This interview was done in January of 1999 for Parade Brigade #1. Originally, John and I were going to do an interview with Porter but that fell through so we sat down with Bill and later Zev and Kingshot at the Melody Bar in New Brunswick NJ after their show with Fast Times, Parting Shot, and some others.
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Parade Brigade Staff in Bold
Bill-OK so who is in the band (why did I ask this?)
Bill Punch-You know that, you can write it down.
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Bill-What happened with Lana’s show in South Carolina?
Bill Punch-We canceled it. We canceled Texas and Florida was canceled on us so we had a week off. So instead of showing up like four days early we canceled.
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Bill-Did you guys hit a lot of snow going out west?
Bill Punch-Yeah out in The Great Lakes we got caught in a big snowstorm. Fifteen inches of snow.
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Bill-How did the tour go other than that?
Bill Punch-Good. Midwest was kind of weak but California was great.
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Bill-I remember seeing on the itinerary shows in Kansas…
Bill Punch-Yeah they were kind of lame, weren’t a lot of kids there.
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John-How was California?
Bill Punch-Shows were good, kids were cool. We had a few problems.
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John-Did you play laser tag in Oxnard?
Bill-We played in a laser tag stadium but by the time we got done playing they wouldn’t let us play. I wanted to play laser tag though I was really psyched to play.
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Bill-You guys are going to Europe in a few days. I know there is a band in England that covers one of your songs, and a band in Australia too. What do you think of that?
Bill Punch-I guess it’s cool, it’s kind of flattering.
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Bill-There are a couple bands at the shore who do too.
Bill Punch-Do they really?
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Bill-Yeah these bands in Toms River cover Clear.
Bill Punch-It’s kind of funny, the demo songs we wrote in pretty much one practice in like my bedroom and stuff so it’s kind of weird to have people covering them now. It’s flattering, but it’s weird.
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Bill-I noticed tonight there weren’t as many people and everyone goofed off and had fun. Do you think it’s more important to have fun or to get across a message?
Bill Punch-Fun. Sorry I’m not getting too into the questions I am kinda bummed because my equipment is broke. I’m not very happy right now. Some kid wrecked my fucking head in California and now it just doesn’t work. Now I gotta get it fixed in like two days before we lave and I don’t know if I can do it.
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Bill-That’s pretty costly isn’t it?
Bill Punch-Yeah I don’t have a job either.
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Bill-You were doing auto work…
Bill Punch-Yeah I used to be a diesel mechanic.
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Bill-Rough.
Bill Punch-Rough…it sucks.
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Bill-There seems to be a lot less people at shows; tonight really showed this. Do you feel like things were better a few years ago or now?
Bill Punch-You mean when Floorpunch first started?
John-Fieldsboro.
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Bill-Yeah.
Bill Punch-Hardcore goes in cycles. New Jersey doesn’t do shows for awhile, kids lose interest and drop out. Once kids start putting on shows kids start hanging out. We had this talk last night. When kids don’t have shows to go to they lose interest and get involved in other things. The diehard kids stick it out. Hardcore will cycle through again, a couple bands will start up, people will have shows again and the scene will get big. If too many fights or whatever happen the scene will fall again and kids will just drop out. That’s just how it works. You know it’s cool kids that are really into it are still around. You guys had fun tonight and that’s what counts.
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Bill-I know other people in the band are Basketball fans, are you?
Bill Punch-No. You would have to ask Kingshot.
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Bill-Yeah when I wrote these questions I thought I was interviewing Porter…Is Holding On about Porter’s girlfriend?
Bill Punch-They’ve been together since high school and they’re getting married.
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Bill-What about From The Outside?
Bill Punch-Which one is that I don’t even know the names of our songs. You’d have to ask Mark about it, he writes all the lyrics. You notice in-between songs he doesn’t really talk. I don’t know you’d have to ask Mark.
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John-Who would you be more into gambling with, Larry Flynt or Dan O’Mahoney?
Bill Punch-Probably Larry Flynt. He probably would have some strippers with him or something. Dan O is bad luck, he loses all the time, and anyway Larry Flynt would have a bigger bankroll so I would probably want to gamble with him.
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Bill-Good answer.
Bill Punch-That’s the coolest question I’ve heard all night.
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John-What was the coolest place you played on tour?
Bill Punch-We played some place in California, Oxnard I think. It was sick. Kids were doing circle pits and there were like hundreds of kids going nuts it was awesome.
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Bill-Did you guys do a lot of interviews on tour?
Bill Punch-No, not at all.
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John-In the Midwest, some of the turnouts were kinda small?
Bill Punch-Yeah in the Midwest. In Utah, we played some Mormon party. It was all Phish shirts and sandals; there were two hardcore kids there. We kind of had a guarantee too and we didn’t get it so they had to ask for donations for gas money after the show. We don’t want to be like “oh we need the money,” but when you’re going from point A to point B you depend on that money. It took you one hundred dollars in gas to get there and you get forty dollars, it was kind of silly.
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John-Any problems with Hardliners in Utah?
Bill Punch-No. I thought we were going to get shot because we aren’t vegetarian. That shit is fucking silly and stupid.
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John-Do you see Floorpunch going on for a number of years?
Bill Punch-I don’t know. We’re not touring anymore, this is our last tour. We’re all getting older, we have real jobs. It’s kinda hard to have a working vehicle, have an apartment, and tour. You gotta quit your job to do it so when you get older it becomes harder to do that. I don’t have my parents to rely on, our singer has a real job and he makes a lot of money so he doesn’t want do it, which you can’t blame him for. We’re still going to play, we’ll still do weekend trips.
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At this point we had to go outside because The Melody Bar was closing up. The rest of the interview is with Zev and Kingshot.
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Bill-Where do you see the NBA going without Jordan?
Kingshot-Nowhere, toilet definitely. The competition will be better because there are no elite players left.
Zev-You should ask questions about the Rangers. It’s a rebuilding year, give it two years!
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Bill-Todd Harvey is out six weeks.
Zev-From yesterdays game?
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Bill-No, a couple days ago.
Zev-Harvey’s awesome.
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Bill-Yeah, he’s really good on NHL 99 on my Playstation.
Zev-I didn’t get 99 yet. I have 98, the whole team is different.
