Brian Baker of Fake Names

Record Collector Magazine (June 2020)

Bad Religion guitarist on the punk supergroup's debut

Tell us about your eponymous set.
Michael Hampton was responsible for my getting into punk. Time for payback.

If you could re-visit any of your albums, what would you change?
Bad Religion The Gray Race suffers from poor sequencing. I wish that we'd started with the title track. Dag Nasty's Field Day is a sonic travesty. The mix is baffling.

Is there anything unissued in the archive?
Cassette tapes of rehearsals (13 hours) and "one day-only" joke bands.

Have you done anything that fans may not know about?
I played rockin' metal guitar on a few Toyota commercials 20 years ago.

With whom would you like to make a split 7"?
The Damned.

Who would you like to remix?
I'd remix Embrace. There are lots of hidden/submerged guitar tracks, and we could all use a little less hi-hat in our lives.

Where were you when you first heard one of your songs on vinyl?
The first Minor Threat EP, probably in Ian [MacKaye]'s room at Dischord [Records] in 1981.

What was your favourite record shop then?
Yesterday & Today, Rockville, Maryland.

What was your first record?
The Cars.

What's the last album that you bought?
Marcus King El Dorado.

Did you ever write songs 'under the influence'?
I discovered weed in 1988, which explains Field Day.

Who were your biggest influences when you started out?
Angus Young, Captain Sensible, Malcom [sic] Young.

Have you ever collected anyone?
The Damned and Misfits, to 1992. Then I had to pay my rent and sold it all to Bleeker Bob's, New York.

Who would you like to cover one of your songs?
Paul Westerberg - an acoustic version of Bad Religion's Won't Somebody.

Which of your songs is the most personally meaningful?
Dag Nasty's Justification.

Of all the people that you've worked with, who taught you the most?
Brett Gurewitz - a great ear for guitar, from equipment choices to placement, and how to use outboard stuff transparently.

Would you change any of your artwork, given the chance?
The Gray Race has the worst art of any record that I've made, followed by Field Day and Doggy Style The Last Laugh. Terrible.

What backstage incident makes you laugh/cringe most?
In Minor Threat, when Jeff Nelson stuck a huge wad of bubble-gum in my hair that I had to cut out, leaving a bald spot the size of Texas in my perfectly-spiked, dyed blonde hair. I was mad about it for two years!

What fact about you may surprise fans?
I'm left-handed, and I can recite all the dialogue from Fast Times At Ridgemont High and Raising Arizona from memory.

If you had a record-listening party, what would you play, and who'd you invite?
The Ruts The Crack, and Dave Ruffy and Segs, to comment track by track.

Do you plan a book?
Not until the dust settles.

With whom would you most like to record?
Keith Richards, and Cal [Morris] from Discharge.

Fake Names is on Epitaph.