(This interview took place with Dennis and Kevin of the legendary band Ten Foot Pole outside Mass. Skate Co. on August )

Dennis:  So we’re starting off the interview with “Dennis is a bitter old guy who can’t stand the democracy and the consensus”.   From now on, we should run everything as a benevolent dictatorship.  That’s what I’ve determined.

Josh:  Even your band?

Dennis:  Yeah, ‘cause we always try to make it like a democracy and everyone always bitches and complains any way, and argues.   I always get accused of controlling everything, so I was like, shit, if I’m going to get accused of controlling everything, I might as well control everything!   “Here’s the deal... Here’s your job... You don’t do it, you don’t get paid!”.    So, we’ll see.  I’ll talk to the guys and see if they’ll let me do that.

Josh:  And they’ll come to the consensus of “no”.

Dennis:  Exactly.  You caught my irony. 

Josh:  I don’t want to sound rude or mean, but--

Dennis:  This is always a prelude to a great question (laughs)

Josh:  Well, I don’t want to take anything away from your band, I just feel like you’ve been dealt a rather shitty hand. 

Dennis:  Or we’ve been dealt a good hand depending on how you look at it. 

Josh:  I just think you’ve gone through some things no band should have to, even the whole thing with Epitaph. 

Dennis:  You mean the way they chopped our nuts off?

Josh:  Yeah.

Dennis:  That’s the thing, we all wanted to have kids and now we can’t.   And that’s a really fucked up situation.   I felt a lot better when I had testicles.   Epitaph didn’t really deal us a shitty hand, they helped us out a lot.  They suddenly changed their mind about whether they wanted us on their label or not- which surprised us- but it’s their label.  Ultimately, when it comes down to it, it’s Brett’s label, it’s his decision.   If he decides he doesn’t like your music or your band for any reason, it’s his label.   That’s the whole point of being an indie label- you get to do what you want.    There’s no point in us grumbling about it.  It’s his label, he can do what he wants.   Yeah, we felt rejected.   It sucks when someone says, “No, I don’t want you any more”.   If you like a girl and you go up to her and ask her to dance and she says “No, you’re fucking ugly”, it hurts.  On the other hand, it’s her perogative to say that.

Josh:  It just seems like, from what I heard, they weren’t happy with how well you were doing as far as CD sales and stuff, and I always thought you did rather well with that kind of stuff.  

Dennis:  I don’t think it had anything to do with that.  The CDs did pretty well, the sales did.    What I really think it was- and I don’t even know because they didn’t say for sure- was that Brett liked our old singer, Scott, and once we kicked him out, he kind of lost interest in the band.   And his business supported the band contractually and did everything they were supposed to do, but he wasn’t really into it as much because I think it was a very personal thing.   We knew at the time- when we kicked Scott out of the band- that there would be... That some of our audience would leave.   It’s just inevitable.  If you have a singer, and the singer is gone, some of the audience goes with it.   We just figured we’d get a new audience to make up for the ones that left.   And we have.  Unfortunately, he was one of the people in the audience that left.    But that’s just how I feel.   And I don’t regret that we kicked Scott out because we kind of had to or we wouldn’t even be a band right now.   At the time we made the decision to kick Scott out, he was playing baseball nine or ten months out of the year.   While he was out playing baseball, we were working to make the band happen, so then when he came home from baseball we could be a real band.    And at one point, the level of work got to be pretty high and in order to do this work and wait nine or ten months, we needed a commitment that when he got home we’d be able to play.   We wanted him to commit to eight weeks of touring a year, and he couldn’t commit to that.  And to us, that was just where we had to draw the line.   We weren’t going to be a band and do all the work of being a band and not have any of the fun.   I wasn’t mad at Scott for not doing it- he’s a professional baseball player, he’s got a lot going on.   On the other hand, I didn’t think he should have been mad at us for wanting to tour more than eight weeks a year.    Or to tour at least eight weeks a year.   That’s, basically, how it ended.  There was a falling out after that, Scott was mad.  I don’t agree that he should have been mad.  If I was in his position... I don’t know.   The guy’s making millions of dollars playing baseball, it’s rad.    And he’s got his own band.  When we kicked him out, we offered to be his back up band for his own project.     But, we’re stoked.  We’re on Victory Records.   Victory Records is strong, they really promote their bands.   And that’s all we’re looking for- is somebody to pay for the recording and get our records in stores.    That’s all we want from the label.   Hey, Kevin, come on over. 

(Obviously, Dennis sees Kevin and yells for him to come over and join in)

Dennis:   So, any way, sorry I just kind of took over the interview.

Kevin:  Is this place closed?

(Kevin wants in some pizza place in the plaza with Mass Skate Co.)

Dennis:  Looks like it. 

(Kevin is angered by no pizza)

Dennis:  This is Kevin [last name] the drummer from Philadelphia.

Kevin:  Yello.

Dennis:  Next question.

Josh:  There was actually a point after you parted ways with Epitaph when you were kind of shopping around for a label and I remember talking to Kathi at Victory and telling her they should sign you guys, and she said something like, “Yeah, they wouldn’t do that”, not because of the music but because I guess they saw you as too big of a punk band or something like that, you know, or they didn’t think you’d do it or something.   But then a month later I was just like, whoa.

Dennis:  Yeah, they changed their mind.  We did talk to them initially and I think initially they weren’t really sure.  What we pushed them over, I think, was that we took this tour with Voodoo with no label.  So they knew that we didn’t have a label and we were willing to go out and do it.  It’s work and possibly losing money, and for four guys to be away from home for six weeks and actually not be making any money and questions of how we were going to pay our rent when we got home, I think the fact that we were able to do that showed them that we’re serious about it and we’re a band that they should back.   We’re not going to let them down.   We’re going to go out there and kick some ass, I hope.   I hope people like the new record and if they don’t, I hope they like the next.  (everyone laughs)   We’re gonna keep pushin’ on. 

Josh:  Was it helpful for Voodoo Glow Skulls to come to Victory too, though, as kind of like, two former Epitaph bands come together?

Dennis:  Well, I’ m sure the fact that we joined the Voodoo tour and Voodoo was on Victory, it made Victory look at us and go, wow, Voodoo really wants Ten Foot Pole on this tour.   And it’s for a reason.   We’ve earned some respect and a position in the “punk rock world” or whatever, and I think Victory looked at that and said if it’s important for Voodoo to have Ten Foot Pole on the tour, we should take them seriously.   The music industry is in a weird place right now.    We were sending a demo out and shopping it, but the music industry is scared shitless right now because of copying and all of this stuff with the internet.   People don’t know if they’re going to get their investment back.    Especially big labels spend so much money on an album, and they don’t know what’s going to happen business-wise.  So they’re scared to sign bands.   And the bands that they want to sign, they want to sign bands that are going to sell millions.    And a band like us, you know, we’re not 14 and cute and we’re not rad chicks.   They’re looking for Britney Spears and Spice Girls, that kind of deal.   We might get some nose jobs and whatever, some cranium reductions- whatever it takes.

Kevin:  Why do you look at me when you say nose job?  I know about the nose, ok? 

Dennis:  I’m known for my bulbous nose.  Any way...  So what can we say?  We’re not that pretty.   But we’re not Def Leppard either.   We’re some where in between.  We’re not Blink 182, but we’re not Metallica.  

Josh:  Do you think it’s good to be on Victory now though because they started as a hardcore label and have kind of evolved into a diverse label, so you get to be one of the premiere punk bands, as opposed to Epitaph who just seemed to be filled with nothing but punk bands.  

Dennis:  I hope it works like that.   It’s an experiement really.  I don’t even know whether kids care.   When I was a kid, if I liked a band, I didn’t care what label they were on.   If I never heard of a band and they were on Epitaph, I knew they were probably pretty good.   But I was disappointed a couple of times, eventually.   Originally, that was the strong thing about Fat and Epitaph- any band that was on Fat Wreck Chords you knew was going to be good.   And it’s still true a bit today but it’s withered, they’ve picked up bands... Moreso with Epitaph. 

Kevin:  I think the value of a strong label is just to get the record to the kids, as opposed to who else is on it. 

Josh:  To kind of switch gears-

Dennis:  Are we going into high gear or low gear?  Faster or slower? 

(everyone laughs)

Dennis:  I’m sorry, I just had to say that, we were getting kind of silly. 

Josh:  With the whole punk rock scene in California- because when I think of California I always think of punk rock- nd people have debated me that on end.

Dennis:  Because they think of Baywatch?

Kevin:  The Beach Boys?

Dennis:  Surfing?  Sunshine?  Earthquakes?  But you think of punk rock, that’s great.

Josh:  But just being a punk band from California is kind of a common thing, don’t you think?

Dennis:  What are you trying to say?  If we were from Ohio you’d respect us more?  Here’s the thing, I don’t know if it matters where you come from.   For us, there was a real history, we used to be Scared Straight, so we were old school.  We’re not super old school because we’re not the Dead Kennedys, but we have roots in the hardcore scene.   We’re old school.  We’ve played with Fear, D.O.A., Circle Jerks... When we were little kids too.   That was the funny part, Scared Straight was known for being these thirteen year old kids who could barely play guitar but we’d end up playing with Circle Jerks.   Unfortunately we don’t have that card to play any more.  Now we’re just guys who people think better be good because we look like we’ve paid our punk rock dues.    But as far as coming from California, it’s not something I’m ashamed of.  We just happen to be born there, and basically now that’s all a moo point because our drummer is from Philly.   That’s all the credibility we need. 

Josh:  Yeah, I can’t say anything bad about Philly.

Kevin:  All right!  Correct response.

Dennis:  I don’t know, maybe if we grew up in Ohio or something we’d be a reggae band.   I’m not sure how you imagined it, but it’s not like punk rock was every where.  When I was in school and we formed Scared Straight, punk rock wasn’t hip.   We were getting threatened by people like, “You like Devo, you’re a punker, I’m gonna kill you, you fag!” and it was like, “Devo?  What are you talking about?”   I remember all these stoners came to my house, all these hippie guys with long hair, and I had a cast on my arm at the time and they were going to kill me because they said that punk sucks.   And I was like, “I like punk because it’s fast” and this guy went, “No way, punk’s not fast, punk sucks”.  I don’t even know what they thought punk was.   I was going to play them some really fast punk that today would be considered speed metal because that’s what a lot of punk was like back then.   And they were like, “Fuck you man, punk’s not fast, punk sucks” and I was like, “Punk may suck, but if you just take ten steps into my house I’ll push play on my recorder and show you punk’s fast”.   Then this one guy was like, “Hey man, I think some punk is fast” and they were all like, “Whoa, really?  We’re gonna kick your ass any way Jaggard!!”  But yeah, I almost got my ass kicked because people thought that punk rock sucked.   But still, that was just one crowd.  Later there would be underground parties where people would just come and go ape shit to punk rock music.   Because at that time, the Offspring wasn’t on the radio, the Scorpions were on the radio.    It wasn’t like now where Green Day and stuff is all over the place and you’re just another band trying to be a punk band.    We were really outside of the mainstream by far.    It was before Nirvana was on the radio, and when I heard Nirvana on the radio I was like, “oh my God, the radio’s playing music like this?”.