J Church (interviewed April - May 2001) photo courtesy of Fat Wreck Chords

Give Me That (GMT): When you guys tour to other countries do you borrow amps and a drum kit or do you haul your stuff over there?

Lance (L): We take what we can, I usually take the head of my amp and we bring a bunch of guitars. Our drummer brings cymbals, kick and snare. The rest of it we rent.

GMT: I recently read some interview to find out that J Church played The Reading Festival, could you fill us in on how that came about?

L: Yeah, people like us in England. (laughing) I don't know, we get help from weird places over there. Radio 1 likes us, Steve Lamecq and John Peel help us quite a bit. We just got asked to play it, I don't know how that came about. They just asked us, I guess we could play it again if we wanted to as we went down really well. It's odd, we played opposite Bush and kicked their ass!

GMT: J Church has gone through some members, mainly drummers. Have any of the former members gone onto other bands?

L: Well, not really. I mean, nothing that really lasted. We've had drummers that were in other bands before and during (Jawbreaker, Snuff, Propagandhi, A Minor Forest) but not really afterwards.

GMT: I've seen the members of Cringer on different instruments with different releases, what exactly is the transition that you went through? I think I saw one release where you were playing drums.

L: The first three years of the band weren't really too serious, so it was no big deal for me to play drums a little here and there. No one was really noticing what we were doing. I only sing on one song on the first record. The band didn't get really serious until around '88 or so, that's when I just stuck to guitar and singing.

GMT: Both Cringer and Monsula did "Cottleston Pie", whose idea was it first?

L: We had done the song even before Monsula had started. We were pretty close with them and had played with them dozens of times. As a joke, we started covering their song "Razors", to get us back they learned "Cottleston Pie".

GMT: Did anybody from Monsula go onto any other bands?

L: Jason, who was playing second guitar in the band at the same time that I was in the band is now playing second guitar with Green Day. He and Bill also are in Pinhead Gunpowder, those two guys are really great, really underrated musicians.

GMT: I never knew you were in Monsula, could you tell us a little bit about that?

L: They had some sort of problem in the middle of one of their tours. They called me up and asked if I wanted to finish the tour. So I flew out and met them in Denver, learned all the songs in a day and finished the tour. I stuck with the band for another tour and for the recording of the third and un-released album, I don't know if the vocals ever got finished on it. There was some cool stuff on it but who knows? I remember there being a cover of "Melt With You", I also remember them being really into Helmet's Meantime, so maybe it wasn't such a good record. I haven't heard it in years.

GMT: I remember you played at the Coffman here in Minneapolis around the fall of 1997. Some things went wrong and you ended up playing in the Great Hall rather then The Whole. You apologized quite a few times which I thought was unnecessary but very cordial, still there were some young Punk kids complaining and getting all pissed off about it. Does this kind of shit get under your skin or by now have you learned to brush it off as part of another days work?

L: Nah, especially when I remember what I was like as a 15 year old Punker kid. I was pretty convinced that I had it right and the rest of the world that didn't agree with me was fucked. I was taking lyrics by Crass and Flux a little to literally. I was your basic earnest Punk kid in less than righteous times (we had Reagan and shit back then). I know what I'm doing, so I don't get too affected by criticism from the youth. Besides, that show ended up having to be at that hall with the amount of people who turned up, not surprising considering the gig was also with D4 and The Strike.

GMT: I said that show at the Coffman was fall of 1997 but I think it might've actually been fall of 1996. I heard that a few months after that event you guys came back to Minneapolis but didn't play any venues just an instore at Extreme Noise. Did it happen that way or did I get some wrong information? Seems like a long ride for just an instore performance.

L: Yeah, we just did the one in-store. We really haven't had the time since. We toured for six months in '97 after Drama Of Alienation came out, that's when we did the show on campus as well as the instore. I think we were on our way to Canada or something and that's how we got the gig.

GMT: Do you live off J Church and Honey Bear Records or do you pick up temporary jobs in between tours?

L: I'm lucky and usually don't have to work, it really depends on how much down time there is. The record label? No, I don't really make any money off of the label. In fact, I've lost thousands over the years, it's really a labor of love, you have to be pretty lucky to have a record label that actually makes money. Any money is from the band or from the songs I write for the band.

GMT: When you wrote "Sleep" was that your "Story Of My Life" (Social Distortion) during that time of your life?

L: Oh yeah. That's when we had the top floor of a run down building in a shitty part of the Mission, us and Jawbreaker. It was on a street called Sycamore that everyone used to call Psycho-more. Junkies lived downstairs from us and tried to kick our door down once. It's the same place that "West Bay Invitational" by Jawbreaker is about.

GMT: What made you throw in the Smiths line (I drank one and it turned to four) for "Racked"?

L: I love the Smiths and I love that they stole a lot of their lyrics from other places, so it's a tribute in more ways than one. Have you ever seen the movie A Taste Of Honey?

GMT: No

L: It's an old British film, see how many song lyrics you can get out of that.

GMT: Talking of "Racked" you've got songs dealing with hangovers so what's your remedy for the day after a wild party?

L: Drink a hell of a lot of water the night before and stay out of the sun.

GMT: How did you hook up with the guys from Giant Robot? Your name has been mentioned in quite a few issues.

L: We were mutual fans of each other for a little while and met up at one of our gigs down in LA. That was probably back in '94 or something. Martin and Eric have been two of my closest friends and allies since. We always stay with Martin in LA and I feel like we are very, very connected to that magazine on every level.

GMT: I remember J Church had a letter which was apologizing for breaking someone's gate. What was that all about, it sounded kind of funny?

L: Yeah, we were staying at Martin's house and while we were leaving, we had left the front gate open for a little while. Some little kid just happened by on a bike and smashed right into it. He got up, held back a tear, and kept on going. It was funny and surreal at the same time.

GMT: I think a lot of people know about your song "Faye Wong" off Nostalgic For Nothing but you also have a different version on Cat Food. What's with the obsession? Have you ever met Faye Wong or any other Cantopop star?

L: The other version is actually on Altamont '99 and not Nostalgic. We just had a chance to do a better recording of it for Cat Food. She's great! Have you heard any of her stuff or seen any of her videos? I like Karen Mok a lot too but Faye Wong is pretty special.

GMT: I haven't seen any videos but I have seen her (Faye Wong) in Chung King Express. Is that her singing the Cranberries' song during the final credits?

L: Yeah, I love that. There's a version of that song on the soundtrack too. Really great stuff!

GMT: The song "Sword" is credited as a Hypo Depression song, is that one of your older bands? Lyrically it seems like something you might write.

L: Yeah, Hypo Depression was a Goth band that I was in for a while. We were actually together at the same time as Cringer. It was just a chance for me to do something different. I dig a lot of that stuff, we were sort of in the Alien Sex Fiend sort of vein. That song never really fit in well with our set, as you can imagine. It was written by our bass player and though it didn't really work in the Goth band, it seemed fine for Cringer. I think it's the best thing on the first record.

GMT: A lot of your songs dealing with Hawaii tend to be negative, did you enjoy growing up there or would you have preferred to grow up in the mainland USA?

L: I definitely felt like an outsider a lot of the times in Hawaii. When I got into Punk (1980-ish) it was a real problem to look that way, I got hassled a lot. It's not as acceptable as it is now, so growing up in Nanakuli was pretty fucking alienating. Having said that, I really, really didn't relate to the punk scene at the time, it was all rich military brats. I was in Nanakuli and they were all in Kahala and Hawaii Kai and Aina Haina. I really hate those fucking areas and most of the people living there, so I couldn't really deal with that Punk scene either. That's probably why I started writing to so many bands and fanzines, I had made quite a few connections before I moved to the mainland. I was already writing for Maximum Rock N Roll in 1983 or so when I was still in school. I also really couldn't deal with the school that I went to, I went to Kamehameha and that was tough. I was told I was a brain my whole life and I sort of was when I was in Private School. I was a smart kid, I feel like that was really ignored at Kamehameha and I felt deterred from learning. I don't want to assume anything but I think it was because of where I was from. There's something really "white" about Kamehameha despite the part Hawaiian policy. Something in the attitude, I feel like you got no respect if you were from Nanas or Waianae. But that was a valuable lesson, never trust the power structure. Their decisions are often wrong, when there's mistakes involving your life, you have no choice but to take it personally... But I Am proud to be part Hawaiian, I think Hawaii is beautiful and it kills me whenever I go back and see how much more development has happened. I wrote a song called "Back To Hawaii" about how I could never go back home. It was inspired when I found out that a year after I left, they had replaced the corner store that I used to go to with a Circle K. Besides, I was a revolutionary anarchist and sometimes communist, I was fighting the military and got close to being killed a few times. I also was a very early believer in sovereignty, I remember when I was coming home from school and someone had spray painted "Nation Of Hawaii" on a car. That vivid image was very cathartic for me... Just like remembering the Protect Kahoolawe Ohana.

GMT: J Church tends to mix songs from all the different releases in their live set. Do you enjoy playing the old songs or do you feel pressured to play them?

L: I like some of the old songs, I like about a third of the old stuff. Even the stuff I'm really tired of I can get into if the crowd is into it.

GMT: On The Precession of Simulacra . The Map Proceeds The Territory you have a live version of "Simple Lessons" that's said to be from your 3rd show. Is this the only version of this song or had it been previously released on something else?

L: Yeah, there were quite a few songs that never made it to recording from those first few gigs: "Stupid Lessons", "The Titanic Sails At Midnight", "Your Annoying Boyfriend", "Hate", "Back To Hawaii"... I had forgotten about those songs when Mike Millett from Songs for Emma gave me a tape of one of our early gigs. I actually quite like a lot of those songs and I'm not totally sure why we never recorded them. They're all along the lines of the Camels, Spilled Corona stuff.

GMT: Another Hawaii question, you do some experimentation on some of your releases as hidden tracks or stuff like that. Have you ever thought of using the Hawaiian steel guitar sound in one of your songs?

L: I actually have snuck in a little slack key tuning and slide work here and there. Check out "Earthquake Song" from the "Asshole" 7", "Tea Time" on the Jade Tree CD or "Harvest" on the "Leni Reifenstahl" 7".

GMT: I don't remember a song called "Tea Time" on the Jade Tree CD. Are you talking about the hidden track?

L: Yeah, it's the title of the hidden track.

GMT: You seem to name drop Husker Du a lot but you didn't mention any albums in your website. What is your favorite Husker Du album?

L: New Day Rising is probably my favorite record as it definitely has some of my favorite songs ("I Apologize", "Terms Of Psychic Warfare", etc.) but Zen Arcade runs a very close second. In fact, I like them so closely that if you asked me on another day, I just might have to answer the other way around.

GMT: What exactly is your project called Cilantro? How many releases do you have?

L: It's just my home recording project. I've got one single out with two more on the way, maybe an album. It's just weird acoustic stuff and experimental stuff. It's different, I dig it.

GMT: You seem to enjoy food, you talk about it a lot in your newsletter and in Giant Robot. Now that you've moved from San Francisco to Austin, TX. I'm sure you've had to substitute on some of the easy access Asian food so what have you been consuming in the land of the cowboy?

L: Actually, there's a huge Asian population here so it's really no problem. There are great Chinese and Korean super markets as well, and let's face it, this is Austin, this isn't NORMAL Texas. It's a little liberal enclave, it's like a tiny San Francisco with shitty weather. There's a lot of veggie stuff here, the only difference is that everything is a lot cheaper.

GMT: What are some bands down in Austin that you've come to like?

L: I like all the stuff on Peek A Boo Records. You know, Kiss Offs and all that stuff, Silver Scooter... I really love Spoon, I've always been a fan. Trail Of Dead are great as well, I knew one of those guys from back when he was in the Mukilteo Fairies.

GMT: I really enjoyed the female backing vocals on some of the songs from Cat Food and on One Mississippi, could you inform us on these talented female friends of yours?

L: The girl that sings on Cat Food is Harriet Scott. She is a British jazz singer who has also done work with different Trip Hop groups, folks from the Sneaker Pimps and that sort of thing. She's amazing and we may be doing a record as her back up band. Kelly Green is the singer on One Mississippi, she is great. She was in a band called Pee, who we toured the states with once, and Cockpit. She didn't sing in Cockpit but they were great too.

GMT: I read somewhere that you said that One Mississppi to you is four 7" records put together, I can sort of see what you mean but could you fill us in?

L: Well, each side is it's own identity. I think the record is meant to be listened to at four different sittings, that was the intention. Anyway Side 1 is sort of the "commercial" side, if you will. It's an accumulation of all the songs that are the most immediate and typical of what people expect from the band. The second side is the "relationships" side, I tried to quarantine all the songs about that on side 2. Side 3 is all about structure vs. arrangement. Side 4 is my favorite side as we were free to do whatever we wanted there.

Ten Quick Ones 

1. Soccer or Football? 

Soccer. But fuck ManUnited!!!

2. Birds or Fish?

 Fish are quieter. Nothing against birds. But I can live easier with fish.

3. Tom Petty & The Heart Breakers or Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band?

Ooh, I love 'em both but I'll have to go with the Boss in the end if only for "Nebraska".

4. Ramen noodles or Udon noodles?

Udon, though I prefer cold soba the most.

5. Jennifer Love Hewitt or Sarah Michelle Gellar?

I'm all about Buffy! I love that show! I'm starting to watch Angel too as I love Dru. Last great TV moment for me was their High School prom from a couple years ago.

6. Beer or Wine?

I like 'em both but I have a hard time getting drunk off of beer. I just wind up feeling bloated unless I'm in Europe.

7. Dave Letterman or Jay Leno?

How about Conan! I don't really watch the other two.

8. Colgate or Crest?

Whatever is on sale. Actually, I'm usually happy with Safeway Select or whatever it's called.

9. Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck?

C'mon, Bugs, of course.

10. Guava or Mango?

I prefer mango but only if it's perfectly ripe. Nothing worse than a tart mango. But in juice form, I love my guava juice.

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