Youth Brigade Interview

Youth Brigade

Interview with Shawn Stern on Apr 3, 2008 by

By: Amy Meyer

Interview with owner of BYO records and guitarist/lead vocals for Youth Brigade, Shawn Stern. Interview done on 11/18/07 at the second day of Riot Fest in Chicago, IL.

You guys have been playing for a long time, what would you say is the biggest difference from when you first started playing shows to now?

Shawn Stern: There's a lot more money involved now than there was then. In those days you just did it for fun; I mean we still do it for fun, but we never really thought we would be able to get paid, travel, and tour all over the world, so that's a pretty good thing you can do now. In those days we just sort of figured it out and made it up as we went along.

So you've been all around the world, huh? Anywhere you haven't made it to that you'd like to play?

SS: We've been all over the Western world. We haven't been to too many exotic places, but I mean we toured Europe for the first time in '84 and played Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, France, the UK, Poland, and Yugoslavia, which is no longer Yugoslavia; that was before the wall came down so that was pretty interesting back in '84. We've been all over Europe; we haven't made it to South America, Australia...NOFX are actually the ones pioneering right now, they're out in Israel and South Africa, all over Asia, Volusia, Indonesia, and I think Vietnam and China; it's crazy and I think that would be fun to do.

Would you say there was a time period where the band reached a peak in the best audience participation and reaction at the shows? Does the reaction of the fans rely more on location or time based on your experience?

SS: There's a whole new generation of kids that have been discovering us for the last ten or fifteen years. We sort of broke up for awhile in the late 80's, so we got back together in I believe '91 and there was a whole new generation of kids. People show up [to the shows] like, "Oh, I used to see you in the 80's and now I'm bringing my son or daughter." It's weird, but it's cool. I think for us, small clubs where people can jump up on stage and sing along is the best. Big shows like this are fun, but I just don't like barricades and being separated from the crowd because it's kind of silly.

What made you decide to start BYO records?

SS: We just do things out of necessity; we needed to put a record out so we started a record company. If we needed to play a show, we just did the promotion and played a show. That's just how things go with us.

Didn't you pass up signing some big names like Sublime and The Offspring?

SS: We had opportunities early on to work with some bands and didn't for numerous reasons. I think with Sublime it was that we were just starting to do stuff again and I love those guys, I love their music, and I knew they all had potential, but they were also not together shall we say. I really did not want to deal with that. My criteria for putting out a record is I have to like it, believe in a band and what they say, but I also have to be able to believe that I can help them and if I don't think I can help them than I'm not going to waste their time or mine.

What is the hardest part of running a record label? Is it easier now that you don't tour as much as you used to?

SS: Honestly I'd rather be touring and playing music than running a record label. I think the hardest part is unfortunately, and I hate to generalize, but most musicians are really not the most intelligent people when it comes to business. No matter what you tell them they say sure, sure I understand. We always say look, watch another state of mind and it'll give you another idea of what you need to do if you want to be successful as a musician. You need to tour, deal with the shit that is going to happen inevitably on the road and they say, no problem no, problem, where's my tour bus, where's the audience? They don't understand that they need to go out and work at it. Unfortunately, some people think that putting a record out on a label that has a reputation of putting out records that do well, that means that you're automatically a big rock star and that is not the case.

So why don't you tour as much as you used to, just because you've been a band so long and toured for so many years?

SS: Well, I mean it's a combination of things, but my brother Mark has a daughter, so he can't go out on the road for long periods of time. We've just been busy with other stuff, running the label of course, and we need to make a record. Touring is a lot of work. I enjoy it, but it is a lot of work.

There's a different line up now, how many times have there been member changes?

SS: Mainly it's been the three of us; me, and my brothers Mark and Adam. Adam is not with us now because he has a really, really good job doing CGI for movies. If you saw that movie Pan's Labyrinth, he made the fairies. It's understandable that he's working his ass off making a lot of money and doesn't have time to go out on the road. We got Joey (bass) just a few months ago to fill in and he's doing a really good job. He plays in a band called Blue Collar Special.

How would you compare the punk scene today from when you started the band?

SS: Its apples and oranges, in those days it was something that was brand new and we were figuring it out as we went along. We had no idea what it was going to become or what it was supposed to be, we just made it up. Now, the punk scene has been going strong for over thirty years. There are a lot of really good things in the sense that you've got the internet and a lot of ways for people to make music that you did not have before. It's really inexpensive to record or play music today. The digital revolution is a great thing in some ways, but it's also a really shitty thing in some ways. It used to be that you played in a band in high school in your garage; you would play some parties, maybe get some shows, and eventually, if you weren't good enough and didn't have the stamina to survive...it was a lot of work to get out there. You had to work with the label; you couldn't just put it out on your own. It cost a fair amount of money to make a record which was not a great thing in the sense that maybe there was a great band, but maybe they had no business sense, there was no one talking them up, and they never got to put a record out; they just dissolved in their garage and no one ever heard about them, but at the same time that weeded out a lot of the crappy bands. Now, everyone can make a record, tour, and with MTV, the internet, Myspace, itunes, and everything anybody can put their music up there, which is great for people who were really good and never got outside of the garage, but the majority of those people aren't very good, they don't really need to be out there. There's a lot of mediocre music.

Not to mention pro tools can make any band sound a lot better than they really are.

SS: You could do that. It's funny because when we would tour in Germany and Japan, they'd always have the best equipment and technically they could play really well, but they just didn't have soul. Germans couldn't write songs, there are a few bands that are good. I don't know...there's too much mediocrity. Just because you can pick up a guitar and learn how to play and write a song doesn't mean that you're necessarily good when all you do is write songs that sound like everybody else. You're just a band that's derived from some of the other bands. Who cares? Then you have this electronic shit which is guys that sit around smoking bong hits and playing videogames and now they can start pressing keys on a little fucking Casio keyboard making what they call music. I don't think its music, I think its crap. Do I sound bitter? Do I sound cynical? What? Yeah, so there's just too much of that shit. There's a band like this band called 311, I'll use them as an example; I think they're a horrible, crappy band. These bands can just go and play a little college circuit. You can get regional bands that are only known in that little three state area, it used to be they were just a cover band and now they can make their own record and get a crowd and some of them actually get famous and its just ugh, so sad. Just a commentary on the whole society, people just accept this crap, I mean look at our government. People accept that and it's just crap, crap.

Okay onto a more cheery topic, what's the story with punk rock bowling?

SS: We like to throw parties and we figured we might as well throw a party for all of our friends. We've been throwing parties since we were kids because we used to deal drugs and figured out, what a better way to sell our drugs than to have a party and sell our drugs at the party? So we've been doing that for many, many years and then we realized early on don't throw a party at your house. Find some kid who says, hey I want to have a party, my parents are going out of town, and I'm not really in with the in crowd and I want to get in with the in crowd. Alright, lock everything that's valuable up, they would never listen to us you know. Lock all the valuables up, no it will be fine, no it won't lock them up, and then the house would get trashed. We were just really good from an early age of throwing parties so we said let's throw a party in Vegas. Bowling is just an excuse to go out and get wasted and have a good time.

Do you ever practice like, "oh man, BYO is going to kick everyone's ass this year?!"

SS: We won on the first year and two years ago. André, who has been on our team since the beginning, it was his idea to do bowling. He used work with us and ran a zine out of Alston, MASS I think it was back in the early ‘80s. He ended up moving to California in the early ‘90s and worked for BYO for awhile. He's a great bowler, a 200 average bowler and he's way too serious about it. He's the one who said Fat records has got this bowling league up there, we should do that here. We did it for 6 weeks in Santa Monica, of course my brother Mark and I, the wheels were turning, we said this is great we should do a tournament in Vegas. Hell yeah, party in Vegas! So it just became that and it was really André who got the wheels rolling and he is our anchor on the team, we make play offs every year because of him. We had this intern Diego and he got on the team because he was an okay bowler, then he started going with Andre and got on the league, practiced and now that guy is fucking great too. I am the weak link on the team, I suck. Epitaph won they beat us by one pin last year in the playoffs, but we should of won. That was their fourth win, it would have been our third and we would have tied them, but we have to get them this year. I just have to curve my drinking out there and that's a hard thing to do.

Do you have anything big in-store for 2007?

SS: It's the 25 year anniversary for BYO, which we started in July of '82. We're doing a box set. We made a DVD with this guy Jeff and Ryan, who did the Bouncing Souls' DVD; it's an almost hour and a half video about the history of the label, band, and there's going to be a couple CDs of bands covering BYO songs. There's also a book because you know digital downloading is killing the music industry.

Could you see yourself coming out with another album?

SS: Yeah, I could see it. I have to write some songs. Me and my brother Mark have been doing some ridiculous construction on our houses for the last year because we were smart and bought when it was cheap maybe 12 years ago. I'm by the beach, so I'm probably going to have to get rid of my house before the sea starts rising, actually I have to get rid of it when people start realizing they don't want to live by the beach anymore because it will start losing its value.

When do you think it'll take for you to stop playing shows?

SS: Um, I don't know? A heart attack.

So you'll just keep playing forever

SS: I don't know. Chuck Berry is. Shit, Chuck Berry, if Chuck Berry can do it, I can do it, right? Fuck, Chuck Berry rolls into the Hootenanny (festival in California) a few years ago in his Cadillac; drives up, the guys got to be in his mid to late 70s, drives into the backstage and sits in his car. People are like, "Chuck Berry," knocking on his window, he's just sitting there. The promoter walks up and says, "Mr. Berry," he rolls the window down and the guy says, "we have a trailer for you over there, you want to come up?," rolls the window back up. Comes out on stage, doesn't have a band, just says have a back up band there for me, gets up on stage, yells out the song, starts playing the song, and half way through switches the song. The whole set he would do that shit, just fucking crazy. Just rolls up in a Cadillac with some chicks, bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken on the dash, just fucking nuts, nuts, nuts. He sits in the Cadillac before he has to go on, engine and air condition on. Yeah, I don't know if I'll do that, but maybe! I'll just roll in with a fucking bottle of Patron and get wasted. I guess what will make me stop is when it will stop being fun, when kids don't give a shit anymore. If people still want to see us, we'll keep doing it, if they lose interest than yeah.... I'm not going to do it anymore.

When was the last time you did a headlining tour?

SS: Yeah, we just fly, it's fucking easier. Just find some band in that town to tour with, use their gear, just roll in with your guitars; it's fucking easy. Last time was 2003 with the Utters; that year we did the East Coast back to LA, then we went to Europe. In the late fall we went up the West Coast into Canada, thru the Midwest, to the East Coast, and back through the middle of the country. That was pretty big.

This is kind of my staple last question, for anyone who has never heard Youth Brigade, what one thing do you want them to know about your band?

SS: We have something to say.