Q: Firstly, dear Bat Commander...
Hey, It's all you girl.
Q: How does one excel through the ranks of Aquabatdom to become Commander?
Well, I think I was elected by my fellow Aquabanians to this position of Bat Commander and I
accepted humbly. I think we needed you to know this unit is not a crack unit but we needed a
commander.
Q: OK, I'm hoping you know some things about your band, some important things.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Q: Do you know off hand what the average shoe size of your band members are?
Um, I think if you took an average and tallied it up evenly, do you want the real answer or wacky
answer?
Q: What ever you deem appropriate.
Well, tallied it up, took and average of the eight sometimes nine Aquabanians in our band you'd
come up with the number 10.
Q: Ten?
Ten.
Q: OK. Do you think that shoe brand effects the energy and performance of your show?
Um, Yes.
Q: You do?
Yeah.
Q: Is there any preference?
Well right now we've been sporting Adidas cause they are chill and Run DMC wrote a song
about them.
Q: Right.
So any song that Run DMC wrote about a shoe, you know they're dope, homey.
Q: I was thinking about it and I was contemplating shoes and the Aqua Bats and I was
wondering if NIKE might sponsor a band? If they did say sponsor the Aquabats would they
specially make an aquasole.
Ah, that's a good question.
Q: I've been thinking long and hard on this.
An Aquasock if you would, I think it could be done, but we'll have to see.
Q: Yeah, that's down the road.
You know how corporations are. Corporate capitalists out there. They're in it for the buck and
who knows if the Aquashoe would catch on or not. But I think the Aquabats have faith that it would
because of the energy involved, you know what I mean? The circle of energy.
Q: What bands do you like?
Hmm... they're so many. Shall we start?
Q: Yes.
Let's begin! Now is this a collective question, and I am answering for the Aquabats?
Q: You're answering for you.
Really, that's just for Commander?
Q: Yeah.
Well, there's this excellent band that's been knocking my socks off, or my aqua socks off.
They're called The Moon Monkeys and a band called The Mosleys. We played a few shows with
Man or Astroman?, very awesome. There's an evil robot band called Servotron we've been into lately.
Q: Is it "super being" type bands that really turn you on?
Well, we have a lot in common with them, you know. We meet on common ground and it's not
just on music; you know what I mean? There's a common theme that runs through here. There's
been a lot of cool bands coming out lately, pop bands like The Fans Cars Flowers we've been
really stoked on and there's always the traditionals like Oingo Boingo, Devo, Wall of Voodoo
and Madness.
Q: Do you know, or have you ever met any "super beings?"
Super Beings?
Q: Or Mutants?
Well, we come across super mutants everyday at our shows. They're either the villain type or
just the aqua cadets that are just super kids. They brush their teeth, comb their hair, and they look
presentable and nice. They're super nice.
Q: Do the Aquabats have any opinions about global warming?
Um, yeah, we like global warming. Having a warm globe is a nice place,
you know? When it gets to cold the Aquabats have to get jackets on.
Q: Right, right, so it's better for them.
The globe can warm up.
Q: Do you or any of the members of your Aquabanians play golf?
Yes, actually I'm not the best golfer in the world, but I'm working on it. The Aquabats resident
sports nut Jaime the Robot. Our saxophone player is our golf instructor as well. He takes us out
on little golf outings here and there. We do little jaunts over to various golf courses like Pebble Beach.
Q: Where are you located?
Right now were at the professor's laboratory down in Orange County California. Sometimes we
take the Aquajet just for a little golf vacation. It kinda stinks cause we only have one set of golf
clubs and we just have to switch off.
Q: Does anyone ever get really pissed and break a golf club?
Our base player kinda gets mad and he'll either throw them at cars or break them over his
head. It shatters more like glass, than wood. You'd think it would just kinda dent but when hit hard
enough, a good driver will shatter like a light bulb.
Q: What's your favorite album of '97? This is a hard one cause there's some really good
ones.
There are some great albums and there are also some really large boners that came out this
year, you know.
Q: I know that you guys are really into Spice Girls, but beyond that.
We're really, really happy to see that the Spice Girls have made it after their long hard road to
the top. They've been working at this for awhile.
Q: Right. Six, seven months, right?
But seriously folks... I can't speak for the rest of the bats, and I should probably say something
funny, but hands down my personal favorite for the year would have to be "OK Computer" from
Radio Head. Maybe not all Aquabats would agree, but I think most would.
Q: It's a new year and I'm curious as to what you see for the Aquabats in '98.
'98 is actually a symbol. 98, you know there's usually 98 cent packs, it's usually 98 cents for a
small slurpie. 98 has so many significant...never mind. In '98, Aquabats will actually conquer
something. We're gonna conquer, but first... the spring time is when we make a decision on what
we're gonna conquer, and the summer time is when we work on it, by the end of the year we will
have conquered something, which is all great on our quest to conquest. But, we've figured out that
first kids. You need to make a goal and then shoot for that goal. This year we're gonna make
goals man, gosh darn it! We're mad, and we're gonna make goals! We say that this year is going
to be our year cause we're going to expand our media horizons. This interview is a giant leap into
that vast media horizon there for our taking. Like a small cupcake in the middle of the road.
Q: With maybe some pink frosting.
Sure. And, sprinkles!
Q: Do you have any advice for the troubled "Thirty-Something, Friends" crowd?
Ah, the older kids. A lot of times many people tend to concentrate on the younger kids,
twenties on down. The Aquabats do have a little special something for the older kids and that
would be the joy of live fruit throwing.
Q: Live fruit throwing? So that would be uncooked, uncut, really virgin fruit.
Right. They can enjoy that at any one of our shows.
Q: They can?
If the older kids want to come and engage in actually pelting the younger kids with live fruit, we
have a little booth. It's called "For the Older Kids Friends Crowd," in parenthesis of course. Come
on down and throw some fruit. There tends to be a little disdain towards the younger kids when
you're older like "all those dumb kids, they don't know what they're in for" that type of a feeling.
But why not give it to them, you know what I mean?
Q: Yeah, just go ahead, no messing around, don't let them wait it out to see what's gonna
happen or how things will get screwed up, just start pelting them with fruit now so that they
know the harsh cruel reality that is middle age.
Yeah! You never know what kind of fun you can have as an "older kid". In the Aquabats we're
all kids. We're all kids trying to make our way in this world, and by the time we die...
Q: We're dead.
We're dead, exactly.
Another goal of '98 is trying to figure out how to reach the mainstream faster. Some kids call it
selling out, but it's not about selling out. It's about getting in touch with the masses to let the world
know the freedom and love that is the Aquabats. Cause if we could all unite for some common
cause helping out the Aquabats, why not, why not?
Q: So you live in L.A. now.
Yeah, I moved here in August, because we got signed and I was
not going to be three thousand miles away from everything.
Q: Where are you from?
Boston, where we started the band. We were there for years, and
we have a fanatical following there. We go back there and it's
insane, like no place else. But, you know, after we got signed I
said, "You know I'm not going to be a casualty, being a voice on
the phone, I don't really like the poster art and umm..." so I'm
here now and it's just difficult enough dealing with them, being
here. I can't imagine not being here.
Q: How long have you been out?
We moved here in August but we've been on tour since January.
Q: You did Sno-Core.
That was the worst tour we have ever done. It just didn't work.
We thought the label was so into it, it's gonna be so amazing,
and I was you know, whatever, we'll see. We got out there and
the kids... we just weren't connecting or something.
Q: It seemed like a really odd line-up.
Yeah, we actually did better opening up for KISS, and we were
told we would get killed. They told us before we went on, "Listen,
now we tell this to everyone, so don't get discouraged; if you get
boo'd off the stage, it happened to everyone, 311, D-Generation,
even Alice In Chains. But it didn't, it never happened. Every night
it went great. Same with merchandise, we asked them if they
would sell our shirts. They said sure whatever, they won't sell.
They came back to us saying how incredible our sales were. Ya
know Sno-Core seemed like it was going to be a cool tour, but it
just wasn't.
Q: So now your kickin' it with OzzFest, and how's that?
It's pretty cool, it's going to be an all day event, you know and
we're like the openers. I like to say we're the pop band on the
tour.
Q: So what's with the martial arts ?
I'm not like a martial arts guy or anything like that, I can't do flying
scissor kicks. It just sort of ties in with all the kinds of things that
I'm attracted to. Everything from horror to Sci-Fi, old Kung Fu
movies, comics and stuff. It's all so cool, and always meant so
much to me. I wasn't into little league. I wanted to stay home and
watch creature double feature, and I knew that eventually all of
that would somehow mean something. Now I can kind of draw on
all of that useless knowledge I have of that stuff and use it.
Q: Do you feel that your brother (Rob Zombie) has been a big influence on
you?
Not really, you know we're so close in age that it was never a
case of big brother/little brother. We always just sort of
discovered stuff together. So it wasn't that kind of thing.
Musically, he never wanted to be in a band, I was always the one
in bands. I started a little hardcore band when I was like fourteen.
He was just not interested, so he wasn't really a musical
influence. The only thing that's been an influence is that he did
exactly what he wanted to do. The music business gives you the
idea, "Oh just sell your soul, they'll tell you how to dress and what
to say, and they'll hire producers for you and change your music."
That's bull shit. That only happens if you let it happen. He
showed me that you can do it exactly the way you want, work
with the label and still become successful.
Q: Do you feel that his successes have put you under more scrutiny?
Yeah, some people think that we are just a fake band. We've
been doing this so long. We've carried our amps through the
snow at three in the morning, for no money, playing for nobody.
Then I read articles by people who have never met me, who have
no idea what the band is all about saying, "It's a shame that
Powerman gets signed when there's so many other bands that
work so hard and they were just handed this ticket. Unfortunately
they did it first." It's hard, Rob and I have a lot of the same
influences, due to growing up together. It's just like the name of
their album; Astrocreep 2000 - Powerman 5000, but you know
we had the name of the band before they had the name of the
album.
Q: Where did the name come from?
There was this old 70's Super Hero named "Powerman." Now I
hope I don't get sued for using it, and I just sort of added the
5000 to make it cooler.
Q: Was he Japanese or American?
He was like the 70's first black super-hero. He was like (raising a
fist in the air) "Power to the People" - Powerman. He had the full
afro and stuff. For some reason I always liked that comic, and I
felt like a 5000 kid at that point, different somehow, everybody's
fantasy.
Q: What do you prefer, touring... or the studio?
Studio, definitely! We self-produced this record, with this other
guy. I'd love to produce other bands. To me that's where you
create it. I love all the packaging, I love all the art work. Playing
live for so many people seems like such an ego thing, playing to
this huge crowd, and I don't really get into that. It doesn't really
make me feel better. So to me, playing live, although it's really
fun, is just recreating what you've already done, every night. I
realize now that it is a nessecary evil and I will do it. You just
have to convince yourself that the rest of your life is not going to
fall apart while you are gone, and just do it.
Q: How's you get the name Spider?
You know, I've been trying so come up with a really fake answer
for that, but it probably started when I wanted to name my last
band Spider Baby. Which didn't work, and then Rob thanked me
on one of the albums as "MC Spider" and it just kind of stuck.
Q: Cool man, well thanks for the chat.
No prob.
Q: Firstly, dear Bat Commander...
