// INTERVIEWS

My Interview w/ Erick Sanger
July 12, 2004 @ Modified in Phoenix, AZ
Interviewer: siX

// MYquestions
1) State your name, position, and favorite lyric from a song.
Erick, on top--I'm just kidding, Bass... since I am on the spot I am going to quote a line from a Murder City Devils song "One week on the road, one week and I am already wrecked.

2) What's your favorite Harry Potter book and why?
The Fourth book. Well not to give too much away, that's when they have their "empire strikes back" moment. That's when everything goes down and everything is not quite what it seems. It's so cool...

3) If you lived in Harry Potter's world, what character would you be?
I would probably be one of the twins. I would definetely be a troublemaker.

4) Who are some of your main influences?
Musically I definetely would say bass wise Simon Gallup. Adam Clayton. Erick Avery. Those are reasons I started playing bass. Musically, you know i love Johnny Cash and Murder City Devils. I love The Cure, Alkaline Trio, Depeche Mode. Girls in a Coma, they are one of my favorite local bands--or not even local, I want to say undiscovered. They are very good.

5) What's your favorite bass that you own?
My '67 Fender Jazz bass that I have had for about 8 years. That totally had finish on it when I bought it and now has a big hole in it. You can look at it and you can see where it's worn out, and if you look at it sideways it's indented. And the pickup is kinda smooth and I like it. It's like a rock that is in a stream, and over time it becomes smooth.

6) What's the first instrument you ever learned to play?
Still working on that, still working on that. (PUKE comes to hang out with us) Hi Puke.

7) What's the first song that you learned to play?
First song "With or Without You" by U2. Actually that's the first song I learned on bass. I actually learned guitar, I started taking guitar lessons and I was taught "Some like it Hot" by the Powerstation. But I couldn't do all the riffs and solos so I gave up and played the bass. (PUKE hums song)

8) Which do you think is easier: Bass or Guitar?
Obviously the bass because I gave up on the guitar. But I rather be a drummer if I could be anything, but my parents wouldn't buy me a drum set. Now I have a drum set and I have played drums in a couple of bands. Drums take time to be good at unless you are Jamie, the prodigy.

9) What's going on with Kissing Chaos?
Kissing Chaos is still on hiatus. But Joel and Matt have a band called Svengali, which we are playing with in Austin this week and they are really fucking good. I miss that band, I miss that band alot it was a lot of fun. Hopefully we will get to play some shows, usually I'm just never home. Usually if I am home for any extended time we play a show, but we havn't played since February.

10) Favorite thing about touring?
Seeing the world and finding awesome new restaurants and record stores. I've been to all three Amoeba's. They are awesome! Hey, a bug just flew in my shoe. That was weird...

11) You were recently married, what was your wedding like?
My wedding was cool, in that we were going to get married outside because it's Austin, Texas and usually not very cold during the wintertime. We were getting married on Friday the 13th and it snowed that day and that night. So we had it inside where the reception was going to be or was. It was really cool. We invited like 150 people, and 300 people showed up. So that was kinda cool, people I hadn't seen in years came out of the woodwork. I don't know if they wanted to giggle or send me off right I don't know but it was cool. It ended up just being a huge party which is what I really wanted, to hang out with my friends. People didn't sit down, everybody just stood around. We gave out candles, had a bunch of christmas lights everywhere. We gave out candles.We had a Nightmare Before Christmas cake, it was grey and black with Jack and Sally on it. It was really cool.

12) How did you meet your wife?
I met her at a kickball game. I was on tour with Pop Unknown. And a day after we got back of Cinco De Mayo, like a Sunday and some friends of mine said you should come play kickball we're gonna have beer! Intrestingly enough I had went before that to Coco Cobana to drink, they had fifty cent margaritas. So had some fifty cent margaritas, went to a kickball game, and met my wife. They were fifty cents it was cool, I had like five or six of them. They made them out of like white wine or something so they were really weird.

13) What's the nicest thing a fan has ever done for you?
Ahhh, you're walking into that one. Somebody gave me a Mark Ryden book.(NOTE TO READERS: I am the one who gave him the book hehe)

14) Top five favorite bands?
In no particular order. Johnny Cash, even though that's not a band, hes a legend. The Cure. Murder City Devils. Depeche Mode. There's so many I like. I probably have to put Alkaline Trio they have so many fuckin great songs. I think I have yet to hear them write a bad song.

15) Do you think fashion belongs in music?
Oh yeah, definetely. There's definetely alot of bands who need a serious make over. And you know those bands get stylists, and those stylists just fuck them up even more than they already were.

16) You're a big fan of Mark Ryden, what do you think of his work? Why do you like it so much?
I like that fact that everything, the way he paints is flat, yet 3D almost. I mean you could like almost look into the world instead of looking at a flat piece of canvas. It's almost three-dimensional. But it looks flat, it's the way he does his tones. And there is always such random stuff put in, it's kinda creepy. I love his obseession with Christina Ricci. In his early stuff he was influenced by Alice in Wonderland and take those ideas. There's a Screaming Tree's record and it has the caterpillar from Alice, done his way, and I like the aliens he does, and the little robots.

17) Who are some of your other favorite Artists?
I like Derek Hess, but I am tired of every heavy metal band using his stuff because now it's not as special as it used to be. I think he was at his prime with Poison the Well. I like the fact that it's so scratchy. Patrick Negal, and Heather Hanourra who is the merch girl for Alkaline Trio. She designs all their stuff and designed our new record. But her art just on the side is just fantastic.

18) Any plugs for any great bands that need more recognition?
Svengali out of Austin. The Art of Safecracking from Los Angeles. Which people already know. Girls in a Coma. Always give it up to El Paso.

// THREEwords
Aimee: Driven, Encyclopedia, Bossy
Jamie: Talented, Sweet, Knowledgable
Billy: Witty,Short He's going to kill me for that, and I am going to compare him to a movie: Caddyshack
Eno: Horny, Hungry, Adorable

// aSENTENCEabout
Fiona: How about i describe Fiona as a song from theSTART... Nemesis. My Evil Nemesis.
Puke: Well I only know Puke a little bit, We haven't toured yet. I would just say fun, stoned... can you put that?
Human: Laura is one of the most wonderful people in the entire world. There are not enough words to describe her.