Repos Interview

This is an interview with Joe and Aaron from The Repos that I did awhile back when I was a regular contributor to C-RAP.com Aaron's response to the second question is hilarious.

1.Who's in the band and how long have you been around for?

Joe-Guitar
Aaron-Vocals
Craig-Drums
Adam-Bass

We've been around since 2002.

Aaron: We've been a crew since the early 90's, bro. We didn't start releasing records until 2004, but we talked a lot about what kind of guitars we wanted to save up for in 1997. Man, that was a badass year. We all wore mock turtlenecks and dipped, but not that faggot baggie shit, I'm talking about straight up tobacco. I'm Aaron and I've got the 1 and a half. Over there on drums is Craig and he's got the two and a half, he's not complaining. On geeetar is Joe, and he's got the 3 and a half. Who's got the 10 and a half? Yep, Adam.We have a new album on Youth Attack and it's everything I dreamed it would be. Man, it was a motherfucking struggle to write such heartfelt songs about the crew and all the shit we been through. It's been a rough coupla years, but we're still doing it in the basements and pool halls trying to keep our cred with the new generation, trying to show 'em what we got is REAL. This one show got kinda wild when my man Tiny T showed up with a pound of weed and some Little Kings. We played Electric Funeral over and over again until some pig hassled our buzz by unplugging our power strip. We had the munchies so fucking bad that we traded all our records that are like super rare to the pizza delivery guy from Dominos who had a BBQ pizza and some wings. It was some hardcore shit, but,man, that pizza was real good.


2.I've noticed that your upcoming show on July 1st with Career Suicide
is the first show you've played since October of last year.What have
you guys been doing in the mean time?

Joe: Personally, not a whole lot. Working 50+ hours a week at a job I
absolutely hate, trying to start my own screenprinting business and
dealing with the assorted shitballs life tends to throw at you. I
became seriously depressed and introverted over the past 10 months or
so and did little other than work, go home, get fucked up and sit on
my ass. Bills piled up, projects never got finished and friends
stopped calling. I've made some adjustments to my lifestyle and am
currently attempting to dig myself out of this rut.

3.Do you have plans to release any new material soon?

Joe: Yep, new album is out NOW (might be sold out by the time this goes to
print) and is guaranteed to pound sand right up your unsuspecting
asshole. A lot of shit was involved in the release of this record,
including the master tapes essentially being held without ransom.
Absolutely worth the wait in my opinion.

4.What inspires you to write songs?

Joe: Aaron tells me to write a wicked riff and I do it.

5.Do you think 21+ shows are a good thing or bad thing?

Joe: Personally, I don't like playing them. I'd rather play a house show
than a bar any day. When I was under 21 there weren't too many shows
with age restrictions I wanted to go to, not sure how it is now. I
don't really pay attention and I'm several years removed from being
underage.

6.Ever have any bad experiences playing shows?

Joe: Loads, but it's easy to turn them into a good experience with a little
creativity, good friends and a brick.

7.Do you think hardcore and punk rock are synonymous or different
things altogether?

Joe: I think there's a line, yeah. Obviously The Ramones and CockSParrer
are coming from a different place stylistically than the CroMags and
Jerry's Kids. But you can't deny that, for example, the early Bad
Brains stuff isn't too far removed from the Dead Boys or even Sex
Pistols. In my opinion, when "Hardcore" strays too far away from
"Punk Rock" it turns into something awful, like Heavy Metal or Funk,
which we can all agree totally sucks.

8.What have you been listening to lately? Do you collect records or
are you into CD's?

Joe: I collect records, but have been getting into the digital age via
music stolen off the internet. Most of the records I buy now are dumb
novelty things. I think I have everything else.

9.Any plans to tour?

Joe: Nope.

10.What's your favorite pizza place and why?

Joe: Vito & Nick's on 84th/Pulaski because my wife works there and it
really is the best pizza ANYWHERE. Thin cracker crust, not that deep
dish shit or soggy cardboard NY crap-ola. If I want New York
pizza I'll call Domino's. Yeah, I said it.