Interview with Jake Kiley
from Strung Out

: So how's the tour so far? First Oz tour?

J: Yeah, first tour, it's great so far, lots of cool people, great shows, everyone has been having a great time.

: So you have like a 10 day, 12 gig stretch of S.E. Oz and where to after that?

J: Another Sydney show tomorrow, then we play Manly, then off to Brisbane and then the Gold Coast, then we're going back to play the Fat Wreck Chords party in Melbourne.

: What about a Fat Wreck Chords party in Melbourne?

J: Well, FWC just opened an office down there, and we're kinda the first band out here to tour with them & they've been coming around to all the shows and setting up the 'Fat Wreck Chords On The Road' stand, and we're gonna do the opening party on the 15th/16th, lots of cool bands, the Living End, Bodyjar, a good night.

: Sounds like we should go to Melbourne. Okay, seems hard and fast is how you like it, well uh, how you play your songs, that is....



Manly Youth Centre

J: Pretty much..

: So how do you put together the unique sound that you guys have got?

J: You know, it's really wierd, we've always just kinda clicked, when we first got together we just kinda had the same interests in a lot of different music, we liked a lot of punk stuff, lots of melodic punk like Bad Religion, but we also had a really hard edge that came from like Metallica and Pantera stuff, we mixed the two together. Our songs just kinda write themselves, we,ll start practicing and the next thing you know, you'll have a song. They just kinda happen...it's like a chemistry..we've always been really fast but our new record has some slower stuff that's just a lot heavier and wierder than anything else we've ever done. We're just trying to keep it interesting, you know, keep it new.


: That was my next question, I hear you're recording a new album, I was reading in Drum Media how you were trying to stay away from the sound of other bands on the Fat label..

J: Yeah, well we kinda got a lot of shit since the beginning about 'being a Fat band', you know like, "Oh, there's another NOFX", everyone just likes to talk shit about Fat bands-I think Fat Wreck Chords has the best clientele of bands around-period-we're just trying to broaden it, to do something new. With our last record we showed that, we can do the whole fast, tight, melodic, you know and now we just don't want to repeat ourselves..it's definitely familiar, it'll sound like Strung Out for sure, but we want to do something new..and better.

: Since you kicked off you've toured quite extensively. One part of the tour was Europe with NOFX..

J: Well, NOFX and Europe was quite awhile ago actually, that was our first tour ever, June of '94, I think right when our first record came out and that just really broke us into Europe really well you know. Those guys are awesome. It's great that they took us, and since then we've been back there with Lagwagon and we've done two headlining tours of Europe. It's been really great, the kids over there love it, you know, they're nice, like, they're not there because it's a trend, or not there because it's supercool, it's because they love the music, I wish everyone came to our shows for that reason. We've also toured Japan twice and been thru America so many times I don't even fucken know and man, we've been waiting to come here forever and I'm just thankful that we finally got here.

: Yeah, what's the story with that, you just said you've been waiting to come here forever and recently there's been this endless caravan of bands coming thru Oz, has the word got out in th states that Aussie is a good place to come or what?


J: For years we've been getting letters from kids down here saying "come, please come" and we wanted to forever, but they( Fat Wreck Chords, I guess-A ) just always said it's not the right time, just wait a little longer and finally they invited us out, Crucial Touring, the best company we've ever worked with, they're the most professional people ever..

: Well, Crucial this year(97 now) brought out Millencolin, NOFX, Guttermouth...

J: And they do the best job, period, of any company we've ever worked with and it shows, I mean the shows have been great, and we're just thankful that they finally took us out here and we can't wait to come back. Can't wait to do this again.


Jason @ Manly Youth Centre

: When do you reckon that will be?

J: Oh, probably not right away, the new record is already done but it probably wont be out until February or March maybe, so hopefully as soon as it comes out we'll come back maybe,do some festivals next year, when the timings right again, really.

: Okay, one last thing, a little bit of the inside stuff, what do you get up to when you're not Strung Out?

J: Well I just kinda hang out at home, I still live at home, Two of the other guys are married and they just hang out with their wives, we just really kick back a lot, we're at home, write music, just kinda focus on stuff, take some time off here and there, but I just hang out, play a lot of video games.

: You skate or anything?

J: A little bit, I've kinda given it up a bit coz I've been getting older and I don't want to hurt myself on tour, our singer skates a lot, we've all been active in it, but lately we've just been more focussed on the music.

: Well, thanks heaps for that, Jake..

J: And thank you, too...