Interview with Keith Morris of OFF!/The Circle Jerks/Black Flag

Photo by Katie Hovland

Chris Carlton interviewed Keith Morris of OFF!, The Circle Jerks and Black Flag via the web recently about his new band, OFF!, the state of the Circle Jerks, his influences and much more.

Squid Pro Quo: Thank you very much for taking time our of your busy schedule to talk with Squid Pro Quo, Keith. I know you've been touring nonstop with OFF! for the past few months. How did the band get together?

Keith Morris: "We can blame this OFF! mess on those swell guys in the Circle Jerks. Dimitri Coats (Burning Brides), the guitarist in OFF!, came to the CJs to get us in songwriting mode in order to create a new record and of course, it turned into an ugly situation. Dimitri was fired as producer and in the process, I quit over this shitty crybaby episode. Now it was my idea to start the CJs in the first place and I wasn't gonna walk away from something I helped create. I thought to myself, 'everybody in the Jerks has 20 other things they do to make scheduling nothin' but a royal flaming CLUSTERFUCK so I'll add to the confusion by starting OFF! and creating my own schedule!' This new band's probably the best decision I've ever made. During our creative process, I told Dimitri that the other guys in the Jerks were gonna figure out a way to ruin the scenario and that the songs we've written are way too happening to be tossed out with the garbage. Let's come up with plan #B, #C and #D and make something outta this! That's when Mario Rubalcaba (Earthless/Hot Snakes/Rocket From the Crypt) and Steven McDonald (Redd Kross) stepped up and it's been pretty much non stop party action since then."

SPQ: The short, in-your-face blasts of music that you're doing with OFF! are reminiscent of the first Circle Jerks album. Was it the band's intention to make fast, in-your-face hit-and-run music? Or was it just a natural direction to go in?

KM: "Well, we were attempting to make a CJs record but one day, Dimitri hit the strings on his guitar and I was totally wiped out! YEAH! That's where we need to take this! The way we'd work is him starting out riffing and us going back and forth as to how it should be put together which also applied to my lyric writing. He played something on the six string device which reminded me of where I came from in Hermosa Beach. He comes from a 'heavier' Nirvana-esque place and I told him to pay attention to the guitarists we'd listened to the previous day: Link Wray, who is the Father of the 'down stroke' and Johnny Ramone, who popularized it! No more 'butterfly,' which is the technique a metal or folk guy uses to strum on the strings, it has to be down strokes and attack! AIM FOR THE FLOOR!"

SPQ: The band's been touring nonstop. Any plans for a break in the tour to record a full-length album?

KM: "'The First Four EPs' is our album! I'm on break as I type and we'll get together next week to start writing new songs so we won't fall into the same hole as before. My initial idea was to release a four-song EP every two or three months until we had 16 or so songs then compile them into a full-blown record. It didn't work out that way as we were gonna sign with Epitaph Records but then decided to see what else was out there and test the waters. We signed with Vice Records 'cause their marketing's beyond CRAZY! Vice gave us a couple of deadlines to meet to really make this happen as they had abso-fuckin'-lutely nothing goin' on for a couple of months and told us we would be their priority until the Black Lips finished their album. We jumped at the opportunity and here we are!"

SPQ: You worked with legendary artist Raymond Pettibon on the artwork for the band's 7" EPs. Being the original singer for Black Flag (Pettibon did the album artwork during their career), did it feel like you came full circle having worked with him again after so many years?

KM: "The great thing with Raymond Pettibon is that we get to re-establish a long lost friendship as when we hung out at the Church in Hermosa Beach and were drug and boozin' buddies! I'm no longer doin' any of that stuff as I'm a diabetic so I've got no time for that but Raymond and I immediately hit it off and started carrying on like a couple of crazy teenagers! He realized how his older Bro stepped all over the bands and peeps he dealt with so we had that in common and Raymond allowed me to come into his workspace and gave me carte blanche when it came to his artwork. He's a Stud Prince Rawker of the tallest order and plays a seriously mean tambourine!"

SPQ: When you worked with Black Flag on the "Nervous Breakdown" EP or the first couple Circle Jerks albums, did any of the band members get the sense that the music you were creating was going to be as influential as it turned out to be?

KM: "We were CLUELESS! We were excited to just be doin' what we were doin' and being able to receive an invitation to the punker-dunker party. There wasn't a map or a plan as to how we'd do things; we just did them and suffered whatever consequences later on. There weren't any managers telling us what to do or record companies that sniffed around at our gigs. We had to go by the "live and learn" technique and let it all go down however it was gonna' happen! We didn't sit around talking as to what our music/noise was gonna' do out in the public 'cause our credo was pretty much just 'go for it!' and worry about all this stuff further down the road."

SPQ: How do you feel the hardcore scene has changed since the early days? Do you feel it's gotten better or worse?

KM: "I try not to pay any attention to this as it's music and it's gonna be shoved in some of the faces of the music-listening public, dark corners and under dirty rugs. As with any genre of music, some of it will stick to the wall and some is gonna be so thin and watered down, it'll slide right off. I listen to so much music that I really could care less about any one category! College rock, hardcore, sweater, foxcore, punk, prog or whatever they're labeling it; if it's great, it transcends or rises from any box it's being placed in!"

SPQ: Is there any bands out there that you feel are carrying the torch as far as making music on their own terms and not conforming to what's considered popular by today's standards?

KM: "I'm moved by Deerhunter's "Microcastle" recording, who are a drone band outta Atlanta, Georgia or The Shins who made an almost perfect "Pop" record called "Chutes Too Narrow" that came out on Sub Pop a few years back. I'm also very partial to Trash Talk, Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Moon Duo and Fucked Up."

SPQ: It's been 16 years since the last Circle Jerks album of original material. Are there any plans in the near future for a new album or possible tour?

KM: "When it comes to the CJs, it all started to come down to money and the fact that we're older guys who are set in our ways; TOTAL BUMMER! The mentality became, 'We're who we are and can write/record whatever we want and our fans will buy it because it's us!' and that's REALLY weak! I told them that I wouldn't be a part of the 30th anniversary tour 'cause I'm busy with the OFF! first anniversary tour."

SPQ: You seem to still have that fire and energy in you that you had back in the late '70s and through the '80s. Your passion for your craft is obvious. Do you still find enjoyment in playing live and creating new music?

KM: "Well, I'm on a bit of a roll and OFF!'s providing me with new opportunities that my other band couldn't make happen. OFF! is going to Europe for the entire month of August to play several festivals and tour across Holland, Germany, Sweden and Norway and my feelings toward this is that I'd be a fucking idiot to not go over there and have some fun! The CJs would only talk about this and end up not doing it!"

SPQ: Who are some of your musical influences? And what drives you to be as creative as you are?

KM: "Too many: The Kinks, Iggy Pop, Jagger & Richards, MC5, Jeff Beck, John Dwyer, Jon Wurster, Ray Davies, Lennon & McCartney, Pete Townsend, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Alice Cooper, Leon Russell, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Bob Dylan, Ryan Adams, John Doe, Exene Cervenka, Henry Rollins, Dave Vanian, Jerry Morris, Bob Caldwell, John Jancar, y mas!"

SPQ: Your musical history has influenced countless bands for more than 30 years and counting, with no signs of slowing down. Where can people get in touch with OFF! for tour dates, new releases and merch?

KM: "OFF! has a facebook page that has an 'Events' section that lists all of our tour info. or go to http://www.offofficial.com, which is our 'real' site!"

SPQ: Keith, I want to thank you again for taking the time to talk with Squid Pro Quo. It's truly an honor and a pleasure to speak with you (NOTE: via web). We're all looking forward to more OFF! releases and more amazing live performances. Thanks again.

KM: "Well that's really a misnomer as we didn't speak! Don't be a liar! Just kidding! If you wanna take the time to write questions, I'll gladly take a portion of my time to answer them. YER' WELCOME! Have fun!"

'Compared To What' and 'Live at Generation Records' by OFF!

OFF! is the new band from former Circle Jerks and Black Flag vocalist Keith Morris, along with former members of Burning Brides, Redd Kross and Rocket From the Crypt/Hot Snakes. They are a band that understands the idea that great hardcore works better in small doses, so their output remains all on 45-rpm 7” EPs: a four-7” box set and now these two new releases, totaling six 7”s.


By Justin Schwier
Rating: 4/5
Southern Lord Records 7''
4/26/2011

Compared To What musically is a little different from the majority of their songs from the First Four EPs box set from last year. There’s a bit of San Diego swagger to the song, almost as if they were channeling Drive Like Jehu or Hot Snakes guitar riffage heroics. While “Rotten Apple” is a rager of a song, more in tune to classic Circle Jerks style hardcore with a section in the middle with a near spoken vocal part where Morris uses that wonderful voice to great effect. Short and fast and certainly to the point, this single adds a bit of musical growth to the band's catalog. it also comes on one of the sturdiest pieces of vinyl I’ve seen. I just wish it came with a lyric sheet and a download card too.


By Justin Schwier
Rating: 3.5/5
Vice Records 7''
4/16/2011

Live at Generation Records is another part of a series from a great record store in New York that throws free shows and has slowly been releasing the recordings. There are four songs on this one and all of them are performed with absolute precision and as raging as the studio versions. You gotta love bands that can 'bring it' live too. The only thing I really don’t like about this is that I wish there was more between song talking, as anyone who’s ever seen Keith Morris perform knows he TALKS and it’s usually some pretty great stuff that would compensate for the fact that all these songs come from last year's First Four EPs box set. Not 100% essential, but a good taste of what you’re gonna get if you see them play live.

Interview with Matt Hart of Squirtgun

My geeky self and Matt Hart (Squirtgun)
By Chris Carlton

Squid Pro Quo: Thanks for taking the time to talk with Squid Pro Quo, Matt. Fans know you as the lead singer for Squirtgun. Can you give us a little history on how the band got started?

Matt Hart: "Squirtgun started in 1992-93, though we weren’t called Squirtgun at that point. The Giorgini brothers (Mass and Flav) and the inimitable Dan Lumley were in a band at that point called Rattail Grenadier. I was in graduate school at Ohio University studying philosophy and teaching logic. For a variety of reasons that I can’t remember, Rattail’s singer (their fourth, I think) quit the band. That’s when I got the call from Mass to come to Indiana and do some demos with Rattail. The connection there is that during the late '80s, I was in a band in Evansville, IN (where I’m from originally) called Freaks of Nature, and we used to play shows with Rattail (who were from Lafayette, IN). That’s how we all became friends in the first place.

At any rate, in the spring or summer of ’93, I did go to Lafayette to do some demos, but it became pretty clear to all of us that with me singing, it wasn’t going to be Rattail anymore (they were a more hardcore/metal-ly band, and I just didn’t have the throat for that). Plus, I had a bunch of songs to add to the mix, and I started writing lyrics/melodies for some music that the other guys had already worked up. That’s how it all started. I think in those first sessions we recorded “Social,” “Mr. Orange,” “Allergic to You,” “Long So Long,” “Liar’s Corner” and “With a Grin and a Kick,” among others. Because of Mass’s connection with Lookout! (Records) at that point, it made sense for us to try and get a deal with them. Mass wanted the band to have a cartoon-y, pop-punk sort of name, and I came up with Squirtgun (I wish I hadn’t, but I did. In retrospect, I should’ve come up with Piano Smash or Death’s Head Rabbit or Notes after Blacking Out—anything but Squirtgun)."

SPQ: I had the chance to see Squirtgun play, and actually meet you a couple of years ago in Chicago when the band played with Teen Idols and 88 Fingers Louie and you guys were amazing live! Are there any plans for another Squirtgun album or possible tour?

MH: "I’m glad you liked the live show. We had fun doing those a couple of summers ago, but I kind of think that was it. The end. Maybe I’m wrong. I’ve been wrong before, and we’re all still great friends, so I guess anything is possible, but Flav is a research scientist in genetics at the University of Leicester in England now. Mass just got his Ph.D in Spanish and is teaching at several colleges/universities. I teach writing and literature at the Art Academy of Cincinnati (a four-year college of art and design) and I’m a poet (more on that below). Dan writes for the Lafayette newspaper. Additionally, Flav and I both have young children, so it’s tough to get away to rehearse, much less tour. The truth is, I haven’t even picked up a guitar, other than the toy guitar my daughter has, in more than a year. I get the same charge writing and reading poems that I got playing in bands, so it’s hard to imagine going back to music, but if something comes up that’s too good to be true…well, I’ll never say never, but there are no plans."

SPQ: Who were your musical influences growing up and do you think those influences come through in your songwriting?

MH: "Songwriting? Oh man, I’m sure it’s mind-boggling to some people, but I don’t write songs anymore at all—none. That said, the music I grew up with certainly influences who I am as a poet. In fact, I just wrote a long essay in four parts for Coldfront Mag online where I discuss exactly the connections between punk rock and my writing. You can see them here:

http://coldfrontmag.com/poets-off-poetry/by-any-means-necessary-part-1-by-matt-hart

http://coldfrontmag.com/poets-off-poetry/by-any-means-necessary-part-2-by-matt-hart

http://coldfrontmag.com/poets-off-poetry/by-any-means-necessary-part-3-by-matt-hart

http://coldfrontmag.com/poets-off-poetry/by-any-means-necessary-part-4-by-matt-hart

One thing I don’t discuss in the essays above is how much music performance, especially punk vocalists, have influenced the way I perform poetry. I think I’ve always been someone who likes singers/bands that nearly fly apart on stage. That’s certainly something I’ve always tried to do. There’s a recklessness to performance, which is both thrilling and potentially disastrous. I mean, if you’re really in it, you’re totally weird-wired and also vulnerable as hell. Every time I walk on stage/up to a mic whether it’s playing with a band or reading poetry, I’m trying for ekstasis—that is, to be literally beside myself, watching myself, the audience, the vast and the void.

Actually, I want a similar thing to occur when I’m writing; I want to 'wake up' typing with a poem in front of me. I get pretty wound up whatever I’m doing, but this keeps it exciting. Sometimes it’s great, and sometimes it’s terrible. Extremity is crucial. The experience has to be full-throttle. Volcano mixed with trickster mixed with stars and giant heart. Giant vision, giant voice.

In this respect, my influences were and still are bands like Alice Cooper, Black Flag, The Dead Kennedys, The Sex Pistols, The Circle Jerks, The Germs, Lifetime and Jawbreaker. More recent bands I’ve really been into are The Blood Brothers, Forgetters, Shellac, Titus Andronicus, The Gaslight Anthem and The Hold Steady.

I like performances (and try to give performances when I read) that are volatile, dynamic, noisy and declarative. I mean, whether I’m at a poetry reading or a rock show, I always want to have my face blown off and leave feeling like I’ve just seen something which is nearly inexplicable, totally surprising and somehow also provocative (both physically and intellectually). I want to be moved, and I want to move other people. As Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, 'Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis.' To me, this is the bedrock of punk rock, and it’s exactly the reason so many of us are so wide up awake even in our sleep. I’m looking in performances for something ecstatic (and there it is again, ekstasis), something outside the outside, totally in fits—like breathing fire by creating a flame thrower in one’s gut, not metaphorically but for real with the real."

SPQ: Back when you first started out playing in bands, pre mid-90's punk explosion, was it hard to find places to play outside of house parties?

MH: "We definitely played some house parties, but we also played a lot of gymnasiums and college student centers, VFW Halls, and little all-ages clubs that would pop up here and there (then disappear just as quickly). For example, Mass’s Spud Zero in Lafayette, which was around for a couple of years and hosted everybody from The Zero Boys and Screeching Weasel to Naked Raygun and Green Day. There were plenty of places to play, and when there weren’t, we created them. We did it ourselves, and that continues to influence who I am. I don’t ever have the sense that there’s something I can’t do. Not having money or resources is no excuse to not follow one’s dreams and passions. DIY all the way. Make it happen.

SPQ: How do you feel the scene has changed since those early days? Do you feel the scene has gotten better or suffered in the wake of "mall punk" and bands like Green Day going multi-platinum?

MH: "Well, given that Squirtgun’s most famous song is in a movie called Mallrats, I don’t really think I can disparage mall punk. I mean, where I come from, mall punk is all there was/is? I was mall punk in 1984. There was no such thing as punk rock in southern Indiana back then. We had nothing to do and nowhere to go, so we hung out at the mall—and hatched plans to have shows in people’s basements, etc. I once played a show in a stairwell, between a basement and a first floor. I played a show in a kitchen in Knoxville, TN. I’ve also played shows in soccer arenas. The point is: punk is and always has been about doing it yourself. The labels don’t matter. Labels are the antithesis of punk.

As for the scene, I don’t really think there’s much to say. And even if I did think there was something to say, it wouldn’t make any difference—which is a great thing. I’m just one guy, and I don’t even go to shows anymore, so I don’t really know anything about the scene—not even whether or not there is (or ever was) one. The important thing is that to some extent or other, there will always be young people in revolt—both literally and figuratively/artistically. And that means things may ebb and flow, but punk rock and its various tributaries (those established and those not even thought of yet) are a fact of our existence, which is lucky for us."

SPQ: Are there any newer bands out there, not necessarily punk bands, that you really enjoy listening to?

MH: "More recent bands I’ve really been into are The Blood Brothers, Forgetters, Shellac, Titus Andronicus, The Gaslight Anthem and The Hold Steady. Additionally, I love jazz—especially super noisy, squealy, squawky, tear your hair out jazz, e.g. Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Sun Ra. Love those Sonic Youth Records (SYR), Sonic Youth records (the super feedback-y noisy ones), Storm and Stress, DNA.

But man, I listen to everything from classical music to bluegrass to hardcore.

I always wanted to be in a hardcore band. Johnny Whitney, late of The Blood Brothers, has the most kick-ass voice of anybody. Blake Schwarzenbach, too. And Darby Crash."

SPQ: In recent years, as mentioned, you've worked at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and have even started writing poetry. Has any of your writing been published?

MH: Just to be clear, I started writing poetry long before I was in Squirtgun and I’ve continued writing it very seriously all these years. I have three published full-length collections, Who’s Who Vivid (Slope Editions, 2006), Wolf Face (H_NGM_N Books, 2010) and Light-Headed (BlazeVOX, 2011). A new book of poems—my punk rock book of poems—Sermons and Lectures both Blank and Relentless will be published in the spring of 2012 by Typecast Publishing. I’m really excited about that one. My hope is to open some punk shows reading from it. It’s pretty out there, weaving together references to early punk rock, my own personal life, and various philosophers/philosophical positions as a way to talk about human feeling/being, visionary activity and transcendence. The poems are really fiery, and it would be awesome to deliver them in front of a wild at heart, punk rock audience.

Speaking of the Sermons and Lectures, I should mention that a different section of it appears at the end of each of the essays I linked you to above.

Beyond that, there’s a ton of my poetry out there for anybody who’s interested. I also give tons of readings, so it’s pretty easy to catch me live. Over the last 10 or 15 years, I’ve given readings from NYC to San Francisco and everywhere in between. Last summer, I read in China for the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa and the U.S. Department of State. This fall, I’ll be back in NYC and also Portland, OR and Seattle. It’s great work if you can get it."

SPQ: Can you give us some of your influences as far as literature?

MH: "Yeah, I tend to like things that are surprising (both in terms of their content and the way/s they use language). I love the Romantics, the Surrealists, The Beats, The New York School Poets, etc. Here’s a reading list:

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (especially the Conversation poems)

John Keats

John Clare

The Illuminations by Arthur Rimbaud

“Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville

Emily Dickinson (one of our weirdest poets!)

Walt Whitman

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein

The Philosophical Investigations by Ludwig Wittgenstein

The Dada Painters and Poets, Ed. Robert Motherwell

The Poetry of Surrealism, Ed. by Michael Benedikt

The Dream Songs by John Berryman

The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara

The Sonnets by Ted Berrigan

Flannery O’Connor

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Wallace Stevens

On the Road, Dharma Bums, The Subterraneans and Big Sur by Jack Kerouac

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

Gregory Corso (anything)

On Bear’s Head by Philip Whalen

Dean Young (anything)

Indeed I Was Pleased with the World by Mary Ruefle

This Is Not a Novel by David Markson

Grave of Light: Selected Poems by Alice Notley

Haruki Murakami (especially the short stories)

Donald Barthelme

Kenneth Koch

Lydia Davis

The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender

The Tennis Court Oath by John Ashbery

The Savage Detectives and 2666 by Roberto Bolano."

SPQ: Do you enjoy writing poetry as much or more than writing music or is there a nice counterbalance between both art forms?

MH: "I love writing/reading/performing poetry. Writing music, I was never very good at. I never really cared all that much about being a musician. I wanted to be a front man. I wanted to go the distance lyrically/melodically in dissonance and harmony, but more than that, I wanted to be a presence on stage. I wanted to throw myself against the wall. I wanted to be music. With poetry, I can do that. I do that. I try every day to do that."

SPQ: Is there a website where we can get news on what you're up to; where we can get some info on your literature writings, music news, possible new releases, upcoming appearances or merch?

MH: Yes indeed: www.matthartpoet.com. Also: www.artacademy.edu.

SPQ: I would like to thank you again for taking the time to talk with Squid Pro Quo. It was a pleasure talking with you, Matt. And I hope we get to hear more from you in the future. Thanks again.

MH: Thanks, Chris. It was fun.

Interview with John (Jughead) Pierson of Screeching Weasel/Even In Blackouts/The Mopes

Photo by A.V. Club
By Chris Carlton

Squid Pro Quo: A lot of people know you from your time in the Chicago punk scene as founding guitarist of Screeching Weasel. But they may not know that you're also a talented playwright. What was your first play, and how did you get started in theater?

John Pierson: "Well actually, if we are talking about Chicago, I think more people know me from theater. I get many more acknowledgments on the street from my theater projects than any of the bands I have been in. My first full-length play was in high school as the waiter in "Death Of A Salesman." But at Columbia College, I went there for five years and never auditioned once. I was more into taking literature classes than acting. I studied improvisation for about 10 years and still teach classes in that. I toured for a couple years with an improv troupe called Sheila. The first play that I wrote and performed was called "The Philosophy Of Nonthings," which was the inspiration for my production & publishing company called Hope And Nonthings."

SPQ: Can you give our readers a little history on The Neo-Futurists?

JP: "I teach 8 week classes on Neo-Futurism so a brief history leaves out a major understanding. Here is the website. But we do have a manifesto, which I am including right here:

"Neo-Futurism In A Nutshell"

Neo-Futurism is a new approach to performance that advocates the complete awareness and inclusion of the actual world within the theater in order to achieve a goal: to bring people to a greater understanding of themselves and each other.

Rather than upholding contemporary theatrical conventions of character, setting, plot, and the separation of audience and performer, Neo-Futurism aims to present actual life on stage by creating a world in the theater which has no pretense or illusion. This means that:

1) You are who you are. Your name is your name. Your age is your age. Your appearance, physical condition, and way of speaking, as well as your personal history and life experiences are none other than your own. You grew up in your hometown. You're gay, you're straight, you're married. You've never been to Seattle. You know who you are and what you've done. Use it.

2) You are where you are. In most cases this means on a "stage" in front of an audience. Currently, specifically, this means you are probably reading this interview off a computer screen. That's not a T.V. you're watching (maybe it is). This isn't a castle in the Alps. The gun is fake. If you need a prop, get it. If the ambience is wrong, change it.

3) You are doing what you are doing. All tasks are actual challenges. If you can't do something, you must be actually physically unable to do it. If you're pulling, really pull. If you're having sex, really have sex. If you forget your lines, you've forgotten your lines. If you're not supposed to know what's going to happen next, make sure as hell you can't know. You're not sleeping on stage, you're lying there with your eyes closed. No need to "act" tired as you enter the stage with an empty suitcase. Fill it up with rocks, run around the block three times. You'll be tired. No need to dredge up a lot of emotion to endow that sheet of paper you're holding with all the seriousness and poignance of your father's death certificate. Bring it in. If your father's alive, what are you doing saying he's not?

4) The time is now. Deal with real events in your current life in your current world. If you broke up with your boyfriend on Tuesday, don't say you're still together on Friday. If a politician pissed you off by what they said six months ago, don't complain about it now. It's history. Write about how it affects you today. Theater is the medium to reflect what is going on now, because theater is going on now. Theater takes place in real time and space. That audience is right in front of you right now. Deal with that.

The bottom line is that Neo-Futurism does not pretend or buy into "the suspension of disbelief" - it does not attempt to take the audience anywhere else at any other time with any other people. The idea is to deal with what is going on right here and now.

These guidelines are not set forth as "rules and regulations" but more as a jumping off point with which, it is hoped, people can find a greater meaning in their everyday lives. The aim is to empower and affirm not just the lives of the performers but the lives of the audience members as well.

Greg Allen
Revised May, 2008"

SPQ: Do you find more pleasure in writing and performing as an actor, or as a musician? Or is there an even balance in both?

JP: "For many many years my production of plays was exactly equal to the number of albums I was recording, now they are off a bit, but I think they hover somewhere around 24 each. With Even in Blackouts, people say I was consistently the happiest they have ever seen me. I can feel that while playing with that band. We didn't have as many rules and stress as Weasel. So with EIB, it trumps being onstage for theater. But I really don't think I could live without writing and performing theater."

SPQ: You have also written books for Hopes And Nonthings publishing. One a book of your plays you had written up until that point, and one called Weasels In A Box. Are there any plans for a new book release in the near future?

JP: "I have a new novel coming out in October called "The Last Temptation Of Clarence Odbody". Which is an alternative story to the famous movie and short story, "It's A Wonderful Life." I'm pretty proud of it, I never thought I would write this type of parody book (fan fiction) but I just couldn't get the story out of my head, and after a year I gave in and started writing it. Three years later, it is about to be finished."

SPQ: Besides your writing and acting, you have been a part of some amazing bands over the years. Screeching Weasel, The Mopes and Even In Blackouts have all made such an impact in the Chicago scene, your influence is undeniable. Who influenced you as a musician?

JP: "My influences are varied depending on the band. Growing up I was a huge fan of the guitar work of Brian May (Queen), Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple, Rainbow), and Martin Barre (Jethro Tull) I think those type of bands besides Traffic and Oingo Boingo taught me that it was OK to be weird. I think this added to my odd clothes wearing in Weasel. Most of the solo work that appears in Weasel I believe was influenced by bands like Judas Priest and AC/DC, with perhaps a little Descendents thrown in. Even In Blackouts was my clashing of those influences with the acoustic bands of my youth, Bob Dylan, Jim Croce, Cat Stevens, and later, Tom Waits. Punk bands that I would consider influences are few, beyond the people I knew like Lint from Operation Ivy and Chris Barrows from The Pink Lincolns. I loved Keith Morris from The Circle Jerks, and Adrenalin OD were another of my favorites."

SPQ: In the early Weasel days, did you ever think the band would influence a whole generation of punk bands?

JP: "No, I don't think you can ever really know that. But being in a band had always been one of the few things I wanted to do. As a child most kids talk about wanting to be a scientist, doctor, astronaut, but I never had a single thing. I think my family was so busy dealing with divorce, violence and drugs that I never had a chance to consider that stuff. So when I graduated high school I just basically did whatever the hell I wanted, and worked hard to make it happen. And that is still what I do now. I don't ever really settle on being any one thing, but they all seem to have something to do with creativity."

SPQ: When you formed Even In Blackouts, you literally invented a style of music that was never seen until that point, acoustic punk rock. How did you come up with that idea?

JP: "I don't really believe I invented anything. Nothing the band does is very unique. I think it is great and actually pretty smart, but it's all taken from many different influences. It is rooted in the same philosophy that started Screeching Weasel. We just played the things we were interested in void of any positive repercussions beyond our own enjoyment. I think the fact that Ben and I were just pretty damn dedicated people is what made that work. So when I started EIB I purposely said to myself that I needed to start from scratch and do something different. So I started with elements that I saw as very different from SW. A female choir-trained vocalist, acoustic guitars and what I believe to be darker concepts and instrumentation. But what I tried to apply to the band is the energy that excited me from playing punk rock. I think this shows best in the live performances of EIB. It is difficult to play an acoustic guitar that hard and fast, but the wonderful thing is that it creates a desperate energy, like constantly falling off a cliff. It hurts to play like that. For the first couple tours, I couldn't sleep at night because my fingers hurt so badly. Some nights I even cried.
And what could be better than ending this interview with the fact that I do indeed cry?"

SPQ: A huge thanks to John for taking the time to talk with Squid Pro Quo. Such a talented and diverse gentleman. Thanks again, John.