Alligator Gun – Onehundredpercentfreak – Interview

Alligator Gun

Onehundredpercentfreak (Relativity)
An interview with vocalist/guitarist Bill Couture
by Scott Hefflon

I recognized the production credits instantly.
Yeah, I always watch for that too. I always know if they (Bill Stevenson and Stephan Egerton from ALL) have something to do with it, at least the production will be good.

Were you a big Descendents and early All fan?
Yeah, they were ultimately the masters. You listen to what’s out there now and some of it’s good, but you can hear their influence. I never saw the Descendents, but I saw All as much as possible.

So it’s like you’re working with your mentors.
That was the crazy thing. We were all freaking out. We had always envied and worshiped them like, “Oh my God, those guys rule.”

Did you ever do any Descendents or All covers?
We played around with “Clean Sheets” and “Good Good Thing.” We played with the Parasites down in Beloit, which is an hour away from Madison and an hour away from Milwaukee, and Milo (Ackerman, from Descendents) came down and did vocals. It was like – bonus.

Bonus. You even picked up their lingo, huh?
You hang around them and it rubs off. They defined or popularized the surf/punk language.

Does the comparison between you and All, scare you at all?
I’d rather have comparisons like that which are actual comparisons. We’ve been compared to bands that I just can’t see. It’s just lazy.

You toured with All a few times right?
We played with them locally once or twice and the Southern belt of their tour – about six or seven shows. We asked ourselves, “Do you think we’ll get sick of hearing their songs every night?” Their set list is like 33 songs. I never went home thinking that I couldn’t hear them again.

How do you tour with only album under your belt?
We’re all really feeling that right now. We’re writing new songs and we believe in doing a short set anyhow. When we’re asked to play 45 minutes, it’s tough because the album we have has 13 songs on it. We’ve gotta stretch things, ’cause we get nervous and play fast. We can burn through the set list in a half hour.

You’ve got to regulate your between-song-banter.
Quick everyone – tune!

Dumb Question Time: Where did you get the name Alligator Gun?
There’s no major story behind it. We always say we should make something up because people want to know what is it. If there is one out there, I’d like to get a picture of it and doctor it up for a 7″ or something.

Tell me about beer.
Well, we’re from Milwaukee, the beer capital, and we believe in having fun. I think there has to be a political side to things, but you have to have your good times, too.

What were your early influences for rock or punk or whatever?
Circle Jerks, D.R.I. when they were in their heyday, pre-cross-over. Then Bad Brains and then pop stuff. We listened to a lot of Big Drill Car, which some people see as a comparison. It’s a compliment as far as I’m concerned. We also listened to Down by Law, Jawbreaker, Samiam, a lot of that era.

What about the name of your CD, Onehundredpercentfreak?
We’re all freaks, seriously. 100%. Head to toe – we’re freaks. Everybody in the band is just way too weird. We’re just silly, I guess.

What’s your musical training?
Well, none of us ever took lessons or went to school for it. I never sang before and it might sound like crap, I’m at least having fun doing it
and there’s honesty to it.

You guys have any problem with the production being too pretty?
Well, we hadn’t been in the studio much before. We just put our trust in Bill and Stephan because we’d heard their work before and we liked it. We’re happy with how it turned out.

Have you ever done any compilation stuff?
No, but we’ve been asked to do one by Itchy Records; it’s a movie compilation album of songs from Valley Girl. Samiam is going to be on it, and also Big Drill Car’s last song. We were like “Fuck yeah!”

So where do your lyrics come from? Besides beer.
Personal experiences, I guess. As lead singer, it’s sort of expected of me to write the lyrics. The other guys don’t… help… Usually someone writes the music first, and then I come up with the lyrics. I used to vow I’d never write songs about girls, but “Countdown by Fives” is a pretty personal story. Someday, hopefully, my heart will get broken and then I’ll be able to write a million songs.

Pain will be your springboard to success. “Break up with me, please! I have bills to pay!”