How did The Bricktops begin?
Kevin O and I (Kevin G) did a little project called Franky Four Fingers in 2004. It
really never materialized and I started working on some solo stuff. I had to play all
of the instruments because I couldn't find any other musicians into punk. I called it
"The Bricktops." I recorded an entire album but never released it. Then I did some
surf instrumentals and thought they were pretty cool so I decided to rearrange
some punk songs I wrote to fit the format. That became the first album "Surfabilly
Blues" released in 2005. It was cool but I wanted to get back to the punk thing. I
did another album a year later called "Phase II." It was back to the pop punk stuff I
love. I should have changed the name but I had already built up a small fan base
on myspace and didn't want to start over again. Around August of 2006, Josh
contacted me through myspace and started playing drums. I talked Kevin O into
letting me teach him how to play bass so we could finally do some shows. We
started doing shows in December on 2006. We
re-recorded some old Franky Four Fingers songs and put them on the split we did
with the Goddammits. In late spring, early summer we started working on "Stay
Home." These were new songs Kevin O and I wrote over the last 8 months or so.
We had been playing most of them live since our first show so the recording went
pretty quick. We released "Stay Home" in September of 2007. Shortly after, there
was a falling out with Kevin O and we had to go our separate ways. Then we got
offers from Murk Ta Records and Knowhere Records to be on some splits. Josh
and I got into the studio and started working on some tracks. I played bass and did
all of the vocals so we could get the tracks submitted. Both splits should be
released in early 2008. Then in December Andy C. got a hold of me through
myspace interested in the bass position. We got together and jammed a few songs
and he was in. Now we're working on getting the songs together so we can start
doing shows again.
Were any of you in bands prior The Bricktops?
Not really anything to speak of.
How would you describe The Bricktops to someone who had not heard you
before?
Fun, energetic, poppy, Beach Boys on crack.
Who are your personal musical influences?
Kevin G: The Pop Quiz, Ramones, The Queers, Screeching Weasel, Buddy
Holly, Beach Boys, The Lillingtons, Nobodys, old Rancid, old NOFX.
Josh T: NOFX, Buddy Holly and The Crickets, Dean Martin, Bach. All kinds of
music have been my influence, I guess..
Andy C: Screeching Weasel, The Queers, The L.O.P, The Unknown, Dropkick
Murphys, Fifteen, They Might Be Giants, Krupted Peasant Farmerz, Spodie,
Riverdales
Who writes your songs and what influences the writing?
Kevin G: I write 90% of the songs. I get inspiration from stupid people I know,
the news, girls, movies, TV commercials, porn, other bands, oldies and doo wop.
Pretty much anything can inspire me to write a song.
Who's your favorite bands right now?
Kevin G: Head, Teenage Bottlerocket, The Apers, The Steinways, Johnie 3,
The Vapids, The Copyrights, The Hollywood Blondes, The Manges.
Josh T: The Creeps, Teenage Bottlerocket, The Wanna-bes, M.C. Chris and
The Leftovers.
Andy C: The Queers, Teenage Bottlerocket, Flogging Molly, Hank III,
Oreskaband, Backseat Virgins, Hudson Falcons, Rise Against, The Skels, The
Pubcrawlers
What's your favorite song that you play right now and why?
Kevin G: 18 and 13 and High School Girl. They're probably two of the best
songs I've written in a long time and I love playing them because they rock.
Josh T: There's a lot of new songs of ours that I like to play but If you had a gun
to my head, I would have to say "I'm Trying". The whole melody and progression of
the song is great.
Andy C: 10 Year - It's catchy, it's fun to play, and it's pretty much how I felt
about my 10 year reunion that I didn't go to.
What do you do when you're not playing music?
Kevin G: Listen to music, write music, masturbate, watch football and shitty
horror movies, and go to work.
Josh T: Playing with my sons, Annoy my wife with video games, Preparing to
have another spawn, Fortifying my house for the zombie invasion.
Andy C: Work, hang out with my friends, I'm a member of the SCA, trying to
learn to play the bagpipes, World of Warcraft.
What is your evaluation of the current punk scene?
Kevin G: depends on what you consider the current punk scene. The so-
called punk that they play on the radio and TV is fucking garbage but the
underground pop punk scene is amazing. There are so many new pop punk bands
that fucking kick ass.
Josh T: In the town of Delphos there is none unless you consider jacked-up
trucks, the smell of pig shit, and a hillbilly mentality punk rock. Kevin and I make up
65% of rockers here in the Del of Phos. Ft. Wayne (where we play a lot) has a
good scene going on though.
Andy C: I think there's an awesome underground pop punk scene going on
right now. A lot of good bands coming out. I'm excited again like I was when I was
fifteen.
On your split with The Goddammits you seemed to really make a big jump
from Phase II. Tell us about what you did differently on The Goddammits
split from what you had on “Phase II”.
Kevin G:The songs we recorded were all older except for CMFB so they were
pretty much set in stone. I was also getting more comfortable with my new
recording gear that I used on "Phase II." I think another big thing was the fact that I
wasn't playing all of the instruments so I could focus more on production and my
own parts.
Tell us about the problems you ran into recording “Stay Home” .
Kevin G: There really wasn't too many issues. I have my own home studio so I
could work on things at my own convenience. I was working with some new
techniques and still learning my new equipment. I re-recorded the guitar tracks
numerous times because I was miking my cabinet instead of running direct. I
wanted a more professional production on this one. The first day Josh and I
started working on drum tracks we were attacked by mother nature. We had
almost all of the tracks done and it started storming. Since we only had a couple
more to go, we said "fuck it, let's get this shit done." All of a sudden the power went
out and we lost all of the tracks we had been working on. Obviously, we were really
pissed and quit for the day. A few days later, we went back into the studio and got
them all recorded in a few hours. Kevin O's bass and vocal tracks took awhile to
get recorded because he was working second shift during the week and we had
shows on the weekends. All together we recorded the album over about 5 days
spread out over about 3 months.
“Stay Home” is an amazing album, who did all the tech work on it and is any
label putting it out?
Kevin G: I did all of the recording, production, mixing and mastering. I really
wanted to look for a label for this one but decided against after reading Ben
Weasel's "The Infinite Joys of Being a Professional Musician" from his book "Punk
is a Four Letter Word." He said that you're better off releasing an album yourself, if
you could afford it, rather than putting it out on a small indy label. I used his words
of wisdom and decided to release it myself like I did the others. I figured we were
still in the early stages of the band and didn't want to make a commitment to a label
that we possibly couldn't keep.
Recently The Bricktops showed up in the magazine “Loud Fast Rules”. Tell
the readers about what they said.
Kevin G: The article was done by Janelle Jones who writes for a number of punk
magazines. She found me on myspace and wanted to do an interview. When I did
the interview we hadn't even done a show yet. She was impressed by my "Phase II"
album that I recorded and played all of the instruments by myself. She wrote: "If
you dig so-called "Ramones-core" (take that, fashion-core) or "Weasel-beat," you
must, must, must, check out Ohio's THE BRICKTOPS. After getting an email from
Kevin G. to check out the band I'd never heard before, I was instantly charmed by
the straight-up, fun pop-punk reminiscent of the might QUEERS and
METHADONES that greeted me at their Myspace page. So, naturally I asked Kevin
to send a copy of the band's record, "Phase II" (on which Kevin played all of the
instruments, sang, and wrote all of the songs), and if he'd be up for a little interview
with "LFR." Happily, he said yes, and the results are below." She also added a
small update about Josh and Kevin O joining the band and us recording a split with
the Goddammits since the interview was done about 8 months before it came out.
The rest was just an interview with me.
J-Sauer is an amazing artist who’s done a lot of pop punk art. Tells us
about working with him and how you & he came up with the cover art for
“Stay Home”.
Kevin G: Jake is amazing. We met him through Jake Emissions from The
Goddammits and Flamingo Nosebleed. They have been good friends for years.
Jake did the artwork for The Goddammits split and a few flyers for us and we really
wanted him to do "Stay Home." We gave him the original idea of the 3 of us sitting
on the couch with some pizza boxes, beer and porn lying about. He did some
rough sketches that were awesome then he had a different idea. That's when he
sent us the current artwork. We loved it and told him to go with it. So, all of the
artwork was Jake.