Let's Talk About Lagwagon

Thank you, Santa Barbara. Thanks for giving me a break to surf. Thanks for the endless 4^th of July and Halloween parties. Thanks for Francisco Torres (for without whom I would have probably slept on a dirty couch, in a nasty shack on Del Playa.) Thanks for not ever getting me arrested, and thanks for Lagwagon. No, ma and pa, not your kid’s American Flyer that is slowed by a broken wheel, but the five-piece punk outfit that has been tearing the U.S. and other countries to pieces since 1990. Their infectious sound, much like a virus, can’t be stopped.

With a new CD, Lets Talk About Feelings, due out next week, this punk outfit is adding a new chapter to a tale that has unfolded with previous CD releases, Double Pladinum, Hoss, Duh and Trashed, and a 7-inch EP called Angry Days. Lagwagon is preparing to invade Heavenly, Tahoe in late December for a show that will go off; trust me, I have seen them live and their show is sick. I recently hooked up a call to Lagwagon lead singer, Joey Cape’s humble abode and traded stories with him, while his guitarist and drummer wrote and rehearsed new stuff in the background.   

  How long have you guys been together?    

I guess it’s been about eight years. We were doing this business a couple years before that but we didn’t actually start getting songs together or the line up until about eight years ago. Now, we have a totally different line up.

  As far as members?  

Yeah, I guess we have only been together for, like, a year. Actually, the current line up has only been together for 17 months.  

  On the song "Goin’ South," there is a film sound bite. Now, on your new stuff, there is another sound clip on "Change Despair." What’s up with using these samples?  

It’s from Welcome to the Doll House. It’s fun and I like movies a lot. I always keep track of things that I think will be good samples. It’s a good time to use stuff like that. It adds a little levity to the music to have some humor involved. Also, some outtakes from films are pretty suitable for songs you write. Some of the stuff going on in the stuff we sampled made sense. I don’t know, it’s just one of those things.  

  I know both of those clips deal with tension in a band. Does this related to personal experiences?  

Actually, "Change Despair" is about the natural changes you go through as a song-writer in a band—the music you make and some of the things that comes along with it. You always have some concern with the criticism you get for changing, but the principal point of the song is, that isn’t important; just be true to the band. It also deals with the lost aspiration and how you sometimes don’t feel into it as the years go by and your still doing the same thing with your band. It’s not implying that we feel this way now. I think it is a state of mind you get into while you work on a new record. We’re as into it now as we ever were and things are great. Everyone gets along better than ever and things are great. It’s not a break up song like "Goin’ South." Those were times that were filled with more problems.  

  You guys are doing real well. Do true and loyal fans get pissed off and think you are going to sell out?  

There are always people like that. I’ve seen enough of that with other bands I like. That’s just in people’s nature. A lot of people don’t like to share. They are trying so hard to be an individual and if too many people like a band they like, it’s like, "Hey, I can’ t like them anymore because they aren’t cool anymore." But that’s always going to be bullshit. If you really like music or if you let yourself enjoy it for the right reasons, then your criteria shouldn’t include the status of the band or what is going on with them. Especially with independent bands like us. It’s not like we’re in your face like the Spice Girls, in magazines and on MTV. So when people get like that with indie bands, to me it’s really silly. You have to get used to that stuff. People will always tell you that your last record was better than your new one. But you can remember that the year before, they came up to you and said the same thing about the album before. People repeat themselves with that kind of stuff. It’s funny.  

  How did you guys find Fat Wreck Chords? 

When Fat Mike first started the label, I ran into him into a bar in San Francisco. I had a little demo tape we made and I just said hey, I heard you started a label and I have a tape in my car. I gave it to him and that was it. He called me a day or two later and said he wanted to do a record with us. We were planning to call it quits because we had made three demos and had been playing around for a couple of years. I had moved up north and the rest of the guys were still down in Santa Barbara by that point. I just called them up and asked them if they wanted to do a record. It’s always been on that level with Fat for us. It’s more of a friendship thing. The business side of things is very minimal in comparison to other major labels. We all live in S.F. and the label is based here, and there are only eight people that work there and they are all real good friends of mine. We are all going out tonight.  

  Did you vote yesterday?    

I did not. But we have been out of town and on tour a lot. In my defense, which is hard to do, I had not registered. I blew it but lucky for me, most of the people and things I would have voted for won. Things passed that I backed and to the best of my knowledge, things worked out for me. This year, I completely neglected. I feel bad about it.  

  Speaking of touring, how are things going?    

It’s going OK. We’re taking a little break. We just finished that new record [Let’s Talk About Feelings]. I’m actually sitting here with the drummer and guitar player working on some new songs we didn’t finish when we recorded the record. We are going to put out another EP in late winter/early spring. It will be called Let’s Talk About Leftovers. It will have some extra songs that we are working out to go back into the studio with.  

  Where did you get started with music, personally?  

Uh, I don’t know. I just grew up in a musical family. I was always into pop music. I think the first record I got was a Glenn Campbell record. It was Rhinestone Cowboy on 7-inch. I had one of those record players that only played 7-inch records. My older brother was a guitar player and I started to play drums at 10 or 11 since his bandmate would always leave his drums at the house. So I started to play then I eventually started to play my brother’s guitar. There were always instruments around the house.   

  Where do you see Lagwagon three years from now?    

That’s a difficult question to answer. I’ll probably be in the hospital recovering from lung cancer if all goes well. I am too much of a cigarette smoker. I tried to quit. I even tried that Ziban stuff. You know what that is? It’s like Prozac for smokers, because I am the kind of guy that stops smoking and no one wants to be around me. Seriously though, if all goes well, we will still be making records and touring. We all enjoy it and until we stop enjoying, it is what we’ll do. In January, we will go to Australia and we’re stoked. Then the touring starts all over again.  

  If you guys got into a fight with Blink 182, who would fuck who up?  

We would kill Blink 182, are you kidding me? We have fought them and they’re pussies. I’m just kidding, I love those guys. They’re great. We’ve toured with them a little bit so they’re good friends of ours. I think they would admit that they would get beat down by Lagwagon. Listen to their music; they’re wimp rock. Girlfriend rock. I would never write about girls, ha ha. But if they were in a comedy contest with us, they would annihilate us. They are real fun guys to hang out with.

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