Interviews: Big D and the Kids Table

Angie Lalonde shows all of us just how much of a skank she is with this candid interview with Jason and Dave of Big D and the Kids Table. Click READ MORE for all the special goodness, including a special guest interjection by Matt of the Planet Smashers.

ANGIE: First who are we talking with here?
DAVE: I am Dave & I sing
JASON: Jason!!!
D: Oh he’s a sparky one! (laughs)
A: So you guys have a new record coming out called ‘How It Goes’…
D: Yeah! How did you know that?
J: Oh she’s got friends, we know more about you then you do…
D: Oh man, what is this like going to be the most gruesome interview ever…
A: So did you guys finish the entire album up?
D: The day after tomorrow is ten straight days of mixing and then we’re done and it’s really, really good!
A: How many songs?
D: I think we recorded nineteen
A: How many songs will go on it?
D: I don’t maybe eighteen? Sixteen or seventeen… Yeah we kind of did too many, everyone says don’t do a long album but we wanted to do it anyways…
A: And the release is expected early of 2004?
D: Yeah, we’re hoping February, February?
J: We hope so…?
D: Yeah manufacturing really sucks so…
A: And it’s on all the same labels, Fork In Hand in the U.S?
D: We don’t know yet… We have to do press kits!
A: Oh!
D: (in a British accent) well were shopping, there’s so many offers (laughs)
A: Seriously, you guys are looking around?
D: Well we’re gonna try some labels but like the way things go they’ll all say no so we’ll probably just…
A: Go back to DIY…
D: Yup, so we’ll probably go right back to where we are so
A: And you affiliation with Fork In Hand is?
D: Me and Steve run it, yeah so Fork In Hand is just us, it’s no biggie…
J: And that’s it, drum roll ‘Steve & I run it!’ (laughs)
A: And in Canada you guys are on a totally separate Stomp Records
D: Yeah they want to put out the new record and we kind of want to but we have to kind of like ya know just see what’s going on…
A: So you guys are playing a new song live now ‘New Nail Bed’
D: Man! How do you know that! How does she know that…?
J: We’re gonna do another new song tonight too!
D: Yeah, how did you know that though? (laughs) Yeah and we’re playing another new song tonight it’s called ‘Girls Against Drunk Bitches’ it’s awesome! We’re going to play it pretty poorly today but it’s good.
A: How’s the reception been?
D: Oh yeah good so far, I think so
A: What’s the new album like compared to ‘Gipsy Hill’?
D: Ah, it’s just so much better!
J: Well yeah, ya know cause we went for the whole emo thing, going to slow it down ya know (laughs!). No really the new stuff is amazing.
D: It’s awesome, ‘Gipsy Hill’ was basically songs, we had way too many songs for ‘How It Goes’ so that’s why ‘Gipsy Hill’ exists. But the ‘New Nail Bed’ song it’s good because in Canada you can play a new song and kids will like it and in the States when you play a new song kids just sit there, analyze it, then when you’re done they’re like alright, applaud! And in Canada you can play it and people will enjoy it.
A: And you recently lost your drummer
D: Yeah
A: (Pointing to Jason) and this is your ‘Gipsy Hill’ drummer…
J: YES! I am
D: Everyone keeps asking this when you’re around, weird! (laughs) This is the way I put it, Jay moved to New York so we had to get this guy Dave and he’s a really good drummer but he didn’t work out personality wise and so he kind of left us high and dry, quit and went back to school which is cool and we called up Jason and we’re like please! Please! Please! Help us out! And so Jason’s like yeah, fuck yeah and so the goal here is to trick him into coming back, but we haven’t tricked him yet. We’re waiting for the huge advance cheques for the new record, to kind of lure him back (laughs)
J: That’d be sweet
D: So Jay, you don’t want to do it? Well there’s this cheque sitting here for twenty grand !! No, really though…
A: And finally you guys were able to be a part of Warped Tour this year.
D: Yeah! That was weird. Yeah we didn’t get paid instead we got catering, it was really, really fun. We played on the smallest stage, which is a tent; the Kevin Stage, well of course in Canada we played on the Union stage, but everywhere else we played in like this tent and it was cool, we got to eat food with like, you know in High School when you have your tray and shit, the Suicide Machine were like ‘Oh come over here guys’ (in a cracked up voice) ‘Oh, um yeah sure okay guys!’ and they’d be like ‘so you guys partying tonight, you hanging out?’ like sure Jay yeah you wanna hang out with us? And once I was in line and the guitar player for Andrew WK was like ‘yo Dave!’ I was like ahhh yeah! He was like ‘you guys are on at 4:30pm right?’ um yes we are and he was like ‘I’ll be there’, cool then I turn around to the rest of the band and I was like fucking eh, did you just see that!!!
A: And at the rainy Toronto Warped Tour you guys were the only smart band selling Big D umbrella’s!
D: Yeah! That was our merch guys idea, in Florida it rains real bad so…
A: It was such a good idea though all day all I saw was Big D umbrella’s everywhere
D: It was so funny to see, when it started raining we were selling umbrellas and we go to this kid, do you want an umbrella, he goes no! And his girlfriend was like you buy that umbrella right now! He was like okay.
A: Your name started out originally as The Kids Table?
D: No that’s a lie
A: What you even told that to everyone at Stomp Records!
D: Well Jay had a good one; there was the dog story, the iguana one…
A: The one I heard was a cat story, that you ran over a cat named Big D hence…
D: Oh well the cat works too, my friend Connor basically said to me drunk one night next time you have a band you have to promise me you’ll call it Big D & the Kids Table, so I was like alright!
A: Are you Big D Dave?
D: No! I am not big enough to be Big D, but kids ask me that a lot.
A: So what’s your favorite thing to steal from hotels?
D: Oh awesome, toilet paper, soap and towels…
J: Pillows, I’m on a big pillows binge I have three pillows in my bag right now, so it’s like by the time I get to go home I’ll be like yeah, I’ve got some many new pillows!
D: Yeah and Jay’s got a new place, we try to like stock our houses up with stuff. The best is playing a College show and finding the janitors closet cause all the stuff in there…
A: And what’s your favorite place to stop for breakfast on tour?
J: Tim Horton’s, I like Waffle House
D: Well Waffle House in the States…
J: I like Denny’s
D: Waffle House is good, Denny’s, Tim Thorton’s in Canada…
A: Tim Horton’s is coming up in lots of my interviews
D: Oh man it’s so good! Today I had soup it was awesome, but we don’t recommend this place in Trois-Rivieres, we don’t recommend Theo’s…
A: You know this is defamation on the internet (laughs)
D: Say what now!? I am going to get a call from Theo’s ‘you ******-fuckers!’
J: You guys are assholes! We did nothing but treat you right! Yeah but ya know…
A: You guys recently lost a bunch of stuff on tour, did you ever find it?
D: Yeah, it wasn’t my stuff though, did you hear about that Jay?
J: Yeah, cause I emailed you back cause I got my motorcycle stolen the same day, remember I was like Oh! I know how that is!
D: Basically, the band that played before us or two before us umm went into the room and stole all of Steve’s & Sean’s and the other drummers stuff…
A: So you knew who it was?
D: Yeah! I don’t see why they didn’t follow up on it; I would’ve followed-up on it but… I mean like the kids, I would’ve called them up and I don’t know… Like on day my roommate Johnny hooked -up with this girl and we had woken up and she had stolen all his rent money and his Nintendo she’d cleaned him out. I was like oh man that sucks that sucks so much then I had realized she had stolen my mini-disc player. So she poses nude on like this weird alternative naked porn thing so I’d figured out who she was, figured out what she looked like, this is the weirdest I’ve even been, figured out her phone-number called her. Figured out where her house was, went on mapquest quick drove to her house with some friends around midnight and just busted open her door! And we took all our stuff back.
A: It was all just laying around!
D: Yeah! Just everywhere, we where like you ******-fucker.
J: Oh yeah she had the Nintendo hooked-up, listening to the mini-disc, ordering pizza’s with the rent money! (laughs)
D: She even stole one of his Transformers and we grabbed the Transformer, we were like you bitch
A: So what’s it like being in a Ska band in these hardcore, emo times?
J: It’s just fucking lovely (laughs)
D: yeah it’s lovely! I like being the underdog, its fun…
A: You guys even just played with Death By Stereo
J: Oh man those dudes are awesome, they were fun to hang out with super good guys.
A: What was the reception at the show like?
D: It was as good as one… It was as good as a Ska band could do (laughs!)…
J: They’re super one way and we’re super another way so ya see it’s what you would expect, kids we’re kind of like oh okay now Ska band is playing! Oh okay now the hardcore band is playing…
D: We were confused they were confused! (laughs)
J: We’re going to watch but it’s cool. It was just all around good vibes.
A: And on Halloween you guys are playing.
D: Yeah this is our 7th Annual Halloween Show.
A: What are you going to dress up as?
D: Oh, I don’t know but if you have any suggestions as what to dress up as we need some!
(Matt from The Planet Smashers walks up)
D: What’s up Friendster’s!!!
MATT: Oh god she’s doing an interview, we’re right in the middle of it aren’t we?
A: Actually this is the end, with your label man being here is there anything you’d like to add about Big D?
M: Yeah Dave blow me… (laughs)