Jules: ‘We know you lost the Leftovercrack.com domain name but everyone wants to know why you got a MySpace?!’
Stza: It was run by kids in Germany and what happened is that I needed to get some news up about the band…maybe it was about shows or urgent and I would write ‘em and he wouldn’t post it for a month. I mean it was kinda was stupid I mean…I don’t have a computer and I don’t often have access to one so Brad started the MySpace page and I had instant access to posting things right away that people wanna know or news about the band so it became really convenient for me whilst travelling to do that.
Jules: I think it’s just that its MySpace and its now owned by Rupert Murdoch…
Stza: Brad started it at the beginning of the year and we just been using it…its free. And it’s a way to get to know our fans too. I mean if we are playing and people watching us I can’t find much out about them but I can go click on someone’s picture and be like oh…I can know about other people. I like that, its cool. I get to know our fans even though it’s owned by a motherfucker (laughs) but you know…its free and right now I don’t see any problem with it.
Jules: What kind of a childhood did you have? I don’t know if you wanna talk about personal stuff?
Stza: What kind of childhood? That’s kinda a vague question. I didn’t have any friends and that made me be more creative I suppose. I spend more time by myself and I enjoy it because I am used to it.
Jules: What kind of music are you listening to at the moment?
Stza: Mostly Indie Rock.
Jules: British or American?
Stza: I wouldn’t know exactly umm I discovered New Model Army. When I am on tour I don’t have any access to new music. The King Blues are really good. The Postal Service, Pretty Girls make Graves umm…
Jules: Do you still listen to a lot of Hip Hop?
Stza: Yeah. I got a lot of new Hip Hop I listen to…a lot of new stuff from Brooklyn. You know it’s like Cage, Immortal Technique…whose a little bit homophobic and sexist but dead on politics. Grand Buffet, Aesop Rock…these are all people from New York.
Jules: What does Homeo-Apathy mean?
Stza: Well Homeo-Apathy is like I got it because of the squat scene in New York City. Umm a lot of squatters aren’t into traditional medicine so they use homeopathic remedies. So Homeo-Apathy is about these people that I live with that…well its not so much now, I mean its still the same…the people I live with that like try and live a certain way and be healthy and be outside the system…the medical system but at the same time they don’t give a fuck about politics and they live like very apathetic lives really. You take homeopathic remedies when you’re sick but you’re also doing drugs and drinking booze all the time and not really giving a fuck. It’s not like nihilism…its trying to be a healthy nihilist or something. So Homeo-Apathy is like homeopathy but I stuck the ‘A’ in there and stuff like Apathetic. That make sense?
Jules: Yeah…
Stza: Nobody ever asked me that one before. I was waiting for it.
Lottie: Are you interested in Acupuncture or anything like that?
Stza: I never done that…
Jules: How does the band feel about their records being sold in major chainstore’s alongside Green Day and Fallout Boy? I mean…you can get them in places like K-Mart.
Stza: I don’t think so? Who told you that?
Jules: Forum members…
Stza: As far as I know we are banned from every major chain and after Fuck World Trade came out….they were selling us at the Virgin Megastore at Virgin records? And when Fuck World Trade came out they stopped selling Mediocre Generica.
Jules: I know you can buy Fuck World Trade at our local HMV and I live on a little Island…
Stza: Can you? Cool. I mean I love you have access to it but I don’t like making money for HMV but you can shoplift it from there. They miss the money and they fucking deserve to get robbed.
Lottie: What do you think about filesharing?
Stza: Yeah…please. As long as people get to hear the music. Every single kid I ever met that’s given me a ride or a place to stay that is into my band Leftover Crack or Choking victim…all their CDs are burnt. I’m like cool..share it you know? Spread the love. I’m not in it for money I have a political message to get across and good music too you know?
Jules: You mock straight edgers on numerous occasions but how do you justify fuelling the corporations you seemingly oppose, the exploitation and injustice they perpetrate by supporting the alcohol/tobacco industries…
Stza: Well…I do…I have made fun of straight edger’s on one song…which is ‘Atheist Anthem’ But its really not umm hypocrisy I mean that’s songs really about religious hypocrisy and how straight edger’s and I mean straight edger’s in the context of them being hypocritical themselves and trying to like stick to certain rules and laws like the laws of a religion per se and have people treat straight edge like it’s a religion and if you break those religious laws then you are pray for getting beat up its all bullshit. If you wanna be straight edge that’s cool but don’t fucking… you know…don’t punish people for not doing it. Why do I drink? Its because I am trying to kill the pain of fucking…everyday existence and I fucking feel like I hate life and when I drink I feel a little better about living…
Jules: Why do you say that? Life’s what you make it.
Stza: Cos its fucking…It feels like fucking straight edger’s and the corporations and all that shit make life hateable.
Jules: Who is the Coconut Man?
Stza: Umm I don’t know (laughs) I cant answer that actually…Its secret.
Jules: Do you think the serious points in your lyrics are negated by the way i which you deliberately surround them by shock tactics?
Stza: Are they negated? No? I think that if you are smart then you should understand our politics when we are on serious subjects. I don’t think that all serious subjects should be taken seriously because..I’m sounding so stupid…I think that umm I mean we are a band we are here to entertain people and hopefully they will walk away with some kind of political message and shock tactics? I mean…someone calls something a shock tactic…I just call it honesty or I call it like fucking whatever…it’s a fucking fantasy. Like shoot the kids at school it’s like…
Jules: Or the new one…baby punchers…
Stza: Baby Punchers…well when everyone reads the lyrics to Baby Punchers they will understand that baby puncher actually relates to the people the song is about…
Jules: Because we’ve not heard that yet…
Stza: Well you will have to wait until October 31.
Jules: That’s the release date?
Stza: Yeah and all the lyrics will be written on the back of the 7”
Jules: Are there gonna be anymore Hip Hop tunes like ‘Hood to da Mouth’? A lot of people liked that song…
Stza: Yeah…I really liked that song but the person I worked with was a total fucking asshole and he really shat on me on doing that but umm I always write hip hop lyrics and I have other songs and one day when I don’t have a band and maybe if I ever own a computer and I learn to do all that programming shit I’ll try to make a hip hop record or something. I could always produce one for somebody.
Jules: What about an acoustic album? Will that ever emerge?
Stza: Yeah…probably next year.
Jules: Here’s one I took straight from the forum…why don’t you kill a fucking cop? My loyalty to you is fading.
Stza: If he kills one…I’ll kill one. (laughs) Well you try to inspire people. I mean you know…I never said that I kill cops. I am saying that people should kill cops because they kill innocent people every day…
Jules: So what was that about MySpace taking the ‘cop’ photos down?
Stza: There was a picture of me as a cop with a 40oz as our MySpace picture. I didn’t do it…Brad does all that…I dunno how..all I do on our MySpace is post blogs. He does all the pictures shit whether I like it or not and he puts the music up…whether I like it or not umm I don’t really have a say in it…much. Anyways umm he had posted our main picture as me as a cop with a 40 and umm and this guy…NYPD Dave asked to be our friend and I checked into him and he was really a cop and I didn’t really know what the deal was but we realised later that he thought I was a cop and he was trying to make friends and after he realised that we hated cops he tried to get in touch with his superiors in the police department to get me arrested for impersonating a police officer but the best he could do was get MySpace to take the pictures down. So yeah…he was really a police officer and he kinda failed in his mission to put me in jail. But I think he was embarrassed because he got suckered in by a picture he didn’t look at. He didn’t look at our politics or anything. This was like..’oh another cop’
Jules: Is anyone on the band Vegan or Vegetarian?
Stza: I don’t eat dairy. I’m not vegan…I eat eggs. I don’t think people should support the meat or dairy industry. I mean…that’s not my only reasons but…
Jules: Does it often occur that when you have written a new song…you throw it away because you don’t like it?
Stza: No. If I write a song…if I strum a chord and that’s a bad chord and I don’t use it. I write a song that’s in my head and if something sounds good…then I make it a song. I have never thrown away a song. The only song I would consider throwing away in retrospect is ‘Burning in Water drowning in flame’ and ‘Shoot the kids – Mercy me’ is the name of the song but for some reason Hellcat put NC and I don’t know what NC stands for on the record…
Jules: That was another question I had…what does NC stand for?
Stza: No idea…you would have to ask Epitaph…or their lawyers. Know what I mean?
Jules: Is the new split EP really going to be on Fat Wreck Records?
Stza: Yes.
Jules: Are there plans to record a version of ‘One Dead Cop’ with Fat Mike?
Stza: I doubt it!
Jules: Since you oppose corporate greed…and since you specifically denounce the music industry in your lyrics, do you not think that releasing the new record on Fat Wreck makes you hypocritical?
Stza: No. Fat Wreck has no ties to any major labels or corporations…
Jules: Aren’t they distributed by Sony?
Stza: No. That’s Epitaph. After we left Epitaph that label really went to shit. And they’re umm you know actually…I’m pretty sure they have no corporate ties…
Jules: Do you always look into that then?
Stza: Well I will now… But we are still putting the record out…I did make a verbal agreement. I don’t break my promises.
Jules: How do you feel about using branded instruments?
Stza: Well…branded instruments. Yeah I know I mean whenever I get a piece of clothes I find in the garbage I usually tear out the name brand tag. You can search me I don’t think you will find any name brand on any clothes I wear. Umm I did play a Telecaster guitar. Umm some corporations aren’t really problems…some are I mean I guess they are cutting down tree’s to make guitars but they aren’t disposable…its art you know? A piece of art in itself a guitar and they not making billions of them… you know what I mean? It depends how many guitars a year they make and how many trees they cut down. I definitely think that if I had the choice between having five trees and no guitars I’d rather have four trees and three guitars. Then I can have a band right? What’s life without music?
Jules: What do you think you would have done with your life had you not been in a band?
Stza: I’d have done more heroin and be dead.
Jules: Are you going to come back over with the full line up? With Ezra and Brad?
Stza: Maybe. Kinda hopefully. Unless one of them dies. Or I die.
Jules: What do you spend all your money on?
Stza: Bailing my friends out of jail and people I don’t know out of jail. That’s probably the thing I’ve spent most money on this past year is bailing people out of jail.
Jules: I watched you get arrested yourself in Salisbury last year…
Stza: I didn’t get charged so they let me out. I didn’t have to get bail.
Jules: Do your views about the police waiver when you meet a nice policeman…or have you never met one?
Stza: I’ve met nice policemen but they are all part of the same gang and just because he is a nice cop…doesn’t mean that… the bad cop he is with…if the bad cop gets shot…that cops gonna kill you even though, no matter how nice he is. And the time comes when they cross that line into being bad cops…most of them. Any person that thinks they can join the police force and be a positive cop and positively change it is a fucking idiot. And they will learn sooner or later that they have no power…
Jules: Are Leftover Crack ever going to progress lyrically or just persist in producing similar angsty anthems for ‘church hating’ and ‘cop bashing’ teenagers?
Stza: I write a little about both. Depends if I can’t think of anything better to sing about. I’m not gonna write love songs.
Jules: Never?
Stza: No.
Jules: To what extent is Leftover Crack‘s validity as a means of ‘spreading a message’ limited by the fact that you are a: Preaching to the converted and b: Half your fans don’t seem capable of constructive thought?
Stza: Well…the fact that this person doesn’t think someone else is capable of constructive thought shows that that person is not capable of constructive thought. And I mean…we reach new people every day you know what I’m saying? So we’re not preaching to the converted. I mean…basically what that person is saying is that half the people understand the politics and half don’t. The whole point is to get the half that he considers don’t have constructive thoughts to think the constructive thoughts and to like get the message.
Lottie: What do you think of England’s political system? It seems over here that our Prime Minister seems to be trying to get in with your President to the extent….
Stza: Peas in a pod….that’s how I see it.
Lottie: Do you get to hear much about our politics over there?
Stza: Not much bashing of the English government even though there should be more. Cos the British government is one of the richest in the world and the thing that people don’t understand is that it’s the people with the money are the ones controlling the fate of the world, the fate of the poor of the world. Britain is just as guilty and most of Europe is too. The USA is more famous for being assholes…
Lottie: But they are a bigger country I guess…
Stza: We’re a bigger country but…
Lottie: But we are just as big a part…
Stza: Just as guilty.
Jules: Are we ever going to see a Star Fuckin’ Hipsterz release or is that all over?
Stza: Next year. I have all the songs written. In fact…the three songs I wrote for the Leftover Crack split are Star Fuckin’ Hipsterz songs that I donated to the band…just because I wanted the split to be good. So I gave them three songs.