What do you all do aside from the band?
Ben: Nothing important. Playing in this band means a lot to us and making it actually happen with no money, equipment or a vehicle and making records that we're happy with actually takes a lot of time and effort. Lots of people do bands and are also normal productive members of society with real jobs and education. Lots of bands also suck.
Ivan: I agree with Ben. That being said, both Erik and I are in University right now. But yeah, we just really try to be active in the process of making our band one that we can be proud of. There’s a lot we could do as a band to function differently to make our lives easier, like passing things off, such as recording, on to other people with "studios”, but it’s more rewarding to try and get the best results from our limited means. That’s not to say that it wouldn’t be nice to have something like a band fund of more than a few mere dollars, but School Jerks being as self-sufficient as possible is something we try to take seriously.
Did you get shit for putting the picture of the kid drawing the swastika on your 7"?
Ben: No, which is really cool and actually kind of surprising. I guess I expected too little of people after some of the ridiculous reactionary attitudes I've experienced from people who call themselves punks. People seem to get it and understand that we’re trying to make record art with a narrative and not just imagery (shocking or otherwise)
There's a lot going on in Toronto in terms of punk. How into the local stuff are you?
B: Although there’s a lot of bands coming out of Toronto that are getting a lot of attention and operating on a certain level, it doesn't really reflect the local scene. There’s not to much in the way decent punk shows these days. In the last year things have been really dead, but it really changes fast, a year ago there were tons of new bands and a house that did shows every week, and one year before that there had been nothing. As far as bands that have come out of Toronto in the last few years, I think Reprobates and Bad Skin are pretty cool.
Luke: Not too many bands are like our band but there's still plenty. Good anything is hard when you have record nerds who know it all, or people that don’t listen to good bands because of the nerds. Hard balance. Great things happen sometimes so I’ve got nothing to cry about.
I: There is a lot going on in Toronto punk in some aspects, but there’s a lot lacking in others. That Toronto has popular bands that get a lot of attention from the States and overseas has been for better and worse. A lot of bands have benefited from the help of that attention and gotten opportunities like touring and working with established labels outside Canada, but I think it’s also fostered an attitude that’s lazy and can be really misguided about how much work being in a band can be. A lot of bands in Toronto visibly operate with very little effort and are happy to coast on their status and approval from within Toronto or outside. There’s a very vibrant “party” and bar scene in Toronto which sometimes gets linked to punk music, and I think that keeps a lot of people uninvolved and uninterested in making the scene in Toronto a bit more active.
Do you think the city and its legacy is responsible for you making this kind of music?
L: The Viletones have so much to do with this band when it comes to bands that came from here. Listen to Viletones.
B: As far as the musical legacy of Toronto we've definitely been influenced by local bands whether its 70s bands like the Viletones or the Ugly or the bands that were around when we were young. Bands like Career Suicide and Fucked Up and the scene they were part of were an influence on us not so much musically but in terms of actually getting out there and putting together a band that was raw and punk and fast and fun rather than the kind of "challenging" and "extreme" but ultimately boring and inaccessible punk/hardcore that was around that time (early 2000’s).
I guess California and its music is probably a bigger deal for you guys though. Is that the kinda punk that you got started on?
B: We definitely take a more obvious influence from Californian bands but we're into and take an influence from punk regardless of when and where it comes from, which I think has to do with the how we got started – listening to every kind of good punk we could get our hands on and discovering more and more old bands of every punk sub genre.
L: The bands we sound like don’t have anything to do with the bands we listened to when we were 12, though Ivan listened to waay cooler shit than me and Ben - Blood for Blood and shit.
I: Guilty as charged. Blood for Blood are still my favorite band to listen to when I’m getting inked.
What's the best band ever and why?
B: Ramones.
I: Ramones.
L: Thin Lizzy cause of The Ballad of a Hard Man.
Thanks a lot to School Jerks.
