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Interview with GlassJaw

20000810_00001039_01Hours before the GlassJaw/Deftones show at the *cough* suckass *cough* Palladium, UE got a chance to sit down with Daryl, the front man of GlassJaw, in their bus to talk about life, hair styling tips, monster movies and underwear. Yes, you read correctly… underwear.

…See I don’t wash it for 4 months at a time.
We’ll print that.
Definitely print that! It’s my hair trick.
So how do you make you’re hair look so perfect?
Oh my god, it’s because I put donkey semen in it before I go to bed every night.
At this point, one of the band members in the back of the bus walks out asking if we are sharing hair styling tips.. wearing a big ass fro wig.
(laughter)

How’s your current tour going?
Great! We’re almost done. We’re down to the last 5 shows, tomorrow’s 4, 3, 2, 1.
So after that you’re going home?
After that, thank God, knock on wood, knock on wood, We’re going home to rest. We’ve never done extensive touring before and we’ve been on the road for over 2 months. So it’s just like we’re burning out, cuz it’s just like, we did a few days off in San Francisco, it was fly and then ah, just to have a few days at home, spend time with my homeboys, with my parents. I miss my family a lot, so it would be good. I mean we’re young, its not like we’re 35 year old men who like to get away from their wives, we’re not unhappy with our home lives. We just, we’re kids, I just tuned 21 so I feel like I miss my mom a little bit, I just want to get home and spend some time with people who mean a lot to me and then we’ll go back out, awfully soon, You know, I guess embarking for another month or two on September 5th with Earth Crisis, I believe. Us, Earth Crisis and a band called Relative Ash, from Long Island. They’re good friends of ours.
People outside the bus have started to scream Chino!
Chino!! (soft scream)
Little fucknuts, what are they screaming at? Shut up. I love it. They scream like, ‘Chino, sign this!’ Like yeah, like, you’re the ONLY, yeah lemme sign this and then.. I’ll sign everybody else’s.

So a little homesick?
Umm, not really home sick, just, I just want that feeling a little bit, just to be laying in my bed, just hanging out watching Godzilla movies in my fucking boxers for a full day. Getting up at 4 in the afternoon.
So nothing planned, just taking the time off?
Totally. Totally. I mean like one thing that gets to you is I have not ever been alone in over two months. Like this is our home and you don’t sleep alone either. You know whether you’re back there, there’s four bunks, or you’re up here sleeping with another guy in my bunk for over two months, you don’t get to be alone, so to just be in my bedroom, alone would be pretty, it’s interesting a simple thing you don’t think into, but I miss it a little bit.

Have there been any pranks between any of the bands, you and the deftones?
Not yet, we’re working on the ah, the last, the last night pranking scenario I guess we gotta get ready for what they are going to give us but, fuck it we’ll beat them. We’re from New York, we’re a bunch of tuff asses, we can do it.
So last night shenanigans?
Yea, I’m sure it’s going to be something, I gotta keep my eye out every 5 seconds with them.

So what’s been the highlight of the current tour?
For the band.. Umm I’d say playing Roseland Ballroom in New York City, it was like, the biggest club in New York City, one step bigger is Lincoln Center, one step bigger than that would be Madison Square Garden, you know its like a big thing, that we all grew up in New York City and Long Island going to see our favorite bands on that stage, you know I had personally seen, you know, anything from, I saw a Faith No More set there, I’ve seen my favorite bands there, I’ve seen Squeeze there, I’ve seen Morrissey there, you know all my favorite bands I’ve seen on that stage, to play on it, it was just like ‘whoo!’ You know, that was a highlight, playing London, Brixton Academy in London was phenomenal getting on stage and having over 5,000 kinds knowing every word to my record, it’s like dude, you don’t even live on the same continent I live on, you went through the trouble to learn the words, you know. It means a lot. Umm, personally, me as a person, my highlight was I sang, I sang a Bad Brains cover, which Bad Brains is my favorite heavy band and I sang a Bad Brains cover on stage with the deftones. Which was like fucking phenomenal, to sing on stage with the deftones is fun as hell, cuz we’re good friends, but to sing my favorite band, a cover song of it, with them, is like… perfect.

What’s in your pockets right now?
(searching) My pass, some change, umm… my cell phone, chap stick, about 30 guitar picks, a bracelet for my home girl Tracy at home, who I miss a lot. Look at this.. how cute is that? So I keep that with me wherever I go.

What did you have for breakfast?
Went to International House of Pancakes, so I actually had breakfast food. I try not to eat breakfast food, but I actually ate eggs and pancakes today, it’s a pretty white bread breakfast.

What would you’re best friends say is your worst habit?
My worst habit? Oh man.. well the fact that I’m stubborn as fuck, you know the saying, stubborn as a mule?
Yeah.
I’m the mule.
(laughter)
So you’re the one that everyone is compared to?
Yeah, they’re all ‘You’re as stubborn as a mule.. er Daryl.
(laughter)

What’s your favorite scary movie?
Godzilla.. what kinda question is that?
Godzilla is a scary movie?
Yeah. When I was little it was scary, it just happens to be not scary now, but with the intention to be scary, Godzilla is the greatest thing ever.
So I’m assuming that you’ve seen all of the trailers for the upcoming Godzilla movie then.
I have. I own all the trailers, promos, everything. I have every movie, in every language ever, in every format, shirts, mugs, toothbrushes, toothbrush holders, slippers, everything.
So you’re not that big of a fan of Godzilla then.
Hate that fucking thing. I love Godzilla so much. I’ve very annoyed that the movie premiere is tonight and I did not know that until she ruined my day by telling me. It debuts the 18th and we are driving home, our last show is in Sacramento and we have to drive to New York, so its like, unh.
So if any groupies read this, bring anything Godzilla?
Better FUCKING bring me something!
(laughter)
Some kids have done that, and it’s cute. Kids will bring me baseball cards, or just dolls, which is like, ooh.
So no live iguanas?
Or they just brought me Godzilla himself, I’m like ‘Dick, get out of here.. can’t fucking fit you anywhere, break out already.

If you were offered a part on the Big Brother show, would you take it?
What is that? What show is that?
It’s where they take 8 people. Lock them in a house and have video cameras constantly filming everything they do.
Oh, that’s one of those new shows on channel 2 right? Like Survivor?
Yeah.
We’ve been on the road and all this shit, this is Big Brother to begin with, I’m already in the fucking show because I have nine other people with me at all times. No, it’s we’ve been on the road for so long, I’ve missed out on that. I remember the Real TV fucking, the million dollar show.
The Real World?
The pseudo real world.. and the wanna be a millionaire shit. I’ve never saw the show yet. I’ve seen a few seconds here and there and then we’ve been on the road, I’ve missed out. But would I take it? No.
Big Brother, those guys are wussies, try going on tour!
Yeah, be on a box with wheels for 2 months.
You have considerably less room than they do.
My God, that must suck. I mean, this can get annoying, but we’re all best friends from home so that one thing. I guess living with people you don’t know, with a fucking surveillance room, no I wouldn’t do that. God.

So if we were to check your CD player, what would be in there now?
What shit is in my, where are the CDs that I listen to all the time.. let me see what I got. Jurassic 5, Fiona Apple, Depeche Mode, a band called the Weaker Than’s an indie rock band from Canada, umm the new Cool Keith, Black Moon, thugged out hip hop from New York, more Black Moon, Mojave 3 acoustic Indian rock, I think from the UK, DJ Shadow, it’s just mostly hip hop that I listen to.

How would you define the GlassJaw sound to someone that had never heard you before?
I’ve given this answer a lot and I guess I’m going to give it again cuz I mean it, although it’s not that easy to understand to someone whose never heard before. Real Life. It’s unpredictable as real life, it can get as intense and angry and distraught as real life. You know you wake up some days and you’re happy and you wake up some days with nothing to look forward to within that day, within that week, within that month. You know, you get sick, you wake up and you’re like ‘fuck I’m still sick and I woke up.’ You wake up and you’re like me for a while and you’ll be like ‘Damnit! I woke up.’ You know, there was a time where I didn’t want that to happen, you know. It’s just real life. It goes from angry to sad in a very beautiful manner, you know, it’s real life. Real life is never truly blissful, that shit don’t last no matter what, no matter what anyone tells you. If you think back to a time in your life when your like. ‘I miss that time in my life, it was perfect I was so happy’, bullshit, cuz during that time in your life you can bet your ass every 20 minutes there was something that you weren’t happy about. You know even though a period in your life, some periods are better than others. I can think back to times in my life, like high school. I miss high school so much, I happen to love high school. Umm thinking back I think that was perfect, but back then shit wasn’t perfect. You know I remember not being very happy. It was also about three years ago, but umm. You know, it’s just real life.

What’s the strangest thing that’s happened on stage?
On stage..my guitar player falls every once and a while.. cords fucking going everywhere. I guess that’s pretty weird.
So no bras or panty’s hitting the stage?
No.. somebody threw a firecracker on stage a couple of weeks ago which was funny as a mother fucker and our guitar player didn’t realize it was there, cuz he’s fucking oblivious the whole time he is playing and he just happened to step on it and put it out and our guitar tech took it and threw it somewhere so I dunno, that was pretty funny. I was getting a kick out of that.

20000810_00001039_06If you were to be a new character in the Austin Powers movies, who would you be and what would your special talent be?
Oh my God. I dunno what my talent would be. I don’t even know where to start with that question. I dunno, I’m sure I would be something interesting. I don’t know what I would be.
You’d be his pet mule.
Yeah right, I’d be his pet peeve.

What’s the coolest thing you’ve gotten to do because you are in a band?
Hang out with the deftones for 2 months, I dunno tour with the deftones, put out a record, have Ross Robinson make my record.
How was that?
It was awesome. We didn’t know who he was at first. I don’t listen to new style metal and shit. I don’t know a damn thing about Limp Bizkit I don’t give a fuck about any of those bands. I hate rap-metal. You know I’m a metalhead, and indie rock kid, I listen to underground hip-hop, I’m not a fucking hip-hop metal kid. So he’s not a hip-hop metal producer, but he’s equated with that so, after the first Korn record I didn’t know anything after that, you know, like I don’t know a damn thing about Cold, Human Waste Project, so I didn’t know about the bands that he had done. I knew Limp Bizkit was huge, but I was like ‘Who’s Ross Robinson?’ But then realizing exactly how fucking amazing, how much of a miracle worker this guys is, it was the greatest experience ever. I wouldn’t change a fucking thing that happened on that record.

What would you like to be remembered most for?
My music. You know, it’s all I got, it’s all I do, it’s all any of us do. We don’t do anything. Obviously we don’t have time to do anything. I don’t think any of us are good at a damn thing other than our music. That’s about it, you know? I just want somebody to go, ‘You know, he was a musician’. Although technically, you know, dictionary definition-wise I’m not a schooled musician. In our own right, I think the five of us would like to be remembered as a musician, cuz that’s all that matters to us, so I want that to shine through when we’re all long forgotten.

Who came up with the name of the band?
I did. I was in like eighth grade and I thought of it. I just wanted a name that would equate us with all these hardcore bands in the tri-state area. When we were really young bands with the names like split lip, uppercut, chokehold, slugfest, curbjaw, backlash, this and that and some shit, so GlassJaw just did it. The name sounded like the other names.
Where there ever any other names considered?
Umm.. no. It was kinda like Hey why don’t we just name it this? I was the type of person that was way more into having tons of stickers and shirts for the name of the band before there was a band, so I was like here’s the name, lets make a band to fit it.

I know you’ve been adding to a Tour Diary on the website, but have you been documenting anything on home video?
We wanted to, we planned on getting a digital camera, but we didn’t get it. I’d love to, we would have loved to do it. This would have been the tour to do it. You know. We didn’t do that you know, but umm but we didn’t.

Any bands from Long Island that you want to plug?
Hell yeah! Umm we grew up, I guess I was about 12 years old, most of the cats where in my close circle of friends, all of us in this band, GlassJaw, we’re part of a crew, our whole circle, like, conservative bunch of guys, that have grown up being graphiti writers and bands together, its called the lost in space click, and that’s our circle of bands from New York, a band called This Years Model, a band called, umm, One King Down one Equal Vision Records, a band called Silent Majority, a band called Movie Life, I think that’s about it. Those are, that’s are family. I’ve known members of each of those bands for so fuckn long.. it was destined that all of our bands where going to make it, somehow.

What have you learned in the last few months that you will never forget?
If you were in a band that toured this much, that question would be so vague. There’s just like, so much shit.
Ok, what have you learned in the last day that you will never forget?
Not to ask bums for directions after you’ve refused to give them change. But what have I learned in general, so many things man. I’m the type of person who can’t be around people for too long. I like being alone if I can control whether I’m alone or not and its like being on the road even if there’s a billion people around me, I fucking hang out in my head and I fucking shut up and I disappear and I listen to my walkman, which is what I’ve spent doing most of my time on the road and I’ve learned more about myself, Like from this tour, being away at college with no friends, from being in the hospital numerous times, uhh because of with, you know I have a problem with my intestines, but because of being in the hospital so many times alone, not sleeping at night , alone. Just thinking, you know, you have time to contemplate, because of being forced to contemplate, because of your surroundings, you learn more about yourself than anything. We also just learned as far as being in a band , just things that really don’t matter that much in the long run, you know, when it comes to, like spirituality and stuff, like learning about getting your stage show together, we’re hardcore, we’re not a hardcore band, but we’re from a hardcore scene where, we would fucking be like, ‘Hey, you’re going to play tonight, right GlassJaw?’ Alright we’d play the big show in our local town and have kids go fucking ape shit. We’d be playing with broken amps, tuning on stage and shit, you know, but like, we’ve learned how to be professional, like I said all that in the long run doesn’t matter, but it’s a big thing to learn. It’s a big step for a band to take to go from being a band to yes we are a fucking unit, we’re a professional thing. So that’s important as well.

And the last question…. What would you do for a Klondike bar?
Oh man, you don’t know what I’d do for a Klondike bar right now. I would do anything for a Klondike bar.
Anything?
I would do just about anything for a Klondike bar.
JUST about anything..
What the fuck, is that just a vanilla square covered in chocolate?
Yup.
They weren’t that amazing, those commercials didn’t warrant that much attention, when I was little I remember, I was like, ‘What the fuck? It wasn’t that good.’
Would you bark like a dog?
I remember that commercial, that was one specific one, and the girl was like ‘bark’ you suck man. Nonetheless I think I would do anything.
Maybe you’ll get a lot of those now..
I said Godzilla not Klondike bars..
Maybe you get a Godzilla make from Klondike bars..
That would be like a Godzilladike bar.

Do you have any iguanas or lizards?
I like dinosaurs a lot, but I don’t own any dinosaurs. I mean lizards are cool and shit, but Godzilla was like a dinosaur and so when I was really little that was like what it, I really like monster movies not like big monster movies..
Like old Japanese cheesy monster movies?
Yeah. I own… I can safely say uhhh.. I can safely say I probably own every giant Japanese monster movie that was ever put out in Japan that I could possibly get my hands on.
Who’s guarding your stuff while you’re gone?
I don’t have any brothers or sisters so the shit hangs out in my room. I just have to dust it, I have so much shit that it’s a problem. Cuz when I’ve gotten older, the collection’s gotten bigger, like everything needs dusting.
Use can air..
We used to use can air shit, and the I was like fuck it. It’s just been falling off, cobwebs and shit, but uh, I’m really into monster movies and I’m really into dinosaurs, REALLY really into dinosaurs and shit. So I REALLY REALLY 30×32 is my pant size and mediums in T-Shirts, Godzilla pants.. I don’t wear band shits, umm size 9½ shoe.
Godzilla shoes.. Godzilla boxers..
That funny that you said that. I made a promise to myself to buy tons of boxer briefs, briefs when I get home. Umm cuz ah a specific person I know was like ‘I think those are so sexy’ I was like ‘Yeah? That’s funny cuz I have a lot of them.’ And I don’t own any of them, so I have to go buy them. I was thinking of actually starting to wear those, but a lot of people said that you go sterile form wearing them. Cuz I heard it cups your nuts and keeps them warm and kills the fish.
The fish?
The fish swimming in the pond.
Gotta go back to what’s important in the long run thing.
Yea. There was a 2-3 year period in my life where I didn’t wear anything.. I had surgeries and they said I must cuz I would irritate my scar, so I caved in. So boxers, but I’m going to get into boxer briefs.

Thanks for the interview Daryl.
Thank you very much.

Much thanks to Patrick from Roadrunner Records and to Daryl, great interview and a killer show later that night!

Brian

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