Posted on Nov 3, 2007 by DevotedToMusic

U.S Punk Rockers Bowling for Soup have realesed 8 studio albums and have recently celebrated their 13 year anniversary.

They are the founders of the 'Get Happy Tour' along with Army of Freshmen and this year decided to bring this tour to the UK twice during this year.

I Alexandra McLoughlin was lucky enough to go backstage at the Brighton centre to speak to Erik about the band.....

Hi How are you doing?

I’m doing very well thank you.

I know that you’re a comedy influenced Pop Punk band. Why did you decide to be this sort of band?

Um..I dunno if we decided to be this sort of band. It’s just kinda what just happened. We were all in really serious bands before this and I think we all were a little tired of doing that and so that’s just kinda the way it turned out. Jaret was in a death metal band, Chris and I were in a like folk rock acoustic trio and so this it just kinda how it happened.

That’s quite a change to come from a folk band and a death metal band to being in a pop punk band. Do get influences from those styles of music into your band now?

We’re influenced by so much. If you look at our ipods you would probably be surprised and amazing at all that we listen to and what we’ve grown up listening to. Probably the most played album on my ipod in the last 6 months is Billy Joel. We pick up stuff from everywhere and I dought most people would expect that kinda thing.

Your videos are absolutly hilarious. Where do you get the ideas from?

They normally start with an idea, just the band sitting around and talking or somebody has just a singular idea about it then we sit down and discuss it with directors and then they come back in and we give them our ideas and then so they’ll write a treatment and present it to us so its mostly from a member of the band but sometimes the director will have an idea about what they would like to do with it. Then we incorporate that all together.

Are you always that entertaining like you are in the videos?

I’d like to think so (laughs)

I bet you make each other laugh a lot right?

We do. The majority of our time is spent sitting around making each other laugh and I think that’s part of what has kept us going for so long. We just celebrated our 13th years this summer and that’s a big part of why we are able to stay together and remain so close and not get sick of each other.

You’ve had out a lot more albums then most bands, you’ve had 8 albums out. What is it about you that allows you to have so many ideas for all these different albums?

I dunno…the song writing portion of that isn’t a big deal. If they sound the right songs we right the songs but I think the fact we’ve been able to do so many albums is that we’ve been able to fly under the radar of the record labels and make them enough money that it doesn’t cost them any money to keep us around and so we just kinda keep our heads low and they continue to let us make the albums.

How do you decide what to call each of the albums?

It’s always a super messed up situation and a lot of times somebody will..when we’re like sitting around shooting the s**t somebody will say something that’s just completely outlandish and of the wall and it always happens in a singular moment where everybody is like ‘Oh that’s the name of the next album right there’! The last album the Great Burrito Extortion Case we were in a bar and were actually recording the album and the television was on one of the news stations but the sound was off and it just flashed up on the bottom of the screen ‘Burrito Extortion Case’ and somebody saw it and was like “What the hell is a Burrito Extortion Case?” then we’re sitting around thinking about it trying to figure out what it meant and Chris I believe it was, was like “You know what? That’s a great name for a new album!”

Which of your albums has been the most popular to date?

Ya’know? I couldn’t tell ya to be honest because the ones that the ones like the last one I would say has sold the most but I can’t say as far as popularity that’s I guess the only gage we have but I mean everybody knows so many songs the only feedback we get is playing a show and having kids singing along. Everyone that comes to a show seems to know all the albums very well equally.

You sold over a million copies of all of your studio albums including a compilation movie album. How does it feel to have so much love?

It’s absolutly amazing to think we were just 4 guys who were hanging out and drinking beer to playing music for fun and then all of a sudden something happened and a few months into it we were like lets do something with this! Then now 13 and a half years later we’re here playing for these kids every night. It’s just an amazing ride and an amazing experience. Not many people get to do what we’ve got to do and I’m absolutly appreciative of that fact.

Why did you decide to bring the Get Happy tour back to the UK for the 2nd time in one year?

Because it needed to happen. Come on..everybody needs to get happy.

What made you decide to start the tour in the first place because I think I read that you founded it?

Yeah, yeah. It was a conversation between Jaret our singer and Chris Jay the singer for Army of Freshmen. They were having lunch one day and it was just like a conversation that ended up kinda doubling over on itself and it was just a “Whit if man? Could be possibly do this and have a franchise like name brand tour and could we pull it off?” And so far it seems that we have and it’s been going on for a couple of years now.

How successful was it last time around?

It was absolutly great yeah. It was wonderful. The one back in February over here was completely sold out to the point that…that is actually why we brought it back again because so successful the first time and now were not completely sold out we’re I think I was just talking to one of the promoters we’re about 85% sold out but we’re playing venues like 2 or 3 more times the size of the ones that we played last time. It’s amazingly successful again for us this time because we’ve doubled and tripled the audiences that we’re playing for.

Have you come to Brighton before?

I believe this is the very first time we’ve been here.

Have you heard much about it over in the states?

Not a lot no.

How does it seem to you do far? Have you looked around the place yet?

This morning I got out and I haven’t been anywhere but within a couple of blocks. I woke up at about 8 or 9 this morning, went out and had a cigarette and took a walk around. I didn’t really get to see much of anything.

Do you think you will come back here to Brighton at all?

We’d love to. We’d love to come back as long as people have us.

What is the story behind the latest single ‘When we die’?

Its just about those moments in your life that..life is too short to get hung up on a lot of interpersonal conflicts between people. It’s like you need to love the people that you love and they need to know that and it’s not worth loosing relationships over trivial things.

The name sounds a bit gloomy compared to usual. Is this the end of the crazy side of Bowling for Soup?

Not at all by any means. Its definitely, definitely a departure from the normal Bowling for Soup attitude and I’m not saying that we won’t do that again but there’s nothing changing about the band and the way that we write songs and the music that we do.

Finally what’s the future for Bowling for Soup?

After this tour we’re about to go home and take a very, very long nap. This is the first time ever that we’ve actually decided to go home and take serious time off and we have a I think maybe 3 or 4 shows planned for the rest of the year and after that is done we’re just gonna go home and mow our lawns and make dinner for our families and try to learn to be normal people again for a little while. I imagine we’ll start making another album probably around the end of next summer so it’ll be out in 2009.

Thank you for letting me interview you.

No problem at all.

Taken At:

Brighton Centre

Taken On:

October 20th, 2007

Interviewees:

Erik- Bass

Related Links:

• www.bowlingforsoup.com
• www.myspace.com/bowlingforsou...
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling...

Interviews

Oct 20, 2007 Brighton Centre