Pennywise

2010 has been a tumultuous year for Hermosa Beach’s Pennywise. They’re working on a new album, they were arrested in Denver after a fight with Alesana during their final day of the 2010 Vans Warped Tour and back in February they announced that long time front man Jim Lindberg left the band and was replaced by Ignite‘s Zoli Teglas.

In September, as Authority Zero tore it up inside the Starlite Room, I caught up with Pennywise guitarist Fletcher Dragge to talk about everything that’s happened to them in 2010. While we only talked about a select few items, the conversation was detailed and in-depth. When talking about the Warped Tour, he commented on all the reactions of fans regarding the Alesana altercation and the lack of true punk bands on the bill. Then he announced that they would be releasing their new album back on Epitaph Records and explained their reasoning for going along with MySpace Records for their last record.

Of course, the most interesting aspect was his views on the departure of Lindberg – a topic that took up most of the interview as he talked about his feelings in detail – for close to fifteen minutes. You couldn’t ask for a more in-depth response.

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Bobby: Starting with the basics, you guys are about a week into this tour with Authority Zero and Riverboat Gamblers. How’s that going so far?

Fletcher: Really good. It’s been an interesting little tour. I think it’s a good combo. Authority Zero are old time friends of ours. Riverboat Gamblers are a really cool band. Big Wig was supposed to be on this tour but they pulled out at the last minute. We don’t even know why.

Bobby: I think they’re still in the studio. They extended their studio time to finish their new album.

Fletcher: Oh cool. I’ve heard the new album is supposed to be pretty good. But yeah, we’re having a great time. We’ve toured a lot with Authority Zero. They’re a good band to party with, good friends of ours. The crowds seem like they’re loving all the bands, so it’s a pretty good line-up.

I mean, there’s a lot of bands on tour right now. Strung Out’s up here, Against Me!’s up here, Millencolin’s up here. I know Bad Religion are here.

Bobby: Yeah, Bad Religion was here ten days ago.

Fletcher: So Bad Religion was here. So there’s a lot of traffic up here right now. A lot of people have got to make their choices. But we’ve been having some great shows, as usual, in Canada.

Bobby: Yeah. It’s been a pretty hectic month. I mean, there was Strung Out on the 2nd, Bad Religion on the 4th, you guys today, Against Me! on Sunday I believe. So it’s pretty hectic.

Fletcher: The other night in Toronto, it was Strung Out on Thursday, Pennywise Friday, Against Me! Saturday, Millencolin Sunday.

Bobby: That’s a pretty good weekend.

Fletcher: Should’ve had all the bands on one bill though. You know what I mean though?

Bobby:  That would’ve been a fun show but a long one if you kept all the opening bands too.

Fletcher: Yeah, yeah.

Bobby: You guys just finished up the Warped Tour – how was that?

Fletcher: Warped Tour was interesting as well. I would say more interesting. A lot of crazy bands out there. The Warped Tour’s changed a lot. For me, there wasn’t enough punk bands on that tour. In Edmonton it was a cool line-up. Anti-Flag jumped on. So that was the first show for Anti-Flag but before that there was just us, and The Casualties, and Alkaline Trio and Face to Face. There wasn’t a lot of punk bands on that tour. There was a lot of metalcore, a lot of screamo, stuff like that – a lot of girl bands.

We’ve done the Warped Tour for fifteen years, so of course I’m going to be biased and want to be on with NOFX and Rancid and Bad Religion and Bouncing Souls and everybody. But it was still fun. We had good crowds, we had good energy. I mean Edmonton was a great show here.

Bobby: Yeah, I read an interview with Zoli where he said that Edmonton was the highlight of the tour. I thought “hey, that’s pretty cool.”

Fletcher:  Yeah. I mean, that was the first show that felt like a punk show. We actually decided to play the side stage on the Warped Tour because they’ve taken away the second main stage. So before it was “bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!” Now it’s like twenty-minute set change – people walk away. They don’t want stay in the heat and wait for that. But on the side stage, they’re still going back and forth.

Bobby: You were still on the main stage in Edmonton though.

Fletcher: Yeah, we moved. We felt like there wasn’t enough punk bands on the main stage. So we said “let’s play the side stage. Let’s play to new fans who are there to see Sum 41 or Haste the Day or something. Let’s go try and play in front of as many new people.” Because the main stage, you’re only going to get Pennywise fans there. So it was kind of like “well, we’re gonna get Pennywise fans on the side stage” which actually, kind of, almost became the main stage. More people were going to the stage stages than the main stage. But up here, when Anti-Flag came on we said “hey, let’s go to the main stage because now we have Face To Face, Alkaline Trio, Anti-Flag, Pennywise.” The next day we had Face To Face, Alkaline Trio, Anti-Flag, Pennywise and Dropkick Murphys – and then you had a punk show on the main stage of Warped Tour like the old days. That happened in Denver as well. So those shows were really good; but Edmonton was the first one where it felt like there was a big punk audience there.

Bobby: And then you also had Skiba [Matt Skiba from Alkaline Trio] come and play on Bro Hymn which was pretty cool.

Fletcher: Yeah, that was awesome. Him coming up there and doing that was really cool.

Bobby: Of course, at the end of tour kind of become sour with the whole scuffle with Alesana. You explained it in detail with Alternative Press so I won’t ask for details about it; but were you surprised of not only how quickly the news got around after the incident but also how quickly people made up their own interpretations and explanations for what actually happened when they had no idea?

Fletcher: Yeah, well I think that’s just life in America – or the world. You have a lot of people that want to jump to conclusions. I mean, Alesana released a false statement basically. They said we came on their bus, drunk, and attacked them blindly. That couldn’t be further from the truth. We came on their bus by mistake. There was no one on their bus. They came on their bus and told us to get off the bus – kind of like “hey, get the fuck off our bus” and we said “hey, we’ll go in a few minutes” and made some sandwiches. We fucked with them a little bit, just having some fun; but then it took a turn to a physical – try to throw us of the bus type of thing. There was six or seven guys and there was two of us; and it got ugly for a minute.

I think a lot of people, when they first read the press release “oh, we came on the bus, blindly attacked them and destroyed the bus.” The bus didn’t get destroyed. We didn’t go on there to break their bus. We accidentally broke like a counter-top during the fight. It was like “what? Why would you say that?” I even asked them. I called them and I said “why? Why’d you say that?” “Well, we didn’t know. We got called in the morning at six AM and they wanted a press statement.” They basically said they called the cops on us. I don’t think they even called the cops; I think someone else called the cops or the cops were just in the parking lot.

Bobby: Probably just patrolling. If they got there that fast, they wouldn’t have had time to if they were called.

Fletcher: You get eighty busses in a parking lot.  A lot of them look the same. I’ve walked on the wrong bus a hundred times on the Warped Tour. We didn’t intentionally do that. We were drunk. They weren’t doing anything. At the end of the day, they dropped the charges. I got arrested for assault and put in jail and tased five times and all that shit, which was totally unfortunate but I think they were totally cool about it. They kind of admitted that … you know… whatever. They weren’t in the wrong, we were on their bus; but they were in the wrong in that statement – you know what I mean? It was crazy.

It was kind of weird because a lot of people were saying – like I’d say eighty percent of the people were kind of stoked we beat them up, or we fought them or whatever. People were saying “oh, Pennywise are bully assholes and this and that and the other.” But then there were a lot of people saying “well, those kinds of bands shouldn’t be on the Warped Tour” and they turned it into this whole thing that we were just going around beating up an emo band or whatever they dubbed themselves. It had nothing to do with music. It was just the wrong place at the wrong time.

I mean, I’m all for bands doing whatever kind of music they like to do. I don’t have to like it. As long as you believe in what you’re doing, you’re playing music you like – the more power to you. It was funny how people made their opinions that we were assholes, we were bullies and then the other people said they were glad we kicked their ass, all those bands should have their ass kicked. It was just funny to read the posts. I think it was the longest thread on PunkNews in years probably. At the end of the day, it was just another night of drunken craziness and a little punk rock.

Bobby: Well, the important question is: were you ever able to say your farewells to Reverend Peyton? [They had gone onto Alessana’s bus thinking it was Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band’s bus in order to say farewell to the Reverend since Pennywise were leaving the tour that night.]

Fletcher: No, I wasn’t. I wasn’t able to say my farewells to Reverend Peyton – I was in handcuffs with barbs in my chest. But no, that’s good you asked that. Earlier in the day I said “hey, it’s an honour playing with you.” We had a conversation and he was really stoked because he got to play Bro Hymn with us a couple times. He’s a really cool, down to earth guy.

Bobby: Yeah he is. I got a chance to interview him in California and he was wicked. He had one of the best quotes I’ve ever heard. It was “in a world full of margarine, we’re butter.” I thought that was wicked.

Fletcher: That’s true, that quote. They are butter; and he eats a lot of butter.

Bobby: Now, in February you guys announced that Zoli Teglas of Ignite would be taking over for Jim as a permanent member. How have the fans reacted? Have they finally gotten over the whole “Pennywise is nothing without Jim” mentality now that it’s been a few months?

Fletcher: I mean, you know how it is on the web. Most people on the web are pretty negative people in general. I’m not a guy who goes and posts blogs or has the patience to sign in and do all that kind of shit or post comments. You have your people that say “oh, Pennywise is nothing without Jim – they should break up. They should start a new band with a different name. They should do this. They should do that.” Zoli’s great, he’s going to be awesome.

But to the people who say we’re nothing without Jim, then I will tell you this: Pennywise was a band for about two years before Jim got in the band. Me, Byron and Jason. We had another singer, and another drummer before Byron. But me, Byron and Jason were playing shows and parties ourselves as a three piece, with Jason singing. When Jimmy got in the band, we showed him our songs and said “here’s what we’re doing, here’s how the lyrics go.” So he walked into a situation that we were already involved with.

Obviously, he had a great deal to do with developing our sound. I mean, we heard his voice and said “this is fucking great.”  Now, when it came time to our first tour in Europe, he refused to go. On our first album. Seventeen, eighteen years ago he said “I’m not going.” We said “well, why not?” He said “because I have a job and I’m getting married.” We said “well, this is what we’ve worked for our whole lives: to go on tour. We’re getting six weeks in Europe” and he said “I’m not going no matter what.” It was more important for him to stay home and do whatever it was he wanted to do, play house or whatever. We said “fuck off – you’re out of the band” and we called up Dave Quackenbush and we went to Europe with Dave Quackenbush.

Now, the reason I tell that story is because the idea behind Pennywise is that we don’t stop for anything. Me and Jason sat down over a case of beer, we built a garage, I carpeted it with my brother, I put my guitar in the corner. I looked back, I walked out the door, and I said “okay.” I called Jason, Jason came over. I said “hey Jason, we should talk about this. I know you from around town and I want to do a punk rock band. I want to do this.” We agreed we don’t stop for anything. “We’re gonna be successful, we’re gonna tour, and we’re gonna have fun.”

So it wasn’t even a question. When Jim said he wasn’t going to go to Europe, it was like “click”, hung up the phone and called Quackenbush. We kept going. We went over there, we paid our dues without Jim. We came back, we wrote Unknown Road without Jim. The entire record. Jason moved over to vocals and Randy played bass, so Randy was in the band. He played on Unknown Road, I don’t know, fifteen years ago or whatever it was. When we were done with the record, I said “Hey Jim’s way better than you Jason. We gotta get Jim back, we gotta see if he wants to come back” so we talked to him and said “we want to tour, we want to do this” and he said “okay.” He was out of work at that time, so he came back and wrote a bunch of lyrics. Jason and I had already written the lyrics for the album but he came in and re-wrote lyrics for like half of it. Recorded it, did an amazing job and then we started touring.

Now, Jason dies; you think that’s the time to hang it up. One of the main song writers, the kind of driving force behind the positive attitude of the band, the lyrical genius and it was like “no.” Me and Jason said we don’t stop for anything. We need to keep playing Bro Hymn, we need to keep playing these songs so we continued on.

Over the last years, it’s been more and more obvious that Jim doesn’t want to be in the band. He’s not having a good time. He doesn’t like being on tour. He doesn’t like being away from his family. Constantly threatening to quit the band if we go too long or if he does this or that or the other. Fair enough you know, he wants to do all these other things. We tried really hard to keep him in the band; we offered to pay for a live-in nanny for his wife because he said he wanted that, out of our own pockets. We said we’d keep the tours two weeks long because that’s how he wanted it even though we wanted to do a month in Europe or we wanted to do whatever. We tried everything and it just wasn’t good enough for him. He didn’t want to be in the band anymore.

Now, because one guy doesn’t want to be in the band – does that mean we should stop the band? Because one guy… If you have a business that you love and a job that you love and one guy wants to quit, do you close down your hamburger stand? You and your friends are having a great time. You fucking find a new French fry cook and you fucking go.

Of course he was a huge part of the band, of course he was a great song writer, of course he was a great front man; but he didn’t want to be here and he wasn’t having fun and he made us know that all the time. It was obvious, sitting on the bus with him; it was obvious that he didn’t want to be here.

People say “start another band.” Why? I spent twenty years of my life playing in Pennywise. I wrote the music to Bro Hymn. I wrote the “woah’s”. I wrote Fuck Authority. I wrote these songs that I love and I want to play them for our fans. I’m not the guy who said I didn’t want to play in the band. The thing is, a lot of people don’t know that although Jim wrote a lot of songs, me and Randy wrote a lot of songs. We write lyrics, we write music, we write melodies on all the albums. Jim is probably mostly responsible for half the album and me and Randy are responsible for the other half kind of. Some are different than others. I mean, I wrote ninety percent of the music on Unknown Road. I wrote eighty percent of the music on the first album, whatever. Everyone contributes. So as far as writing a Pennywise song, I can show you one right now. [He picks up the guitar that is plugged into a mini amp and starts playing a new Pennywise song for me] So I don’t think I’m going to have any trouble writing a new album. I mean, I might’ve written a couple songs. This is what I love to do, this is what Randy loves to do and this is what Byron loves to do. So basically, everyone’s better off. He wanted to leave, do his own thing, be with his family.

The problem we have now, I guess it was all a lie. We felt like he was turning his back on us and Pennywise fans. We were a little disappointed in that but we accepted the fact that he wanted to stay home more and stay with his family and find a different job. He told us that “if you want to make Pennywise a priority and touring with Pennywise a priority and you don’t want to find day jobs or supplemental income, then you need to find a new singer and I’m totally cool with that. Or if you want to do it how I want to do, where I want to do it, when I want to do it; I’m cool with that.”

Now we’re a democracy. Everyone gets paid equally on everything. Everyone has a voice, everyone has a vote on the songs that make the album, the t-shirt designs, everything. Jim was recently in an article saying democracy couldn’t work for him anymore. It was a cliché and three votes against his one, that situation didn’t work and he was forced to be an asshole. He also said, in the same article, “things couldn’t be better. I’m calling all the shots now. I write every guitar note and every drum part.” That’s what he wanted. He wanted to be his own boss.

Bobby: He wanted the control.

Fletcher: He wanted the control; and for Pennywise it wasn’t about control. A lot of times people say I’m the big guy who yells and screams and stuff but it always comes to a vote on stuff; and I never force people to do things they don’t want to do. So it was kind of weird to hear him say all these things because he wrote all these songs about democracy and freedom and then he’s basically saying “I want to be a dictator” in a way.

Like I believe in our lyrics. I live by Pennywise’s lyrics and motto. I mean, I’m not perfect. Like anybody else, I have done wrong in my life and I will continue to do wrong but this shit means a lot to me. Somewhere, I feel like he lost sight of it, you know? It’s always about the family and all that stuff – okay great; well he started the band immediately after. He started a new band, everyone knows about. You know about it right?

Bobby: The Black Pacific, yep.

Fletcher: The Black Pacific. Not only did he start a new band, the first song he released was basically a Pennywise song. I mean, our song goes like this…. [he picks up the guitar and starts playing As Long As We Can] It’s As Long As We Can; it’s the first song from our last album. Here’s Jim’s song…. [He starts playing the System by The Black Pacific]. It’s the exact same thing. Note for note. I mean, I played it on the last album so I know. He wrote that guitar part on the last album, granted he’s a good guitar player but it was a real kick in the balls to have him go steal a Pennywise song and have try to do Pennywise by himself. Like if he had put out an album that was different, I would respect that.

Bobby: But it is very similar to a Pennywise album.

Fletcher: And the thing is… well, actually, the way I look at it is there’s only a couple songs that sound really Pennywisey; and he put those out first to try and bring all the Pennywise fans to the table. I’ve read some comments that say “hey, now that I’ve heard the whole album, this has nothing to do with Pennywise and I’m glad he quit and didn’t try to change Pennywise to this sound.” Because he’s going to take it to a more poppy place and more adult place; and we would like to take it back to the fast shit like I was just playing to you.

So there was always that conflict where I think we wanted to be a little bit more old school and he wanted to kind of go a little bit more… I don’t know, commercial? Is that the word?

Bobby: Maybe. Well, their very first show is the EpiCentre show with Blink 182, Eminem and…

Fletcher: Kiss.

Bobby: Kiss. Yeah, that’s the other one. Speaking about going back to the old school, I know you guys are working on a new album right now. Back in July you told New Times that you had forty to fifty songs already written and I know in February you demoed fifteen or sixteen songs. You said, you were going back to the harder, faster and some of the older stuff – can you tell us a bit about that? And how many songs are you at now if you were at fifty back in July?

Fletcher: I mean, I don’t know. I probably have… I don’t know… we have a lot. I have probably ten right now in my head, like the one I was just playing you, ready to record. It’s just a lot of songs; you kind of throw them out there real quick. You just do a verse, chorus of it and if it feels good, then you continue working on it. I haven’t even counted lately; some of those forty have already been pushed away – we’re not going to use them, we’re not going to work on them. It’s a lot of songs and we’re just trying to find a direction. For me, it’s about having an aggressive album and not worrying about radio or any of that shit.

It’s about doing a Pennywise album and trying to keep it real. You know, Zoli’s really passionate. He believes in a lot of the same causes we do, he has the same mentality. He’s crazy as a mother fucker but he’s a good guy; and he feels what we’re doing as far as singing the songs. He wants to be here and he wants to be part of the family. You’ll see it tonight. It’s really good, not to throw dirt on Jim, but it’s really good to have a guy in the band that wants to be here and wants to put in a hundred and ten percent and goes up on stage; and now we’re also able to play a lot of songs that we haven’t played for fifteen years because Jim controlled the set list as well basically. We would want to play certain songs and if he didn’t want to do it vocally, he wouldn’t do it. It would be too hard on his voice, which is understandable. You’re getting older, if you want to play something you wrote twenty years ago, it’s hard to do. You don’t want to blow your voice out of tour; but Zoli’s able to do all the hardest ones with ease. The harder, the better.

Bobby: Yeah, Zoli has a very different reach and in some cases he can go even higher in some places – how is that affecting the new album and what is he bringing to the song writing process?

Fletcher: He’s bringing some of that because that went away with Jim over the last years. I think you can hear it in the albums, that there wasn’t a lot of high stuff. Like we’re playing Searching – “tonight I will rage against the forces of fate!” [singing] – we’re playing that tonight and that’s off Full Circle… or About Time. It’s like we’re able to go back to that now. We’re able to hit the high stuff which I feel has a lot of energy for the band. So we’re not going to be Ignite by any means, but he’s finding his voice in Pennywise.

All that I ask of a Pennywise fan is to understand, if someone’s reading this or whatever, is that it’s important to understand what this band’s about. It’s about brotherhood, camaraderie, friendship, about doing what you believe in, following your heart and not taking shit from anyone, and not telling someone how to run your life; and Jim tried to tell us how to run our lives. He could say the same of us, we wanted him to go to South America and we wanted him to go to Europe and Sweden and Norway and Portugal. He can say that we’re trying to run his life, but that’s the responsibility of this fucking band. To come here, once a year and play in Canada, every city. Not once every three years, not every seven years.

Bobby: I think, not counting Warped Tour, you were last here in 2006. So it’s been basically four years not counting last August.

Fletcher: Yeah; and so I feel like if you’re a fan – because I am a fan of a lot of bands and I grew up the fan of a lot of bands – I’d buy the Minor Threat record and I’d sit in my house waiting for those fuckers to come; and when they come, I’m there and I’m loving it. That’s my day, that’s my year. I remember the first Minor Threat show like it was yesterday that I went to. Black Flag, whatever, TSOL. That’s like stuff that sticks in your mind, as a fan, for your life. We were depriving our fans and the only reason we were depriving our fans was because Jim didn’t want to go on tour. So now we have the opportunity to come and do this and have somebody that really wants to do this; it’s really important for us to come and do this and it’s really cool.

So I’d say to Pennwise fans, we’re practicing what we preach; and we’re still united. Three of us are still united. One guy quit. He quit us as friends, he quit us as band members, he quit us a family and he quit the Pennywise fans. I can’t look at it any other way. I was blown away that he walked away from this great thing. I wrote him a letter, saying “hey man, are you crazy? This is the best thing in the world. We have the best job in the world; we have the best fans in the world. You better think about this. You better rethink this. This is a mistake.” I told him also in the letter “you won’t make me throw away twenty years of hard work and make me throw away my dreams. If you fucking quit, we’re getting another singer.”

I mean, he told us he wanted us to get a new singer. He told us he wanted it to be Zoli. He said “my number one choice is Zoli.” When it was kind of still cordial; but then he said all these things and started saying things about the band and about us as people and we’re like “wow, okay.” We still tried to keep it above board but now that he’s got this other band, it’s kind of like the gloves are off.

So for Pennywise fans, I say, we’re still here. We do this because we love it. We’re not doing it for the money. We’re not doing it to get famous. We’re not getting any younger and we just want you guys to come out and have a good time because we respect you. We’re not trying to hold the pieces together. We’re fucking giving a hundred percent because this is what we do. It’s not like we’re grasping at straws here, hanging by a thread. We’re fucking doing it and the people that want to come and be part of it, come be part of it. The people that want to hate us because Jim’s gone, go listen to Black Pacific. See if you like that better; but you’re going to find that the true spirit of Pennywise is still alive and well, sitting on this bus or on the stage. We started this man, we’ll finish it.

Bobby: Just one or two quick questions. This new album, is it going to be out on MySpace Records or is it going to be out on Viking Funeral or what?

Fletcher: Epitaph man.

Bobby: Oh, so you’re back on Epitaph?

Fletcher: Sure.

Bobby: That was one of my other questions. When you think Epitaph bands, you think you guys, you think Bouncing Souls, you think Bad Religion…

Fletcher: We were the only one who consistently stayed on Epitaph.

Bobby: Until MySpace…

Fletcher: Until MySpace, yeah. And the MySpace thing, just to be clear on that, was we gave that record away. So we went to Brett, and we said “Hey Brett, what do you think?” He said “oh, no, no, no, fuck no, not MySpace.” And we said “well, take a look at this idea” and he said “oh, holy shit, this is great. This is a great opportunity, go do this; whatever we can do to help.” I mean, Epitaph co-released that record with MySpace in Europe and Australia. A lot of people don’t know that. We still worked together, just not in the States.

So it was really cool to be able to give away the record. It was really cool to be able to do something cool for the fans, get some new fans. We negotiated a one record deal. We knew that that record company was going to be under in a year. We’re going to be able to get that record back from MySpace now and probably put it out on Epitaph; and we were able to utilize that corporate machine.

You think we’re fucking fans of Fox? You know? I mean, MySpace is a great vehicle – don’t get my wrong. It’s a great place to hear music and meet people and keep in touch; but we went in there and said, in the contract, that we can sing about whatever the fuck we want to sing about, we can talk shit about whoever we want to talk shit on however we want to talk about in interviews. We can say “fuck Fox Media.” We have said that. I can say that right now. They’re fucking pumping bull shit down people’s throats. We said it after the album was released. The guy who ran the label just said “don’t get me fired, man.” We said “we won’t get you fired, but we’re going to do what Pennywise does.” We used that like a Trojan Horse; we used the corporate machine to get our message out to five hundred and fifty thousand people.

Bobby: And you’re not going to censor yourself just because you’re on MySpace.

Fletcher: No, absolutely not. It was really cool and now we’re ready to go back to our home, Epitaph. It’s always been our home. It’s the greatest independent record label in the world. Brett’s the greatest fucking label boss there is. He’s a punk rocker, he knows how we think, he supports Pennywise a hundred percent and he feels like “I’m here for you guys.”  The first thing he said when he heard Jim was gone – “cool, I’m here for you. Whatever you guys want to do.” So, I think people will be interested to hear the new record and hopefully we’ll write a good one.

Bobby: Is it still planning to be out in early January.

Fletcher: Hopefully. I mean, we’re not going to rush it because we want to make sure we’re going to put our best foot forward and we have to find our place. Obviously, it’s not going to sound like…. I mean, it’s going to sound like Pennywise musically because we’ve written a lot of the music. Vocally, I don’t really think Zoli sounds like Jim. I mean, he can sing the songs well, our old songs; but it’s going to have a twist.

Bobby: There is a difference between the two voices.

Fletcher: Yeah. But I think song writing also comes into play because when people hear the songs they’ll say “oh, that sounds like Pennywise. That sounds like a song Pennywise would write.” The melody and the music combined, I think people are going to be pretty stoked on it.

We’re just trying the next generation. Like it, hate it, fucking whatever man – we’re doing this because we love it and hopefully our fans will stick by us and ride out the next years with us and keep it rolling.

Bobby:  Awesome, thank you very much.

Fletcher: Thank you.