For Those of you who don't know The Bouncing Souls are one of the stable punk bands in the last 25 years influencing and exciting the majority of pop punk and punk rock bands who have 'made' it over the years, this guys celebrated their 20th year as a band last year which is quite a feat in itself, to celebrate they released limited merch and also a brand new song every month as well as small tours which some amazing bands from the scene, for more on this topic lets jump straight into the interview/Chat which was taken last year in Belgium when the guys played a rare one off at the Groezrock Festival!
WWR: So we have the pleasure of being joined by none other then the vocalist Greg of The Bouncing Souls, How you doing today man did you just fly in or?
Greg: Im doing well, no i've actually been here around 2 weeks, I did a week long acoustic tour then I met up with the bouncing souls just before the volcano erupted the rest of the guys arrived in Munich , so we've been here and missed that whole me lee of are bands going to make it are they not?
WWR: sure I was very disappointed to see that saves the day and sunny day real estate had pulled out myself, but they got Millencolin to replace and they played an amazing kind of greatest hits set.
So you've been touring on the solo act hows that all been going?
Greg: its been fun! It was me Kepi ghouli, Ashanti my wife and cat who's a singer songwriter and we did like 7 dates and its a lot if fun!
WWR: so are you still making the kids magazine/book thing and what's your motivation to produce this after being in a 'mature' punk rock band for 20 years?
Greg: to me its not that far off, to me music is music it does the same thing, no matter how old you are just expressing yourself putting positive energy into it and sharing that with everybody whether they are young or old. So we just happened to write the children's book, my wife wrote the story and I did the illustrations and we put it out and did a little tour with it and that's turned into a TV show which is like a kids music TV show
WWR; Really?
Greg: yea and that's going to be on PBS in America and we are in the creative process of working on it
WWR; So its going to be between blues clues and Jimmy neutron or?
Greg: its going to be all the cool things we like about kids TV shows such as Sesame street, the Muppet show, Mr Rogers so all the best things from those will be included, the most important thing is that its going to have real songs and real musicians in it and its going to encourage kids to be involved in making music and them generating their own music and that's a lot of fun as opposed to listening to it and making it on gadgets, playing an instrument is going to be a big emphasis within it, and what a great experience that can be in learning and playing and being involved in music
WWR: that's amazing that your doing this, I know mike park does the plea for peace where he raises money for communities so kids can go learn and play instruments, that's awesome that your doing this, and your both based on different coasts so your technically competition!
Greg: yes! Well mike park actually just put out our acoustic CD for the tour I should probably get you one, so yea we are friends with mike park.
WWR: aw that's great, good stuff! So the bouncing Souls 20 years as band, congratulations! You could have went 19 then broke up but you didn't!
Greg: ha yea we could have broke up any time! Ha!
WWR: So you produced all these exclusive merch ranges and then released a song every month but then decided to also press that as an album was that a conscious decision to that in the first place?
Greg: well the fun part of it was we kind of didn't know what we were gunna do and that was part of it and part of the fun, part of being in a band for 20 years is that everything is so predictable after a while and you want to take that predictability out of it , so that's what was the point of it so it was a conscious choice, so we put out the digital downloads to see how it goes and then we will decide later, we kind of knew it would be on a CD eventually but it might have been ten years or a year, but then after doing it people were like when the new CD coming out? But of course it was already out,we kept getting that input it was like we were setting up that CD so we were like okay lets give it to them!
WWR: so that the 1st bouncing souls release on Chunksaah in a while right?
Greg: yea the last four were all on Epitaph
WWR: and in terms of recording process you didn't go record all in one go? So you had the freedom to go in when you wanted was that cool to be able to do it that way?
Greg: yea that was a lot of fun to do it that way, it took the pressure off and made it less stressful and we got to create as we went on a little bit more, so it was more fun!
WWR: Sorry I just got distracted by the singers from sum 41's hair since its so punk, I was just wondering why your hair isn't as punk as his when you have at least 10 years punkness on him?
Greg: i'm not sure but that's a great question maybe I don't try hard enough?
WWR: maybe, I think our hair is at the same length i'm 25 and i'm losing my hair and I think we have the same amount and you have ten years on me too
Greg: yea well you got a little spot back there! OK let me ask you some questions now..
WWR: sure
Greg: what have you been up to since the last time I saw you?
WWR: aw Christ, well obviously we had been doing the videozine then did the physical zine and started up the promotion for shows again, we did some house shows, we blew up a bit and did a festival for four days called WTFest so things are have been busy.
Greg: you did a festival that's good! Was it successful?
WWR: yea the shows were more or less packed everyday, but we loved to have you guys down.
Greg: sure lets swap details i'm sure we will do something next year.
WWR: awesome okay lets wrap it up, thanks for your time.
Greg: thank you!
