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This is a huge interview, sorry. They were so funny, we laughed,
and I liked them so much I couldn't decide what to cut, and sharing
is good. So, here it is, pretty much in it's entirety. Go to the
bathroom first, grab a soda, and enjoy the interview.
The interview took place in the afternoon during sound
check. Although the show had been sold out weeks earlier, people
were milling around outside trying to buy tickets at any price.
LBDA manager Mitch showed up and gave the bouncer thumbs up to let
us inside. Ryde and I sat at a small table right below Miguel who
was a mixin it all up. They started jamming, so tight it seemed
more like a private concert just for us instead of a sound check.
They had to stop and calm down "Forty" Eric's big rottweiler who
was disturbed by all the people outside (no doubt trying to break
down the doors when they heard the music). After Miguel declared
it a go, Mitch volunteered Opie and RAS-1 to do the interview. Everybody
else split, except for Bud who remained on stage playing his drums.
RAS-1 joined us first.
Clarkie - You guys sound great.
RAS-1 - Thanks; this is just sound check,
it'll sound better tonight.
Clarkie - We were here for your show last summer.
RAS-1 - Right on; so you saw Slightly Stoopid
getting all those girls on stage?
Clarkie - Yep, lots of topless girls! Do you have girls get up on-stage
at every show you do?
RAS-1 - Uh, not really.
Just when there's crazy whacked-out ones.
Clarkie - Is the Santa Cruz crowd different? A little looser than
most?
RAS-1 - Yeah, it's a little looser; lot of
the hippie community; know what I mean?
Clarkie - Yeah. There are a lot of tourists here too.
RAS-1 - I mean the locals out on the streets
you know.
Clarkie - The deadheads?
RAS-1 - Yeah, the little deadheads.
Clarkie - Do you skate? Or does anybody in the band skate?
RAS-1 - Opie still skates. We actually have
a couple of skateboards on the bus. I skate for transportation to
get to liquor stores. I use to skate when I was 16, actually earlier,
a young kid. Then I got serious about it when I was 14 to 16. But
I sucked so I figured I should just stick to guitar and try to quit
banging my shins on fuckin curbs, getting shinners, hemotoma's,
and wrecking my fingers.
Clarkie - Do you guys know any skateboard pros?
RAS-1 - Yeah, I know Eddy Rategui personally.
He's a good friend of mine. Eddy use to skate for Alva I don't know
if you remember him.
Clarkie - Tony Alva?
RAS-1 - Yeah, he skated on Tony's team.
Clarkie - Yes, I just met Tony and chilled with him after the trade
show in San Diego. I arrived the night after you guys played. I
really wanted to see you. Did you play at an ASR event or was it
a private party?
RAS-1 It was a private party.
Clarkie - Did you go to the trade show?
RAS-1 - Yes, I saw a lot of pros there. I
saw Steve Caballero, or maybe that was at the Gravity Games in Richmond.
I've seen Lance Mountain at shows, Eddy Rategui comes to all our
local shows. Lot of skaters come to our shows. Butch Sturbins, skater
for Product Z, Jeff Ramos they're friends of mine. Butch is good,
he's the best in the neighborhood. *RAS leaned
close to the microphone* He was always a little fucker though,
ha haa ha.
Clarkie - Well, we'll tell him!
 Clarkie
- I use to work at 60/40 Skateboards right here in Santa Cruz county.
You know any of those dudes from your area?
RAS-1 - Cool, I know Ron Chatman. That's pretty
crazy, now that you're bringing up names, I know tons of skaters.
I just saw Ron at the Long Beach Blues Festival a couple weeks ago,
we were kickin it.
Clarkie - Ron's a good man. How is he doing I haven't talked to
him for a few years?
RAS-1 - Good. Ron's doing good, he's a bro.
Clarkie - We noticed the rotty over there. Where's Louie?
RAS-1 - Louie is at home in Long Beach, he's
getting too old for the road.
Clarkie - Who is he living with?
RAS-1 - Miguel takes care of him. Lou's been
known to pull a skateboard or two. He'll pull you on a skateboard
still, but he's getting pretty old.
Clarkie - I have a german shepherd.
RAS-1 - That's cool, I have a pitbull. He's
a good dog. He stays home all the time.
Clarkie - Real Skate will have a section on women skaters called
Gurlz on Boardz.
RAS-1 - That's Cool. Right on.
Clarkie - So this website is going to get a lot of female hits and
I'm sure they're all going to want to know who in the band is available?
RAS-1 - Hahahah.
Clarkie - Or who wants to be, but isn't?
RAS-1 - Uh ME, Miguel, and I think Bud is
available at the moment.
Clarkie - But the night isn't over yet.
RAS-1 - I don't know about Marshall, I don't
know if he's married or what right now.
Clarkie - Are the rest of the guys married or with s.o.'s?
RAS-1 - With significant others.
Clarkie - Do they travel with you?
RAS-1 - No. No, a couple of them are flying
or driving out for a couple of these shows, but we can't bring girls
on the bus. It's like a ship, back in the old days. Cause you ever
seen Spinal Tap? Where they bring the girlfriend on the bus and
she drives the guys crazy? She's like the heavy metal Yoko Ono.
Clarkie - Right. So how do you guys get along otherwise?
RAS-1 - Great. We have our times, at times.
But we have two busses now, so it spreads us out evenly. Last summer
we had one bus, and we still got along, but now we're more spread
out. I enjoy the space.
Clarkie - It looks pretty plush too.
RAS-1 - Yeah, it's pretty cool, it's kickin.
Clarkie - What does RAS stand for?
RAS-1 - It's my initials. Richard Arthur Smith.
Clarkie - Ryde's high school students have some questions. Some
of them saw you at the Crest Theater in Sacto the other night. They
were Sublime fans and now, of course, LBDA fans. They wanted to
know what numbers you're still going to do by Sublime?
RAS-1 - We do a bunch of Sublime numbers.
We do the old and the new; the last album, and stuff you probably
wouldn't hear regularly unless you had "Robin the Hood." We play
it all, so if they want to see it, they gotta come to the show ha
hahaha.
Clarkie - They wanted to know about KRS-1.
RAS-1 - No, we don't really play that one,
that's more like an acoustic jam, more like a fireside jam. But
we could rock it though; maybe. Yeah, we could do it. There's one
live version of it on the "Stand by Your Van" record, and it's pretty
sweet, but that was just freestyle. I met KRS-1 though that's kind
of where I got my name, ha hahaha. I met him recently though, he
gave me a tennis ball. He has tennis balls with his signature on
it that he throws out to the audience. I got home and threw my jacket
on my bed. It rolled out of my pocket and my dog licked the KRS-1
off of it, so I said fuck it, you can have the tennis ball. So I
gave my dog the ball.
Clarkie - Were you guys at Woodstock 3 this year?
RAS-1 - No.
Clarkie - You heard what happened, all the destruction at the end,
and like four girls got raped..
RAS-1 - NO WAY!
Clarkie - Yeah, in the mosh pits.
RAS-1 - That's fucked up; sick people.
Clarkie - Well there's the answer to the question I was going to
ask.
RAS-1 - That's fucked up, that ain't even
cool. And breaking down people's art and shit, that's fucked up.
And rape, that is just sheesh, wrong.
Clarkie - Do you think the bands could play a part in preventing
this?
RAS-1 - They probably had no idea what was
going on. They're all just kickin in their bus like we do, and then
go up and play their show. I don't see any bands going "Go rape,
go fucking burn and pillage," you know what I mean?
Clarkie - I know they're doing it on their own.
RAS-1 - It's something that happens when you
have loud music and a lot of people together, makes people go crazy,
especially people who don't get out enough, and aren't exposed to
having a good time; don't know how to party. What the hell do they
know about partying anyways. But I heard Woodstock was nothing like
the old experience.
Clarkie - I noticed a bike in the corner, and last summer I remember
a mountain bike racked on the back of the bus. Do you bike? Or does
anybody in the band?
RAS-1 That was probably Eric's mountain bike.
Yeah, I have a couple of bicycles. I have a Schwinn Apple Crate;
an old 70's style banana seat style. I have a Dyno cruizer it's
pinstriped and stuff. Eric has a bunch of cruizers too. Miguel has
an old Schwinn cruizer. He also has a mountain bike. I don't get
into the mountain bike thing, I just like cruizing around. I ride
to the bars so I won't drive home drunk and kill somebody, or get
a 502.
Clarkie - I bike too; there's
a lot of good trails around here.
RAS-1 - Cool, there's this place in Colorado
where they have snow usually, so on the off season they have mountain
bike trails made out of the ski trails. I didn't do it. They take
the bike up the ski lift and fuckin haul ass all the way down. Crazy.
Everyone was eating shit all day. They were all beat up.
Clarkie - These are not like the Colorado mountains hahha. These
are Santa Cruz mountains!
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