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| Interviews: Ash |
The Band With the
Midas Touch Goldfinger's John Feldmann: 5 August 1996 john feldmann is cool, cos his band has opened up for the buzzcocks and the sex pistols. and they're better than this band called no doubt ... but decide for yourself. fritz: how's the tour going? john: the tour? a tour's always a fun thing, playing in different cities every night. it's cool. f: so, how long have you been out with the pistols? j: let's see - we haven't... it starts tomorrow. f: you guys did the buzzcocks tour this summer, and now you're doing the pistols tour. what, do you have something for 40-year-old punks? j: yeah, i got something for older men who like punk rock music. no, obviously we've been very, very lucky. we're touring with no doubt right now, and they're definately not 40-year-old men. f: what do you think of the whole punk revival? j: i dunno, man. i think there's always been a scene, and with the success of green day and rancid, it's been more in the mainstream eye. that attitude and that style has always been around. i mean, some people think nirvana was a punk band. whatever. it's good for me. i write that kind of music pretty well, so it's definately good for us. i don't have to sell shoes anymore. f: i'm curious - do you guys consider yourselves a punk band or a ska-punk band? j: well, we're definately not a ska band. i think we're more of a pop band than anything else. in this day and age, it's just - i mean, i guess we consider ourselves a punk band. i'm just a simple guy. i don't think about things too much, and that's the kind of music i grew up on. all my biggest influences are considered punk bands, even though i don't think that if the buzzcocks came out today they'd be considered a punk rock band. but back in the day they were. it's just a term. alternative music isn't really alternative, but it's a way to describe the music. new wave isn't really new, but it's a way to talk about the music. f: so who were some of your influences? j: obviously, never mind the bollocks was the first record i ever had, just like any other 15-year-old growing up in the early, early 80s. but i also listened to all the southern california stuff - social distortion, t.s.o.l., the circle jerks, the adolescents - all those bands were huge influences on me. i also love all the british pop scene - the buzzcocks, generation x's first record, the specials, english beat was the first concert i ever saw. i love ska music, but it's definately not what we're about. f: it's just that you guys played a show here at the university of maryland in april or may, and it was with a bunch of ska bands, and all the fliers were like, "ska show, featuring goldfinger," and that was the first impression i and a lot of my friends got of you, before we'd even heard the band. j: we started out in the ska scene in l.a. - that's how we really got our start. the skeletones, real big fish and buck-o-nine pretty much got us on our feet when we started playing shows. we were brought up in the ska scene, but we were never that way. i think punk rock and ska have always gone hand and hand on the musical front of things. we definately have songs that have that influence, that's for sure. f: what do you think of you and no doubt both getting big right now? you both have that punk/ska crossover appeal. j: i don't think there's anything punk about no doubt. at all. i don't think they'd say that either. they're such a great, great band. they're such good players. they're more like funk/disco/ska. they're like dancing groove music. they deserve all of it. they've been together for like 10 years - they've totally paid their dues. they're really great people. i don't know. gwen is like a rock star. absolutely. there's nothing about her that you don't want to watch. her vocals are impecably good and the guys are great players. they write good pop songs. i don't think it matters what style of music you play. from year to year, there's obviously trends, like techno, industrial, grunge or punk, but it all depends on the songs. green day writes great, great pop songs. so does nine inch nails. so does no doubt. and i think that's what the bottom line of it is. i don't think it's a trend where everyone's going to start sounding like madness - i just think they're a really, really good pop band. f: do you think "here in your bedroom" is a pop single? it doesn't sound like most other "pop" stuff on the radio. j: i don't know. i mean, i definately consider it a pop song. definately. it's catchy and whatever - it's just a major key love song, really. i don't know. but it's definately played its course - i don't think it's going to get any bigger than it is, and i'm kind of happy about that. but that song helped us get where we are today, because obviously some people liked that song. Our next single definately sounds nothing like that one, so we'll see what happens. f: what are you expecting? i mean, you obviously don't want to write a "here in your bedroom" on every album. j: i don't know. we definately have a certain style of music that we play, and if you like that kind of music, you'll probably like our band. we're not like a big samba band or a jazz band. we have a lot of influences, but we do one style of music pretty well. i've written about 20 songs since this record came out, and what's going on in my life and in my head determines what kind of song i'm going to write, really. i would never think "i have to write another song like this to get a hit." i would never think that. f: what determines how the songs wind up? i mean, you've got songs like "here in your bedroom," and then you've got songs like "fuck you and your cat," which is just an old-school, total punk rock thing. j: obviously i was in a very good mood one day and a very-not-good mood the next. it's just emotional points in my life - where i'm really feeling stuff - is the best time for me to write. if nothing's going on, and it's really humdrum, it's hard to get pen to the paper. "here in your bedroom" came when i finally got together with this girl who i'd been totally obsessed with for months and months and months, and we just got together one night, and the next morning i was just so elated that i was freaking out, and i wrote the song in like 10 minutes. "fuck you and your cat" was written about three weeks later, after she dumped me, and i was not so elated. f: how do you feel about mtv embracing you guys, and making you a buzz clip? j: well, we're not a buzz band - we never were a buzz clip. it's weird. we got played for like two weeks - i saw the video twice. mtv just played it - they liked to look at the video, i guess. i don't know. i have no problem with it. some people - well, a few people tend to think it's selling out some kind of scene, but i'd much rather see rancid on mtv than collective soul, you know what i mean? i'd much rather see green day that mariah carey. that's just me. i like that kind of music and i don't like the other kind. if a kid is sitting there with three channels on his tv, and one of them's mtv, and he's forced to listen to music he doesn't like because that's all they're playing, that'd be kind of a bummer. i'm stoked that bands like us get an opportunity to have people go "oh, well this is another kind of music to listen to" instead of rap or whatever they play the most on that station. we don't get a chance to watch much tv on the road. f: how long have you guys been a fully functioning band? j: it's been a little over three years now. f: how would you compare yourselves to a band like no doubt, who've been around for over 10 years? j: um, a lot less seasoned. there're tons of bands that have been together for ages - we're touring with bad religion next months, and they've been together for over 15 years. we're definately still learning. we're learning how to deal with each other, and how to deal with different kinds of crowds, and feeling out the energy of the various crowds. i mean, no doubt are a professional band. they know what's going on, they know how to relate to each other - they really know their shit. we've been on the road now for 5 months. we're settling in, but we still have problems and quirks that we're dealing with. we get a little more shit for being a newer band. we did the warped tour, and pennywise and nofx have been together for 20 years collectively. we were the newer band on the block, and people were warming up to us; they're getting to know what we're doing. f: with this sex pistols tour, are you looking forward to getting spit on? j: i don't think i'm looking forward to it at all, although i we definately get spit on a lot. i think that's just par for the course with our kind of music. it's the 14-year-old mentality, that's what they do. it's just one of those things. i take three showers a day - i'm a really clean guy, so i'm not into those things. but, you know, it's not the end of the world, either. f: and i guess this sex pistols audience is going to be different than some of the audiences you've had with no doubt ... j: it's going to completely different. absolutely. but we'll see - the gravity kills guys are friends of ours, and they've already done some shows with [the pistols], and they said it's nothing like you'd expect. they were expecting the same thing - a bunch of 40-year-old, drunk, sagging, tatooed oi fans that'll be fucking throwing bottles filled with piss, but they said it's 99% kids under 17 going crazy for all the bands. as much as you'd assume it's going to be completely different from this no doubt/mtv crowd that we're playing to now, it might not be that different. but we'll see. f: what's your relationship like with mojo? there are people who're expecting you guys to jump to a major any time now. j: mojo has done nothing but wonderful stuff for our band. there'd be nothing i'd change about the way they've directed our careers or the people they've turned us on to. we have no interest in anyone else. when we started out, we showcased dozens of times for millions, and everyone passed on us. we were too this or too that, and mojo was the only one that stuck with us from the beginning and said, "look, we're into this and we're into your songs." jay rifkin, who owns the label, and patrick, another guy there, have been nothing but good to us. i mean, we wrote the song "fuck l.a." about the record industry. i just haven't had a lot of good experiences with record people. mojo's a new label, but despite the fact that they're a bit green, there's something magical about the fact that they don't know everything. they're learning as they go, just like we are. and we're distributed by universal records, which means we have something. we decided to go with major distribution because kids were coming to our shows going "how do we get your record?" we were like, "fuck, we've got to get our record out in stores." the buisness aspect of our band is impeccable, i think. f: okay. what do you guys do in your spare time? j: um, we drive. we watch tv. i write songs. we talk on the phone. we're just trying to have some kind of connection with a home base. darren skateboards. most of our time is spent driving, so you have limited things to do. i read, i listen to music, i write songs. that's pretty much what i do. it's pretty hard to jog three or four miles when you're driving on a bus, and it's hard to go surfing when you're in iowa. it's really hard to snowboard in august. as much as there's things i'd like to be doing, you make the most of where you are. we don't get a chance to sightsee, because we've got soundcheck in half an hour, i'm talking to you now, and we've got a show tonight. after that, we fly to seattle. we drive. f: what's the best thing about where you are now? j: in life in general? f: yeah. j: well, the number one best thing is that i don't have to sell shoes anymore, by far. number two is that i get to do what i like most in life. this has been a dream of mine forever. i have an opportunity to be some neurotic, emotional freak and have an outlet for it, where so many people don't, and they have to go do crystal meth or beat people up or get drunk every night. i have an outlet for my neuroticism, or whatever you want to call it, and that's pretty cool. f: how long were you selling shoes for? j: about three years. i've been in retail for about eight, but i had that last job for about eight. f: so you had to deal with people's sweaty feet in your face every night? j: yeah. corns and boils and hangnails - the whole nine yards. it was pretty dub. f: do you ever wish you were back in a 9-to-5 job? j: um, that is the stupidest question i have ever been asked in my entire life. f: i was just trying to get a response out of you. j: well, you got it man. f: well, good luck tomorrow night. j: thanks. last time we were in d.c. it was pretty cool - f: you played the hfstival didn't you? j: last time we were in d.c. was with the buzzcocks. f: but the hfstival - in front of 60,000 people ... what's that like? going from playing from 100 people in a club to 60,000 in a stadium? j: it's like nothing i could ever explain. it's really surreal. it's like watching tv but living it - you're inside a tv set watching people watching you. i guess it's like playing farm aid or something. it was pretty uncomfortable before i went onstage, because i was so nervous, but you just focus on the first 15 rows, and everything else becomes a blur. you don't really notice what's going on. it was really, really cool. |