We at Gigwise can straight up bare witness to the insanity that is the lives of all of the members of the Black Lips. The guys have had anything but an easy year. In a nutshell, this self-described “flower punk” band have been signed to a popular label (Vice), have been on a virtually non-stop world tour, are just about to put out a new album (Good Bad Not Evil), had their network television debut in the U.S. (Late Night with Conan O’Brien), been the first punk rock band to tour the Middle East, and are about to start production on a film. And that’s just a fraction of their endeavours.
We sit down with bassist/vocalist Jared Swilley to find out everything about the craziness of this past year, including why he thinks the UK is tough to conquer tour-wise, how insane the Texas festival South by Southwest was for them this year (there was an incident where a balcony collapsed), how he was almost detained at the Newcastle airport for apparently violating a terrorist act, and other outrageous moments. We are actually supposed to get the whole band to ourselves, but in true Black Lips fashion, something chaotic throws them off their schedule.
Just the night before we’re supposed to have a chat with the band, we find out that lead singer / guitarist Cole Alexander is stranded. In Portugal. Alone. “Yeah, Cole lost his passport and he’s either still in Portugal or on a plane going back to the U.S.,” Jared explains straightforwardly. So where are the other two band members, guitarist Ian St. Pe’ and drummer Joe Bradley? “The other guys had to get some sleep. We didn’t even get back to our place until 7am, so they just had to crash. But I’m still goin’,” he says.
What did the guys do the night before at the gig they were scheduled to play in Leicester? Surely with one man down they would have cancelled…wrong. “No, we played it. I mean, it’s rough playing without our full line-up, but we’ve had to do it before. I think we’ve played without one of each of us at least once. If we have a show to play, we’re not gonna cancel it because of that.”
“I’m just glad that our audience has grown in Leicester, even if it’s just a little,” the sleepy-eyed Jared continues. “The UK’s a tough little country.” How so? “It’s small, and there are a lot of bands, so there’s a lot of competition. I think it’s way easier to be a band in the States than it is to be one in England.” Interesting.
Most of us who have followed the Black Lips’ career for the past year probably heard about them first because of their ridiculously packed South by Southwest schedule. In just three days the band played over thirteen gigs across the city of Austin, Texas and were labelled “The Hardest Working Band at SXSW” by the New York Times newspaper. We ask Jared to explain the chaos of that week. “This year was definitely insane. We kept agreeing to do more shows and more shows, just piling ‘em on. On paper it looked good, but once we got there it was kind of like getting beat up every day, physically. It kinda sucked because I missed all the bands I wanted to see. By the end of it, I couldn’t even talk I was so exhausted. I think we averaged two hours of sleep a night. We barely even had enough time to get drunk.” Yes, of course, the true rock ‘n rollers always have time for booze.
Continuing on SXSW, Jared tells us a funny story: “We were going to play this Vice party. Against Me! was playing, and all of a sudden there were all these people running around yelling that the porch had collapsed. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’, so we got the hell out of there and moved the show to a random bridge somewhere, but we didn’t play. We gave the show to Fucked Up and the Carbonas. That was the highlight of South by Southwest, this random show on a bridge. I can’t believe it didn’t get busted by the cops.”
For anyone who hasn’t seen the Black Lips either live or on film, to describe them we’d say they’re, well, crazy. In a good way. Think of the Jackass guys with instruments. On stage they’ve been known to get naked, snog each other, urinate, and just wreak general entertaining havoc. So what do their parents think of them, their onstage antics and their music? “They like our music, but my dad is a bishop, so he gets upset about the things we do sometimes. But they come to our shows, so it’s good.”
Jared is known as the one who gets in the most trouble with the law. He’s not allowed into Canada for previous incidents, and he recently had a problem here in the UK. “I almost didn’t get let into Portugal the other day,” he says, recalling the situation with an exasperated tone. “They tried to detain me for 28 days under the UK Terrorism Act at the airport in Newcastle.” What exactly did he do? “I got in a fight with the rest of the band the night before, but it was just because I was all drunk and being stupid, so I woke up the next day, had a few more beers and went to the airport. I was doin’ the whole ‘swaying’ thing in the line,” he mimics a drunken stagger with his body. “Then, I guess the security guys were trying to make an example out of me, and one of them slammed me against the wall, was touching my neck and saying they were going to put me in the basement for three weeks. They made me pretty much strip down to my underwear and started accusing me of being on drugs. I was like, ‘I’m not on any drugs! I had beer for breakfast and I’m still drunk from last night.’ I was freaking out and shaking, and he was like, ‘I’m not gonna tell your embassy or your family that you’re here,’ and all the other guys had already gone through security, so no one knew I was stuck there! But finally they let me through, I’m not even sure why. It was really traumatic,” he finally calms down. “I mean, I already have border troubles. I’m not allowed into Canada, I’m having trouble getting into New Zealand, and I’ve had lots of trouble getting into the UK before. That’s why I love the European Economic Community so much because there are no borders.”
Speaking of Canada, we know they’ve played gigs there before, so how did Jared get into the country to play them? “I usually get a Canadian to drive over and drive me over, but if the border patrol scan my passport I’m screwed, so I’m not gonna try that anymore,” he says, continuing with a hilarious story about the last time they were in Toronto and ended up in a really dodgy hotel. “It was one of those hotels or bars you mention to a local and they say ‘Ooooh,’ and give you that ‘You do NOT want to go there’ look. Well, we made the mistake of not asking anyone before we went to this hotel. And it was this cracked-out, pay-by-the-hour place. I was sleeping, and luckily I’m a light sleeper, so I heard a creaking sound and started to feel dust coming down onto my face. I just rolled out of bed and the whole ceiling caved in! Luckily I had a camera phone, so I took pictures of it and went down to the reception. At first they were telling me I couldn’t get a refund, but then they finally gave me one,” he says in conclusion. “I have stayed at some scary places, but that was by far the scariest.” Somehow we believe him.
Moving onto happier topics, we start talking about the music the guys listen to while on tour, if they even have time to. “I listen to a lot of 60’s soul music and R&B,” Jared replies, to which we shoot him a surprised look. “Yeah!” he laughs, “We’ve been listening to that first Funkadellic record a lot. It’s really trippy. We listen to a lot of rap, like Three 6 Mafia and Project Pat, stuff like that.” Coming from a punk band, this is surprising, but you can hear a definite soul influence in the music they make.
Equally amazing yet incredibly differently sounding band Deerhunter have been friends with the Black Lips for years. Jared describes their teenage years: “I’ve known those guys forever. We all used to work in the same diner. They actually started out in our basement. They were horrible when they started—I really like them now!” he catches himself, “They’re really noisy now, but when they first started they were a straight up noise band. Before, when they played shows, they wouldn’t have songs, they would just make noise. It was really…” he searches for the right word, “interesting.”
Now to what we think is the most exciting part of their future: they’re going to star in a film! And not even an independent film; a major motion picture called Let It Be, produced by some of Hollywood’s big shots. “We haven’t started yet, but we’re doing screen tests for it soon,” says Jared happily. How did this come to be, exactly? “Some guy just started e-mailing us, and then they brought us a script, and we went to New York and it just… happened. I’m really excited! I don’t really listen to the music that it’s about—80’s glam New York scene. They described it as the New York version of 24 Hour Party People, so we’re just gonna try to make ourselves kinda campy, kinda like The Ramones. We start shooting June 1st, so it probably won’t be out until next year, I’m sure.” We’ll look forward to that!
