Interview with Chris Flippin

The Lagwagon interview was something really nice. These guys are very cool guys. I arrived at the venue and noticed I forgot one battery for my recorder. I was about to make the interview written by hand, when Chris (damn, he's really huge) told me he wanted to go to the tour bus for me to get some batteries and so he did. Even the tour manager went looking for some batteries for me. How kind can people be! Then I could finally get started…

Q>> You're back in our tiny little country? How good do you know Antwerp?
A>> I don't know Antwerp at all. I know we've been here before but in another club. But as far as it is for the city, we haven't seen it. We don't have time for it because usually we arrive here a little too late and we don't have time to do any sightseeing. Usually we're also sleeping in the bus and then we have got to play. And the center of the city is far from this club as well, I've been told; we would have to walk three miles or something. And it's cold.

Q>> What's your vision of Belgium in general? Because you've been here quite a few times… Great memories about it?
A>> Great! People in Belgium have always been nice to us. In Belgium and Holland. People tell us Belgian beer is the best! I think it's pretty good. I don't know if it is the best. And I don't know if I've drunk the best Belgian beer. But most of them are good.

Q>> This summer you played at the Pukkelpop festival in Belgium. How come you were delayed? We only saw you play 1/3 of the time you were supposed to play…
A>> Yeah, our plane was delayed in Greece. And then we've had some problems in the airport of Paris. And when we got to the airport in Brussels, we did actually have time to go and play but it took so long for our guitarist to come out of the plane. We waited 45 minutes in the airport, then we found our guitarist and then we had a police escort all the way to the festival, which was pretty cool. It's something we'll remember. We were drinking coffee too with the police, with their motorcycles around us. Our guitar player taped it all on his video camera. Then we were drinking beer in the bus. In the States you can't drink and drive, but here apparently we can. We drank so much beer; beer we brought in Greece. And a lot of beer got broken in Greece, because the show was so hot. Then we arrived here. We should have cancelled the whole deal but the people would have been disappointed. We arrived and saw the people waiting in the rain. It was cold.

Q>> This police escort will be something you will be able to tell later. A cool anecdote, right?
A>> It is man. Usually I'm the one who's sitting in the backseat of a police car. (Laughter)

Q>> This new European tour has got 9 straight venues. Then you're going to Australia.
A>> We go home first, probably for a week or something. And around the 23rd, we fly to Australia. For about ten days.

Q>> Is it a hard job or something you still enjoy like in the early years?
A>> In the beginning it was easier I think because everybody lived in the same town. You know what I mean. But the first four years, we didn't have any money. We didn't have any place else to live. We couldn't pay three months rent. So we liked being away. But then, when we came back home, you can't expect to have a house either, so. The people who lived with their girlfriend in the vans during the tours… This for four or five years… And now it's like, everyone's older, we come here, do festivals and club shows. We are used to it. This is what we need to do! We do more shows and all this. But we also did festivals and club shows last time. It's cool, because one day you play at a festival and the other day in a club. You know what I mean. I like club shows, because people are pretty close. We can like reach out and touch them. On a festival, they're like three fucking feet away or something. After ten years on stage, you really enjoy this, you know what I mean. You can even spit on them. (Laughter) It's just weird at festivals, with thousands of security guards standing before of the stage. It kind of sucks. It's because people get hurt. It's something that happens.

Q>> Now you know all this, is there anything you would have done differently in the past?
A>> I don't know. Probably not. Maybe not bring that much equipment. A lot of equipment got broken over the years. Sometimes we can play on other people's equipment, that's nice, but then again, it's not your stuff, so… It might break, I don't know. I keep my stuff pretty tight together. My pedals are breaking when we travel. There's always something with Lagwagon. (Laughter)

Q>> 13 years you have been devoting to this band, but it's been difficult the past few years and yet you manage to keep on doing this. Does Lagwagon mean everything to the members of the band?
A>> Yeah. For a while it did, you know. Joey did Bad Astronaut stuff and things like that. Another one Me First And The Gimme Gimmies with Fat Mike. So we had two bands besides Lagwagon. And they were pretty much 'stealing' our time and then the other guitar player was also playing in the band. And the old drummer of Lagwagon played with the Gimmies as well. It's pretty weird. So Lagwagon was put on 'hold' for about two or three years. Joey wanted to do more Bad Astronaut stuff. But then we were starting to organize ourselves again. He would do some months with Lagwagon, then some months with the Gimmies. You know. But now we are more popular, so we don't have to come out here again in the winter. Before, we came here in the winter all the time and now in the summer. (Laughter) I don't mind to come out here in the winter, but then like you say, we're all from California and last time we were here it was snowing. Everyone was on the bus and didn't want to get out of it. Where we live, it's like a 100°F in the summer. Right now it's even 85°F. Hot! We wear shorts and T-shirts in the middle of winter.

Q>> I'd say welcome to our cold Belgium!
A>> Yeah, but we live in the desert. Well, I'm supposed to live in the south of California now and I moved down the line by Colorado. And there's a big desert. We even get water from another state, I think from Nevada.

Q>> You still have the same energy and power you always had. Do you guys take super vitamins or something?
A>> I don't know, we're just trying to stay in shape. I'm not really in shape anymore as you can see. Not that that's going to change anything now. After all, this is not a bad job, you know what I mean. And we still go on stage like we did ten years ago.

Q>> But you do skate way less than before, or not? Not feeling too old for that?
A>> Not much skating around anymore, no! We're just trying not to get hurt anymore. Last time I got my elbow shattered. Now we're snowboarding more.

Q>> In the desert? (Laughter)
A>> Yeah! (Laughter). No… we do that around San Francisco. The bottom of California is a desert and in the top we have mountains with snow. It's actually like two states. California has got it all! But yeah, no more skateboarding! Now we just play golf! Like the old guys. (Laughter) We played for the first time in Australia. Ever since, I like to play that game, because there's a lot of people involved with it. And it's funny to watch all those snotty people in their suits. As for myself, I try to play by the rules instead of just hitting the ball. I haven't been kicked out… yet… But I don't think I will, because I'm pretty good at it. (Laughter)

Q>> Let's change the subject: did Joey Cape's side project, Bad Astronaut, have any influence on Lagwagon itself, or was it the other way round?
A>> No, that was his whole deal. He just did his own thing. You know, he writes the songs, so I think he does that like he does it for Lagwagon. He did two albums and one EP. I like the harder stuff. I don't know. It's weird, it's softer.

Q>> How do you look back on your first album? Something you were very proud of or something you hate now?
A>> I wouldn't say we hate it, but it's hard to listen to it now, because then we only had two weeks to do that album. We could have even done it three days. Now, we take like three months to make an album. Now it's strange to listen to that album and the details. You know, little things like that, but I like the album.

Q>> After that first album, people called you a Hardcore band, and some still keep doing that because of that album, even when you're not 'hardcore' anymore. Do you mind that?
A>> No, I don't care. We have two sides: the hard side, Hardcore, and the softer side to which we switched over more, Pop. Joey liked Metal before, and now he doesn't like it that much anymore.

Q>> You've been on the Blaze tour, to promote your newest album? Do you really think it is necessary, for a monument as Lagwagon, to promote this album this way? Don't you think your fans will be loyal?
A>> Well, we were mainly just doing England. We were doing 6 gigs in England. The response was really good; the album sales were good. We even played a two days festival. So there was no chance for the kids to see a club show. Over here we do festivals and clubs. We just wanted to go to England and do two or three big festivals. Too bad for the clubs, because club shows are way better, you know what I mean. We have better contact with the crowd. And we've never done that good in England. The show has always been good - people just went crazy - except for Chester I think. Not like in Glasgow or other cities. I don't know.

Q>> Do you think maybe that's due to the fact that you haven't been going to England for like 5 years and that people were just dying to see you?
A>> Yeah, that's probably it, because I know a lot of bands that are probably better than us on tour, so much better... We did like Manchester and Newcastle, Glasgow, Wolverhampton (I'd never even heard of that name!) and London.

Q>> At least they have got big clubs…
A>> This club is pretty big though… and the one in Brussels too, that's where we usually play, right? Like the last couple of years? But it doesn't matter if a club is big or small. We just like to play in smaller clubs. It's just better. Not like these huge halls where you can't see the band from the back. Or a club where 3000 people just stand…

Q>> After all those years, you're still on Fat wreck. Seems like you have been family forever, isn't it?
A>> It's pretty cool. There's supposed to be a video coming out of the 11th anniversary or something. We can really pull it together. There was like Lagwagon, Propagandhi, who else… Gimme gimmies. Who else played the anniversary show? You know, the first couple of bands that were signed. I don't know. But yeah, that was a big party. Lots of bands were there. But there's supposed to be a video and it's going to come out.

Q>> Joey stopped with My Records a few months ago. Don't you think he would like to do that again after Lagwagon? Or you yourself? Wouldn't you like to do something like that?
A>> I don't know. It's a hard job to run a record label. Joey did it for quite some time and it was difficult. He wasn't making any profit of it. He was spending half of his time on that label. But he got to do it.

Q>> So right now you're only thinking of the future of Lagwagon?
A>> Yeah. We'll probably do some more albums, I don't know, but we haven't discussed that topic yet, so… Joey will do some Gimmies stuff as well and produce some other bands. He just likes to do stuff like that. If he's not working on his "own" record, he's working on someone else's. And then after that we'll do our own record.

Q>> Don't you think you'd like to do stuff like that yourself ?
A>> Me? I don't know. I really don't. It's hard to work like this in a studio, you know what I mean? It's pretty much about a 14-15 hour day, sitting there and working hard. You've got to be someone with lots of patience, because you have got to change the same thing over and over again. I don't know if that would be something for me. Joey is like a workaholic or whatever stress freak (laughter); I'm not like that. I just do my parts and I'm happy when they're done. And then watch TV!!! Mostly we're not happy with some parts, like for the new album we thought the drum was too flat, until we heard it on another stereo!

Q>> I've heard a lot of criticism on the new album, from people who have been there since the beginning of Lagwagon, as myself. And I do understand why this album is 'different' - and I love it - but the others apparently don't understand this. Do you think the youth of today just care about the musical aspect of Punk and not about other meanings of Punk?
A>> I don't know. It's just hard for me to understand that there are some bands out there that make the same album over and over again. You know what I mean? So we're happy with the new album. I think it's good. When we made "Duh" and "Trash", it was almost the same album. And then we made "Hoss", which was slightly different. And then we totally changed with "Double Plaidium". Then Joey started to do his Bad Astronaut thing, something more experimental. And that happened with Lagwagon as well. And we thought it was really cool. Music is evolving. It's like everything, like with whisky. Or with coffee. Most coffees are shit; I like the big flavor. I'm a big coffee freak. I think everybody in the band is. I didn't even have any coffee today. I might check it out later tonight upstairs.

Q>> What do you think about this upcoming Emo Hardcore trend?
A>> I like it. I've seen a lot of those new bands during the warped tour, like The Used two years ago, when they played on a little stage. Hardcore is changing as well and it's kind of cool. I saw some other bands that weren't as good, but lots of them are great. Thrice is cool; we played some shows with them. But you know what's strange about the warped tour? There are too many bands and too many stages. On certain places you can watch and hear two or three bands at the same time. It's hard to see them all. You've got to choose, and when you pick the wrong band and they suck, you don't have time to go watch something else. Usually, the band that plays better, you don't get to see. Because you always see the band on the main stage.

Q>> Punk Rock is changing… just turn on the TV. Do you think kids of today know the true meaning of Punk Rock? Or are they just being brainwashed by these shitty bands?
A>> We just talked to some guy about it yesterday. Everybody has got another definition of the word "punk". Punk today is strange, when record labels start to tell you how you should sound, that's not Punk anymore. Kids don't have any idea anymore. Back in the days all the bands sounded so different and now they all sound the same. When you buy a record, you can clearly say it sounds like this or that. Every album is the same. Like with these Poppunk bands.

Q>> Wouldn't it all be easier if we called it all 'Rock'?
A>> Yeah, maybe it would. The Punk nowadays is gone, it is all Rock, so… When I heard the original "Boys Of Summer"… God, I hated that song; now the Ataris plays it and I like it.

Q>> Any last words? Something that our readers should know?
A>> I don't know: get Punk again! Do your own thing! Not anyone else's! Hopefully things are going to change. Like for the States, I don't even wanna say anything about that. You can't even be an American anymore. It's not like back in the days with the hippies. They really did something. They just sat down in the park all day smoking weed. Their music sucked, but at least they meant something. They actually made a lot of changes. And now with the republic, it's like becoming a police state. Pretty soon you won't be allowed to listen to Punk albums anymore. It's terrible.

Thanks to Lien (Sonic Rendezvous) and Nanette (Fat Wreck) for setting this interview up.

YVES

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