Maris The Great: I will most likely kill you after this interview. I will probably cannibalize your bodies. If I were to eat either of your penises first, would I be too full to eat anything else or would it serve only as an appetizer?
Brice: You’d definitely be full (if you ate mine). But the way you and Silver are wolfing down that white sauce pizza, I’m not so sure.
Silver: Any Zombie that eats my penis better be prepared for a full course meal.
MTG: Very well then! Let’s start at the beginning. How did Rubber Planet come into being?
Silver: I grew up with Matt, so I’ve known him since we were little kids. And actually, Matt discovered Brice. Brice had an ad in the paper. So he came and auditioned in our house, about 3 years ago.
Brice: Actually I put up a whole bunch of like, index cards in music stores, saying something like “Guitar player /singer looking for a band”, or something like that. And then Matt answered my ad and I met him in a parking lot and gave him a tape.
MTG: Weren’t you, Brice, initially involved with the music scene in Baltimore?
Brice: Yeah.In Baltimore I played in a lot of different bands. We played up and down the coast. We played alot in New York. And the band I was in eventually broke up. I had a recording studio. I ran that, and that eventually folded, so I moved to Denver.
You’ve said previously that while you were there, you became disillusioned
with the music biz, explain that.
Brice: A lot of that was because I became involved with drugs. And that clouded everything you know? Someone who’s into drugs doesn’t think straight. That was part of it, but another part of it was that I felt I couldn’t do (music) there
anymore. I still wanted to write songs and play music, but I felt I had kind of
gotten in a hole there and I needed to get out, so that’s why I moved here.
Are you straight now?
Brice: I’m not straight, but I don’t do any hard drugs
Silver: Nothing for me, I barely take Tylenol. I don’t smoke or drink.
So once the three of you were together as a band did it click immediately?
Brice: No, it didn’t click right away. It wasn’t like that at first. It took awhile to get into it.
Was the music pop?
Brice: No. We started out playing…kinda, very long songs, if you will, Not very poppy. We tried to be really complicated. (We tried) crazy bass lines….
Crazy guitars. So we eventually evolved into saying, “Hey this simple thing
works for us.” But it didn’t start out that way.
How did it evolve into the poppy sound you have today?
Brice: Well, we kicked around for a couple of years with some of the songs we have now, and then Matt left to do other things. So Silver and me just played open mics a lot and that’s really when we began simplifying the songs. We learned what was really catchy and what people would sing to.
Why did Matt want to do other things?
Silver: He wanted to do something more complicated. He’s a jazz drummer. He didn’t really want to do just pop at the time.
So why did he come crawling back?
Brice: We wanted him back.
Silver: I don’t think initially we were as motivated. I think once he realized we were going to go all the way, he saw it differently.
In the interim, you recorded an album and played with Craig. What’s the story with him?
Silver: Craig is my best friend. He played drums and he was into it, so (at the time) it worked. And one of the reasons we developed such a simple style was that Craig has a much more simple approach to drumming. But he made it fun, or as we say, He brought back the love.
How would you describe your music? Are you trying to bring back the 80’s?
Silver: I think we bring back fun. I don’t think we sound 80’s. We’ve got the
melodic and catchy stuff of the new wave bands (from the 80’s) but with heavy
guitars. Real powerful, power pop. I think that’s where we’re at. And I
think we’re catchy. We want (our music) to stick in you head, that’s what we
want to do.
But you probably would get lumped in with the 80’s revival. Does that bother you?
Brice: Not really. Maybe that will helps us out, but I think we can go past that. We are bigger and better than just one little niche. I don’t want us to be a fad.
Is Rubber Planet one of those bands that has the hits, but doesn’t have critical respect?
Brice: I hope so. I think a lot of times the critics are looking for cutting edge, or the new thing, or something you can’t pigeonhole. We’re just doing songs that stick in your head immediately. Just like the Beatles did, or R.E.M did; songs that could be played electrically or acoustically. And if that’s not going to be accepted by the critics, then that’s fine with me.
Are critics tastemakers?
Brice: I don’t know. All I know is a lot of critics aren’t musicians, and they’re not out there like us. They don’t know. It’s easy to sit back and say what’s good and what’s not.
Who are the tastemakers?
Silver: The kids.
Aren’t they brainwashed though?
Brice: I think MTV can tell them what to like to a certain extent. Maybe radio. But ultimately they form it; they are the ones buying the records.
Hip-Hop rules right now. Where does that leave Rubber Planet?
Brice: We’re not gonna do Hip Hop stuff. Kids like good songs that aren’t hip-hop. Everything isn’t hip-hop. It’s just a current trend right now.
Who is Rubber Planets audience?
Brice: Rubber Planet fans are people who love to be in a good mood and love to party. It’s all about the love and spreading the good vibe. And as far as a
demographic…. Chicks man, lots of hot chicks!
Rock and Roll bands that start out appealing to female audiences tend not to
last though.
Silver: We don’t want any guys at our shows, just girls! (Laughs) No, I think guys can get into us too because we’re heavy, but our big crowd is gonna be the ladies and that’s the way I want it.
Is Brice the one the girls scream over?
(Laughter around the room)
Silver: Not at all. That’s so false. It’s ME! ME! ME!
(More laughter)
What about Matt? He’s hot. I’d do him!
Silver: Yeah, If anyone, I think right now it’s Matt who attracts all the babes.
What are your songs about?
Silver: They’re usually love songs or just having a good time. No hidden messages.
Aren’t people more preoccupied with being depressed than having fun though?
Brice: I think people are having fun pretending to be depressed. Kids are trying to prove who’s the hardest, you know, getting their face pierced, getting all sorts of tattoos, it’s like a competition, who’s the hardest. But it’s still about having fun.
Let’s talk about your albums. Your first one LoveJones 2000 sold out quickly. Is there any chance of it being re-released?
Brice: We will re-release it at some point. But right now all of our focus is on the new album.
I’ve got to know, what in the hell is a “LoveJones”?
Silver: It’s just about a vibe. It’s just a happy vibe. Spreading the love!
“Just Visiting” is the new album. That’s an interesting title for an album. How did you come up with that?
Brice: It pretty much came from the album cover. We got 15 kids together and dressed them up as aliens, marched them out to a hill in the cold and took a bunch of pictures of them and you know, the thought of aliens just visiting, kinda appealed to us.
Tell me about the new songs.
“Through your skin” was one of the old tunes. And that’s just about…does this move you, does this get through your skin? “Stuck in a Crowd” is about
feeling lonely even though you have allot of people around you. But it still has kind of a happy feel to it. “What went wrong” is straight-ahead rock and roll! We’re bringing back the old school of rock and roll with that one definitely. “Bounce” is another happy rockin’ song. “Love Boat” was originally done on LoveJones 2000. We did it different this time. It’s the whole band. It’s not acoustic. “So What if I lied?” is a little surprise. It’s almost a depressing tune. We included it just to show a little extra love, just a little extra talent there. Then there’s “Crash,” originally from the last album, and “Space Girl,” a lovely little tune about a girl that’s a little disconnected. “One more day” is just a happy, old tune. Just a little happy pop song. “Sugar Side” is straightforward pop.
Why did you re-record some of the songs off of LoveJones 2000?
Brice: We’re re-releasing “Crash,” “Stuck in a Crowd,” “Space Girl” and “Loveboat” mainly because they are great songs that will be released as singles. We knew we had to get a better recording of them or radio would reject them.
You seem reluctant to include lyric sheets with your releases. How important are the lyrics?
Silver: I think that my strong point is melodies. That’s what I think I’m really good at. I’m good at coming up with the little hooks. The lyrics are always second to me. To me, it’s all in the melody. All I have to do is sing that melody and it’s got me. Once I hear a melody I never forget it, but words…I forget those sometimes.
How do you compare “JUST VISITING” to “LOVEJONES 2000”?
Brice: It blows the door off of that album. It sounds so much better; the songs are totally there. We’ve written better songs, the quality is great. Having Matt drumming has improved the whole thing.
How did your approach differ?
Brice: On this one, we wanted to get all of the tones really good before we started recording. We made sure that every sound going into it was going to sound great coming back out. We spent allot of time layering, making sure the mix was right, spent a lot more time on the vocals.
How does Rubber Planet keep the music honest?
Silver: Just write the way we feel, you know. Usually that’s the straightforward love songs. To me, that’s honest. There’s no act. We’re not as poppy as we can, that’s what we love.
What are your influences?
Silver: I’m heavily into Depeche Mode. The Cure, Peter Murphy. Allot of that stuff. Obscure stuff like King. I also really dig Radiohead.
Brice: My main influence is heavy, like heavy metal. Anything that’s heavy. But I like bands that make you think like Janes Addiction or Nine Inch Nails. I like singers that come up with strange lyrics and have an angle to them. Sometimes you go see a band and you can tell that the singer is trying to be hard or trying to be weird, and some bands you go see and you can tell right away that they’re legit.
What do you, Brice, think you bring to the band?
Brice: I think I bring heavy guitar. I make it heavier. A lot of times Silver will have the whole song pretty much written when he brings it to the band but it will sound a lot different once it’s done because Matt and I play a little heavier.
A member of a local band told me that a lot of Denver area bands are jealous of Rubber Planet. Whereas most bands struggle just to have that one potential hit, with Rubber Planet it’s not a matter of one hit, but…which hit do you want us to play?
(laughs)
Brice: I think there are a lot of great bands out there but not a lot of great songs. I think all of our songs are really catchy. That may bother some people. We’re not trying to be hard and a lot of people are hard, that kind of bugs ‘em and there’s always a lot of chicks at the shows. When some people see a lot of chicks dancing in front of the stage, they immediately label the band as cheesy.
Silver: There’s not a lot of bands where you go to the shows and everyone’s singing the songs. But at ours, they are. And I think that’s what separates us.
Final question. If you had to have sex with either a man with a vagina or a woman with a penis, which would you choose?
Silver: I would choose the woman, because of all the things that are uniquely female. The curves, the soft skin…the breasts. I think a woman is more than just a vagina. I think Women are beautiful and the feminine energy is as important as anything else.
Brice: I’d just fuck the woman in the ass.
