was cool to see
how the band has developed through the years. Plus there are some good
songs on it, like `True`, that’s a nice song and a nice cover.
Chris: Yeah, we like that one too.
Dulles: Are there any good books
that you would like to recommend to our readers?
Chris: Anything that’s listed on
our last record.
Chiatto: And what’s your connection
with AK Press?
Chris: A couple of guys that are
friends of ours. It’s some sort of mutual support going on. We help promote
AK Press and they, in turn, help G-7 in some way, just to let people know
that each other exists.
Dulles: And what about Chomsky,
did you ever meet the guy?
Chris: No, it’s just that AK offered
us some spoken word things, and we offered them Ward Churchill…
Jord: And in North America it’s
easy to get their stuff, and they have political books and pamphlets available
at punk rock shows, who might never see that kind of stuff in their regular
lives.
Chiatto: How are you satisfied with
the political side of your work? Did you get any tangible evidence, some
real reaction, that your works matters to someone?
Chris: People say things, like that
they would come up to us and tell us, I think that’s pretty tangible evidence.
They say that they’ve taken some of the information over the years and
they’ve tried to apply it to how they see the world, and maybe they’ve
modified their perspectives. And now they are involved in some sort of
activism, so that’s tangible evidence of something positive, I think.
Chiatto: I was pretty young when
I first heard `Less talk..`, I read the lyrics and everything and I was
thinking like `what ta hell is this?!`, it seemed too harsh and radical
to me. But you just start thinking about it and you realize that it’s not
radical, it’s just the way of normal human thinking.
Chris: That`s what happened to us
with bands like the Dead Kennedys and MDC, first it was like `what ta fuck
us this`, it seems too radical…
Chiatto: But actually it’s not.
Chris: It’s not.
Chiatto: I’ve seen a vegetarian
cook here. Do you have a guy who goes to tour with you, or did it just
happen here?
Chris: Yeah, it`s just that at the
places that we go to they know that we are vegans, and they’re kind enough
to make us vegan food everywhere we go.
Dulles: Is John vegan?
Chris: Oh, he`s vegetarian for sure.
I don’t know actually. He used to be. Some people change…
Chiatto: We’re pretty much running
out of questions right now, but we still wanna talk to you, so here’s a
stupid political one, like `what do you think about`umm…errrr (that’s my
mind screeching while trying to think of something even least smart)…the
situation with the American soldiers not being prosecuted through the international
court of justice (well done,Jeddi!)
Jord: THEY KNOW that all of their
prior administrations, past and present, can legally be put behind bars.
And a lot of their military broke the international law.
Chiatto: So, it’s like a desperate
move?
Jord: Yes, and they’re embarrassing
themselves.
Chris: It’s a level of arrogance
that’s unbelievable, to say that you’re the one country excluded from the
international law.
Chiatto: I know, the first time
that I heard about it I was totally pissed off…
Jord: But in a way, they can’t allow
that to happen because they would incriminalise themselves by signing on
to it, but by not signing on to it everybody knows that they’re fucking
criminals. And hopefully that will influence people to start boycotting
US and their products, `cause it’s time for a serious change.
Right about this time people start bouncing in and taking pictures of the band, and after that there’s a lot of mumbling about gay parades, ham sandwiches, Jord`s and Dulles` unpleasant Jesus/god encounters, orthodox priests, Kentucky fried chicken and other `interesting` stuff which, unfortunately, is not articulate enough for the reading public, so it’s probably best that we move on to the closing statements (actually one thing worth mentioning is that, when we were talking about our new so-called democratic government, Jord just smiled and said `oh,they`re all so-called`.Cool)
Chiatto: OK, for the end, any wise
words for the Serbian public?
Jord: I wouldn’t have faith in any
western democracy or any so-called liberators, whether it’s NATO or the
US. I don’t know what else…Maybe one thing, that people can change things
and sometimes it takes a small minority to affect things in a positive
way, and that’s worth working towards. And ultimately, keeping your ideals
and your real life connected and not betraying yourself and co-opting yourself
to all the bullshit that’s proved to be fucked so many times over.
Chiatto: Yeah, there’s so many lessons
taught in history, but people still go on and make the same mistakes. People
are generally dumb-would that be the main conclusion?
Jord: I think people are encouraged
to be dumb by people in power, because that ultimately keeps them in power.
The less people are interested in making their own communities, their own
politics and their own ways of life, then they get to do it for you and
that keeps them in the position of power over people.