There's a poignant moment in Do You Remember? 15 Years of the Bouncing Souls, in which members of the New Jersey band recall their first conversation with the Stern brothers of Youth Brigade/BYO Records. They were, it seems, more excited to have talked to the Sterns on the telephone than to have found out that they'd be joining the legendary BYO Records roster.
After talking to Shawn Stern, vocalist and guitarist for the band as co-owner (with his brother Mark) of BYO Records, I can understand where the excitement came from. All those bands you've heard about, or seen video of, or seen reunion tours – he was there the first time. And he was in one of them! We talked for a while about the early LA scene, how BYO could've signed bands like The Offspring, Sublime, AFI, and Jawbreaker, and about the brand new documentary as well its adjacent compilation and book.
The Last Time I saw you guys was at the Fun Fun Fun Fest in 2007. I was surprised at how well your set translated to an outdoors, festival setting. Is there anything you do differently to prepare for festival dates than you would with a club date?
We donât do anything differently. We play the same whether thereâs some big festival with thousands of people or a little club with 50 people. I think itâs a little weird. We donât play a lot of festivalsâ¦weâve been playing big shows since pretty early on. Back in the 80s the shows at the Olympic used to be four or five thousand people but it was always at night and its always a little weird to me to have punk rock in the daytime. I donât mind the outside so much, but its just weird to play in the daytime when the sunâs out.
The reason I ask is that you are doing a punk-rock festival rounds of sort with The Riot Fest, The Fest, and the Fun Fun Fun Fest. Are there any bands in particular at any of the fest that youâre looking forward to seeing or anything youâre looking forward to?
Well weâve played all three before and weâve had a really good time playing all three so the fun thing about festivals for us is that you get to play with a bunch of your friends and thatâs one of the big things when weâre on the road. We like to be able to play with good bands that weâre friends withâ¦thatâs always fun.
At those festivals NOFX is playing at the Riot Fest, 7 Seconds is playing all three of them with us although I donât think theyâre playing the same days as us which is unfortunate because we always like playing with those guys. I know Cock Sparrerâs playing. We played with those guys in 2003 at one of those Wasted Festivals out in Blackpool, England. Thatâs interesting to see. Weâve got Off With Their Heads playing a bunch of the dates with us, and theyâre playing so thatâs always good. Leatherface is playing the festâ¦I havenât even looked at all of the bands.
Sometimes you get so busy doing stuff and drinking that you donât get to see everybody and some of them have multiple stages or multiple clubs which makes it next to impossible so you end up just saying âaw screw it Iâm just gonna drink and hang out.â
Iâm trying to grasp everything that comes in this box set.
I think people, you know, you tell them about it and they say âoh that sounds interestingâ but when you finally pull it out and show it to them they finally get the graspâ¦
The idea was itâs our twenty-five year anniversary, which of course was a couple of years ago, but we said âletâs do what we do bestâ which is a compilation. Well its really hard getting bands to get us new songs for compilations these days especially the bigger bands because they go in the studio and record them for a record and theyâve only got so many songs and they need them for the record.
So then we though, âwell why donât we just get people to cover songs from the BYO catalog?â Because weâve got so many bands and so many songs, and I think weâve got over one thousand songs to choose from. And from what everybody tells me thereâs a lot of influential songs and bands on all of these different records.
But then of course we were faced with the ongoing dilemma of the music business and record labels of people downloading music and not buying records, and not paying for their downloads a lot of the times so we thought we could make a documentary because thatâs hard to download. So we enlisted Jeff Aluis and Ryan Harlin who made that Bouncing Souls documentary a few years back and then went on to make the NOFX Backstage Pass on Fuse TV series. So they made a documentary about the label, the band, and pretty much the entire Southern California punk scene from the early 1980s all the way through today.
And then we thought that still you could download both of them so we came up with this idea to make a book. Its sort of a companion to the movie with stories from me and my brothers and a bunch of our friends, people in bands, and people that were there. Weâve got photos and all sorts of things that didnât get included in the movieâ¦because it really goes longer than 25 years and it talks about us growing up and how we got into punk rock and the early days of the punk scene in LA. So thereâs a double LP, with colored vinly, a CD of the music, a DVD, and the book for $50. A pretty good deal.
We also have a smaller version for people who donât have turntables. Its just got the CD and the bookâs about half the size. Itâs the same book, its just a smaller version of it. And that one sells for half the price - $25.
Is the documentary more focused on BYO and Youth Brigade or is it more all encompassing of the LA scene in general?
I could never say that its all-encompassing because I donât think anybody could ever cover everything and I think that itâs a problem with some of these other movies that they try to do too much.
I think its specifically about Youth Brigade, BYO, and the Stern brothers but if definitely shows our part in the history and development of the punk scene and the movie interviews a lot of people that were involved back then and it talks about us, it talks about the scene in general, it gives an insight as to what is often overlooked - which is really, to me since the early 1980s the biggest punk rock scene in the world continually and has produced some of the biggest and best punk rock bands in history, in my opinion.
Not to take anything away from the early scenes in New York or London, and you can go back and forth about who started it, and those scenes were a big influence on us, but after that initial explosion in the mid 1970s LA became the place and has been really, to me, since then. Weâre still drawing thousands of kids to these shows and you donât really get that anywhere else.
As an LA native, something thatâs always bothered me is how much LA tends to get overlooked in not just punk rock, but in music and art. People tend to see Hollywood and not much else.
I love this town. Iâve grown up here. Itâs a huge influence on our lives and thereâs so much great stuff that comes out of here but I donât really care that it gets overlooked - I mean I think it deserves more credit but I think the fact that the bands do as well as they do and that the punk scene as strong as its been over all these years is a testament to the fact that we must be doing something right. And I donât really worry too much about the press - journalists donât always know everything and a lot of times they donât know anything at all.
You know people make fun of this town. You watch a ball game and how many times do you hear people chant "Beat San Francisco" or "Beat New York" or "Beat Pittsburg" or "Beat Chicago" they always say "Beat L.A." Everybodyâs got a think for L.A.
Earlier this year I was a Mets/Dodgers game in a Dodgers hat in New York and somebody asked me why I wasnât at Michael Jacksonâs funeral.
Thereâs a lot of crazy stuff that goes on here - no doubt but thatâs not by any means all that goes on hereâ¦.You wanna make fun of Hollywood? I donât careâ¦.The people that people donât understand is that Americaâs greatest export is its culture and that comes from two places: Hollywood and Madison Avenueâ¦I guess some of its warranted, there is a lot of crap coming out of Hollywood, but thereâs a lot of great stuff too.
Speaking of LA. Outside of the big ones - Black Flag, X, The Germs etc. What bands from that era donât get enough attention?
Well its funny, because I like The Germs and all, but had Darby Crash not died, they probably wouldnât be getting the attention that they do because I saw The Germs may times and they were not anything all that special. They were special in what they were doing hadnât really been done at that time, but their music isnât really all that spectacular.
X were an amazing bandâ¦they were a big influence. Obviously Black Flag, The Circle Jerks, TSOL, The Adolescents are definitely big influences that get overlookedâ¦.The Adolescents in particularâ¦you ask Fat Mike and heâll tell you that so many Southern California bands copy this style that Rick and Steve playedâ¦.the guitar style of doing these sliding octaves that you hear on so many of the poppier bands from the late 80s and 90sâ¦..People remember the ones that get famous, not the ones that may have been the main influence.
Was there ever a band that you remember seeing that nobody else has ever heard of, but it was a big deal at the time?
I mean I remember going to shows at 17, 18, 19â¦.The first band we saw was The Dickies and that made my jaw dropâ¦.I had been doing to concerts sine I was 14 or 15 but rock concerts. I had seen Led Zeppelin, John Winterâ¦Iâd seen Stanley Clarke, and Chick Corea and all this jazz stuff Iâd seen a lot of different music. But the thing about all the rock bands as great as they were technically - and I loved a lot of the music was they were kind of removed you from what were living sort of day to day as kids. The music was awesome but it was music that we got stoned to, you know? It didnât make you think about anything other than âwow Iâm really high right now.â
When I saw the Dickies and started going to punk shows it made me think about a lot moreâ¦the music was being made by kids - other kids that were my age or not much older than meâ¦..it wasnât at a big stadium, or a big arena where I had to sit in a seatâ¦..
But F-Word and The Deadbeats are two bands that probably get a little overlooked that were pretty amazing andThe Screamers were pretty awesome. They never released an official record, but they put on some crazy shows. You look at it now and youâre like âOKâ but if you were there and you were you drinking and getting high and 17, 18 years old it was pretty amazing stuff at the time.
How involved are you in the local LA scene now? It seems like bands are playing in Echo Park and Downtown instead of Hollywood now.
I go check bands out. Thereâs this place called the Blue Star. Weâve seen Off With Their Heads a few times. This project has taken us three years, so I havenât been going out as much as I used to. I go to Alexâs bar in Long Beach a lot to see bands. I mostly go see bands that I know or bands that Iâve met on the road or somebody has told me about that I should go see.
Sometimes I see bands as an opener and go âwow these guys are really goodâ but thereâs so many bands and thereâs so many shows - I think thereâs a small sort of DIY, punk, rock, backyard party thing going on that Iâm vaguely aware of but I havenât gone to check out a lot of the bands. A lot of them are sort of rudimentary, to say, but a lot of them have that spirit and you give them some time and the cream will rise to the top. I suspect will be seeing a new pretty interesting crop of bands coming to play clubs and stuff soon. But if you want names? No.
Was there ever a band that you had a chance to work with and you didnât? Any regrets in that?
Thereâs a whole list of bands that we had talked to about releasing their records and for different reasons, most involving we liked the music or the band but we didnât think we could help them at the time, or we had a difference of opinion over what they wanted to do and how we wouldâve done it.
For example Suicidal Tendencies - we were talking to them about putting the first record out but [they] wanted to do things a certain way, and that wasnât the way we wanted to do itâ¦.but they found Fronteir and that worked out great for them.
Sublime, Pennywise, The Offspring. Thom Wilson who produced our first record and the Royal Crown Revue record - he was telling us about The Offspring way back when they were just putting out 7 inches. At the same time I had met the guys from Sublime right around when they put out the first record on their own - it was a timing thing. The label had been dormant for a whileâ¦there was a few years where we took time offâ¦and the label just put out the catalog we just werenât singing any new bands or doing any new stuffâ¦.
Or in the case of Sublime. I really liked those guys and I knew Bradley was an amazing songwriter but I also didnât want to deal with what I saw as potential problems with them being high all the time.
A lot of bands it was just timing, or we didnât think we couldâve helped them. Pennywise had sent a demoâ¦.Jawbreaker, a lot of different bands. There were bands that we tried to put out records by but we couldnât come to terms with like Anti-Flag, Screw 32, we talked to AFI early on - you know things work out the way theyâre going to work outâ¦.
You get a lot of bands who say âweâre ready to work, weâre ready to tourâ and as soon as youâre getting ready to put the record out theyâre saying âwell whereâs the tour bus?â and âwhen are you gonna set up our tour? We wanna play to a thousand people.â
Aside from the Nothington record coming out next month, is there anything else planned for the label?
Nothing is set for sure yet - hopefully weâll do a new Youth Brigade record next year. Weâve been talking with Off With Their Heads about doing something - actually weâre supposed to do a split with themâ¦.Weâd like to do more splits, just trying to get bands together is a lot of work.
Youâve been doing this for over 30 years. What keeps you inspired to keep on going? Both with the band and the label.
Well I think the fact that people are still coming out to the showsâ¦.we did an interview recently where the guy said âYou guys are out playing like Motley Crue is back together. So is that what you get? The old diehard fans coming out?â and I said âhow sad and scary that would be to have a bunch of fat, old, bald men coming to our shows.â I mean if that was the only people who came to see us I wouldâve given up a long time ago.
Weâve had kids coming out to our shows since we got back together in the 1990s so thereâs a lot of young kids - high school, college aged kids coming out. Weâre reaching across generations, which I think is great. Thereâs people who were coming to see us during the 1980s who now are coming and bringing their kids so we must be doing something right I guess and thatâs what keeps us motivated.
Do the label and the band still mean the same thing to you now as they did thirty years ago?
My philosophy is that Iâm a âglass half-fullâ kind of guy and Iâm still very idealistic. I think as you get older you start getting a little more cynical or I like to call it âmore realisticâ and your ideas are tempered but what can be accomplished and what canât be versus when youâre younger and anythingâs possible.
I still believe most anything is possible; itâs just a lot harder to accomplish some of those things. But I think we do this because its fun, and we enjoy it, and weâve got something to say and there are people out there who seem to be interested and respond to it. I would hope theyâre inspired by what we do. Weâll see as we travel across the country and up through Canada if that holds trueâ¦.
I think the punk rock scene will just continue on. It changes its look or its sound or its feel or thereâs new kids - but for me the idea always is fundamentally you gotta think for yourself, you gotta question everything, and you gotta try and change what you think is wrong in the world. And Iâve believed that since I was a teenager and I still believe it now.