very interesting! paramount styles sounds fabulous! looking forward to see
them live.

oana

On Jan 29, 2008 3:53 PM, Slavica Doležal <sdolezal@...> wrote:

> there's a link to an interview made by Scott McCloud I've somehow just
> found out:
> http://crackhitler.com/?page=sinusNodeSyndrome
> It's quite new, Jan. 24th.
>
> ................
> I always meant to ask: why did it have to be ¨girls against boys¨?
> You've got to think in terms of the context of when we started the band to
> get the name. There were several reasons why we called it Girls Against
> Boys. One, underground punk/postpunk whatever you want to call it was a very
> male dominated thing back then, and we wanted a name that would be ambiguous
> in a way, a name that wouldn't necessarily make you identify us with a
> "noise rock" scene. Musically, though we are a very noisy band, we always
> wanted to have a bit of a dance tone thrown in, not just pummeling sonic
> volume, but a style, if you will. "Girls Against Boys" doesn't sound like
> something like Ministry of Death, you know? It could be anything, and that's
> what we wanted, a name that could be any kind of music. We also didn't want
> to only identify with the male-oriented punk scene. We figured it would be
> better to appeal to both men and women, and in fact, I don't know if it was
> just the name or also the style of our brand of postpunk, we had a lot of
> women coming to our shows. And if the girls go, then the guys want to go. We
> basically wanted a name that implied a sort of sexy-ness to the music we
> were making, and in the end, the name was a good choice. It did not identify
> our brand of loud music to only macho guys, and that was what we wanted to
> achieve. The full on testosterone macho element of punk was uncool to us; we
> wanted to draw a more diversified crowd.
>
> So, where have you guys been all these years?
> Well, first of all, the Universal merger of 1998 basically derailed our
> momentum as a band. We found ourselves at that point stuck in a legal limbo,
> unable to make records, just stuck. Finally in 2002 we got out of that
> situation and made the one last record "You Can't Fight What You Can't See"
> and toured that. Still, in 2002 it felt like most of the momentum we'd had
> as a band, as a creative force even within ourselves, had been derailed, so
> we decided to not continue making any more records. Then we just lived our
> lives. Johnny Temple (bassist) started an independent book company called
> Akashic Books that still exists today. Eli Janney (bassist/keyboardist)
> focused his energies on studio work. Alexis Fleisig (drums) continued
> playing with some other bands and worked in art design for periods. I played
> on some other people's records, like Courtney Love's "America's Sweetheart"
> but found I didn't want to be, for lack of a better term, a "hired gun" and
> eventually moved to Paris, where I was married and lived for three years
> just doing other things. Around 2005 we were invited to play somewhere
> interesting, a festival in Spain I think, and decided it could be enjoyable
> to play out live again. Since then, we play occasionally, only when we want
> to. We're free to do whatever we want, when we want, and what we choose to
> do we pick carefully. Either it's a special festival, or going somewhere we
> never got to (we played in Istanbul, Skopje Macedonia and Bucharest
> Romania)… or its returning to places we have good memories of playing, like
> Paris, and of course now in February, Athens Greece.
>
> Word on the street is that each one of you is occupied in various projects
> lately…
> Definitely we all are doing things, various things. Alexis plays drums for
> a group called Bellini. Several of us performed on a tour here in the US,
> several years ago, with an actress named Gina Gershon, which was filmed for
> a sort of reality-show-type documentary series which aired on The
> Independent Film TV channel here… I've got a project I do with an Italian
> electronic composure in Italy called Operator… and I've got something new
> also, which I'll answer about later in interview!
>
> Despite so many individual works, you decided to get GvsB back on the
> street after being on hiatus for almost 5 years. Should we expect more in
> the future?
> We don't make any rules about it. Nor do we have any plans to record
> another album at this point. My point of view is that I don't see the point
> in making another album unless we have something creatively to ADD to what
> we've already done as a band. I think the records we've done stand up very
> well, and in fact I enjoy performing the music from, say, Venus Lux or
> Cruise Yourself now even more than I ever did. Also, I don't want to be in
> the position to owe anybody anything, to owe a label a certain amount of
> tour dates, or what have you. Right now we are not attached to any label,
> organization, anything at all. We are not trying to force sell any products
> to people, we are not marketing ourselves. We are essentially and simply
> playing our music as entirely free agents, and that's where I want to be
> right now. We are, indeed, fortunate to be in a situation wherein we can
> play when we want, how we want, and not have to deal with any of the other
> annoying parts of the music industry. We are not in competition for radio
> play, or exposure in magazines. We are free. But, yes, I believe we will
> continue to play when opportunities arise that sound interesting to us, and
> another record has never been ruled out. Perhaps it will happen in time.
>
> I'd like a few words about your new semi-solo project, Paramount Styles…
> Paramount Styles is my new band, it is a solo band. I sometimes say
> "semi-solo"" only because I want to stress that it is not me alone, not
> something like a solo acoustic singer/songwriter thing. I write the songs,
> and perform with a band of people I want to play with and who can be
> available. Therefore, again, I can be free to create records and tour
> without having to necessarily organize the same group of people every time.
> Paramount Styles first record; entitled "Failure American Style" will be
> released in Europe through Cycle/Konkurrent on March 17 this year. It is a
> rock record, but in the vein of moodier GVSB stuff. Alexis, from GVSB plays
> drums on it. Richard Fortus, a friend who played with the Psychedelic Furs
> and now Guns N' Roses plays second guitar… and other people and friends
> contribute on the record in various ways. The first European Paramount
> Styles tour is currently being scheduled for May/June 2008. I am excited to
> have a new record out after nearly five years. People can hear what its
> like, and see updates, tour dates, at
> http://www.myspace.com/paramountstylesnyc
> I'm already thinking of plans to make another record, so this may go on
> for some time!
>
> You were around in the early-mid 90's, when the underground scene had
> reached one of its highest points. Do you think those were the "good ol'
> times" or that there's still potential nowadays?
> I think what was going on in the 1990s in the music industry is that there
> was a lot of money floating around. Major labels were making huge profits
> from sales of the then new Compact Disk (its funny to think of that being
> "new" but it was) and in general, as they call the 90s now, it was an age of
> 'irrational exuberance." The underground music scene that had been growing
> through the 80s burst wide open with bands like Nirvana, Jane's Addiction,
> many others, and there was the Alternative Nation explosion part I
> happening. For me personally, they 1990s were good times, but I'm not sure
> that the same thing isn't happening again right now. There is so much
> alternative music these days. Even calling something 'alternative' doesn't
> really mean anything anymore, but in the 80s it did. And originally
> 'Alternative' was in some ways less about the 'sound' of something but more
> about the ways in which it was being distributed, which was in ways not part
> of the mainstream. The distinction is less clear now. I am not one of those
> people that think, "Man, those were the good old days, when things made a
> fucking difference!" To me I suppose it was just one wave of waves that
> continue, and which comes down to the idea that music and its creation can
> be accomplished by people and bands apart from large corporations, etc… All
> underground "scenes" are usually started on some kind of localized level of
> people supporting one another (and competing with one another), which grow
> into something larger. Right now, the music industry is not riding as high
> as it was in the 1990s. Sales are down. The era of the Compact disk is over,
> and the digital era is upon us, and I think what's going happen still
> remains to be seen, and likely it will forever be changing.
>
> Any recommendation on new promising bands worth listening to?
> To be honest, I don't follow new music as much as I used to so I probably
> can't make any recommendations that people don't already know about. I tend
> to like the sort of music that shares in common something of my own
> sensibility about music. So anything having to do with a sort of post
> punk/dance element (say, LCD Sound System) I tend to like because it's
> somewhat close to GVSB music. But I just turned 40 last year, so I don't
> have the same perspective about music as I did when I was younger. It's no
> longer about my personal identity. However, I am curious by nature so like a
> lot of people, I always want to hear what people are doing out there.
>
> Give me one memorable on-the-road incident.
> Well we lived on the road for about ten years, so there are so many. I
> used to have a problem with sleepwalking, so I have a lot of memories about
> waking up in hotel hallways, essentially naked, with no idea what room I had
> been in. Once, somewhere in the UK, I had to just take the elevator down to
> the lobby to ask the desk clerk what room I was in. I was still half-drunk,
> and nearly nude, and it was early late morning, so people were already in
> the lobby, in line checking into the hotel, and out comes this naked guy
> (me) from the elevator. Everyone just stared at me, but I acted completely
> calm and just said, "Excuse me, but I seem to have lost my room." They took
> care of me in a hurry, with all their customers looking on horrified. On a
> more serious note, I remember very well playing the Reading Festival in the
> UK in 1996. Girls Against Boys was just reaching the pinnacle of our fame,
> and I remember walking out on the stage (a bit shaken by the enormous crowd)
> and playing the first chord. The place went wild. That kind of thing is a
> very euphoric memory, just because the experience was so surreal at the
> time.
>
> …and one you would rather forget…
> A lot I'd like to forget. Once, in Lisbon, Portugal, we'd arrived for a
> big gig and were very rushed. I'd never been to Portugal before, and was
> excited to be there. I asked someone, the wrong person it turned out, how to
> say 'Thank you' on Portuguese. The person told me, "Oh, just say Gracias,
> they understand that." So we went out to play in front of something like
> 5,000 people, and at the start everything was going fine. But about five
> songs into the set I started to notice some discontent in the audience. Some
> people were joyously dancing around, while others were yelling something at
> me that I didn't understand. I thought they were saying, "Gracias is
> obbligato" which I took to me "Thank you is obligatory." So I thought to
> myself: Have I not been saying thank you between songs? Because often when
> playing I am very into the moment and not conscious of myself in a usual
> way. So I said "Gracias, Gracias" several times in a row. The weirdness
> continued and soon the crowd started to turn against us, booing like crazy
> in-between songs. I continued to say 'Gracias'… toward the end of the show,
> the crowd had grown ugly, they were nearly rioting on the floor, and the
> volume of booing was intense… Finally security came on and ushered me off
> the stage and out of the building saying, "You should not come back here
> tonight, because we fear for your life, seriously." I asked "why?" They told
> me, "You cannot say Gracias in Portugal, it is like a very bad insult, and
> you have to say OBRIGADO. So, in the heat of a show I'd just misunderstood
> one word. It was not OBLIGATO, like obligatory, but instead something else
> entirely. I'd never heard the word 'obrigado' before. So basically, I was
> the only asshole in a room full of 5,000 people that didn't know what the
> fuck was going on. I was embarrassed beyond belief. Nothing like that had
> ever happened to me before. Five thousand people hated me that night. After
> that I thought: Well, I've probably now been through the worst live show
> experience I can ever expect to happen to me, at least that's something. I'd
> definitely like to forget that night.
> I've never been invited back to Lisbon either. Maybe there's still a price
> on my head. The audience thought I was DELIBERATLY REFUSING to say thank you
> to them in their own language. A huge insult. Which of course wasn't my
> intention at all.
>
> You had the chance to work and tour with some of the most interesting
> people/bands, such as Ted Niceley, Sonic Youth, Jesus Lizard, Fugazi, Big
> Black etc. Any special memory about anyone in particular?
> We toured for a couple years on and off with the Jesus Lizard. Those were
> very cool times. Touring together we saw our shows get bigger and bigger and
> our friendship bonds gets deeper and deeper. It was a pleasure to play with
> them every night, one of the best live bands that ever existed. Working with
> Ted was always my favorite, just his sense of humor. When we recorded "House
> of GVSB" in 1996 it was at the same time as the OJ Simpson trial was
> happening, and being shown 24 hours a day on TV. Ted was obsessed by it,
> which was very funny to watch. And Fugazi, to know and tour with them was
> great. We were all from WDC, so it was like bands of brothers. It was Fugazi
> who invited Girls Against Boys on our first European tour ever, in 1992.
>
> I always considered New York and Girls Against Boys being as one. Was it
> the ideal landscape for your music or just the land of opportunity?
> When we moved, individually at first, from WDC to NYC it was a life
> transforming experience. I can only speak for myself. I was the first move
> up and slowly convinced the others. And the city was so exciting, so full of
> exactly the kind of late nightlife I loved. So many people, and yet you
> could be completely anonymous at the same time. NYC was like a dreamscape to
> me, and lyrically I always liked to be both conversational, and use imagery
> at the same time, to place a song almost in a picture, or an event, like two
> people talking late in a bar together. I think unconsciously we started
> making music that seemed and sounded to us like a good soundtrack for our
> lives in NYC, and I guess that comes across in the music.
>
> How's Mr. Silas Green doing? Haven't heard from him for a while…
> He's well, resting in a retirement home in Florida near Tampa Bay. He's an
> excellent golfer nowadays.
>
> You only perform selected shows nowadays. I was surprised that Athens was
> chosen over other major European capitals…
> We remember playing in Athens in 1996, and it was a special show for us,
> just a good night, a great crowd, so we've wanted to return for a long time
> and I'm very glad its finally happening.
>
> At this point i should inform you that we are expecting a bad-ass show and
> Greeks don't like to be disappointed…
> We are expecting a bad-ass crowd and we don't like to be disappointed
> either! We are going to bring it, so you all better be prepared to take it.
>
> Last question. What is that you like the most about Crackhitler?
> The name. Combines two very strong words. Crack and Hitler. I am a fan of
> non-sequiters, and it's a fine one.
>
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>
>
>


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