This was done by Tom Mukite using a talkboy in the bathroom at the Metro in Chicago
before the CD release party/concert for Microstars.
Please, introduce yourself and what you play.
I'm Andy and I play drums in Apocalypse Hoboken.
How and when did the band get together and where did you all meet each other?
The band has been together on and off since I was in High School. We put the
band together then we broke up. We really didn't do much, you know it was
kind of like our first band and we kind of just goofed around and all that.
Ten we got our singer Todd in September of '92 and we've been doing it, you
know recording and touring since then.
What did you do between then and now?
We did what most bands do, (we) put out our own records touring when we can,
you know everyone works for a living so we try to do what we can without
ruining our life's. But lately we've been touring a lot more and we've been
putting out records on a Californian label called Kung-fu records, so we're
actually getting a little money (chuckles) and actually getting to play some
decent shows, besides local shows.
Why did you choose the name for the band and what does it mean to you?
Well, our guitarist Scott came up with the name and it just had to do with
his dire fear of the city of Hoboken, New Jersey. It's kind of like vertigo
you know how some people get up in to a real high place and they just start
shaking, sweating, and getting really nervous and scarred? Well, that's how
Scott would be anytime we got near (Hoboken) New Jersey.
What were you like in High School and is that when you guys or at least your
singer get so perverted?
I can say for a fact that all of us were really unpopular when we were in
school. We were the kind of guys that kept to ourselves and all had our
little gang of friends with our own inside jokes and just kind of hated
everyone. I think like everyone saw ‘the Breakfast club' and everyone was
like "Ah, those guys are really different we should be friends with them".
Cause we all wore like leather jackets and all had our bad hairstyles with
different colored hair and all that. We were just really obnoxious when we
were in school, and that's kind of like extended into our adult lives and
instead of doing things like silly songs about farting, now we've got an
singer who does all these really twisted sexual lyrics because that's
what interest him.
What influences the lyrics to the songs and who writes them?
Well, lyrically everything has been written by Todd who's the singer lately.
I've like wrote a few things in the past like one song a record because I
don't have a lot of original ideas and he's just like always writing stuff
all the time. And I think like, he gets his ideas more or less from things
that really happen to him. Or else like something will really happen to him
and he will expound on it, like make it really exaggerated so people are
always reading the lyrics and kind of going "is this guy completely nuts or
is he just making this up?" I couldn't say one way or the another what he's
doing, so I think he gets his ideas because he's always looking at the dark
side of things. He's kind of a morbid charter. Nice...but morbid.
Are all the songs on ‘Microstars' really about masturbation and sex?
No, No! I think it's "Little fingers"? It's metaphorical, it's not about
masturbation it's metaphorical. It's about how this band is going to come
out and get you off. It could be a Kiss song. I think there are some sex
type songs but I think most of them...
Interruption: "Can I come in?"
Yeah, sure come on in take a pee, we're going to tape you!
(Peeing sound coming for the toilet)
But I think most of the songs on the new one are pretty clean not of a lot
of swearing, not a lot of obvious sexual overtones. I could see how you
could think it's all about masturbation. The first song Little Fingers
talks about masturbation! But, it's metaphorical it's about like mental
masturbation. You know you can't jerk your mind off! Though lyrically you
could say mental masturbation, so I'm not quite sure. Here let me read
the lyrics "give you that masturbation" you can't give someone masturbation!
Some guy from on a toilet: Yes, you can it's called a hand job!
You can masturbate someone, but you can't give someone masturbation!
O.K. next question. What do you think of the band AC/DC? And was the cover
of House of the Rising Son of a Bitch a complete rip-off of Dirty Deeds?
Yeah, well the front cover of the AC/DC record has all the people with the
bars over their eyes, on the back of the record (case) it has the same
picture without all the people, so we just took that and scanned all the
animals in. The animals I guess are supposed to be like us. Like I'm the
rabbit and Todd is like a big elephant because animals are fun and cute like
us. Plus, AC/DC you know everyone likes AC/DC in some strange perverse way
everyone has an AC/DC song they really like you know! So, we figured we were
barking up the right tree with that one!
If you were going to kill someone how would you do it and where would you
put the body so nobody would find it?
Well, I think the most obvious way that you would end up killing someone is
with your car. So I could very well end up hitting someone with my car, then
I'd have to take the body and put it in parents' house because they would
never look for it. But, if I was looking to get creative as far as killing
someone. I'd probably bury the person in my backyard up to it's neck and
leave it out their screaming and then let my cats out there to mess with the
person, and it's my backyard so nobody would look back there for him.
What was your favorite show that you played or band that you opened up for?
How was the warped tour? Do you think that with them adding rap to it with
Emienem and Ice-T that it's gotten way to commercialized?
I think that one of the best things that we did was when we went on tour
with The Suicide Machines, that was like a really good time because they're
our friends and they play really good shows. And on that same tour that we
were with them we split up for three days and played the warped tour and
that was like a completely different thing from just being at a regular
show. We'd show up at like ten-thirty in the morning and we wouldn't play
until seven at night, and all we had was our van. And, the first night that
we played was in Phoenix it was one hundred and ten degrees out in the
middle of a parking lot. I tried to watch bands and buy the three-dollar
water but even then I was like "this isn't like punk rock at all!" It was
just really expensive and I thought it was really commercialized even then.
I think a lot of it is just money I think the bands are getting paid really
well, and it was nice that we got the opportunity to just play it because it
was good for us. From a non-bias point of view I could say that the warped
tour is just a really good way for a few people to make some good money! You
know it's not like playing a sweaty rock club. When I think about punk rock I think
about a band like the Germs, you know and I don't care what anybody says a band like
the Germs would not be playing, like the warped tour. You know outdoors with all
these dudes with their shorts and their chain wallets and everything going ‘Hey how's
everyone going' and being all nice. It's like you're punk rockers you're
supposed to like pick up cinder blocks and throwing them at the audience. If
the warped tour adds rap and stuff it's probably a plus. I think they should
be as diverse as possible then it's not like a big punk thing, it's more
like a Lollapolloza or Family Values.
Speaking of rap how do you feel about it, being on television all the time,
in the newspapers they even play it at my school sometimes which I hate?
I think rap is like 15 years old now. When did rap start like '79, you're
talking like Grand Master Phlast (? Not sure if the p-word is spelled right
I don't know rappers name from before I was born especially if it's a weird
one like this but I think this is the P guy they used to talk about, I'm
starting to see why he changed his name to p. -Tom a.k.a. Grand Master T)
and stuff like that. It's gotten to the point where it's just another form
of music, so you've got just as many white people are doing it like Emienem
and stuff like that. I don't know I'm probably getting old but I don't listen
to it anymore, I used to love Public Enemy and now I just don't care. I mean
they play it in schools so that will show you how rebellious it is to do a
rap record now. It used to really mean something these guys used to be
pissed! I used to love listening to like just this really angry guy yelling
into a microphone, and you'd be scared! And now it's like everyone wants to
be really smooth and are all wearing all this gold and are all like pimps
and have all this money. It's kind of humiliating, I know they're making
lots of money, but it isn't what it used to be I guess it's not all that
cool.
What is in the band's future?
The new C.D. just came out this week. We're going to go one tour the day
after Thanksgiving we're going from here out to the west coast we're playing
with a band called Wretch like Me and a band called Armchair Martian and
we'll be with them for like four weeks, we'll come home like two days before
x-mas then we'll probably go out on more tours for this record. I don't know
when we're going to record another one (record) it will probably be next
summer so we're just stuck with this one now!
What changed between Microstars and your last record? What is your favorite
song on Microstars?
I think my favorite song is "Microstars" because it was the song that kind of
launched the whole writing cycle of the record. It's like we started writing
songs where we started coming up with ideas with other than what we usually
do like "O.K. we'll put keyboards in this song" which is something that
we've never really done before. And we started changing the way we wrote
songs, Todd instead of screaming through every song he's singing more and if
you listen to it, it's got like hand claps and all that goofy stuff. We just
wanted to make it a lot more fun and a lot less overbearing. So PEOPLE
SHOULD BUY IT BECAUSE IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE!
Is there anything you want to say to anyone reading this that actual knows
who you are and is a fan of yours?
Yeah, buy our new record it's probably going to surprise the hell out of you
because it's a lot better than our other stuff in my opinion and hopefully
if you don't agree you'll still like us anyways!
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