By Nattalie Tehrani
PunkTV.ca: Hey, this is Nattalie Tehrani from PunkTV.ca and I’m here with Jeph Howard from The Used. So, your record Shadow Believer, an album full of B-sides, came out recently. When you make an album, how do you decide what stays and what to scrap away?
That’s hard, it’s sort of a fight. Well, not really a fight, but the majority wins. We all want the best record we can possibly make. For me, I don’t mind when my song doesn’t make the record, I don’t mind if it gets hidden a bit. When I was growing up I’d be stoked when I heard the albums from my favorite bands, and then all of a sudden you find an EP with another song and you’d be like, “What is this?!” You’d realize that you’d never heard it before and you get all excited about the band again. Yeah, that didn’t really answer your question at all.
PunkTV.ca: No, It did! It just makes it more special.
Ha! Good, ok.
PunkTV.ca: What has this tour been like, is there more pressure being the headliners?
A little bit. Not really, maybe even less pressure. When you’re the headliner of a show the majority of the people are coming to see you, you know what I mean? Well, at least that’s how it sometimes is. So all the pressure is gone because they’re coming to see you so you don’t have to win them over. You already have it in a way. It’s better and worse at the same time. It’s better because everybody knows the words the vibe is always good, because the crowd is going to make the show what it is. So if we played a bad show, the crowd is going to make it so much better than just us alone, if that makes any sense.
PunkTV.ca: Yeah, so you feed off of each other’s energy.
Yeah, exactly! So if the crowd is louder, we’re louder. If the crowd is better, we’re better. Sometimes I kind of miss going in front of people who don’t like us. Then all of a sudden by the end of the show they start liking you and everything is cool because you have to win them over the whole show, and show them who you are.
PunkTV.ca: So, in a way it’s like fighting a cause.
Yeah, that’s fun too, but I love them both, so it’s been great because of the first reason.
PunkTV.ca: What was the last greatest thing to happen to you guys on tour?
Mario Kart! It just came out for Wii. That was the greatest thing that’s happened on this tour.
PunkTV.ca: Is that what you’ve done to keep yourselves entertained on tour?
That’s all we have done! We haven’t done a single other thing. What, it’s been two weeks now? Yeah, we haven’t done anything else.
PunkTV.ca: So you guys play a lot of video games, do you read…?
Bert reads a lot. Actually, Bert reads a LOT. I don’t read as much, I play games. Which is probably not as good for me, but whatever, I don’t care.
PunkTV.ca: Well the Wii is a good exercise.
Yeah, exactly. We try, but it’s hard because there are days there is so much shit going on, and it’s so stressful, but there is time in between, where you have four hours to do nothing.
PunkTV.ca: I’m sure there is a downside to doing press, can it get tiring at times?
Not for me, I’m happy to do anything to keep busy rather than sitting on my butt and waiting all day. It clashes sometimes when you have other things you need to do. Sometimes when you have too much press it can get stressful, but sometimes when you don’t have enough press it can get bad. When you don’t have any, nobody wants to hear about you anymore. You just have to keep it balanced.
PunkTV.ca: So who writes most of you’re lyrics?
Bert writes 99.9% of the lyrics and melodies.
PunkTV.ca: And where do you guys draw most of your inspirations from?
It’s different. Each song is completely different. Some songs we start out with the guitar line Quinn has, then we all sit down and jam that guitar line out, and then we’ll give a rough song idea to Bert, and Bert will get some words and melodies down, and mesh that together and make something else. There have been times where the bass lines are not as much as the guitar lines only because it’s easier to start some songs off with guitar. So most of the time, it’s going off of other people, and trying to blend guitar and drums together as opposed to coming up with a line and adding things over it. We have some songs that start with drum lines; it’s completely different every time. We’ve had vocals start, too. On the newer stuff is just Bert and Quinn singing over guitar and coming up with a main line and going off that. It’s cool because our band doesn’t have any rules.
PunkTV.ca: That’s awesome, to have that freedom and be able to bounce off each other. So, when did you realize that you’re so good at playing the bass?
I wouldn’t say, “So good.”
PunkTV.ca: When did you realize you love it, though?
I’ve always liked it, growing up I listened to bass more. Like it has always had a sort of calling to me in a weird way. Then when I started playing it, it was like, “Finally. I’ve been waiting this whole time to play it and I’m finally doing it.”
PunkTV.ca: And bass is very evident in, say, punk music. Is that what you were listening to?
A little bit. Growing up, my first favorite band was Sepultura. I was into hip hop, and a little bit into punk rock. But it didn’t catch me that much. I liked Green Day back then. And hip hop and bass kind of go together. I like drums too, but I can’t play them.
PunkTV.ca: I think it’s great that you guys have different tastes in music. Makes it more versatile. Do you get a lot of inspiration from music out there currently?
Honestly, no. I’ve only heard two new bands that I really like. Most stuff that I’ve been listening to lately is stuff that I listened to as a kid more. I listened to a lot of noise when I was a kid. There was this band called the Secret Chiefs 3 which is kind of noisy, Arabian and weird. They’re a very incredible band. I love them; I’ve been listening to them for years.
PunkTV.ca: You guys played MusInk back in February, which was the first tattoo/music festival. What was that like?
It was weird. It was fun. We didn’t really get to see much of the tattoo part, so for me it was just a show. They put us in this little trailer out back, so we just waited in the trailer. It was weird because we were in the trailers, which were backstage, and then there was another backstage where the food was, but then there were tons of kids in the backstage part, waiting at the gate watching us. So it looked like they were in jail. It was like this little confined area. Then there was the other side, there was like, the show, and there were people watching us from behind bars. So it was like, two different jail ends, separated.
PunkTV.ca: Why?!
I guess there were two different tickets to each part and the backstage part, so I guess you had to pay money to get to the backstage part, but they didn’t tell us that. I think there were actually some tickets to meet the band, but they didn’t tell us that either, we had no clue. And everybody got mad at us because we didn’t go over there and talk to people, and we were supposed to sign stuff but we didn’t know we were supposed to, so we were having meetings in the bus, we got out and they’re like, “Why aren’t you guys coming out to hang out?” It was weird. But it was a really good show.
PunkTV.ca: Was it a tough crowd?
Not really. It was a fun show.
PunkTV.ca: You guys recently had a cutout of Bush on stage, and it was a bit of a political statement. Do you see your future stuff being more political?
Not really. Everybody hates Bush, always have. It’s like leaving the country and the rest of the world hates you because of him, and even though you have nothing in common with this dude. It sucks. You’re sort of doomed no matter what. I hate that association kind of thing. I’m not very political, but I have a lot of views on life and different things that I just keep to myself. Bert says vote for … uh, Bert.
PunkTV.ca: So after you guys are done touring do you still hang out?
Yeah, we’re all really good friends. I live maybe about a half hour from Bert, and Quinn just moved. I wish Dan lived around us, but he lives in Utah and we live in LA and I love it, whatever. Dan is one of my best friends, Quinn is one of my best friends, Bert is one of my best friends; we hang out all the time. When we had those two months of recording, we would record and then go hang out at Bert’s house all night. So I don’t really get sick of these dudes, ever.
PunkTV.ca: That must be so cool to tour with your best buddies.
Yeah, it’s pretty cool.
PunkTV.ca: What’s the sketchiest place you’ve ever toured?
Sketchiest place? Brazil. It wasn’t the shows, the shows were awesome, the kids were awesome, the vibe was incredible and I would love to go back there. It’s just a little scary because I heard rumors about how bad the cops are, and if you get pulled over they take away anything electronic that you have, you know what I mean. They take money from you, and they bribe you, they’re like “Hey, here, drugs.” It’s a little sketchy, but nothing happened to us, so you just hear stories.
PunkTV.ca: Yeah, you’re like on the edge the whole time.
They just try and scare you the whole time. But it was cool, it was fun. I would play anywhere. Sketchier places even. One of the scariest cities I’ve been to is one of my favorite cities in the world. Well, not the world, but in America. The Warfield, in San Francisco. The venue is awesome, all the people that work at the venue are awesome, and San Francisco is awesome. I love San Francisco. I love it, like the people are cool, everything is cool. For some reason, that venue is in like, Cracktown. It’s like the back alley, there is stuff going on, and people are crazy, out of their minds. It’s sort of scary, but at the same time it’s kind of fun, well not fun for them, obviously, but you go, “This is insane.” Cause we usually stay elsewhere. But we stayed at the hotel, where there was the venue, sketchy Cracktown, then our hotel. Overlooking it. So I was watching out the window, like people selling crack, the whole day. It was pretty interesting. Usually they hide it, but they didn’t care. They were in wheel chairs, smoking crack.
PunkTV.ca: Screw the TV. Watch that all day.
I left my windows open, ‘cause the rooms were kind of shitty, all I could hear were people screaming all night long. It was pretty fun, like a movie.
PunkTV.ca: Yeah, a horror movie.
It wasn’t that bad. I’m not shit talking Frisco or anything. Frisco is cool.
PunkTV.ca: You learn a lot about different cultures, I guess.
Yeah, I love cultures, learning about cultures. Culture learning.
PunkTV.ca: So when fans approach you hysterically, can it be uncomfortable at times?
Yeah. It is what it is. I mean, I understand. I mean, we put out so many videos and DVDs and stuff and people get to know us, to the point of really getting to know us. But we don’t know them and never met them, but they do know us in every way, so they feel really comfortable around us, but we’ve never met them. I understand it. But it gets a little sketchy for Bert when people are tackling him and pulling his hair and stuff.
PunkTV.ca: Yeah, that can be a little bothersome.
Yeah, he gets a bit crazed about it. But, I mean, I’m usually ok. I’ve been overwhelmed before, but I’m usually ok.
PunkTV.ca: And your next album is going to be produced by Rivers Cuomo (Weezer)?
I don’t know exactly what’s going on. He’s working with us on the next album, but I’m not sure. He was going to produce a couple songs, but now he wants to write a couple songs with us, which will be cool too. Collaboration, like a Rivers/Used thing going on. Yeah, like three or four songs. Maybe the whole record…I’m not sure right now, we have 20 something songs written right now so it would be cool to see what happens with it.
PunkTV.ca: What can fans expect from you next?
Um, rock. I mean, so far, I want to say 60% of the songs are pretty rock and we consider ourselves a rock band, because rock bands also do ballads and melodic stuff. I want it to be more rock, so we’ll see.
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