Trainwreck - Links - www.twreck.net

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10.22.04

Hey man, how ya doin?

Good, I just got back from a meeting with a friend at Epic Records. He works more in the DVD's, but I'm trying to get the Wreck a deal. Don't you think we should have an album deal?

I most certainly do. Is Epic the main label you're looking at right now?

Well we're on Sony music. I think I signed a contract that says that anything I fart or that comes out my body is owned by Sony music. It's like a Massey Prenup; it's iron clad.

How's the recording process coming along?

Slow, but good. Producer Jebodiah Kingfisher (John King of the Dust Brothers) just bought a new house that he's converting into a studio. So right now he's in the midst of finishing that up. But in a couple weeks we'll dive in with a little more fervor. We have been fooling around with it though. Shreddy laid down some guitar stuff the other day. You know, slowly it progresses, but it is a monumental achievement so far. When it finally comes out people are just gonna melt. It's gonna be awesome.

The Wreck has brought a lot of their celebrity friends on stage during their live shows; will there be any guest appearances on the studio album?

We don't like to say celebrity friends Joe, they're just friends. But probably not. I think on the record it'll just be the band. It has to be pure Wreck… it's gotta be pure.

I've also heard rumors of you guys working on a live DVD?

Not specifically, but there has been a lot of footage taken. We don't have anything put together, but that's a good idea though. We should do that, shouldn't we… alright, I'm gonna make a DVD. That's a great idea. It's funny because the guy I just met with is the head of DVD's for all of Sony. As a matter of fact, he'd just gotten a call from J-Lo from the set of her latest video or something.

Now you guys just made your TV debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live, was that a big moment for the Wreck?

Yeah, it definitely made it feel kind of real for a second. You know it's nice to get that kind of exposure all at once. It just felt really validating; it was a great time. I thought it came of really good, didn't you?

Yeah man, I loved it, I was flipping out that whole night, and the fact that you guys plugged the website blew my mind!

Well it really is a great site. We use it all the time. Like Darryl and I just got a job on a sitcom called Shacking Up written by a friend of mine Dave Garrett. The producers were kind of curious what our stuff was about, and we just sent them over to twreck dot net. It's really great dude. We really appreciate it.

Thanks a lot man, hearing you say that is awesome.

I can't even imagine being without a website now. Thank god for Al Gore. It's just like the cell phone; it's like I guess we had lives before it, but I don't remember what they were like. It must have been boring. How did anyone get in touch with anybody?

Come to think of it, did anything big happen with you guys earlier this week? The traffic on the site totally spiked out of nowhere and I've been trying to figure it out.

Hmmmm…well they started playing the D on HBO again.

I've been seeing it all the time lately. It's funny cause I have all the episodes on DVD, and on my computer, but when it comes on TV I still have to sit down and watch it every time.

There's something about things being on TV, I know that feeling. You know what it is; you're sharing it with a bunch of people at once even though they're not there. You're watching with a big community like "yeah wow, people are doing this right now with me!" I know it doesn't make any sense.

So how'd the tour go?

The tour was great. I could really feel a progression in terms of more people coming and more people getting it, and in terms of the band I thought we really came together and started smoking. Playing with Dallas [St. Bernard] was great too. He's a really good rock drummer. It's always good when you have that kind of a spine. Kenny Bob is more of a flavor guy; he doesn't really bang them too hard.

What were some of the tour highlights?

I would have to say when that girl in Austin was massaging my cockle. That was really special for me because I hadn't gotten any up till then. All of a sudden it just came together. You know once you stop looking, that's when it happens. Hmmmm, other special moments… Darryl almost hitting a truck in front of him, thank god Shreddy saved us. Then later we actually bumped into a car with the RV and just pretended it didn't happen. Oklahoma City was also really special I have to say. The people there were just screaming really loud. It made us feel like rock stars. What else happened though? I can't remember, it was just a lot of work. We had to do it all ourselves, a lot of multi tasking out there.

What do you look for in a backstage Betty?

A lot of heavy drinking. You know liquor is quicker. But I also like the girls that are really into the music. You can always tell when people are real music lovers and they want to talk to you about it. I like when they're just curious about stuff, curiosity is good for people. There's nothing worse then people that don't listen or that don't seem curious.

I've heard a rumor that you're going to be heading down to New Zealand?

You hear a lot of rumors don't you Mr. Joe! Yes, the D is going to be playing in New Zealand and Australia late, late in the year. To those psycho fans that want to come out, I think we're playing the 27th in Wellington, the 28th in Auckland, the 30th in Sydney, and the 31st in Melbourne.

How did that come about?

Well Jack's been down there filming and I was kicking around the idea of visiting just for ducks. I wanted to stop by the set of King Kong and see why that big hairy ape is wreaking havoc. Then we started talking and thought that as long as we're down there we might as well play some gigs. I think they're gonna go nuts down there. We played a couple gigs down there a while back and they went really well, but we never really hit that maw-ket. I think it might send a shockwave through the outback. I think the aborigines might stop their walkabouts and come, it might cause the barrier reef to explode... and you can quote me on that.
Do you remember the first D tour?

The first show we played out of town was San Francisco. It was very exciting. I remember the fans just came out.   It was like we were already kind of big stars. But then at the beginning of the show our guitars wouldn't work for like 20 minutes. It was so hellish because we had all these people going crazy for the show and we couldn't get it together. But we eventually did and in the end we played extra hard and of course they loved it. I don't know if that was an actual tour or not. I remember the first tour proper on the bus. It's so funny traveling with that few people on such a huge bus, just Jack and me, a tour manager and a guitar guy. It was kind of lonely on there. All the guys were playing video games in the back and I'd just be in the front watching playboy channel all night.

There was an interview a while back where Jack was saying the D movie was going to be his last hoorah with rock. It was pretty vague, but was that implying the end of the D?

Here's the deal Joe, the D movie is gonna be so huge, and so explosive, and so funny, that it's gonna be life changing for a lot of people. It just doesn't make sense to do another one after that, accept for the money. It seems like only once in an eon does something like the D come along, and you can't overexpose it. You can't compromise it, you can't dilute it if you will. You have to keep it as pure as possible. It's so great that sometimes I can't even believe I'm in it. And then I say "well does that mean I'm great?" And I go "yes!" Even though when you're sitting around the house in your boxers you don't really feel that great. But yeah, the D has to come to an end at some point, but we have a lot of work to do. There's a lot of funny left. Then it'll just be left for historians to plow through the old tapes trying to find out why.....WHY!?!?

Have you ever thought about doing a combo Trainwreck/Tenacious D tour?

I have thought about it… for about two seconds. Jesus that sounds like so much work. But we did do it one time at the Derby. I had a girl that I liked come, and man I think I blew her mind. She was like "wow you're this guy and now you're that guy!" Actually that was Sally, God love her. Things didn't work out, but Sally if you're out there and reading the website, maybe there's still hope.

If you could tour with any band past or present, who would it be?

I would say… wait, are we openers?

Opener or closer, your call.

I would say the Beatles just because I'd want to hang with them and stuff. The crowd could care less about us I'm sure, but I'd just like to hang, you know. Lets see (pauses) No. I wouldn't want to tour with anyone else really. It's pretty hard opening I have to tell you. I usually try to ignore the openers we have as much as possible. Cause once you start getting in their kitchen, they're gonna want to be hanging on the bus, and they're gonna be getting friends with you, and it's gonna get complicated, it's trouble.

This is a question I keep getting from the fans, particularly the Canadian fans: is the Wreck planning on touring outside the country any time soon?

Well I'm excited that people outside of the borders are interested. I would like to tour Canada. We'll try to do that next summer. It's just at the moment we don't really have the money. Right now we're good cause we can leave in the RV, but even then it's a financial strain. So as soon as we get the money we'll tour the entire world. That's up to you people: you have to start buying records and telling other people to do the same! Thank you. But that would be fun though, I would love to go to Europe, though it's hard when people don't know who you are. So maybe we need to get a hit on the radio.   What do you think would be the first single Joe?

It's always changing for me, but right now I'm totally hooked on Caveman.

Caveman… just the other day I couldn't get it out of my head. But quite frankly I haven't heard anything quite like our stuff on the radio. Radio could use a shot in the arm, but if we tried to write something to go on the radio what would that sound like? I wouldn't even know where to start.

What are you listening to these days?

I've been listening to some Neil Young and Billie Holiday. I've been listening to a lot of Jazz lately. The whole sort of Coltrainey Miles-Davisey, stuff like that. Right now in my car CD player I have a compilation of radio hits and a CD of Tony Robbins. I listen to it for inspiration. So for all the people who wonder where it comes from: it comes from Tony. You've gotta awaken the inner beast, awaken the giant within!

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I'm kind of a political junky. I watch Hardball with Chris Mathews religiously. I also spend a lot of time just sitting and thinking, but I don't know if that's really healthy. Some people call that stewing, but I just say I'm thinking up my next masterpiece.

Now you've been pretty politically involved in this election, how do you feel about musicians crossing the line and getting into politics?

I just don't think there's a line that's being crossed. I mean that's just our job. It's the American way, everyone should stand up and be counted. The more involvement the better. I think you can cross the line if it's an inappropriate venue, like using the Oscars or something like that, but then again if there's a war that's wrong and people are dying, it's sometimes like hey, you know wake up people, and use whatever venue is possible. Stuff like that really can be life or death. You've really got to use any pulpit that you got. For those people that are afraid to lose record sales, I don't really respect that much.

You guys recently played Los Angeles on the same night as a real train wreck struck the city. Have you guys ever worried that if there were some kind of train-catastrophe your name could become "insensitive"?

I was afraid we might have caused that accident. There was such a frantic energy about that show, who knows? Who knows what happened? But no Joe, we cannot take credit or blame for any natural disasters.   We're not that powerful… yet. Are we afraid people will confuse Trainwreck with the actual? I think people are smarter than that Joe. We are of course the metaphorical Trainwreck, a Trainwreck of genres. We don't condone or endorse any actual train wreck. In fact, we hope all the trains are running safely.

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