|
|
|
Lupus Thunder: 'Everything Is Nasty In Bloodhound Gang' |
| artist: bloodhound gang |
date: 10/13/2005 |
category: interviews |
|
|
Guitarist for the Bloodhound Gang, Lupus Thunder, talks about the band's recently released CD, girls' contests, that fat guy on the sleeve and other crazy stuff. Prepare to get shocked!
Ultimate-Guitar.com: You’ve got a very lovely guy on the sleeve of your new CD “Hefty Fine.” How did you find such a charismatic person? Did you make “The fattest guy contest”?
Lupus Thunder: It’s quite a good story actually, 'cause we knew what we wanted -- we wanted a fat guy in a box on the front cover. So you know, you call up a casting agency and you say: “look, we need a guy who’s willing to get naked first of all and is not too shy about it (isn’t going to mind being squeezed into a box that he really shouldn’t be in), and on top of it is willing to show his body to the world.” And they send you a bunch of headshots, press kits, whatever you ask them for, and you get to choose. Well, everybody sent the standard headshots and a little information about them. That guy sent a picture of him giving another guy a blowjob and we’re like: “Wait a second. This guy -- he got the joke, he’s in!” So Jim picked him out of these pictures and he’s turned out to be even more into than we ever could have imagine: he’s actually on our website, posting in our forums, talking to fans and showing them other pictures of him. He definitely got the joke, and he’s really into it. In fact, his name on the forum is Hefty Fine, and we’re so excited he was the cover model.
Did you get a chance to ask him when he last saw his dick? (sorry, couldn’t resist asking that, I’ve always been curious about that).
He’s got its pictures to look at if he needs to, because apparently he’s a prolific porn guy. I myself have never seen any of his films, but, according to him, he’s doing quite well. At one point, he posted on our site a link to his personal website, but he had to take it down when he realized that eleven and twelve year old kids were looking at shots from his porn career, so he backed off of that one because he felt a little funny about it -- he actually has grandchildren that age. His site’s great, 'cause there will be all these great pictures form his porn career and then the next photo is him and his granddaughter at Disneyland like hanging out, so it’s kind of a weird thing.
You’ve been pretty nervous about this “comeback” album before it was out. How do you feel about it now?
I’m always nervous about the whole deal, because I don’t want to end this career now. I’ve been doing it too long. I don’t know what the hell I’d do once this is over. But I think we will do fine with this record. Obviously. I hope we do more than fine and I can buy a private jet, and be as rich as Mick Jagger or something, but if that doesn’t happen -- I will keep going.
Making “Hefty Fine,” did you think it’s gonna be better than the last record or you did your best long ago and just try to keep it at the same level?
No, I think that you want to do every record better than the last one, but with this record I’m really proud of the way it sounds. I think it’s one of our best sounding records, and I, being a guitar player, want everything to sound as rock and roll as it possibly can. We took a little more time with guitar sounds and there is a couple of songs on that I recorded the guitar parts to them hundreds of times. Lyrically, I think Jim outdid himself on this one. His lyrics are its kind of a dark twisted world this time. It’s still funny, but I think more of this record is drawn from his personal experience, with relationships and girls, so it’s a little bit nastier than our other. He’s taking a little bit of revenge out on some people in this world.
Which is the best song on “Hefty Fine,” in your opinion?
Let me think about this. I don’t really think like “I’m The Least You Can Do.” It’s funny, because a lot of people don’t like that one, but every time I hear it, I just picture us on a stage and people like really liking it. So I don’t know what it is, but I would probably say that lyrically I find “No Hard Feelings” the best. It’s such an angry mean spirited song, it just makes me laugh when I hear Jim say any line out of it, because I’m like “oh, you were angry that day like what were you thinking?”
Critics didn’t seem to give “Hefty Fine” high marks, but your fans seem to be pleased with the new record. Honestly, do you give a damn what the critics say?
I’ve actually read a few nasty reviews and some from people who were our best friends five years ago. It hurts a bit when you read them, and you’re like, “come on, what are you talking about?”. But you know what? I'd rather see a really nasty bad review than a good review that’s basically a re-hatching our bio, because it always seems like good reviews are written by a guy who looks at your bio steals a few good lines and writes some nice stuff in the middle of it. Whereas bad reviews pick you apart, and to me, its like they really paid attention and listened to the whole record from start to finish, and they found everything specific that they could hate about it. So at least you took the time. I’m sure every time you do an interview, you ask that question, and somebody says this to you: “No press is bad press.”
Your music is full of jokes about shit, farting, and burping. Is that your favorite subject in casual conversations or just something to keep music fun?
Yeah, probably 24 hours a day of that. When we started the band, we hadn’t grown up yet, and those were the things that were funny to us and we got drunk, we looked for girls and talked about shit. And as we got older, you’d think that stuff would start to fall apart, but it’s still funny and the thing is it must be funny to other people too, because people still buy the record. And I've seen 50 year old guys come up to me at shows and say “you guys are genius”, so there are people out there that are still enjoying it.
What music do you listen to at the moment?
At the moment I've been listening to a lot of Van Halen. Of course the question comes which Van Halen, and you know the answer - it’s David Lee Roth hands down. I don’t know what it is, but I went out and re-upped my collection of the CD of Van Halen records, and I've been really absorbed in it lately. Right on that’s good stuff . You can never go wrong. I wish that we could have been around or Van Halen could be around now, and we could have done a tour together with the good Van Halen. I think David Lee Roth is one of the few people in the world that would truly understand Jim's lyrics. I think Jim does the same as what David Lee Roth does -- just in a meaner nastier way.
You’ve got “Online Girl Contest” on your website going on. Why not start a “Guy Contest?”
Every once in a while I get an email from a guy saying, “why don’t you ever do anything for us?” We’ve talked about it a couple of times, and who knows -- maybe we will. But now Jared can go through the pictures and hit on them, and that’s how he gets most of his dates actually. The MySpace thing is such a huge thing with bands right now. Ours has more females on it than guys, and Jared hits on every last one and he’s done okay with it. So far, he’s gone out with quite a few of them. It’s more just a device for Jared to get a date once in a while.
Who usually comments on pictures? What do you usually put in the “winners package?”
Usually I used to do it, and now Jim does a lot of it. I’ll send them a batch of photos and he picks which ones he likes and then writes something funny about it. But sometimes I still do them, like if he’s too busy. Jared’s done a few I guess. And usually the package is just a bunch of free crap. We send them an undersized girly shirt so they can probably display what they’ve just shown half of the world, and some stickers and crap like that. Sometimes, if we have a shitload of something specific -- like at one point we had 10 million “Bad Touch” vinyls, those were always a good one 'cause those were like “How did we order so many of them?” Like we ordered more than there are people on the planet, so I don’t know what we were thinking when we did it.
Do you feel nervous about your first tour in almost five years?
Not so much, because we did one run of three shows and then one run of two shows, and pretty much everything bad that could have happen, happened at one of those shows. Five shows or one or two of those five shows I should say. So I think we have some of the kinks worked out now. I guess I’m a bit nervous about going away for a long time again, 'cause I haven’t done it in a while, like my longest trip recently was for a week and that seemed like an eternity. But going away for like a month is always a bit of different story, because you have so much to remember to deal with at home, and you got to deal with it all while you’re far away, living in a bus with a bunch of dudes. But I think it will be a good time. I mean, it’s the one thing when everything is going shitty in you life - it’s the one place where everything can go right for you. Like when I walk out on that stage and start playing even at the worst of shows its still fun.
Is there a country that you’ve never played a show at that you’ve always wanted to?
Let me think. We’ve never been anywhere in Africa, and South Africa is kind of the only really big spot for touring, and I’d love to go there and especially if we got some time off. So we could travel a bit in Africa, go do the safari thing and all that. That would be pretty cool. Other than I can’t really think of any, we’ve been to so many now. Like, we actually just got offered a show in Belarus, which would be the first time I’ve ever been there, so you know I might even add a few countries this time around.
Do you remember your first show?
I’m trying to think, my first show with the Bloodhound Gang would have been in someone’s garage at Kurtztown University. They had a converted garage that they did shows in and I can’t really remember any specifics. I just remember like anytime, because we used to play there quite a bit, and anytime it was all about just getting as drunk as possible. Hitting on girls that didn’t care who I was or what I’d did in my life, and hopefully one of them might talk to me for five minutes. I remember those shows from school, they were fun times.
You’ve been together for nine years now. Have you ever got sick of each other?
All the time, you know what? It’s like being married or something. We know each other a little too well. I know things about those guys that a guy shouldn’t know about other guys I guess. And I know what pisses them off, I know what makes them happy. So there are always times I’m ready to kill them all, they’re ready to kill me, and you’re dealing with five guys from different backgrounds, with different attitudes towards life. As I’m a big complainer, I like to complain about everything, because it makes me feel better, they don’t hate it, so every time I start complaining they tell me to shut up and that’s the end of that. And you just learn to deal with everybody, so you know when you do fight it goes away.
And the good thing is that because we are in the band, we are where everything is a bit nasty and mean spirited at times, like we constantly torture each other. So it keeps everybody grounded. No one will ever walk out of this band, like “I’m such a rock star”, “oh I’m the greatest”, because as soon as you do so, you know someone will point out. Well, you know you’re still fat though, and as soon as they say that “oh yeah, I forgot about that” and you’re right “I’m just some fat guy that got lucky” or something.
During your five year rest have you missed touring, recording and all that stuff?
Definitely miss touring… recording is not my favorite thing in the world. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. But the idea of playing the same riff a hundred times and having some guy go “yeah, I think you could do it a little better, it’s not exciting really”. But missing tour definitely. As I was saying earlier, nothing compares to that feeling -- even at a bad show it’s still such an awesome feeling, and when a show goes perfectly and everything’s right and the fans are into it and for whatever reason you had a good day before the show, you feel like god up there. Like go ahead and mess me, because nothing can touch me when I’m up there. It’s quite a bad thing for the ego.
What song do you like to sing when you get drunk?
I don’t know. You know what, when I get drunk I usually don’t think much about music. I usually wind up just talking to a wall or tripping over myself. I’m a terrible drunk so like if you gave me a guitar when I was drunk, I’d probably hit somebody with it instead.
What kind of guitar do you play?
I’m currently playing Paul Reed Smith, which is like a dream come true. I have owned one for years and I had another sponsorship with Fernandes before that and they were fun to play and all, but Paul Reed Smith is kind of like every guitarist’s dream. And I finally hooked up with them and they’ve been giving me a bunch of guitars lately, and some of the guitars they have given me are just out of this world and you couldn’t buy them off me for a million dollars. I will never get rid of these guitars.
Wow score
Yeah, tell me about it when the guy and I were talking trying to set up a little sponsorship deal, I was figuring I’d get artist cost which is pretty much standard for musical equipment because it’s so expensive. And he was asking me if I planned on playing, you know, PRS exclusively, or did I have a couple other guitars I wanted to use I was like “no, I’m more than happy to play your guitars all day everyday” and he was like “well, then I’m more than happy to give them to you.” I was like “I love you?” I didn’t even know what to say to the guy, 'cause he basically just told me he was going to give me very expensive guitars for free that I really wanted. It’s something that I’ve been trying sort out for years and I’ve never been able to contact anybody there until recently, so you know they made my every dream come true with that. And the only stipulation is that you have to play them all time which is not terribly bad either.
Oh darn. And he told me I might have to send them some photos once in a while so I could be on the website. Yeah, that’s a problem, oh darn I might have to be in a picture once in a while. I was like “you know what, you want to send me to every guitar dealer show you have, I don’t care, I’ll do anything you want, I’ll sit around and sign guitars all day long if you ask me too.”
Do like to experiment with your sound, amp/effects settings or do you like to keep it straight?
In terms of our signature sound, I think we are pretty simple, pretty cut and dry with things. I’m not a Tom Morello or anything like that. But in the recent past couple of years, I’ve gotten more and more into gear and started to understand it more because for years I didn’t understand. I knew like when you turned on the amp, it made sound. I knew that the gain knob caused distortion and that’s about all I understood. But now I’m starting to get into it and trying to experiment with some things, so over the past two years I’d say I’ve started to get a bit more geeky, but like every five minutes I have to ask my tech like what does this knob do again? I don’t remember.
Everybody still remembers you with the song “Bad Touch” Do you think you’re gonna write a song to change that stereotype?
With us, the great thing is that like where other bands are part of a genre or they have a specific sound or style or whatever. With us, when it comes to us or with the music were all over the place, it’s the lyrics that are the genre or the style for us, so that’s what keeps Bloodhound Gang where everything else. I mean, like on this record alone, there is some straight ahead, like just punk rock, simple chords. In the song “Something Diabolical” there is a guitar part played on acoustic guitar that I still can’t play. It’s the hardest thing in the world for me to play, and Jim wrote it on piano and was like “yeah, you can play it”. So I’m like constantly finding myself playing things that I would never play in my lifetime, so it’s kind of cool that we can switch around, like we can write the “Bad Touch” and then we can write “Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo.” We are never tied down to one thing with that.
You’ve been asked the same questions millions of times. What’s the question you hate to be asked the most?
I don’t know what are your next questions. I don’t want to embarrass you.
Those next three questions.
Yeah lets see... probably the one we get asked the most that, there’s actually two, and we always do the same thing when it happens, because it always happens. When we are in a group situation, somebody asks them “where did the band get its name?” And “how did you all meet?” And it’s not that we hate the questions, 'cause obviously people want to know that stuff, but it’s just that you’ve said it so many times so we play a game called “not it” where once somebody asks that question, one person yells “not it” and everybody has to yell not it and follow them, and the last person to yell “not it” is it and has to answer, so there’s a lot of video interviews where you’ll see us do it somebody asks that question and you hear five guys yell “not it” and then you know I’m sitting there like “well, you know we first started the band in…”
There are a lot of guys who are searching Bloodhound Gang tabs on Ultimate-Guitar.com dreaming to play in a band like yours one day. Do you have anything wise to say to them?
Stay away from the tabs. No, actually it’s funny. There’s a kid on our site who’s tabbed almost the entire record at this point, and, as soon as he would hear anything, like when the album leaked within the next 24 hour period, I think he had about 80% of the album done. The only thing is that he used some wacky program to do it, and I can’t use it because I use Mac, and I couldn’t get it to work for me so don’t know if his tabs are right. But I always like looking at tabs to see if people a) play it the exact way that I play it and b) to see if they got it right, because sometimes people come up some weird stuff and I’m like “you can’t possibly being playing that in your bedroom” and go “yeah, that sounds exactly the same but as far as me and guitaring is guitaring a verb, I’m not sure but I learned everything from reading guitar magazines and how to play tabs of songs. I never had any lessons or anything, I just picked up a guitar and started winging it and you know, probably because of that I’m not the greatest guitar player in the world, but… what I do works, so I think people just need to pick one up and go at it and see what happens.
| POSTED: 10/13/2005 - 09:34 am |
|
|
|
|
|
comments policy
38 comments posted, 1 removed | this article is 97% spam-free
|
|
|
|
|
|
