james flanagan - saxophone/casio keyboard/vocals

(this interview was conducted in anya's dormroom at about 2 AM at the same time as anya's interview. jon, natalie and anya wrote the questions down in a notebook and james wrote the answers down underneath them.)

Jon Ziemba: How do you like being in Coughs?

James Flanagan: It's basically the only reason I'm alive now. I don't want to sound melodramatic but I think if I hadn't started doing music I'd be dead.

Natalie Speth: So you're saying Coughs is your reason for living. But I want to know: What drags you out of bed every morning?

JF: I can't get up in the morning, but if i do, it's guilt. Another thing that gets me up is having coffee and donuts.

JZ: What do you feel guilty about?

JF: Missing school. I'd always rather sleep than do anything. But there's so many obligations that I end up never sleeping. I like to stay up all night and sleep all day. So switching from being a drunk to doing Food Not Bombs and stuff has really fucked up my routine.

NS: Tell me, James, about the transition from a drunk to "being involved."

JF: Well, I used to just drink a lot and then wake up with a hangover once a week and go to Food Not Bombs. For one day a week I would feel really exhausted but good about myself. And more and more getting drunk was depressing and boring. So, I just stopped for a while and started doing FNB all the time. But it doesn't really work anymore, but I still do it because I feel obligated to.

JZ: So you feel obligated to get drunk?

JF: No. To do FNB.

NS: WHAT DO YOU SEE? ----> (Natalie smeared an ink blot on the paper)

JF: I see an expensive glass bong.

JZ: What is the first pivotal music experience that comes to your mind?

JF: The first one is when my parents would punish me by making me lay in my bed, and as I would go to sleep, they would play the White Album by the Beatles over and over again.
And when my Bon Jovi cassette came in the mail, and my Mom was playing it when I got in the car, and she said "It's this German band I just got - Don't they have great rhythm?" and I ignored the music. So, she told me it was my Bon Jovi cassette and I was really happy.

JZ: What is the most recent example?

JF: I think it was at the SouthKore show and I was watching this 350-pound guy with no shirt on spinning in place. And we started playing "Win" and Jon advanced on the guy with this frightening expression on his face - Jon's face was all scrunched-up, like something out of my nightmares. And the guy just stared him down and started putting his hand to his lips doing an indian call. It was beautiful.

NS: Has music ever creeped into your nightmares?

JF: The only thing I can think of is when I spent the night in jail. I was so scared that I couldn't sleep until about six in the morning, and when I finally fell asleep, I would hear these amazing grindcore songs about hating the police, but they were so good they would wake me up and it'd be like five minutes later.

JZ: Did you have any preconceptions about what you wanted to do musically before the whole Coughs thing started?

JF: I really wanted to do a free improv band something that was very unmusical and then I did acid for the first time and I watched an Einsturzende Neubauten video and I just wanted to be like them, to be really gorgeous and create insane music and live in a big empty warehouse, and I got to be really gorgeous.

Anya Destructo: Do you think I'm fat?? Seriously, do you?

JF: I think you're slim as a rail.

AD: You talk sometimes about being unsure about the future. Do you have a goal for the band?

JF: I want it all. Beautiful women, big cars, gold chains and a cabin in a house.
No, keeping this on a real tip, no band I have ever been in has ever gotten as far as having more than 5 gigs, and I'm not getting any younger so I would like a little recognition for my music, just have people remember that we existed and maybe inspired them.