A Wilhelm Scream

This was my first interview of three on the Tour and Loathing Tour, and it kicked off the evening perfectly. Nuno was a great guy, gave some funny answers and was fun to talk to. Chris, who sat quickly near us playing his PSP added a few comments throughout the interview too; and sadly, I never did end up hearing “Bodies and Suitcases”, oh well, maybe next time. Thanks to Ray and Lexie for setting it up, and to Nuno for doing it.

---

Bobby: This is the third date on the “Tour and Loathing Tour”, are you excited to see how it goes?

Nuno: I think this is really exciting because the first couple shows we did were in the States with just Bayside, so this is going to be like our first time ever getting to see Protest and getting to hang out with the Fully Down again and stuff like that. Protest The Hero is a really rad band, we play them a lot in our van so I’m really excited to get to see them live.

Bobby: On Tuesday, you guys announced that Brian Robinson was going to be your full time bassist. How did you guys meet up with him?

Nuno: We’ve been friends with Brian and the rest of the guys for a couple years. Like we’ve played some shows up in Canada and just maintained friendships and stuff like that, played a couple shows together here and there. And then it was just kind of a last minute thing. We were trying out some bass players and it just so happened he was about to finish up what he was doing with his band, and so he flew down, took a couple days to practice and it all came together pretty well – I mean, he’s an amazing bass player, so….

Bobby: What’s it like touring with him?

Nuno: Oh, it’s great. Yeah, it’s fun. He’s the first Canadian we’ve ever toured with.

Bobby: On the post when you announced it, you said you’ve already been writing new songs for an album, why are you writing one so soon?

Nuno: You think it’s too soon? I don’t think it’s too soon.

Bobby: Well, I don’t think its too soon, I want to hear more.

Nuno: Right, well that’s always how we’ve been. When you’re a musician, you write music. It’s like, if you were a carpenter, you wouldn’t build just one house a year. You’d have to keep building and keep doing what your occupation demands in that respect. As musicians, it’s fun too. To get down in the basement, hang out and laugh, and piece songs together and when the song does come together and everyone’s happy with it, that’s the best feeling in the world, you know. So, we love to write.

Bobby: When do you think we’ll see the album?

Nuno: Oh, it will probably be a little while. Like we just, just, just started getting it rolling, but already it’s been a blast so we’re really looking forward to getting some time off to go back and do some more writing.

Bobby: Okay, let’s go back to your last two releases, “Mute Print” and “Ruiner.” I love both of those CDs, but one thing I really like is the artwork. The radio and TVs on “Mute Print” and the whole bird concept on “Ruiner,” who came up with those ideas?

Nuno: The first one, Trevor came up with the idea to have the booklet cut in half on “Mute Print” and that was really fun. Our friend Grandison came to shoot the photos for us and we all just got together one day and set up all these little weird photo shoots. And we had no idea if it was really going to come together the way we wanted it to, it took a long time to figure out how to get the printing right and everything. So that was a lot of fun. For “Ruiner”, Rob Dobi, who does a lot of design work for a lot of bands; Trevor and him had been talking and he was going on and finding lines that really stuck out from the songs for him. And he presented a bunch of them and they went through a couple and they came up with the line “I just put a brick through every bird’s nest.” So they went with that and Rob just kind of got the ball rolling and showed us where he was going with that and it was just awesome, we loved it.

Bobby: Considering how incredibly well “Mute Print” did, how many top ten lists it ended in, was there a lot of pressure when writing the follow-up to make it as good?

Nuno: It it’s any pressure, its self-imposed pressure. To say that we were on a lot of top ten lists in flattering, but I mean, to say that it was hugely successful is a bit of an overstatement, you know what I mean? In regards to keep following-up with another album and try to make it as good, you always want to. The best bands, like my favorite bands, every record, for instance, that Propaghandi has ever put out, as soon as it comes out it’s my new favorite Propaghandi record. And I’m like “wow, how do they keep putting out such incredible music?” So I want to take a page from their kind of play book and come with it a little bit better than the last time because that’s the way it should be.

Bobby: One thing I found interesting on “Ruiner” was that the names were a bit more tongue-in-cheek, like “Me vs. Morrissey in the Pretentious Match” and “The Kids Can Eat a Bag of Dicks”…

Nuno: Actually, the name of that song was “Ruiner” but it got changed last minute to “Kids Can Eat a Bag of Dicks.”

Bobby: Why?

Nuno: Because a lot of kids can eat a bag of dicks *laugh*. It was just a little shout to the hateful people out there on the internet who find lots of time to talk shit about bands that are really trying to do something, but whatever.

Bobby: While you guys were recording that CD, you also record a song called “Bodies and Suitcases” which never found its way onto the CD, will you ever release it somewhere else?

Nuno: Um, maybe. Yeah, yeah, of course we will. Look for it.

Chris: How do you know about that song?

Bobby: I did some research.

Nuno: You’re not one of those phony-baloney interviewers who haven’t done their homework.

Chris: Have you heard it?

Bobby: No I haven’t yet.

Chris: *with a joyful little smile on his face* Do you want to?

Bobby: I do.

Chris: It’s on my Ipod.

Nuno: You heard it here first, it’s on Chris’ Ipod.

Chris: I may actually be the only one who has it.

Nuno: Chris, dude, do you know how to Podcast?

Chris: I do.

Nuno: Fascinating. *laughs*

Chris: I’m a fucking nerd.

Nuno: *grabbing a Kokanee* Hey, are these twist offs?

Chris: I don’t know.

Bobby: Kokanee normally is, yeah.

Nuno: *opens the beer* Alright, sorry about that. So yes, by the end of the day, you might hear it.

Bobby: Oh, awesome. Okay, I read in an interview with TruePunk, where Jon mentioned that you guys were planning on doing a retrospective release with a whole bunch of old songs, from Smackin’ Isaiah and songs like “Fuck You, I Own Hollywood” – are you gonna do that?

Nuno: I would like to, I don’t know how much of a demand there is for it, you know what I mean. If we do do it, it would be on our own time and it’s going to be fun to get to rematch with some of those old songs. A lot of them are pretty fun, you know I mean, I still listen to them and get a good laugh here and there. I guess, we’ll probably put something like that out, but in time. It’s not something we’re focusing on.

Bobby: I read in another interview, this time with PastePunk, where Trevor said that when you went out on tour with The Lawrence Arms, you guys and Brendan all went out and got tattoos that say “Tour” with a heart around it. Have you guys done anything else like that, crazy and spontaneous, on tour?

Chris: But that wasn’t spontaneous.Nuno: um… spontaneous things on tour… No, no. We’ve been offered more tattoos from people, but they always seem to be really cracked-out weirdoes. Like “Come on down to the shop man, let me tat you for free bro! Check out my work!” And it’s like you can tell they’ve been smoking crystal meth for like three days or whatever. So the answer to that is no. But we did manage to probably take at least two or three years off our lives in Europe together, that was good.

Nuno: That wasn’t spontaneous. That was well planned. Well planned and executed to perfection I might say. Alright, anyway…

Bobby: Okay, I love going to concerts. I try to go to as many as I can, but of course, some are always more memorable than others. Thinking back, what are some concerts that you went to that are really memorable for you?

Nuno: I’ve got tons. I remember almost every great show I ever went to. I would say for sure, in Providence, Rhode Island, there was a venue called “Club Baby Head” and it was just the most amazing place to go see a show. The stage was maybe like two feet high, three feet high maybe. I remember that was the first place I ever saw NOFX play, the first place I ever saw Guttermouth play, the Bouncing Souls, a lot of old hardcore bands like Chain Of Strength and all these other fucking bands that I was really into then. I’m going to have say though, the very first time I saw ever saw Guttermouth. Yeah, yeah, the very first time I ever saw Guttermouth. That sticks out as one of the most insane days of my entire life.

Bobby: Yeah, they’re a good live show.

Nuno: Oh my God man. I think they’re banned from Canada though right?

Bobby: No, no, I don’t think so. Because they were here a couple years ago. They were here last year actually.

Nuno: Really?

Bobby: Yeah, Mark Adkins tried to get in a fight with a guy in the crowd.

Nuno: Who knows dude, that guy’s outta control. He’s by far in my top three favorite front-men of all time in my opinion.

Bobby: Who would the other two people be?

Nuno: The other two? Let’s see… David Lee Roth and um… who else… good question. I don’t know. There’s a lot of bands I haven’t seen still, you know what I mean? Oh well, I’m going to have leave you with two. To be continued. We could do a follow up on e-mail or something, I’ll make a bunch of my lists and you can just print them off, do whatever you want.

Bobby: I guess the answer to this could be Guttermouth, but if you could tour with one person or band, dead or alive, still going or broken up, who would you choose to tour with and why?

Nuno: I would choose to tour with… Propaghandi.

Chris: I was gonna say “Dude, just say Propaghandi.”

Nuno: Yeah, and why? Because they’re like the best band in the world. That’s about as straight forward as it gets.

Bobby: Now onto a bit more unusual questions that I just like to ask at all my interviews to keep it interesting.

Nuno: Fire away… why, am I boring?

Bobby: No, no, I ask them at all my interviews. I’m interviewing Machete Avenue and Protest next and I’m asking them the same ones.

Nuno: Alright.

Bobby: First off, if you were a member of the opposite sex for a day, week, month, however long you wanted, what would you do and why?

Nuno: If I was a woman for a day, week, month, however long I wanted, what would I do… I guess I’d pee sitting down a lot, because that’s what girls do. *laughs* how’s that?

Bobby: Good answer.

Nuno: Thanks.

Bobby: Now, if you guys, as a band, were stranded on a desert island, with no food and nothing to eat to survive, which one of the band members would you eat to survive and why?

Nuno: Definitely not Nick, he’s too stringy. I don’t know. I have a good feeling that I might be the fist one to go though. I think I’m the only one with any meat on his bones. I don’t know, Brian’s pretty frail, I think he could be taken out pretty easily. He’s a vegetarian, so you know he’s clean.

Bobby: Could you tell us something about the band or one of its members that not many people know about, like a little quirk they do on the road or something like that?

Nuno: Oh, whenever Nick Angelini drives the van, he always yanks the wheel like a quarter of an inch every fifteen seconds. Always. Always. Just driving right and its like *pretends to yank a steering wheel* “wow”…. “wow” And it’s like that for hours. Ray snores really loud, so do I though. What else? Trevor Riley has like no hair from the top of his sock line. It’s weird. He doesn’t shave it or anything, but there’s no hair from like here *pints to the top of his sock line* down. See, like normally hair stops right around here *pulls down his sock to show where his hair stops*, his stops like right here *goes back up his leg to his sock line* and it looks like he’s shaves it; but he’s just hairless for some weird reason from his mid-ankle down. I don’t know anything about Brian yet.

Bobby: *pointing at Chris* He’s the only one with that song on his Ipod.

Nuno: Yeah, Chris has the song on the Ipod. What else…

Chris: I’m your connection for songs that nobody else has.

Nuno: Yeah, Chris has a bunch of shit. Yeah, I don’t know anything about Brian yet, apart from the fact that he’s Canadian, but I think everyone knows that already.

Bobby: Okay, sounds good. If you could have one thing at this moment, anything at all, what would you have and why?

Nuno: The ability to fly.

Bobby: That would be fun. I guess we can end with a nice easy question, tomorrow’s Easter, are you doing anything to celebrate?

Nuno: No. One time my mom ran over, well, she didn’t run it over, but she killed a bunny, driving to pick up my sister at her friend’s house, we were going to have dinner at my grandma’s and grandpa’s. And my mom picked up the rabbit because its neck was broken and she put it in the car; and we eat rabbit that she hit with her car on Easter Sunday. My sister cried and screamed and refused to eat, I thought it was delicious. *laughs*

Bobby: Okay, I guess that’s about it, thanks a lot. Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to add?

Nuno: Vote Nuno for President.