Not letting the bastards grind her down, Angie comes through again with yet another interview, this time with the boys of Junction 18. Click READ MORE to find out about the band's border patrol horror stories, substance abuse, recording plans, and more.
ANGIE: You guys are from small town Abington, Massachusetts known for its mini-golf courses and pizza shops! (laughs)
CHRIS: Oh yeah, yes thatâs from our old bass player Spencerâs bio!
A: Thatâs where I got it, so this is your first time in Canada?
C: Well, first time playing as a band in Canada, weâve been to Canada before but just as dudesâ¦
A: Was it always cause you didnât make it over the border?
C: Yeah, two times. The first time we got busted we were asking all our friends, howâs the border, just asking them like âhey weâre playing in Canada in a couple of daysâ¦?â they were just like ah you know itâs not a big deal just say youâre visiting thatâs it. I was like âoh okay, it should be coolâ so we went up there around 2:00am through Vermont and they were like âoh you need documentationâ and it was all French people. We were like alright weâll try again in the morning, so we got a hotel that night and we had Fearless contact a guy who owns a recording studio in I think it was Montreal? Anyways he was like yeah Iâll just write up a paper that says theyâre coming up here to check out my studio and thatâs why weâd have all our equipment so um, they wrote up a thing and we got this fax from this guy about us Junction 18 coming up to use my recording studio in Montreal. Then all of a sudden they call in our old bass player Spencer and theyâre like Mr. Spencer come here and he goes in this private office and the lady there turns around the computer and they have our website up with all our tour dates and they were like so youâre going to record huh? Yeah man it was just like being sent to the principalâs office so weâre all just sitting there like ah!
A: Body cavity search!
C: Almost but yeah we got banned none of us were allowed to come to this country for a year after that.
ANDY: They thought since we lied to them we weâre going to try and overthrow their government so (laughs)
C: We were like we just want to play!
A: Oh yeah they were freaking out
C: Yeah there was some awesome shows we were supposed to play! Like Gobâ¦
A: Glassjaw!
C: Yeah like three good shows, pretty bummed out so yeah we couldnât go in for a year and then last summer we tried to go again and the kid Rob who set-up this tour, tried last year but the paper-work was all messed-up and we were even in Seattle and we ended-up having to drive back home to Boston. It was like yup everythingâs too messed-up lets just go home, so yeah itâs solid I was like well I guess I am never going to Canada again (laughs). Even things were getting real close today, we werenât even sure if we were getting in till about noon and we left Boston at 3am last night trying to get to the border crossing right when it opens at 8:00am so weâd have plenty of time to get in. But I called the kid in the morning and he was like ah I donât have everything yet I am riding my bike down to the immigration office. So he rode his bike down there and we couldnât get in touch with him for three hours, weâre all like great well guess weâre not getting in again and then Scott talked to his dad and he was like âah yup you guys are getting in with flying colors hereâs your confirmation code!â. Yeah itâs pretty strict but they didnât search our van or anything, they were cool, they were like theyâre just kids they were nice to us. We didnât have everything straighten yet either. We didnât have contracts for every show like they wanted.
A: At the border they always ask you if youâve been stopped there for something before? Did they ask you? Like oh yeah we tried to cross illegally!
C: They didnât ask this time.
A: Oh yeah they asked me!
C: Oh they did! What did you say?
A: Yeah they did, they asked have you even been denied to come into Canada before and I was like yeah once, they said why! All I told them was we didnât have our work permits, they were like âwas there any other reasonsâ I was like no we just didnât have our working permits and then they went on to the next question!
A: Nice, so you guys have a new acoustic split out with âOver Itâ, were you guys friends or ever worked together before?
A: Kind ofâ¦
C: Well like yeah, when we see them weâll be like hey whatâs up; the guys from âOver Itâ theyâre not my closest friends though we like them and theyâre fans of our music so we thought Iâd be a good opportunity to show a different side of what we could do, I heard their stuff on it and I liked it so I was like yeah letâs do this.
A: We write all of our sings kind of acoustic anyways so we were like yeah sure, itâs kind of like rootsie rock sounding kind ofâ¦
C: Yeah we didnât want to go for the whole Dashboard Confessional and even âOver Itâ was like oh no. Itâs not the typical emo type thing we just kind of did an unplugged version of our songs. Like something Alice In Chains would do in the early 90âs
SCOTT: Pink hair
C: Yeah we all dyed our hair pink and that was about it, we recorded it.
A: You guys got referred to Fearless by New Found Glory, do you think close-knit touring with bands is a huge advantage punk music has over others; you really get to meet everyoneâ¦
A: Yeah I think also a lot of words gets around, Iâve noticed in the current trend where I mean, I am not against it but I see a lot of bands wearing other bands t-shirts and like the front-man of the other bands t-shirt, even where Iâve seen pictures of bands where the t-shirt is almost brighter and more colorful than the guys face. I think that says a lot about getting other bands signed and stuff people like to see that picture and when they see it they want to go right out and check that band out.
S: Itâs not what you know itâs who you knowâ¦.
A: So we made a rule that nobodyâs wearing a band t-shirt for a band picture, well for awhile (laughs)
A: You released a split and an EP, when do you think youâll be releasing your next full-length?
C: We started working on new songs not too long ago and weâre hoping to get in the studio. After this tour weâre not going out for any huge tours, this tour is seven weeks and then weâll be home November, December, January and weâre going to work on it and hopefully get in the studio around February or March so hopefully Iâd be released for summer time. I hope I mean the sooner the better weâre just kind of excited to start back at square one sort of, write a really good album to gets more heads turned our way, get a bigger fan baseâ¦
A: Weâre over-dueâ¦
C: Yeah weâre overdue for a full-length we just had line-up problems and weâre trying to tour a lot and get that kind of credibility too so I donât know itâs going steadyâ¦
A: Does anyone in the band keep a journal?
A: I doâ¦
A: Do you see it come through in your lyrics?
A: Um, yeah actually, you do. I mean I donât really write, well I just recently stuck up and started writing poetry in my journal usually I was just documenting everything I was thinking and what I was doing. Iâve been keeping a journal since like 96â or 97â so I have two journals totally filled and ever since we started touring Iâve been filling my journals a lot faster but I do see it come out cause I read back on it and it makes me miss tour so much when Iâm at home, it makes me sorta of think of stuff on the road that affected me in a way, sometimes it will go into my lyrics.
A: Have you guys gained more weight or substance problems on tour?
C: I donât know I usually lose weight when Iâm on tourâ¦
A: Yeah definitely
C: Yeah we usually run out of money for foodâ¦
S: We donât have money for food or drugs or whatever
A: Cause I will get t-shirts on the road and theyâll fit me and then Iâll get home and after like 5 months Iâll be too big for them just because I start eating well again.
C: When Iâm at home my parents are just like hereâs the fridge eat whatever you want.
RICKY: We just gain less sleep.
A: So in light of this whole Friendster thing I went and looked at your profile and found a few things, Junction 18 is presently in an open-marriage
C: Andy did it!
A: Well I donât know some of us have girlfriends and some of us donât and ya know what I figured just open-marriage seemed like the way to go (laughs)
A: One of your interests is the Top 40 Rap / R&B
A: Oh yeah we got the mixer in there weâre all about the Usher
C: R Kelly!
A: even Sean Paul, Tyrese we like Tyrese
S: Best boys in the business (laughs)
C: Iâm telling you right now I donât like any of it cause it makes me feel like a teenager, like a sixteen-year-old black girl from the inner-city, not that thereâs anything wrong with that but I am a twenty-two-year-old white guy from the Suburbsâ¦
A: And one of your favorite movies is Pee Weeâs Big Adventure
A: One of my favorite movies thereâs a small humor in that movie that I think we still love I think thereâs an Adam Sandler movie on there too…