INTERVIEW & LIVE MUSIC - Jeff Rosenstock @ Gullivers, Manchester, 23/03/16
Jeff Rosenstock has spent over fifteen years not taking life seriously, then seriously bugging out over it. Going solo after disbanding the iconic punk bands The Arrogant Sons Of Bitches and Bomb The Music Industry!, last year’s We Cool? continued Jeff’s project of documenting himself as a bummed out waster, drinking beers again alone in his backyard. It sounded very much like earlier records, and because of that it was just as good. The first Arrogant Sons album was released when he was 16, now he’s 33 and still as DIY as ever, still as bummed as ever, and still as positive as ever. We cornered him in Manchester, in his first UK appearance in seven years, and sort of grilled him. It was more of a friendly, awkward chat.
Jeff: I’m good, how are you? Great intro!
J: Literally shitting your pants, and we’re ironically right next to the toilet.
So the last time you were in Manchester was in 2009 with Bomb The Music Industry!, how was the process of breaking up the second most important punk band of the past fifteen years and breaking the hearts of thousands of white kids?
J: Oh you know, gotta break everyone’s hearts you know, that’s kind of why we did it. We wanted to make everyone sad you know, wanted everyone to feel betrayed, it was something we discussed. A huge sense of betrayal.
J: Yeah exactly. Fuck ‘em. It obviously was weird, we like each other, we’re all still buddies. We all play music together. John’s in my band. I helped out Mike, our drummer, with his record. We’re all still friends, we just saw Matt in Australia where he moved, we just saw Tom. We didn’t want it to go past its excitement date.
J: Yeah, do a Refused. Stop it, pretend we were popular all along, and then in twenty years we’re gonna get back together and we’re gonna to be pretty good.
You’re famous for Quote Unquote Records, the world’s first donation-based record label. How is it running the most financially irresponsible record label in the world?
J: It’s not financially irresponsible at all, because I don’t make anything. Early on before Bandcamp was a thing, I used to get emails about people wanting to put stuff up on Quote Unquote like “How do you do it?” I literally just went to Paypal’s site, copied their link, and that was it. I’m stoked on it, it was a cool way to help bands I’m friends with, bands I like to get heard, and when people donated money that was just the icing on the cake, you know, if you’re pressing vinyl that was just way more money than just recording something and putting it up for free.
You’re in the punk business, what does it take to sell out?
J:I don’t know, what do you mean? I just think being dishonest. I think I’m usually a harsher judge on that than most people. Personally, I think it’s just do what’s right for you, I don’t give a fuck what you do, it’s fine, I used to get bent out of shape if bands would sign to a major, make a certain kind of record, play a certain kind of tour. But you know, everyone’s just trying out different shit, it’s as judgmental to call someone a sell-out as it is to be on the other side.
So do you think you’ve ever sold out?
J: Um, yeah of course. Like I’ve said I’m the harshest judge of that. The second Bomb The Music Industry! started selling records that was like a little bit of selling out. Once we started selling shirts, that to me felt a little like selling out. At the same time we were put in a situation that we weren’t expecting to be in, I didn’t expect that to be a band that anyone wanted to see. I thought it would be fine if we like kept our jobs, you know once every few weekends we’d just play a show out of state somewhere. Once it started growing it seemed like we had to do certain things. People who would come see our shows were literally just like “Why don’t you have shirts? What is this spray-painted shirt thing? That’s cool, I didn’t bring a shirt, so like what the fuck, what do you want me to do? I’m bummed, you guys suck, you don’t have anything”, it was like okay we’ll have things now.
Who do you think in the scene doesn’t like you?
J: Doesn’t like me? These are great questions. I can’t say that, I can’t say who I think doesn’t like me in the scene.
They probably won’t see this.
J: It’s online, everyone can see it. I’m not gonna say. I think I’ve got ideas, I’m alright, I try and be nice to people and hope that works out.
You try to include a cover in every set, what is the worst song you think you’ve covered?
J: The list is mostly good songs. I can’t remember any that were bad songs. There’s ‘All Star’ by Smash Mouth and ‘BYOB’ by System Of A Down, but if I’m being honest, I fucking loved those songs at one point in my life. We have lucked out and if there’s something really bad, a lot of the time one person voted for all of the songs. Everybody submitted a different song, so if there was a tie and one was a shitty song, we were like just gonna play that shitty song from the Spongebob Squarepants movie. Somebody requested ‘Where’s Gary?’ by Spongebob Squarepants, we were like, this would only be funny for you, and the 800 people at this Modern Baseball show are just gonna be like, fuck this guy. There was one show we played where like these two local bands that had all booked like one show each were like battling for us to cover their song that no-one had ever heard, so we were like “We don’t wanna do that” and then I saw the kids, they looked really bummed, so we were like “Why don’t you kids just come up here and play the song on our instruments during the set?” and they just played their song in our set, so that was probably the weirdest one.
Manchester has a rich cultural heritage. Simply Red, Take That, The 1975. Do you take any Mancunian influence? Any acid house beats on your next record?
J: Yeah, tons of acid house. I like Joy Division and New Order, like anybody. I think Joy Division was really cool the way the bass was up high and the guitar just kind of made noise, and I think it was cool how New Order just turned into pop somehow. I think those bands are both cool. I’m sure people in Manchester are tired of hearing that but hey, I’m not from here so I don’t know.
Ironically, that’s based on the present I got you.
J: Whoa, a present! Nardwuar style!
The film, 24 Hour Party People.
J: Oh wow, I’ve actually never seen this, believe it or not, and I know that it’s good, but for some reason I’ve never seen it. And I bet it’s on a region that I won’t be able to watch for the next few weeks. Now I’ve got a UK region copy of 24 Hour Party People, and an Australian region copy of Pixels, starring Adam Sandler.
I know you’re fan of UK comedy, early Bomb records sampled Shaun Of The Dead and The UK Office, you’ve got Steve Coogan in that film, you’ve also got Steve Coogan as…
J: Is this Alan Partridge? Fuck yeah, it’s Alan Partridge! Andy Falkous from Future Of The Left told me about Alan Partridge and-
I can literally see him saying that.
J: Yeah, it makes sense. It was early on in the tour, I was trying to make friends with him, I’m a big McLusky fan, a big Future Of The Left fan, I remember he talked to me for a while about this stuff, he put it all on my computer and I’ve not watched any of it. Well I’ve watched one episode, it’s fucking awesome. I’m stoked on this, thank you for giving me this.
So Alan Partridge is basically a disenfranchised BBC Radio host totally out of touch with the times. You’re playing punk music in the year 2016, would you say you’re out of touch with the times?
J: Um, well yeah man. I’m in my 30s, of course I’m out of touch with the times. We have a bunch of keyboards and samplers we play for fifteen seconds in the set, so that’s our way of staying current. Have them up there, have a lot of blinking lights you know, everyone will think we’re EDM, it’ll be sick.
What’s your least favourite thing about being a punk?
J: Punk’s pretty tight, I don’t know, I think other punks sometimes, who tell you what to do.
Who will tell you you’ve sold out?
J: Again, I’m a way harsher judge on that than everyone else I’ve ever talked to. I don’t know, I think being disappointed sometimes in punk because like you know, there’s racism and sexual assault and homophobia in our scene, and you know I think that’s the only thing I don’t like in punk. Even within punk, we’re still not there yet. Sorry for that serious answer!
What would you say to any young kids seeing this thinking of turning punk?
J: Thinking of turning punk? I don’t know, just do what you want to do, does that make sense? Just get some sick shit, listen to The Clash and Smash Mouth exclusively, and then you’ll pretty much have a grasp on where I was at sixteen years old.
Will your next record be your pop crossover? Do a Dave Grohl or Chris Cornell?
J: Yeah. Finally. Every record I’ve tried to do a pop crossover, just people don’t like the songs, so back to the drawing board. Gotta get more of those blinking lights to make drum machine noises and stuff, then we’ll be on our way.
Would you fight Anthony Fantano?
J: No, he seems like a nice guy, and looks like he’s also bigger than me and would be able to beat me up, and I don’t fight people. For plenty of reasons I would not fight Anthony Fantano, I would never fight anyone who gives positive reviews to our music.
And lastly, when is that DVD [Never Been Tired, BtMI! documentary] coming out?
J: I don’t know, it’s not my DVD. They’re screening it in places, and eventually it’s going to be on something. It’s weird to be the subject of a documentary but not have anything to do with it.
Eventually we go upstairs to catch Great Cynics blast through twenty minutes of solid pop punk that manages to recall the classics of Descendents and Bad Religion, but with the finesse of the modern stalwarts Gnarwolves. The songs are short and to the point, much like how Jeff later climbs on stage and launches straight into ‘You, In Weird Cities’ where, thirty seconds in, and everyone’s already screaming “nothing makes me happy / I’m like a bratty child”, and during the part where the rest of the song breaks way, Jeff gestures to the crowd to sing even louder than they already are, almost gloating at the connection he shares between his audience.
For the next hour it’s just energetic pop punk song after energetic pop punk song, with the emphasis on the punk and the emphasis on the expert pop songwriting. Jeff Rosenstock plays his guitar with his teeth, accidentally unplugs his guitar twice, gets punched in the face by a stage diver, amateurishly plays on the smallest keyboard in the world, hands his guitar to someone in the crowd standing on someone’s shoulders so he can do a two-minute noise performance, closes by covering Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Bulls On Parade’ and doesn’t play a single Bomb The Music Industry! song. If he did, it would have been bittersweet, but he doesn’t, which is still bittersweet. He’s as in the past as he is in the present, in that all of his songs are about just keeping on smiling through the shit times, even if that smile is crooked and twitched through baring defeat after defeat. Just keep on going man, nothing’s forever, dude.
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