Discount, as you probably all know, are a poppy punk band from Florida whose Ataxia's Alright Tonight and Half Fiction albums have been universally acclaimed. I was lucky enough to chat to Alison (vocals) and Ryan (guitar) after their gig at the Star & Garter last November (which, incidentally, was the best gig I saw in '98). Here's what was said.

What did you think of the UK? Was it how you expected it to be?
Ryan: No, it wasn't. It wasn't how we expected it to be for the reason that Sean, the guy who set up the tour for us, said that it was going to be complete shit and that we shouldn't even come. We actually enjoyed ourselves a lot with the band that we're with (The 'Tone), and the shows were good, too. We expected a lot less and that was a good thing cos if your expectations are low you don't get disappointed. There was nothing but good things that happened on it.
Alison: We got to actually meet so many people that we've communicated with and heard about and talked to over long oceans. It's nice to be here. It was good.

Have you done a lot of interviews while you've been over?
Ryan: We've done a few, yeah. We did a couple in London and then... all around, yeah.
Alison: I think I've done about two a night.

What did you think of Japan when you went over there? Was that cool?
Alison: Japan is crazy, and...
Ryan: Japan's a much different culture, because first of all you've got the language barrier, which is such a huge barrier to get over. At least on this tour you can communicate with the people who you're touring with a little bit better, and you can communicate with the people as well. It's just the lanuguage thing. Not many people speak English there at all. The placed is amazing, it's like a different world, whereas England has a lot of similarities with the US.
Alison: It's weird cos there isn't really talking or getting to know people very well. Even the people that you come back to visit for the second time, or you're seeing them the third time, it's really hard to figure how friendships can advance, y'know? It's really difficult and it's really frustrating, and at the same time it's kind of strange to be on stage and singing about things that are really important to me knowing that they don't understand what you're saying... or they might, y'know, in a lot of cases they are singing along, and they could've easily sat down and figured it out, and it's written in Japanese over there. It's just strange, it's just a weird thing to think about. You have to still say the things that you mean, y'know, you can't trivialise it or make it different.
Ryan: Not that we don't feel like we have friends over there, because the people who we go over there with are the tops.
Alison: There's so many people that are amazing and it really bothers you because there are so many things that I wanna thank these people for and say, and I just want them to know how I feel, and you're hoping like, "Please look me in the eye! Please understand it! Please see it!" because it's really frustrating. I really love it there a lot. When I go I don't want to leave. It's really impressive everywhere. It's a beautiful country and they're amazing people.

Do you have obsessive fans over there that give presents to bands and stuff?
Ryan: I do!
Alison: Yeah, Ryan has some obsessive fans!
Ryan: That was a joke!
Alison: They just get really excited, I think, cos we're from far away. The first time we went over there it was kinda silly like that, like it was a really big deal. The second time we went there were just as many people, there were more people, but it wasn't, like, people weren't bringing us fruit and stuff. It was past that point, it was like ?OK, we're back and this is it.? It was good. It was really good.

Were there any decent bands that you saw over there?
Ryan: That's the one thing about Japan. Most of the bands are fucking amazing, compared to the States and to other places that we've been.
Alison: We played with Cigaretteman and the Urchin and, let's see, My Winter Gene, Knieval, Screaming Fat Rat (apologies if I got any of those names wrong! - Paul). We went over with Dillinger Four, which was amazing because they're one of our favourite bands and some of our best friends ever. Everyone in bands over there is really good! It's just really strange, but it's awesome.

What's the punk scene type thing like in Florida? Is it good? Are there many decent bands and fanzines and stuff?
Alison: There definitely is. There's tons. There's so much going on. We live in a place called Gainesville. It's a college town. It's really small and it's really tight. The kids there do a lot and put out a lot of stuff. There's a record label there called No Idea, and it's really active. They do distribution and put out a whole bunch of their friends' records and it's very honest and very good and everybody's friends. There's a club that's really locally owned by, us, the kids that work at it. It's a really good place. The scene is really, really functional. But then there's other places in Florida where things are all fucked up. It just depends. It depends where you are, just like here, I'm sure. The kids in Scotland who are like, "Wah, there's no place to play! There's no good bands! We're really frustrated! We think we're the only kids in this whole town!" I know that feeling because we used to live in an even smaller town that wasn't a college town, mainly populated by older, older people.
Ryan: It's a bit of a retirement community. It's alright to grow up there, but people move away when they're about 17 and come back when they're about 65, so if you're anywhere in between those two ages it's a strange, strange place to live.

Are you surprised at the really good press that you've got? I've never seen a bad review of anything you've done. You seem to get good reviews pretty much everywhere, from MRR to Rolling Stone. Are you surprised about that?
Alison: I don't know if we're surprised. I think that, in a lot of cases... it's weird because over the years you meet people and you meet these people writing reviews about you and you become friends with them and you wonder how accurate things are. We like bad reviews because...
Ryan: Constructive criticism is not a bad thing.
Alison: Honest reviews are definitely the best thing. People that write, like, "Aaaaargh! I just hate girl singers so I can't listen to this! This sucks! Don't buy it!" like, why did you even put that in there? You're wasting your time and that of everybody who's reading it. I'm really sorry that we wasted plastic on you!
Ryan: It just sucks. But we're quite satisfied with the reviews that we've gotten, seriously. We didn't expect anything. We just write music and that's all we do. If people like it then it's fucking fine with us! We're excited about that.

Have you had many bad reviews? I haven't seen one.
Ryan: We've had some that were really bad. It's either fucking good, or the most miserable reviewer we'll ever get, ever. We had one where the guy said he wouldn't wipe his ass with one of our releases.
Alison: This was our first tape, and we made it when we were 14 and we sent it out and we were all like young and happy and he was like "I wouldn't wipe my ass on it!" Actually, our record label (Kat) is run by two really rad people who send a lot of things out and work really hard at what they do. They don't have a lot of money, but the support that they give...
Ryan: They work as a label like we work as a band. We just work our asses off and anything that we get out of it comes from this, y'know, doing what we do constantly, which is what they do.
Alison: They're just very honest and very smart.
Ryan: They put their whole lives into it and that's what they get out of it.

Are you gonna stay on Kat for your next album?
Ryan: We don't know what's going on yet. We've got a bit of time so we're gonna try and figure it out.
I've heard a lot of rumours about what label you're going to be on next...
Ryan: What've you heard?
I've heard Hopeless mainly, and Lookout as well.
Ryan: Possibly. We don't know, though. We're taking our time because we haven't even gotten the songs written because we tour so much we don't have time to do that.
Alison: It's not really an issue right now. We're not really interested in anything right now. For the records we have nothing - no ideas. Writing music, that's all we want to do, and we don't care about that part too much.

Do you think that the fact that you've known each other for so long helps the band, or does it cause more arguements?
Alison: Oh no. We get along really well as a band compared to a lot of bands. I think it's good. I think the thing was that we all started doing this when we were 14 together except for Bill, but still he was young. We went through the changing process together and of course we still are cos we're still young but it was that crucial thing, cos I think when you get older you get a little bit more set in your ways so you can clash a lot more easily rather than understanding where people are coming from. We get along really well. We've had crazy things happen between all of us but it just always pans out to "I've known you for so long and I love you guys so much!" that it doesn't matter, you can work anything out.

Whose idea was it to cover Billy Bragg songs for the EP?
Alison: It might've been Bill and Ryan's.
Why was that?
Alison: We listen to him a lot, and his words rule. His lyrics are amazing. He's just a really, really cool guy. We've had a lot of... not problems, but a weird response to that CD because die-hard Billy Bragg fans are really offended, and I understand that.
Why?
Alison: Well, they're offended in a stupid way. I'll say that. I understand when people are like, "You've ruined it," or "You've changed it," or something like that. We left the lyrics, we've changed the music a little bit. It's not acoustic any more; it's electric. The main reason we did it was just because we wanted to cover a band that had really, really good lyrics, so we printed all the lyrics cos that was the reason behind it, like, this guy is really smart and all these kids that are just "blah, blah, blah, pop-punk" and there's all these lyrics that are really bad and they don't really talk about anything so this is a good thing to put out there cos it's important and maybe they would never hear it otherwise. I don't think Billy Bragg cares, as far as I know he doesn't at all, and all the people who are close to Billy Bragg and work for him and work with him and stuff are just like "That's awesome!" But there are weird, crazy, insane fans who are writing letters to them as we speak right now about it, all pissed off.
Has Billy Bragg heard it?
Alison: I am not sure. I'm sure we're giving him a copy so he will hear it, and maybe he'll be upset, maybe not, but for some reason I don't think he will be.

I don't think so either. OK, does being under 21 cause problems with getting shows over in America?
Alison: It used to be really complicated cos we started doing this when I was 14 or 15. There was a show in San Diego a couple of years ago where they wouldn't let me, Ryan or James in the club. They let Bill in cos he was 20 or something. They wouldn't let us in the club until we played. We had to sit on the sidewalk until we went on. We went on then walked right back out the door, and that was it. That was really stupid, so we don't play shows like that anymore, it's just as simple as that. If they're not gonna let in kids our age... it's just like, y'know, you have to let everybody in. That's the only thing that's fair. If we do get stuck playing non-all-ages shows we'll play two shows the same day, one that's all- ages and one that isn't so we can include everybody cos it's shitty. It makes no sense. We have had problems but we really avoid that as best as we can.

Do you all go to college?
Alison: Me, Bill and Ryan do. Me and Bill go to the University of Florida and Ryan goes to community college.
How do you manage that with touring with the band and recording stuff? Is it a problem?
Alison: It's complicated, it definitely is, because James lives three hours away. He lives in our hometown where we were living before we moved. That makes practicing and writing and recording a little more difficult than it used to be when we all lived really close by. We go to college only a semester every year so that's about 4½ months a year we go. When we're there we write music because as crazy as people think school is and as occupying as it is there's still so much time to work on music, especially when it's what you wanna do before anything else! It's OK. We practice less than we used to and we write less songs than we used to but we're still a pretty productive band, definitely. We're still writing records and touring six months a year.

Do you deliberatley make your lyrics abstract and hard to understand or am I just stupid?
Alison: No, you're not stupid! I have a hard time being really to-the-point. That's boring to me. It kinda leaves it open for everybody to insert their own lives into it. I'm saying exactly what I meant and I mean exactly what I said, and it totally applies to everything I'm saying, but it's like... I guess, good luck! It's funny; since I've been to England that's been the... no one asks about that in the States, and you'd think they would and that's what I would ask. "Why the hell doesn't it make any sense?!" It does make sense! It's just kinda hard sometimes.
Who inspires you lyrically?
Alison: I don't know. You probably wouldn't find any traces of it in any of my lyrics but my favourite band and my favourite lyrics I think are definitely Fugazi. Jawbreaker... Blake writes really good stuff. There's lots of people; there's so many that if I just named a couple it'd be bad. I love music so much. I've listened to it since... always!

What are your plans for the near future?
Alison: We're gonna write a new record and I'm really excited about it! I have so many new things that I want to write about. We've been touring for six months and we were lucky cos in Wisconsin we got to record some new songs. That was so long ago! And in Texas we got to record some new songs and now we get to record some new songs tomorrow. We try and do this while we're on the road cos we go through these crazy withdrawals like, I have all these new songs and they're all written down and Ryan's got all these guitar parts in his head and it's like we're gonna explode if we don't hurry up and do this! We're excited about the new record, that?s what we're gonna do. It's gonna take up my whole life and I'm really excited about being that consumed and that excited about it. We're gonna do that and go to school and go on tour again as soon as school's over.

Where do you think you'll be in ten years time? Do you think the band will still be around?
Alison: I think that if it isn't we'll still all be in bands. I know that I definitely will. I won't speak for all of them but they really like what they're doing right now and I don't see any bad signals like "I am gonna get out of this!" anytime soon. We kind of balance it out. We tour like crazy. We tour so much. Everyone's like "God, you guys are insane!" but that's how much we can handle and it's good. I could do it always. I don't need to go home at all. I never need to see my bed again. Maybe visiting my dog once in a while would be a cool thing but I don't need that aspect of my life. I don't need anything solid like that. They do and they like it, and that's cool and I totally respect that. It's cool. I can get school in and do some art, read some books, hang out. It's what we'll be doing. We'll be touring forever.

 

(from Scary Sheep issue 2)