When did you guys first come together as
a band?
Dennis: Around '79 during high school.
Where was high school?
In Fullerton. That's about twenty miles
from the beach, in North Orange County.
Do you remember your first gig?
Yeah I do. It was at a wedding recep-
tion/party at the Marina Del Rey skatepark.
We played in the Dog Bowl with a bunch of
other bands. Another guy was supposed to
be singing, but he wasn't there at that gig
so Mike sang and it sounded great. We had
to play at the Cuckoo's nest a couple days
later, so we just didn't tell the singer.
That wasn't the first time you'd been ex-
posed to skating, was it?"
Oh no, I used to skate at the Concrete
Wave in Anaheim. I can hit vertical but I can't
do aerials. Those guys are out of my league.
After you started playing, did you notice
skateboarding's influence at shows?
Oh yeah. My girlfriend used to room-
mate with Tony Alva, so I hung around
with him a lot. I used to skate with
him. He shredded.
Tell me about Youth Brigade,
BYO Records, "Another
State of Mind."
That happened about
1982. We were playing
gigs around L.A., at
the Starwood and
the Whiskey and places like that. We hung
around with BYO (Youth Brigade's self-
owned record label). They were setting up
to tour in the school bus they had and they
needed a band to co-headline with them. We
were pretty young at that time, but we had
a draw and we had a couple singles out.
Back then the scene was like one gig a week
and everyone would go to that one gig. Now,
there there are three different gigs in the
same night in L.A., all the time.
These U.S.C. film student friends of Youth
Brigade followed us around with a camera
during the whole tour. They ended up with
about forty hours worth of tape and edited
it down to 90 minutes. That was the movie,
"Another State of Mind."
Looking back on it, what do you and Mike
think of the whole film? Was it a big thing
for you guys?
We still get a lot of exposure out of it. They
play it on cable now-on Night
Flight. That's national. When we
were in New York doing the
New Music Seminar, all kinds
of people were asking us about
that movie. I guess they had
seen it recently so it was real
fresh in their minds. We're going
to start playing Another State of
Mind now since there have been
so many requests.
Previous Spread: Social Distortion (left
to right) John Maurer, Christopher
Reece, Mike Ness, Dennis Dannel.
Above: Mike Ness, "We did a record we
liked and we didn't stop till we were
finished. That's the way it has to be."
Above Right: John Maurer, "It's cool
that the skaters were diving off the
stage because those guys know what
they're doing." Right: Chris Reese.
Have you played it recently?
Tonight at the I-Beam will be the first night
in years. We started rehearsing it last week.
Maybe a question about discography.
What's your total vinyl library?
The first one was the Mainliner single with
Posh Boy, then the 1945 single. Posh Boy
then released a couple songs on a compila-
tion albums of his. We got two songs on "Hell
Comes To Your House." That was before the
"Another State of Mind" tour. We came back
from the tour and recorded "Mommy's Little
Monster." But the movie wasn't out yet, so
we made "Another State of Mind," the 7"
single with "Mommy's Little Monster" on the
back. By the time they had their release, we
had our recording done. We talked them into
giving us money to press a seven inch single.
We pressed up a couple thousand, but
they're out of print now. Then we re-released
the "1945" single on a twelve inch. All that
stuff's out on 13th Story Records. We're try-
ing to buy that back from the company so
we can re-release it. They don't put out that
much because they're not doing so well. And
then we have the new "Prison Bound"
album.
What's the line-up right now?
Chris Reece on drums. He's from Sant
Francisco. He used to be in this band called
the Lewd. John Maurer
is on bass, I am on
rhythm guitar and
Mike Ness is on lead guitar and vocals.
You guys have started getting good press
lately, is there any specific reason?
Before we were just like a bunch of kids
to them-another punk band. They're finally
starting to give us some respect. But press
people usually manage to fuck things up
somehow. They just write their own opinion.
Are your views different from early years?
We just learned to play our instruments
better. Before it was always a big party when
we played. I mean, we started out playing
parties, but now we're taking it more
seriously. We're getting paid like profes-
sionals so we have to act like professionals.
You have a major tour coming up soon, will
you have good financial support?
No. We're saving all the money we're
making on these shows. We have about
twenty thousand dollars worth of gigs before.
our real tour starts, and that money will be
our tour support. We only signed a pressing
and distribution deal with the record com-
pany, so we've had to ride their ass to get
them to do stuff for us.
What have you guys been up to lately?
We've been playing gigs around L.A. We
were like the house band at the Cathay De
Grande for a long time. We'd rehearse at the
club every afternoon and hang out at night.
We had to sweep up the basement so we
could rehearse there. That worked for a while.
Why did it take so long for this album to
come out?
We weren't ready to record. We didn't have
the money. We didn't want to sign some shitty
record deal with some shitty company and
just give them an album. We were still
frustrated about the way our last album was
handled. Mike was starting to clean up his
act at that time and that took a while. We kept
working and saved the money as we played
the gigs. We booked our own recording time
and paid for it ourselves so that when it was
done we would own the tape. That's the main
reason we held off. We didn't want somebody
else to own the tapes. It's a business now.
Any difference between the old and new
line ups?
Well Grant and Derek quit a while back.
It was after the Another State of Mind tour
and we were playing the Cathay De Grande.
By this time Derek, our
drummer, just didn't get
along with Mike. So we were
playing, there was a big fight
downstairs with all these
punkers and the FFF gang
from the Valley, and Derek
and Grant just walked off
stage and quit. Derek said,
"I'm never playing with Mike
again. I don't need any of his
bullshit." John Maurer was
living with Mike at the time.
He played guitar anyway, so
he goes, "I'll play bass,
gimme that thing!" We'd.
known him since junior high,
so the bass problem was
STEVE KEENAN
solved, but we still had drum trouble. We
went through a couple of drummers till we
hooked up with Chris. He was already our
friend when he was in the Lewd, so it wasn't
like we just ran ads in the paper. He's been
in the band four years now.
There's been a lot of press about the drug
thing. Have you been approached by
Nancy Reagan's "Say No" campaign?
(Laughing) No. But you know, Mike Ness
is sober now. He's on the program and he's
been sober for two years or something like
that. That's between him and himself, he
doesn't tell us we can't drink beer or
whatever. It's not like we get all drunk or do
drugs before we play. There's a time to party
and there's a time to take care of business.
John Maurer walks in and takes the hot seat.
John, what did you think about Seattle?
Oh, that was awesome. We had so much
fun up there.
When you guys were playing in Seattle,
who was that you were trading harsh.
words with during the set?
The security guard. See, the arena hired
these jocks and told them, "Don't let them
do this or that." This guy is 25 or 27 years
old, he weighs about 250 pounds and he's
beating the shit out of these poor little kids
who are just having a good time. The crowd
was retaliating against him, so he went after
Mike and took the microphone away from
him. You just don't do that. It was very un-
professional on their part and they just
snivelled off like little babies. It was nothing
new. What was too bad was that a lot of the
kids who weren't up in the front and didn't.
quite understand would come up to me later
in
the day and say, "Why did you guys quit?"
when we actually didn't quit. We were cut off.
It's cool that the skaters were diving off the
stage because those guys know what they're
doing and they don't knock over our amps
and stuff. Sometimes we get kids on stage
and they're fighting with the bouncers and
messing around and the drums get knocked
over or the microphone gets hit into Mike's
mouth. With bands like the Circle Jerks, 7
Seconds and G.B.H., stage diving is real cool
because their singer doesn't hold a guitar
when he's running around. Not many singers
in punk bands play guitar, let alone lead
guitar. When Mike is playing guitar, all it takes
is for one jackass to touch the microphone
and where does it go? Right into his teeth.
After six or seven years of that, it can piss
you off just a little bit.
Mike Ness arrives for interrogation.
Mike, I read a review and words like "new
wave," the "new Social Distortion,"
"angry young men instead of angry
punks" were mentioned. How have you
weathered all this?
I think that some of our attitudes have
definitely changed. We have matured. A lot
of the ideals we had when we started are still
there, though. We know that there's got to
be energy in our live shows and records. As
far as this record getting the notoriety that
it has commercially, we didn't plan on that
at all. It wasn't like our manager and these
record people sat us down and said, "Now,
if you change this and you don't say fuck we
and you do this, we think we can get this
played on the radio." We did a record we liked
and we didn't stop till we were finished.
That's the way it has to be.
What does "Prison Bound," the title of
your new record actually mean?
It's pretty much a reflection of a wayward
youth. Not me, personally, although I do have
a lot of personal sentiments in it.
People shouldn't take it as your story?
No. Even though people who know me or
know of me will make up their own minds
about it. It's stuff that people don't neces-
sarily write about-growing up. As far as our
attitudes are concerned-when punk first
started it was all about anti-this, anti-that, fuck
this, fuck that; complaining about society.
We're 26, 27, 28 years old now and it's to the
point where if you don't like something, you
either change it, accept it, or change your
attitude. All these bands write about "fuck
the government, society, rich bitch." Maybe
eight or nine years ago that stuff had some
real shock value. It was cool to have the
whole supermarket looking at you in your
spiky black hair and smeared make-up. Now,
nine years later, you'd have to run around
naked if you want the same effect.
Are you interested in politics?
To tell you the truth, I'm really naive.
politically. So, rather than trying to pretend
differently and cut down someone who I
know nothing about, I just don't write about
it. Everyone has an opinion just like everyone
has an asshole. Rather than voicing my
opinion all the time, I'd rather voice my ex-
perience because I've done it and I know it.
Dennis was telling me about the very first
Social D gig in the Dog Bowl at Marina
skatepark where you became the singer
all of a sudden.
Yeah. Before that, I had made an attempt
at singing, but I didn't feel confident about
it. I was writing the songs. We had a lead guy
who looked cool, but he couldn't sing worth
shit. We wanted to play this party real bad,
there were a lot of people there, and I said
I'd do it. It sounded better than months of
rehearsal with this guy.
How many gigs have you played support-
ing the album?
We've played about 30 since the record's
been out and now we're getting ready to do
a six-week tour, which will mean about forty
more gigs. We're working hard.
What have the crowds been like and what
do you expect to see out there?
Our crowds have been mixed since the
very beginning. We've got our friends from
high-school who never cut their hair off and
dressed like we did, but who were into the
music; we've got the people who were with
us from the very beginning; all the fresh, new
kids; and then the people who heard us on
the radio, who've never heard of us before,
who want to see us live. That's kinda cool.
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