Over the past decade, The Brokedowns have steadily become one of Chicago’s most respected bands. With the release of their latest album, Species Bender, they’re poised for national recognition. In late January of 2011 they played the Beat Kitchen and graciously took the time to speak with Jaded In Chicago. We discussed a range of topics, including the new record, music videos, touring, various bands of the northwestern suburbs and more. The band was especially frank in their responses and we would like to sincerely thank them for their openness.
Bill – From a musical standpoint, Species Bender is more layered, better executed and seemingly further inspired than your previous material. How do you feel it compares to the band’s prior output?
Kris – I don’t know. It all sounds the same to me. To me it’s all the same shit.
Jon – It’s pretty okay, (laughs). It seems like we just wrote the songs like we did the other records.
Kris – Yeah, we didn’t do anything different.
Eric – Except got older and fatter.
Kris – You got older. I got younger. I got cryogenically frozen, (laughs). They just let me out for short spurts to fuckin’ rip.
Bill – What were some of the factors that led to three years elapsing between the release of Species Bender and your last album?
Kris – Well, we put out a bunch of EPs between then.
Jon – There was a split with The Arrivals, one with Turkish Techno and one with Sass Dragons. A six-song EP came out between them too.
Kris – All in all, it’s probably more than a full-length that we released between them. And then Species Bender took forever to record because we did it so stupidly. We did it in parts.
Bill – Tell me about the unique recording process of Species Bender, in terms of it being recorded in a kitchen, a bathroom and a basement.
Eric – We recorded some of the music in my brother-in-law’s basement.
Kris – That’s probably why it sounds better, is because everything we did before probably was at recording studios where we had to pay a shitload of money and be pressured. This is our buddy Joe and we literally recorded in Moose’s kitchen and stuff.
Jon – It was really laid back. It was like a party.
Kris – We just took as much time as we wanted between everything. It took forever because we’d set a date and then wait like three months, and then set another date.
Bill – What’s behind the album’s title and the artwork that goes with it?
Moose – We have to credit our friend Jordan Rogala, because we forgot to credit him in the liner notes.
Kris – We were at our friend’s bachelor party and we were at a barbeque. This dude brought all these weird, exotic meats and he was like, “This is a fuckin’ species bender”. We were just like, “Bam, that’s our album title”.
Bill – “Wizard Symptoms” is a great leadoff song and really sets the tone for the entire record. At barely over a minute long, it’s kind of a classic punk song in that is says and does what it wants without any repetition. Why’d you choose to put that song first?
Jon – It’s a quick rager. It’s a ripper.
Kris – It’s a ripper and gripper, a tearer and sharer, (laughs). Remember when Pizza Hut had the crust you could pull off and it was, “rip and dip, tear and share”. We’ll blame Pizza Hut for that one.
Moose – Plus you only have to listen to a minute of any music to realize that you don’t want to hear the whole rest of the album. That’s cool, cause then no one wastes any time really.
Jon – And in all honesty, I think it’s cool because it’s just one buildup. It’s not like a verse then a chorus, a verse then a chorus, over and over again. It kind of gets quiet, then bam and then that’s it. I wish every song was like that.
Kris – The next thing we do, every song is going to be like that, one minute long.
Bill – Tell me about the video you guys made for “Wizard Symptoms”.
Kris – That was our buddy Ian and my nephews. We just ran around a park and shot that. All the shit he was wearing was bought at a thrift store. He’s actually wearing a kimono. If you look at it, his robe or whatever is a kimono. In the beginning, he’s playing a slide whistle that I bought at a dollar store that same day.
Jon – The special effects were these fireworks called Dragon Farts that my brother-in-law bought for me. I really wanted light them off myself, but Kris wouldn’t let me.
Kris – Jon was honestly bummed that I saved his fireworks for the video.
Bill – “Done with Funk” deals with deterioration and a perceived lack of progress. What exactly brought about this song?
Kris – That song’s actually about friends who have really bad drug problems.
Moose – He’s talking about me, (laughs).
Kris – We’re talking about Moose, this fuckin’ asshole. We have no heat in our van and this prick had to smoke a blunt on the way here. We all have to roll down the windows so we don’t smell like Insane Clown Posse. We have no heat and this shithead has to smoke a blunt. What a shitty thing to do, (laughs).
Bill – “This Cult is a Bummer” is my favorite song on the album. It talks about complacency, the inevitability of change and a day of reckoning. What does this song mean to you?
Kris – I watched a documentary about a guy who was a Baptist preacher that brought his whole family to Israel to preach the gospel. He crossed over into Palestine and his whole family got killed. He was really about the rapture and warning a bunch of Muslims about the rapture, and he got his whole family killed in the process. That’s what the song’s about.
Bill – You guys are often compared to both Dillinger Four and The Arrivals, which is by no means a bad thing. However, you definitely have your own distinctive sound as well. What are your thoughts regarding such comparisons?
Kris – Those guys are hacks. No, that’s seriously awesome. We love those bands. We absolutely rip-off everything they do, unapologetically.
Jon – There’s not a single song that we don’t rip something off.
Bill – What were some of your favorite experiences from touring with Dillinger Four?
Jon – They’re great dudes, we’d just drink and hang out. It was literally the easiest tour we’ve ever been on.
Kris – We’d never been on a tour where we didn’t have to book it, so to have someone else do that, we felt like Guns ‘N Roses.
Moose – It was just cool getting to watch them play every night too.
Bill – What was playing with Propagandhi like at Riot Fest last year?
Eric – It was awesome. They were one of my favorite bands growing up.
Kris – I embarrassed myself so bad because we ran out of beer and a bunch of goons urged me to write little notes and throw them into their green room, asking for their beer. It seemed like a totally great idea at the time.
Eric – They didn’t respond and then somebody told us they might be straight edge.
Jon – Kris put like three notes under their door.
Kris – I thought they were going to burst into our room with hockey sticks.
Bill – Describe a typical Brokedowns show.
Eric – A train wreck.
Moose – Late. Two hours late.
Jon – Hanging with dudes, (laughs). Twenty minutes between songs because our fat asses can’t catch our breath.
Kris – And then more hanging. A real heavy emphasis on the hang session.
Moose – More of an emphasis on the hang than the playing. And then usually sleeping on a floor somewhere.
Bill – Your band hails from the suburbs and proudly represents Chicago’s northwest suburban punk scene. For those who might be unaware, who are some of the best bands from that area?
Jon – Vacation Bible School.
Moose – Oil Can Boys.
Kris – Wide Angles, Truman & His Trophy and Werewolfs’. It’s mostly bad though, (laughs). I don’t think there’s much of a difference between Chicago and Elgin. It’s all the same bands. It’s like a 20 to 30 mile drive, so a lot of those bands play the same shows.
Bill – You guys have jobs and families outside of your band and consequently don’t tour full-time. Regardless, it seems as though despite having busy lives, you’ve found a way to keep The Brokedowns going. With that said, do you feel like you’ll ever have a legitimate reason to breakup?
Kris – Probably not, cause if we broke up a week or two later we’d be like, “Hey, you want to jam?”. We’re all friends.
Moose – We’re like each other’s best men at weddings and we hang out all the time. Kris and Jon literally live next door to each other.
Jon – I haven’t lived more than a door away from Kris in the past six years.
Kris – Let’s be honest. This shit should have ended years ago, fuckin’ decades ago. This shit’s never going to end. It’s got to end. Something has to happen, (laughs).
Bill – Does the band have any definite plans in terms of touring or recording for 2011?
Kris – Not definite.
Jon – A little of this, a little of that. A little recording, a little touring.
Moose – Usually somebody says something like they want something out and then we’re like, “Okay, we got to do this”.
Kris – We have a few things we really want to put out soon, like splits with Wide Angles and Vacation Bible School.
Eric – Oh, that’d be cool. I just found out about that right now.
Kris – We don’t tell Eric anything.
Moose – And Eric’s vetoing these two splits now.
Kris – Even if we did tell him, it’s not like it’s a decision where we vote on what we’re going to do or purposely not tell Eric. So, we’re going to record again soon, but nothing’s set yet. During the Obama presidency I’m sure something will happen with our band.
Bill – Final comments?
Kris – Palin/Shatner 2012.
Jon – My final thought for today is be wonderful to each other.
