Creep13 Punx - DISOBEDIENTS INTERVIEW
>First Of all who's in the band and what do you play?
KILLJOY: By some fucked up accident three out of four of us were named
Jeremiah. So we had to take different names to keep it all straight...
Jurmhole is our singer, Longbear is the bass player, and I'm the guitar
player. Jere was our drummer up until October 29, 2006 - he moved out
to Kansas.
> How long have you guys been playing?
KILLJOY: Together, since about July 2005. We started playing shows in
February 2006. Some of us were in a band or two before this but we never
really tried anything on this scale.
> Who are some of your influences?
JURMHOLE: Two old people fucking! In the ass!
KILLJOY: I never know quite how to answer that. We all have our
listening preferences and shit, but what we do really comes more out of
watching local bands play most of our lives. The shit we liked, the shit we
didn't like, you know... We wanted a band that wasn't stupid just for
the sake of being stupid, but not too preachy either. We didn't wanna
have a lot of borrowing from metal, we didn't want to write shit about
breakups. And we didn't want to have a lot of different timings and stops
and starts and shakeups in the songs. Some of the press sources said we
played "80s style hardcore" and were naming bands like The Exploited
and Sick of It All - I don't totally agree but I'll take that over a lot
of other things they could say!!
> Hows the scene in Knoxville?
KILLJOY: I haven't lived here very long, but I understand that in years
past Knoxville actually had a pretty strong punk scene - I guess the
biggest bands out of here were Koro and The Malignmen. It pretty much
burned out in the 90s when it was all tied to one venue and that place
closed - a lot of people moved out. Nowadays Knoxville is in a weird
situation. On one hand you have this minor city with a big college (the
University of Tennessee), and not only do you have the students but also
the former students and their teenaged kids living here. Which means
there's a LOT of potential talent running around, and a potential audience
for just about anything you could come up with. On the other hand,
there aren't many people here willing to actually step out and do something
with that - there's not a lot of venues for bands to play at, and a lot
of the bookers don't seem too interested in their jobs. If you're a
punk band you've got another strike against you because three-quarters of
the venues that exist don't want to book you - some are concerned about
violence and damage, some are just not into that, and a few are just
hostile because they're too up in the pretentious art-rock thing or what
the fuck ever. It doesn't always make sense - you would think they
would jump on anything that meant more money at the door and at the bar,
but that's not how it seems to work. But lately there are a lot of good
bands forming or coming back and things are starting to pick up again. I
guess it's not unlike small-to-medium town America everywhere - you can
have a scene, but you have to work a little harder for it.
JURM: Used to be, I woulda said "What scene?" Now since we started
playing... well, I'm not gonna say 'woo, we brought punk back', but, hell,
we've gotten a lot of people together and it's really gotten fun. It's
good to see.
> Where do you guys usually play at?
KILLJOY: Well, we're not one of those bands that restricts ourselves to
doing all-ages shows only. With Knoxville being the way it is, we
figured we should probably take any avenue we could when it came to playing
shows and spread ourselves around as much as possible - especially
since there's no real "punk rock" venue around here, just venues that have
punk shows sometimes. We just made it a point to play all-ages whenever
we could, because the shit a kid goes through in the South - all its
overly moralistic posturing and its stupid liquor and entertainment laws
is fucking retarded. I never stop being amazed at all the legal
roadblocks someone putting on an all-ages show has to think about around here.
But anyway, we didn't think we could expect the local press or the
venues or the bookers to support us - we'd have to do it by being obstinate
and playing all the time and making them notice us. Our best shows have
been at Old City Java in Knoxville - a little coffeehouse downtown that
does all-ages shit on the weekends. But we've also played bars and a
parking lot and a rec center and some other shit. Early on we figured
we'd make use of what we did have here in town before we started working
on the shit we didn't.
> Whos some of your favorite bands to play with?
KILLJOY: Locally, The Dirty Works were probably the very first people to get
behind us and help us out. We started out with lots of ideas but we weren't sure
how to make this thing work. They were the first guys to get us in contact with
different bookers, give us advice on who we needed to talk to, that sort of thing.
Outside of Knoxville, The Fallen are probably my favorite.
JURMHOLE: The Hell was my fucking favorite, those guys are fucking awesome.
One of my favorite bands to see live. Loaded Nuns are fucking badass. Fucking
Retching Red that show was the shit, with U.S. Policestate. A bunch of fucking
punks hanging out, kicking ass, having sex afterwards... okay, not the sex.
Haggard Youth's a good one. The Pigs and The Fallen.
KILLJOY: Hey, before I forget, the Dirty Works are the subject of a
worldwide-distribution documentary. The project's called "Rebel Scum" and
we're on it. I'm not sure when it's getting released though - early
next year, I'm told. Keep an eye out for it! It's kind of funny, too, cuz
they filmed us when we were just getting started and we were all
nervous and shit - I may cringe when I see the fucking footage!
> Have you guys done any touring?
KILLJOY: Ha, yeah, we did a little bit. It was pretty funny. Jurmhole
had to stop to shit or piss so many times on the road, I started keeping
a tally. He was sitting in the back of the Jeep we use with this
HUGE-ASS jug of water, then he'd say "Goddammit why do I have to piss so
much!!!!" One time outside of Louisville (Kentucky) we made him wait till
we got to the venue and he was screaming his head off. Oh yeah, then he
got out of the car and said "Where the fuck am I supposed to piss, on
the sidewalk??" It hadn't occurred to him that the bar would have a
toilet!
> What have you guys released? And where can the masses get their hands
on it?
KILLJOY: Two CDs so far - Getta Whiffa Dis and Let's Go Ride Bikes.
The first CD (Getta Whiffa Dis) is free - always has been, we just mail
it out for free - drop us a line on our Myspace and we'll send it out.
We're not really into the idea of making people pay money up front for a
band they never heard of. The second CD (Bikes) I'm setting up on
Interpunk.com right now. And we're always looking for comps, internet radio,
reviewers, and zines to get on too, so we can get the word out. We like
to do videos too - if you search "Disobedients" - or "Disobedients
Knoxville" - on Youtube.com, you'll find some live video footage and a
video for "Snot Meets Face" that we shot, just teaching ourselves how to do
this kind of thing.
> So it looks like you guys put out all your own releases. Hows that
working out?
JURMHOLE: It's all DIY... blood and sweat, man. We do everything
ourselves as high quality as we can. Makes my fuckin prostate tingle, ha.
Weird though cause if we hadn't done it this way we wouldn't have done so
well. This way we always had something to give people from the start,
instead of waitin' around hoping somebody'd fuckin' throw money at us or
some shit. I love it though, means that the band can decide exactly how
we wanna do things. We made a whole bunch of stickers and pins and did
our own shirts for a "thank you" show we did at the all ages venue in
town once... cause we don't take shit for granted, we wanted to say
thank-you to everybody who'd come to our shows.
> Have you ever thought about looking for a label? Or have you
considered releasing stuff with other bands
you guys like and play with?
KILLJOY: We did do some label hunting... We figured as cheap as we keep
our operating costs, we'd be a pretty attractive proposition, but not
much came out of it. It was really funny, because I think I contacted
something like thirty labels, and only one wrote back to me - they were
really more into metal-punk and said "No thank you". I wrote them back
immediately thanking them for having the spine to say "no thank you",
because I respect that a lot more than I do people that just don't reply
at all. Splits are tricky - when we first started working together, we
really wanted to go that route first, but it didn't work out that way.
We didn't know any active bands who were interested and we didn't see a
good way to push a split in this market. Nowadays that's becoming a
more likely option.
> I hear you guys are going back into the studio soon. What can we
expect? New album?
KILLJOY: Yeah, we're working on a real full-length. We're re-recording
some of the shit we did on the first two CDs because those recordings
are over a year old now and we were playing them slower than we do these
days. We also have a lot of other tracks that we'd been playing live
from the beginning but hadn't recorded, and some stuff that got written
along the way. Another thing we really want to do is a live record.
We've already hooked up the equipment and the guy to run it and the place
to do it at, we're just putting the money together to pull it off and do
it right. We've already recorded live tracks on our own, but we don't
like giving people shitty quality stuff if we're capable of doing
something better. We'd rather do it the right way and make it worth people's
trouble. We're also talking seriously about doing a DVD of our own -
some live show clips, some craziness on tape, some other bands in the
area. We've shot some footage, but we have to buy some equipment to start
editing it together.
> You guys mentioned that your not playing a lot of shows in the near
future to go into the studio. Are you playing any shows in the near
future and when do you plan on getting back into the swing of things?
JURMHOLE: Shit, as soon as we get a new drummer we'll be getting back
into the swing of things! But I don't think we're really out of it
either, we ain't takin no fuckin' vacation.
KILLJOY: We jumped on the chance to make our shows better - getting
better shirts, more stickers, tinkering with the equipment, you know. The
way we look at it, if people have to pay fucking money at the door to
get in, we better give em what they paid for and whatever else we can
do. In the meantime we're also trying to make sure that all the people
who've been coming to our shows still have something to go see - we're
working with the venues we played at as much as we can trying to get
bands we like on the calendars - locals, out of town bands, touring
bands... You know, some motherfucker asked me the other day "Why are you
bothering?" Blew my fucking mind.
> So I have to ask you guys, I ask everyone. What's your favorite beer
and how often do you drink it?
JURMHOLE: Shit! God, that's tough, that's like asking my favorite X-man
or something. Ummm... P-B-fuckin'-R! Every fuckin day.
> Hey when are you guys commin out to Southern California?
KILLJOY: We just made a sweet deal on a real vehicle to travel in, so
it might be sooner than you think. When we got to play with Retching Red
on their last tour and Cyco Loco (bass) was real demanding that we come
out and play the Bay too. I don't like disappointing people.
> Well I guess this about wraps it up. I'm runnin out of questions.
any last words or anything you wanna
say?
JURMHOLE: Poop! Uh... My back hurts!
KILLJOY: I think a lotta good bands get discouraged too easily. You
have to put work into it. It's like looking for a job - you won't get
hired if you aren't filling out applications. You get back what you put
into it. Shit, not everyone has to own a venue or have a band. If you're
just burning homemade comps of your local bands and spreading them
around, you're doing something. If you're talking to different bands and
helping them book shows in town, you're doing something. If you're passing
around flyers, you're doing something. If you're going to shows and
bringing people with you, that's half the job right there.
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