(This interview was done with Kevin Gunther, who plays the trumpet and sings. It was at a show on April 13, 2001 at the University of Hartford, in CT.)
Josh Nacho: What do you do with other bands that have your name, cause there seems to be a lot of them?
Kevin: Pretty much the other bands that have the name Catch 22, it seems that we're a lot bigger than them, so it doesn't really effect us too much. I would imagine that it effects them. We have had a couple times where it's like, "You were supposed to play in Syracuse, I saw the Catch 22 flyer but you didn't show up and some lame country band was playing"... The thing is, if there was another Catch 22 ska/punk band or even a punk rock band or a hardcore band, it would probably be more of an issue. But the other bands... There's a cover band from California. They play top 40 alternative rock kind of stuff, and covers. They play at Disneyland all the time. That's probably the biggest band that has the name Catch 22. The others, there's an old metal band from Canada and most of them are broken up. The only band that's currently active is that one band from California and kids went on their message board- and I felt kind of bad about it- and totally slaughtered those guys. Like, "You guys fucking suck, change your name". And they actually posted something on there like, "Instead of wasting your negative energy telling us how much we suck you should use your positive energy to go promote the other Catch 22 band". It was pretty funny. But, it really doesn't seem like it's much of an issue yet. As long as they leave us alone, we'll leave them alone. I guess it's a race to see who blows up first.
J.N.: Do you guys have the name copyrighted?
Kevin: Nobody does. I think somebody has the name copywritten, but it's not for a band, it's for a business. It's kind of the same thing. It's a surf shop in California that has the name Catch 22. We have our corporation name, is called Catch 22 Incorporated, but we don't have the name trademarked or anything like that. Oh well.
J.N.: You mentioned one of the other bands was from California... The new album, California seems to come up a lot... "San Fransisco Payphone"...
Kevin: I think because our singer was kind of obsessed... That was his dream when he was younger, to move out to California with his friends to start a reggae kind of like punk band, like Sublime. He really digs that whole vibe. That whole Long Beach dub, that whole scene that they got. He thinks that's pretty cool, and when he was younger he always wanted to do that. He wanted to move out to California and start a band, on the beach. So I think that's where it came from. Some of it was coincidental, and some of it was like, the one story they say the two punk rock kids that kill the father and move to California, that's purely a story. But, it was just natural to move to California because we're just assuming that the story takes place here, because that's where we are. Some of it were coincidences- as far as that goes- some of it was natural, some of it was just his obsession with wanting to live in California.
J.N.: Ok. So you guys aren't relocating to California?
Kevin: No, not us. He might.
J.N.: But as a band, you're not moving from Jersey to California?
Kevin: Hell no.
J.N.: Ok, good.
Kevin: California sucks, I hate it. It's my least favorite state out of the 48 continental United States, I don't like California at all.
J.N.: Inbetween "Keasby Nights" and "Alone in a Crowd", you put out an EP called "Washed Up". Now everybody who reviewed that CD was just like, "Yeah, this is called 'Washed Up', and yeah, they are".
Kevin: It was just like... We regret doing that CD, for a couple reasons. The two new songs that were on that were ok songs, but they weren't good enough to stand on their on. In a record, they would have just fit in as the songs like "Supernothing". I don't know how familiar you are with the band, but like, "Keasby Nights", are you pretty familiar with that?
J.N.: Yeah.
Kevin: On that record, not every song is great. There are songs like, "This One Goes Out To...", "Supernothing" and "Riding the Fourth Wave".
J.N.: "Supernothing" is an awesome song.
Kevin: Some people do like "Supernothing", but it's not a musical work of art to say the least. But I think those two songs- "Leaving" and "Hard to Impress"- were songs that didn't really stand well on their own, for a couple of reasons. It's funny, "Hard to Impress", in America, it does not get a good response. Some kids like it, there are people that like it. But, in Canada, it's our biggest song. That's what people want to hear. I don't know why. We did make a video of it, apparently the video got played up there, so that's pretty much why. But that would be the only reason I could think of. For some reason, they love "Hard to Impress". And then like, "American Pie" is stupid. It's the second time we recorded it, we recorded it a long time ago. It was just a dumb little thing we did. A lot of people asked us to record it, so we did. We figured what the hell. And the other song was just a joke, obivously. People actually thought we were serious. I don't know what that was about. It was just a mistake, because people don't like EPs for the most part. They have to be very, very gimmicky in order for them to like it. NOFX did that one EP where it was one song throughout the whole thing, it was a fifteen minute song. That's gimmicky enough. It's pretty cool people dig that. Plus, it's NOFX, I don't think they can do any wrong by most of the people. But, "Washed Up" was not a good idea for us. It was terrible for our self esteem, because we put that record out, and there were people that liked it, but there were a lot of people that didn't like it. The reviews were awful. They were terrible. They were God awful. And it sucked because it made us feel shitty and like we even didn't wanna be in the band any more, because people thought we sucked. But then we worked our asses off, we put out "Alone in a Crowd" and that's gotten a much better response. A lot of people know us from "Alone in a Crowd". Most of our fans are kids that know "Alone in a Crowd", just because we've gotten a lot bigger since we've done that record.
J.N.: Yeah, but with "Washed Up", it just seemed like people called you washed up, and it was like, "Yeah, take the cheap shot, it's so obvious".
Kevin: Kids are brutal. They are, it sucks. It's hard some times. That's the only way to describe it, they're fucking hurtful and brutal and especially on the internet. If you hated me, it would probably be hard for you to say "You're a fucking asshole, I hate you and your music sucks". But if you're online and you really hated me, it wouldn't be that hard for you to type that email out and say "You suck, fuck you, your music sucks". I have a very hard time, even if I despise somebody, saying it to their face 'cause no matter how much you hate them they're still a human being. I don't know anybody who likes to hurt somebody's feelings. I personally don't, I hate that no matter what. So, I think that's where it comes from. People on the internet can say and do whatever they want. And they'll do it. The message boards, there's been nights... And it hasn't been like this in a year. Our band, when we changed from Thomas to Jeff, a lot of the kids grew up, I think that they didn't realize it, but as we were changing, they were growing out of ska punk and they were going for different styles of music. Or going to college and not listening to any type of music because a lot of times that's what happens. Part of it might have been personal preference. I'm not saying that everyone had to like what we were doing at that time. A lot of it had to do with the fact that they were growing up too, so when they grew up and we did something different, the younger kids kind of got into what we were doing at the time and they didn't judge us for what we had done already... And those other kids just disappeared. I wouldn't be surprised if half of the crowd is totally different. That's just the way it works with this style of music. I was joking the other day like, "I think I'll listen to punk rock when I'm 60", and I don't see why not. My dad is 47 and he still listens to rock and roll he listened to when he was 16, so why wouldn't I listen to punk rock when I was 50 years old? But I think that a lot of people grow out of it. And that had a lot to do with the fact that people were just totally shitty with the comments we got. That stopped a while ago though, and we're happy we kept going. We're a lot more confident now in what we're doing and I think we're at the point now where we're going to make a record and we have to like it. If anyone else likes it, then that's a bonus. That's an added plus. And hopefully everyone will. That's kind of the way we're feeling right now.
J.N.: Then you have the freaks like me who like "Keasby Nights", "Washed Up" and "Alone in a Crowd".
Kevin: See, that's the way I am with music. I was talking to Chris about it the other day. I'm a Green Day fan, just for example. We're all Green Day fans, but, I'm a Green Day fan and Green Day put out so many different records. The first two are pretty similar, the third one is a little more poppy and "Insomniac" was a lot heavier. Then they put out "Nimrod" and it was kind of inbetween. And this last one was just a total rock and roll album. And I appreciate it, just because I like the band Green Day. Of course I have my favorite records, but I take what they did on this record and I don't say "Oh, dude, Basketcase was so much better than this song".
J.N.: Yeah, it doesn't sound like the first one, but it's still good.
Kevin: It's awesome. Everything they do will always be good. And there are very few bands that I would be hard pressed to even think of one that I could say I don't like their second record as opposed to their first. I don't know if I'm easy to please. I think I'm a little harder to please, being that I'm a musician, I'm a little bit pickier. I like Face to Face, and I'm going to like whatever they do. Pennywise is one band that I will say I was a little disappointed with their newer material, but other than that, most bands come through in the clutch, I guess you could say.
J.N.: Now, you covered "American Pie", and then Madonna went and did it. Then you covered "Wreck of the Sloop John B", and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes went and did it.
Kevin: All I can say about that is I guess we have good ideas. Maybe we should take that as a compliment. What is it- imitation is the finest form of flattery? Obviously Madonna didn't imitate us. I think "American Pie" is stupid, but it's so much fun. People love it when we play it. It's so retarded, but they like it, so I don't know, we'll play it. I think we do believe that we're playing music that we love to play but at the same time we want people to enjoy it. If there's a song that we don't neccesarily love playing- we hate playing "Cristina", at one point we were so stubborn we're like, we're never playing that song, it sucks, we hate it. But then people started asking for it, so we're like, all right whatever, and we started playing it.
J.N.: Like "Supernothing"?
Kevin: Yeah, we do play that, if people ask us to, but we don't normally play it.
J.N.: Yeah, at the last show I saw you I asked you to play it and you were like, "I don't think we're going to play that tonight" but then a bunch of other people were asking for it, so you're like, "Ok, ok, we'll play it".
Kevin: Yeeaahhh!! What was that?
J.N.: That was last summer some time in Darien.
Kevin: But, that's the way it works usually. We never make set lists. We know that we're going to open with this song, and then go into this song, but after that it's just no holds barred, "What do you wanna hear?" and that's pretty cool. I guess we can do that too because we only have two records, well, two and a half, so we don't have too much stuff. Most of the time people wanna hear similar things. No one ever asks us to play "This One Goes Out To..."
J.N.: I'm going to ask for that now.
Kevin: That's one of the only songs that we can not play. I think that is the only song we can not play. We've never played it. We haven't played it in four years. Good thing that song sucks and nobody ever asks us for it.
J.N.: Tonight you're going to play "Bloomfield Avenue".
Kevin: Yes, we will play that.
J.N.: Do you know why?
Kevin: Why?
J.N.: Because we're on Bloomfield Avenue. It was so funny, I looked at the address and saw it was on Bloomfield Avenue and just started laughing.
Kevin: Yeah, we thought it was funny too. We were singing it as we were pulling up.
J.N.: Who did you play with during the live stuff at the end of the "Washed Up" EP?
Kevin: We were playing with Snapcase, and it was at a Chicago festival Victory Records put together. It was Snapcase headlining, then us, and then it was Grade and the Strike. The only reason that it worked was because we were about as big as Snapcase were in Chicago. But, it was weird because there were probably 800 people there, and like, 400 of them were die hard Catch 22, and the other 400 were die hard Snapcase- so it clashed. But it was still cool. There was one kid- of the 800 kids in the room, there's gotta be one fucking asshole that's gotta impress his two other friends- and I yelled at that kid. I was just fucking around though, he was fucking with me, so I was gonna fuck with him back. We weren't fighting or anything. I don't have a problem with that, if it's innocent enough. I have a really big problem with people throwing things. I have a really big problem with people trying to embaress the band. We're just kids, just like they are. We're only 21 years old. When you get up on stage we're vulnerable. We don't think we're the shit. We don't get up there and say we're better than you. We just get up on stage and play music, we're part of the show. If people don't respect that, I don't know why they're at the show to begin with. If you can't respect me being up on stage, then I can't respect you being there so get the fuck out. If you don't want to listen to me, and there's a definite possibility you came to see another band, watch quietly or go to the bathroom... Sit down, smoke your cigarette, make out with your girlfriend, do what you do. But you don't have to be mean and rude. I would never do that to somebody. And people throwing cigarettes, it's just fucking weird. I don't know how they learned to do that.
J.N.: Did you ever think about putting out a live CD?
Kevin: Some times, but I think live CDs are kind of cheesy. I do own a couple live CDs, and I enjoy them, but I don't know if it would work for Catch 22. We're not that tight live, but I think the reason why people like seeing us is because we have a very visual show. When people see us on stage, it's a little cooler 'cause there's so many people. I think it works a little more than the actual music does some times. But, we've thought about it. I think it would be really fun to put out a live show, but you gotta do it right. You have to have two shows, and you have to sell them both out because you need that energy. And that's kind of hard, because you have to be pretty big, like NOFX when they did their live CD they sold out two nights at a pretty decent sized club, and Face to Face did the same thing. It's definitely something we're definitely interested in doing, because I think it would be fun, but I don't know if it's in the cards quite yet.
(interuption by Jeff, who got lost)
J.N.: What do you think about the labels in music, like kids who just come up to you and are like, "You're a ska band, you suck".
Kevin: It's so frustrating. Most of the time, kids will label you positively. But the people who label you negatively are bands, booking agents, club owners and record labels. It's terrible. Especially now for us. As a ska punk band, it's so hard to get respect. Huge ska bands, won't tour with us because we have horns in our bands. They have horns too, but they don't want to tour with another ska band. It's like, I know you're huge now but if you want to keep doing this you've got to support the younger bands. A lot of deserving bands would be a lot bigger if people weren't so selfish. If people weren't so close minded. And I'm talking about bands, record labels, booking agents and club owners. We have a terrible time trying to get those people to respect us. The kids do, they come to the shows and have fun. I can't think of many shows where we've played where people came and didn't have a good time. If there's a hundred kids, if there's a thousand kids, people always walk out of our shows happy. I think that's pretty much the idea. You wanna go to a show to have a good time. If you spend $7, you have a good time.
J.N.: What CDs are you listening to right now?
Kevin: Dashboard Confessional is amazing. I love that kid, I think he's got guts to go up on stage and to do a CD by himself. What he's doing- he's so talented- and it just works so well. I love the newest Green Day record, "Warning", it's awesome. I think it was the best record that came out last year. They are so amazing. And I'd have to say Eminem because Eminem is just the shit. Actually, sorry Green Day, I have to say Eminem is the best record to come out last year, 'cause that record just blows me away. I love all that. I love hip hop, like Dr. Dre, Snoop, Ice Cube, Eminem, all that N.W.A. shit... 2Pac... That's my real passion right now. It sounds kind of funny coming from me- my passion is gangsta rap- from this corny white kid from the suburbs, but it's just something about what they're doing and the way they do things. I don't like all the violence- I think it's funny. If they're joking, and I think a lot of them are very tongue and cheek about the violence... I think it's all bullshit, except for 2Pac. Snoop is just hilarious. That, right now, for the last year and a half or two years has just been mainly what I listen to, especially Eminem. He is amazing. He says exactly what he feels, never pulls any punches, he never holds back. I've seen so many interviews with him where he says "How many of you wish you said what I said?", and it's true. He thinks Britney Spears is a slut, so he says it. Everyone thinks Britney Spears is a slut. I think she's a slut, but I don't really think she's a slut, I think that's just the way she acts, and that's the way she's portraying herself. She's half naked on t.v., that's what she wanted. She's using her sexuality for me to watch her and to buy her records, so you gotta take the consequences. That's just the way Eminem does it. We can't do that. A band like us, we can't go on a record and say this person's a fucking asshole, 'cause it wouldn't work. It would work against us. Of course, even if you're in a punk rock band, every band here probably thinks another band is assholes, but in interviews they'll be like, "Oh yeah, those guys are great". Eminem thinks you're an asshole, and you're an asshole, that's the way it is. I think that's cool, I like the brutal honesty.
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