Interviews

Big Wig

Interview with Band on Feb 19, 2006 by Archive Bot

Although often times the butt of every joke, New Jersey has a few things to be proud of.  There’s Bruce Springsteen, moderately clean beaches and a fun little band called BigWig.  For years, this band has been playing their hardest, loudest and fastest to punk rockers all over the world.  After a painfully long break from playing shows and releasing new material, the boys are back with “Reclamation,” their newest full length on Fearless Records.  Not to worry, all the isolation hasn’t made them any softer or any slower.  Keith, Tom, Zach and Jeff got together with me in Baltimore and while they snacked on hummus and Yueng Ling, the guys talked about why it took them so long to put this record out, how Jeff is scared of Wal-Mart and Keith’s plans of world domination.
 
By: Katie Ellsweig [k-t@hvc.rr.com]
 
Katie: For a while people were kind of wondering if BigWig had in fact, broken up.  Why has it been so long and what spurred the decision to make this album?
 
Tom: We were going through a crazy phase looking for a new guitar player which is now Jeff.  We never doubted anything, the only thing we doubted was everyone was going really broke just trying to keep the band together and keep writing for the new record. Everybody was moving out of houses and into new places and we didn’t want to settle on a guitar player. We never broke up. We never even thought of breaking up, we had other goals that we wanted to do like have a practice space, which is something a lot of bands take for granted. We’ve never had a practice space and we don’t even have a van still. We live far away from each other and a round trip practice can take 3-5 hours one way.  We practice at the place where Keith works all day, so he works all day and then plays drums and then prints our t-shirts after work.
 
Katie: How is the title, Reclamation, significant of BigWig’s return?
 
Zach: I would say that what it means to me is that as a band right now we’re a really strong unit and we depend on and love each other. Everybody goes through hard times and we fuckin’ stuck it out, you know. 
 
Tom: This is how we do! The whole reclamation thing is just about reclaiming independence.  It just seemed that we were being tossed around back and forth and something wasn’t right for a while. Reclamation is the warning that we’re going to be taking over the earth.
 
Katie: So everyone will be drinking Yueng Ling and eating Hummus…
 
Tom: You know it. Our world’s going to stink!
 
Katie: A friend of mine said about the album that it’s “Everything you would expect from bigwig.” What does that mean and what should we have been expecting from you?
 
Keith: We have a certain style of music that we love to play so if we were to put out a softer record people wouldn’t expect it.  We just tried to write a good, solid, fast, heartfelt record and I think that’s the main thing that people like us for. They want BigWig to hit hard and I definitely think we’re heading in that direction on this record.
 
Katie: How does your attitude towards making an album change and how was it different with a new member?
 
Tom: Statue heads! I think we got so in depth in making the record that outside influences became non-existent. We didn’t listen to what anybody said about the songs or anything.  We just put out exactly what we wanted to do and changed it when we wanted to change it.  I think that the attitude was like, we wanted to put out the best record we can and with the whole internet thing and downloading people are losing out on cool artwork. We’re not known for artwork or anything but we wanted to make it a cool package. Everything in there is our touch and there’s no label involvement. It’s all BigWig and that was the goal. We’ve always wanted to be able to do what we want.  As for Jeff, he’s not new anymore. As soon as Jeff was in it felt right and it was time to finish the record.  Shredder over here showed a lot of talent.
 
Jeff: It was weird for me because we started writing for the album immediately when I joined the band.  It’s such a weird and strange process that by the time we finished the album, I was already a part of the band.
 
Tom: When we were traveling as a three piece, our bassist had to leave and we had auditions for the first time ever. A lot of people flew out from all different parts of the country-one guy tried to get in from Australia. We just wanted to keep it sort of family and someone told us about Zach. We went to dinner, and it worked out great.  I don’t feel like anything is new anymore. There’s no more drama and no more bullshit; we’re just doing what we’re doing.  
 
Katie: There was a long period of time where you didn’t play any shows. Now that you are playing shows again, are the fans still there that were loyal before?
 
Keith: I think in the downtime we had, we were playing here and there but the member changes held us back a little. Because of taking time off, there was like a holding pattern where kids kept their faith in us knowing that it was a strong band and they knew we would be back. It’s good to see everyone at the shows again and they’ve been unbelievable since we’ve been back; really supporting this new record.
 
Jeff: There have been kids at the shows who have been like “it was worth the wait but don’t do it again.”
 
Tom: I think they know us as people that we have jobs and we have bills to pay and there are some thing we can’t do. There was a point where Keith and I were left by ourselves wondering what the fuck we were going to do. We didn’t want to put out some shitty filler record; we wanted to put out something that our hearts went into. 
 
Katie: Back in 2001, you did an interview with this website and you mentioned that you thought punk was getting trendy. That was five years ago, so what do you think about it now?
 
Tom: I was right! I should have started a major label right then and there.  But no really, I don’t way it’s trendy but that’s what it’s there for. It was meant to say that mainstream sucks so lets turn it into something cooler and cheaper. It’s definitely become way more assessable which makes it bigger. It’s almost become a sort of Wal-Mart as opposed to going to your mom and pop record store and ordering it from there because the label didn’t have enough money to print up records.  It’s very corporate oriented, like 80’s pop was. I think the same thing that happened to metal with Nirvana is happening to punk with this emo or whatever it’s called. Thank god for bands like Green Day, you know. As big as they are, I love those guys and I think that band is amazing and I hope more bands catch up to that same moral mentality of the way it should be. People are too quick to sell themselves out and pay to play, dress like their labels tell them and shit like that. 
 
Katie: They don’t sell BigWig in Wal-Mart!
 
Tom: Maybe one day. Can’t say I’ve never been to Wal-Mart.
 
Jeff: The first time I was in Wal-Mart, I freaked out. I had a shopping cart full of stuff and I just ran.
 
Tom: I have a feeling that they do stem cell research at Wal-Mart and all the fucked up ones just kind of linger around…
 
Zach: I used to work at Wal-Mart and it fucking sucked! But I would just get toasted in the parking lot and then go in. I worked in the toy department. 
 
Katie: The Bouncing Souls have always said they’d never play on MTV. Does BigWig have any sort of unwritten rules that you talk about or just sort of follow?
 
Tom: There are a lot of unwritten rules that we kind of follow. I don’t think we ever said we’d never be on a major label or on TV. I think that when the time comes we’ll cross that bridge but if we want to do it, we will do it. If we’re totally against something we’re not going to be a part of it. Even a political band can’t go through life fighting every god dam thing because then we wouldn’t go into Wal-Marts and we’d grow our own food and there’s only so far you can take it. I appreciate the bands that do take it far but there’s a certain point where after ten years you just can’t fight every body. 
 
Keith: We try to do everything on our own set of ethics and if the rules were to apply to the way we see things through, I don’t see why we wouldn’t do anything. It’s got to be right for the band.
 
Zach: We look out for us, for our friends and for the other bands playing with us. We want everything to be a good time and a good show and it’s not about the money obviously. 
 
Tom: We get excited about selling a lot of records or hopefully selling more records not for the payout but for getting that record out. It’s like baking a cake!
 
Katie: How have you been able to grow as people without growing apart as a band?
 
Jeff: Playing in a band is like being married to a bunch of other dudes.  You just make sure that everyone can work together in different situations so people can grow and do what they want to but the band is the main focus.
 
Tom: Anyone is allowed to bring anything they want to the table in this band. Everyone seems to be really on the same page with most of our stuff.  We like outside influences from our friends; we finally did a myspace. It only took us years! That’s a new thing for us; this whole computer thing. When we started a band we weren’t used to being on a computer. I didn’t even have a cell phone then.
 
Keith: The whole networking thing is so different now. It’s almost a necessary evil to change because everyone else wants you to do it and you want to do it because it helps your band but at the same time you have to compromise it.  I would tell anybody to stop downloading and go shop and go to a show instead of just sitting here with your fucking online shopping cart talking shit on message boards. Go meet the band and see if they’re cool or not and then go talk your shit.  I do back being online but if that’s what you base it on, bands are going to lose their recording budgets from labels and have to record for the computer and for Ipods. 
 
Jeff: That whole wave of the internet having influence over music does have its positives. If you hear about a band it’s so easy to go check them out, so it’s not all bad. A lot of that closeness that you get from playing with bands disappears.
 
Tom: What used to take us three days to make…recordings of our band recorded on a 4-track analog, now you could record in your garage and stream it for a million people that day. Everyone’s a rock star but there are only so many kids and it just becomes so watered down and it’s kind of phony after a while. There is something cool about the rareness of punk bands and not being this cookie cutter pop out.  
 
Katie: You actually contacted us to do this interview and that was really interesting for me because that almost never happens.  How does your DIY ethic set you apart from other bands?
 
Keith: It is what it is. It’s our band, so why wouldn’t we want to do the legwork? It’s so easy to dish it off on other people but it would it work out the same way if you didn’t do it yourself? If you’re dealing one on one with people, everybody knows where everybody’s at. It’s our band and anyone is free to do what they want.
 
Jeff: That’s the attitude of the band.  Last weekend we split a case of beer and printed our own t-shirts.  We’re all fans of punk rock too, you know. 
 
Zach: It’s probably also way more fun to drink a few beers and print your merch with your friends than to just get it in a box all done.  I’m sure it’s nice but this is part of bringing everybody together. 
 
Tom: Everybody worked in the morning, drove for three hours, practiced for three hours and then printed for three hours and it was fun; that’s what we do.
 
 
***Unfortunately due to technical difficulties, the last five minutes of this interview were cut off.  Who knows, BigWig could have revealed the secrets of the universe but we’ll never know.  Thank you Keith, Tom, Zach and Jeff for doing this interview and for still making music even after all these years.