Interview with Brian Baker
Q: So how is life in Bad Religion so far?
A: Not very hard, things are good, what's not to like!
Q: How long have you been in the band now?
A: Two action packed years! I've toured the world and elsewhere. It seems like it's been a lot longer than that now because I'm so used to it, it's good. I'm not stopping!
Q: Were you a fan of the band before you joined?
A: Yeah, but not a super big fan. I really rediscovered them. I liked "How Could Hell Be Any Worse" when I was really young then I lost track of them. I missed all the pivotal "Suffer," "No Control" period. I rediscovered them at "Recipe For Hate" and just thought they were absolutely wonderful. But even when I joined the band, I had still never heard "Suffer." So I was a fan but a selective one. I've known Hetson for 16 years and the others for various lengths of time just through that old punk rock. So it wasn't too hard to assimilate because we already knew each other.
Q: What's it like coming into this big successful punk band after all the other bands you were in were more underground?
A: It's just like all the other bands I've been in except more people come see us, the dynamic is the same. It's all friends. I don't really think about it from the outside, I think about it from the inside, about how much fun it is to play ,the people get along and the songwriting is fun. That's why it's fun for me. I would be in it even if it wasn't popular.
Punk fans may remember Baker from his previous bands, Minor Threat and Dag Nasty, but before joining Bad Religion, Baker was living in Los Angeles, did a brief stint with the hard rock band, Junkyard, and was a permanent fixture on the Hollywood club scene. By comparison, Baker said Bad Religion isn't that different from his other bands and with a resume like his, he has no problem taking over songwriting duties.
Q: Do you take part in the songwriting process now?
A: I have to, if half of the songwriting team leaves somebody has to - I'm just trying to help - I'm like a Band-Aid!
Q: Is it a lot of pressure trying to fill that missing person?
A: No, because I had no intention of trying to write half a Bad Religion record like Brett. I can't write lyrics nearly as well as Greg Graffin and the last thing you want to do is try to imitate what was already there. So I just did my usual thing and wrote a handful of Dag Nasty-esque type songs because that's all I know how to do. Greg liked four of them, made words for them and changed stuff around. That's called collaboration. I wasn't trying to fill anybody's shoes. If you have a good riff in your head, it just won't go away - you must share it!
On this particular evening, it's a Saturday night in unusually hot California weather. The all ages venue is packed with baggy trousered, T-shirt and sneaker wearing kids. Before the show, as Baker and I are sitting on the ground of the parking lot backstage, we can hear the local radio station party vans blasting out all the latest alternative hits. It's a far cry from the original punk ethic of anything played on the radio was automatically rejected by the hard-core contingent who remained true to the underground. But now that Bad Religion, as well as other punk bands, have become more popular, while trying to maintain their integrity and make social-political commentaries through their lyrics, I asked Baker if the people that show up for their gigs really understand what they stand for.
Q: Do your fans listen to your lyrics or do they just come to mosh?
A: I would be surprised if 20% of these people coming here knew what the hell was going on. But in general, on a global thing, I would say the vast majority of Bad Religion fans really know what's up. Because you play in other countries, German, Sweden places like that, it's a really religious experience for those people. They all know every single word and know what's going on even with the language barrier. So I'm hopeful that means a lot of people get it here where it's even easier to follow.
Q: Does It bother you at these big radio promoted shows that people just come here to party?
A: I don't think it's my job to determine how people are supposed to react to Bad Religion music. I'm not the punk police. What I do is play music and whoever shows up is cool. I have no intention on telling people how to have fun or saying 'you people aren't cool enough to go here and since you only heard the single on the radio that means you're not a fan.' I think that's bullsh*t. Come one, come all, slam dance your brains out. The more the merrier, it's still better than Winger!
Q: What do you think of punk rock becoming so mainstream now?
A: It was already blown out of proportion by 1985. That sense of community and danger dissipated as soon as runway models started wearing leather jackets with studs in them and movies like "Sid and Nancy" came out. The only reason everyone's saying it's all being destroyed now is because they're 14 years old. Punk rock is now mainstream and you can't fix that anymore so it's time to stop worrying about the community that doesn't exist and being a little bit more concerned about liking bands for the right reasons. Maybe they have something important to say. It's not about what label they are on. Take the time to investigate music a little bit more thoroughly which is one of the few things you still can do that we used to do when we were punk.
While all the members of Bad Religion live in different cities, Baker in Washington DC, Hetson in Los Angeles, Graffin in Ethica, New York, Bentley in Vancouver, Canada, Schayer in Seattle. With their latest record, "The Gray Race," the members of Bad Religion aligned to again takes stabs at institutions and establishments and pulled in former Cars frontman, Ric Ocasek, for production duties.
Q: Ric Ocasek produced this record, what was it like working with him?
A: He's a tall man. A tall, thin man, big ears! That's why he knows so much about producing - big ears! He's a real laid back, nice guy, like the benevolent sixth pair of ears.
Q: Explain the idea behind the album's title, "The Gray Race."
A: It's just a neat use of language for Greg using it as a metaphor for the human race. Conceptually, he just made an observation that the humans who are the most developed of all animals, are the only ones who can see in shades of gray but only deal in black and white issues. Greg noticed that, it became a song and it sort of became a theme. We are this unique species but we just sit around destroying ourselves.
Q: How does it work trying to make music when the band lives in different cities?
A: We don't rehearse. When we get ready to tour, we all meet somewhere for a day, then we go on tour. And when we do a record, we all go around to each other's houses and meet for a week, then practice and go and record.
Q: Isn't that difficult?
A: Why? I'm with these guys 10 months out of the year! If I lived in the same city do you think I would be with them the other 2 months - I wouldn't go near them!
Q: Does everyone in the band get along? A: We all get along, never had a fight. We have this huge crew with us now that has been here since I've been with the band. It's like an 18 person family, it's really cool, sort of Manson-esque actually!
In preparing for this interview, I found lots of juicy bits of information, where else, but on the internet. Turns out, I'm wasn't the only one reading up on the band. Baker himself said he recently began "surfing the net."
Q: Since this is for an on-line magazine, I have to ask, do you own a computer, do you go on-line?
A: I just bought a computer and I screwed around on-line a little bit then I had to go on tour. I haven't been accessing stuff from the hotels because I'm too tired. But Graffin goes on-line all the time. I go in his room and we read stuff.
Q: What do you think of the internet in terms of what it's doing for music?
A: I think the internet is really good for punk rock. It kind of culls out the Beavis and Buttheads because they don't really know how to operate a computer well enough to get in there. If they accidentally do, people get rid of them. On the Bad Religion web sites you can find incredibly cool stuff I never even knew was there. I learned about my own band from the internet!
At this point, Baker was admittedly hungry and tired, with a neglected bag of food brought to him by his bandmates calling his name throughout the interview, he is ready to end our squat-in-the-lot and engage in some pre-show preparations. But I had to get in the final word in asking Baker what he would put in his own Book of Cool.
Q: If you wrote the Book of Cool, what would you put in it?
A: Rear wheel drive V8 American made vehicles I think are the coolest things in the world. I'm fixated on that right now because I don't have a car. I like playing a band, that's a really cool thing, I think everyone should do it!