Friday, May 15, 2009

Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Needs a Hug

I'm trying to get a hold of The Offspring to do an interview for their upcoming performance at the X96 show. X96 has been helpful in getting me band contacts, but kind of a pulled a bait and switch on me--lining up a Red Jumpsuit Apparatus interview for me before passing me on to The Offspring.

RJA's big hit was 2006's "Face Down," a track that doesn't do much for me. Apparently, a lot of folks that interview singer Ronnie Winter must feel the same way. The guy's pretty defensive.



I'd been talking to him for about five seconds when he started in on "Critics don't like us, but we've sold millions of records, and we write great songs, and we're really talented, and so it doesn't matter what people think."

That was in response to "How has the success of 'Face Down' affected the band?" Inferiority complex, anyone? He then went on to explain how he played tuba in the college band--he needed to emphasize that he was a very talented tuba player--and how he formed the band with friends from his high school AP music class. I never thought I'd hear a singer in a rock band try to establish street cred by referencing his tuba skills. Very strange interview.

Still waiting on The Offspring.

4 comments:

Allison said...

Hilarious. I understand being unusually paranoid in an interview is a smart way to disarm your interviewer.

Cheeseboy said...

Yeah, RJA pretty much sucks. Can't wait for the Offspring though. Did I ever tell you I have a brief cameo in the "Got To Get Away" video?

su-tang 3000 said...

Allison,

Indeed. But I stood strong. I let him whine all he wanted, but he got no sympathy from me.

Abe,

I, too, was in that video. Maybe we need to get together and have a viewing party.

Cheeseboy said...

Ha ha. Who would have guessed all those years ago we were at the same concert and now we are friends. What are the odds. I was in the video for about .25 milliseconds. But my best friend had a good 5-7 seconds of close up face time.

I still remember the guy that was crowd surfing dressed as a gorilla. Or maybe it was a real gorilla?