Angie Lalonde lives to serve, apparently, as she is serving up another spicy interview of hers from north of the border. This time, she got the chance to sit down with guitarist/vocalist Matt, bassist Joe, and saxophonist Steve of the Rx Bandits for a little bit. Click READ MORE for their opinions on strip clubs, Europe, Metallica cover bands, and more.
MATT- Okay I donât know if I can talk clear for your voice recorder put Iâll talk loud, Iâm a mumbler, thatâs what all the East-Coast people tell me. (Matt mumbles something)
ANGIE- Okay say youâre name and something explicit into the recorder so I can differentiate your voices.
M- Okay my name is Matt, explicit. Something explicit.
A- You guys crossed the border when, last night? Or today?
M- Today, it was a rather boring experience we sat there for four hours and they made us count all of our stuff, it was cool though the lady that we dealt with was really good to us. We didnât get butt surgery or anything like that.
A- So the new album is out July 15th (âThe Resignationâ), heard you guys found the direction you wanted with this record?
M- Found our direction, I donât know, I donât know about that.
A- Well I heard you guys were all really happy about the way it turned out.
M- yeah weâre pretty stoked on it, but I donât know if itâs necessarily a direction that we found itâs just music we made up, you know what I mean, the times in our lives and the influences in our lives caused us to create this part of music, itâs like a snapshot of where weâre all at musically and mentally
A- Is this the most comfortable record youâve made together as a band; you have a steady line-up now?
M- Itâs just different, itâs definitely comfortable though, we have a steady line-up itâs been almost two years or no, not, almost a year and a half and thatâs pretty much the longest weâve had it stay together except for when we first started the band.
A- So this is âThe Sell You Beautiful Tourâ and ironically youâve found yourselves in the highly publicized for good reason Montreal strip club stretch, plan on attending?
M- No I am not too into that really, going to strip clubs is kind of like a bum out, itâs nothing I like. A lot of people get stoked when they go to the red-light district in Amsterdam and stuff but that just bums me out too, itâs just seeing that dead look in their eyes, itâs pretty intense, a striking look to stare a prostitute in the eyes. Sometimes youâll see a girl and Iâll swear I knew her from High School, girls that look totally familiar, these people that would totally be your friend, itâs just that place in their life that caused them to do that, itâs just a bum out. Â Stripclubs are sort of the same way for me, I feel like, itâs just like a lower level but no weâll probably get tattooâs and stuff like that and last time we were here we ate lots of sushi and it was good so…
A- You guys just got back from Europe didnât you? I heard the kids out there are really receptive to different styles of music?
M- Yeah I think European audiences are just, Iâm not saying as a whole because I donât want to generalize the Europeans but especially like main land Europe, Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, it seems people are more receptive and more appreciative to music, theyâre less jaded. In America it seems like we all have the opportunity to see bands every night so a lot of times people get jaded to new music, in Europe it seems Iâm sure they have kind of the same opportunity but they just seemed as though they werenât jaded. Places like Switzerland we had about four hundred kids show up for the shows and only one hundred of the four hundred actually knew who we were, the rest of them just came because there was a show and thatâs what you do, you go see a band play, you know theyâre from America theyâll go and help them out, cause theyâre probably not huge, they just want to be there and be part of it, itâs really cool.
A- Drive-Thru Records definitely a good launching pad for major sales, would you want that success or prefer staying partially underground?
M- I personally would like to stay at the level we are now, as long as we have this many people at shows every night weâre totally stoked.
A- Driving in a van.
M- Yeah, I just wouldnât want to go down from here, this is more than I ever expected so Iâm cool with it.
A- And which one of you guys used to be in a Metallica cover band?
M- Whoa! How was that called dude! Pretty much Chris was in one and I was in one but weâre all down.
JOE- We are Metallica!
M- yeah his name is Jason, except he quit!
J- Yeah I quit to join the RX Bandits and I changed my name, Iâm now fucking Jose Quevro.
M- So yeah my first band was a Metallica cover band and so was Chris, but Chrisâs band played some Megadeth songs too but we didnât know each other then.
A- Weird.
M- Yeah weird right! Chrisâs brother is an extremely talented guitar player, his younger brother John. Yeah and they rocked together howâs that man, Metallica was a great thing musically to grow-up listening to I must say, their first four albums. Now kids are growing up with like Good Charlotte and who else, bands like SR71 shit like that, itâs easy to learn songs like that, it doesnât take much, not that itâs a bad song it just doesnât take much actual musical whatâs the word Iâm looking for?, I donât know itâs just not intricate enough to cause you to be influenced to learn how to play it. Metallica for me was like a video games, it was like "whoa this solo is a level nine and this song is only a level two." so yeah thatâs my way to describe it.
A- Whatâs been the hardest part about the industry for the Bandits?
M- I donât know; Steve Borth you take this one.
STEVE- umm, I donât know, I feel like right now itâs been a very productive time for us, weâre going on a good thing right now but I would say personally for me, I wish that we could find bands that were more well suited to play with us far as bands that have different influences than a lot of the stuff thatâs out there right now. That would be my first thing to find more bands that we can play with and that are trying to take music to another level.
M- I definitely agree man, commercial music is so stale right now. Thereâs so few bands that are actually doing anything with music. Itâs more like music is a tool, well itâs not like itâs anything new but it seems like right now well now more than ever especially the scene quote, unquote. Itâs just like more of a tool for financial gain as for creative expression.
A- You guys got two Chrisâs and two Steveâs in the band - ever get confusing, mix up paychecks?
M- Paychecks! (laughing) Thatâs so funny.
S- No we just call each other by our last names. Usually when you get in a group of people that you hang around for more than a few weeks in a row you can tell whoâs talking to who, hopefully.
A- How do you guys stay in-line on tour partially sober and on time for shows, ever forget a member somewhere?
S- Ah, yes, well actually we didnât weâve definitely forgotten articles as far as instruments and back-packs and other stuff like that.
A- No codes of conduct on tour?
M- No we try to work it like straight direct democracy, almost like working anarchy in a way that everyoneâs opinion and say is completely equal and we try not to make decisions unless we can convince the entire band and talk things out, mostly Iâm not saying it always works but for the most part it works out, you have to.
A- I heard The Police were a big influence to the RX Bandits and so if you guys are bandits what criminal activity would you love them to catch you doing?
M- (laughing) Thatâs so huge… Umm, I donât know what to say to that.
S- Iâm sorry, Iâm not feeling too creative.
M- Weâve got nothing for ya, sorry.