The Descendents

So what Better place to start than with Milo and the boys. From issue number one, our interview with the Descendents. I am doing my best to control myself and leave the copy as it was published, typos and all. Interview was originally published sometime in the early 90s (I think around 93) and was done by Kevin and Kira . Get a cup of coffee and enjoy. - NV

The night started simple enough. We met at a local tavern for a few warm ups. The Electric Ballroom is notorious for high priced drinks. As one downed smoother than the other we realized the show was approaching. We loaded into the car and made way for the Ballroom where the DESCENDENTS would be playing. We arrived at the Ballroom with a half hour till the DESCENDENTS would go on. We worked it into the backstage to witness the ritualistic consumption of coffee by one of the best bands to tear it up for at least the last 20 years. Before the set (so we thought) We pummeled a few questions into the DESCENDENTS and found out as much as anyone would want to know about the history and happenings of the band. 

MOISST: First of all what brought the DESCENDENTS back together?


DESCENDENTS: Well just having a good time. Milo had a bunch of songs and got a hold of us. We thought it was kind of a cool thing because Milo has always been kinda on an open door type if he’s got some ideas together he’ll usually get together with us and the machine starts rolling.

MOISST: I was wondering what is up will ALL? Is ALL still together or what? 

DESCENDENTS: Were going for the flip of the coin. I mean we’ve got this album out EVERYTHING SUCKS!!,( Which it definitely does not). And were going to tour with that and then work on the next ALL project and put out a record in the spring. Then we’ll be going back to the DESCENDENTS to do another record. 

MOISST : Where does the actual “Everything Sucks” theme arise from?

DESCENDENTS: That song really arose from the other work I was doing at the time. I may have made it a little worse than it is, then again what’s the percentage of people who really enjoy their work anyway.

MOISST: So what is the basic logistics of the ALL TYPE OF ATTITUDE?

DESCENDENTS: well the whole ALL type attitude is the exact opposite of the slacker code. I mean it’s achieving as much as possible and still searching for more. It’s basically, go for everything you can and don’t let yourself be a victim, and always persist in trying.

MOISST: So what’s up with the drummer for the band?

DESCENDENTS; He’s asleep in the van right now. It’s the full sleep trade off while on the road so he’s relaxing and taking advantage of some lost sleep.

MOISST: SO, how do you fee about this tour compared to ones in the past; Scene change, and basic Crowd response?

DESCENDENTS: I think that the new shows are more of a party. I mean before when we would play small shows in the past we had to derive most of our energy from ourselves to pump up the show. More recently it’s a lot easier to feed off the crowds energy and the response. Now we really get into the interaction with crowds and it really does turn into more of a party.

MOISST: Do you see a big difference in crowds reception compared to a couple of years ago?

DESCENDENTS: Definitely, the crowds seem a little less homicidal than in the past (laughs around). Even with the slam dancing it’s a little less brutal. People seem to try and get into the music with out looking for bloodshed. I mean it’s cool to see kids get physical, but not armed with weapons. Now we’ve got the sibling affect. A lot of kids are getting into our music because their older brother or sister played it for them while they were growing up.

MOISST: You have been getting radio play.

DESCENDENTS: yeah but that’s been more of the public access radio or college stations, ya know.

MOISST: So how do you feel about getting radio play on these kind of stations?

DESCENDENTS: Well if your trying to communicate something at that end, it’s pretty cool. If people can get into what your doing and get the ideas of the songs than that’s great. And if we can get a little toe hold that’s all right buy us. It seems All the bands that used to open for us a living large now anyway, so.

MOISST: Where’s the location of the band now.

DESCENDENTS: Were located out of Colorado.

MOISST: How’s the touring van holding up?

DESCENDENTS: Great, actually its been around the globe twice. We were looking through some reference book and checked the milage and we were thinkin HOT!! (MORE LAUGHING) We were in the school bus but that kept taking a shit on us so were now in the rental scene.

MOISST: So what are you guys doing in your personal lives besides the band? DESCENDENTS: (milo) I’ still working in the scientific field. The rest of us are on a hectic schedules two. We’ve got a studio out in Colorado that keeps us busy. We do a lot of production. We’ve worked with two of the bands playing tonight. We have been doing the studio full time.

MOISST: What’s the name of the studio?

DESCENDENTS: BLASTING TIME!! Its in fort collins. We just got tired of other people doing our records. Our wives are fully involved also. I mean our wives even hit the road on tour with us. Like one of our wives is the road manager. Bills girlfriend sells the merchandise. The circle around the band is really family oriented.

MOISST: How’s it been dealing with Epitaph?

DESCENDENTS: Really good. They’ve been really enthusiastic about it. I mean we did these shows at the Whisky with nothing but Epitaph bands that was really cool. To my knowledge there has been only THREE founders of labels that have actually traveled playing in bands and toured with them which would be SST/CRUZE, DISCHORD and EPITAPH. With those labels the guy at the top knows where the numbers fall. Which I think is great, being with a label that is from one of us and not one of them.

MOISST : So what happened with SST?

DESCENDENTS: Well we wanted to try out a major label as an option and we had some friends that had good experiences with majors. So we went with interscope which failed miserably, and then we tried out Epitaph. A lot of people think that getting on with a magic thing and they are coming to realize its really not. It just seems a little less efficient than Epitaph. With Majors you have all these hassles to go through to get to the root of a problem. I mean at Epitaph you just show up at their doorstep and say “Hey what are you guy’s doing today.” But were doing this record for them so it’s cool. Also the kids that work at Epitaph are bonafied fans of this type of music and that’s really great to. Another thing is half the staff there has been doing things with there own bands, and doing things with the scene for years.

MOISST: What’s do you think about bands Like Rancid that haven’t spent the time in the scene as yourself getting as large at it has gotten?

DESCENDENTS: I’ve always thought punk was a really good form of music that never got a fare hearing in the public ear. It basically started from the Ramones on. That’s why I feel their will always be diverse punk bands that the radio will pick up on. I don’t know maybe they are pumping Rancid right now because they’ve ran out of flannel shirts.

MOISST: What’s your favorite brand of Java?

DESCENDENTS: Sumutra, and I guess french roast.

MOISST: Do you even have any influences from any other chemical?

DESCENDENTS: No, not me I just drink coffee. I mean It’s hard to do this shit year after year if you’ve got some kind of chemical dependency or are too far into alcohol. I mean What’s the deal with this Heroin thing? I just don’t get it.

MOISST: Yeah it seems that people are kickkin left and right from the devils dandruff.

DESCENDENTS: Well I don’t know too much about that, our vise is definitely the coffee. It’s so weird coffee is one of the only legale drugs that are still heavily addictive. I mean I used to drink coffee all night and have a beer to counteract the ampage but that usually back fires on you. I mean I’ll get hopped up on coffee for a show and after the show i know sleep isn’t happening for quite some time. I mean coffee can be a sick drug. I mean a couple of days with out it can turn people irritable or what ever. With beers after a show I tried to combat the caffeine and it’s a no win situation. Your still amped and then the beer buzz kicks in, which is not he most comfortable feeling.

MOISST: What’s your average intake of coffee before a show?

DESCENDENTS: Id have to say at least five before a show.

DESCENDENTS: I’ve tried to kick the habit before with coffee but it’s a bit hard. Bills off the coffee wagon. So he’s keeping in controlled about the whole scene. It’s addictive, It’s a gnarly chemical and once your hooked it’s a nasty habit, but I like it..... I mean it is legale and their is very few things left in this country that are legal.

MOISST: So what do you think about the outlawing of pot in this country.

DESCENDENTS: Well I think it’s all a bunch of crap. The government is sticking their noses in what they shouldn’t. It’s just another way to throw more control over the masses. One point in one of our songs is just pointing your only guilty if you get caught. Most of the guilty of other crimes have a good lawyer to clean their slate. I mean I’ve heard a bout these tent cities for jails out here where they have No Vacancy signs in front of them. I’m fully into the ancient ideals of this country. Believing in the Life and Produce of happiness, that’s seemed to be thrown out the window with some of these laws. The thing about our band is we don’t confront deep political issues, mainly because we all have four different points of persecutive on different issues. You know were very different people. I mean nobody really puts words into other peoples mouths in this band and the diversity seems to work really well. I mean it’s great when bands share a common bond of beliefs but were from the “ fuck you party”. You know what I think is funny about this contemporary generation of punks there seems to be the lack of confrontational situation involved. You know FEAR could get up on stage and offend everyone in the crowd, and I think that was something that was really cool. Basically if you couldn’t take the lumps than you could get on out.

MOISST: What do you think about getting thrown in with the pop-punk genre.

DESCENDENTS: Well, their are a lot of generalizations being thrown around and theirs a lot of back stabbing involved too. You know I never signed a punk rock manifesto when I got into this music and I sure as hell don’t want to now. It seems like the cold war. Everyone wants to buy into the punker than though attitude and that was never the case from the start. I don’t know were maybe at the cynical age. I don’t know. But what’s funny is a lot of our songs are really sincere. It seems like all these bands have ideals that are very hypocritical. They don’t want to deal with any large labels and don’t want to become part of the machine but they go out and buy their corporate sodas and think nothings up.

MOISST: Yeah, when looking back on some older songs like Wendy and that whole album it seemed a little more realistic than a lot.

DESCENDENTS: Yeah its more paradoxical. The more you step away from things the more personal the songs seem to get. I mean relationship problems are common ground for everybody.

MOISST: So, do you still play a mixture of your old songs?

DESCENDENTS: I don’t know we play a mixture of old songs and new ones which I feel is a really good set, But every night there’s some one that feels cheated by not hearing one song but we try to cover all the good shit.

MOISST: So what is your favorite place to play through the vast time?

DESCENDENTS: I don’t know we played the Met Cafe and had a crazy ass reception to it. We played in the small room and John Doe played in the larger room. For all of us he’s the most potent to see. Well during the set we asked him up to join in on the song ”Johnny Hit an Run Pauline’. He got up on stage and did it with us and that had to be one of the greatest things to happen that night. He just got up on stage and laid the shit to waste.

MOISST: I really feel the problem is that not that many appreciate the quality of the true roots, of it all, and it’s really sad.

MOISST: Have you had any grief for being older than a lot of the newer bands starting up today?

DESCENDENTS: Not really. What I’ve found in life is that when someone that doesn’t know you personally is giving you flack usually it’s to reinforce their own ego on some level. It’s really not about the band anyway, it’s about them. Yeah it could piss you off but. In punk their is a level of hostility with every generation. With the older punks they can be really condescending to younger punks. That’s pretty fucked up. I mean theirs bands now that give kids slack for slam dancing and that brings out the full bullshit detector. You know when they were younger they were in the pit slamming as crazy as everyone else. We don’t encourage or discourage any action that people get into as long as their having a good time and there not physically maiming anyone.

MOISST: What so you think about the SEX PISTOLS getting back together, do you think it’s just for the money.

DESCENDENTS: Well I think Steve Jones is in it for the pussy. I mean I think he’s just out for some 19 year old pussy. I’ve seen footage of there shows and they are as good as they were back in their heyday. The problem is that the movement with the speed and aggressiveness has moved ahead of them. The music represents everything they were about in the first place. They were in it for the money in the first place anyway. I mean I like some of the PIL stuff and for johnny I think they are going another round because at the time they started they never really got a fair shake. When they toured America it was just a wreck. I mean Malcom found the most irritating singer he could, but the band tore it up in their garage pulling from everything from Eddie Cochran to the New York Dolls and it really happened to turn out good. Never Mind The Bullocks was one of the greatest records put out. The only thing that really ticks me is that a band usually puts out some new material to tour with and when you go out and do something that has been around forever it’s kinda like doing a “sweating to the oldies” type thing and I don’t get that aspect of it.

MOISST: Have you done any shows with the Hansen Brothers or No Means NO?

DESCENDENTS: No Means No are fucking rad. We’ve been on tour before and ran into them at truck stops because they were such a heavy touring band at the time. I mean we would see them at truck stops and be like “Hey Rob.” Yeah those guy’s are great.

MOISST: What do you think about the progression of hard-core?

DESCENDENTS: The great thing about the eighties was that in punk things went onto different paths and diversities one was speed metal, a U2ish type scene which left ALL and the DESCENDENTS in this void. What we found funny was that down the line the whole music thing converged back on us. Suddenly were hip. Now were like “were hip?” what the hell is going on now. Then again fifteen minutes later we’ll be back where we started.

MOISST: What do you see in the future for punk rock?

DESCENDENTS: I don’t know with all the media exposure it really throws things up in the air. Before I saw Punk as the stand of grass roots music. I mean punk really gave music the chance to diversify in it’s own realm. Minor threat didn’t sound like Fear, and the Circle Jerks didn’t sound like Bad Brains. That in itself was a great explosion in music that happened across North America. Now a lot of punk bands have their place somewhere in the main stream culture and it’s not really a grass roots type thing. I really hope something comes along that is foreign to draw out a new serjency in music. I mean punk in itself has been around long enough that it in itself is a rad distinct form of music.

MOISST: Anything else you’d like to add?

DESCENDENTS: Well were going to tour with the album for quite some time and ALL is certainly not going to stop any time soon so keep looking for the next album show or whatever.