The first time I heard Jim Lindberg’s music was when he performed to a packed crowd with his band Pennywise at the Huntridge Theatre in the late 90s. Pennywise would go on to sell out many more shows in Las Vegas and in the rest of the world, becoming one of the most successful punk rock bands of all time.
Lindberg left Pennywise in 2009 and shortly after started up The Black Pacific, who released their debut album on SideOneDummy last year. He also became an author, releasing his first book Punk Rock Dad: No Rules, Just Real Life in 2008.
Last week I talked with Jim Lindberg about playing Punk Rock Bowling for the first time, his favorite new bands, and dealing with internet haters.
Emily Matview: The Black Pacific is playing Punk Rock Bowling this year, have you been to it before?
Jim Lindberg: You know what? I’ve never been to it. This is my first year. So, I’m a Punk Rock Bowling virgin.
Who are you looking forward to seeing?
I’m definitely looking forward to seeing The Descendents. I grew up in Hermosa Beach and saw The Descendents play in someone’s front yard one time. I’m a huge fan. You know, there are so many great bands this year, Dropkick Murphys, Stiff Little Fingers, Bouncing Souls, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Cock Sparrer. There are just so many bands that I’m excited to see. We’re all really happy to be playing the event this year.
Are you going to be bowling too?
We’re still trying to work that out but I’m hoping to sneak up the lanes with some really bad bowling at some point. I might be out there throwing some strikes if I can wedge my way onto a team.
You’ve played in Vegas a bunch of times before, what do you like doing when you come here?
Going out and getting to see the sites, seeing a lot of cool bands, going to the tables and losing all my money is always a lot of fun. Las Vegas is a great scene. We always have a great time every time we’ve played there in the past, going to the Double Down and places like that. It’s a fun time. It’s just belligerence from morning ‘til night.
Do you have any memorable shows from all the times you’ve played out here?
Probably more like unmemorable, in the sense that I don’t remember most of them. We played House of Blues many times there and had awesome shows so it will be great to get out there with my new band. We played with Avenged Sevenfold in December and it was pretty much our first time with our new band out there so we had a great time for that event and went out and partied afterwards and had a blast so I’m looking forward to the whole weekend, it’s going to be ugly.
Having played with Pennywise for such a long time, how is it now playing smaller shows with The Black Pacific? I know you guys came out here and played at Area 702 Skatepark not too long ago.
Yeah, that was one of our first shows and it was an intimate show to say the least, but that’s very cool. I’ve been lucky enough to be someone who has gotten to experience both sides of it and we’re very much starting from the ground up and that’s understandable. We’ve got to build our following, and we’ve been doing that. We’ve been over to Europe now a couple times and we’re still waiting to get that big U.S. tour that we want to do and so far every time we play we make new fans and I think if you’re in a band that’s all you want to do. The rest doesn’t really matter.
Are the crowds mostly younger fans that know you from Black Pacific or older fans that know you from Pennywise?
It’s pretty much a combination of both. Luckily everyone has been very cool and understanding about my new band and they’ve been very supportive. I’ve been very fortunate in that respect and I have enough confidence in this band that we can pretty much go and play anywhere and people are going to like the show. We have a lot of fun playing and I think that’s all that matters. We just want to get up there and play. I think if we have a chance to prove ourselves we’re going to do it every time because everyone has a good time playing.
Have you started working on a follow-up album yet?
We’re just now working on some new songs and it’s cool because the other guys have been contributing songs. The last record I pretty much did all on my own with Alan [Vega] and Davey [Latter] and I did most of the music and now it’s more of a collaboration on a lot of the songs so it’s great for me to be able to get a lot of songs written on my own and then also have input from the other guys. I really feel like now I can completely start over with the music. It’s very difficult for bands to be around for 20 years and not repeat themselves so now there’s an opportunity to let all that drop. I can play whatever type of music I want to play and not feel like there’s any expectation of the band.
So you feel like there’s more room to experiment now?
Yeah, I want to do that more and more. On the next few records, each time I want to have something different. To the outside listener, a lot of people are going to say “oh it just sounds like Pennywise” but to me there are subtle differences that are very important that make the band sound different. It’s kind of like, if you have Social Distortion or NOFX, or a band that you’ve loved for years. Well if Mike Ness or Fat Mike were to start a new band, it would be very difficult for them to disguise their voice. That’s kind of the position that I’m in now. A lot of people when they hear it will say “oh, it’s just Pennywise” but I wrote a lot of the songs for Pennywise and I was the voice for the band so it’s hard for me to be that much different but I think if you’re really paying attention you’re going hear some differences.
You’ve said that some of the bands that influenced you when you were starting The Black Pacific were Pegboy and Jawbreaker. Are there some newer bands that influence your work?
Oh definitely, I mean we did a tour with Riverboat Gamblers and I just think they have such great energy to their live show and was really stoked on playing with them. There’s bands like Menzingers and The Dopamines and Dillinger Four, bands like that that I really think are making great punk rock music that doesn’t sound like 1992. So that’s what really gets me motivated to make new music. I can’t really help if it’s my voice and sounds a certain way, but I want to incorporate at least a few new chords other than the typical Ramones chords, so that’s what I want to try to do with my band in the future.
I’ve noticed from reading other interviews with you that you seem to be really knowledgeable about new music. How are you able to keep up? How do you find new bands?
That is one of the very few things that the internet has brought to music. You can do your web surfing and come across a record label or a band that you hadn’t heard of in the past, and you can see what other bands they’re into and find all these great bands. Another example is Dead to Me and Title Fight and I just found one the other day, Make Do and Mend. I just found all these bands online and I really like what they’re doing. I think it’s really great for the scene to see these bands that are pushing the envelope on what aggressive hard rock music can sound like. The mainstream music can be very trendy and you have to have this perfect combination of looks and hooks that is maybe great for the general public, but there are so many bands that are just amazing. They’re never going to sell out the Long Beach Arena but they kick ass on 90% of the bands out there.
Talking about using the internet to find music, Pennywise released Reason to Believe for free through Myspace Records. Since then there’s been a lot more bands that have started doing albums for free or pay-what-you-want. How do you feel about that model?
I feel at this point, all bets are off when it comes to the music industry and how you get your music out there and I think you just kind of have to do exactly what feels right to you as a musician or someone who buys music. It’s up to you to decide if it’s something that feels normal and organic, not to use a hippy word. We were trying something out with Pennywise that we thought was going to be good for the band at the time. For me personally, I learned my lesson from how I’ve felt about that type of situation. I know in the future I would definitely be into doing a similar co-op type of record release, but for me it has to have some type of charitable quotient as well.
If I could get with a company where we say “hey let’s put out your next record but we’re going to raise money for muscular dystrophy or Surfrider,” then by all means I’d be into it. But I just want to make sure that there is some type of charitable quotient there because at the end of the day, when it comes to music and working with different entities, whether it’s corporations or whatnot, I’ve always been willing to do that as long as we’re raising money for some sort of worthy cause. Because then I can go back to all that haters and say “hey, we raised $10,000 for muscular dystrophy and you haven’t done anything but complain on the internet.” So that’s how I look at it. It’s a passive way to shut down the haters. It’s really easy to get on a website and say “that band sucks and they’re sellouts.” Well I’m a firm believer in putting your money where your mouth is. If I’ve raised money for a very worthy cause while putting out my music then I don’t have to listen to those people.
With both Pennywise and The Black Pacific, you guys have always stayed with independent labels. Why has that been important to you throughout your career?
It’s basically been the people. When I left Pennywise it was a very strange time for me, but at the same time talking with Joe Sib, I made my record completely on my own, I put up the money myself and brought in Alan and we wrote all the songs and went in there in the studio and produced the record with Shaun Lopez and did it all ourselves and then it was like “well which one of my friends do I want to put this out with?” There weren’t a lot of business suits from Warner Bros knocking down my door, but Joe Sib called me up and said “I love this record and I want to put it out” and that’s all I needed. A lot of bands think they’re going to get the major label deal and that’s all they need. That’s great for certain bands but I want a personal relationship with the record label, that way I can hassle them when they don’t do their job.
Were you a fan of SideOneDummy before you started working with them?
Absolutely. The great thing about SideOne is that they have a great group of people working there and they absolutely believe in their bands before they think about the bottom line and I think there are a lot of labels that are starting to spring up that have that exact mentality. A lot of these bands aren’t making a shitload of money these days. They’re not looking anymore from the standpoint of “this album is going to get on the radio and then we’re all going to have Learjets and pools in the backyard.” They want to put out a record because they love the music and that’s been one of the few positives about what’s happened in the music industry. People are doing it for the right reasons again. It was kind of gross to go through the 90s and feel like you need to take a shower after you talk to your agent. There were a lot of people hovering around you realizing that when you play your music a lot of people are going to come to the show so I want to make some money off of you, so I’m going to be really nice to you. It gets to be hard at times because you know a lot of people aren’t in it for the right reasons anymore.
Talking about the 90s, the California skate-punk scene exploded shortly after Pennywise signed with Epitaph and a lot of bands were selling a lot of records. Did you guys ever expect to sell as many records as you did? What was it like being a part of that?
It was something that happened so fast around us that you really just kind of had to react to what was going on. For me it was difficult because we started this little punk rock band in a backyard situation where we wanted to play music as fast as we could and put our message in music that we all really believed in and have it be about friends and the whole scene here in the South Bay. And then when things got big and The Offspring took off and Green Day and Rancid and certain bands, we got caught up in all that and you kind of started to lose sight of what it is all about, which is natural and understandable.
But I really feel like now that we’ve come through the other side, for me personally, it’s been a real learning experience of starting to understand what I loved about music and what I loved about listening to Black Flag and the Circle Jerks and the Descendents and the Misfits and the Adolescents, all these big bands. It went beyond what bands KROQ was playing on the radio or what band was on the magazine cover. It really wasn’t about that. It was about these guys who loved punk rock growing up who played music that they really liked a lot. It’s great for me to be able to get back to that because in the end that’s what’s important.
You ventured into the literary world in 2008 with the release of your book Punk Rock Dad. Who were some of your influences while writing that? Who are some authors that you’re into?
Well it would be very different from what came out in the book, but I’m a big fan of John Updike who I got to meet a few months before he died which was a great moment in my life. Some newer authors that I really like are David Eggers, who everyone seems to like a lot. And David Sedaris and David Foster Wallace. I like V. S. Naipaul, all kinds of heavy reading.
But for that book, that was just my experience in my unique situation. I can’t really change the fact that I didn’t grow up in Paris with Sartre and Kierkegaard, so my experience was growing up in Hermosa Beach listening to punk music so I tried to explain the best I could what it was like for me. I’m really looking forward to doing a lot more writing. I’ve got several projects in the works right now that I’m really excited for people to check out and just to get my own unique perspective out there. And that’s basically how I see things post-Pennywise is to be doing The Black Pacific and then to be doing a lot of writing as well. Hopefully, people who liked my last band will be interested to see what I’m doing next.
I know that there is a documentary being worked on for Punk Rock Dad. How’s that going? Is it finished?
It’s going really well. We just premiered it at South by Southwest and it’s got everyone from Fat Mike to Duane Peters, Tony from The Adolescents, Ron from Black Flag who did one of his first video interviews in years. And I think it’s a documentary where people really don’t expect what they’re going to get. It shows a different side to a lot of the guys that made some of the best punk rock ever, especially when it comes to Ron Reyes [from Black Flag] and Tony from the Adolescents. I mean these guys pretty much invented California hardcore but instead of them talking about how radical they were and how violent the punk scene is they talk about their own dads and why they got into punk rock and they talk about what it’s like having kids now and how do you be an authority figure to your kids.
And it’s funny that as we’re sitting here talking, my daughter’s boyfriend is trying to Skype her. I’ve got my laptop in front of me and my daughter’s little boyfriend from school is trying to Skype her right now and I’m really pissed.
You going to get on there and scare him?
That’s funny that we should talk about that because I’m really bummed that she’s only 12 years old and she’s got this little boy who is trying to Skype her right now. I’m getting bummed.
But yeah, I think people will be really surprised on what they’re going to get with this movie. You know, there have already been so many documentaries on “look at how radical we were” but they don’t really delve into why the guys were like this. And a lot of these guys came from broken homes and broken families and they felt like outcasts and they felt like they didn’t belong so they made these bands that were expressing that feeling of disconnectedness with family. And they were really looking for a dysfunctional family which they found in punk rock. Now they’re having kids and they’re also struggling with the exact same situations where they have this huge challenge of raising their own kids so I think it’s going to be a very atypical film for people from the punk scene to watch.
I totally understand that a lot of people from the punk scene are going to go in and expect to see a bunch of dads with their kids having Hot Topic little onesies with skull and crossbones on it, but that’s not what it’s about at all. It’s a very heavy film and when we premiered it at South by Southwest there was just a total look of disbelief when people came out of the movie and they just really didn’t understand what it was going to be about. I think they expected something very different, and it’s a very heavy film. I’m very proud to be a part of it. I just wrote the book, but the producers involved definitely touched on a very interesting facet of the punk world.
When will more people be able to see it?
I’m pretty sure it’s going to be airing in theaters at the end of summer and probably a cable station or two so probably by fall people will see it. And it will be on Netflix and stuff like that so people will be able to check it out.
[Editor’s note: the documentary, titled The Othe F Word, has now been picked up by Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch’s Oscilloscope for theatrical release.]
Oh my god my daughter’s boyfriend is relentless, he just keeps calling can you hear him?
Yeah I keep hearing it beeping, he just doesn’t give up!
How funny is that? I’m trying to do an interview and my daughter is getting Skyped relentlessly on our computer. That’s 2011 for you.
Very True. Do you have anything else you’d like to add?
Yeah, definitely go to iTunes and download the record or better yet, go to SmartPunk and buy the physical CD or on Amazon. And come out and see the show. Everyone in the band is fired up and ready to play Punk Rock Bowling and have a blast with everybody!
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