San Frans hardest hitting band sits down to answer some questions check out their newest release Crappy Clubs and Smelly Pubs

Glen: 11:00 AM Wednesday? At that point I’m usually hiding behind some pallet racks trying to get some sleep. No, I run a Shipping and Receiving department for a pharma company, so at that time I’d most likely be doing something with boxes of something.

Mike- 11am Sleeping. Wishful thinking. Actually working, not cool.

2. BB-You canceled at Promote Chaos last month, what happened and any chance you may tour in the future?

Glen: yea, that was a bummer, we really were looking forward to playing that thing. Bottom line is that it was too expensive to fly all the way to Atlanta from SF. It was surprising how much the flights were. Since we weren’t really getting paid for playing that show it would have been really hard to pull off. We gave as much notice as possible and sent our regrets to the promoter, it sounded like it was a blast. I hope we can tour at some point early next year or something. It’s tough for us to all get time off work, especially at the same time, in order to really do substantial tour. Since SF is a long drive to pretty much anywhere we’ve really got to plan things right.

Mike-As it is, we had to save money to make it to Europe, so we couldn’t afford to go to Atlanta. It was about $800 per person roundtrip. That’s about the same price to Europe believe it or not!

3. BB- In the six years since you got together how have you changed as people and as musicians?

Glen: Well, in my case, I had picked up the guitar just when we were forming the band. I had never really played besides jerking around, and couldn’t even pull off barre chords at the time. I had certainly never sang into a microphone either, so that fact that I can pull that off with any sort of credibility means I must have grown somehow. I think we’ve grown together as a band much more too. We all work off each other really well right now and we know each other’s personalities enough to know how to deal when someone’s being a pain in the ass.

Mike: I think our songwriting has matured…A lot of the stuff we wrote when we first got together was fairly pathetic, most (but not all) was never recorded, thank god. I think now when we write, we take more time to look for something “special” in a song, rather than just piece something together for the sake of filling out a record or a set.

4. BB- I know this is old news but when you started off covering Cock Sparrer did you ever think that you would have the chance to play with them?

Glen: Hell no, I never really thought I’d be able to even see them play. That was a dream come true for us and still almost feels like it never happened. Great band and a great bunch of guys, truly genuine personalities.

Mike: Sparrer was not likely ever to come on tour when we first started. It was great to be asked as a support band. Nothing better could have been put in front of us at the time!

5. BB- What the craziest thing that ever happened with the Reducers?

Mike: Having girls take off their bra’s and throw them on stage is pretty crazy…but that never happened. Being asked to tour with Sparrer was pretty crazy I guess, and the subsequent days of 4 cities on two coasts in four days was a wild…

6. BB- You've released an E.P. on Burning Heart records what kind of exposure did that and the Spirit of the Streets comp give you guys? and how were the reactions?

Glen: We get a lot of good reaction from Europe actually. It think that really helped to spread out music out there a lot better than the distro for any of our other stuff. I often get email from various parts of Germany and stuff showing interest. Were touring over their for two weeks, from September 1st through the 12th, I guess that will really show how well were doing there. Mike: We’ve actually had better press in Europe than the US. They seem to appreciate our sound more as a whole.

7. BB- Any chance that these Burning Heart releases will lead to releases on Epitaph?

Glen: We haven’t heard anything yet. Burning Heart has been pretty cool about doing the EP and include us on the comp, they run their business really well. We’ll have to see if anything comes up and if it’s something we would want to accept.

8. BB- Is the new Cd "Crappy Clubs and Smelly Pubs" in the same vein as Backing the Longshot or have you got some new twists in store for fans?

Glen: It’s our sound, definitely. I think it’s produced better and the overall feel and quality of the CD is better than BTLS. The songs on Backing the Longshot had been with us for years before we cut that record, so we had a good feel for them. They were important for our sound and our development. Some of the songs on Crappy Clubs were finished literally weeks before we went to record them. Were really happy with the way they turned out though. Working with the studio engineer and having Steve Burgess producing really helped a great deal with putting it all together.

Mike: I like both albums equally….but I think that Crappy Clubs and Smelly Pubs is a bit better produced. We actually have a bunch more songs in the pipeline that should be even stronger in my opinion. That will be the next album though, and there is no telling when and with whom that might be, were actually starting to discuss this now.

9. BB- You (Glen) seem pretty active on the site and responding to posts and e-mail why is this so important to you?

Glen: I think if someone takes the time to write us, we should take the time to write them back. It’s not like my time is more valuable than anyone else’s. As a band, were flattered that anyone actually takes an interest and especially takes the effort to contact us, so I like to respond in kind. Mike: Glen is good at that. He’s the public relations director of the band.

10. BB- Any Chance of the Reducers coming to the Midwest for a few dates in the future?

Glen: No plans right now, we really want to make it out there though.

Mike: As pointed out previously , we are looking into new labels, promoters and partnerships that would make it economically feasible for us to tour the states ...SF is not a cheap place to live and at this point we’d all likely come back to cots at the “Y” is we took an extended tour. Touring is unfortunately limited to that vacation time our jobs will give us. . At this point, we just don’t have the money to do long tours. But we are working on fixing that.

11. BB- Who writes your tunes?

Glen: I would say the majority of the songwriting is split between Mike and Kevin. Usually someone will come up with a riff and we all work off of that. Mike has actually written most of our songs, but there are only a few that you could say are all written by one person. It usually starts with a melody or a riff or something, maybe just an idea, then we’ll work on structure and guitar melodies. I end up writing most of the lyrics these days.

12. BB- What's the stupidest question people continue to ask you?

Glen: How do I ship a package? No wait, that’s at work. Probably what our name is from. It’s not a stupid question really but there’s just no real answer, it just sounded good at the time. Mike: I hate when people ask us about our political stance. It is only because there are skinheads in the band we are asked that. Effing stupid!

13. BB- How did guys from SF get interested in soccer to the extent the Reducers are?

Glen: Most of us kind of grew up with it and played it in youth leagues and crap like that. I remember going to the summer Olympics when I was pretty young in Stanford. I don’t know, a few of us just started going to national team matches when they came around and began watching them in earnest on TV and stuff. We had a couple of local teams for a while, The Allblacks, who later became the SF Seals, were in the A-League and we followed them until they went bankrupt and moved out of the city. For me it mostly comes from following the US National team and watching them get better (or worse) as the years progress. That combined with a passion for the sport keeps me going.

Mike: Many years of following soccer for us. We’ve all played at some point. One of our members continues to play in a men’s’ league.

14. BB- fans that want to give back the most to the band should buy Reducers SF merch where?

Glen: Hell, just send us money!! No, they can email us and we’ll set them up with whatever they want. Send yer order to: reducersf@aol.com, thanks for asking.

Mike: Actually, it’s very easy to order online at MordamRecords.com and find our whole TKO catalog.

15. BB- What sort of support are you getting for Crappy clubs and smelly pubs?

Mike: I don’t know, it just came out two weeks ago. It still hasn’t been released in Europe until July 23. It remains to be seen. Locally though, everyone I’ve spoken to really like the album and the love the songs live.

16. BB- On the new disk Crappy Clubs and Smelly Pubs two songs "Pop Star" and "Not Fooled" deal with your overall dislike of pop culture and the media. Where do you get your news from and how would you feel if MTV wanted a video?

Glen: I think the best way to view the news is to watch what’s going on around you. You could also benefit from being able to read between the lines. I watch the local news and CNN and crap like that, but you have to take it all with a grain of salt. They are usually only giving us a portion of each story and emitting the parts they feel are irrelevant. Not to sound too paranoid but the media is also usually linked to someone who wants to push an agenda as well. Even field reporters are often regurgitating stuff that was fed to them from somewhere, the minute someone uncovers something groundbreaking, or controversial, they probably don’t have much of a future in the industry. Same goes for politics these days.

Pop Star is about the music industry these days and how it is such a business and the fact that they don’t even try and hide that fact now. MTV even shows us that they can create a band of pretty boys, have someone write a bunch of shitty songs for them, and push the hell out of them until they are a multi-million dollar entity. Makes me sick, no real talent, nothing to do with a true band or rock and roll. Since we’re a bunch of ugly bastards, don’t wear sequined shirts and have coordinated dance moves, I’d doubt that MTV would want anything to do with us.

17. BB- Some of the new songs also pertain to your dislike of growing up, What do you think are you going to be doing in ten years?

Glen: It’s not so much the hatred of growing up, but of remembering the great times you have doing it. It always seemed like there was so much to do and so much time to do it when your young. I mis-spent the hell out of my childhood and had a great time doing it. In ten years I hope to still be doing what I’m doing now, but have a little more cash in my pockets for crying out loud. Well, I can always dream anyways.

18. BB- Is "gone for good" about somebody you know or enlisted people in general?

Glen: It is definitely NOT about enlisted people in general. Most of the men in my extended family were servicemen throughout the generations. A lot of my friends are in the service as well and I have the utmost respect for the military in general. Gone For Good is about a kid that hung with our crew for a few years in school. We were really good friends for a while, did a lot of Skinhead related buffoonery and what not, then he switched it on me really quick when he joined the Marines Basically, no one ever heard from him again and that pissed me off. I think the song is more about the decisions people make which isolate them from friends who really had their back and shit like that. People that move on because they think they’re growing up and they have to change. If it’s right for them to change, fine, just don’t forget your friends just because you don’t wear Doc’s anymore, ya know?

19. BB- How have the sales been?

Glen: So far so good. We haven’t received a sales statement yet but from the sounds of it, they’re going great.

20. BB- What are you going to say to people who compare your version of Ole to the Bouncing Souls?

Glen: We’ve been playing “our version” of Ole’ for about six years now, long before I even knew who the Bouncing Souls were and that they played a song like that. We even recorded it on one of our first singles. I don’t really care what people say to answer your question. Because they’re bigger than us, were not just going to stop playing the song. We’re soccer fans, that’s why it’s there.

21. BB- Any closing comments for the growing legions of fans?

Mike: Please buy our new album so we can afford to go tour!

Glen: Thanks for the interview and thanks for listening.

Thanks to Glen and Mike be sure to check out all new disc and if you don't have it check out backing the longshot. They also have a track on TKO's punch drunk III out in Sept