INTERVIEW: Fletcher Dragge – Pennywise

2017 sees the 20^th anniversary of the exhilarating, inspiring and brilliant album “Full Circle” by punk rock veterans Pennwise that helped define a genre. ‘Full Circle’ is the emotional and pivotal album that followed the tragic death of founding member and bassist Jason Mathew Thirsk. Dedicated to the memory of Thirsk, ‘Full Circle’ is hard as nails, reflective and ultimately redemptive.

For the first time in history Pennywise will be performing ‘Full Circle’ in its entirety. Australian fans will get to witness one of the most blistering and emotional performances ever by the Hermosa Beach legends alongide hardcore legends The Bronx. We talk to guitarist Fletcher Dragge about the upcoming tour and 20 years of Full Circle.

Andrew: So how’s things with the band? You guys on the road or anything at the moment?

Fletcher: We played a couple of shows, we just played the Riot Fest out in Chicago with a bunch of bands. That was really awesome, Jawbreaker did a 20 year reunion there so that was cool. We got a little time off right now, we’re finishing up our new record. We’ve been in the studio for a month or so busting that out off and on, almost got it done. Couple of things to do in the mix and hoping that’s going to be out February maybe if we’re lucky, we’re super stoked on it and now it’s time to start practicing Full Circle for the shows down under because, we need to practice it as it’s a tough one!

Andrew: There’s a couple of things I want to ask you but obviously the Australian tour is coming up, it’s exciting to see you coming back to Australia. I guess it’s been a little bit since you had been down here right?

Fletcher: Yeah I think the last tour we came through on was the About Time tour as a matter of fact so you guys were the first ones we went over to do the full album for. The first place we did a full album in our lives was in Australia for About Time and it went super well, we were beyond stoked. The vibe, the energy, everything about it. Obviously Australia is one of our favorite places to play but just that whole scenario so then we decided, well now it’s the 20th anniversary of Full Circle so we jumped on this idea and why not take it back to Australia and give you guys the first taste of it. So we are looking forward to getting down there and playing these songs, they’re fast, they’re hard. There’s a lot of parts, there’s a lot of emotion behind it and it’s going to be a good one.

Andrew: Yeah definitely and obviously you are hitting that point in your career now where you are hitting all these anniversaries now. 20 years for Full Circle is an amazing thing, how do you guys feel about that?

Fletcher: I think we should probably feel old! But we don’t, I mean it’s just crazy to even say 20 years because I guess at this point we’ve been a band for 28-29 years which is just so crazy. More than half of my life I have spent in Pennywise and we were just guys in a garage playing backyard parties thinking we need to do something to entertain ourselves and have a reason to drink beer. Now we’ve travelled the world for 20 years and coming up to the 20th anniversary for albums, it’s just totally insane to think back 20 years ago what was going on. On top of that with some of these songs we’re getting ready to practice them again, the lyric topics and subject matter is crazy because you hear a song like “Society” and we were screaming about the world being broken 20 years ago and it’s broken worse than ever right now. It’s kind of weird to look back and go, ‘Man why hasn’t anything changed? Why are things getting worse instead of better like we’ve been screaming and yelling about for 29 years?” It’s just really hard to fathom that we’ve been a band this long, we’ve had our ups and downs, our hardships. We’ve all remained friends and learned a lot over the years but at the end of the day we’re just really grateful to be in a band that’s lasted this long, that’s had the fans support that we’ve had all over the world. Without our fans we’re nothing and we’re just honoured to be able to come down and play an album that is 20 years old and have people show up and enjoy it. It’s really, really cool.

Andrew: Looking back on when you first released “Full Circle” and I don’t know how you guys look at that album but certainly from the fans, it’s such a pivotal and important album for the band. How do you view that album now 20 years later? As you said, the lyrics are still very relevantto what’s going on in the world today but musically speaking do you feel the album has still held up really well?

Fletcher: I think so. Obviously that album was written right after Jason [Thirsk] our original bass player died who was a huge inspiration behind Pennywise and our lyrics and our general direction of the band. So it’s a heavy album in that aspect, there’s a lot of emotion there. There’s songs about Jason on there and then you take that heartache and angst and that anger and confusion and then you start writing songs like “Society” or “Fight Till You Die” and they become these beasts and we had so much going on in our brains that we were just literally sitting in this room for like 6 to 8 hours a day and just taking songs and beating them to death and making them harder and gnarlier and adding more parts. We had so much to get out of our brains and souls I guess that we just packed it into this album and we played it at 200 miles an hour, way faster than it should of been probably. The lyric matter, a lot of the topics are like I said still happening and a lot of this stuff is going to bring up memories of Jason and his passing which is going to be a really emotional time for us on stage. I mean we can’t really predict what we’re going to be feeling on stage but I know that the crowd energy is going to be so hardcore that the whole thing is going to be like an explosion I would imagine. So yeah it’s going to be heavy and hardcore and definitely looking forward to it on all levels.

Andrew: Bringing up the passing of Jason many years ago now, at that point obviously it was a tough thing to get through but what made you guys decide to go forward?

Fletcher: That was kind of what Pennywise was based on. When I called Jason originally to start Pennywise, we sat down and drank a couple of cases of beer and just talked about what we’re going to do and I told him my ideas. We only knew each other through backyard parties, we were never really friends. We just knew who each other were and I liked him and I liked his style and so we talked about a lot of things and one of them was, ‘We’re going to do this, have fun and do things our way’. Punk rock was kind of dead in the water at that point, not a lot of bands playing, not a lot of labels, not a lot of clubs. We just said we’re going to do what we’re going to do, we’re going to play the music we want to play and we’re not going to give up. We’re going to work towards going on tour and being a band that can actually go out and see the world and of course we thought we would be doing maybe some US touring, we never dreamed of touring to Europe or Australia or Japan or Korea or South America. So it’s just been a crazy ride and I don’t know, I’m kind of at a loss for words at how it’s all transformed and how it’s all played out. At the end of the day we’re just so grateful to be here and losing Jason was such a hard thing and I just feel like he was such a big part of the band and this record is kind of like our therapy for that loss, so it’s definitely going to be interesting.

The theory behind Pennywise was kind of like let’s never give up, never give in and as the band took shape with Jason writing these lyrics that became super positive, about fighting for what you believe in for yourself. And so if we were to quit after Jason died, then we would not have been practicing what we preached. The band was absolutely the opposite of that, it was that no matter what obstacles get put in front of you in life, you gotta keep on moving and keep on fighting.

Andrew: For sure. So for you personally what made you decide to be in a band? Was there a particular band or musician growing up that inspired you to want to pick up the guitar?

Fletcher: I think just punk rock in general really did it for me. I started hearing bits and pieces like Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys, “Holiday In Cambodia”, that single was really influential on me. And then just diving into everything because I started finding myself I guess in this music, I was a fan of music but I wasn’t a fan-fan. Nothing struck me like punk rock and actually “Paid To Cum” by Bad Brains, a demo tape on Rodney On The Rock, a local DJ that really gave me a physical feeling. It was so fast and crazy and I was just like, ‘Wow! And I was already deep into it by that time but that really made me think I gotta do this and growing up in the same town as Black Flag and the Circle Jerks and The Descendents, I literally went to the same high school with Bill and Mili from The Descendents. So it was right in our backyard and there was only a handful of punkers, maybe 20 or 25 in our school and the whole town there was probably only a hundred kids into punk rock. Maybe more but around that number so it wasn’t like it was popular or cool but that influence coming from right in the backyard going to backyard parties and watching The Descendents or Black Flag play, it was crazy. Greg Ginn’s aggression and his sound influenced me a lot and then at the same time, I started hearing Minor Threat and the speed and, I wouldn’t call them a technical band but the speed and then be able to play how they play and have it be tight and in your face. So my two biggest influences are Greg Ginn [Black Flag] and Lyle Preslar from Minor Threat but there’s a hundred guitar players like Ron Emery from T.S.O. and Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols, the list goes on and on. But I mean the two things that I was into was Black Flag and Minor Threat as far as guitar playing influence.

Andrew: And now many years later, here you are and travelling around the world and now coming to Australia, so it’s been an amazing career for you and the rest of the guys in Pennywise as well. Thanks for your time today, really appreciate it and we look forward to these shows as we think it will be amazing run of shows!

Fletcher: Yeah playing with The Bronx, one of our favorite bands. We haven’t done a proper tour with them, we’ve played a few shows here and there at festivals. They are insane, their energy levels is off the charts and I think it’s going to be a night between us and them and “Full Circle” and a bunch of drunk Aussies, it’s going to be a night to remember. I think it’s going to down in the history books for sure so we’re lookin forward to getting down there.

TOUR DATES