by
Julie Seabaugh
June 2003
With a stage full of frenzied angst and vocal pyrotechnics, LA
revolutionary rockers S.T.U.N. (Scream Toward the Uprising of
Non-Conformity) have quickly become one of the highlights of the 2003
Vans Warped Tour. Singer Christiane J, songwriter/guitarist Neil Spies,
drummer Bobby Alt and bassist Nick S sat down after their soggy St.
Louis set to discuss their newly released debut album, Evolution of Energy, really really supportive record labels and learning to sing like Michael Bolton.
Julie: Aside from tonight's rain-out, how has the Warped Tour been treating you?
Christiane: Wonderful. We're having a blast. Playing music every day for kids, meeting people, traveling around.
Neil: We get to see a lot of great bands and be with a lot of
friends, playing for thousands of kids, hundreds of kids, the way [pit
boss] Kevin [Lyman] sets it out, every day we're playing a different
set, we don't know where we're playing. Walked out in Denver we're
playing for thousands of kids, the next day we're playing for hundreds
of kids. We're with our friends we've toured with before, so it's
amazing. It's great.
Julie: Do you like the spontaneity of not knowing when you're going to play every day?
Christiane: I think it's exciting, it's really exciting. They
told us that we were only going to play the second stage, and they've
put us on the main stage two or three times, and the tour's only been
going for a week. People have been really cool. They seem to dig the
band enough to do that, so that's cool.
Julie: And you mentioned that you get to play with a lot of your friends, any particular favorites you enjoy playing with?
Christiane: We love the Used. They took us on tour.
Bobby: I like the Unseen and Letter Kills.
Neil: Thrice.
Christiane: You know who I saw today was Rancid. That’s a good time. If you want to have a good time and sing along, they’re great.
Nick: The Used, Rancid, AFI.
Julie: What’s it like constantly having so many people around?
Neil: It’s a real community. Everyone’s hanging out together.
Everybody really. There’s a barbecue every night where all the bands
come out and hang out together. Bands play at different times every
day. I think that’s very community-building, and I think it’s very much
a step toward equality in music. It’s a very good punk ethic.
Christiane: Everybody from AFI to the guy who works the fucking
wagon stage has to stand in line for their food and everyone’s treated
with the same respect.
Julie: What are you most wanting to get out of the tour?
Neil: Just keep playing for thousands of kids, and hundreds of
kids. Every day we come out, whether we’re playing early or late, we’re
playing for kids and the youth comes out to the Warped Tour. I think
that’s what we all love about it. Every band on this tour is playing
for youth. That’s what punk rock is about. If you can sell some records
and get a message out in a world where it’s all about selling
everyone…we’re trying to do something about that. In this system we
have to work with the system to make the system better. That’s what
we’re doing.
Julie: Can you tell me a little about your history?
Christiane: I put an ad in the paper and Neil answered it, and
he had been working on a lot of 8-track stuff, and we got together, and
he was playing guitar and I was singing over it. After a couple of
weeks I called Nick, I knew him from when we bussed tables together at
a place, and I’d seen him play before and I knew he was a badass bass
player, and he came down and played. Both of us had seen Bobby around
the way and we were both trying to get a hold of him, and we did, and
then the original members hit the ground running. Boom.
Julie: You mentioned bussing tables before, what kinds of other jobs did you have?
Christiane: I worked at Sizzler for four years.
Neil: I worked at record stores; a 9-to-5 business for a year.
My whole youth I got fired from like 50 jobs probably. That’s an
overexaggeration, but there are a lot of jobs I got fired from. Just
little jobs. I always put music first.
Bobby: I had been playing since I was 16.
Julie: You now have major label support for your first album. How are you deciding upon a first single?
Neil: It will probably be “Annihilation [of the Generations].”
We’re letting radio and the fans come to us. We’re not going to put it
on now, we’re going to play the Warped Tour. But “Annihilation” is the
single that has been submitted. We’re going to do the video after the
tour but we think "Annihilation" will probably be the song. You never
know. You never know what the fans are going to like. Whatever it is,
we’ll push for.
Julie: Can you elaborate [on the music that influenced you]?
Neil: Yeah, I can elaborate easily. I grew up with nobody in the
world having any sort of connection with me other than records. I grew
up with suppression, I grew up being told I needed to believe in Jesus
Christ, I grew up believing that I couldn’t be depressed, I grew up
believing that my face needed to be cleaned up, that I needed to listen
to a certain type of music. I was made to burn certain cassette tapes I
had, and when I put on the Smiths, when I put on Jane’s Addiction, when
I put on Depeche Mode, I was freely related to sexually, meaningfully,
in every way, racism, depression, in every way. Records saved my life
because they related to me, and those people were brave enough and they
were free enough. And when I went to see them play, I was seeing
freedom at its full extent. When I saw Jane’s Addiction play, I saw
freedom at its full extent. You never knew what was going to happen
next. These people wore whatever they wanted to wear, they said
whatever they wanted to say, and they spoke with meaning. And that’s
what we’re doing for kids.
Julie: Christiane, you’ve said you’re not a trained singer, what kinds of advantages or disadvantages does this give you?
Christiane: I don’t know. It was definitely an insecure process
when I first started, but it was also exciting. I mean, I was moved
enough to put an ad in the paper, and I’d never sung before in my life
before I picked up a microphone. I just HAD to start a band. I knew
that. I had never sung to acoustic guitar; I had never sung to anybody.
I just picked up a mic, and something came out of my mouth. But I had
to do it. I was actually disguising my voice a lot until I met Neil,
and Neil was just like, "Let it out; let it out; let it out; sing
natural.” And my voice is high naturally. He was just trying to get me
to do that, and once that happened, then we got here.
Neil: Look at Iggy Pop. I made a call one time because I sing
too. I’m definitely not the lead singer of this band; this guy’s the
fucking communicator of this fucking whole movement. But I called one
time, and I was like, “I want to learn how to sing.” And the girl was
like, “Okay, I’ll teach you how to sing.” And I said, “I want to sing
like David Bowie,” and she’s like, “He’s not a trained singer, you want
to sing like,” what’s his name, fucking long haired-curly-haired guy…
Bobby: Michael Bolton.
Neil: Michael Bolton! She said, “You want to sing like Michael
Bolton.” I said, “Fuck no, I want to sing like David Bowie!” This guy
sings from his own original place. That’s how I fell in love with him
and that’s what makes him great, that’s what makes everybody great. I
wish we could all come from that original place, and that’s what we’re
all standing up for. He sings like himself.
Julie: Now for your songwriting process, Neil comes up with the lyrics; where does the music come in?
Neil: Basically I come up with the lyric process, and then I try
to put a picture of how the music will fit. Sometimes I’ll bring a demo
in, sometimes I come in and play the song for the band. This band is so
talented, each member is so talented, that when I come in I bring the
picture, and we make it happen musically. Then what we do live
obviously, quite obviously, is just a happening of itself.
Julie:
You were ten years old when you started writing songs; were you also
playing the guitar that early? Did you ever write any poetry?
Neil: Yes, I was playing the guitar, and I actually have a book
of poetry coming out in the next year. It’s actually going to be
separated into different categories…love, political, death, and there
will probably be one more snuck in there. It’s being put together right
now.
Julie: Are there any specific political causes the band particularly cares for?
Neil: Well our music isn’t just political, it’s also
philosophical too. It’s also very empowering and exciting. I would
categorize our music as political, philosophical and empowering and
involving. There’s a lot of love in our music too.
Christiane:
Half the people who are our fans right now, they don’t have the record,
they’ve just seen us live touring. I would bet half our fans don’t even
know that we have anything to do with politics
Neil: They come away with information. There’s no doubt about
that. But it doesn’t have to be the reason of whether they enjoy the
show. We’re definitely coming out trying to make people aware of what’s
being fast-tracked behind their backs. Just trying to make them aware
of the true history they’re unaware of. Let me give you a quick
statement here: Ten percent of America owns stocks; one percent owns
the majority of stocks. The rest of the people in America are making no
more money each year, and they’re being controlled by that 10 percent.
And I think that kids need to know about that. We’re not coming out and
forcing information on kids. We’re sharing it with them; we’re not
putting it on their backs. We’re sharing it with them in a sense that’s
empowering.
Christiane: I try to tell kids sometimes from the stage to go
back to the PETA tent or go by the other activism tents. All these kids
are into punk, and that’s punk, all the literature available.
Neil: We’re letting kids know that you can be an activist, you
can be sexual, and you can be cool, and you can be damn fucking hip,
too. I don’t care what you look like or what you think, as long as you
care. As long as you are aware. As long as you are willing to put it on
the line. We put it on the line every time we go on stage; that’s what
we promise. The rest is history.
Julie: You’ve been having quite a few injuries lately...
Christiane: Yeah, our whole bodies are just constantly bruised up and cuts everywhere.
Neil: It started that way, really. I got kicked in the head by
him [Christiane] at one of our first shows. We’re free on stage; we’re
going to run into each other. Things are going to get broken.
Bobby: Anything can happen.
Neil: But it’s not done out of violence, it’s done out of freedom.
Christiane: I had to get ten stitches when I cut my head. I
broke his [Bobby’s] rib. I don’t mind that; what I really mind is
people keep coming up to me after shows saying like “You’re going to
hurt yourself really bad; one of these days you’re going to break your
leg.” That hurts my feelings. I mean, I do know that, but I don’t like
people telling me.
Neil: I think that’s going to happen more to someone who’s trying to do that on purpose. These things happen to us on accident.
Christiane: Yeah, sometimes you just miss it by an inch.
Julie: How much money would you estimate you go through in a month in instrument replacements and repairs?
Bobby: I’m lucky enough to have great drum companies that help,
and they’re really supportive, and they just help out along the way. I
try not to break stuff, but when I do, they’re right there for me.
Christiane: I probably spend all my money. I bring my own mic
and everything; the club supplies the mic stand. I’ve probably broken
30 mic stands, and they charge me $40 every fucking time. So I haven’t
seen per diem in a long time.
Neil: I’m lucky to be endorsed by the best guitar that I’ve ever
played, that I ruined before I ever had any money. It’s one thing to be
talking about companies, but when you’re talking about people that make
instruments in house, that actually make music, you’re talking about a
whole other world, and to have them backing you is just a dream.
Nick: Not to mention the people that help us, like the guitar
techs and music people that are rebuilding and catching things right
before they hit the ground, just kind of holding it all together like
superglue.
Bobby: With blood all over everything.
Nick: Blood all over everything!
Julie: What do you do in your downtime?
Christiane: Listen to music, watch a lot of movies, read, talk,
laugh a lot. I’m an only child; both my parents got remarried so I had
some brothers and sisters as I got older, but for the first ten years
of my life I was by myself constantly, so it’s really fun for me to
just be like “Yo, Neil, what’s going on?” To tell stories and laugh and
make fun of everybody is just really fun for me.
Julie: What kinds of movies, what kinds of books?
Bobby: Well, last night we watched "Old School." [ Laughs]
Neil: "Requiem for a Dream."
Bobby: Now we’re watching "The Sopranos," the first two seasons.
Neil: "Bowling for Columbine."
Christiane: And the best thing we’ve all seen is called "Style
Wars," the documentary about graffiti in New York. We watch that a lot.
Nick here used to be a big tagger back in the day.
Julie: And what kinds of books?
Neil: I’ve been reading right now Lust for Life, about Van Gogh. The big influences on this band are Marshall McLuhan, Chomsky...
Christiane: I’ve been reading Ishmael.
Bobby: On the Road, Kerouac. I like The Cat in the Hat.
Julie: And what do you have going on when the tour is over?
Bobby: We’re going on a two-week tour of the West Coast with Taproot, then more touring after that.
Julie: Anything else you’d like to talk about?
Christiane: Our record came out yesterday. We have a free DVD floating around out there somewhere. Rolling Stone and MTV just named us one of the Top 10 Bands to Watch. That’s kind of cool. It certainly can’t hurt.