Interview: Fucked Up @ Clark Hall Pub, Saturday
Fucked Up are like that neighbourhood kid everyone always knew was talented but never thought would make it. Hailing from Toronto, Fucked Up announced their arrival in 2001 with a series of intense live shows. After a few lineup changes, Fucked Up quickly recorded a demo tape and then dropped the No Pasaran seven-inch in 2002. A steady barrage of singles followed, including Police in 2003 and Looking for Gold, one of the most sought after modern punk releases, in 2004. It was clear that Fucked Up had the goods, but would they ever get it together and put out a full length?
Cut to November 2006, when Fucked Up—consisting of vocalist, Pink Eyes; lead guitarist, 10,000 Marbles; rhythm guitarist, Gulag; bassist, Laundry a.k.a. Mustard Gas; and drummer, Mr. Jo—released their long-awaited full-length Hidden World on Jade Tree Records.
An entirely different animal than their other releases, these songs were melodic, well produced and substantially longer, with each song averaging five minutes long. The critics loved it, and while some of the punk community resisted, most eagerly ate it up.
Interviews and articles in everything from Eye Weekly to The Globe and Mail soon followed.
Fresh off a stint opening for Alexisonfire, a tour of Europe and a highly publicized gig on MTV Canada, Fucked Up’s star is definitely on the rise. As for how they’ve been handling this recent influx of media attention, the band will just take it as it comes. “We’re basically trying to keep our feet out of mouths,” said 10,000 Marbles in an interview with the Journal. “The most annoying thing about bands who get a bit bigger is the constant need to somehow validate their new decisions by self-deprecating themselves—like the classic ‘I know this thing we’re doing is lame, but … ,’ or the era of ‘MySpace sucks, but … .’ We do things like MTV with our full gusto and that’s why they turn out well for us. We aren’t in denial about anything,” he said. “However, we realize that magazines and newspapers need fresh content and I guess now we’re a part of that. We understand that not every interview is the result of the journalist loving your band, but it’s often simply about filling a page, which is fine.”
This earnestness is what has gotten Fucked Up where they are today, and their continued sincere yet laid-back approach has allowed them to keep a level head about their recent success.
But don’t let their chilled demeanour fool you into thinking they aren’t completely serious about this band. “We work hard on our band, but we aren’t uptight about anything, and we just roll with what happens. Like, there isn’t much that is going to faze us at this point.” Marbles is wary of their fans’
reaction to all their recent press, though. For him, the fans are still the reason he makes music. Without that , Fucked Up’s music, as well as the band , would just be a joke.
“It’s important. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t fly on airplanes to play in other countries, because I fucking hate flying on airplanes. Sure, it’s harder to play when the crowd isn’t getting into it.
“When no one is visibly showing any reaction to the performance, what goes through my head is one of the following: ‘Okay, this sucks, everyone hates this, we are playing terribly, I feel like a clown or a standup comedian, what am I doing here, I hate punk and I hate performing.’ Or I think: ‘This is hilarious, no one is into us at all, this is amazing, these people are all cretins, fuck this’ and then I just fuck around onstage and laugh at myself.”
While Fucked Up may be here to blow the doors off of any venue, they’re certainly not concerned about playing the role of a saviour, whether that be to a specific scene, or punk in general.
“We honestly don’t consider ourselves part of the punk movement or any part of the music scene in Canada. I don’t think anyone expects us to be saviours of anything and hopefully we’ve spent enough time trying to distance ourselves from any type of history or movement.”
This distancing is demonstrated by the stiff middle finger they’ve flipped to conventional punk elitism and scene politics, choosing instead to make the most of every opportunity, ‘punk approved’ or not. Case in point: the aforementioned MTV appearance. “We played on MTV because we thought it would be fun, and it was, and that’s the end of it. I don’t think as a result more people are going to buy our record, but I don’t care, because it really wasn’t about that.
“We got to eat free food all day, meet Henry Rollins, play out of large rented amps and then got to create a bit of 21st-centurystyle post-modern ‘chaos’ on live television for four minutes. It was great,” he said.
“We just do what we think will be fun and temporarily enrich our lives or at least the lives of other people. I think what confuses a lot of punk bands is that they think there is a strict moral code to punk
and that there are all these things that they aren’t allowed to take part in, but we think there are no limitations.
“I mean, either a band can be manipulated by the music industry, or the band can attempt to manipulate the music industry.” Fucked Up’s gig on Saturday at Clark Hall Pub looks to be a who’s
who in the up and coming world of Canadian punk, with appearances by fellow Torontonians Black
Spokes, Quebec d-beat band Cobra Noir and local act Velvet Claws. “To be honest, I’ve never heard any of the other bands on the show. But it isn’t going to be just another show, because I have to
work at 7 a.m. on Sunday morning and I’m not going to get back to Toronto until 4 a.m. I’m planning on playing everything extra fast.”
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Kingston Punk Productions presents Fucked Up tomorrow night at Clark Hall Pub with Black Spokes, Cobra Noir and Velvet Claws. Tickets are $10 at the door only. Doors open at 8 p.m., and it’s a 19+ show.
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