SS Decontrol
I talked to the band at the Olympic to get some information. The result was a combination of facts from two different talks. One talk was with thirty people asking questions and the other was a one to one talk. This definitely is not a standard interview, but the information is accurate.
ID: I heard you guys were going to break up, is that true?
SSD: No way. Nope, the legacy continues.
ID: You've been playing for a long time?
SSD: Yeah, going on three years in June with the third album coming out.
ID: Is it a double album?
SSD: No, just six songs again. We had a lot of songs but before we even got in the studio we started throwing them out, saying they are not good enough, so we ended up with six. The names of the songs are "How We Rock", "On the Road", "How We Rock" is going to be the title cut, "What It Takes", "What If I".
ID: Are you doing "Words That Kill"?
SSD: "Words That Kill", and "The Choice". We're searching around for a label right now. (They have found a new one but are still going to be doing Xclaim for other bands). We played the Channel a couple of weeks ago at a Boston Rock party, and we played New York's Rock Hotel before that. The last thing we did before that was, we had one song on Boston's Rock Christmas compliation, it's a Christmas song, Jolly Old St. Nicholas.
ID: How did you get that?
SSD: I don't know, they just asked us to do it, we usually don't do things like that but it was kind of off the wall so we did it. Springa never even heard the song and he just fit the words to it. It actually came out the best recording we've had to date cause the other records aren't as good quality as that.
ID: Was the Santa Monica Show the biggest show you ever played?
SSD: No, we played at the Paramount theatre on Staten Island in New York with the Dead Kennedys and D.O.A. It was a horror show, but we did excellently. After we played we had everyone going mental, and beating up bouncers and stuff. After that they just made a human chain across the front of the stage, for the rest of the bands, and they couldn't cut it. There wasn't any energy. During the Dead Kennedy's there were so many people on the stage, literally 100 people on stage at all times. You couldn't ever see them playing. The stage was almost like a starway right up to the stage, everyone was all over the whole fucking thing. Oh yeah, we played in Canada too, which was pretty fun.
ID: Did you think L.A. was going to be like it was?
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ID: Do you have anything specific that you want to accomplish?
SSD: Just to make our mark, make it worthwhile and something to be proud of. That's more or less it.
ID: Is everybody in the band straight edge?
SSD: No way (Not in the strict sense of not smoking drinking or fucking). The choice is yours, yours to make (That's a song off the new record) it says it all. That's just an idea, just a feeling that was necessary before, but now it... The band is just a band, everybody does what they want.
ID: What are some of the bands that influence you?
SSD: I don't know, I go see bands all the time, and I listen to different shit all the time. We're not influenced by anyone because everyone in the band has different musical tastes.
ID: What do you usually write your songs about, who writes them?
SSD: All of us, the group. We write just about general feelings amongst everybody in the band. The latest one is about making mistakes and stuff like that. Just general things, that most everyone can relate to.
ID: Do you do any more cover songs?
SSD: We do "Eighteen" by Alice Cooper.
ID: Do you play your old songs anymore? Off the first album.
SSD: No we don't.
ID: I've heard rumors that SSD doesn't get along?
SSD: Where did you hear that? I don't think any band does. It's not that we don't get along with each other, but we're not literally best friends. I haven't talked to a band that doesn't fight. Brothers and sisters fight, even families fight. If you're with someone a lot of the time you're destined to fight. We all have our little ego problems. It's not ego problems so much, it's just that everybody has different ideas, and ideas tend to clash.
ID: There are rumors that certain members of the band take (snort) coke?
SSD: It's a personal thing with anybody. I can't tell anybody what to do. I've been straight for a long time, and so has Al. Some of the others in the band drink, but as long as they are into it when we play. (In other words not out of it) Their head's into it, and we play and it doesn't fuck with them being in control. To tell you the truth I really don't know what they do. Me and Al hang out together but the other guys live far away, so I don't really hang out with them that much. We met two of the members from an ad in a music magazine.
ID: What is the thing between you and the Freeze?
SSD: That goes a long way back. They play Boston a lot now though, so it's not that way anymore. It's just that they are from Cape Cod and we... It's personal though. I don't really want to talk about this.
ID: Is there a lot of fighting back there?
SSD: It's not so bad anymore. There was a time when there was a hardcore fashion clique.
ID: How come you didn't play any songs off the first album?
SSD: We don't do them anymore, we only play like two or three. I'm really into metal, the power is awesome. I'm really big into Van Halen. I'm into metal bands. From what I've heard, of Suicidal Tendencies, they blow me away. (Then he left to go watch Suicidal play)
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