Interviews

Brand New

Interview with The whole band on Nov 30, 1999 by Archive Bot

Only on Sherbourne St. at the Phoenix will you get a venue beside an almost whore house that smells gross and is dirty and ugly and has weird signs all over the place about not being able to make noise after 11 p.m. At the same time being across the street from an almost mental institution where they let a big old man run around selling dream catchers made from yarn and pipe cleaners he stole from Arts and Crafts and asking everyone to buy him beer. This is the place where you can't get change for the parking meter anywhere cause for some reason kids don't carry change and everyone else only has American money and where you meet some dude who thinks you made up your last name and you're not really the person you say you are. And on that day only one band could make me happy to want to go inside instead of making me wish I had stayed home. Brand New rocked. Literally. After you read this interview run outside and get Your Favorite Weapon. A big thanks and high five to Fred at Triple Crown and to Brand New. Now read what Jesse and Brian had to say when I sat down with them after their show here in Toronto on October 6th...........

PB: What something that you dislike about yourself and you wish you could change?
JESSE: My appearance. I hate the way I look. I can't stand looking in a mirror.

PB: Really?
JESSE: It disgusts me. I guess I just have low self-image. I know that maybe by society's standards I'm probably fine, but personally I hate the way I look.

PB: What is it about the way you look?
JESSE: I don't know everything. After shows people want to take pictures with me. I cringe at that thought because I know that eventually I'm going to have to see that picture, whether they e-mail it us or they bring it to the next show or whatnot, I hate it and I hate looking at myself.
BRIAN: I agree. I am the least photogenic person there must be ever. I am not photogenic at all.

PB: That's actually really interesting.
JESSE: I think we're all just really critical of ourselves in general. Every single night that we play we always think we sucked or we could have done better somehow.

PB: Really? You never think you sound good?
JESSE: When we come off stage there is always something that we could have done better, we can always try harder.
BRIAN: Always.
JESSE: That's why we go nuts on stage. I start to hate the way I sound and I hate the fact that we're sucking so bad and the way I'm playing my guitar. That's also why it's not difficult, because a lot of the time I'm just thinking about how bad we sound and we beat ourselves up for it.

PB: That's so weird, 'cause I thought that it was because you were upset at whatever you were singing about because you start to go nuts at certain parts...
JESSE: Well, sometimes it's that too.

PB: Well, what do you think you could have done better tonight?
JESSE: Other than playing late, breaking my equipment and being delayed because of that? The thing is it doesn't matter what we think we sound like as long as the audience is enjoying it. Which is also why we go crazy on stage, it's far more interesting to see a band that is going absolutely crazy. Because no matter what we're always going to think we sucked.

PB: Okay, but do you try every night to do better and to do things differently based on what you think sucked the night before?
JESSE: Of course, it's always ongoing but there are so many things...

(Interestingly enough when talking to Vin later on he mentioned the exact same thing about thinking they sucked. He went on to say that they are constantly trying to improve and trying to make themselves happy with the way they played but he thinks that when they finally get to that point when they as a band are completely satisfied with their music, everyone else is going to stop liking them.)

PB: Is it hard to go crazy when, okay, for example tonight it was an early show and there weren't that many kids there and I don't know if they knew you...but is it hard to have that energy and go crazy if people are just standing around?
JESSE: Sometimes it's hard, but I think when people see us going nuts on stage they feed off of our energy. And it's also fine for people to just stand and listen to the music and take it all in if that's the way they enjoy it and that's the way they prefer to listen to the show. Of course, it feels better when you can look out and kids are bashing their knuckles and fists and going as crazy as you are. We feed off of their energy and they feed off of ours and that's always when it turns out the best. We break a lot of stuff and we get hurt a lot.

PB: Yeah you guys do get hurt a lot don't you?
JESSE: Do you want to hear something interesting? If I'm up there and Garrett bashes me in the eye with his guitar it doesn't hurt as much as you think it would for some reason.

PB: Well pain is a weird, weird thing. Like you could get hurt and not notice it, then see yourself bleeding and all of a sudden it starts to hurt and you feel the pain.
JESSE: Yeah, it can be psychological. But sometimes pain feels good. I can't even explain it. Like when we're up there its not that big of a deal. Like do you know when you have sore gums and you clench your teeth and it hurts but it's not a bad pain?

PB: No. Sore gums?
JESSE: Okay well never mind. Have you ever tried to cut yourself with a razor blade, like from a razor?

PB: Not intentionally.
JESSE: Well, I cut my finger with one once just to see, not because I wanted to hurt myself or anything but it doesn't hurt at all. I think people who cut themselves with razors are pussies cause it doesn't hurt at all.

PB: Well cutting your hand doesn't really hurt, it just starts to bleed a lot.
BRIAN: No way, it hurts so much. You know when you go to the nurse and they take blood from your finger? They squeeze it to get all the blood there and then the nurse pricks it and squeezes the blood out, that hurts so much.
JESSE: Yeah, that hurts so much more than a razor.

PB: Well are you looking at your finger when she does it?
JESSE: Yeah.

PB: So maybe that's why it hurts so much, because you see it and you're expecting the pain when she pricks you and that's why, it never hurt me that much to get blood taken. Have you ever donated blood?
BRIAN: Yeah.
JESSE: Yeah.

PB: That's probably way worse right?
BRIAN: Not half as bad at all.

PB: Really, I don't know it's weird because with that I always think because it's so much more blood that you'll be able to feel it gushing out of you.
JESSE: Nothing compares to getting blood taken when they prick your finger.

PB: What is something you like about yourself?
JESSE: I don't know. I can't say.

PB: Come on. The first thing that came to your head.
JESSE: I think that I'm a friendly person. I'm easy to get along with. I like talking to people and getting along with people. I'm personable. I think that's what I like best about myself. As a band
BRIAN: Oh, that was what I was going to say, something like that.
JESSE: I think we're all like that. I like to talk to people and I think I'm easy to talk to.

PB: What image do you think people have of you?
JESSE: I have no idea what people think of me because all I know is the way I am. What impression do you think people have of us?

PB: Do you know what I mean? The way someone can listen to your album and formulate a way that they think you'd be in person. I had a predisposed idea of what I thought you were going to be like. I always have an expectation of the way I think a person is going to be.
JESSE: What did you think we were going to be like before you talked to us?

PB: I don't know.
JESSE: Was it that we would be more professional? That I would be shy and quiet and sit here?

PB: Well professional isn't really the word but yeah. I think your music tends to give off a certain vibe like that about you and you're not like that at all.
JESSE: Okay I understand what you're saying. I think I know what you're talking about. I can definitely act that that way if I wanted to and put that act on. People misinterpret us a lot. We just do what we do. Here is a story. We were driving and we had to change our tire and we were in a pretty small place and we parked our van outside of Taco Bell we got food and we were eating in the parking lot. This kid drove by and recognized our trailer and he stopped and came and asked if we were Brand New and started talking to us. It was really cool that he recognized the trailer and stuff but he said something that I thought was so weird. He said something like, "So this is what you guys do? You actually sit and eat Taco Bell?". But he said it way funnier than that.
BRIAN: Yeah he said it differently.
JESSE: But anyway, he said it as if it was so weird for us to be sitting there eating Taco Bell. We're not rockstars. We have no idea how to be rockstars or how to act like that. Like I have absolutely no clue how to act like a rockstar. We just don't. We're normal people. We eat Taco Bell. We eat Taco Bell because it's good and it's cheap. And yes, if people are wondering we do need to change our tired because we get flats sometimes. So it was so odd because he thought it was so strange for us to be sitting outside eating Taco Bell with our van. The idea of that is incredible. We were playing a show on Long Island and Vin was really drunk and climbed this huge tower and stage dived into the audience and he broke this girl's nose.
BRIAN: The girl thanked him and apologized for bleeding on his shirt and for ruining the show.
JESSE: It's absolutely crazy. It's beyond me.

PB: Well there now you know the other image that people think of you. That you're these big rockstars.
JESSE: We're just this small band.

PB: Yeah but people might see your video on MTV or whatever and not know you're a small band.
JESSE: I guess so. I'd hate to think what they thought of a band that is actually big. All we do is we eat Taco Bell in the parking lot and drive our own van and stage dive onto people and break our equipment and hurt each other....

PB: Who drives?
JESSE: We take turns but most of the time it's Garrett.
BRIAN: Jesse can't drive now.

PB: Why?
BRIAN: His license got taken away.
JESSE: They took it away because I was driving 100 miles an hour that's why.

PB: We don't have miles we have kilometers.
JESSE: That's right.
BRIAN: We're the only country that still has the metric system.
JESSE: The metric system is the stupidest thing ever. It makes no sense. It works in twelfths. That makes no sense what so ever. Who works in twelfths?

PB: Okay, that's all I have.
JESSE: We're going to end like that?
BRIAN: With the metric system?

PB: That's the best way to end.