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No Holds Barred
Matt from RANCID interview

"Everyone wants to put a label… 'IT’S MONOTONOUS!' You know, I think the good bands will do well and the bad band won’t. I think it’s a natural selection and I… we don’t really think that way. There’s a lot of great bands out there. I don’t really think that way, I like the bands I like and I worry about those bands and that’s it. You know, those generalizations… "IT’S MONOTONOUS!" … "Okay! It’s still good!" What isn’t fucking monotonous, you know what I mean? I don’t really know how to answer that… I don’t think so."

Matt Freeman, bassist and a vocalist for RANCID, expresses his no-holds-barred views clearly, his opinions of "new music" are no exception.

Founded in 1991, Matt Freeman and Tim Armstrong, the band’s primary songwriter, were childhood friends, and with them drummer Brett Reed set the foundation for the band. They added second guitarist, Lars Fredriksen, shortly before the recording of their first album. The beginning seemed shaky.

"Our first show? Oh, we played a party in Oakland and it was pretty nerve-wracking. It was the first time we played, I think we had a 20 minute set, and we didn’t really know our songs that well, but we just fucking did it. It was crazy… it was late, late ’91… like right at the end of the year, right after Christmas."

"It’s a lot different [on the road]. I mean, when we first started we were in a band… with four of us and a roadie… in a windowless Ford van that’s actually still running. We managed to keep it up. We actually gave it to this punk band in Berkley. It can’t really tour anymore, it’s got rods knocking on it. I don’t know… I think I’m going to get the motor rebuilt. That’s my project at the end of the tour, I think I’m going to do it myself… which will probably take me about 3 years. Because I have no idea what I’m doing."What will probably happen is I’ll get the motor apart, Brett will come and save me… really pissed off… and I’ll have to buy him stuff.

"It’s different. We started off and we’ve gradually built up and we’re doing stuff like this now. Yeah… so, it’s a lot different. We have a little bigger crew, it’s a little easier. But we did our time as a band, so I’ve got no problems with it… we paid our dues. So it’s a lot different.

"We also got a lot of records out. I mean, the first record, no one really knew what it was. They thought we were going to play "Operation Ivy" songs, we didn’t. Yeah, it’s a lot different.

The ability to laugh at oneself is key and he grins as he starts talking about the less spectacular moves he’s made whilst on stage.

"I’m not really a crazy guy. I’ve fallen a lot. My latest one was very embarrassing. We were playing in Italy, we were headlining a festival… and Italian television was taping it. The first song I jumped up and fell flat on my ass… on my back… and then I couldn’t get up. The guitar tech was trying to help me and he fell too. It looked like a fucking episode of the "Three Stooges"… it was really bad. The band didn’t stop, of course. They just turned their heads and pretended not to notice. So that was the stupidest thing I’ve done.

"I got my nose broken on stage. I’ve knocked myself cold by jumping into speaker cabinets, that was pretty interesting. That sucked, actually. I was trying to cut a wire before we went on once and I spit my thumb open. I had to play… I had to tape the pick to my hand because I was bleeding all over the place. I played sick where I’ve thrown up in a bucket in back of the amp. I’ve played after getting my nose broken at a show the night before... that was pretty fun. So, mostly injuries are the craziest things I’ve done. I’m not really crazy."  The grin gets wider as he admits, "Tim and Lars, on the other hand… they’re… they do some pretty wild shit."

Matt Freeman took a few minutes out of the Warped Tour to speak to IPO…

IP: So why the Warped Tour?

M: It was our first… well… our record came out like basically when it started and we knew that was going to happen. So we got asked to do and we thought it would be great. I mean, you’ve got all these great bands… it would be a great first tour for this record.

Then on a purely… we couldn’t have done our own tour in the US with this around. All these bands, which we really didn’t consider… it wasn’t like "Oh, we have to do it." We really wanted to do it and it worked out well.

IP: You’re getting a lot of exposure this way?

M: I guess so. It’s all been just fun… it’s a fun tour.

IP: How do you feel about the relationship with Epitaph Records? In previous interviews you’ve said it was really good… sort of family… very cared for… is that still true?

M: Yeah. Epitaph is really good. The nice thing about Epitaph is they let you do what the fuck you want to do. I mean, an example is like this record. We had this reputation of putting out records really quick. I mean, we did three records in two and a half years and we toured on every one of them. We worked pretty hard. This record we want to sit back and take some time and they were like "No, put it out now." And we said, "No, we’ll call you when it’s done... it’ll probably be in a little bit." They were like fine with it, they were like, "All right." That’s the best part of it, and they give us one-record deals, so we don’t have to worry about the next record. They let us do whatever we want. I mean, they don’t reject anything, they don’t come in and go, "Write another ‘Roots Radical’" or "Write another ‘Ruby Soho’." They always let us do what we want to do, and that’s the best part about Epitaph Records.

IP: I understand that you’re doing/have done a song for the CLASH tribute record. How did that come about?

M: Yeah, I’m not really sure. Whoever was putting it together asked us to do it and we did it. We recorded it last year. We recorded "Cheat." We were very happy that someone asked us to do that, considering we get compared to the fucking CLASH every day of the week… might as well do it. The CLASH is a great band, we’re very happy to do that.

IP: There’s word out on the newsgroups that you’re participating in a Manson stop-action film.

M: (laughter) Yeah… yeah, that’s… yeah… a friend of ours in LA who’s putting together something and that’s all I’m going to say about it. It’s his deal, I’ll let him talk about it.

He shakes his head, laughing still.

M: I’m sorry… what was Manson what?

IP: Charles Manson… it was a stop motion.

M: Oh, like a cartoon… yeah… that’s what it was. You’ll see. (laughter) It’s not our deal… you’ll see.

IP: Is there anyone else you’d like to work with or play with?

M: I’ll play with anybody, really. I would love to be… my problem is that I like to play bass and most bands have bass players. I could never go in and take anybody’s gig. I like working with Exene [of X] a lot. I’ll work with her any day of the week. I don’t know. If any band on Hellcat, if their bass player accidentally hurt themselves and I had to fill it… I’d do it in a second. But only if they said it was okay. I’d love to play in THE SLACKERS, but don’t tell Marcus that (laughter).

IP: You recently did a song for the Playstation game, Extremes… how did that come about?

M: They asked us and we did it.

IP: Are you all going to be playing on the Australian Warped Tour?

M: No, we won’t.

IP: You mentioned that you guys gave a van to an up-and-coming punk band in Berkley. Does RANCID, as a whole, have a tendency to mentor up-and-coming bands.

M: Oh yeah. Look at Hellcat Records. He’s got all those bands going. Yeah, we try to help out who we can help out. The whole van thing is… I had this van and RANCID toured in it, and this band needed it… a good friend of mine. I just gave it to him. I said, "Take it on tour." And that was it.

Yeah, Hellcat Records is a help… and Lars is producing a lot of bands.

He begins talking about a personal favourite artist, Exene, who he’s also had the opportunity to work with and others who have influenced him.

M: I had to quit [working with her] last summer because RANCID started getting heavy into the recording. RANCID was getting heavy into recording and she wanted to go on tour. I could’ve done it, but RANCID is the main thing and I’ve got to concentrate on that. No, she’s doing X again and they’re doing a reunion.

X [inspired me], of course. As far a bass playing, THE WHO. John Entwhistle was my fucking idol when I was like 14. And a lot of other bands, too.

I get inspired by bands like the DROP KICK MURPHYS or again with all the Hellcat bands. I’m inspired by bands that work. I like ALL, for instance. I don’t know if you’ve seen their set up, but they been doing it forever. I get inspired by bands that keep doing it and really work hard at it. That’s what inspires me.

IP: What are your plans for after the tour?

M: Ten days off, go to Europe for a few days. Then do some US dates again. Tour, tour, tour… that’s about all we got going here.

IP: Is there a community within the Warped Tour?

M: Yeah, very much so. Every night there’s like a bar-b-que and everyone… it’s like going to work every day, in a weird way. It’s like you get here to the site and you drive over night and you see the same people and say "Hey, how ya doing?" I’m really going to miss it when it’s done.   

But, then, there’s recording…

M: Well, to mix it up a bit. All of our records have been done in a studio for a number of days or weeks, just locked in. We just wanted to try something different. Take some time on it… record different places because we could. I don’t know if we’ll do it for the next record, we’ll see, but for this record that’s what we wanted to do. 

IP: You’ve got quite a following on the internet. How do you feel about that as a medium to spread the word?

M: I guess it’s okay. I don’t own a computer and I don’t know anything about it really. I think it’s a good thing, I guess. I’m really… I missed the whole computer thing. I don’t know anything about it. I like to read… paper. I don’t even like TV news.

M: [I read] Newspapers... I read fanzines. Now I’ve got a fucking stack of them now (laughter). I read books. I read newspapers everyday. I get like five fucking newspapers at my house. I’m kind of like a newspaper-addict. I don’t know why.

IP: Current event news.

M: Yeah.

And the band’s fans? How do they affect him?

M: The only time it affects me… the photographers I’m used to. It’s like, what are you going to do? You just don’t look at them. Usually they’re here and if you get blinded by a flash you’re fucked… it’s worse at night. As far as crowd surfing and stuff, I think it’s fine. The only thing that bugs me is when the mother fuckers who don’t know how to stage dive go feet first and hit some kid in the head.You get a lot of injuries that way and it really pisses me off. It’s like a professional thing. You’ve got to be professional about it. You get up there, you figure out who’s going to catch you, and then you gently dive so someone will catch you. If you’re fucking 300 pounds and go feet first with like Doc Martens on, you hurt somebody… it’s like Jesus Christ… that’s what pisses me off. Otherwise… there’s a way to do… if they do it right, it’s fine.

Indie Press Online would like to thank Nasty Little Man, RANCID, and Matt Freeman...