buggin me about this interview. SO here it is and enjoy!
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Q: What is your name(s) and what part do you play in the band?
A: Jesse: lead volcals, Jason lead guitar/volcals, Tee Jay: Rhythm Guitar/vocals, Anthony: Bass/volcals Davis: drums/volcals
Q: How would you describe your music to some one who has never herd it?
A: Street punk/rock and roll. Some people have said a harder version of the clash. That's a bit flattering I guess.
Q: How did you get into punk/oi (or what ever you want to call it)?
A: At this point it's almost hard to remeber for most of us, but all of us at some point were exposed to punk, oi, hardcore, and the like, wether is was from skatebording with older kids in 6th or 7th grade or whatever. There used to be alot of house shows in Raleigh as well. Just kids and places you hang out with and come I guess. And as you know itjust goes from there.
Q: When did The Louts form? Who had the idea?
A: The Loutswere formed in late 1995. Anthony and Jesse formed the band while working together with and davis joined from another band shortly after. We've been through several line up changes over the years. The originals still in the band are Jesse, Antony, and Davis. Jason joined in 1999 and Tee Jay joined in 2001.
Q: What is the meaning of "The Louts".
A: A lout is basically English slang for hoolihan, drunkin trouble maker ecr. An "unsavory fellow" as one definition goes. It is many times used in contex with describing football hooligans and the like.
Q: What are some of The Louts influences?
A: A lot of early UK punk, oi ect. Cocksparrer, The Clash, The Business, blah, blah, blah, but you can probably figure those out though. So, indevidually they also include Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy cliff, Iron Maiden, The who, Guns and Roses, the Stones and many others but that's good enough. It's always hard for use to actully figure out influences as they come from so many diffrent places.
Q: Have you guys ever almost given up on music, due to diffrences or other band related problems?
A: None of us have ever wanted to give up on music. We've had our share of bust ups and frustrations with each other but thats's just the way it goes. As we said before we've had some line up changes and some members haven't worked out and we haven't worked out for some of them. But the line up is now so strong we love whatw ere doing. None of us could imagine not doing this.
Q: What do you attribute to your success as a band?
A: What success?!? Just kidding. We could answer that easier when we reach what we feel in our perfectionist minds is success. But we've accomplished wha we have at this point through hard work and the friendship we've developed as a group.
Q: Are you now writing any new material?
A: Yes. AT the moment we are preparing material for a full length that we plan on recording early this summer.
Q: Who write the majortiy of The Louts material?
A: We work best as a team so while one person might come up with a main riff or part, we all pick it apart and start throwing our two cents worth until we have a finished song. So we just try to see it as a group effort. That applies mostly to music. Jesse writes most of the lyrics with a few excepions. But we all get our say in on that as well. If he writes something we don't like we tell him it's rubbish. Same with the music. You have to pick out what is good and what is poor about certain ideas. And if the whole thing is crap then it's time to start over. The key is not to take it personally when we don't agree. No one is more important than each other.
Q: What bands do you like to play shows with?
A?: A few outstaning bands from NC that we used to play with quite a bit are Patriot, Disorderly Conduct, and Dirty Politicians. Thay have all since split up. We don't really have a favorite band to play with but we;ve enjoyed playing shows with Hudson Falcons, The Boils, and GC5 just to name a few.
Q:What do you think have been your best a worst show?
A: That's hard to answer. In the recent past (and memory) probably this punk fest we played in chapel hill. Jason had way too many beers and we had a good handful of equipment problems so I think we could all hardly wait to get out of there. But even that wasn't that bad. Again the best in the recent past was probably the last show we played at The Brewery in Raleigh. Huge crowd, solid performance, the othe rbands were great, overall just a great night. Right after that The Brewery closed it's doors for good. To play on of the last shows they had made it memorable as well. That stage has played host to Black Flag, Minor Threat, Bad Brains and many other bands for many years on tour up and down the east coast.
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