Don't start a band? - an interview with Reel Big Fish Reel Big Fish, in case you didn't know, are a ska punk band from California who have been going since 1992. Suzanne Edwards was lucky enough to go backstage to meet them at their recent Newcastle show.
How do you feel about touring the UK? Aaron Barrett: We love it, oh god we love it John "Johnny Christmas" Christianson: I’m not one of those guys who are like ‘I love this place the best, where are we again?’ I honestly love playing the UK more than anywhere else in the World Scott Klopfenstein: This is our new home country Especially the north? A: Especially the north, especially Newcastle...it’s awesome. S: Reading and Leeds are fucking fantastic too. Can I swear? Oh yes, S: Balls! Piss! Fuck!
The show is very energetic, how do you keep it up every night? A: We don’t do anything else the rest of the time. If you saw us any other time you’d be like ‘are you guys in a coma?’ We keep it all in reserve for the shows. What’s it like touring with SLM and SB6? A: I’m getting sick of seeing SLM, I’ve seen them every night of my life for the past two years! They’re both awesome. (SB6 Leila singer walks past at this exact moment and laughs along) You’ve toured with some amazing bands such as Less Than Jake, could you pick a favourite? A: I wouldn’t want to pick a favourite.
Aaron has spoken of being old and jaded, particularly after ‘We’re Not Happy...’. However, ‘Monkeys for Nothing...’ is more upbeat than the predecessor. Do you feel old and jaded, or have you moved on? A: Sometimes I feel old and jaded, but the fans don’t want to hear that, they like the loud, defiant fuck you songs, rather than the quiet miserable fuck you songs, so we ramped up the energy on our new album. J: With ‘We’re not happy...' we had a load of problems with our record label and there was inner-band turmoil and that came across on the album. What’s it been like since you set up your own label? A: Inner-band turmoil. S: But a different kind of inner-band turmoil. A: We did the live album all by ourselves, it was really ambitious and there was a load of business stuff we had to do which was really difficult, so this time round we’ve got our friends to do all that stuff! J: People keep saying it’s easier to buy our records in stores now, so we’re a lot happier with the distribution certainly, we have more... Presence? S: Yeah, the records make great presents, buy ‘em for your friends!
Do you get tired playing the same old songs and covers like 'Take on Me'? A: I don’t know how anyone could not enjoy playing their big songs. When you start playing a song and you see 2000 people or whatever freak out and go insane, how could you not love that? In your cover of the Morrissey song, ‘WHIWOFBS’ you mention No Doubt, why them? A: They were just the big local band at the time and we thought it would be funny. I don’t think they found it funny, but the more annoyed they got the more we thought it was hilarious! One message for the fans S: Hi this is RBF, we can’t come to the phone right now but if you leave a message we’ll get back to you. J: Seriously, we couldn’t do this without the fans. A: Thank you for letting us entertain you. Thank you for our lives.
Pushtofire thinks that perhaps you should start a band - it sounds like a lot fun! You can visit the band's web site at reel-big-fish.com to learn more about the band. Top image of Suzanne with the band taken by Rachael Dilley, image of RBF at Leeds by Jonno Witts (© 2008 Jonno Witts) and image of Aaron by Dan Hase (© 2008 Dan Hase). Check out our photo galleries for more photos from the Newcastle show. Thanks go to Reel Big Fish for taking the time to answer Suzanne's questions