Interviews: Guttermouth
One of our loyal Canadian users, Angie Lalonde, recently was able to track down Mark, singer of Guttermouth before one of the band's stops on their current Punk-O-Rama tour. Click READ MORE for all sorts of interesting stuff, including Mark's feelings on Canada, his most embarassing moment onstage, and just how stupid people are that read into the band's lyrics too much.
ANGIE: So how has the tour been so far, cause I heard Gob were touring with you guy?
MARK: yep
A: and Nerf Herder?
M: Yep, actually thereâs been a big misconception with that whole thing, they donât join till the 25th, I think, but Gobâs been with us and Authority Zero and 1208 the whole time, except for last night where we played with No Use For A Name.
A: So you guys headlined the Punk-O-Rama tour last year, who was that with?
M: With the Deviates and the U.S Bombsâ¦
A: So has this tour been good for promoting âGustoâ?
M: Yeah, Gusto is doing well up in Canada, yep, theyâre being very receptive to the âGustoâ
A: Yeah, cause at Warped Tour in Toronto you guys had a huge crowd.
M: Yeah, we did well.
A: I was surprised
M: Oh, you were surprised, well thanks a lot. [laughs]
A: No, I mean I was surprised by the amount of kids at Warped Tour in general.
M: Oh yeah, it was a biggie, Toronto was massive. That was good day.
A: And your bass player right now, I saw you were requesting videos on guttermouth.com from people who thought they could hack the job, any interesting videos or replacements?
M: Oh yeah! We got a bunch of really disgusting people who want to play in Guttermouth and we wanted to see the people first and so far itâs been pretty patheticâ¦
A: So whoâs your bass player right now?
M: Weâre using our original bass player Clint whoâs on the first two records, so heâs with us at the moment but after December heâs gone, heâs gotta go back to the real world and work and at that point we need to find somebody. But weâve got some interesting guys, a guy who used to play in Yellowcard wants to play, the bass player from Slick Shoes might, we got all kinds of potentialâ¦
A: Iâm sure you do,
M: yeah, but a lot of weirdoes too trying to sign up.
A: I can imagine, [laughs]
M: yeah a lot of weirdos who you know, have never been on the road and donât understand how it works and that usually doesnât work.
A: I saw you were doing a Punk-O-Rama tour diary on Epitaph.com and Guttermouth.com through out this tour.
M: Um, yeah, Iâm trying to do it more on guttermouth.com actually.
A: I read some of your tour stories and they were pretty interesting.
M: Thanks, and theyâre all true mind you.
A: Do you think your level of energy is higher at the beginning of a tour or near the end?
M: Ummm..
A: Does it just depend on the day?
M: Yeah, itâs just everyday is different. Iâm a moody person, so if Iâm in a good mood Iâm going to have a great show but if Iâm grumpy⦠Like right now Iâm borderline grumpy cause Iâm hungry and I get really irritated when I donât eat and I want to eat something good but I canât find anything good to eat right now, so Iâm totallyâ¦
(Scott in the background, makes us all laugh cutting off, Mark with pretend sobbing cries)
M: And then they make fun of me and it makes me even more upset and then Ruben walks in here sticking up the whole fucking place, [laughs]
A: Thereâs been a lot of different rumours about you getting sick on this tour?
M: Yeah, on the first length I got so sick, remember in Chico, I was dying, But I had, actually I donât know what I had, but I couldnât speak and all kinds of like blood and mucus were falling out of my head. It was like my organs we liquefying, it was like I had, whatâs that disease, Ebolaâ¦
A: On no, you donât want to get that! [laughs]
M: No, But Iâm better, [laughs]
A: You went on a European tour with The Lineâ¦
M: Do you like The Line?
A: Yes, I love The Line, their actually the first band I interviewed, they were really cool guys.
M: Yes, theyâre a friendly bunch
A: Umm yeah, I heard you guys only saw the sun 2 out of 61 days.
M: That was a couple years back, but yes that was true and that was very depressing, very depressingâ¦
A: Being a California native could you handle it?
M: Nooo, I was emotionally dead, I was, I had no soul by the time I came home from that trip I felt like a vampire.
A: And how many days did you predict of sun?
M: Actually my prediction was wrong we saw the sun more days this last time, which was good, it was uplifting. The sun really works it gives you energy. I mean the suicide rates up in Seattle, itâs all true. People kill themselves regularly there cause of depression.
A: Really, uh oh, cause I do the nightshift and rarely see the sun.
M: Well some people might have it but I donât, I would hang myself for sure.
A: And âGustoâ itâs different, I heard thereâs a lot of country influences, are you guys trying to reach a new target market or?
M: No, we were just going with flow.
A: How long did it take you guys to record it?
M: We were partying a lot when we wrote the record, we were just writing funny lines and then we would make songs out of it. Weâd sit there and if we giggled it was a good song. Oh yeah, we wrote the title of all our new songs already for our next record. The name of the album is going to be âHotdog to the Headâ with the opening track called: âhotdog to the head, the paroles of the wienerâ
A: Is this a true story?
M: Yeah! Totally the second one is âIâm thirstyâ third tacks âTen Dick Dinosaurâ did you ever hear of that? The old expression âMan, I gotta piss like a ten dick dinosaurâ I say it all the time, itâs really cute. Um, fourth track is âYou can lead a horse to water but you still need a step ladder to fuck him in the assâ then âMy neighbours babyâ, âNappy headed bitchâ, âReading makes you stupidâ, âDonât you know the Dewey Decimal Systemâ, âBacon lettuce and savagesâ, thatâs my favourite, âIâm never wrongâ and âFight, Fight, Fight, Fight, Fight, Fight, Fight, Fight, Fight. Yeah, so thatâs our new record, this time we decided to take a new approach weâre going to write the titles first and then just grow on it from there, it just makes it more fun.
A: So do you think a lot of people misconstrue your lyrics?
M: Yes, all the time.
A: Do you write it intentionally with that purpose?
M: Nope, people are just stupid, people read too much. Yeah, people are always⦠their just idiots itâs amazing to me. Like last night for instance thereâs this girl on stage and she dancing you know and sheâs really irritating me, so I was kind of badgering her, kinda making fun of her you know and it was nothing malicious or anything. I was just like get out of here blah, blah, blah, and then she wrote on our web site today that I turned the crowd on her and told them to beat her up and stuff like that.
And itâs funny cause we make a tape of our show every night and we listened to it and she was totally lying just because I embarrassed her in front of like a thousand people, so she made up some story. That happens all the time, people are idiots. And itâs scary cause people read that shit and they believe it, you know. And why would I want to have a crowd attack, some sixteen-year old girl for god sakes, I mean thatâs just bizarre. I guess we donât bring in the cream of the crop. [laughs]
(Some fans walk by the tour bus, Mark remarks âDo they have mohawks?â Everyone cracks out laughing)
M: Yeah, yeah they always come up and ask for, you know other bands merch from us, who arenât on this tour.
A: Iâve never heard of thatâ¦
Curt (Guttermouthâs manager)- Oh yeah, I work at Epitaph and people ask me for A.F.I postersâ¦
A: Oh noâ¦
M: Oh yes, itâs amazing.
A: Do you think itâs easier to sing about good times, bad or just the bullshitâ¦
M: Itâs all bullshit, bursts out laughing. Actually look, this is what we do for our job so if Iâm having a bad day which to me Iâm having a horrible day, this is as bad as it getsâ¦
A: No, we have to enlighten this, câmon itâs got to get betterâ¦
M: Better, well yeah it gets way better than this like tomorrow in Quebec itâs going to be great.
A: What about Ottawa?
M: Well wait, I love Ottawa but I like Quebec, itâs my favourite city in all of Canada.
A: Iâve heard that the eastern parts of Canada are way crazier than the western.
M: Yeah. Itâs so cool.
A: Montreal any different than Quebec?
M: Yeah, I like the old parts of Quebec City itâs bitchinâ.
A: Itâs so prettyâ¦
M: Yep, itâs rad and the people are nice and I like the way they speak to me and I love their âpoutineâ.
A: Do a lot of your fans request older songs or newer?
M: Um, both. Yeah, now that the recordâs been out for awhile people are warming up to it and learning the songs. So now theyâre starting to scream the new names of the songs they like and itâs pretty consistent across the board which songs people like, so weâre stoked on that and itâs working very well.
A: Good, so are there ever any disagreements about what the songs are going to be about, like someone doesnât share your opinion on the song?
M: Oh yeah, that happens. Iâve been censored, not censored but I think I was told âMark thatâs really stupidâ or something like that or âthat makes no senseâ. Yep by some of the other guys in the band even though I whole heartily disagree, but myself Iâm a team player I go with the majority.
A: Now, to think when you started out, did you ever think punk, your music would reach this level?
M: No, we just did it, it was just for fun. Like Scott and I have been doing it together the longest out of anyone. Weâve known each other since High School and stuff.
A: Were you guys playing in High School? Like how long did it take you to get on a label?
M: Um, fucking forever. I mean in those days you just played music for fun like kids today play music so the can make money and meet girls we did it because it is like a part of, thatâs what punk was. Yeah, so most bands today I think are pretty gay and suck, well they donât all suck they all play well and stuff but thereâs no soul, thereâs no heart to what theyâre doing.
A: Itâs true. I remember the first time I heard you guys years ago and punk had always been anti this and anti that, you guys were the first to come out and be like fuck everything and weâre going to say what we feel like.
M: Yes we do, weâre rebels, woohoo! Weâre dangerous. [laughs]
A: For your last question, can you remember the last time you were embarrassed?
M: Um, I do get embarrassed though, I do, I have that side to me but Iâm trying to think (asks Scott for help).
Scott- Well, I remember one time was it a girl, I think a girl, came up on stage but it was one of those girls that you canât tell if itâs a guy or a girl. And Mark called her a sir and kept talking to her like she was a boy and we didnât realise she was a girl till after she was off the stage.
M: I think I was blushing, ahh I donât remember that I was probably drunk. There was another kid last night, remember he looked like a girl, it was creepyâ¦
A: Thanks so much guys.