Specials

Paint It Black: we love irony

posted by: Lou on 3 October 2006

Arold is a nice guy. That's why he let us publish this interview he did with Paint It Black. Go check it out, it's good!

I just read on the mspace site that Colin is being replaced by a guy named Josh. Who is Josh and why is Colin out of the band?

Nelson: Josh and I have been friends ever since middle school and have played together in Affirmative Action Jackson for years. He is one of my favourite people in the world and a great guitar player!
Wagenschutz: Josh is a great dude, Colin hates me so he quit.
Yemin: Josh is a good friend who has filled in on guitar for us several times in the past when Colin or dave were unavailable. he didn't actually replace Colin. We asked Josh to join as 2nd guitarist, and Colin quit soon afterwards so that he could put more time into his other projects.

You've toured Europe for three weeks which was the first time for Paint It Black in Europe as well as the first real tour for the band so I wonder how did you experience it? What were your expectations, were there any dissapointments? What were the highlights?

Wagenschutz: The tour was awesome! Avocado did a great job, we had two cool drivers, played fun shows and we didn't come home broke. Some shows were under-attended but that happens in the states as well, par for the course if you ask me, which you did. Iceland was the highlight, the people, the landscape, the sunlight!
Nelson: It was all gravy for me, I had never been to Europe before, so it was incredible just to see shit for the first time. Highlights? Midnight in Reykjavik with Darren from Jade Tree? Taking the Orient Express overnight from Munich to Vienna? Record shopping in Manchester? I don't know, it all fucking ruled.
Yemin: Europe tour was amazing! I tried not to go into it with too many expectations. The only real disappointments were that we couldn't play more of Europe. I would have liked to have visited Prague again. It's a beautiful city and some of my favorite shows were there when I toured with Lifetime. Highlights were Milan, Bremen, Herten, and the U.K. shows. I had never played in the U.K. before and the shows were really great.

Why did you title the second record Paradise?

Wagenschutz: Because we love irony!
Yemin: We were arguing over what to title the album, and Dave came up with "Paradise", a word which appears in the song "Nicaragua", and in the context of that particular song, the word refers to the tension between nature and humanity, specifically when investors from industrialized nations buy land in third world nations for the purpose of real estate development. Having witnessed that firsthand, I thought the consequences of that sort of greed and disregard for local culture and economy were pretty disgusting. I agreed that this was a great title for the record. If you had asked me beforehand what the record was about, I would have said "war & divorce", but after we titled the album and began to sequence the songs, another theme started to emerge: in that context, the title of the new record is what you might call "darkly ironic". one of the themes of the record that started to emerge is that there is an enormous amount of energy and time we (human beings) invest in telling ourselves lies about our lives and about the state of the world. One of the most striking things about us as a species that's been illuminated for me in my years as a psychologist is the seemingly boundless human capacity for self-deception. "Paradise" refers to the illusions we create for ourselves in order to survive, in order to avoid falling into despair when confronted with the injustice and horror in the world, and the sadness and struggle for meaning in our own individual lives. These illusions are also what politicians manipulate in order to gain support for their illicit activities, such as war and theft. One of the favorite illusions of right wing american citizens is the idea that we live in the greatest and most free nation in the world. People that support the war (which, by the way, is less than half of us) truly believe that the U.S. are liberators for the Iraqi people and that Saddam Hussein was partially responsible for the World Trade Center attack, and was building nuclear weapons, despite considerable evidence to the contrary. People also surround themselves with the illusion that working 60 hours a week in order to afford material luxuries gives their life purpose and meaning.

Paint It Black is a band that wants to sing and say more than most of the bands around in todays hardcore/punk scene. Was this one of the reasons to start the band, because you felt you had something to say that others weren't saying?

Yemin: Totally! I thought that the lyrical content in much modern hardcore was diluted or "watered-down". I think that a lot of bands are reluctant to take a stand on anything because they're afraid to alienate people, and that might hurt their record sales. Punk was born as protest music, and I try to honor that tradition, especially because I think a lot of kids today feel pretty apathetic or disenfranchised when it comes to politics.

Do you do any research before writing your lyrics, how do your lyrics come about?

Yemin: I just read the news and occasionally some sort of political writing or historical writing ("The nation" magazine, zinn's "People's history of the United States", etc.). lyrics often come to me when I'm driving to work and can't write, so I call my voice mail and leave them there and transfer them to a Word document later. Sometimes I get inspired at museums or when I'm listening to other bands. last week we were at an exhibit of early colonial maps of the territories that would become the U.S. there was a lot of discussion about how maps were used to claim ownership of land that already had other people living on it. Once maps are published, they create "proof" that the land is owned by the people who made the map, and borders are thought to reflect physical realities after maps have been on print for awhile. It made me think about propaganda and power and how cartography (map-making) has been used not only to advance the science of geography, but also to consolidate power over conquered populations. I guess I'm a nerd, but I went home and wrote a song about it. This past weekend I was listening to the 2nd Propagandhi album and I actually got a tear in my eye (I'm so emo) thinking about how excited I used to get about intelligent powerful political punk music, and how jaded I've gotten and how much time and energy I spend on boring stuff like fixing my house and keeping my car working and paying my bills. I thought to myself: "older now...what happened to the fire in our guts?!?!" and started writing a song about that.

A question for Dan and David, are the rumours about a Kid Dynamite tour in Europe true?

Wagenschutz: Maybe...
Yemin: After everything that happened this summer (Lifetime and Kid Dynamite reunions) I have learned to 'never say never'. But I don't know anything about it at this point...

Bush's popularity seems to be going downhill since this summer. First with the protests of the mother of a dead soldier and then Kathrina. Do you think he will be able to finish his term? What do you think are the chances of the Republican party delivering the next president as well, are they still supported by the majority of the voters (if they ever were?) Do you think Democrats being in charge would change a lot, would they try to solve internal problems like poverty and end the war in Iraq?

Yemin: Bush will probably finish his term, unfortunately. A president pretty much would have to murder someone to be removed from office before his term is up. 51% of voting Americans voted for him so now we're stuck with him. The Republican party has become really powerful by allying themselves with the right-wing Christian movement, which is apparently pretty strong although they are largely invisible in urban areas on the east coast where I live.

Do you think that in time the war in Iraq will become a new 'Vietnam' for the USA?

Yemin: I think it already is…

Is there a way for Vush or the next president of the USA to bail out of Iraq with the US troops? It seems they have made a big mess of the country which is now on the verge of a civil war. Backing out doesn't seem to be the best option right now?

Yemin: I don’t think the U.S ever seriously supported real democratic elections in Iraq. If you think about it, a true democratic election in Iraq would probably result in an islamic theocracy, which is a government that the U.S. probably wouldn’t tolerate. I don’t know how we can resolve things over there, but i don’t know that we shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

What are the biggest problems in the USA at hand?

Yemin: Where do I start? Illegal presidency, illegal war, the rise in power of right-wing Christian zealots, homelessness, poverty, outsourcing of jobs, consolidation of corporate power…

Dan, you've toured Europe before, maybe ten years ago, with Lifetime. Did you notice any big changes between the European scene back then and now?

Yemin: I was sad to see that squatting is less tolerated in Germany and in some other places. These days it seems as if more shows are in “legitimate” clubs than in youth centers and squats. The youth centers and squats are still more fun. Regarding squatting, it’s sad to think that maybe Germany has started to embrace the American idea that private property is more important than the right to housing.

Memorial Day is one of my favourite Paint It Black songs, can you tell us what it is about?

Wagenschutz: It's a cheap reach for melody!
Yemin: It’s about going through a divorce and learning to believe in love again. It’s about falling down and getting up again. It’s a raised glass saluting the notion of human resiliency.

Are there any plans yet for a new Paint It Black record or maybe a European tour somewhere next year?

Yemin: We’ll be back to Europe in the summer of 2006. We're working on the next Paint It Black album right now.

What are your favourite books and why? (I'm a reading nerd I confess)

Nelson: "The phantom tollbooth".
Wagenschutz: Harry Potter and whatever JK Rowling can come up with!
Yemin: Zadie Smith’s “White teeth” and “The wind-up bird chronicle” by Haruki Murakami are two of my recent favorites.

Interview by: Arold aka the white owl
Pictures taken from the Paint It Black website