Bad Religion
For the first time Bad Religion played some out of London UK dates. I caught up with bass player Jay Bentley after their Bradford gig. Steve.
How did the Phoenix Festival go?
It was OK but I think we played the wrong stage, we should've played the tent instead.
Is that the first big outdoor gig you've played?
No, but it's the first we've done in England.
Was it the biggest crowd you played to?
No, Guisen (?), two years ago with Stiff Little Fingers and Danzig, in Germany. Coming into England we're not as popular here, so we shouldn't really have been on the main stage.
How's the tour been so far?
Pretty good.
Was tonight a typical night?
Yeah, it was cool.
What's the reception to the Recipe For Hate LP been like?
From what i've seen it's been good but I haven't seen any of the American Press because we've been touring since the release.
The press you've been getting in England has sorta been from the 'this albums gonna break Bad Religion into the big time', would you feel comfortable in the proper charts and as part of the mainstream,
Well, sometimes I don't agree with all the policys that management use, you know what I mean? Lets just say that talk is cheap.
Do you think that's been said for every album?
Well, realistically, I think the band doesn't really have any high expectations. We just go into the studio, record the album and see what sticks to the wall basically. It's a good album and the way they look at it is as an album to break us, which a term that's wide open. It's just a little more diverse than any of the other records we've done.
How did the link up with Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder come about?
He's been a friend of the bands for a while.
Yeah, because Pearl Jam get a lot of press criticism for just been band wagon jumpers...
The thing with them is, I like them a lot, personally and as a band, but they have been touring on the Ten album for a long, long time, so it's inevitable that people are gonna say 'well, I saw 'em last year and they were playing the same songs', but I read that they played Brixton Academy and they played seven new songs, and the guy said they were amazing, so when the new album comes out everyone will be happy again.
Do you still consider Bad Religion to be a punk band?
I don't know, I mean, what's punk? One of the problems we had was we got titled a punk rock band, we didn't call ourselves that. So we're just whatever. I don't give a shit, people could say we're country and western, it doesn't matter to me. I mean punk rock is definitely something I was influenced by and there's definitely a thing that everyone who listens to everything from the Sex Pistols to Crass understands.
Is Bad Religion a full time thing to you?
Well, not really, we tour, well, we don't tour that much, only about 2-3 months, in a year we probably play 100 shows. Brett owns Epitaph, I work at Epitaph, Gregg goes to school so we've all established our lives before Bad Religion.
What could a major label offer you that Epitaph couldn't?
Distribution
Just that?
Yeah, just get us into stores that we can't get into now.
Have you been approached by any majors?
Oh yeah, we'll talk, we always said the door was open, but we always said they have to prove something to us. We're not waiting for them to come. They're not gonna pull a rabbit from a hat and say "now you're huge". We just think if they can do what we do times ten, then we're in pretty good shape.
(About a month after this interview the band signed to Atlantic)
What's held the band together for fifteen years when about 99% of your contemporarys have vanished?
We never practise (LAUGHS)
What motivates you, just the enjoyment of playing?
Yeah.
A fear of slipping into normality?
Just getting together as a group of guys who just like to do something together, it's just like anything else where a group of people get together.
Do most band members still listen to punk and hardcore and read zines and shit like that?
I personally read a lot of zines and listen to a lot of music and I know Greg Hetson does and so does Brett. That stuff is like where we are from. But on the other hand, I can go home and listen to Elvis Costello or Kate Bush for five hours. I just don't want to listen to punk rock, I just got off a six month tour, fuck it!
Any new bands you're into?
I saw Bivouac the other night and they just blew me away. I like the Teenage Fanclub album. It's hard when you try to think about new bands because in this day and age a lot of new bands are major label bands and are 'the next big thing' which immediately turns me off and I wont listen to it. I'm sure there's a lot of really amazing stuff out there that I haven't been listening to. I did get the new Smashing Pumpkins CD and that's amazing, truly amazing.