Earlier this month, Naked Raygun released their first album in over 30 years, titled Over the Overlords. We spoke with guitarist Bill Stephens and talked about the record’s writing process, which spanned several years. We also discussed what it was like recording at Transient Sound with producer Steve Gillis. Over the Overlords is a decidedly comprehensive album that employs a variety of influences, yet maintains a sense of cohesion throughout. Simply put, it retains the urgency of their early work and stands on equal ground with their most beloved records. Additionally, we conversed about their longtime bassist Pierre Kezdy, who sadly passed away from cancer in October of 2020. We addressed the various contributions that Kezdy made to the album, as well as what inspired some of the songs, their plans for future shows and more.

Bill – The last time that your band released new music was in 2012, when you put out three 7-inches. Prior to that, your last full-length came out in 1990. With that said, at what point did you begin working on songs for Over the Overlords?

Bill S. – Well, there was kind of a break after the last single came out because Pierre unfortunately had a stroke. We were actually out of action for probably a couple years. We just kind of sat around, waiting for him to convalesce and get better and get back to a point where he could play bass again, which unfortunately didn’t happen. So, we already had some new material that we had been working on prior to his stroke. At some point we just decided to go into the studio. I think we had four songs ready to go at that point and we decided to just get basic tracks done. I was going to play bass and Eric, (drummer Eric Spicer) would play drums, obviously. Our intent was just to do something and get the band kind of back into action. I think initially the idea was to keep on doing singles. This is maybe 2014 or 2015, and I apologize because the exact timeline sort of escapes me. So, we finished four tracks and then we were working on new stuff. By then we had Fritz, (bassist Fritz Doreza) playing with us. He had stepped in to play bass and by then Pierre was actually playing too. We had fashioned a four-string baritone guitar that he could play pretty well, short of actually being able to play the bass. So, we were doing shows again and we were rehearsing a lot and we probably had four or five more songs done at that point. They just came up during rehearsals and those were sounding really good and we already liked the four that we had done initially. We were kind of like, “This is actually sounding pretty decent. Maybe we should just go ahead and record a full album.” And that’s kind of how that came about. There were no plans to write and record an album. It just kind of happened over time.

Bill – Got it. So, with recording those initial four songs and then the album kind of taking shape a couple years after that, did you guys end up recording everything in the same studio or was recording also done incrementally?

Bill S. – Since we started recording new material with the singles, we’ve done everything at Transient Sound with Steve Gillis engineering and producing. He’s one of the co-owners and the other owner is Vijay Tellis-Nayak, and they’re both pros. They’re both actual real musicians who can read music and know what they’re talking about. Steve was in Filter, he was their drummer for a few years, and he’s actually the only person I know with a platinum record. And Vijay is just like a world-class composer, keyboardist and just insanely talented. He played some organ and some piano on the album for us. He’s the kind of guy where you go, “Okay Vijay, play something like this…” And then one take later it’s like, “Yeah. Perfect. Thanks a lot, dude!” And then you go back to the other room where you were working before. So, we record everything at Transient, which is in North Center.

Bill – It doesn’t sound like it was a high-pressure recording session where you only had two weeks to get everything done…

Bill S. – Yeah, well actually when we really went to work on the album, we had no manager, no label, no nothing. It was just the band and Lou Lombardo, who is now our manager. He was just kind of helping out where he could and he’s since assumed full managerial duties. And Steve Gillis from Transient, we’ve since become good friends. We have some history with the studio in that a mutual friend of ours got the band and Steve and Vijay sort of introduced. Jeff, (singer Jeff Pezzati) has a background in mechanical engineering, so he actually drew up the schematics for the HVAC system for the studio. And Eric, who’s an HVAC serviceman, installed the heating and cooling system. Pierre, who was a plumber, did some plumbing work at some point too. If anything, Naked Raygun had a big hand in physically building the studio. I didn’t do dick. I didn’t do anything.

Bill – (Laughs). Wow. That’s the first time I’ve ever heard of a band actually constructing a studio like that.

Bill S. – Yeah, well we have jobs, so… And I really can’t overstate the importance of the role that Steve Gillis plays with Naked Raygun now. He’s kind of like our George Martin and I feel comfortable making that Beatles analogy since we’re as awesome and popular as The Beatles.

Bill – Of course. Well, maybe in Chicago…

Bill S. – Well maybe like one little part of Chicago somewhere. So, he knows exactly what we want. We can walk in for a mixing session and it will basically be mixed how we want it. And just a couple tweaks here and there. It was a nice situation since he is so clued-in to what we’re trying to do that he can throw out ideas and we can bounce things off each other. There’s a song on the album called “Superheroes” that has this sound. It’s kind of like a whip crack, but kind of not. I was trying to explain to Steve what I wanted and he was like, “Oh. Hold on. I think I know what you mean.” And he goes into the live room and puts a mic in the middle of the room and takes a metal music stand and just chucks it onto the ground. And there was this big clang. And then we played it back with the track and it was like, “Yeah. That was exactly what I wanted. How did you know that throwing a metal music stand would do that?”

Bill – I would’ve never guessed that’s what that sound actually is, but it’s pretty cool it was made that way in the studio, as opposed to just some sound effect.

Bill S. – Yeah, yeah. Exactly. So, it’s a really good working relationship and we’re pals. We’re all friends outside of the band. We’ll record there forever and we’ll always record with Steve and that’s just kind of the way it is.

Bill – The album’s first single, “Living in the Good Times,” has that classic Naked Raygun sound, but it also has a lot of contemporary influences. How exactly did that song come together?

Bill S. – By contemporary influences, give me an example or something.

Bill – I can’t pinpoint a certain part of the song, but it just sounds very current and inspired, but also familiar.

Bill S. – Okay. Good. Those are all good things, (laughs). Well, I actually wrote that song. If you want to go down the rabbit hole to the actual origins, I was sitting on my couch, watching television, plucking an unplugged electric guitar and I just kind of came up with this chord progression and a melody. It was really slow and it sounded like Oasis.

Bill – I did not pick up on an Oasis influence in that song…

Bill S. – No and not the good Oasis, like the punchy rock ‘n’ roll Oasis, but Oasis when they were trying to make every song “Hey Jude” or “Strawberry Fields Forever.” And every song was like eight minutes long and had a string section and it was just unlistenable. That’s what that song was reminding me of when I initially wrote it. Then I was like, “What if I sped it up a lot?” And then I was like, “That could be a Naked Raygun song, I guess.” It’s just a nice little pop song that worked out well and was kind of a happy accident. There were no intentions when writing it or anything.

Bill – “Suicide Bomb” is especially unique and sounds like a haunting religious hymn. What inspired that song’s creation?

Bill S. – That is a Jeff song. Jeff has an innate talent of being able to write some really, really weird stuff. Jeff is also a big proponent of lyrics not necessarily having to mean anything, but just sound good. An example is the song on the album “Amishes,” which is just complete nonsense. It doesn’t make any sense at all. I think it became “Amishes” because it rhymed with “cartridges” and I think he just went with that. If you read the lyrics, they don’t mean a thing, but who cares? They don’t have to mean anything. I think “Suicide Bomb” kind of came out of something like that. Jeff had that riff and he showed it to the band. There was another part, the chorus, and we just played it over and over again in practice. He didn’t have vocals worked out at the time. We were all just kind of looking at each other like, “Okay. That’s it? That’s the song?” But knowing Jeff, you know to stick with it. And the way that was recorded, we just kind of recorded a bunch of parts and then Jeff went in, did the vocals and did some editing. There’s a lot more open space in the final recording than there was when the band recorded it. So, I think Jeff just had a sound that he wanted to get in his head and that was it. It has a sort of Middle Eastern feel to the vocals. I don’t think there’s any deep, hidden meaning or anything to the song, but you’d have to ask Jeff for a definitive answer. I’m going to say he was just going for something that sounded really cool, rather than there being any sort of message. I don’t think his intention was to write a song about whatever the hell that song might be about.

Bill – “Ode to Sean McKeough” of course pays tribute to Sean, the co-founder of Riot Fest who unexpectedly passed away in 2016. Did you guys plan to write a song for Sean or did it just happen spontaneously?

Bill S. – Jeff actually came up with the lyrics for that one. We had the music done and there was a different set of lyrics initially. I think it was just kind of like a love song or something like that. Then he was like, “Hey! I changed that song. I wrote a song about Sean.” We were like, “Okay, cool!” Sean was such a great guy and he played such an important role with the band. He was like an Italian patron of the arts from the Middle Ages. We’re still practicing in the fourth-floor apartment at Cobra Lounge that he let us use for free forever. That hasn’t changed. He was just the kind of guy where we’d have a show in say Detroit and we’d be like, “Oh shit. We gotta get a van and we need someone to drive.” Sean would be like, “Oh. We’ll use my van and I’ll drive.” And he would just be our roadie for the weekend and put himself up and pay for his own hotel room. That’s the kind of guy he was. He made a killing at the Chicago Board of Trade and he was actually one of those rare people who could then take the money and turn it into things like cool bars and restaurants, and finance films. And give shitty, old punk bands a place to practice and feed them when they show up. So, I think a song about Sean was probably pretty inevitable after he passed.

Bill – For sure. That’s really cool that you guys had that kind of relationship. So, the album concludes with “Farewell to Arms,” which is definitely an epic final track. Parts of it are reminiscent of Queen and there’s also the prominent horn section in the outro. When you guys wrote that song, did you know right away that it would be the last song on the record?

Bill S. – The very last thing we did was the album sequencing, but after that song came together, especially with the outro with the horns and the organ and all that, it was kind of like “Where the hell else would you put this other than the very end?” And it has that big, dumb guitar intro, where I was trying to rip-off Mick Ronson and hopefully not failing too badly. One thing about that song though, Pierre grew up in Evanston with this guy named Mike Cichowicz and he’s older than Pierre, but I want to say they were neighbors. They had kind of stayed in touch over the years and Mike is a world-class trumpet player. He was in Tower of Power and he’s played with Rod Stewart and with Faces. He’s been on a million different records, from KMFDM to Frank Sinatra. He’s a real pro. So, him and Pierre had always been talking about doing something together, because he found out Pierre was in a band. As that song was coming together, Jeff had this backing vocal part that I thought would sound really cool as a horn part. And then Pierre jumped all over that and was like, “Oh, let me get in touch with my pal Mike!” And Steve from Transient knew Mike, and he also knew the other two guys who ended up filling out the horn section because they’d played together and recorded together. So that was a big kick, watching these pros come in and put this horn section to your song. And Pierre and Mike finally getting to collaborate together. That was really nice. It was a good day in the studio.

Bill – That is really cool and the horns do sound great. In terms of the record as a whole, I feel that the songs all somewhat go together despite being quite different stylistically. Would you say that the album has an overall theme and if so, what is it?

Bill S. – No, (laughs). I don’t think it has an overall theme, but I may not be the best person to ask about that. This album came together so haphazardly, in fits and starts. We were just trying to get sessions when the studio didn’t have anything booked. We had no money and Steve had agreed to just record the album on spec, which was a bold move on his part, (laughs). There was absolutely no guarantee of getting paid ever. However, I can now say that he’s been paid, we’re square with the studio and everything is good. Anyway, we were trying to work around his bookings and our work schedules. There was no discussion like, “What is this album going to be about? Now let’s go in and spend two months straight recording it.” Just from the fashion that it came together, I don’t think of it as having any overriding theme. I think how the songs fit together is more of a happy accident than anything else. Because all four members of the band write songs individually and then after that, there may be collaborations. I might have the music and the melody for a song, and then I’ll say to Jeff, “I don’t know what to do with the lyrics. Why don’t you just take it and do something with it?” Eric’s songs are very interesting to work on, because it’s sort of like writing in reverse. It’s like, “Here’s a melody. Now write a song around it.” Pierre always kind of pulled things out of left field and I’d be like, “Hmm. I wouldn’t have done it that way, but that sounds good.” Going back to the overriding theme, there was certainly no conscious attempt to have any sort of theme to the album.

Bill – I think that makes sense, especially given the amount of time that you guys spent working on it and doing so kind of in sections. It would be really hard to keep a singular vision that whole time.

Bill S. – Yeah. And a lot of the songs turned out to be really different from where they started. “Farewell to Arms,” what ended up on the album is probably the fourth set of lyrics for that song. Jeff just kept on writing lyrics and playing around with melodies until he was really happy with it. I think there were four or five different versions before we got what we used.

Bill – Most people reading this interview are probably already aware, but your bassist Pierre unfortunately passed away from cancer last year. How involved was Pierre in the album’s creation and what do you think he would say if he was able to hear the finished product?

Bill S. – Well, he did hear the finished product. We were just starting to talk with Wax Trax! when he passed. Our strategy was just to finish the record, get the artwork done, make a video and try and get some hype and some label interest. We thought of putting it out on our own and just realized that we’re way too lazy and scatter-brained to actually commit to something like that. So, we were definitely going to need some help from a label. Steve went down to Nashville to get the album mastered by Ted Jensen. I don’t know anything about mastering, but if you’re into mastering you would go, “Ted Jensen?!? Wow!” He did Hotel California by the Eagles and American Idiot by Green Day and Billy Joel’s The Stranger. If you look at all the albums the guy’s mastered, you’ll know every one of them. And he doesn’t care about us. Those guys just take the next job. It’s like, “What am I doing for the next couple hours?” It had nothing to do with us being Naked Raygun. That’s beside the point.

But we were able to get the album finished before Pierre died. He was really happy with it. It was all sequenced. We had been doing a bunch of Zoom meetings because of Covid, talking about labels and artwork and this and that. One of the last meetings he was able to be in was when we decided on the record’s title. I went to visit him not too long after that and he was like, “I’m really happy how you guys worked together to get the title.” Because usually it just involved a lot of arguing, so apparently, we were on our best behavior and working quite well together, according to Pierre. So, he was happy and he was like, “I trust you guys to get this out and to do everything the right way.” He was good with it. I’m sorry he was not around to see the release or the artwork and all the finalized stuff, but he knew the album was good.

He probably put more time in the studio than any other band member. He was always there. We would do guitar sessions where Jeff and Eric wouldn’t show up, because Jeff lives hours away and Eric’s always working. So, it would just be like me, Steve, Pierre and Fritz hanging around doing guitar stuff. Or Jeff would come in and do vocals, I couldn’t be there because I had to work, and it would just be Jeff and Pierre and Steve laying down vocal tracks all day. So, Pierre definitely had a lot of input and influence on the album. I wanted to give him production credit, like “produced by Steve Gillis and Pierre Kezdy.” He’s like, “No, no. I don’t want that. Fuck you. No. That’s not gonna happen.” So, we finally compromised and decided to do “produced by Steve Gillis and Naked Raygun.” But honestly, he probably put more work into the album, not playing instruments, but just throwing around ideas, mixing ideas, probably more than any other band member. And the instrumental intros and outros, that’s all Pierre. That’s Pierre’s baby. He was really into them and really adamant about getting that to sound a certain way, which I think he did. He was very happy with the final product.

Bill – That’s awesome. I don’t even know what to say. That’s really cool that he was able to be involved that much and I think it’s great that he heard the finished version.

Bill S. – Yeah, Steve Gillis sat with him one day and Pierre actually got to play bass on a track. I think it took all day, but he got it done. That’s pretty cool, I think.

Bill – Absolutely. On a different note, have you discussed playing any shows to support the new album?

Bill S. – Yeah, we’ve been practicing sporadically, trying to get the band back into shape. We did a thing for Vans TV in the beginning of March. It was a short, six-song set that we recorded at the House of Vans here in Chicago. We hadn’t played in almost a year and a half before that, so we thought we’d practice eight to ten times and then we should be good. This was in February and if you remember February this year, we literally could not practice because of weather. Jeff lives almost three hours outside of the city and it would just snow everyday and if it wasn’t snowing it was like ten degrees below zero. And the heat kept going out at our practice space and it was just one thing after another. We showed up for this thing with maybe three good practices and I have no idea how we pulled it off. It was just sheer dumb luck, because we’re practicing going like, “Wow. We sound really shitty. Maybe this is a really bad idea.” But one way or another we got it done. A lot of thanks goes out to Dan Precision, (88 Fingers Louie guitarist) who played guitar with us on a couple songs for the filming. Then he took the recordings and went ahead and mixed them and it was a really good mix. It ended up sounding pretty good.

So anyways, after that debacle, we were like “Oh, we gotta start practicing like really often.” We’ve been trying to, but our work schedules hamper us. The intention was to be ready to play a show when the album came out. I don’t know if we’re quite there yet, but now they’re canceling everything again. The plan is to definitely do an album release show at some point. We’ll see how this whole second bout of Covid goes. We’ll see if clubs stay open and things like that, but we’ll be ready.

Bill – In 2015, you guys opened for Foo Fighters at Wrigley Field. What was that show like?

Bill S. – Well, it was a gas, as I’m sure you can well imagine. Dave Grohl has been very supportive and vocal about us for years now. So eternal shoutout to him. I heard he mentioned Naked Raygun at Lollapalooza a couple weeks ago, so he’s still at it. Good for us, good for him. I’m sure a lot of people know the whole backstory by now, that Naked Raygun was his first show and all that. And Jeff did a song with them when Foo Fighters played Cubby Bear in 2014, and he was on their HBO show called Sonic Highways. So, Jeff and Dave struck up a little bit of a relationship through that and then Dave was like, “Hey! We’re playing Wrigley. Why don’t you open?” We were like, “Okay! We will!” It was kind of surreal, because it’s this place I’ve been going to since I was a little kid. My dad would bring me to baseball games and things like that. And then all of sudden you’re standing in center field, looking the other way.

As fun as that show was, we opened for Foo Fighters the show they had booked before in Indianapolis. I think it was maybe two or three days before Wrigley. Really late in the game, they realized they didn’t have an opening band or someone canceled. I don’t know what was happening on their end, but they were like “Can you guys come down to Indianapolis and open the show for us?” And it was at this big shed or amphitheater. I don’t think anyone there knew who we were. We were just the warm-up band and it was this huge show with a sea of people. And I had lobster tail and filet mignon where all the food was backstage and that has never happened. Usually, we get a pizza if we’re lucky. So, we’re showing up in our little Hondas and it’s just out in the middle of nowhere. There are semi-trucks everywhere with all of Foo Fighters’ gear. We show up in our little cars and are trying to figure out where to park. We had been prepared for Wrigley Field and we knew that the Wrigley Field thing was a one-off. And that it was this special show, like there was meaning behind the whole thing, whereas this was just like a big rock show where we got thrown on the bill. It was almost more surreal than Wrigley, because we’re standing in the middle of Indiana somewhere, doing our little set to all these people who don’t know who we are, but apparently, they liked us. It was just a big rock show with all these semi-trucks and tents for VIPs and the singer from Blues Traveler was wandering around backstage and some other famous person that I can’t remember. So yeah, it was a fun week.

Bill – When you look back on all the years that you’ve spent as a member of this band, what are some of the things you’re most proud of?

Bill S. – Not much, (laughs). No, I think that we’re still at it. I don’t want to say, “Oh, we never sold-out,” but we just kind of stuck to what we do. There’ve been times when that’s been really uncool, and other times when that’s been like a really cool thing to be doing. And we’re still standing, we’re still around. I think we’re still pretty fuckin’ good compared to other bands out there who maybe should’ve hung it up. I think we still bring the goods and I think we have a really good new album that we’re all very proud of. And we’re one of the last of the ‘80s bands, last of the old ‘80s punk bands. So, longevity and I don’t think we ever really compromised. We’ve always just kind of done what we wanted. Of course, I say this with the caveat that no one ever really offered us to sell-out. So, I can’t say if we had the offer to sell-out that we wouldn’t have jumped at it, but just the way things worked out. It’s like, “We never sold-out, man. We always held true,” (laughs). So yeah. I got Spotify recently and sometimes I just hit on the random Naked Raygun playlist and I’m like, “Yeah, this shit still sounds pretty good.” There’s strong songs, nice little pop songs that have aged well for the older stuff. And I think the singles and the new album kind of just carry on in the same vein.