Interviews: Junction 18

Not letting the bastards grind her down, Angie comes through again with yet another interview, this time with the boys of Junction 18. Click READ MORE to find out about the band's border patrol horror stories, substance abuse, recording plans, and more.

ANGIE: You guys are from small town Abington, Massachusetts known for its mini-golf courses and pizza shops! (laughs)
CHRIS: Oh yeah, yes that’s from our old bass player Spencer’s bio!
A: That’s where I got it, so this is your first time in Canada?
C: Well, first time playing as a band in Canada, we’ve been to Canada before but just as dudes…
A: Was it always cause you didn’t make it over the border?
C: Yeah, two times. The first time we got busted we were asking all our friends, how’s the border, just asking them like ‘hey we’re playing in Canada in a couple of days…?’ they were just like ah you know it’s not a big deal just say you’re visiting that’s it. I was like ‘oh okay, it should be cool’ so we went up there around 2:00am through Vermont and they were like ‘oh you need documentation’ and it was all French people. We were like alright we’ll try again in the morning, so we got a hotel that night and we had Fearless contact a guy who owns a recording studio in I think it was Montreal? Anyways he was like yeah I’ll just write up a paper that says they’re coming up here to check out my studio and that’s why we’d have all our equipment so um, they wrote up a thing and we got this fax from this guy about us Junction 18 coming up to use my recording studio in Montreal. Then all of a sudden they call in our old bass player Spencer and they’re like Mr. Spencer come here and he goes in this private office and the lady there turns around the computer and they have our website up with all our tour dates and they were like so you’re going to record huh? Yeah man it was just like being sent to the principal’s office so we’re all just sitting there like ah!
A: Body cavity search!
C: Almost but yeah we got banned none of us were allowed to come to this country for a year after that.
ANDY: They thought since we lied to them we we’re going to try and overthrow their government so (laughs)
C: We were like we just want to play!
A: Oh yeah they were freaking out
C: Yeah there was some awesome shows we were supposed to play! Like Gob…
A: Glassjaw!
C: Yeah like three good shows, pretty bummed out so yeah we couldn’t go in for a year and then last summer we tried to go again and the kid Rob who set-up this tour, tried last year but the paper-work was all messed-up and we were even in Seattle and we ended-up having to drive back home to Boston. It was like yup everything’s too messed-up lets just go home, so yeah it’s solid I was like well I guess I am never going to Canada again (laughs). Even things were getting real close today, we weren’t even sure if we were getting in till about noon and we left Boston at 3am last night trying to get to the border crossing right when it opens at 8:00am so we’d have plenty of time to get in. But I called the kid in the morning and he was like ah I don’t have everything yet I am riding my bike down to the immigration office. So he rode his bike down there and we couldn’t get in touch with him for three hours, we’re all like great well guess we’re not getting in again and then Scott talked to his dad and he was like ‘ah yup you guys are getting in with flying colors here’s your confirmation code!’. Yeah it’s pretty strict but they didn’t search our van or anything, they were cool, they were like they’re just kids they were nice to us. We didn’t have everything straighten yet either. We didn’t have contracts for every show like they wanted.
A: At the border they always ask you if you’ve been stopped there for something before? Did they ask you? Like oh yeah we tried to cross illegally!
C: They didn’t ask this time.
A: Oh yeah they asked me!
C: Oh they did! What did you say?
A: Yeah they did, they asked have you even been denied to come into Canada before and I was like yeah once, they said why! All I told them was we didn’t have our work permits, they were like ‘was there any other reasons’ I was like no we just didn’t have our working permits and then they went on to the next question!
A: Nice, so you guys have a new acoustic split out with ‘Over It’, were you guys friends or ever worked together before?
A: Kind of…
C: Well like yeah, when we see them we’ll be like hey what’s up; the guys from ‘Over It’ they’re not my closest friends though we like them and they’re fans of our music so we thought I’d be a good opportunity to show a different side of what we could do, I heard their stuff on it and I liked it so I was like yeah let’s do this.
A: We write all of our sings kind of acoustic anyways so we were like yeah sure, it’s kind of like rootsie rock sounding kind of…
C: Yeah we didn’t want to go for the whole Dashboard Confessional and even ‘Over It’ was like oh no. It’s not the typical emo type thing we just kind of did an unplugged version of our songs. Like something Alice In Chains would do in the early 90’s
SCOTT: Pink hair
C: Yeah we all dyed our hair pink and that was about it, we recorded it.
A: You guys got referred to Fearless by New Found Glory, do you think close-knit touring with bands is a huge advantage punk music has over others; you really get to meet everyone…
A: Yeah I think also a lot of words gets around, I’ve noticed in the current trend where I mean, I am not against it but I see a lot of bands wearing other bands t-shirts and like the front-man of the other bands t-shirt, even where I’ve seen pictures of bands where the t-shirt is almost brighter and more colorful than the guys face. I think that says a lot about getting other bands signed and stuff people like to see that picture and when they see it they want to go right out and check that band out.
S: It’s not what you know it’s who you know….
A: So we made a rule that nobody’s wearing a band t-shirt for a band picture, well for awhile (laughs)
A: You released a split and an EP, when do you think you’ll be releasing your next full-length?
C: We started working on new songs not too long ago and we’re hoping to get in the studio. After this tour we’re not going out for any huge tours, this tour is seven weeks and then we’ll be home November, December, January and we’re going to work on it and hopefully get in the studio around February or March so hopefully I’d be released for summer time. I hope I mean the sooner the better we’re just kind of excited to start back at square one sort of, write a really good album to gets more heads turned our way, get a bigger fan base…
A: We’re over-due…
C: Yeah we’re overdue for a full-length we just had line-up problems and we’re trying to tour a lot and get that kind of credibility too so I don’t know it’s going steady…
A: Does anyone in the band keep a journal?
A: I do…
A: Do you see it come through in your lyrics?
A: Um, yeah actually, you do. I mean I don’t really write, well I just recently stuck up and started writing poetry in my journal usually I was just documenting everything I was thinking and what I was doing. I’ve been keeping a journal since like 96’ or 97’ so I have two journals totally filled and ever since we started touring I’ve been filling my journals a lot faster but I do see it come out cause I read back on it and it makes me miss tour so much when I’m at home, it makes me sorta of think of stuff on the road that affected me in a way, sometimes it will go into my lyrics.
A: Have you guys gained more weight or substance problems on tour?
C: I don’t know I usually lose weight when I’m on tour…
A: Yeah definitely
C: Yeah we usually run out of money for food…
S: We don’t have money for food or drugs or whatever
A: Cause I will get t-shirts on the road and they’ll fit me and then I’ll get home and after like 5 months I’ll be too big for them just because I start eating well again.
C: When I’m at home my parents are just like here’s the fridge eat whatever you want.
RICKY: We just gain less sleep.
A: So in light of this whole Friendster thing I went and looked at your profile and found a few things, Junction 18 is presently in an open-marriage
C: Andy did it!
A: Well I don’t know some of us have girlfriends and some of us don’t and ya know what I figured just open-marriage seemed like the way to go (laughs)
A: One of your interests is the Top 40 Rap / R&B
A: Oh yeah we got the mixer in there we’re all about the Usher
C: R Kelly!
A: even Sean Paul, Tyrese we like Tyrese
S: Best boys in the business (laughs)
C: I’m telling you right now I don’t like any of it cause it makes me feel like a teenager, like a sixteen-year-old black girl from the inner-city, not that there’s anything wrong with that but I am a twenty-two-year-old white guy from the Suburbs…
A: And one of your favorite movies is Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
A: One of my favorite movies there’s a small humor in that movie that I think we still love I think there’s an Adam Sandler movie on there too…