-THE SMUT PEDDLERS INTERVIEW-
NFT: So this is the Smut Peddlers 10th year... how's it been?
NFT: How did the 2002 European tour go - it was your first time over, wasn't it?
NFT: How come you never came to England?
NFT: Are you coming over to Europe again this year?
NFT: How did you get on the Jackass movie soundtrack / TV series and the Steve-O video?
NFT: Did you like the movie?
NFT: Do you think that being included on the movie soundtrack will considerably widen your appeal? It will reach stores/customers that perhaps Smut Peddler's records would not...
NFT: What are you opinions on Hostage?
NFT: Why did you start Ransom Records?
NFT: When you first started out doing tapes on Ransom, how did they sell?
NFT: You have a very distinctive and much of the time, obnoxious sound - you don't care if you offend. Do you think that has been lost in punk rock over the years and that it's now a bit safe and boring?
NFT: You also featured on the Big Brother/411videos - what are your opinions on the current skateboarding scene in relation to punk rock. Do you still think that there is a strong punk presence in skateboarding or would you say that hip-hop and baggy clothes has taken over punk rock and Chuck Taylors?
NFT: What's your reception like at home?
NFT: What's your opinion on the current US punk rock scene?
NFT: What do you do apart from the Smut Peddlers, jobs etc...?
NFT: Do you know that there's some hip-hop band called the Smut Peddlers?
NFT: Whats in your stereo at the moment?
NFT: As a summary, what does the Smut Peddlers mean to you and when can we expect in the future?
JULIA: It just keeps getting better and better.
GISH: From the very beginning it's been about having fun and playing punk rock. That's still how it is. We have done it OUR WAY!
JULIA: It was more than I had hoped for. European hospitality is amazing! I know we're all counting the days until we return.
GISH: It ruled! The shows were fun, we were treated well, the people are nice. I can't wait to go back. I'd like to go to the UK but I hear it's all ravers. Yes, first time but not the last.
JULIA: We use M.A.D. booking out of Berlin and they explained since it was our first time to Europe, it was better if we played smaller shows where we were known. Also, I think it's expensive to take a van full of equipment to the UK. If you want to see us play in England let them know via email:
daniel@mad-tourbooking.de
GISH: We weren't invited. Mad Booking put the dates out there and no one grabbed'm from the UK. Next time someone better tell Mad.
JULIA: Yes, we're not exactly sure when.
GISH: Hope so.
JULIA: We've known some of those guys for years. Whenever they have a project they come to us for music. They're really supportive when it comes to that... or we just work cheap.
GISH: Before Steve-o and Jonny were famous, they were hard up for money. I used to pimp them out to these rich Japanese dudes here on business trips. They were a couple of my best workers. We have stay'd friends.
JULIA: I loved it. If you can't laugh at that you ought to just go live in a cave.
GISH: Yes. It's rad that someone thought to video tape what we have been doing for years. I thinks it's also cool that they didn't leave us behind. I have known these dudes for years, back to Big Brother days.
JULIA: I thought so, but we really haven't seen any huge influx of new fans yet.
GISH: Whatever. We have had music on tons of shit. We still do our own records and as long as we do we can stay underground. We have turned our back on record deals. We don't ever want to be mixed in with bands that do this
for money. If I want money, I'll work. I am not so dumb that I would refuse money but that's not why I do this. I
do this because I'm a punk rocker and I have been for a long time. It only seems natural to me to turn my back on
anything that doesn't feel right.
JULIA: Hostage Records is the way it should be... from the heart, not the wallet.
GISH: Hostage is the best. Here where I live it is like a hub. Hostage gives a lot and asks for nothing. I think they will go down in history as a great label. The only other real label that is in it for the right reason is VD. They don't do much though. Hostage keeps our scene together kind'a. It is one of the few things I would fight for.
JULIA: Because no one would put out our music.
GISH: Why not? I can't think of any big labels that I could be proud to say I'm a part of. Can you? Plus it's easier to just do it yer self and have no one to answer to. I would like better distribution but oh well, fuck it, we don't. We sell enough records to pay the band bills on our own. I'm not it for money but I sure don't want to have to pull any out of their pockets - there is none!
JULIA: Well, I think we gave away most of them, but we sold a few too. I don't think there were more than a few hundred of each tape ever made.
GISH: They sold
JULIA: I don't know what punk rock "is" anymore. I just know what punk rock "isn't". As far as our sound goes - it just happens when we play. We don't think it out.
GISH: You nailed it my man. We come from a time when the idea was to make music that would make yer parents freak out - it would even make yer own skin crawl but you listen like looking at a car crash. I think people have got more dumb in the world. When I was a kid I would get my ass beat all the time by the dumbest of the dumb, cops would give me shit, my parents hated me, schools hated me, the world hated me, but I never stopped. After years of this shit finally people were ok with it. Then they started listening. Now there is this new generation of bands that are doing it to be cool. They don't fuck'n get it! They put out this bullshit, call it "punk" and never say anything. They must live in a perfect world, I know I sure don't live there. Just talking about this is making me pissed!
JULIA: It's all just marketing and fashion, neither of which is important to me. Skateboarding is pretty mainstream and accepted these days, as is the term "punk". I hate rap music, so I guess I'd rather see store bought "punk rock" in skateboarding than rap and hip hop.
GISH: Just like everything, there is good people and stupid people. It seems to me that a lot of the "hip-hop" has way more to say than todays main stream "punk" about the world. The only problem is the music. It sounds like a basket ball bouncing. I can't listen to the music but I like to read the words. Most of it's stupid and made up, but every now and then there is some real anger and pain.
JULIA: People seem to like us.
GISH: We have good shows, bad shows. There is good people, stupid jock types.
JULIA: That's a pretty big area to have one opinion about. I think the scene we're in is good and growing.
GISH: It is being perpitraded by outsiders who don't get it and never will. A lot people do though and need it to stay alive with out hanging from a rope. When I heard punk I felt like these people were talking to me and it made me feel like I wasn't alone like some freek. When I see who the sheepole flock to, it make me sick, mad and angry of what it's become. I do realize that I am part of a small group of people. PUNK ROCKERS!
JULIA: I am currently unemployed, but I was working as a graphic artist.
GISH: Skateboard, surf, and hang out with my wife and dogs. I just got fierd from my job due to a "negative attitude".
JULIA: Yeah. They won't be using that name much longer.
GISH: Did you know I have been asked that 800 times. Who's side are you on? Ya, I know because I'm in a band called Smut Peddlers. Why do you know? Were you a "hip-hopper" last week? Every time I'm asked that it makes me think the person asking is their A/R person. Do you really think we don't know? How much are they paying you?
JULIA: In the car, Booker T & the MG's, Green Onions. In the house, I think Discipline's new CD is in there.
GISH: Jones's, X "austraila", Minor Threat, New SMUT PEDDLERS, Jonny Thunders "hurt me" Bob Marley, new U.S.Bombs, Bonecrusher, Smogtown, Bowie at the beeb.
JULIA: Smut Peddlers is the one thing in my life I have been a part of, worked at, improved at and grown with, all on my own merit - no one told me I should do it or made me do it or helped me along the way. I can't imagine what my life would be like if I wasn't in Smut Peddlers. I'm not sure what to expect in the future, but I can tell you we'll still be around, like it or not. Cheers!!
GISH: SMUT PEDDLERS means open yer fuck'n mind, fuck anyone that gets in the way of you trying to have fun in this fucked up world. Go live yer own life how you want "not like Pete Townsend though" I guess FREEDOM! Hopefully another 10 years. We are working on on a new Hostage song for the new comp, A new Hostage 7", a 10" for Deadbeat, 10" picture disk out of Holland, a 7" for a guy in Switzerland, a split for NFT, and then our own full length. More touring and having a good time. xoxox Gish Stiffness PS. See ya at the beach.