As Interviewed by Mikey Disaster
Mikey Disaster: Alright, describe the Teen Idols and the who's who in the band.
Phillip: Ok, Teen Idols are kinda an aggressive, poppy-punk, street punk what ever you want to call it. Rockabilly. I don't know. We have a million different influences so it is kinda hard to put a label on it. But I'm Phillip and I play guitar, Heather plays bass, Keith sings and Matt plays drums.
(MD): Cool. I was just going to ask you who your main influences were.
(P): Our influences? Oh my god. Shit, I don't know. Like anything melodic and aggressive, man, ya know, like any thing from Little Richard to the Descendents to the Misfits. We have a wide spectrum of influences.
(MD): Very cool. You've have had lots of different members in your band.
(P): Yeah.
(MD):So that must have been hard.
(P): Oh yeah. We have had eleven different members in the band; I'm the only original one [in the band]. It seems like a set back, ya know, and I decided early on when the first line up kinda fell apart that I was gonna keep the band together and get new members because I was tired of starting over from scratch. I've been in other bands before, and every time somebody would quit we would leave the band, get a new name, start all over again and I was tired of doing that. We weren't getting anywhere. So I just decided to keep it going.
(MD): Yeah, you have recorded lots of singles and 7" with those different members and you have re-recorded some of those old songs, did you ever think if putting out a collection of all your original recordings?
(P): Not redone. Oh my god, I don't know. Probably not because that would be a lot of work and kinda expensive to do, so. Every once in a while, we will re-record an old song that we think we can do better or whatever. Like on our new record Pucker up we redid She's a Poser which came from an old 7". So sometimes we'll redo them but I don't think we'll put out a collection CD or anything. But we are repressing the old 7"'s that are out of print through the fan club.
(MD): So you will be putting out more than just Old Days, Old ways.
(P): Oh yeah. The next one is gonna be Nightmares with the bonus track from the Descendents tribute album that we were on.
(MD): Homage.
(P): Yeah, the song is called Comeage. So, we're gonna put that one on the end of it and repress that, as soon as we get some money to do it.(both laughing)
(MD): Ok, Do you think your music style and image might influence a punk into early rock n' roll or rockabilly or vise versa? Like turning a greaser to punk.
(P): Oh, I don't know. Wow! I think it kinda creates a curiosity where people like our music maybe they will check out some other stuff too and they might like that, you know. And it's all about trying to broaden the horizons of people, you know. I'm personally influenced by a lot of 50's music. So, that's cool. Some punks might not like that [50's music], but if they like us maybe they will check it out. Same with the rockabilly guys. They might check out some punk. So it's kinda cool.
(MD): Now, your probably sick of this, but give our readers a quick rundown of the whole Winston-Salem, N.C. Riot/fight.
(P): Oh my god!
(MD): Heard you were kickin' ass.
(P): Well, I don't like to brag.
(MD): Go ahead.
(laughing)
(P): Actually, a brief synapsis of what happened was that there were some rowdy, asshole, frat boys in the audience. One thing lead to another, we threw them out, after having confrontation with them in the audience. Threw 'em out. So they were pissed off and were waiting for us after the show to jump us outside, and we kicked the living shit out of them! Took two ambulances to take them away. We got thrown in jail, with a lot of bond money and bail money. Luckily Fat Mike [NOFX, Honest Don's Records owner] was with us and he fronted the cash, and we got out of jail. So we are paying he back slowly but surely.
(MD): I heard that Heather hit somebody in head with a beer bottle.
(P): Yeah, Heather hit a girl over the head with a beer bottle, basically put her in the hospital. We had to pay for that. I don't know. We kinda got out of that on a technicality. And the girl who got hit wanted to sue the band for 100,000 dollars, because she thought we were rock stars and were loaded or some shit like that. So they made up a bunch of lies about stuff we did that was total bullshit. So we bought an expensive lawyer and they chickened out they day they were supposed to testify under oath, they chickened out through the whole thing. Cause they did not want to get caught lying and go to jail themselves. So we'll never go there again!
(Laughing)
(MD): Sweet! How was your tour of Japan with Spread?
(P): Japan is awesome! Everybody in Japan is polite and so nice. The kids are so intense, man. You'll be playing, and they will cram 300 kids in a place that would hold 50 here. It's insane. They totally go nuts. But the weird thing is, as soon as you stop playing, like when a you finish a song, that brief amout of time between the two songs, normally here the kids would talk among themselves or throw shit or be like "Play another song!" or whatever . In Japan they will clap three times then everything is dead silent.
(MD): Wow!
(P): Like, you can hear a pin drop. Waiting on the next word that were gonna say. It's so weird man.
(MD): Must of freaked you out.
(P): It was at first. I was like "Oh my god, are we suckin? Do they hate us?" But then I realized that they were listening. They wanted to hear what we had to say. It was really weird. So respectful.
(MD): How was your last U.S. tour?
(P): Oh. With the Lillingtons? It was a lot of fun, man. Those guys are great!
(MD): Yeah, they are a rockin' band.
(P): They're fun bunch of guys to hang out with. Great time. Hopefully we'll play more shows with them.
(MD): Ok, last question. If you were me what question would you ask you?
(P): When was the last time I had a shower?(laughing)
(MD): Well?
(P): Well, I took a five second one, like, three days ago but the last real one was right before we left home in Nashville. We don't ever get hotel rooms, sometimes we stay at people's house but lately we been crusin' from every show. We all stink pretty bad.
(MD): Who cares?
(P): Oh well, it's punk rock.(laughing)
(MD): Alright. You got a statement or anything?
(P): Now I gotta get all deep.(laughing) Ok. Ah. Come out and support your local scene, cause if you guys aren't there when the bands come through, They're not comin' back.