The Über Rock Interview: CKY

Written by DJ Astrocreep
Saturday, 26 May 2018 04:20

Reborn Philadelphia skate punk rockers CKY recently completed a run of dates around the Über Kingdom of Rock ‘n’ Roll, as main support to Newport ragga metallers Skindred. I caught up with the band following the Manchester leg of the tour, to chat about them rising from the ashes with last album, ‘The Phoenix’, the challenges they face after 25 years in the business, plans for their next recording… and their secret love of disco!

I started by asking how they came about what is quite a diverse sound…

Jess Margera (drums): It’s just rock ‘n’ roll. We put it all together. We produce and mix our own records so we keep the sound close to ourselves. We come up with it ourselves by keeping it personal and not letting others near it. A lot of bands go to the same producers, you know what I mean, so they have a stock sound that sounds the same drum samples and same guitar samples and everything.

Chat I Ginsburg (vocals/guitar): A lot of experimenting with guitar samples and stuff, finally we reached that sound that we have now, which worked out nice! *laughs*

Do you have a particular way of writing or recording?

JM: [With ] the last record, ‘The Phoenix’, we got in a room and just hashed out some ideas and then Chad wrote the lyrics for it. We hashed it out again, did some proper demos for once, because it had been a while since we did it…

Eight years, I think?

JM: Yeah, then we hit the studio fully prepared, with everything ready to go, which wasn’t always the case. Sometimes, we would go in with just ideas and have to hash it out in the studio, which has mixed results sometimes.

Was it hard to come back and write ‘The Phoenix’ after an eight-year gap?

CG: It was easy really, because when you’re busy touring and your careers rolling, you don’t have a whole lotta time to write music, as you’re focused on touring. There’s almost no time to work on a new album, so when you have to do a new album, you put it out and it’s rushed. With this, we didn’t have that rush, we could take our time and do whatever we want with it. When it was done was when we sold it to a record label. We had finished the record, so we could have took years to make it if we’d wanna. No pressure.

You’re touring with Skindred at the minute, but you’ve done countless headline tours before. How different is it preparing for the main support slot instead of the headline, for once?

JM: Well, it’s a challenge having 25 years in music, then having to crush it down to 40 minutes. The biggest challenge is figuring out what songs are the cream of the crop, I guess. I don’t know, how do we even do that?

CG: Over the years, on audience participation, faces that we see. We pick for opening slots for the style of band we’re supporting. We did the HIM farewell tour in America, we had a couple of dfferent songs in the set that aren’t in the Skindred support set, kinda based on what we feel the vibe of the night is. Then in our headlining sets, it’s just super diverse and we do everything.

Do you have a set setlist, or do you change nightly?

CG: On this particular tour, since it’s a short tour with only eight dates, we have a set that we are doing, but when they run longer we get bored of doing that set, so we just change it here and there.

Do you have plans for a new album already?

CG: Of course! We started an EP and that EP has turned into more songs than can fit on an EP, so essentially, we have started on the next album.

JM: We’re trying to get it out late summer, hopefully. We have a tour coming up in the States with a band called Slaves and Royal Thunder.

CG: There’s a Slaves in the UK that’s different though.

JM: Yeah, I forget, it’s confusing sometimes.

CG: It’s not the punk band from here, it’s a newer, younger band in America. Slaves here is called Slaves UK.

JM: So yeah, the goal is to get the EP out for that.

Do you have a name for it yet?

CG: No, we haven’t even thought about it yet. Damn! *all laugh*

JM: Now we gotta brainstorm! *laughs*

CG: It’ll probably be based on one of the songs, or a lyric, that’s how it normally happens. We’ll grab a cool bit from one of the songs.

Is there any particular thing that gives you your inspiration for lyrics?

CG: No. Me personally, I just mumble words when I’m writing. I care more about the melody and the way they’re sung. If I go *sings a short melody*, they go, ‘What the hell did you sing?’ and I’ll go ‘What did it sound like?’. If it sounded like I want out, then it turns into that. *Jess laughs* Then, based on that is how we get it.

Do you do that beforehand, then the guys write the music?

CG: I work a lot alone on Protools and demo a whole lot and work all that out. By the end, yeah.

Who were your musical influences when you were growing up?

CG: Well, of course Black Sabbath! Ozzy. Me personally, I got into Ozzy before I got into Sabbath, because of my age at the time. Our influences range all over the place, obviously. I grew up on a lot of Disco and KISS and Van Halen and Def Leppard, so big giant rock bands, then shredding guitar players for a long while. Michael Jackson as well, actually, then I became a guitar player.

JM: I’m a Zeppelin guy, all the way, since I was a kid. Same as Chad, Ozzy first, ‘cos I saw him on Headbanger’s ball back on MTV, then I discovered Sabbath later. Some newer bands I like are Clutch, Graveyard… now exactly newer *laughs* Graveyard are new, Clutch have been around since the 90s, but compared to Sabbath or Zeppelin, newer *laughs*

Matt Deis (bass): I was a teen coming up to age with Nirvana, Jesus Lizard, all the grunge stuff was happening. I grew up on The Beatles, Zeppelin as well. The Beatles were very important for bass influence. Every house, for anyone our age growing up, there were Beatles records in there.

JM: My house was Elvis. *all laugh*

CG: Did your dad hate The Beatles?

JM: Ummmm, probably, yeah.

CG: It’s like The Beatles created Rock n Roll.

JM: Well, he just thought theyw ere a bunch of posers. Elvis had to go to the army, then these guys took over, or whatever *all laugh*

Music, especially rock and metal, is undergoing a change of the guard at the minute. Sabbath retiring, Slayer’s final tour and such. Who do you think are likely to step up to big festival headline spots?

CG: Obviously Mastodon’s been kicking ass. They’re I think gonna be the next huge metal band.

JM: They’re definitely this generation’s Slayer or Metallica.

CG: We had Brent Hinds, the guitarist for Mastodon, play a guest solo on our latest record. Mastodon’s blowing up. Avenged Sevenfold is a pretty big metal band, since they headlined Download.

JM: We opened for Avenged 2006, I think. They came out of nowhere, really.

CG: There’s so much metal though, so there could be a lot!

One last question, if you were given the choice of any dodgy pop song to cover, which would you pick?

CG: Chaka Khan, ‘Ain’t Nobody’. *all laugh*

JM: Probably Kool and the Gang or something.

CG: That’s not a song. *all laugh*

JM: ‘Jungle Boogie’, that’s the one. Everyone knows that song!

MD: We say this as if it’s just spontaneous, but we’ve actively tried to arrange these songs *all laugh*

JM: Not ‘Ain’t Nobody’. I think we’ve messed with that.

CG: Oh, ‘Twist of Fate’ by Olivia Newton-John. That’s a deep cut, man! *all laugh*

Maybe an idea for the next album? *all laugh*

CG: We haven’t put any covers on an album, ever. Maybe one on the EP though, we’re toying around with doing one on the EP.

• CKY play the Zippo Stage at Download on Friday 9 June.

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