The 28th of October, No Use For A Name, who's on a big European tour, came to our capital in Belgium, along with Bigwig and Irish Car Bomb. As for myself, I wasn't able to make it due to some family matters. So, one of my best friends, Tom (thanks bro!), did the interview for me…

Q>> So how's the tour food been so far? (they were eating at the time this interview was conducted)
A>> Err … It's interesting. It's always interesting everywhere we go but it's actually been really good this tour.

Q>> Because there are a lot of differences between America and Europe …
A>> The biggest difference I think is that in America you always have something open 24 h a day. That's why Americans are fat, because we always eat at night. But yeah I mean it's been really good. A lot of venues serve great food and I mean … [points at plates on the table] as you can see it looks really good.

Q>> It's nice to have you back in Belgium again, but I don't think you have played at this location yet. What do you think of it so far?
A>> So far it's awesome. We got to walk around a little bit, went to a little restaurant around here called "Hippo's", that was cool, and then we visited the cathedral. But yeah it's not too bad.

Q>> You have been in Belgium on numerous occasions; did you have any chance to do more sightseeing?
A>> You know, one time I was here during a vacation and I did a bunch of European cities and came to Belgium too. Got to walk around a little bit, saw this museum of old planes if you have heard of that thing but it is cool. That was like the coolest thing I had ever seen. Thousands of planes in this place but yeah I like it here. I like Belgium for the most part but at night it gets a little scary. It's like anything else though.

Q>> So the previous summer you played the Pukkelpop festival. Do you still remember that occasion?
A>> Yeah I believe so. I know we played Belgium two years ago and we all came up covered in mud. It was that time? Yeah I remember it. It was great.

Q>> What do you think about touring in Europe in general?
A>> Oh it's awesome. Because everyday is different you know. The kids here are really cool and everybody who works at the clubs is really really nice.

Q>> Do you think it should be the ambition of every (American) band to come to Europe?
A>> Oh yeah … if Europe wants them you know. Europe seems to want us so we will always come back. You know I think everybody should come here. The culture is so much vaster than what we have back in the states. We have 200 years of bullshit. You know, over here it's all rad.

Q>> And what do you think of the possibilities of European bands playing in the states?
A>> You know, actually, as far as European bands go I'm more into the Heavy Metal scene. I like a lot of the Swedish bands like "In Flames", "At The Gates", "The Haunted", I also like a lot of Norwegian bands like "Mayhem" and "Emperor" you know. I'm more into the Black Metal scene in particular.

Q>> This European tour has got like 30 venues. I was wondering if it doesn't all become a blur at some point.
A>> Oh yeah, well, you still enjoy it. The playing is always good but …err… it wears you down. We've had one day off like I was saying earlier.

Q>> I would have guessed that a band that has been touring for such a long time would build in some kind of intermezzo from touring to recover …
A>> We just wanted to go for it. We decided to just screw the days off and just go and see what happens and it's been something else I'll tell you. We had one day off and we were in Munich and we were going crazy. So me, Tony and our tour manager Mike rented a BMW. We said to ourselves "Screw It We're outta here" and just took off, drove around and got like: we're driving, we're in control. You know, it was exactly what we needed for that day.

Q>> How do you keep yourselves motivated all this time, throughout all these years?
A>> Err… just the shows. Knowing that we get to play, the kids are really cool you know; the shows are the real reason we do it.

Q>> Well, you have been around for a long time now, but what of the ambition of No Use? Where do you want to go, is there something you still want to achieve as a band, or personally?
A>> I think as No Use we've done pretty well so far. We're at sort of a confusing time in music right now. I think if we go over to a major label we will lose all of our fans and may not gain a lot of new ones and if we don't do that, if we just keep doing what we have been doing ... well it seems like we have done well so far. You know, every year that we come on tour, is better than the last one. And I think kids recognize that we respect the music scene for what it is. We're not doing it for the money. I mean I don't want to say we are not doing it for the money, I'm saying that that's not the only reason. A lot of bands are like: "Major label, we're there man" and the next year they're gone you know. We're lucky to keep doing it over and over, so…

Q>> Do you think in these times it's important to still have your roots planted firmly into the underground scene?
A>> Yeah absolutely! That is our scene, that's all we know. We did a tour with Sum 41 earlier this year, and it is such a different scene you know. It's like … but we were lucky because those kids got it. They heard us playing like: "hey that's good". I don't know why that is. It was just a lucky thing. We didn't want to do it at first. So it was kind of one of those "shall we try it out … ah you only live once let's see what happens" kind of things. And it seemed to work, you know.

Q>> How would you feel about some more mainstream exposure? Like having your videos get more widespread?
A>> Yeah we have videos and MTV actually played them (only in America of course). Very very little, you know but like I said once you get to that point kids will start judging you, saying that you are something that you're not and that sucks, so we just keep doing what we do and if MTV wants to play it that's fine. If they don't, that's fine too. In Canada they actually play us on "Much Music" and that is really cool. It's bliss, it's a different scene up there, they are definitely more open-minded for sure.

Q>> You just mentioned the fans and their reactions. Do you think it is important to keep that into account? Don't you think you have to put those things aside now and just do whatever No Use wants to do without having to think like: If we do this then the fans might …
A>> Luckily, I gotta say I hear a lot of bands talk about that kind of stuff but we're a band, we do what we want and luckily the fans like it . So thank god, you know. If they didn't then we wouldn't still be doing this for sure.

Q>> How many more years do you want to keep this going?
A>> Until it's no fun anymore. I can't say when I'll stop. One day I will wake up and go: "I don't want to go on tour anymore". I'll probably always play though.

Q>> When they call you Punk Rock dinosaurs it's about to stop then, huh?
A>> Yeah if they start doing that or start calling us that or whatever … but as long as we're still selling out shows…

Q>> How do you look back on your first couple of albums now?
A>> I look back on them like I wasn't there on those records like "Incognito" and "The Daily Grind".

Q>> But in the band, how is this experienced?
A>> I know, I mean like: we don't play those songs anymore live because nobody knows them. Usually when you start a band you're like a bunch of kids and you're like "We're Punk URGH" and it's not who you are now, you know what I'm saying?

Q>> I mean it's weird because for me, a lot of the first records of a lot of bands are amazing for me and the band doesn't seem to achieve the same level anymore throughout their discography.
A>> Yeah I know what you're saying. A lot of bands play songs from their first records because they can't write good songs anymore. It's like they're saying: This is all we have. Our newest record is selling better than anything we've done yet. For instance we'll start the show tonight with "Soulmate" like we've done every night so far and kids will be like: "Oh, goodie" like they're happy or whatever and then we'll bust into "International U-Day" which is on the new record and it goes crazy. Every night we have noticed that. For some reason the older songs just don't get that reaction and we have played songs from the first or second record and kids just looked at us like: What the fuck is this? Is this a new song?

Q>> How do you look upon the new record? Convinced it is the best so far?
A>> It sounds so cliché to say yes but … YES. It definitely is; we spent the most time on it and we are really aware of everything that went on with that record.

Q>> Do you think for the next record you will still develop into that direction, maybe a bit more extreme even?
A>> Yeah! It's all going to be done with flutes. Regular flutes and a pan flute. Steve's gonna play the pan flute. That will be really good I think.

Q>> There's been a lot of criticism about the "Live In A Dive" series like it isn't really live but …
A>> Never heard that before.

Q>> I mean is there a lot of twisting at the knobs afterwards or …
A>> There's some. I mean, if you do a live album you kind of want it to be a best of so if you're listening back to it and there's like a really bad mistake you want to fix it. You don't want to fuck it up.

Q>> But isn't that the charm of live-recordings? The rawness and pureness of it all…
A>> I understand that but you don't want something that serves as some kind of best of as bullshit. You want it to be good. It's just one of those things, you know. The twisting of the knobs afterwards, that has been done since day one. Every band has always done that.

Q>> Yeah but for this particular series I find it diminishes the value of the product…
A>> Yeah for sure! But I mean, that album IS live you know. We all played live on it and everything is live. But if there's a [makes fart noise] we'll fix that. But that particular album was like after three months of touring so we made very little mistakes.

Q>> You were the first ones in the series, do you think this is some sort of recognition from Fat Wreck?
A>> We're definitely one of the most respected bands on Fat. I mean right now we're the biggest band on Fat. Which is really cool. And I'm not saying this because I'm proud of that; I'm saying it because it's really cool, you know. And it's not for any other reason besides that we like what we do. We try to write good songs and the kids respect that so it's because of the kids that we're the biggest selling band. They're the ones buying the records, so we thank them very much for that.

Q>> So Tony is going to do a split (acoustic) with Joey pretty soon …
A>> Oh the split, yeah it's going to be pretty cool. I've already heard Tony's stuff. It's awesome.

Q>> You think there might be more of these side projects in the bands as time goes by?
A>> No, we simply don't have time. Now we have like a bunch of time off and you know like, yeah, me and Dave have been talking about maybe doing something. I mean I wouldn't mind starting a Metal band long off, that would be kinda cool. Something I'd really like. I think American Metal bands usually suck. I'd have to move to Europe somewhere to make a living.

Q>> So it's time to start dissing Tony. I've heard he's a chicken shit about flying. What's the truth to that story?
A>> [Abundant Laughter] What a weird way to put things! You know what? He has an issue with flying and he deals with it. He's been here how many times? We haven't like not played Europe, we haven't not done anything. Does it bother him? Sure. It bothers all of us in a way you know. I think it's one of the most inconvenient ways of traveling. Flying sucks but no, he's not a chicken shit about flying. That's a really funny way to put it. He does better and better every time so … no problems. [Laughter] … chicken shit.

Q>> Punkrock is changing... You just have to turn on the TV…
A>> If you want to call that Punkrock then … hey … that's fine for you. I'm not calling that anything. I'm calling that shit coming out of my speakers. Most of those bands are retarded. They're not even Punkrock. We're not even Punkrock anymore, I mean …

Q>> I don't call myself a Punkrock fan anymore either. I'm just a guy that enjoys music and that's it.
A>> Exactly! That's kind of how I've been looking at it too you know. We're basically 4 guys and an amp and that's pretty rad but …err… the classification people put on themselves nowadays is … like you know … I'm a vegetarian or I'm a fucking whatever is bullshit. Live your life, be happy and eat eggs if you want. Just stop being such a pussy and start living your own life. I think the minute you label yourself anything you're just a sellout to yourself.

Q>> So any last words for our readers?
A>> I love Allen. [Laughter]. He's the merch guy for Bigwig and I've been giving him shit all tour for being a vegetarian. That's why I just said all that stuff. No, what can I really say? Belgium rules, I can't believe the show sold out before we even got here and thanks so much. It's so amazing.

Thanks to Lien (Sonic Rendezvous) and Nanette (Fat Wreck) for setting up this interview. And thanks to Stef and Tom for helping me out. I know I can always count on you two guys!

YVES

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