Schizophonics Interview

The person went on a hike and had a conversation about the weather and a music tour. They talked about their performance at a show and their costumes. Then they discussed their albums and cleared up confusion about other bands with similar names. They also talked about playing unorthodox shows and upcoming performances. They mentioned a show at Alex's Bar and the athleticism required for their stage performances. on a hike today, which was nice, after being in the car for so long, all week. That's so cool. How was it? Was it nice, up in the mountains? Yeah, it's really nice weather today. My friends played this, Tree Fort, last year, and they said it was, like, stormy, and I think, I don't know if they got snow last year, but it's nice, it's been, the weather's been perfect. Yeah, that's awesome. Have you guys played Tree Fort before, or is this a new one for you? No, we've been to Boise a few times before, and one of the last times we did a club show here, one of the organizers, he played with his band, so that's, he invited us to come out for the event. That's awesome. Hey, well, thanks again for jumping on the show. This shouldn't take too long, but I just wanted to ask you guys a couple questions, just about your overall sound and whatnot. So yeah, I'm super stoked, thanks for jumping on. Yeah. So, I first saw you guys a few months ago, on Halloween night, at the Nova, with the Chats, Cosmic Psychos, and Gymshorts. How did that tour kind of go about? That was awesome. That tour, we met Amon, the singer of the Chats, while we were in Australia, we played Brisbane, and after we became friends, I'm like, how did he even end up at our show? Because we just played a little show in his hometown, and he follows the venues in town, and he followed us around, and was like, oh, this looks cool. And I didn't know who the hell he was, or anything. This was in 2019, and since then, we just crossed paths touring festivals together, and we keep in touch on the internet. He's super funny, and we have a lot of music tapes in common, so it's easy to keep in touch with him. Yeah, they seem like funny guys. Yeah. Yeah, they're super witty. I love hanging out with those guys. So after that, we got asked to do this tour, which was amazing, it was the best tour we've ever done. Yeah, it was a great show. In shorts, Cosmic Saikas, and the Chats, it was like a big traveling circus, you know, it was fun. Yeah, yeah, Pat, I remember you coming out wearing a purple Elza suit, and then you karate chopped a wooden plank. That was the funniest thing I've ever seen. Who came up with that idea? That was my idea. That was? So we were all supposed to do one, we were all gonna chop a board, of course we can't really chop a board in half, so we were backstage with a hacksaw, trying to pre-cut all these boards, and one we cut too much. Get it broke. And so we're like, all right, we're just doing one. Yeah, that was dumb, I wanted to do it. It was so much harder to break than I thought it would be, but it took us hours to try to pre-cut this thing, because I had the hacksaw, it was really dull. Yeah. And it was like, it was so funny how much of an ordeal it was to do it. That's so funny. Yeah, that's what we were doing backstage, that night. Oh my gosh. And then I drew a big pumpkin on Bacchus' belly from the traveling circus. Oh, you did that, that was so funny. That was my idea, we were having dinner the night before, and I asked him, I'm like, are you dressing up tomorrow? He's like, I don't know. And I told him, I'm like, you should just draw a big pumpkin's face on your stomach. Yeah. And he thought it was so funny. That was the, it stole the show for me. That was hilarious, yeah, he like ripped his shirt off and was just showing that pumpkin, right? Yeah. I think he was wearing a diaper, too. Yeah. And they wanted, their, yeah, their manager wanted him to be Jamie Healy, because Jamie Healy was a jack-o'-lantern pumpkin stomach. Oh, that's so funny. And I'm the one that told him, Josh, he should be Beetlejuice. Oh, really, it's all your idea? We masterminded that night, it was so good. Oh, man, that's great. Yeah, I had the idea, he's like, Aidan should be Chucky, and we kind of threw out the whole month. Yeah. And we're like, I hope he does it, it's so great. Oh, man, that's great. Well, anyway, so my next episode of my show, I'm kind of gonna just cover the schizophonics and play a few songs off of each album. And I just wanted to ask you guys a couple questions, like, how do you think your sound has evolved? Like, looking at your earlier works, like the albums Delicious, Hot or Cold, or like, Surf Pump Fuzz, like. Well, those aren't. Oh, that's not us, that's a UK band. What? Oh, my gosh, I feel like an idiot. Oh, you know what, I would like to address it, though, if you could. Yes. Because we're kind of in the middle of trying to get settled. Right. Well, to, I don't want, I didn't have to change anything. Yeah, yeah. They should just be a way where the platforms don't lump two different artists together. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, it's like a platform. Apple Music and Prime, Amazon, all that stuff has all their albums up with our albums. Wow. Those two albums are both by a UK band. Oh, shoot. Yeah, they're like a local band, that's why it sounds so different. Yeah, because I was, okay, that's cool. Well, thank you for clearing that up, because everywhere on the internet, it just affiliates that with you guys. Right, and that should be something that shouldn't happen. Yeah. Being able to upload your music to our band. Wow. Yeah, it would be good if we could acknowledge that. We're trying to clear it up right now and get it all settled. Right, wow, so the first official album is it Land of the Living from 2017? Yeah. Okay, okay, okay. We had an EP called Ooga Booga. Right, right. It came out around the same time, and then. Yeah, we've had singles out since like 2014 or 2013. Right. Like, when we were first starting out. Yeah. It was like a seven-ish, it was like the biggest deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, cool, well thank you for clearing that up. So, you guys, you had the albums Thrash and Burn, is that you, correct? No, not us. No? Oh my gosh, man, all my questions are like wrong now. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's crazy. All right, yeah, yeah, yeah. So. It drives me crazy that it's all still. Okay, so Land of the Living, and then People in the Sky is you, right? And then Puss It, and then that's it? Yeah, that's it. Okay, okay. Ooga Booga, and then EPs, right, and all that? Okay, cool. Well, thank you, that's crazy, because there were all these like saxophone sounds and all this on those albums. I was like, what's going on? Anyway, well, yeah, thanks for clearing that up. I got a couple like other random, unrelated questions to that. Have you guys played any like really unorthodox or like weird shows that stick out to you like over the years? Many, yeah. Yeah? It's funny, it's like we'll be playing, and we'll get a really good show, a festival show, and then the next day we'll be playing a small venue, and we kind of run the gamut, but. Well, it's like the last two nights we played, Wednesday we played to like the other bandmates and maybe like a few of their friends, and then last night was like a crazy blowout, like a three, four closer, you know? Yeah. Well, we just did a show in Norway for like, they did two shows in the same day, and it was interesting. The early show they did, it was like for kids. I don't even know what to expect, but punks brought their kids, and they all had their earphones on, and it was like the entire front row was just like all little kids. Oh, wow, that's so cool. I'm such a clown on stage, so it was just really, it was really fun, everyone was dancing, but we've done all kinds of unorthodox shows all, you know, over the years. Yeah. That stick out to you. I mean, I don't know, I think we kind of just are able to roll with wherever we get put, you know, like we've played punk rock bowling, we've played like garage festivals, so we kind of have a way where we can kind of sneak into these, you know, like these different categorized festivals and kind of still be able to fit in. Yeah. Cool. That's awesome. You guys are doing punk rock bowling again this year, right? Yeah, we're doing a club show with Guitar Wolf Saturday night. Oh, nice, that's awesome. Yeah, we've never played with him, I've never seen him, but we've been friends online for years at this point, so I'm super excited to see him. That's awesome. He's a legend. That'd be cool. Yeah, a show I was wanting to go see you guys at was at Alex's Bar in Long Beach, which I live like five minutes away from, but I'm underage, so I couldn't make that. I was wondering how that show went. It was epic, it was awesome. Yeah. Yeah, Alex's Bar has such a good vibe. Yeah. Once you can get in there. Alex, I mean, Alex is great. He's super involved, he's, you know, he's a friend, he's a friend of the music, he's a friend of the musicians. Right. He's known him forever. It's like a family vibe in there. Yeah. And that show was with Frankie and the Witchfingers and Off. Right, yep. And, you know, Frankie's drummer worked for Alex, worked at Alex's Bar. Oh, cool. And then Off, we had Mario from, Rocket from the Crypt, Earthless, so. Right. Like a family vibe. I love that show. That's awesome. That's so cool. Yeah, how was it with Keith and all those guys? Dimitri, was that, were they cool? Oh, yeah. Yeah. They were all just. So nice. That's awesome. So cool. So I had a question. When I saw you guys, Pat, you just kept doing the splits and all these spins and whatnot. I was just wondering, like, how'd you learn how to do that? And is it hard to, like, maintain that, like, athleticism? Well, yeah, I mean, we just do so many shows. I'm always, I'm just kind of always, I never really have time to, like, to not be used to it. Yeah. Like, it's like, well, like right now, we're about, we're gonna do a show in a few hours. It's just like, I can't, I, you know, it's like, I just, we just practically play. Yeah. You know, hundreds of times a year. But, yeah, I guess, so, years ago, we were in the backing band for this guy called Elvis. Right. Elvis. He was kind of a big influence on our stage show. Like, he's, he's kind of, he's a crazy combination of a lot of things. Like, he has a lot of, kind of, James Brown, old, kind of, showmanship to his show. Right. And before we played with him, we were kind of more, it was kind of more of a drunken anvil around the stage. Yeah. With the guitar set. And I was still kind of doing one-handed guitar stuff, but it was sort of like, it was just really more emphasizing the chaos of it. And the chaos is still there, but now it's mixed with, like, you know, definitely a lot of James Brown. And, and there's just like a ton of, you know, we just try to combine all the influences that we have. But, you know, all my favorite artists are always the live performers, you know. Yeah. Like, The Prom, and Jimi Hendrix, and A.D. Pop. Right. We just try to mix them all together. That's cool. I, something popped up on my Instagram. You guys were hanging out with Steve Turner from Mudhoney. That was pretty cool. Yeah. That's awesome. His, how did we end up meeting him? We've met Mark Arn before down in San Diego, but then one of the times we were here in Boise, his girlfriend came. Oh, okay. It's all a small world. He's been good friends with Cosmic Psychos for ages, so. Right. He finally got to see us on that track tour for the first time. Oh, okay, cool. Yeah, so he came out last night. I'm about to go see him. He's doing an acoustic thing today at four. Oh, nice. Yeah, I guess he wrote a book, and he's gonna be reading some stuff from his book in a little bit. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Cool. Well, I got a couple more questions, and I'll let you guys go. Had a question, if you guys had to pick an all-time favorite live performance you've seen, what would you say? Who have we seen? That's hard, that's hard. You know, we were doing that in the band a few weeks ago with our bass player, Justin, so I'm not gonna say how. I would give a list, it's easier. Right, yeah. There's definitely shows that, I think the best shows I've seen have been in little clubs, so it's not usually the big artists you would think of. Like, the best performance I ever saw was in a big, when I saw Prince, and that was on the arena, but like, the smallest, you know, small club shows, I'd say this band called The Jackets from Switzerland. Oh, right. They're probably a fly band in my opinion, and then I- Yeah, first time I saw them, like, I had a tear come out of my eye, you know? Wow, cool. It was just, when you see something that powerful, and it doesn't happen often, and it was The Jackets. Wow. And the very first time I ever saw El Dez perform his show, it was- El Dez? The first time I saw him, the first time I saw Woggles. Woggles, yeah. Rockets from the Crib. Yeah, there's just like, yeah, Kid Congo. Every, you know, and all these different bands, they have kind of different ways of creating a live show. That's kind of one thing we learned over time, too, is like, you know, we do it through freak out, but there's so many different ways to kind of like, you know, you can kind of captivate the crowd, and sometimes artists do it by just, you know, just, you know, by emoting the music and just standing there sometimes. Right. You know, through theatrics and all kinds of stuff, but yeah, those are some of the best shows I've seen, for sure. Awesome. Do you guys ever get a chance to see Iggy? We just saw him for the first time. Yeah, that's like my hero then. Yeah, like he got me tickets for my birthday. Oh, that's awesome. We just saw him, and it was really great. That's so cool. Yeah, I saw him at the Orpheum Theater in LA. I think it was last April. Yeah, we went to the Palladium one. Oh, nice. Oh, I bet that was great. Standing room, right? Uh-huh. That's so cool. I got tickets to that one. I didn't want to miss it. Yeah, yeah, I know. We were all standing. Chairs were annoying. Anyway, all right, so my last question. How do you guys go about making a set list? Do your sets change nightly, or do you guys kind of stick to the same songs per tour? How does that go? We start a tour by switching it up every night until it feels good. And it's like every night you can kind of tell. It's like, all right, the show lost guests. It's weird, if you get it in the right order, it's just like, it keeps going, and you don't feel like you lose the audience. So every night we'll switch it up until we get the right order, so where it has a good flow. And then usually about that point, we'll just keep it for the rest of the tour. Nice. But yeah, so. Cool. Awesome, well, I'll let you guys get back to everything. Hope you have a great show tonight, and thank you all very much for jumping on the show. Really appreciate it. Awesome. Yeah. Thank you so much. Well, next time you see us or we're around, say hi and introduce yourself. Yeah, definitely. I'll definitely be going to the show at the Echo, and I'll bring a bunch of LMU kids down. We'll come support. Awesome. Yeah, yeah. Great. Cool, we'll see you in a few weeks. All right, guys, I'll see you later. Good luck tonight. Thank you. Thank you, bye. Bye-bye.