Rancid

…And Out Come the Wolves (Epitaph)
An interview with guitarist/singer Lars Fredericksen
by Joshua Brown

Lars Speaks Out on Family Values and “Doing the Pearl Jam”

Has your circle of friends changed much since the old days of early Rancid, or Operation Ivy for Lint and Matt?
No, I mean, my good friends will always be my good friends. But I guess there are a lot of people who became acquaintances of mine, you know. They were never really our friends in the first place. The thing about us is that the four of us are all best friends, so our circle of friends is pretty much us. Our band’s like a family. If we weren’t in a band together we’d still be hanging out every day, which is how we differ from most bands.

Do you play large venues pretty much everywhere you go now?
Last time we went out, we played for like 1,100 people. We all thought really hard about what size places we wanted to play, and it wasn’t an overnight decision. We were running into this problem where we were playing these 400 capacity clubs, and like 1,000 kids would show up, and we’d have to turn away 600 people. We didn’t think that was fair. You actually make a lot more money playing those smaller places. Once you get to these bigger places, there’s so much overhead, so many other things involved.

Would you say there’s a threshold? If you get into the huge arena thing, you’d probably make more than at the little places, but the in-betweens are where you get screwed?
Yeah. I don’t know about the arenas ’cause we never really played ’em so…

Are you gonna be doing anything, like Lollapalooza-ish?
No, well, I doubt it.

Do you think you’ll ever do anything like it? Have you been asked to?
Lollapalooza asked us. We turned it down. That’s lame.

You just don’t like the attitude?
It’s too hippie. It doesn’t seem like a show; it seems like a big circus. And I’m sick of that.

What do you think of all the Old School bands getting back together, like Fear and the Meatmen?
Maybe it’ll give people a chance to get to see these bands. The Meatmen, I don’t know if they ever really broke up.

Well, for a while it was just Tesco Vee and Tesco Vee’s Hate Police.
Oh, yeah, that’s right. I never really looked into the Meatmen, other than that first record, but I think a lot of people in the older bands are seeing that it’s time, you know. That maybe it’s time for them again. Which is fine, ’cause all those bands made it possible for bands like us to fuckin’ make music.

Absolutely, yeah.
Take the Ramones, for example. If it wasn’t for them, none of us would be playing. We’d still be, like, listening to Led Zeppelin and thinking they were cool.

What was the transition like from being small to being very well-known?
I don’t know. Things happened really quick. None of us were expecting it. We were barely making ends meet. And then we were, like, having dinner with Madonna.

Have you talked about the Madonna thing in a lot of other mags? I mean, is it so much a dead issue that I shouldn’t even bother?
Yeah. I’m just gonna tell you the same thing I tell everybody else.

What is your diet like on the road?
I try to eat really light, you know. Because you could be like in the Midwest, and you already feel bad enough out there, you know what I mean? It seems like the further East you get, the more boredom you feel. More or less, a lot of rice, chicken, vegetables. Bananas.

Good to hear. Do you prefer Melrose Place or 90210, as a band or individually?
(laughing) I think we’re all Melrose fans.

Bradys or Partridge?
Bradys.

Bradys over Partridge?
Fuck, yeah. I think if the families ever got in a fight the Bradys would kick ass.

Like in a battle of the bands.
Yeah, totally. I thought the Bradys wrote better songs. [We each start singing our favorite Brady Bunch tune.] And Johnny Bravo. How could you forget Johnny Bravo?

There’s a new band called Johnny Bravo, immortalizing his name. Do you have crazy dreams about gigs or the studio?
I do. I had a dream that we played with Motörhead.

Was it good?
Yeah. I had seen Motörhead and I think it was the next night. Motörhead’s like one of my all-time favorite bands, right?

Yeah, me too. I met him once but he was so wasted that our conversation just wasn’t happening, know what I mean?
Dude, I’ve got a story for you. Okay. The first time I met him was when we played the Weenie Roast with the Ramones.

Where’s the Weenie Roast?
It was like a K-ROQ thing, and they had a bunch of bands. It was us, Hole, Ramones, Rage Against the Machine, White Zombie. I got a chance to meet Lemmy, and I went up to him like, “I can’t believe I’m meeting you. You’re my favorite band. I’ve been listening to you since I was 11 years old. I bought Ace of Spades when it first came out, blah, blah, blah…” And all he said to me was, “You’ve got to watch your back in this business.” He didn’t say “hi” or “thanks” or anything.

That’s good advice.
Then I was like “Yeah, I’ve got Rose Tattoo tattooed on my chest. I put Motörhead over here because you guys are my two favorite bands,” and he was like, “Well, you’d better tattoo AC/DC on your navel.”

So what was the dream like?
Well, dude, it was weird ’cause in the dream he kept calling me “sissy pants.”

What are your hobbies?
I still like to buy records. I’m still buying all the records that got stolen from me over the years.

Do you trade with people?
Well, I’m not really into that whole, sorta, network.

You just pick up whatever.
Yeah. All the bands that I’ve loved throughout the years. I go to a lot of shows, all of us do. Just kinda kick back.

Who have you seen lately that’s caught your interest? Like, name a smaller band who you think is really good.
H2O, Madball. I saw Madball two or three weeks back, and they were just incredible.

What would you say has made Epitaph records so successful, that you know of?
Well, first of all, Brett Gurewitz is a genius.

You like working with him?
I wouldn’t know ’cause I’ve never been on a major label. There’s a whole lot of love down at Epitaph. It’s like on big family. Like when you go down to visit, it’s like seeing your cousins or your brothers and sisters. It’s really cool, and the bands are great, like Pennywise. I just saw Pennywise down at Long Beach, and that was the most fucking, like fucking amazing show I’ve been to, like, ever.

Yeah, I like their new stuff. The first album I thought was just like a Bad Religion wannabe, but they’ve gotten a lot better.
Yeah. I think they’re really coming into their own, and I’m just really proud of them. They’re like my favorite band. I mean, unanimously for Rancid, Pennywise is our favorite band on Epitaph. They’re all really good though: Total Chaos, Down By Law, The Red Aunts, every band on Epitaph is just, you know, the shit. It’s just a really great label to be on.

Are there any sports that the band plays while on the road?
(laughing) We bowled with Sick of It All one time, in San Francisco. It was the end of the tour. It was like East Coast vs. West Coast, so it was pretty fun. Sick of It All, that’s another great band.

Would you say you’re superstitious about gigs?
Oh, yeah. Before we play every night we get everybody together and do this thing where we join hands and pump each other up.

Sort of like a sporting thing? Or more like a seance?
Well, we call it “doing the Pearl Jam,” because you know how on the cover of their first record they have all their hands up in a circle? We do that every time before we play.