Careless Music

The FM Knives don't care. They don't care if you ever hear their music or get to see them play a show. They don't care if they get to play with some important band. They don't care if anyone likes their music at all. But a most unexpected thing happened to the band who didn't give a shit. People did hear them and they loved them. The first time I heard their debut album, "Useless and Modern" (Broken Rekkids), it reminded me so much of why I had grown to hate most punk rock and it was because it didn't sound like FM Knives. Since the release of "Useless and Modern" FM Knives have received a watershed of critical praise for their catchy, post-Oi, punk rock tunes. FM Knives are part of a small group of punk bands that actually matter right now in these times of the past catching up with the present. FM Knives are a self-professed bar band who's managed to make it out of the local pub scene to play many west-coast cities and have recently gone coast to coast this past Spring. Hailing from the most un-California of all of California's major cities, Sacramento, the band have broken through their "landlocked" location but still don't really care where everything goes from here.

I had the privilege of getting drunk with the band before their show at the Beachland Tavern in Cleveland and then getting to see what could turn out to be a rare mid western performance. After the show they let me grill them on the singular focus of much of the bands media, the state of punk rock, and art in music.

Names: Jason (vocals), Chris (guitar), Ed (drums), Zack (bass)
Band: FM Knives

Interview conducted in person by Dan Rizer.

BW: So how did FM Knives get started?

Ed: At a karaoke bar.
Jason: There was this Korean karaoke bar called the XO, and the bar got tired of doing it (karaoke). So they had this big backlog of songs, so me and Ed would just sit up at the bar drinking and singing all these songs, like:
(both singing) Congratulations... (laughter)
E: So there I was sitting at the bar and Jason came up and asked if I wanted to join a band with Chris and Zack and I just said sure.
Chris: There was a preliminary discussion about it at an In and Out drive through near the karaoke bar.
E: Yeah, it was karaoke night. It's funny how we all remember that exact same moment. It was the collective moment, it's a weird thing. So they asked me and I was their friend so I said yeah, fuck yeah.
C: I was in a band with Jason before called the Pretty Girls, I was the drummer in that band. I finished the album with tennis elbow and quit the band and was kind of bored and wanted to start another side band... Sacramento side band number 853... we're all part of a family tree here. (laughter)
J: It's only funny if you're local, otherwise it's a boring joke.

BW: You guys have been in quite a few bands prior to FM Knives, what bands were those?

E: Uhm... Nar, Pretty Girls, and that's about it.
J: Chris was in Karate Party. A bunch of other crappy bands.
E: Yeah a bunch of crap bands, none of them are worth mentioning, none ever made it out here.

BW: So how do you guys go about writing your songs?

C: It's sort of democratic. Sometimes I've got a guitar thing, sometimes Zack's got a bass thing. Jason always writes the words, and that's pretty much how it goes.

BW: What is the music scene like in Sacramento for a band like yourselves?

J: There's this horrible band there called the Bananas, avoid at all costs.
E: They'll rip you off
J: And they're white power (laughter)
C: Oh, no (still laughing)
J: They're yellow... actually they're yellow power, not white power. We're Operation Ivy. (laughter)
E: I don't know, there's not really a scene. It's all just so local. You end up just playing with all your friends bands and everyone just knows each other.
J: There's us, and the Bananas, and the Four Eyes and some other bands. We're all friends and we just sit around and drink and start bands.
E: We really don't play in Sacramento all that often. We play San Francisco a lot more actually.

BW: So what are ethics involved with FM Knives? Do you guys have any interest in politics and modern issues at all or is more about fun?

E: We practice a lot and we're real serious about practicing. Which is rare for any bands we've been in. Usually band practices for those bands would be meet at the designated time but add a half an hour. Drink for 2 hours, play for 20 minutes and then drink some more.
C: Our ethics are basically drinking, but we do get a lot done too.
E: We're productive and we're a drinking band.

BW: So you consider yourselves a drinking band then?

E: Of course.
J: We're so conceited that our personal problems are our politics and we think everyone should treat them as politics.
E: But seriously, we work hard at this band... comparatively.

BW: It seems right now that punk music is getting to be at an all time commercial high. Could you ever see FM Knives getting any sort of cross over mainstream exposure?

C: We're really happy it's that high.
J: We really like the Jimmy Eats World and those bands.
E: I like Blink and Sugar Ray.
J: That's who we listen to pretty much, those are our biggest influences. (laughter)
E: ....No, I don't know about that. It's good I guess, those bands just do their thing.

BW: Is this just something that you totally disassociate yourselves with?

E: Well, yeah...

BW: You could never see yourselves playing the Warped Tour or anything like that.

E: If somebody offered us enough money to do it...
J: We wouldn't play the Warped Tour. That would involve us having to play outside in daylight. (laughter)
E: We know bands that play the Warped Tour.
C: I personally am glad that I'm old and ugly enough to never have to worry about it.

BW: What's your take on bands that go that route?

E: More power to them if they can get paid you know. We would never start a band with that intention.
J: I think the mark of a good band is commercial success. (laughter)
E: This whole interview is sarcasm. (laughter)
J: No seriously, those are the best bands. I'm just so sick of bands trying to say something. Just shut up and play good songs like Good Charlotte.
E: We know bands that are now of a multi-million dollar status and bands like us and all those big bands started just like us.
J: The way we look at it is that the only bands worth listening to are bands that use ProTools. (laughter)

BW: Nearly all of the press that I've read about FM Knives says that you guys recall the early days of the UK punk movement and the Buzzcocks.

C: I guess a lot of it has to do with the born tenor of Jason's voice, but songwriting wise we draw from everyone but them (the Buzzcocks).
J: It all has to do with the fact that the only band we listen to is the Buzzcocks. (laughter) And we're actually from Manchester. It took us forever to finally sound like them.

BW: What do you think about all these bands like Wire, the Buzzcocks, and Stiff Little Fingers reforming and writing new material and touring.

J: Well, when Wire started they were already a reform band. They were already older than us.
E: Stiff Little Fingers... I love them and I really don't want to hear the new stuff.
J: I want to see how Foxton's mullet is going. (laughter)
E: It nice that they do it but I really don't want to hear it. It's just not legitimate anymore.
J: It just so sad really. I really wanted to see Sham 69 and Menace but they do these tours where they only play for like 15 minutes and they play 3 songs.
E: I love all that old music, that's how I learned how to play drums was from listening to those bands. That may have something to do with how we sound, but our songwriting doesn't come from that stuff at all.

BW: Do you ever think punk music could ever be as vital as it was back then.

C: Those bands didn't know it was that important at the time.
E: It's really all what you make it.
J: All those bands just wanted to be the Kinks. They were just bored, they didn't have anything better to do. I don't think they were on any sort of mission... there wasn't a thesis with any of those bands... well maybe with Wire there was.
E: They played it and the people just came. Do you think the Heatbreakers had some political agenda? Who by the way is our other favorite band.
C: Especially "Mud Crutch" era Heartbreakers.

BW: Are there any current bands that you guys feel a kinship towards?

E: Sugar Ray.
J: Not really, no. I mean there's lots of little bands
E: Now all these bands are getting paid immediately. Things just go into production and it's totally out of their hands.

BW: Well you guys just toured with A-Frames...

E: Well yeah, but I mean there's no big bands or anything...

BW: I don't care about big bands, just good bands.

C: Really just the bands in Sacramento, our friends bands are who we relate to.
E: We all have a different idea of the bands that we'd like to play with. On this tour I haven't really enjoyed any of the bands we've played with at all. But these guys like different bands than I do.
J: Yeah, I enjoyed seeing the Spits play, the Tirades. I enjoy going on tour to see all these different bands play. Then we get to drink with the bands and do shots with them.
E: I like that part better than watching them.
J: I don't want to listen to all these bands after a tour. That's not saying anything bad about their music or that our music is better or whatever. It's just cool that there's all these bands that are fun to party with and hang out with and we remember each other's first names and stuff.
E: We're from pretty far away, we're isolated from all of this. Out here you can hit up 10 major cities in 10 days and we have to drive 10 days just to get to Fargo. It's different. We're not surrounded by Chicago and Detroit and Cincinnati.
C: We've never done the circuit before. This is our first time doing the East Coast touring thing.
E: We drive an hour and a half once a month to play San Francisco and that's pretty much all we do. Otherwise we drive 800 miles to fucking Portland or 600 miles to L.A.

BW: So how did Useless and Modern come about?

C: Uhm... we decided to start a rock n' roll band. We practiced for one year. We wrote 15 songs and then paired it down to 13. We recorded the album at our little practice space and that was that.
E: We put it out and I just thought well that's done and then we started hearing that people actually liked it. I was just thinking are you serious?
J: We've thought it was pretty entertaining. We didn't think anyone would like it.
E: If we knew what it was going to be when we did it then it would have never been the album that it is.
C: We didn't think we'd be playing any Chicago shows because of that record.
J: We recorded in a place where we've been spinning our wheels in bands forever. It was the same spot that we'd always played in and I didn't think we'd ever do it again honestly.

BW: How does it feel to be a band of music fans having fans yourselves now?

E: It's pretty cool... it's really cool. It's just really cool to come to a place like Cleveland and meet 10 people who like our band.
C: We're still at that point where the only people who've heard us are those that chase down weird records so we can personally relate to the people who find us.
E: It's really something cool. It's what we do to bands that we like who come to Sacramento.
J: But you know what we wouldn't do? We wouldn't try to trade records with a touring band.
C: No.
J: I'm so fucking sick of that. How presumptuous is it to assume that a band that came 80,000 miles is going to want your record?
C: Give them $5 for baking a cake.
J: Considering the fact that we played Boston for $80. The girl who did it acted like she was really doing us this huge favor.
E: That's 3,100 miles from Sacramento and there's 90 people there who paid $6 a head. Thanks for the $80. (laughter) Not that it's about the money or anything, but the clubs appreciation of bands has really dropped and they think they're really doing you a favor by giving you anything at all.
C: It's like that AC/DC song "It's a long way to the top..."

BW: Do you have any ambitions to get to that point?

J: No, we don't have any ambitions.
C: We all have good jobs. We have lives. I have a cat.
E: We would not be doing this if we had ambitions.
J: The most depressing thing in the world is a 30 year old with ambitions. (laughter)
E: This thing has always been brutal. We always fight and we argue and there's always drama, but we do it cause we love to. It's all gravy really. Every time someone buys a record it's just luck. We really didn't put any effort into the album. It's the people that are listening to it that make it what it is. It probably means more to a lot of them than it does to me. It's out of our hands now. When we're up on stage... we've played the same songs 12 nights in a row now. It's not about us, it's about the people that paid money to see us.

BW: What are your thoughts about a lot of these bands that are sort of self-important, and it is about the band or the music. Like a lot of the more avant-garde....

E: Fuck that shit. I hate it. I hate arty bands, I hate all these self-important bands.
J: We do hate art. Seriously, I'm not trying to be witty or sarcastic here, we really do hate art.
E: I'm sick of all these bands who wear skinny ties. We like songwriting. We like melodies, we like songs. We don't like (starts banging on the table)

BW: Not to start a debate here, but as someone who likes those types of bands...

C: Okay, just for the record, I am the guy who likes art bands. I like the artier stuff.
E: I like Stiff Little Fingers he likes Gang Of Four.
C: I like the Boredoms.
J: The thing that gets to me is all these arty bands who think they're as good as the Fall. They just go about it like they're just so fucking charming and angry and they're not, they're following a template.
C: We've seen a lot of art on tour that just wasn't pulling it off.
E: Too many bands with synthesizers and movies projected behind them.
C: Too many bands dressed as birthday cakes just not pulling it off.
J: It's not like (self mocking) "Oh they don't sound like the Buzzcocks, we hate them" Most of these bands just aren't doing anything new and there's just nothing to it.
C: There is good challenging arty stuff out there right now...
J: Yeah there is, we just haven't gotten booked with it this tour.
E: If you don't have a bass in a band, fuck off. If you have two drummers take a fucking hike. Everybody else in the band loves the Dirtbombs, I think they suck shit. The Grateful Dead had two drummers and we'll leave it at that.
J: Basically Arthur Alexander had a bass player, so everyone should have one. God forbid I should say that Arthur Alexander are better than fucking Comets On Fire.
C: Oh, naming names.
J: Yeah, now Comets On Fire are going to come get us. You probably shouldn't get us going on this.

BW: So what's coming up for you guys, any releases, tours...?

E: An album
C: We're halfway through writing a new album and after that we start flying to all our shows. The next time we come out here we'll play Milwaukee, Chicago and Detroit and then just fly home. (laughter) Then we'll fly to Boston and New York for two days and fly home.
E: We can't take anymore of this van shit.
J: I've actually learned a lot about myself on this tour... no I haven't.
E: It's really the only way we can do it. We all have responsibilities back home, we have jobs. We're not 20 year olds anymore.
J: Yeah, it really sucks that this all happened in our 30's. We all met when we were in our 20's but this couldn't have happened then. We wouldn't have been writing what we're writing now.

BW: Since you guys claim to have no aspirations at all is there anything you guys hope to accomplish?

J: A deli tray.
E: A rider?
J: I think it would be really great to get towels after a show. (laughter)
C: My aspiration would be that our second record be as good as the first.
E: Yeah, I mean that's really what this is all about.
C: The problem with our first record is that we've heard some good press about it and that was when we made the album as a joke and we were just spinning our wheels as band. Now we have to go and write a new album and it's a totally different perspective. We had this hopelessness when we did the first record and it really was just an accident. But since we've been getting totally ripped every night of the tour there's a good chance the second record will be good.
J: All the bands in Sacramento go about this the same way. You put out a record with some good songs on it and maybe a couple hundred people will like it. You barely ever play out and you never think about these big tours or a Warped Tour or whatever.
C: It's more fun to play 10 times a year than 200.
J: I think TV Personalities is sort of the blueprint for all the decent Sacramento bands.
E: Nobody ever thinks about playing outside of San Francisco, we're just so landlocked. It's really all about practice, playing with your friends. We just go to practice and forget about everything.