The Early November

This interview was held at The Coop at UCLA. They played a free show on November 25, 2002 with Augustair and The Color Turning. They were all very gracious guys and talked to me before their set. I just asked Serge if I could interview them, and he said “Sure!” and brought the whole band outside for me.

LAPunk: Let me start off with who you guys are.

Ace: I’m Ace, I play guitar and sing.

Jeff: I play the drums and I, well, play the drums.

Serge: I’m Serge. I play bass and inflict the pain.

John: I’m John and I play guitar.

LAPunk: So your first nationwide tour was The Warped Tour…

Ace: Ya, it was pretty bad.

At this point Augustair started playing and we moved locations so that the music “doesn’t fuck up my thing.” Jeff continues telling me about the Warped Tour after we sit down…

Jeff: It was amazing. I got right out of high school and then I went on Warped Tour. Straight from there, it was crazy.

LAPunk: Why do you guys say it was a bad experience?

Ace: Cuz we flipped a van in the desert and almost got killed. And then two weeks later…

All: We got our van stolen with all our equipment!

Serge: With Brand New, it was a pretty bad experience.

Jeff: The shows themselves were amazing. The shows were all great.

Ace: The shows themselves were completely disgusting and awful. It was so incredibly hot and we played awful every single day and I felt like throwing up all the time.

LAPunk: That’s when the buzz was starting about you guys…

Jeff: I liked it, I thought it was…

LAPunk: That’s when everyone was wondering whether or not you guys had signed. So how is the current tour going?

Jeff: The concerts are really amazing. There are tons of people at every single show. It’s almost sold out at every single show and it’s just so cool. We’re playing with our favorite bands too so it’s really just awesome.

Serge: Awesome. It’s a great tour, it’s a great everything.

Ace: The Warped Tour wasn’t that bad either, it’s just that we were awful every single day. It felt awful every single day. But the whole Warped Tour itself was great.

Serge: It was an experience…

Ace: Ya, it was a great experience and the bands were really nice and the people were great.

Jeff: Not Brian Boitano…

Ace: It was just, personally for myself, just waking up every single day and feeling like crap because it was a thousand degrees outside and playing and all there would be is dust and grossness and people yelling at us at what to do and it was disgusting. That’s all.

Serge: Wow.

Ace: And just driving the whole entire night, trying to stay awake, knowing that the driver could fall asleep at any time and flip us and almost die. It was almost gross.

LAPunk: Wow that’s pretty..

Ace: A little intense.

LAPunk: This tour, needless to say, is going a lot better. Do you feel that you guys are more experienced musically now?

Ace: Ya, definitely.

Serge: I think stage-wise we’re so much more comfortable with one another and the crowd. It’s not like a frantic rush all the time. We’re a lot looser. I think we, I dunno, not take it less serious but don’t get as worried about shit. It just makes for a better show.

LAPunk: How do you enjoy playing Los Angeles? Anything specific you notice that's pretty unique?

All: People are great in LA.

Jeff: Everybody is really, really nice. When you talk to someone they’re way… more people are more outgoing down here than any other place that I know.

Ace: I don’t know about people being nicer because I don’t really talk to people. Because I come off being mean. Because I don’t like to talk to people. But, LA as a crowd itself is great. The kids are great.

LAPunk: Are you guys excited about your show tomorrow?

All: Ya, we’re really excited, it should be a lot of fun.

LAPunk: How is it, 18, 20 years old, touring the United States?

Jeff: It’s amazing, it’s amazing.

LAPunk: Are you guys just out of high school?

Serge: Ya, all of us except Ace.

Ace: Not me. I’ve been out of school for two years. I’m going on three.

LAPunk: So is this going to be your career?

Jeff: Oh, hell ya.

Serge: Hopefully, as long as we can do it.

LAPunk: So what do your parents think? Are they all cool with it?

Ace: At first, until we were signed, my parents weren’t with it at all. Well, they were a little bit, but they never really thought anything could happen. They were just pretty dumb about it. But, once I got signed… actually, the night before we got signed my step-dad called me up as we were hanging out with Richard, the owner of Drive-Thru, and he’s like, “Ya, we have to talk” and I said “Okay.” And he said “We’ll talk when you get home” and then we got signed. I found out that when I got home he was going to kick me out of the house if I didn’t get a job or something. So it was kind of like perfect timing.

LAPunk: Wow, that’s awesome. You guys have a rough history with bringing in members and not having members… how is that working out for the band?

Ace: Well, me, Serge and Jeff are the original lineup. How the band started. So, not that has anything to do with anything, but, well..

Jeff: The chemistry is there.

Ace: The chemistry is there for the most part.

LAPunk: Any last words or remarks? Anything you want to send out to the kids?

Jeff: Eat cheese. Eat cheese and peanut butter.

Ace: No, not that, not that. Not that at all. Don’t put that anywhere!

LAPunk: What do you have against cheese and peanut butter?

Ace: Nothing, I just don’t want it to say “Eat cheese and peanut butter.”

Jeff: Eat cheese and peanut butter!

Ace: I’m very much against that.

John: Now we just made five lines of “eat cheese and peanut butter” because you couldn’t let it go, could ya?

Ace: I couldn’t.

John: So now it’s all about the cheese and peanut butter.

Ace: I would not let the cheese and peanut butter go. Just don’t let it be cheese and peanut butter.

Serge: Follow your dreams, brush your teeth.

Ace: Don’t say something cheesy like that! I don’t mean to be mean but people think I’m mean because I don’t talk very good. (Laughter)

Jeff: That’s what I want. That’s the message to the kiddies.

Ace (with a British accent): Don’t think I’m mean guys, I’m a nice person.

LAPunk: Okay, thanks guys!

At this point I turn off the recorder, but they make me turn it back on so that they can tell their real message to the kiddies.

Ace: We gotta thank everybody, and how cool everybody is, and how great the people are, and we thank them because they’re great and it’s a great crowd. And we love Los Angeles and we love playing and thank you and we love you. Have a nice night, be careful. Sweet dreams.

Serge: Wow, dude. Damn.

LAPunk: That was good for the quiet one!

Serge: Love and Godspeed. Love and Godspeed…

Interview by Jason Kaminsky