Print Video Games Editor Marcus Beard caught up with Reel Big Fish, with the transcript of their whole conversation here just for your reading pleasure.
Reel Big Fish is:
Aaron Barret: Lead
Dan Reagan: Trombone
John Christianson: Trumpet, fat guy
Derek Gibbs: Bass
Matt Appleton: Sax, goldfinger
Ryland Steen: Drummer
How is the tour going?
Dan Reagan: Fantastic. This is only day 3 of this part of it, but we did about …100 weeks, (the band laughs) 5 weeks in the states. So there was no warm up procress, we hit the ground running.
How were the first couple of gigs?
Brighton was hot and moist. Cardiff was cold and dry.
How’s Exeter?
Hopefully we’ll reach the middle ground.
Do you find that your fanbase is consistently young teens?
John Christianson: Usually Dan puts the fans of the floor so they don’t cool us off as much.
Dan: Damn, this guy’s earning his pay today. Yeah, it doesn’t age. That’s something that’s confused us over the years. We thought they’d all be thirty -pause- one like us.
What about in your early days?
D: It was a little different because there were still hangers on from.. I guess when Ska was more underground. We had a lot of proper Ska, skins bootwearing types who are a lot older than us. One they realised we were all silly and full of crap they stopped coming to the shows and it was all the younger people. Sometimes we see the older types at the back at the bar – they’ve brought their kids. Hopefully they’ve heard out stuff – otherwise it’ll be quite a surprise when they bring their kids.
What era of songs will you be playing tonight?
Dan: We’ve a lot of songs we have to play every night. Sell out and Take on Me. People wanna hear Beer, they will skin us alive if we don’t play Beer. Sometimes we play it three times.
So do you react off the crowd?
We don’t take requests as such. We’re eventually always gonna play Beer. It’s still fun for us to play those songs because the fans go crazy and that’s what we’re feeding off of. It’s always so funny when bands are like “we don’t wanna play this song we’re so over it” and we’re like ‘wow – you don’t wanna have everyone screaming at you because they love you, that’s so weird’.
When you’re writing, do you know some are better for live and some are just for the album?
Dan: Aaron writes all of the songs, they’re sort of his story. I think with this last record, he had that all in his head, in his notebooks and things. I guess when we’re writing certain parts we look at each other and say “that’s the part where people are gonna jump.” That’s after we’ve gone “okay, we can make that more of a jumping more or more of a moshing part.” Certainly live we know what’s working with the crowd. We caricaturize that.
Derek Gibbs throws a bottle into bin
Derek: Did you get the bottle?
Josh (Photographer): Yeah I did actually.
Derek: That’s fantastic.
If they were to make Reel Big Fish a sitcom, who would be playing you guys?
Matt Appleton: I’ve never heard that question.
John: I would be Clive Owen
Matt: Ron Livingstone would play you.
Derek: I’d be Nic Cage. Not that I particularly like him, we just have the same buggy eyes.
Matt: John would be played by that little blonde girl in S club 7 Hannah? The blonde one.
Dan: Matt would be played by the dog from Fraiser.
You put on such a performance on stage, do any of you have theatrical experience?
Dan: Our old trumpet player scott used to be in musical theatre. We all are fans of the old entertainers. This morning Aaron and I were watching,the rat pack on the bus. Not that we’re ripping them off, but there’s that timing, and how they go right into songs, that’s still speaks to us. We see ourselves as entertainment, not just a band. A lot of bands get up there and they’re like -here are our songs- (gesture). We’re there to put on a show.
Do you find your dry, sarcastic humour goes down better in the UK?
Dan: The Americans don’t get it as much. It’s a different thing, the Americans will take us literally and say “wow they really wanna be rockstars” and the British understand that it’s poking fun at ourselves.
Do you think your fans are so devoted due to the love of Ska or the love of your humour?
Dan: I think a big part of it is coming to our shows. That’s how we all got in it. We weren’t Ska fans per se, we became ska fans because we learned what this music we already liked was. Someone finally say down and said you have to buy this record and wear this
But really, we were talking about it tonight, it didn’t matter what school you went to, you have your own sort of ‘life’ at the gigs, so you could be anybody you wanted.
And i think that speaks especially to 16 to 21 year olds. Where you can’t go to a bar and drink, all you can do is go to a diner and sit and eat french fries and drink water and go out and cause trouble. With the gigs, you had some place to go with all your friends and cause trouble and dance and have fun.
I think for young people that’s a big part of it. It’s their first sort of independence, the first time they can have their own identity, with their parents and teachers in school don’t know about.
So, what were some the first gigs you played?
Dan: I was 16 when I started playing with Reel Big Fish. We’d get about 3 songs into the set and the club owner would call the police on his own club so they could show up and kick people out and he could keep all the money. So we would steal the speakers, we’d take all the PA and put them in our cars and go “you get your speakers back when you pay us.”
Derek: Once a stage was in the trailer of a truck (or a lorry) and it was the grand opening of a dairy queen, and they were selling little $1 ice cream cones and people would buy them..
Dan: Just to throw at you?
Derek: Yeah, so my bass amp, the grill. One of those little holes was filled with dried ice cream for years, I never cleaned it. It gave it a richer,sweeter sound.
Does the energy on stage continue backstage on tour?
Dan: We tend to be pretty quiet throughout the day. We tend to keep to ourselves and save it all up. We’re on the road a couple hundred days out the year so we’ve learned to give each other space. On stage it all happens.
John: Then no space [on stage].
Do you have any advice to aspiring musician in bands at Exeter?
Dan: You’re talking to a bunch of horn players here. So: practice.
John: Please practice. Work on the music, write the song. all the singing and the dancing and the costume and jokes will all happen.
And do you practice your comedic and musical interludes?
Dan: Oh we don’t need to practice! Seriously though, the interludes is all the practice – cause that changed every time. Y’know we’ll bring it down here, and go into this.
Derek: We spend about 5 minutes of that.
Dan: Each tour there’s sort of a bag of jokes. Mostly it’s me and Aaron riffing. Aaron takes the lead, I’ll just kinda watch him and see what he’s going to pull out. Aaron will go back and look at the set list in Exeter and say “okay we did these songs and these jokes, we’ll have to do these version tonight.” He’s got it all worked out.
John: There’s a big difference going from here to the continent, even though most people speak English on the continent, they don’t get sarcasm. It doesn’t translate as well. The Germans aren’t funny.
Aaron has said before that ‘We;re Not Happy ‘Till Your Not’ was the end of trilogy, and it seemed like a darker album – what was the band like at that time?
Dan: Yeah…. To him it was story arc, there was a lot of personal stuff. Certain people in the band didn’t want to be in the band at the time. So now they’re not in the band. We’re not the kind of band that fires people. We’ll just let them leave when they leave. It’s hard to get people to give up their whole life and tour the world with us. I think at the time Aaron had his side band with these people (Forces of Eli), Scott had his band. Everyone was off doing other things because we couldn’t even bare to do what was in it.. There was a lot of problems with produces and getting ideas in the right place, it was a painful time.
And how has it been since going independent?
I think the band’s in a better place, so the songs are happier, I think that story’s finished. In fact Aaron just said last night “I don’t wanna write any more song about how much it sucks to be in a band, I love being in a band!” All the songs now are gonna be about love and heartbreak and DRINKIN’ . At least it’s more relatable to other people, most people don’t know what it’s like to be in a band. To his credit, he wasn’t writing about apartheid, he doesn’t know about apartheid, he was writing about what knew, about how we’re on the road that much that it’s just the world we live in. Writing about his real problems. Most people want to think it’s great all the time, so why shatter that for them.
Is it strange playing to fans that are always in their teens?
Matt: No. It’s got really good with the energy. When we played this show in Brooklyn in a while ago it was a 21 and over show. It was in brooklyn so there aren’t any highschool kids there.
Dan: Everyone really thinks they’re cool.
Matt: The thing with people that are in their 20 and 30s and 40s or whatever, they don’t go to concerts for the same reasons that kids do. They’re there for a different experience, they’re there to listen to the music and remember how they felt when they were a kid. And to stand their and drink. concerts to old people aren’t as much fun.
Dan: Not that we don’t like old people, we’re not making fun of them.
Matt: I stand in the back, I’m as far away from whatever craziness upfront is happening.
Dan: I sit if I can.
John:You can listen better.
Matt: It’s so awesome that young people come to the shows and that the majority of the fans are still in highschool, it’s awesome.
So do you write your songs as the teenagers you used to be, is there a feeling of nostalgia about it?
Dan: Aaron has the wisdom of an older gentlemen but the heart of 17 year old.
I don’t think there’s a feeling of nostalgia about it, it just comes out. You’re writing about what you know, what experiences you have. One of the hardest experiences you’ve have as a human being is getting along with people, and even when people get older they still want to tell people to fuck off. And even moreso I think. They just keep it hidden. I think people giggle because they really wanna tell people to fuck off, but they’re really too polite to do it. But kids, they’re gonna go “Fuck you mom!” or “Fuck you Jerry!” Fucken’ Jerry.
Matt: I just found this Twitter feed the other day called modern seinfeld, it’s so much fun.
This guy (or girl) has got a twitter feed…
Dan: I think it’s Jerry Seinfeld
Matt: New plotlines for if seinfeld was on the air right now. It’s so fuckin’ funny.
John: What is Jerry doing?
Dan: I havnt’ got my phone on me.
Matt: George’s autocorrect accidently breaks up with a girl and then he comes to realise he didn’t want to date her anyway. “My autocorrect knows me better than I do. I can’t break up with her now, her netflix knows me so well!”
If you could bring something back from the 90s, what would it be?
Dan: I would say that sense of irony and surrealism that was in the alternative music of the 90s. Liike, you listen to nirvana lyrics for example and you can kinda make up whatever you want as far as the meaning of that. People right now as so literal, life is all about exposing your identity, whereas when we were young we were on our 56k dial up modems and we had handles – like Batman – everyone could be this secret person. Now it’s the opposite it’s about being very literal and very honest. Screamo and emo is all about being very honest it’s like “Ow! My! Heart! Hurts!” (pounding his fist against the table). There’s no craft.
What were some of your inspirations growing up?
Dan: As horn players we started really young, all classical. You tend to gravitate towards the music that your instrument plays. Over the years, life informs you. Being young people in the 90s, we were way into alternative music As far the as the band goes, we were way into the local scene. We all got together and were like “If we play like this, we could open for sublime”.
What have been some of your favourite destinations?
Dan: Even what looks like the worst night could end up being the best night. We’ve learned to just let it happen and do out show.
John: We can play a small show that’s awesome and go and play a huge show at a much larger venue and that’d be awesome, or that’d be terrible – actually they’re never terrible, just like us playing in NYC, where the crowd is not quite as active. a little more jaded. London is not like that, they just go crazy.
Dan: as far as this goes, we’re going a couple places you haven’t been. We’re going to Warsaw, Madrid, we even have a day off there.
(Aaron Barrett has just walked in and cheers at the prospect of a day off.)
What are you planning to do there?
Aaron: Tapas, Clams, Octopus
(Aaron begins massaging the band)
Will massages be a big part of it?
Dan: This is the first one. First and last.
Is there a song you look forward to playing?
Dan: The last one
Matt: I’m really enjoying She’s Famous Now.
Dan: Me too
Aaron: That song is about a girl who gets famous – now. It’s the story of a character who has a girlfriend who gets famous, and then he’s singing about it. Everybody’s drunk is about how everybody’s drunk.
Matt: Somebody Hates me is about Dan. What’s Everything Sucks about?
Aaron: You see that one is bad because it’s about how it sucks to be in a band, but it should have been about how eeeeverything sucks. Dammit Matt Wong.
Has your songwriting method and style changed?
Aaron: I feel like we’ve gotten better at it. I feel like a used to be a lot more clever and funny. I’m old. All the fire is gone. In the belly. Monkey’s For Nothing was leftover bullshit.
Matt: There’s an endorsement for Aaron Barrett!
Aaron: Just a peice of shit on a stick… Would it help the interview if I picked the chair up like this?
(Aaron poses for a picture, threatening me with a chair. The interview wraps up, and we give them a copy of Exeposé to leaf through)
Matt: Oh yeah the cocaine I saw this earlier
Aaron: Does it tell us where the cocaine is though? Ooh there’s a picture of people in their underwear. In the disabled toilets…
Matt: Oh so this is where to go to get the cocaine
Aaron: Positive traces found in the toilets.
Matt: Does it tell us anything about where the marijuana is on campus? I’m looking for that map too. A flasher was seen publicy masturbating near halls of residence in the st david’s area – was that near here?
Aaron: Yeahh awesome! Cocaine – right under their noses – heh.
exeposedev 