INTERVIEW: THE BLACK LIPS @ RICKSHAW THEATRE

The Black Lips are one of my favourite bands, in both their live shows and their albums. There’s a small list of bands that I know I’ll make the effort to go see every chance I get, and this band is most definitely one of them. Unfortunately (or was it, fortunately?) for them, they were scheduled to play in Vancouver at The Commodore Ballroom on July 15th 2011, which then turned out to be Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Finals between the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins. This conflict in scheduling forced the show over the The Rickshaw Theatre so that the Commodore could hold it’s Hockey (hopefully victory, but not) party. This interview took place right in the middle of the game, the aftermath that was to come, was not yet known to us.

Michael Caswell (SCENE): How are you doing today?

Jared Swilley: I’m doing pretty good!

SCENE: We’re sitting here at the Rickshaw Theatre because, well, today is a pretty big day for Vancouver, are you aware of what’s happening in the city?

Jared: Yeah the game 7 of the Stanley Cup. I actually went to my first hockey game last year, but we don’t really have ice in Georgia so Hockey’s not really a… well, we just lost our Hockey team, I think it went to Winnipeg.

SCENE: The Commodore Ballroom is going to have a big viewing party, as they did for all the games.

Jared: Oh yeah so that’s why they switched us to here.

SCENE: Yeah exactly. So we’ll see what happens, I don’t know, if we win it’s going to be the biggest party ever for Vancouver, but if we lose…

Jared: Riot?

SCENE: Yeah.

Jared: Damn, well either way I think it’s going to be awesome.

SCENE: Yeah either way is exciting!

Both: [Laughs]

SCENE: So what makes you want to Rock n’ Roll?

Jared: Me?

SCENE: Yeah.

Jared: I, don’t really know how to do anything else really. [Laughs] It’s been my entire life.

SCENE: That’s a good answer. What is your favourite thing about Vancouver?

Jared: Favorite thing about Vancouver? Is kinda like, the hedonism. Every time we’ve been here there’s been wild after parties. I’m not so much into the junkie thing, that kinda grosses me out but uh, just the general debauchery and, it’s really pretty too. We’ve always had really good shows here. The only thing I don’t like is the last time we were here me and Cole got beat up.

SCENE: What? You’re gunna have to tell me about that. What was the story there?

Jared: It was a dude in a Hockey jersey, like yourself.

SCENE: This one?

Jared: Yeah. And uh, we were playing with Deerhunter and me and Cole and Bradford, the singer from Deerhunter went to get poutine after the show and I guess Cole had some sort of a choir robe on and a pilgrim hat and this guy in line, who didn’t know I was with Cole called him a faggot. I turned around and said ‘Hey buddy, that’s my friend don’t be rude.” He was like “Ho you want to go outside?” and I was like “Of course, I’d be obliged.” And we went outside and he knocked me out, knocked Cole out, Bradford didn’t get our back he just stood there and screamed but, he’s not really good at fighting.

SCENE: He wouldn’t be much use in a fight really. I mean, he’s such a nice guy [laughs].

Jared: Yeah [laughs] he yelled a lot. But yeah, we got beat up and then it was hard to chew our food for the next like, week or so.

SCENE: Aw dude. Well I apologize on behalf of the city for that.

Jared: Nah it was actually very uncharacteristic. I’m used to, you know if America if I get jumped… Oh shit, I just got a text. 2-0 Boston. For your sake I hope Canucks come back.

SCENE: Ah, fuck.

Both: [Laughs]

Jared: No other that that I love Canada. Main thing, I know it’s clique but everyone is really nice here. Everyone has a good sense of humor. Like, America, people, well a lot of people do, but when you get out into the country, it gets a little weird.

SCENE: What is your favourite song to play live?

Jared: My favourites are usually, covers we do, like sometimes we’ll do a Chuck Berry cover or something like that. Those are just really fun. Usually songs that aren’t our own. I like playing songs, like Mark Sultan is coming tonight and I really like doing songs with him or King Khan. Those are always fun. Anytime we do a collaboration with a friend of ours on stage, cuz it’s different.

SCENE: Speaking of King Khan, The Almighty Defenders, what can you tell me about that?

Jared: I was kinda just a one off thing, we might do shows in the future, like if a festival offers us money, cuz we all live in, now 4 different cities, so it’s hard for us to really get together, all at once but you know, you were just in Berlin the other day and we did a couple Almighty Defenders songs with King Khan, we might do that tonight with BBQ cuz he’s coming to the show. I don’t know, he missed Sound Check so, don’t know how likely it’s looking.

SCENE: Probably because of the game.

Jared: [Laughs] Yeah, he’s really into Hockey.

SCENE: [Laughs] Well then yeah he’s definitely not leaving wherever he is until the game is done! So how is the tour going so far?

Jared: It’s good. We’re pretty much in tour from March to September. I haven’t been home in, 3 months I think. So it’s different. This has been the best leg so far. Well, the month we did with Vivian Girls on the East coast was really fun, I like touring with them. This one’s been super fun, I like touring the West Coast a lot. It’s always great; you get a lot of change of scenery, and good weather and stuff.

SCENE: Are you getting used to it at this point then, being away from home?

Jared: I don’t really know what it’s like to be at home, so it’s weird for me when I am at home, if I’m not traveling.

SCENE: Yeah that makes sense. If you could go on tour with anyone, any other band, who would that be? And you can’t pick Deerhunter.

Jared: The Rolling Stones. Easy.

SCENE: How do you pass the time on the road?

Jared: Read a lot of books. Listen to a lot of Comedy CDs. Talk, smoke pot.

SCENE: Mitch Hedberg, are you a fan of his?

Jared: Yeah I listen to Mitch Hedberg. Lately we’ve been doing The Phil Hendrie Show, he was this radio DJ in Los Angeles for a long time and he’s brilliant, I just found out about him so I have probably 80-100 hours left of Phil Hendrie’s show to get through

SCENE: Do you know Karl Pilkington?

Jared: I know that name.

SCENE: You gotta check him out. Ricky Gervais, his Podcast is pretty much all about making fun of this guy. They also did this show it’s called An Idiot Abroad and they sent Karl to all the wonders of the world, basically as like a practical joke because they knew he would hate it and they made it as hard as they could for him.

Jared: That sounds awesome. Sounds like Windy City Heat. It’s this movie that, it was basically, they got this guy named Scary Perry, and he’s just this freak, and they make him believe that he’s going ot star in this big Hollywood blockbuster movie, and it was all just, it was kinda mean but it was, hilarious.

SCENE: But it was turned into a movie so, I guess he did still star in a movie.

Jared: Yeah yeah. In a way he would have just been some jerk loser with a crappy apartment but in a way you know, he became a movie star!

SCENE: Do you have any books to recommend? You said you did a lot of reading, anything you’re reading now that you’d like to tell the fans about?

Jared: All the books I read are pretty dark. Right now I’m reading a book called the Black Livingstone. There was this guy named William Sheppard, he was an African American born in the south the year the civil war ended and he ended up going through the ladders to face a lot of adversity. He was one of the first to go to the Congo to report on all of the atrocities that Belgium was doing over there when they basically ran it as their rubber factory. It’s pretty cool it’s like an adventure story about the first black African-American to go deep into the heart of the Congo.

SCENE: Wow yeah that sounds interesting. I meant to ask before but, what role does religion play in your life? Relating to The Almighty Defenders.

Jared: I don’t think any of us believe in God but I grew up in a full gospel church, every male in my family is a preacher, most of the females as well.

SCENE: So they kind of expected you to follow that path?

Jared: Yeah yeah, my little brother is a preacher already and he’s only 20. But, we do the same thing, we’re on stage, but as far as the gospel music goes, it’s the most honest music without any pretention whatsoever and the most raw because those people, if you listen to old gospel recordings, they’re screaming and shouting louder than any punk bands I’ve ever head, with more conviction and passion because, punk bands are singing about being angry, our band sings about cartoon characters and chicks and stuff like that. Those people are singing about what they believe is eternal and who they believe controls the universe so you really can’t trump that when you’re thinking about passion in music, you can’t be more passionate.

SCENE: It’s their core belief structure.

Jared: Yeah, I believe when I die that, I’m just dead. I’m almost jealous, I’m envious of I wish I believed in God and had that kind of passion but it just doesn’t make sense to me. I always felt that what set us apart from other animals, that makes us superior was that we’re the only living creature that knows that we’re going to die, at some point. I don’t think other animals know that. Maybe chimpanzees, I’m wondering if they know that also.

SCENE: Don’t know if you know this but Vancouver has a lot of video game companies, we’ve got the biggest game studio in the world, EA’s main headquarters is over in Burnaby.

Jared: Really?

SCENE: Yeah. Do you guys have any favourite video games? New or old.

Jared: Definitely! Uh, me and Joe, our drummer are huge into video games. Our favourite collective video game is Final Fantasy 3 for Super Nintendo, followed by Chrono Trigger, followed by Final Fantasy 2. As far as new games, I was really into Assassin’s Creed, I just finished Red Dead Redemption, I liked that I’m really looking forward to getting LA Noire, whenever I find a home that I can plug the Xbox into.

SCENE: So you like RPGs and story based stuff?

Jared: Yeah yeah. In the van we have video games but, their kinda shitty, we have this shitty Baseball game EA did that’s way too rigid, we have a crappy Hockey game that we don’t really understand and we have The Godfather game that was kinda fun but we don’t have a memory card so you have to start over every time. I can do shooters sometimes, I just finished 2 Gears of War and those are pretty fun but mostly RPGs. I just started Fable 2 before I went on tour but it’s hard to keep up with. And Fallout 3, that was awesome.

SCENE: Are you up-to-date on your American Political scandals, what do you think Anthony Weiner should do at this point?

Jared: Well it’s unfortunate, I liked the guy. It’s just retarded, I even sent my girlfriend a picture of my chest the other day just to be like, in my job I can do whatever I want and no one will get mad at me. It’s so dumb and so retarded, American Politics is just so gossipy, it basically reads like a soap opera. I mean, the Republicans do the same thing, I mean, people do what they do, it’s just a huge distraction like there’s all this shit going on and your worried about a bulge in some dickhead’s pants. And the thing is, I want my politicians to be doing shit like that, that’s what makes them politicians, that’s the kind of character that you bring into that, that’s what they do. Men in power and men with money, that’s what they’re going to do so just accept it/ That’s why I like the French way about it, until the decent DSK thing they were totally cool about, whatever happens happens, and it was almost kind of a badge of honour when French politicians did that, I just like their attitude.

SCENE: Yeah over there they seem to be able to separate the personal with the work side of things, if people are doing the work then that’s what matters.

Jared: Yeah, I don’t give a fuck who anyone fucks, that’s why the whole issue with Gay Marriage is so mind-boggling. I don’t care who anyone’s having sex with unless they’re having sex with like, my wife or my girlfriend, that’s the only time I have an issue with it… But no one has ever had sex with my wife because, I’ve never been married.

SCENE: Arabia Mountain. Anything you want to say about that?

Jared: Best album of the decade so far, we’re probably going to push, well we’re expecting two million units, at least one Grammy, at least. Yeah, it’s a really good album, I’m happy with it. Yeah, stoked that we finished it.

SCENE: Would you like to say anything to the fans?

Jared: Keep a dry lip and a clean pecker.

SCENE: And what’s next for The Black Lips?

Jared: Once we finish this tour, we go to Japan with the Vivian Girls and then from Japan we go to Europe then we go back to America to tour again, and yeah we’ll be on tour and if you live in a decent sized city we’ll probably we playing in it soon.

SCENE: Nice. And a Grammy right?

Jared: Yeah, at least one!

SCENE: Thanks so much for your time, really looking forward to the show.

Jared: [Laughs] Yeah it should be fun, thanks!