Bowling For Soup - Interview
noize caught up with one forth of pop-punk jokers Bowling For Soup, bassist Erik Chandler pre Bristol gig for a chin-wag about High School, late night shenanigans on tour, pissed off celebrities, and the real secret to success.
noize: It's my birthday today
Erik: Ohh wow happy birthday
noize: Yeah I feel well old though.. 19 is the new 30 ( laughs)
Erik: Really (laughs), Just wait till you hit 30 it's a ... special time!
noize: (laughs) not looking forward to that either
noize: Moving swiftly on, How does it feel to be back in the UK?
Erik: Always always a wonderful time the fans over here are a special bread of music fans
noize: ahh you charmer
Erik: It's always really really nice to get back over here but I have to say that we do miss home quite allot,
noize: Must be tough though being on the road?
Erik: It is, but you know it's give and take and we always have a blast anyways.
noize: Best tour date from Bristol?, (obviously apart from Bristol that's going to be tonight)
Erik: Ohhhhhhh actually that's kinda tough, all shows have been really really good I can't say that one stands out, though I would say our show in London as far as entertaining ourselves on stage was probably the best one, for us but, I can't say that any of them have been bad so.. yeah
noize: You guys in Bowling Four Soup are pretty laid back chaps, you don't seem to take yourselves too seriously
Erik: (laughs) We try not to
noize: So all you videos all seem to have a comedic tone to them, but how were you school days by the way because I've noticed that High School is a very re-occurring theme?
Erik: Mine personally were not so great, I was a bit picked on in school, but you know, high school is torture.. basically
noize: We'll your having the last laugh now
Erik: (laughs) Yeah I mean I went to school in a very very small town, and I was one of the few people in the school that was a musician and that's all I cared to be and waned to be and that didn't go over too well when your in a group of people that are growing up to be farmers and ranchers.
noize: (laughs) well your in Somerset now...
Erik:( laughs) Yeah
noize: We don't have Prom over here but in the video 'High school Never Ends' did you have fun making it?
Erik: Ohh it was a blast! That video's actually one of the best times we ever had making a video absolutely.
noize: 'Girl all the bad guys want' is still one of the main standout tracks did you guys think it would be such a hit?
Erik: That one ummm..( Pauses for a min) can I say yes?
noize: Absolutely there's no wrong or right answer...
Erik: The first time that I heard that It was like yeah ok this is kinda the.. at that point the essential Bowling For Soup sound
noize: Yeah It's a classic
Erik: I still love to hear that song
noize: Going to be playing it tonight?
Erik: We actually never use a set list
noize: Do you not?
Erik: Yeah we never use a setlist.. but I can pretty much say yes.
noize: Wicked, because last time you were in Bristol on the 'Get Happy Tour' you did crazy stuff on stage like swapping guitars with random people, any crazy stuff planned for tonight?
Erik: That was a funny time especially one we did, It was on Ohio, we stopped in the middle we had Army Of Freshman come out and switched instruments with them and then finished the song, we haven't got anything like that for tonight but a laid back, straightforward, rock show!
noize: What bands are you guys listening to at the moment on the road?
Erik: Ummm lots of Elvis Costello, The Replacements, though you may be a little young to really know them
noize: Nahh I know them, any new bands that you think could be potentially great?
Or actually who could be the next Bowling for soup?
Erik: (laughs out loud!) We'll shit I couldn't say, I don't think there's a next Bowling For Soup
noize: And we wouldn't want it any other way
Erik: But as far as new bands, big fan of the Fratellis , I love those guys, there a bit younger than us but you can kinda tell maybe, and I hate to say this being recorded but I think I can tell that maybe as they were growing up that their parents offered them some really great music to listen to and so the style they have is absolutely amazing, maybe they found the music on their own, but yeah I really really like their music.
noize: What's been the best tour story to date?
Erik: The very very first 'Get Happy Tour', we were on, American Hi-Fi were on the road with us... Who have a new album coming out very soon!
noize: ( laughs) Ahh crafty quick album plug there.
Erik: That we had nothing to do with but I'm looking very forward to hearing it, I've heard a couple of tracks it's great!
But yeah in the States and one night.. well they always went to bed earlier than we did and so one night we ran up onto their bus nice and loaded at the end of the night and just woke everyone up, jumping on their bunks, so they laid low for a few days and then three maybe four days later after we were all asleep, passed out and this was like 4 clock 5 clock in the morning, they unloaded their trailer and managed to get all of their gear into the front of our bus, as well as setting up a merchandise booth selling t-shirts! they even went as far as set lists, and played a set in our bus!
noize: ( laughs) Ahh that's Awesome!
Erik: With the singer not having a PA but he walked up and down the hallway where we all slept just singing the lyrics, so I woke up to 'Radio, Radio'- Elvis Costello
noize: No shaving the eyebrows off and whipped cream incidents then?
Erik: ( laughs) Well we do do that as well but that's kinda been done a lot and I just couldn't believe that they set up a gig in our tour bus
noize: That's Effort! You must like sleep really heavily to not hear like a whole band (laughs)
Erik: There were lots of doors, and we weren't really sleeping to be honest more passed out, and I can't remember who it was at this point but they had someone hop on the bus and make sure we were all nice and out before they set up.
noize: Your doing loads of festivals in the UK at the moment, are you excited about all of this?
Erik: We really are, because these festivals that were doing now it's the first time we've ever done these particular festivals and the ones we've done before have been more towards the Rock side, and I guess these are more the pop type,
noize: Yeah you've got T in the Park coming up haven't you and did Wireless on the 6th July?
Erik: It was amazing, and when we first got the offer for the first festival our people that handle us over here, were like 'ohh no you don't wanna do that it's a Pop festival' but its like why wouldn't we
noize: Definitely, it's getting you music heard by a more diverse crowd.
Erik: Yeah go give it a try and after we accepted that one the other ones popped up
noize: Yeah a wider audience
Erik: Absolutely, it's great because were getting to play in front of people who we may have never played in front of before and its going to be better for us, all the shows we've played so far have been really really nice.
noize: That's good to hear, with your army of fans and lasting career, what's the Bowling for soup, secret to success?
Erik: Being ourselves, we have the Bowling For Soup formula and we stay with that and a big part of that is to not take yourself too seriously and play songs that we would like to hear if we weren't the ones writing and just having a good time doing what you do, I think is the biggest secret. There's so many people around that are these 'torture' artists.
noize: You guys take the piss out of loads of celebrities in your videos have any of them ever gotten angry?
Erik: Only Fred Durst
noize: Really?
Erik: Yeah he's the only one we heard a little bit back from
noize: Ohh what did he say?
Erik: Only that he wasn't happy that we had Slipknot kill him, but it's like we didn't actually kill him
noize: Geeze it's only a video he shouldn't take it so seriously
Erik: Yeah totally
noize: One of you Live DVD's has just come out a few days ago, 'Bowling For Soup: Live and Attractive', it's a wicked name but.. I haven't actually seen it yet so sell it to me in a few words?
Erik: You know what as a member of a band having played all the shows we've ever played I've never really got to see our band play and for me it was a real treat to watch that for the very first time,
because it's like you know what I would actually go watch that, I would actually pay money to go see that show. so it was really really cool, because were having fun on stage but you don't know how well that translates out front, we hope that it translates good out front but to be able to see that for the very first time was awesome.
noize: So in four words how amazing is it?
Really Very Fucking Amazing!
noize:(laughs) What's next for Bowling For Soup then?
Erik: Were working on a new album right now just started the song writing process, we've just had to sit down today and all four of us and going to get together maybe next week and start getting into it, we've just built a new rehearsal space at home and so we're going to be getting in there and get it all worked out, and we've booked the studio time for November, so hopefully recording November we'll be releasing in March
noize: Any more tours in the pipeline?
Erik: Not right now, the biggest concern is doing the album and then we'll get back on the road next year after we get this writing/ recording process sorted out.
noize: Well were looking forward to hearing it hopefully catch you on the road then, Thanks for your time and have a good show!
Erik: Pleasure, nice meeting you.
Interview by Jo Bristowe
Click here to read more Bowling For Soup related news, reviews & interviews!
Buy Bowling For Soup CDs & Vinyl
Buy Bowling For Soup MP3s
Buy Bowling For Soup Tickets
Buy Bowling For Soup Merch
