The Briggs

A few hours before The Briggs hit the stage for one of the best live shows I’ve seen in many months, drummer Chris Arredondo sat down with me for a few minutes to discuss the band, touring, the upcoming acoustic EP and more. Halfway through the interview guitarist and vocalist Joey Larocca wandered into the dressing room and started putting his two cents into it too. Thanks a lot to Chris and Joey for doing the interview and Jon for setting it all up.

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Bobby: Starting with the basics, you guys have been on tour with the Tossers and the Dropkick Murphys for about a week now, how’s that going?

Chris: It’s going great. One of the more funs tour I’ve been on in a long time, well, since March.

Bobby: Has there been any really memorable moments from the tour so far? Or is it still too young?

Chris: It’s still kind of at the beginning, not that there’s much left but every night’s its own thing.

Bobby: You recently played The Fest in Gainesville how was that?

Chris: It was great. We played at a place called the Venue and our show had Youth Brigade and Naked Raygun and a couple other bands on it. It was really good. The show was sold out and there was a whole bunch of Gainesville people with their beards. But, you know, it was a really good show, it was fun.

Bobby: This summer you were on the main stage at Warped Tour. I read that you originally thought you were going to be on the Hurley stage, when did you find out you’d be on the main stage and what was your reaction when you did find out?

Chris: The first day. They have a thing called the rehearsal day where you show up the day before the tour actually starts and you get all of your credentials together and all that fun stuff.

Bobby: So paperwork?

Chris: Yeah, paperwork and it kind of sucks, but you know… So we show up the first day, for the rehearsal day, and we’re standing in line getting our paperwork done. The guy who schedules the stages knew who we were so he came up to us, he’s all “hey guys, we’re happy to have you on the tour again this year. You’re going to be on the Lucky Stage for the two weeks that you’re on.” We’re just like “what?” He’s like “yeah, you got main stage” and we’re like “no way!” It was cool because we were not expecting it at all. It was just totally out of the blue. We were expecting to be on Hurley or Hurley.com and we got the main stage handed to us. It was an honour to have it, you know? It was just kind of weird because you’re among bands that are gigantic. You’re with Bad Religion or Pennywise and the Briggs, it’s kind of weird you know.

Bobby: Since the release of Back To Higher Ground you guys have been touring constantly. You have this tour, before that you opened for Bad Religion and the Warped Tour and Germany. Is it nice to be able to tour constantly instead of having secondary jobs? Like you used to build fences for a job.

Chris: You know, it’s nice to not have to worry about a job but when you’re on the road so much you start to miss home. Joey and Jason are both married and Ryan and I have girlfriends that we’ve been with for a really long time. I’m about to get a dog. So not only do I have my girlfriend that I’m gonna miss, I’m gonna soon have a dog I’m gonna miss and I’m never able to sleep in my own bed and take a shower and all that stuff that people take for granted; which you should, it’s not like you’re always on the road like we are. It’s nice to not have to work but on the other hand, I’m working everyday being on tour. It’s definitely the hardest job that I think there could be because you’re everywhere at every single moment and you don’t know what’s going on sometimes. You’re in a van and you’re stuck there hours on end.

Bobby: And you’re never at home.

Chris: Yeah, you live out of a bag pretty much.

Bobby: This Tuesday you guys are releasing the Westlake Sessions, a six song EP that was just announced on Wednesday. Can you tell us anything about that?

Chris: We went into Westlake Studios; it’s where they recorded Thriller, the Michael Jackson record. They’ve done a whole bunch of records there, but Thriller really kind of got my eye when I saw that. We went in there and I think in maybe three or four hours we recorded all six songs. They’re not new material; it’s all material off Back To Higher Ground except that one song which is the Elvis Costello cover. We went in there and recorded all acoustic, I minimized my drum set and then we had a friend come in and play piano too. I think it sounds pretty cool. The songs translated pretty good in the acoustic vibe.

Bobby: How did you pick which songs to do and why did you do the Elvis Costello cover?

Chris: To be honest with you, I have no idea. I was there and a friend of mine was with me, I borrowed his drums for the sessions, and him and I were getting hungry so we went to Taco Bell across the street. We walked back and we’re about to walk into the studio and the engineer yells “Don’t go in there, we’re recording right now.” I kind of stand there and listen to what’s coming through the speakers and Joey’s playing a Costello song and I’m like “what the fuck is he doing? Why is he doing that and why are we recording this?” And then it went on the record. It was just kind of…

Bobby: Random.

Chris: Yeah. I was eating a taco when it happened. *laughs*

Bobby: It’s only being released on iTunes right now, do you think we’ll ever see a physical release of it?

Chris: I don’t know. We’ve been talking about it the past couple weeks because I was under the impression that in like six months there was going to be a physical copy of it but we’re not really sure what’s going to go on with it yet. If it does, it might bring up some problems with how we want to do it. I don’t know if it’s going to be on CD or on vinyl but it’s just stuff we have to figure out.

Bobby: The CD is released on Tuesday but you guys just announced it on Wednesday, just six days before it’s released, why such a short time period?

Chris: I have no idea, you’ve got me on that. *laughs*

Bobby: The press release also said that the Westlake Sessions was captured during “one of their many acoustic performances.” Do you guys do a lot of acoustic sets?

Chris: We did our first acoustic sets around this time last year. We were on tour with Blood or Whiskey and Time Again and then Time Again left us before we got back to L.A. – L.A. was our last day. They left and then us and Blood or Whiskey got to L.A. and before we got there we were having problems with the L.A. show. We were trying to get some opening bands and for some reason no one could do it. So we decided to take it from the big room that we usually play – the club that we play, The Knitting Factory, has three rooms. It has the big room which we normally play then it has a medium room and the small room. We moved to the small room and just had Blood or Whiskey play, like opening as main support and then we played acoustic instead of having a regular show. So we packed the room with maybe a hundred and twenty people and just played an acoustic show and it just went on from there. On Warped Tour we were doing acoustic shows every day with MySpace at the MySpace tent. So after our regular show on the main stage we would go to the MySpace tent and do an acoustic show. Then at the last Bad Religion tour we did an acoustic show at a record store. I mean, it doesn’t happen that often but it still happens.

Bobby: Your record, Back To Higher Ground, was released last year. I’ve read in interviews were you said you’ve already started work on new material. Do you think you’ll hit the studio any time soon to record a proper full length?

Chris: Well, after this tour we’re taking the rest of the year off and as soon as we get home we’re going to start writing and hopefully get into the studio January at some point. Be out of the studio by February.

Bobby: For Back to Higher Ground you guys wrote twenty four songs but only twelve made the record. What happened to the other twelve and do you think we’ll ever see them?

Chris: I don’t know. I mean I have them on my iPod, I think we all have them on our iPods but other than that I don’t know if they’ll ever see the light of day. I mean I like them, they’re good songs but… Maybe, maybe just like a limited run of vinyl – like a seven inch, but that’s never really been brought up.

Bobby: A lot of the lyrics on Back To Higher Ground aren’t necessarily political but more of a social commentary, was that intentional as you guys went into the studio?

Chris: I think it was. I didn’t write any of the lyrics on this record but I know that Joey and Jason have been listening a lot to Billy Bragg, and Elvis Costello and a lot of Bob Dylan. When you think of social commentary you think of Bob Dylan, so they were listening to a lot of that and there’s a lot of influence from those guys on the record. So I’m sure that it was intentional.

Bobby: You guys pay homage to bands like that, Still Little Fingers, The Clash, Billy Bragg, and Dylan a lot and you’ve also been quoted as saying that Dylan and Elvis Costello are more punk than most of the punk bands out there today, what do you mean by that?

*Joey walks into the room*

Chris: Joey, take this one!

Joey: I said that. Well, especially with Bob Dylan, I think he took a lot of very daring chances. He took a lot of chances that were very daring with his music that really pissed a lot of people off, including his own fans. I just find that to be extremely punk rock for him to do. He’s also very intellectual and has a lot of purpose and political satire in it. I always thought it was very cleverly done which a lot of bands nowadays don’t really take into account and they just kind of spit out stuff and they have no idea what they’re talking about.

Bobby: Like you once said in an interview that “The best way to be rebellious is to have as much knowledge as you can because it gives you that opportunity to be able to defy that which is incorrect.” Can you elaborate on that a bit?

Joey: I don’t know, that’s pretty well stated. I would say that it basically… I mean, you can’t speak out against something that you don’t know anything about. You have to know both sides of it in order to be able to say yeh or neh about it. So you obviously have to have enough knowledge to be able to make an educated decision in what you’re against or for.

Bobby: You guys are, of course, called The Briggs, which you got off a street sign after you were threatened legal actions over your old name, what was your old name?

Chris: It was I-Decline.

Bobby: I read that when you first picked the name, Jason absolutely hated it.

Chris: Yes, he did.

Bobby: Does he still hate it and if he hated it, how did it still become the band name? Did his vote just get vetoed?

Chris: Yeah, his vote totally got vetoed. It was kind of weird. Joey and I brought it up one night and he was like “absolutely not. No way. No. No.” And we were like “yeah” and it just kind of happened. I don’t remember exactly what went on but he was against it and Joey and I and our original bass player, Matt, were all for it. So it just kind of happened.

Joey: He’s fine with it now. He might actually even get it tattooed on him so he obviously doesn’t hate it too much.

Bobby: Yeah, you don’t want to get something you hate tattooed on your body for ever. What was it like working with Ethan Suplee for the video of Wasting Time?

Chris: I don’t know, because he wasn’t there when we were there.

Joey: We never shot together; it was separate shots they shot on different days.

Chris: The video had a final edit, or so we thought final edit, and we saw it and “okay, cool.” And then maybe three or four days later I saw the real final edit and that was with Ethan in it. I was like “oh! That’s cool. How did that happen? Where was he when we were there?” But it happened on a different day so we never got to meet him or hang out or anything.

Bobby: Okay, I guess just one more easy question, when you were growing up, who’s poster did you have on your wall?

Chris: I had a Specials record on my wall – uh, record? I had a Specials poster, I had a Clash poster and as much as I hate to say it, I had a poster of Jerry Garcia. *Joey and Chris laugh*.

Joey: I had a Metallica poster on my wall.

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

Chris: Buy our new EP online. Itunes, buy it, please.