Underball
Gimme Back My Ball (CherryDisc)
An interview with Greg Fiore (guitar/vocals), Ed Devlin (bass), Peter DeVincent (drums/backing vocals)
by Scott Hefflon
Your first single and Gimme Back My Ball‘s lead-off track, “Strawberry Bullet,” leads me to ask: What is a Strawberry Bullet?
Greg: No direct reference to anything in particular really. Actually it’s booze. I saw the name on a bottle of cheap strawberry schnapps, and thought it was a cool name. It doesn’t really mean anything, not unlike most of the other titles, I guess.
The last few songs are a bit faster, a bit harder than the rest. Was it a conscious decision to put them at the end?
Ed: That was really CherryDisc’s decision. They asked us if we had a preference, which we did, but it was their decision to put them at the end.
Greg: By and large, all the songs were a little heavier when we wrote them, and when we play them live, as opposed to the way this album is produced. We discussed it as a band, and decided to make a pop album, so we started leaning in more of a pop direction.
Do you use the phrase pop, or power pop, or guitar rock, or pop/punk, or what?
Ed: I don’t know what to call anything anymore. We’re a rock band.
Greg: We really don’t sound like any of the bands we listen to. Some are varied influences, some are bands we all like. I don’t think we really sound like anyone in particular.
You have no idea how many times I’ve heard people say that. In response, why don’t I ask you specifically what bands you like, whether or not they’re an influence on your music?
Peter: We all listen to the Beatles, and I’m a huge Devo fan, but there’s nothing in there, really, that reflects that. Ed, you listen to what? Cheap Trick, and Jason & The Scorchers?
Ed: Gregorian chants.
Greg: Sousa’s marches, polka…
Ed: If I had to list some punk influences, I’ve always liked stuff like Replacements, Hüsker Dü, bands that had real melody in there. I was never much into the hardcore punk. Greg and I are big fans of The Pixies, so there might be just a bit of that in there. But as far as aligning with a certain band, or group of bands, or “scene,” we don’t really work that way.
When you play shows, do you usually get on bills with punk bands, or singer/songwriter solo pop artists?
Peter: We’ve been put on a lot of hardcore punk bills, probably because of our name. They mistake us for a hardcore band.
Greg: It’s probably also because of our backgrounds.
Peter: We’re all from punk bands originally. Ed and I were in Toecutter, Greg and I were in Facts About Rats. Not that we don’t want anyone to remember Toecutter, but…
Ed: We weren’t so much a punk band as we really didn’t, um, know how to play.
Greg: We all listen to punk, among other things, but we’re trying to wean ourselves in the pop direction, something none of us have ever done before. And we’re having fun doing it.
Have you guys always lived in Boston?
All: Yeah.
I was wondering if Mission of Burma or Gigolo Aunts references would be appropriate.
Greg: Yeah, there’s that guy on the radio…
Ed: Moby, or something…
Greg: His version of “Revolver” is a little disturbing because it’s not, ya know, Mission of Burma.
Peter: I heard a song on the radio that I thought was Squeeze, but it turned out to be Gigolo Aunts.
How did you get signed to CherryDisc?
Greg: We got a $150,000 advance, but it was enough to get us interested. A little known fact is that John Horton, president of CherryDisc, is actually Jonathan Winthorp Horton III, whose family has ties to organized crime. We got a bunch of money, paid off Ringo, and got free kung-fu lessons, so it’s a pretty good relationship.
So the fashion spreads in GQ and Esquire are merely rumors?
Greg: Well, I can’t speak for all of us, but I think Ed’s going to be in next month’s Colt. Next is Tiger Beat.
Ed: I’ll have to start doing heroin to regain my “alternative physique.”
Greg: That’s our next venture: heroin.
Perfect. We’re putting out a compilation called Hooked on Heroin, and I’d love to have you guys supply some tracks. I’m going to re-mix all the songs like a Trent Reznor® soundtrack. They’ll all be strung out over a plodding, dirge beat with gratuitous psychedelic washes shivering throughout.
Greg: Great. For the photo shoot, I’ll wear my Johnny Thunders fake head. Old punks are gonna slap me for that. And young uns will say, who?
Like the kids who hear Nerf Herder’s “Van Halen” and say, “Who’s this David Lee Roth guy?”
Peter: Or people who think KISS being in make-up is a great gimmick.
Greg: I saw that show. We were in the absolute last row, but I could still see Gene Simmons gut. In fact, that’s almost the only thing I could see.
Ed: But if you want to see Paul Stanley, you can go to Jacque’s and see pretty much the same thing.
Peter: They’re booking bands now, too. We played upstairs with Binge, and I played downstairs, filling in for Blanket Party. They opened up the basement, moved a few boxes aside, but it was pretty cool. Of course, upstairs that same night, they had the lip-synching transvestites doing their thing.
They lip-synch? I always thought they were very talented ABBA cover bands!
Peter: They’re better than all the Grateful Dead tribute bands.
The bio from CherryDisc makes you out to be partying beer drinkers, but do you smoke dope?
Peter: I used to, but I stopped.
I used to like Steely Dan and, like, sing-along, when I smoked…
Greg: I liked Asia, so don’t feel bad. I also had a fedora with a feather in it. We smoked pot as a band once. Once. We started going off on these 12-minute songs, so we nipped that in the butt immediately.
Ed: A lot of the guys in those bands are great players, they can really improvise…
Greg: Are we still talking about Dead tribute bands? Can we stop?
Ed: We’re a pretty much straight-forward power chord band. We can play and all. But we’re not going to go off on a 10 minute jam, ’cause we’d be playing the same three chords for 10 minutes.
Throw in a key change or two, who’ll know the difference?
Greg: Key changes are our version of being under-educatedly crafty. Plus, when we take it up a step, I can use my Geddy Lee-style vocals.
A few of these songs have been in you set list for years.
Peter: “Candy Necklace,” “Doesn’t Matter,” and “Red Ball Jets” are all a few years old. They were on the demo recorded by Tim O’Heir, before he got big. It wasn’t for sale, really. Just to get gigs and a bit of college radio-play.
Do you have any newer songs?
Greg: We just started writing new material.
Peter: We’re doing a Cyndi Lauper cover. “Time After Time.”
Ed: It takes about a third of the time her’s does though.
Did you punk it out?
Greg: We kept the verses pretty much the same tempo, but we rocked out the chorus and the changes.
I mean, is it still a ballad? Would I be tempted to pull out my lighter and shout “Go, Underball, Go!”?
Greg: You might. And you might get escorted out.
