CL: How was the first show on the tour?
TS: It was cool. It was just like.. being on Warped Tour you don't really know what to expect 'cause every year it seems to get bigger. It seems like it's a lot bigger this year as far as attendance goes. And we were like, "oh, we've got to play early." But it's kind of hard to be bummed about that because a lot of bands on this tour, except for us, have hit songs. (laughs) It's like, alright, cool. I mean if you're playing in front of 2,000 people, who cares? You know what I mean? It's great. That's awesome.
CL: I heard ticket sales went up 25% from last year's sales.
TS: Did they really?? Wow. I don't even know. I guess I always thought thatŠ 25%? That's a lot.
CL: I didn't get the chance to see the show, but did you guys have a good crowd?
TS: Great! It was really good! It was kind of early so there were a lot of people watching and just starting to wake up. But we were on the same page. We were just starting to wake up too. So, umm.. no, we had a good time. It was a lot of fun.
CL: Which band should we definitely check out today?
TS: I'm just going to say Strung Out. They put on an awesome show.
CL: What is punk to you?
TS: (laughs) I don't think this is punk.. like this tour. Everything is so big and overblown. I mean it's a great tour to be on but.. punk to me is.. I was in my hometown a couple months ago and I was at a show that I just walked into with some of my friends and we were drinking and I cruise in there and there are like 30 people and there was this great punk band playing and the show was free. And there was this guy, I don't know if you heard of himŠ Murray Bowles? He's kind of a famous photographer that used to take pictures for Maximum rock 'Œn roll a long time ago. He was in there and his beard and hair were gray now, ya know, and he's taking pictures of this band. I'm like "wow, this is so cool!" And these kids were like 18 years old, just like how I was when I started out playing bars and pizza places and things like that. If punk is still alive, I think this is it. You know, just like the dark corners of the world. Cause this is great but.. for me.. I think everyone has a different definition of what punk is to them and I think punk is a small, tightly knit community of musicians and fans that don't have to pay a lot to get into shows, that don't have to worry about getting beat up by jocks at shows and things like that. You know? That's what punk has always meant to me. It's still the same even though we're part of this, I don't see this as.. you know? But it's cool nonetheless to be out here.
CL: The cool thing I like about this convention is, that you can come out here and discover new bands.
TS: Yeah, this is a great opportunity for some of these smaller bands to be seen who otherwise probably wouldn't. Kevin.. he's so cool about putting on so many different bands that it's just like you got stages all over the place. At any given time of the day you can pretty much see a good band. You just kind of have to walk around.
CL: You mentioned the price earlier. And you really can't go wrong with the admission price. You get so many bands for what.. $25 bucks?
TS: Yeah, and you can discover bands. Yeah.. That's not bad at all actually. That's really good.
CL: What would your definition of selling out be?
TS: Doing something that you don't want to do. For the plain reason you want money. Like, if we went to a major label or something like that and they told us to change our sound, I'd be like "no." (laughs) "Well, what if we were going to give you a million dollars?" Still, no, because, it's not worth it to me. It's just like a dignity thing, you know what I mean? It's like what am I going to do with all that money anyway? Well, there's a lot of things you that could do with that money, but it's not necessary. I mean, we make a pretty good living at this and whatever. It's not.. I think selling out is changing just because you're offered a sum of money.
CL: Lollapalooza might be dead, do you think Vans Warped will ever become stale?
TS: You know... I don't think so. 'Cause it seems like new bands keep coming around that are more easily accessible then those bands. I mean everybodys' got like a myspace account or like a pure volume or something. (laughs) So, all these bands come up.. I think that band Hawthorne Heights sold something like 300,000 records or something like that and they like did it all themselves in the beginning. That's how they got signed, just by making posts. So, that's what they're doing. Good for them. That's the way to do it.
CL: If you could play with any band, who would it be?
TS: See, a lot of punk bands, the bigger punk bands, we've already played with. Whether it was at festivals or things like that.. I think I'm just going to go with The Police. I don't know why. I think I'll just go with them because they're like one of my major influences. They were so good at crossing over every style of music. It was my first concert too. On the Synchronicity Tour. And so, that opened my eyes to a lot of things about music. I think I'd like to play a show with them if they'd reunite. (laughs)
CL: Who are the fathers of punk?
TS: Well, I'd say in the UK it's the Sex Pistols. The US is The Ramones, right? (laughs) California, it's NOFX. (laughs) Bad Religion or something. (laughs)
CL: Oh! You've got regional lines!
TS: Yeah, yeah. (laughs)
CL: What about Ethiopia?
TS: Ugh.
CL: Speaking of NOFX.. I'm really surprised they're not out here.
TS: Well, Mike and Erin just had a baby last year. So he decided that he didn't want to tour as much as they used to. His touring is going to be very limited I think from now on until she's older. It's kind of weird for us not having those guys out there cause we're such good friends. We don't know a lot of bands on this tour. These are a lot of new bands for us. Yeah, we know Strung Out, The Starting Line and a couple of guys from Offspring. But that's really about it.
CL: Do you ever read your CD or concert reviews?
TS: Yeah. Actually.. the CD reviews, I wait a couple of months to read them.
CL: Really? How come?
TS: I write all the songs and I put a lot into them and I kind of... I openly take it the wrong way when someone's like critical about it in a negative way.
CL: How do you deal with it?
TS: Well, I don't read them for two months. (laughs)
CL: I don't mean just CD reviews. What about concert reviews?
TS: Well, concert reviews.. usually there's a just cause. Like if we're too drunk or something and it says, "These guys were wasted." I go, "Oh. They're right." Concert reviews you can usually sway because you already have your songs and you can just be like OK, all we have to do is give a 110 this hour. Usually it works out pretty good. That's kind of what we do. Before we go on stage, we're always like.. Like today, we're like this is a half hour of a 24 hour day. The other 23 1/2 hours we get to just totally fuck around. Let's just do this right. If we're going to do anything, just do this right. So, that's how we handle that. (laughs)
CL: If you could, would you play naked on stage?
TS: If I could...
CL: Well, you probably can, but..
TS: Would I do it??
(silence)
No, probably not. (laughs) I don't know! It'd just be too embarrassing for me. But if the money was there.. Back to the sell out question.. I'd do it. (laughs)
CL: What are the necessities for this tour?
TS: This tour is a lot like camping so basically you just have to be very self-sufficient in the way of nobody's going to do anything for you. You have to wait in line for a meal. Wah, wah, it's not a big deal. It's like a big campground. When you want to shower in the morning, you have to get in line for that. It's a little bit different from how we tour, but you learn after awhile to bring small bottles of shampoo. (laughs) Don't bring all these big, clunky things, pack light. Go grocery shopping, fill the fridge.
CL: What made you guys decide to cover The Pogues, "Fairytale of New York"? It's a great version, by the way.
TS: Oh, thanks! You know what was cool? One of the guys in The Pogues said that's the best cover he's ever heard of that. We were so stoked. I was just like.. wow! We just did that song because it was such a great song and we wanted to have a duet on the record and I was just like, wow, this would be a really great song to cover cause not many punk bands had done it at the time. We rarely play it live. We'll play it around Christmas time and if we're in Ireland or England, we'll play it.
CL: Can I ask what songs you performed today were?
TS: We played: "Invincible," "Internation You Day," "Soulmate," "Justify," "Black Eye," two new ones called "Tragic" and "For Fiona." Umm.. I can't remember. "Dumb Reminders" and two more. I can't remember. I did pretty good though. I remembered all the names. (laughs)
CL: Yeah, that was pretty good. In order of course.
TS: 80%! (laughs)
CL: If you could sum up Vans Warped in a couple of words, what would they be?
TS: A couple of words.. Good times. (laughs) I don't know. It's just a fun tour. It's hard to sum it up in a couple of words. But it's just a blast to be out here cause everybody is so nice and there's a lot going on. It's kind of cool cause you can be part of it or you can hide out from it as well. (laughs)
CL: If you asked me this, I would say, expect the unexpected. Just because there's so much going on! Like running to the showers in the morning and waiting in line for your food.
TS: Expect the unexpected.. yeah, that was my real answer. (laughs)