Sugarcult Interview - 08.21.2004
| Interview with Tim Pagnotta (vocals) Interview by Jason Schleweis | 08.21.2004 | Detroit, MI | Silverdome  How is the experience being on Warped Tour? Well it’s our third year of being on the Warped Tour, and it’s the first year being on the main stage. So far it’s been pretty cool. Warped Tour is one of the most physically exhausting tours you can do. Mainly because you roll in every morning at 8am. When your on your own, you will roll out of the club around 3 - 4, early morning and then have all afternoon, have a long sound check. But on Warped Tour it’s like “on your mark, get set, go!” So we’re doing a month of the tour so it’s pretty cool because I’ve really enjoyed all the shows but I am looking forward to going home in a week. And the Warped Tour is awesome for bands to meet people to plan future tours so that’s pretty cool. It’s also an opportunity to see what bands are doing and rip them off! (Laughter) So you’ve got a new album coming up then with all the ripped off material? Yeah. (Laughter) It’s called Thanks! (Laughter) What’s the craziest thing that’s happened to you on stage? Today some kid threw a frisbee and I was so close to catching it. I think it was aimed at my face. (Laughter) But somehow it didn’t get there! But on stage...definitely hasn’t been too much crazy shit that’s happened on stage...oh! The other day I had some kid in Montreal, this little fucking asshole, had this hand full of mud. And I saw him and was watching this little shit. And then he disappeared, and suddenly came back with a huge handful he threw at Marko (guitars.) It’s weird because I’m not like a violent person at all; I would go as far to say that I’m a big vagina. Sorry ladies! (Laughter) I meant it as the completely non threatening body organ. (Laughter) So I freaked out, like when your playing a show your all excited and something will happen to make you say something funny to a bunch of people or get more into your music. And sometimes something will happen that’s very frustrating and I’ll explode. But on this last headlining tour, this kid came up during the song of ours, “Pretty Girl.” It’s one of my favorite songs to play. And he got up on stage and I thought he just wanted to talk into the mic or something. I thought he was just like fun and affectionate; just wanted to be like “yeah!” But instead, he grabs the mic and starts mocking us! It was in this fraternity, real tough guy attitude, like “check me out, I’m going to show me and my two bros from Buffalo how cool I am.” (Laughter) So I really wanted to fight the guy. And even in Montreal the whole time I was thinking, “what’s the easiest way to jump down and get through the crowd forty feet back to fight this kid.” (Laughter) Who won the fight between you and the frat boy on stage? You know what happened is we just started like grappling and them some security guard came up and just cremated him. (Laughter) We’ve been kind of disappointed by a lot of these pop-punk bands on the tour lately and the amount of them taking over. Not at you guys, but these other big bands like Good Charlotte. What is your reaction to this? Back before we were on Warped Tour, it had been going for like six years. And we kinda felt like “man this is this total punk tour; they’re going to hate our band.” But it’s been completely changing, the sound of the tour is completely changing, and the amount of the bands on the tour is definitely changing. It’s like a double edged sword; here you have this opportunity to bring all these bands to the middle of nowhere, or to a place where many people wouldn’t have the opportunity to see all of them. But it’s so much like a sensory overload. The one cool thing about being on Warped Tour though is that it’s really humbling. It strips headlining bands of their little trophies. When your on a headlining tour with a big band, it’s all about kissing the headliners’ bands ass. You have to set the merch prices according to how the big band does it and stuff. But on the Warped Tour we set our tent up next to people that might only have a hundred fans at their shows. Which is awesome, it’s so awesome! It’s just so fair, it’s like this little bread market! It’s socialism at it’s finest. It’s so funny when people start to go to these tours claiming now that they’re punk. How do you respond to this? It’s really funny when you start to talk about punk. What is punk? I don’t know! Is it an attitude, like being unique and doing your own thing? And it’s hard to squash music into the genre. Because then it’s like, “well is punk about having a mohawk?” I could go to the barbershop and become a punker. So I don’t know. A lot of people have said that the sound of music has changed. When there’s a band that’s popular, like really really popular, they take shit from the industry because people will gather a whole bunch of bands and throw a lot of money at them to make them sound like this and be popular. Popularity, usually has a lot more to do with money surrounding the band and the marketability. You’re not going to see to many of these “punk” bands being popular...except us. We’re probably like the ugliest most popular band. (Laughter) I would say in the looks department for us on a scale of 1 to 10 (one being the lowest), we have an average rating of a 3. I think I bring the band average down. (Laughter) What’s the weirdest request you’ve ever gotten from a fan? Um....(long silence). I’m digging deep here. We’ve gotten a few people that want us to play when they’re having their barbeque. Like, “when you guys play your headlining tour, between Chicago and Detroit, my mom wants to cook you dinner, so can you come over and play at our barbeque?” And we’re like “um,” I can’t tell, “are you joking?” (Laughter) I mean we’d like to, but we can’t! The song “Over,” it seems like it’s about a particular someone. Who is that certain someone? The song “Over” is really a complex song about anyone who thinks they are much closer to the band than they really are. I think when your in a band that has a little bit of lime light and notoriety, you’ll come across people that get a little to close, a little to fast. And it’s funny because it’s never been the type of communication I’d have until I was in a band. No one was really lining up to be my friend before I was in Sugarcult. And it happens and you think there’s something much darker behind it. And [in the song] you get like a fan that plays a relation with me, that really didn’t happen, but looks way to deep into “hi, whatever.” And they’ll be like “oh, so he loves me?” (Laughter) And we do come across these people; that play something out in their heads that doesn’t exist. Like a false sense of closeness. I mean I was hanging out in our merch tent forever. [And] I have to exercise now how I talk to these people. I’m guilty of it, sure. Like, kind of caught up in the joy, and it’s funny because you have to watch what you say. Sometimes I’ll be like “hey your not a fan, you’re a friend. Come in for this photo.” And they’ll be like “really? I’m really your friend?” (Laughter) For kids that are coming to Warped Tour, give them one piece of advice? This is helpful advice; the obvious: bring your sun screen and your Sharpie, cause I will just steal your Sharpie. And try not to have a gigantic breakfast. |
