11/03/2004 frank and gerard interview with jenna on estrellazine
"November 3, 2004 [interview by Jenna]
Estrella: State your name and what you do in the band?
Gerard: I'm Gerard and I sing, and I draw. Frank: Apparently, I’m Frank I play guitar and dance hard. Gerard: Dance Hard… Frank: Dance hard. [Repeats ‘Dance hard' about 4 or 5 times]
Estrella: What are you guys listening to now a days?
Gerard: Same fucking two CD’s me and Frank always listen to. Frank: Go ahead. Gerard: I listen to the Dresden Dolls, and Frank listens to… Frank: The Voice In The Wire, and umm... The Dreds?
Estrella: What was your worst subject in school?
Gerard: Math, I hate math. Frank: Uhhh, History. Gerard: I like history. Frank: I can’t remember shit. Gerard: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Frank: Math, at least you like… I mean you have to like remember like formulas and shit, but like the numbers are there. And as long as you can do shit with them…. Gerard: I can’t do shit with them. Frank: History, they don’t give you shit. Gerard: I got transferred to dummy math in fact. Actually, I failed math so many times that they put me in summer school. Frank: For math? Gerard: Yeah, and then I failed again, then they put me in dummy math. Frank: Oh man. Gerard: Yeah, I learned how to write checks. [Everyone laughs]Gerard: And the bad thing about that is that everybody in class, none of them were gonna ever have to write a check, because nobody’s gonna make any fucking money.
Estrella: Any interesting tour stories?
Gerard: Ya know, we are a pretty un-interesting tour story band. Frank: Yeah. Gerard: But... Frank: But, I guess I’ll make one up…Uhh, I think the funniest tour story of this tour would have to be us the day off going to the mall and sucking. That’s about it. That’s about all the funny tour stories.
Estrella: If you weren’t in this band do you think that you’d be playing the same style of music if you were in another one?
Gerard: Good question. Frank: I don’t know, like I can't really… I don’t know, I’d like to think that we try to do different styles in like every song and every record so maybe one of those styles I don’t know. It’d be weird. Gerard: I’d be in a cabaret band. Frank: Nah, you wouldn’t.
Estrella: Who in the band would you say has the shortest attention span?
Gerard & Frank [in unison]: MIKEY! [laughs]
Estrella: Who would you say is the messiest?
Frank: Oh uhh, Mikey. Gerard: Mikey, yeah. I almost tripped over…actually I didn’t trip over… Frank: I had to room with Mikey for 2 months. Gerard: OH YEAH! Frank: And I refused to do dishes until Mikey would clean something, and he refused to do anything, and stuff started to grow in the sink and in the bathroom and the kitchen and the bedroom and everything.
Estrella: Have any of you ever had to spend a night in jail?
Gerard: Uhh, no. Ray almost did. Ray spent a day in jail, Right? He shop lifted from a Wal-mart in Iowa. Fucking batteries too for his pedals. Frank: But he bought a twelve dollar blanket Gerard: Yeah! He bought a blanket for twelve dollars. Frank: And had the money for the batteries and still stole them.
Estrella: Have you ever gotten kicked out of anywhere as a band?
Gerard: Kicked out… as in like any establishment? Estrella: Yes. Gerard: We got kicked out of that fucking hotel the other night. That party? Frank: Oh yeah, ok. Gerard: Okay, basically, there was this thing called Bloodfest in Houston, and there was an after party, and it was like all these nu-metal bands. And basically on the way out somebody called us…there was this wedding party there, and they were drunk and one of them dudes called Mikey a faggot. And Mikey was kinda drunk so he was feeling really tough. We all got in a fight and the cops escorted Daniel out. Frank: Haha. Gerard: For using foul language. Frank: Oh, I got kicked out of that amusement park cause I was drunk and I tried to get on the rides. Gerard: Oh, they told us about.. Frank: I had to leave. Gerard: Oh, our manager gave us the day off to go to the amusement park but, basically we found the bar there. And we got fucking ripped. we did karaoke in an amusement park at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. We were fucking ripped. Frank: We have pictures of Toro doing fucking Billy Joel songs. Gerard: He looked so uncomfortable too. Frank: Haha, He had his hand in his pocket.
Estrella: How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it?
Gerard: Violent pop. Blood bath sent to ballet. Frank: Yeah!
Estrella: What are your top three favorite movies?
Gerard: Empire Strikes Back. Frank: Nightmare Before Christmas, Rushmore, and uhhh lalalala... Gerard: The Cabinet of Dr. Calagary. Frank: All of them. Die hard.
Estrella: What would you say was your best Halloween costume ever?
Gerard: I’m always like a skeleton or a fucking zombie or something I’m never anything un-expected. Frank: I didn’t have anything cool but my friend had one. He had like a coat hanger wrapped around himself and it had like a point and he put like a potato on it and he was a Dictator. Gerard: I don’t get it. Frank: Huh? Gerard: I don’t get it. Frank: No, alright, so like here [points to crotch] and he had like a potato sticking here. Gerard: OH! Frank: Dic-Tater. Gerard: Dictator.
Estrella: What are some of your inspirations?
Gerard: My dad, I’m going to start answering with those kinds of inspirations. You know what I mean? Frank: Musically, Ritchie Havens, Thurston Moore, my mom and uhh Abraham Lincoln. Gerard: I know there's somebody else. Mark Hammel is really inspirational.
Estrella: Are there any like closing statements or advice you want to give?
Gerard: HELL YEAH! Frank: She rolled her eyes before she asked so I don’t know if I should say anything. Haha. Estrella: No, go for it.
Frank: Alright, well it's very important for people to take care of their “music scenes” whether its starting a band or writing a zine. Supporting local shows or whether it's going to shows and supporting stuff, but don’t, sit at home and go on message boards and... Gerard: Talk SHIT! Frank: On like local shows, then complain that there are no local shows anymore because you’re not doing anything to support it. Gerard: Talk shit on a much larger target, like us. Don’t talk shit on local bands and e-zines. And who’s fucking who and who fucked up the venue. And who’s straight edge and who’s not. Frank: Teen politics, it's bigger than all that, and ya know if we’re not gonna take care of it, no one else will so we start taking responsibility for things. Try your best to save the world."
