Bred from a long lineage of punk bands out of Southern California, Lagwagon became one of the most influential, pioneering the now-famous ‘Fat Wreck sound’ with their speedy drums, guitar virtuosity and undeniable melodies. The legendary punks are heading to Australia and New Zealand in March so we chatted to vocalist Joey Cape about the tour, the similarities between California and Australia and travelling.
Andrew: We are looking forward to seeing you in Australia in March, obviously exciting for a lot of fans seeing you coming down. I was just tryng to think, when was the last time you were down our way?
Joey: Oh man, I’m trying to think. 2016 was the last time although it could of been 2017. We did put out a record in 2015 and I know we toured on it but I just can’t remember if it was the following year as the album came out in November but I don’t know, they all blend together for me at this point [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] I get that! I know you have a lot of good fans down here, what have your previous experiences down our way been like in the past? How do you find the Aussie audiences over here?
Joey: Oh lovely, it’s great. Always have such a good time down there, I have a lot of friends there in just about every city we go to, all the cities from touring there for so many years. The shows are always great, audiences are really positive and the vibe is really good. Just no complaints, never had a bad time on tour in Australia, not one. Maybe once I got sick and nobody wants to do anything when they are sick [laughs]. I think one time I was in Australia I had a sinus infection that I might of got on the flight over and that one was a little rough but even that one was pretty fine so it’s always a good time.
Andrew: Obviously that’s part of touring, when you get ill like that the last resort is to cancel a show. I mean how do you deal with things like that? Do you just push through it or do you have any remedy’s at all?
Joey: You just push through. I mean unless somebody breaks a bone that is needed for the show or somebody is in the hospital, I mean there’s been 1 or 2 shows in our entire history that we’ve cancelled. Maybe cancelled one tour due to, somebody had a baby or something or getting married…I don’t know, I can’t remember but there’s never…you would have to be near death to even consider it because it’s maybe an hour and a half of your life so even if your sick you just get through it. There’s also this idea that I think bands generally have about that is sort of like, well if you are sick it’s sort of a good way to sweat it out! I’ve definitely gone on stage with a fever before and thought this is going to be great because I’m going to sweat and that’s a good thing, drink a lot of water and sweat. But yeah somebody in my band would have to have a pretty amazing excuse to cancel a show because it’s just not that long of a thing, you get through it no matter what. With adrenaline you feel better even if you don’t feel good, it’s a rare thing anyway. We’re pretty tough, we don’t get sick all that often on tour anymore.
Andrew: You guys have obviously been doing this a while and touring is a big part of being in a band, do you still enjoy the touring aspect as much as you did when you first started or is it something you find more difficult as the years go on?
Joey: I think in many ways I enjoy it more now than I did when I first started which is an uncommon answer to that question. Most of the time when you’re young and just being wild and free, to think that touring and not working a real job and just travelling, it’s just the life. But as I’ve gotten older I’ve found cultural reasons to enjoy travelling, the things that I do off stage when I’m travelling are different from when I was younger. When I was younger I just got drunk every night, I mean it was more of a party. But now, I mean the food alone, just the restaurants that I look forward to [laughs] which I get excited about that and all the stupid tourist attractions, things that I just love to do, hikes, whatever. It’s bizarre so I really love it now! But I think much of that is because I just adopted a sort of life which is what I do with my life and I have to enjoy it and I’m very used to mixing with what happens at home and a lot of times when it comes to politics and things like that, I’m absolutely ok with that! I like to be away from all that but family, that aspect is tough. But yeah the more I think with all the travel, I really do enjoy travelling more than ever now.
Andrew: Yeah I guess that’s an appreciation you have as you get older I suppose, you get to travel to so many places around the world. Outside of Australia and your home country as well, do you have a favorite place or somewhere that you would consider to be interesting to play in?
Joey: I love anywhere where there is a beach. That is kind of a winner all the time because I grew up in California and I’ve always lived right next to the ocean so if I’m near water, an ocean, I’m most comfortable and I can’t think of a bad time at a beach unless it’s raining and very windy or something. So I’m down for the places we go on the road that’s tropical or have beach activities but many places that I love for all sorts of reasons, I love going to Tokyo too, it’s like Disneyland for adults. I think most of the time it’s about the nature and the beauty of the outdoors for me but there’s some cities that I love to go to too. I don’t know, there’s too many answers to that question do you know what I mean? I think I can try and find something endearing and alluring about just about anywhere that I go, if you go somewhere enough times, if you didn’t find it the first time you’ll find it the second time, know what I mean? There might be a place where you go to get Vietnamese food that you discovered the third time you were there and that’s just a almost like such an compulsive kind of thing, ‘Well ok I got my routine! I’m gonna get up, gonna go do that’. I mean there’s just so many reasons to enjoy travel if you try, you can find something special about it anyway.
Andrew: Yeah I agree with that. I mean I’ve been to California myself a number of times over the years and I’ve always felt that California and the west coast of Australia are quite similar to each other and I suppose if you love the beach, that’s one aspect that they share I suppose.
Joey: Oh yeah I mean Australia always does this trick on my mind, when I’m on the east coast I feel like, ‘Oh this is the east coast’. Like both of the coasts remind me of California, neither of them remind me our east coast [laughs]. It’s like whenever I’m in WA it’s like on the beaches I’m actually facing the right direction but then of course there’s beaches that I go to but it’s a trip and it’s an island. But yeah Australia is very, climate-wise pretty similar to what I’m used to my whole life.
Andrew: A lot of people I have talked to recently have all mentioned all the bush fires and stuff which I’m sure you are aware of.
Joey: Yeah man I can’t believe it.
Andrew: What’s your thoughts on that? What have you been seeing and hearing on tv and stuff like that?
Joey: Well not much at all on television because here in the US we’re in the middle of an impeachment trial so it’s all we hear about. I’ve just seen in passing a few things about it, I know it’s been going on for quite some time. But I don’t do a lot of social networking so it’s not something I’ve been on it on a constant like other people but I’m well aware of what’s going on out there with you guys, it’s very sad. Of course I’ve heard the conflicting and ecological problems and generally seems similar to what’s going on in California because we’re no stranger to fire in this state, I mean I joke about this state being on fire, literally and figuratively [laughs], all the time. So yeah it’s very scary, people lose everything and their lives. I grew up in the central coast of California and fires were so common here that every year or 2 we would have a giant fire, the kind fires that happen now where I grew up near Santa Barbara and it’s so frightening when you see the entire mountain line or something behind you and you’re in a riviera and the fire keeps on going until you reach the ocean. That’s just what’s going to happen so you just have to get out of the way, you can see a lot about the ecological or the implications of climate change and these sorts of things are a sensitive subject and I’m so tired of talking about it where I live and I imagine it’s a big debate right now for you too. So I don’t know, it’s a scary and sad world sometimes.
Andrew: It is one of those unfortunate things but like I say to a lot of people that I have spoken to about this to the bands coming down at this time of the year, the one thing that we agree on is that it’s good to see bands coming down and just for a couple of hours get our minds off of everything and enjoy ourselves and have some good old fashioned rock n roll fun. So we really appreciate you guys coming down our way.
Joey: I could not agree more with you. It’s one thing about the arts and music in general, those specifically it’s a great escape and it’s so important. It’s the universal language and I’m so proud to be involved in that in times like that because over the years we’ve had a number of gigs that was right after a bombing or something really terrible happening. In Europe for example I played in Brussels right after the bombings there a couple of years ago, the next night we almost didn’t get in but they let us in because we’re musicians and we went and played the gig and it was a solemn state that people got a little escape out of it and cheered up. I mean I’ve felt that way about gigs too, there’s times when I’m really down and you go to a good gig so I’m happy to part of something like that.
Andrew: Well thanks for your time, really appreciate it and look forward to seeing you in Australia again. Before I let you go, do you have any last words for the Aussie fans at all?
Joey: See you soon, hang in there! See ya mates, it’s gonna be a blast.
LAGWAGON ANNOUNCE
AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND TOUR 2020
Friday 13th March – Metro Theatre, Sydney
Saturday 14th March – Triffid, Brisbane
Sunday 15th March – 170 Russell, Melbourne
Wednesday 18th March – UniBar, Adelaide
Thursday 19th March – Capitol, Perth
Saturday 21st March – Galatos, Auckland
Sunday 22nd March – San Fran, Wellington
Tickets: https://sbmpresents.com/tour/lagwagon
