One Car Pile-Up play the sort of melodic hardcore that people tend to associate with a certain popular American label. They are bloody good at it, too. Here's an interview conducted via e-mail with singer Dave.
Are you tired of being compared to various Fat Wreck bands all the time, or do you see it as a compliment?
Well we don't deliberately try to sound like those bands, it's just that all 4 of us are into that style of music (among others) and we enjoy playing it. The great majority of punk bands fit into a particular 'style', be it old -school, hardcore, emo, pop, ska, Epi-Fat clones or whatever, and it's normally pretty easy to closely compare one band to at least 5 others. So we are what we are. We don't pretend that we're being massively original or anything - if you want 'original' just try going to a few London 'indie' gigs and see if you can manage more than 3 songs... Err, so anyway - yeah it is nice when people say we sound like those kinda bands because they're into it too & they just appreciate the songs or whatever, but we do get a bit of slagging for it too cos they think we're just trying to cash in on the popularity of Fat or Epitaph or whoever's trendy that week. Some of the die-hard punkers who've been into it for years get pissed off seeing all these new kids getting into punk & coming down the Rancid, Green Day, Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX type route. A lot of those kids probably aren't really into the punk ethic - they're just doing it cos it's trendy, and of course there's gonna be bands like that too - jumping on the bandwagon. But it's not all like that - just because punk has got a lot more accessible in the last few years doesn't mean it's any less valid when you get past the backpacks & wallet chains & £25 kegs sticking out the top of your trousers, and actually get into the ethics of it all. Anyway, isn't calling yourself punk & then judging people by what music they listen to and what clothes they wear somewhat hypocritical? Yeah I thought so too....Where are the most memorable places you've played? What did you think of Wigan, for example? (y'see, it's my home town and we get about two punk shows per year!)
Best gigs we've done are probably Leeds, Derby, Halifax, and Wisbech which is particularly smart cos it's always full of all these simple country folk who obviously never get more than 5 miles out of the area, and they just go mental to every band that plays there. Wigan was really cool but we played shit.Your Irish tour from a few months ago sounds like it was eventful... what are the most interesting things that happened to you over there?
Well most of this is on the website but for those that missed it we went over with VANILLA POD in February and did 3 shows. It was a bit of a nightmare cos of the times we had to travel & stuff. And believe me you really don't want to drive from the North coast to the South coast in a clapped out old ambulance on dodgy Irish country roads full of potholes, sudden hairpin bends, and suicidal livestock. Actually it was one of the funniest 9 hours of my life but I was probably losing my mind at the time so it might not count. We did get tangled up in an attempted armed robbery at a petrol station (well I swear to this day that the guy had a sawn off shotgun - even if nobody else believes me), and almost brought the wrath of the German navy down upon us, but other than that it was pretty uneventful.I read in Vision On that you enjoy ringing QVC with crank calls... what are the best ones you've done? (Once we phoned them to ask for felching straws and the operator spent about ten minutes trying to find the item number for us...)
I'll try & remember some classics: Wait until something sells out & then ring up asking for it - sound really desperate and when they tell you there's none left act totally gutted and swear loads like you just lost the winning lottery ticket or something. Then start offering the operator ridiculous amounts of money to go & get you the one they had on the TV. When you've milked it as much as possible come out of character and say you didn't really want one anyway cos they're shit. Another one is to ask for a decorative plate which you've forgotten the item number of - they go & look for it and then probably ask you to describe the plate, at which point you make up some obscene thing like "a picture of Nigel out of Eastenders shitting in Princess Diana's mouth", or the infamous "your mum being fist-fucked by East17". Aren't we lovely boys! The trick to QVC fun is not just directly abusing the staff, but trying to get them believing you're seriously asking for a felching straw or whatever. The other thing to remember is that the phone number doesn't start 0800, it starts 1410800 - which some of VANILLA POD's mates found out when they spent an evening doing pranks & then got a call back from QVC threatening them with legal action. Fools.......Speaking of Vision On, are you big fans of zines? Which ones do you read regularly?
I read FRACTURE, VISION ON, MY GOD..., REAL OVERDOSE, SUSPECT DEVICE & whatever I can lay my hands on really. I can never be arsed sending off for zines but I always buy them at gigs. I love zines cos most of them aren't scared to print whatever the fuck they want, even if they do tend to lean towards giving every punk band good reviews. I'm all for constructive criticism, but sometimes shit is just shit. Oh yeah, I heard that COAL CHAMBER's record label paid KERRANG $20,000 to hype the band which is just so fair on the hundreds of decent bands they ignore. So that pretty much destroyed any hope I had of that magazine actually being worth more than it's weight in shit. We met some freelance writer guy who reviewed a show we played in KERRANG, and Chris told him the mag was a load of bollocks - sadly the bloke didn't care & gave us a good review anyway so we'll try to make it clearer next time. I wonder how much it would cost to buy off VISION ON like that though? Steve, if you're reading this you can have 10p every time you put us in your zine... Ha, that should see us on MTV within the week I reckon!For each member of the band state which Simpsons character they are the most like, and why. If, for some inexplicable reason you don't watch The Simpsons, then choose any fictional characters.
We thought about this for ages and couldn't come up with anything, but how dare you suggest that we don't watch the Simpsons!What are the worst habits of each band member?
Towie takes far too long mopping up litres of sweat between each song and me Chris & Wes have to try & tell jokes to fill the time in which are never funny. Chris gets drunk before he plays, fucks up loads and thinks he's Eddie Van Halen. Wes usually insults the locals with offensive impressions of their accents. I forget the words all the time, talk too fast, and tread on everyone's leads.Who designs your T-shirts? They're grrreat! Any more designs planned?
We all just joke about what would be funny to have on a shirt & I do them on my computer. Steve out of CONSUMED prints them up for us at very reasonable prices too! We're doing some of them tight girly shirts soon with a spangly disco logo thing on it that says "One Car Pile-Up are a crap shag". Maybe.How's the album coming along? When do you think it'll be ready?
Well it's about half-written right now, and it looks like we're gonna record it ourselves at home with some fancy computer gear. Basically I think we're going halves on this gear with CRACKLE, so instead of them giving us money to go in the studio which was the original agreement, they're going to help us buy the equipment. The total cost of everything we need to produce an album at home is pretty much the same as, if not less than, what it was going to cost to go to a proper studio - this way we get to mix it until we're all 100% happy, and then of course no studio fees ever again!! How fucking DIY punk rock is that??!?!Give me three or more reasons why our readers should check out your band.
1. We'll give you £10 to check us out.
2. If you still ignore us we'll give you £100.
3. If you still ignore us we'll give you £1000.
Ha, no, of course we won't. Ermm, it's impossible to answer this question properly without sounding like a right wanker - that was probably your little scheme wasn't it? Well I'm not falling for it.What other bands would you recommend to our oh-so discerning readership?
List of top British punk bands you should go & see (in no order and probably missing loads out cos I have a mind like a sieve): 99 YEARS, VANILLA POD, DROPNOSE, CONSUMED, LOWLIFE, LUBBYNUGGET, PROPAGUMBHIS, SPY VS SPY, GROVER, SCARPER, CONE, SERVO, WORM, SKIMMER, and WESTRAIL. Everyone says DOUG are dead good too but I haven't heard em yet...Is there anything else you want to add? New releases or gigs you want to plug? Impart your great wisdom onto our readers? Anything at all???
We're always doing as many shows as we can - the details are usually on the website at least 2 weeks before we play. People can write us at: 110 Burringham Road, Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, DN17 2DE. We're not so good at being arsed to record stuff, but the album will be here soon-ish. Ermm, as for wisdom & the meaning of life & all that, I tend to waver between thinking "There's no meaning whatsoever to anything at all, and we're all doomed but it doesn't matter because everything is meaningless anyway", to something like "Well maybe there is no point to it all but that's no excuse to act like a cunt". That's the one & only stricture my religious cult will be based on when I get round to starting it...I usually ask bands to draw a scary sheep, but as this is an e-mail that might not be possible, unless you could include it as an attachment or something. If it's too much hassle then don't bother.
There's a fucking smart clip-art sheep on the CorelDraw disk but the CD is fucked so I can't get it off, and you really don't wanna see how badly I can draw. Maybe tonight I'll look on the Internet for some 'special' pictures involving sheep, just for you... Oh, wait a minute, didn't NOFX have something like that on an album sleeve? Sorry mate, no pervy sheep pics for you - the last thing we wanna do is get accused of ripping off NOFX...(from Scary Sheep #2)
