Icarus Line Interview

Three songs into their set, after switching out two guitars to no avail, Aaron North launched into a guitar-demolishing fury at the thought that his amplifier was busted.  When you are a member a band as volatile as The Icarus Line, even equipment trouble is cause for self-destruction.  One guitar lay splintered on stage-left as its replacement was jammed into the wall and ultimately thrown at its amplifier.  And with that North exited the building. 

This bit of hysteria spread slowly, yet contagiously through the other members of the band.  Vocalist Joe Cardamone made a razor-sharp comparison between his missing bandmate and the alcoholic Backstreet Boy, "Guess Aaron is pulling an A.J.," while the remaining guitarist accused an audience member of drinking his beer.  Though the set had barely begun, we in the audience smiled smug and satisfied at the onstage mania that these five furious, and frustrated fellows have adopted as their modus operandi. 

Interview conducted in-person, November 2001.

Names: Joe Cardamone (vocals), Aaron North (guitar)
Band: The Icarus Line

Tim: So you guys are out for six weeks with one day off?
Joe: Yes sir.  We actually had a couple extra days off because we broke down in Montana.
T: How long were you stuck there?
J: Two days in Montana?  Hey Lance…two days in Montana.  It was cold.
T: Is that generally the worst thing that will happen to you while you are on tour?
J: Breaking down?
T: Yeah.
J: No, getting sick I think is worse.

T: Have you ever had your gear stolen?
J: I had my delay pedal stolen in London. (To Aaron) You had some cables stolen.  Never like a guitar or anything though.
Aaron: We’ll kill anyone that steals our gear.

T:  So you guys have been to Europe – how many times have you been there?
J:  We went to the UK and did a tour of the UK and that was our first time.  I went over there with F Minus and did a tour with them the year before.
T: How many days were you there with the Icarus Line?
J: About two weeks.
A: We are about to go over for two months in January, which is like full…all of Europe and a shitload of UK dates.

T: Do you usually play clubs or do you play squats and stuff like that?
A: We’ve actually been fortunate enough that we haven’t had to go the squat route.  We went over and we played…the first time we went over in the summer we played the big clubs and filled them out and headlined.
J: The mainstream media embraced the record pretty early on over there.  It was pretty much a fluke.  It’s not like there was a big push behind it or anything.  Kerrang! gave it a good review and then NME heard it and they gave it a good review and then everybody else pretty much fell in line.
A: We did that Peel Session and that helped.  It was very cool.  We did a shitload of press while we while we were over there and a lot of radio.  I guess they are playing the video on MTV over there and stuff.
J: It’s not like we are on a major label or anything.  We are just on Cargo in the UK or Sweet Nothing or whatever you want to call it, which is basically run by one guy.

T: Why do you think the UK got so hot on it?  I haven’t really seen anything in a whole lot of magazines over here about it, but it seems like…well, I read a lot of that Kerrang! stuff this week…
A: Strangely enough at one of the shows, for example, these kids came up to the show a couple days ago and said they came out because they saw the video on MTV2, which is kind of strange so it’s slowly…
J: Our record label kind of went under right when the record came out.  Crank! kind of went out of business right when the record came out.  They say it got serviced, but I haven’t seen a review in any fanzines.
A: There’s no reviews or ads or anything.
J: So, I don’t know what happened.  They pretty much dropped the ball, but that is OK because we’ll just keep touring on it.

T: How long has the record been out?
J: Since the summer.

T: How did you guys decide to hook up with Crank! for that?
J: They had money and we needed to go make a record.  They wanted to give us their money, so we took it and made a record.  It wasn’t like we were into the label or even the bands on the label to tell you the truth. 
T: You guys are pretty different from most of the stuff that they put out.
J: There were no labels that were willing to take a chance on us anyway so they had enough balls to at least throw us in the studio.
A: The guy who ran the label was nice.  He went on tour with us and drove and we hit a deer along the way, but he liked our band for some reason and was willing to take a chance and that was it.

T: So you guys put out a bunch of singles before that though.  How long have you been playing together as the Icarus Line.
J: Like two years.
A: As the Icarus Line since the Summer of 98, but we’ve all…all us four in this van have been playing together since high school.  We were in another band before this that toured.
J: And we’ve know each other even before that.
T: Were you guys friends in school?
J: Sort of.  We met Aaron through playing shows together.  He was in another band.  The rest of us met in school.

T: What do you think sets you apart from other bands at home because L.A. is pretty much a cesspool for both independent and commercial bands? What is the reception you get in L.A. when you play shows?  Is it mostly people that know you that come out to see you and is it positive?
J:  The last show that we had at home was awesome, at the Troubadour.  It is definitely not all people we know because we don’t have that many friends, but it has taken three years to build up a following there.
A: It takes a lot to impress people in L.A. because there are so many bands.
J: There are a million bands playing every night of the week, you know what I mean? 
A: Most of them are boring and every band that signs to a major label is in town doing their showcases for the suits and ties and shit so it takes a lot to get people to come out and see a band play.

T: Has anybody from a major label ever approached you about putting a record out on their label?
J: Yes, but no one has given us a check so…
T: Is that something that would interest you?
J: Hell yeah, we are not indie elitists at all.  We are not about…I don’t give a fuck.  We are musicians, you know what I mean?  We make music.  I don’t care if a small country needs to be blown up in order for us to put out our records.  I just want to get in the studio and have enough time to do what I want to do.

T: Were you happy with Mono then or do you feel like you didn’t have enough time to do what you had intended to do?
J: We didn’t have enough time to do what we intended to do, but I think it is a cool documentation of what we were doing at the time.  I like the way it came out, it came out really raw.
A: It sounds like a demo to us almost, like a rough idea of what we wanted to do, but we didn’t have the time to execute.  Ofcourse everytime we listen to it we hear all the miniscule flaws, but that’s the way it is live too.
J:  Plus, the songs are always changing.  The songs have changed so much since we recorded the record.  It’s not like the book is ever really shut on any of the songs.  A recording is really just a documentation of where we were at at that period.  We may even record the songs over again and do them differently.  I mean live we’ve changed a lot of them to different things so…

T: Has anybody ever written anything about you in the press or have you heard any gossip about your band that was just totally false or funny?
A: Band references always tend to be way off.  Not to say that we are like the Beatles or anything or that we are some crazy original thing, but people can’t really pigeonhole us into a certain thing so they will cite band names that don’t really seem to make much sense.

T: What are the top three bands that people have said you’ve sounded like that you don’t see at all?
J: The Refused or At The Drive in…ask Alvin.  Alvin, what is the most ridiculous band that we’ve been compared to in a review that you think has no basis?
A: Not that those bands are bad bands.
T: They just don’t sound like you guys...
Alvin DeGuzman (guitar): At The Drive In.
A: I don’t see it.
Alvin: Pearl Jam.
Travis (Buddyhead): Somebody said you guys are like Guns N' Roses the other night.  It was that promoter from the Fireside.
A: I don’t see that either, but…or even The Stooges. To me I don’t think we sound like The Stooges.  They are a huge favorite of ours and we’ve covered their songs, but I don’t think we sound like them.  Maybe the vibe kind of transcends you know and corresponds.
J:  We take our ethic from The Stooges and fuse it into what we do a little bit.
T: Do you think you get tagged with comparisons to those bands because of the live show more than because of the sound?
J: Yeah, definitely.

T: What is a safe distance to stand from the stage at one of your shows?
A: We don’t hurt people.
J: I’d rather make out with the audience than fucking beat them up.  Well, most of the time.
A: We’re not out to like hurt anybody.  We just play as hard as we can.  We’ve all been sick a lot so the point is that if you play as hard as you can you sweat it out and will get better a lot quicker.  You can sweat the cold off.  We sit in this van and we’re cramped up and our legs are cramped up and do shitty drives.  We did one that was 24 hours long so when you get that half hour to play you just want to play as hard as shit.
T: If for nothing else then to be out of the van?
J: Yeah.

T: Are you guys going to be wearing the black clothes with the red ties tonight?
J: You will have to hang around to find out.  Wait and see, wait and see.
T: Have you guys beaten up the Alkaline Trio for coping your style?
J: Actually, that guy came to two of our shows and I just found out after the shows.
Travis: He smoked you guys out in Chicago.
J: So yeah, I know who that fucking guy is.  He sucked Travis off one night so we are kind of calling it even.
A:  That isn’t as bad as that band Kittie.  That girl band.  There is this band called The Start that we know that goes to see our shows and shit and one of the guys does that, wears the back shirt and the red tie.  That band Kittie we know for a fact has said that they are fans of The Icarus Line and we have it on tape and shit too.
J: We do?
A: Yeah, we have it on tape.  I guess in their promo photos and their videos too certain band members are wearing the black shirts and red ties, but I guess it is OK because they’re Canadian.  They don’t know any better.  I’m kidding.

T: Why did you guys start doing that?  Is it…I’ve read what other people have written and I don’t want to ask the same questions over again and sound like a tool, but it seems like it is to create some obvious dissimilarity between you guys and the audience.
J: That and the fact that we’re not trying to advertise other bands by wearing their shirts and we’re not trying to have a fashion show by showing people what clothes we wear.  It is to take the focus off of us and put it on the music more than anything.

T: Are there other bands that have a dress code that you admire?
J: Yeah, the Animals…all the old sixties bands.  The Velvet Underground and other bands had a cool style.  I really don’t think we look that cool.  It is just a means to an end more than anything.

Lance Arnao (bass) starts playing Mono over the van's stereo.

A: Turn that off.
J: He’s playing it for some guy trying to get him to stay for the show.  He’s got a Eulogy Records shirt on.

T: Are there places you like to play better than others?
J: I like playing San Francisco. 
A: Seattle’s cool.  Vancouver is cool.
T: Do you drink at the Cha Cha before you play in Seattle?  Have you ever been there?
J: No, well actually that is the one place.  We went there after a show.
T: I heard it is disgusting, but it is fun to go over every once in a while.
Travis: That is the place where the guy from the Make Up got his ass kicked.
T: Who beat him up?
Travis: The guys from Murder City.  He was pissed he couldn’t get on the guest list or something like that.  Then Spencer said something and was being a jackass or something on stage. Then he came back and slapped Spencer or something so the other guys from Murder City kicked his ass.

T: How do you guys usually hook up with the bands that you go out with?  Are they friends of yours already or do you…
A: Usually.  We knew Cave In somewhat.
J: Not really.  We haven’t really known any of the bands that we went on tour with except for Ink and Dagger.  International Noise Conspiracy…I’m not sure how that happened.  Did they just ask us to do it or what?A: I don’t know.

T: Are there any bands that you’ve gone out with that you hated?
A: Cave In.  No, I’m just kidding.  Cave In is great.  We’ve never hated any of the bands that we’ve toured with.
J: We don’t tour with bands we don’t like.
T: They are all people with similar…
J: They are all bands that we respect.
T: Would you ever put yourself in a position where you had to do something that you didn’t want to do to be out?
J: No, we’d just go be ourselves and do the tour that way.
A: Like if we were going to get a tour with fucking Dashboard Confessional or whatever.  Would those kids give a fuck anyway?
J: Hey Lance can we stop listening to our band?  We are listening to our own band and that’s all we do because we are only influenced by ourselves.

Laughter

T: So, the Icarus Line is a great big musical vacuum.
J:  Seriously though, in the van we listen to a lot of Flying Burrito Brothers, Venom and Aaron is into System of A Down right now.

T: Do you get along pretty well on the road.
(simultaneously) J: No. A: Yes.
J: We used to fight a lot more.
A: For some reason we always fight when we play here.  When we play here we always have a fight.

T: How many times have you been to Cincinnati?  Well, I know you’ve been here once before.  Have you played Columbus yet?
J: Yeah.
A: We played on some big silly stage there didn’t we?
J: Yeah, there was a Springfest with the White Stripes and Delta 72.  It was pretty fun.
T: Had you played outside before?
J: I don’t know.  The sound kind of sucked.|
T:  But, they had the big rockstar ten out right for you guys to drink in?
A: No, but we got free ice cream all day.
J:  They had some food downstairs, but we stole it all when we left.  It was awesome.

Travis: Tell him about what happened last night.
T: In Toledo? Toledo is nasty.
J: Last night was kind of crazy. 
A: The singer from Cave In decided that he couldn’t play the show because his voice was cutting out because he’d been sick.  So, me and Joe came onstage and played “Breed” the Nirvana song and then I exited and the Joe did “Dazed and Confused” with them.
J: It was a good time.  The crowd was going off. The whole thing was pretty spontaneous.  Besides that it has been a good tour.|

A: I cut my head open on this tour.
T: How? Did someone hit you with a guitar or something?
A: No we were playing in Minneapolis and I hit my head on this light that was hanging over the stage.  During the last song I jumped into it and cut a three inch gash on my head so I had to go to the emergency room and get stitches.  I still haven’t taken them out of my head. I had to give a fake name.

T: Do you guys work at home?
J: Work, like jobs?
T: Yeah.
J: I occasionally work in a gallery hanging art and doing construction.  Alvin is an accountant at Trader Joe’s healthfood store. Lance works at the gallery with me to and does all kinds of other weird shit.  Sells drugs.

Lance yells out the window L: The Icarus Line is kick ass. You WANT to come!

T:  How many times have you been to the emergency room while you were on tour?
J: I went to the emergency room while I was in Germany because I got deathly ill, but that was a tour with F Minus.  I think that’s it.  We’ve had people in jail.
A: Surprisingly enough, we get hurt a lot when we play, but we try to avoid that cause none of us have insurance…
J: And it is just a bitch.  How many hours were we down there?
A: We sat there for two hours and then sat in the emergency room.  I had a gaping hole and they shot my head like seven times.  It took way to long.
T: After you hit your head you just kept playing?
A: It was the last song.  It was the very end.
J: It was very climactic.
T: Johnny from The Blood Brothers got nearly knocked out when they played in Columbus. Their guitar player swung his guitar around and nearly knocked him out.  He had blood coming from his head the entire time, but still played ten or eleven other songs.
A: I think the other band opening the show tonight is associated with the Blood Brothers.  They’re on the same label or something.
J: They signed to Ross Robinson’s label, the man responsible for Limp Bizkit and Slipknot.

T: Didn’t you guys record at his place though?
J: No, that was a misprint.  He offered us to and we were like, “fuck off.”

T: Where did you record then?
A: Two different places in Hollywood.  One place was a total dump.  They were just hole in the walls but they had nice gear.

T:  I think that is it...
A: If you have any questions after the show let us know.