Interviews

Bill Stevenson

Interview with Bill Stevenson on Jun 1, 2007 by Archive Bot

There are few individuals who have left (and are still leaving) as large an imprint on the punk rock community as Bill Stevenson. As a drummer, he has played in seminal acts Black Flag, The Descendents, and ALL. As a producer and recording engineer, he started up and continues to run the Blasting Room, which has become a recording institution in regards to modern day punk. Punkbands.com’s Amy Meyer was lucky enough to sit down with Bill while he was on tour with his latest musical venture, Only Crime, as they continue to support their sophomore Fat Wreck release, Virulence.
 
By: Amy Meyer
 
Did you see yourself being involved in the punk scene for so long when you initially started?
 
Bill Stevenson: Definitely not. We were making our own seven inch records in high school and we would just sell them to our friends at school. We didn’t even think anyone would come see us at all. We didn’t even think we’d have an actual show, ya know the Descendents, so the idea of being a 44 year-old playing a punk show, that would be the farthest possible thing from what I thought would happen.
 
How did you get your first show? How’d you get into playing shows and touring?
 
BS: I think the Black Flag guys helped us get started because they were older and they would do things like rent a hall. They gave the whole South Bay punk scene a good jump-start. They weren’t afraid to lose money too because they all had jobs and I just lived with my dad.
 
How did you come to the decision to start the Blasting Room?
 
BS: When we first started it, it was really just for us to record with and it very quickly became its own entity when bands started calling to ask if they could come record. Initially, we just did a little, simple cost analysis and determined that we could buy some pretty primitive recording gear for about what it would cost to go into a studio and do a certain amount of recording, and so we just decided to do that. From there it built up, and up, and up and now, of course, a lot of people are aware of it. It’s still just kind of home to me, I’m very comfortable there because I get really nervous when I record, but I don’t get nervous there.
 
Would you say with your producing, mixing, all the technical stuff, how would you compare that to being in the band and tour? Which do you like better? Do you have a preference?
 
BS: I’d say the best is a good balance of both, and then if I can make it home on Tuesdays and Thursdays to help my daughter with her homework too, then I kind of get it all in there, that’s the best. I spend basically six months on one record, basically just sitting in front of a mixing counsel for six/seven months and when I do that too much, I start to get weird. I like to play music. Drumming was the only thing keeping me in decent physical condition. I play pretty aggressively, pretty hard and I spent most of my adult life on tour playing hundreds of shows and that was the only thing keeping me in good shape, so I notice the more I produce and not drum, I feel like my physical health is deteriorating. 
 
What are the perks of both being in a band and making other bands’ music sound good?
 
BS: They help each other for sure because if I’m recording a band I always learn from them. You can always learn from anything. Are you a journalist?
 
Yes.
 
BS: So any journalist you come in contact with, whether they’re better than you or worse, you can still learn from them because in a way they’re like a mirror, but with perks, a mirror, but with friend’s benefits. So every time there’s a band, I always learn a ton of stuff and I apply that to when I start to make music again for myself. Also, I think the bands like the fact that if I’m in there recording them and they’re like “Yeah, fuck, I saw Bill play three weeks ago in Only Crime, he kicked ass.” I’m not some guy in a suit or something that doesn’t understand it, they know I understand it.
 
What is your favorite band to work with?
 
BS: That’s a tough one. Probably the most obvious answer is Rise Against just because we’re really close to them; they’re like family to us. They come through even on family vacations and stay with us, Tim does, so that’s the overwhelmingly easy answer. There have been some other bands too that I’ve really got attached too. I think A Wilhelm Scream, those guys are geniuses, I think those guys are amazing and Shades Apart. There’s the brotherhood that happens and I think that happens with all the bands. I feel as though the Blasting Room, The Descendents, and ALL are extended family. I feel like it’s a community with a kind of unspoken brotherhood there. I strongly feel that might keep me young a little bit, being surrounded by so much youth and excitement. Then musically there’s those kinds of highlights too; Wilhelm Scream and Shades Apart, Silent Drive was really good too. See, no matter how many I name, I’m going to get like ten emails from my friends I didn’t mention, so I just have to talk it up to my not remembering.
 
So since it’s kind of like a brotherhood and it’s a lot of fun, what are some difficulties? What do you get frustrated with?
 
BS: Are we talking about the recording process? In a way it was easier when it was taped because you knew that they had to play it right and if they didn’t play it right they had to try again. The responsibility was placed on the bands’ shoulders to play it right and it was placed on your shoulders, too, to help them or teach them to play it right. With Pro Tools now, anything goes. I could take a band of twelve-year-old kids that cannot play anything, and I could make a great album that you would think was done by veteran musicians. You may say that sounds like it made things easier, but it also opened fucking Pandora skyscrapers, it opened everything to where I get a band and it’s like, “Let’s try and verse again,” and they’ll say, “No, just fix it,” and it’s like no, I don’t want to fix it, can’t we just fucking play? You know, what’s up with playing? I played on uh, what, 30, 40, let’s just say 35 albums before I ever punched in one drum phase or fixed one thing. All of those Black Flag, Descendents, and ALL records, I just played, that’s me playing, top to bottom, no punching, no nothing, no fucking around. And now I think the bands are coming in with the knowledge of Pro Tools and they want you to fix all this stuff and its like, come on dude, man up and fucking play. Don’t you want to tell your kids, “Hey, that’s me playing on that record?” When I tell my son that’s me playing, I tell him the truth.
 
Do you think it’s a bad thing than that they don’t even have to try that hard?
 
BS: The upside is you really can focus on the creativity part. So if you want to have 25 channels of layering back-up vocals, do it. You don’t have to sit there and try to economize tape channels, you’ve got a million channels and you can do whatever you want. If you want one song to be produced to the elaborate, ridiculousness of “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, you can do it easily and quickly. I think records are sounding better and better and live concerts are sounding shittier and shittier by comparison. I don’t know. Who am I to judge? What was the last record I bought? I don’t know. I haven’t followed everything along the way as well as I should have.
 
What project with your name attached to it (as a performer or producer) are you most proud of?
 
BS: I don’t think I’m going to be able to do that one, that one isn’t going to work. There’s no way I can be objective of that. I’m very fond of certain aspects of each group.
What’s it going to be in 20 years? The question is what’s going to hold up? What’s going to stand the test of time?
 
What is the chemistry like working with a band made up of a mixture of great musicians from different bands that came from different backgrounds or sound genres?
 
BS: These are the closest brothers of the extended family we were talking about. Hagfish was the first Blasting Room band, that’s Donnie and Zach’s band (who also recorded with other bands at the Blasting Room). I spent like six months of my life with those guys, held up in the studio. With Russ, we recorded all of the Good Riddance records past a certain point starting with Operation Phoenix, so a lot of water under the bridge there. We were already like family, the only thing that was a missing link in the chain was I did not know Aaron previously. I wish I had met him earlier because I really like him, I really took to him. We toured really well with him too; I have a good time with him too. He showed me his bands, Converge and Bane.
 
I started to ask my next question, but Bill stopped me.
 
BS: Wait, I didn’t answer the question, I got side tracked. So here’s like the B part, we operate as a democracy, we operate five guys, equal vote sort of thing. We write songs together. I think this is the part you wanted to know, how do we function?
 
Yes.
 
BS: And I didn’t answer it. I’m going to answer it now
 
Okay.
 
BS: Don’t you hate that? When people ignore your question?
 
It’s okay, you can say whatever you want, it’s your interview.
 
BS: We operate real democratically with everything. One guy will bring a riff in and we’ll build on that. Russ is writing all the lyrics. That’s different for me because in Descendents and ALL, I was one of the main songwriters, including lyrics. His lyrics are really strong, so it’s a good thing I’m not writing lyrics for Only Crime. I’m getting to where I don’t know what to write about. I’ve always just written about what’s on my mind, so on the first Descendents record it was girls and a bunch of the records were about girls and that’s not a concern for me anymore, so I don’t know what to write about. It’s a good thing Russ is writing, I think his lyrics are strong and they are abstracted enough to let the listener get some share in it and fill in their own slant on it. That’s always been important to me with rock lyrics, not having every little thing spelled out because otherwise it’s more like you’re getting lectured to, but if the lyrics have a little abstraction to them, then it opens up this dialogue; it’s compelling that way and brings you into it. The last record we did it all live, no overdubs. We’ve been trying to do more improvising within the song structures. We’re taking elements of jazz and even progressive rock and putting them into an intensity of Damaged-era Black Flag sounding thing, that’s kind of the unspoken goal.
 
What do you feel about the current state of the punk scene?
 
BS: Oh, yeah, what is it? Which one? The one where they put the make-up on and swoop their hair over? That thing with the girl pants on? Or this one here where there’s going to be like thirty people here, whatever miscreants that couldn’t find anything better to do tonight, couldn’t find a date? Or is it the big tour in the arena, that punk tour? I don’t know what it means. Or is it the hardcore scene? Those shows still seem like they have that piss and vinegar of what I remember in the punk scene. Where we’d rent a hall, we’d show up, and we’d use our guitar amps as a PA if we had to. I still see some of that in the hardcore scene. I kind of like that. So what is it? What do you think it is?
 
I have no idea.
 
BS: What is it, the politics?
 
Just the music scene in general I guess. How do you think the music scene in general has changed since you started?
 
BS: When we started I was so young and had my head so far up my ass that I really didn’t even realize what we were involved in. I didn’t realize how fortunate I was and there was a lot of creativity in the air. It felt like we were spearheading something, like we were causing something to happen, there was going to be a change, but it didn’t happen. It’s like the meddlers went out the back door, went out and cut their hair and put eyeliner on and then came in and co-opped it, that’s what I think happened. I think we got ambushed in the eleventh hour and all the glam people are running the punk scene now. I’m not sure how we let that happen, I don’t know, I don’t fuckin’ know dude.
 
If you could be doing anything other than what you’re doing right now, what would it be?
 
BS: Day Job Vu….
 
How long has it been since you had a day job?
 
BS: Yeah I was thinking about it. You know Day Job Vu, when you know you’re just done because no one’s going to come see your band because you’re fifty and you’re thinking about what you’re going to do next, Day Job Vu.
 
Got it.
 
BS: Get it? I’ll spell it if you want
 
No, I got it.
 
BS: Yeah, I would get fired at stuff because I would have a problem with mental distraction so I would get fired. Before I went on tour I had this idea that I was going to go to Law School and be a lawyer, which I would probably be pretty good at. If music stopped today…let’s pretend music stopped…maybe an accountant? I’m pretty good at math. Or maybe I could just teach kids how to play music, that might be fun. Too late for law school I guess. What do you think, what would you do?
 
I’m still in school so I still have a lot more day jobs to endure.
 
BS: Yeah don’t quit school because you’ll wake up like me with two kids and think fuck, how am I going to pay the bills again today? I do that everyday.
 
Maybe I could write a book like the singer of Pennywise about my family. What is the most interesting or compelling fan experience you’ve ever had?
 
BS: The ones that hit me the most are when they come up and something I’ve written lyrically has sunken home with them. A lot of that happened when I wrote those songs about my father dying and trying to take care of him when he was sick and I had people come up to me and tell me that they really identified with that song “One More Day” because they felt like they had gone through the same stuff. The stuff that hits me the most is when you feel like you’ve made a direct connection instead of an approximate, a near miss. The more anathematic a song is in rock n roll, we all want to rock n roll, but do you really feel that? Not really, so sometimes when songs are less anathematic or less global, and they’re more specific and personal, not a lot of people might fancy them, but when you find someone that does, it’s the most important thing in the whole world to them. Those experiences, interacting with those people always leave the biggest impression on me.
 
Do you miss touring with the Descendents since it’s been such a long time?
 
BS: It’s always fun to do shows; the more I can mix my life up and do many different things, the better off I am, but I don’t really long for it. The satisfaction that it would bring, I can get that by being on tour anywhere. The idea of being able to express myself creatively
 
Would you say you’re most recognized for being in the Descendents?
 
BS: It really depends on the walks of life. We just did a bunch of shows with a few bands more inserted in the hardcore scene. I kept meeting people that didn’t know me, didn’t know the Descendents, but they knew the records I had produced within the hardcore scene. Then you have people like oh, that’s the only surviving member of Black Flag still touring and whatever, different things.
 
What’s the current status on your quest for ALL?
 
BS: Well, I’ve got a good twenty years on it now, I think I’m honing in on it.
 
Do you still go fishing?
 
BS: I don’t go as much. I lost my will to kill animals. I’m not saying I’m getting all hippie on you guys or anything, but I’m cool just going to the river and sitting by the river and enjoying the river instead of fucking shit up. I’ve caught thousands and thousands of fish; I’ve caught enough fish for my life
 
How did you come up with the recipe for the bonus cup?
 
BS: It’s an obsolete concept now because there’s a bonus cup on every corner now, but at the time you couldn’t get Espresso unless you went into a legitimate, authentic, mafia proper Italian restaurant, you just got shitty 7-11 coffee and that wasn’t enough for me. I think I was one of the spear headers of the coffee revolution. I basically decided I wanted something that was ten times stronger than any of those coffees, so I just did my thing with the instant coffee, dumping it all in there. It was really gross, it tasted really horrible, but it would get you jacked up. You may think, why didn’t he just take pills? My dad had me so scared of drugs that I never tried a pill. I’ve never even smoked a cigarette. I’ve never tried any drugs in my life, nothing, and it’s not because I think they’re horrible or anything or I’m some straightedge freak, so it was like oh, well this is just coffee, which is faulty logic.
 
Where do you see yourself in another 20 years, do you still want to be doing music?
 
BS: I’m not really sure. It seems like I’m taking it not day-by-day, but six months by six months. Every six months since I started playing I’ve just taken it six months at a time. The idea that we would still have our band we started after we were done with college, I would have never thought that would happen. I’m just cruising along and as long as it continues to be interesting and compelling then I’m still into it. I’m sure at some point I won’t be able to pay the rent with it anymore, but then I can just enjoy it as a hobby and I may end up enjoying it most as a hobby for all I know, I’m not sure. The whole music business is going to shit anyway, so I don’t know who is going to be left standing. I don’t know if I’ll be one of them or not
 
Does that scare you at all?
 
BS: No. It did five years ago, but I’m ready to be the next Bill there needs to be, whatever that is. I’m not afraid of change. I’m ready. I’m comfortable.
 
Thanks to Bill for his time and thanks to Vanessa over at Fat Wreck for setting everything up.
 
www.onlycrime.com
www.myspace.com/onlycrime
www.blastingroomstudios.com
www.fatwreck.com