Interview with J Guevara by Jason Songe, The Reveille On Friday, November 20, 1998, Jason Songe of The Reveille, LSU's student newspaper, sat down with J Guevara during soundcheck. Here's what Stumpy allowed him to say: JS: So, I heard A. Mays left the group. What happened? JG: He reverted back to his own lunatic self. We were heading east, and he just headed back west. JS: That quick? JG: He told us, 'I'm outta here next week,' and next week came, and so he went. JS: And you were on tour? JG: Yeah, we were on tour. Well, fortunately, there's this band from Missouri called Ghetoblaster. They're a great band. Rob, their guitar player, came along. We said, 'We need a guitar player in a week. Can you do it?' And he did, so for the last three and a half weeks he finished up the tour for us, which was awesome. He's a great guy, a lot of fun, a sick and twisted person. JS: So he worked well with y'all. JG: Well, he's very nice. Actually, he's a devout Christian, but a sick and twisted evil individual underneath that -- most famous for the Chocolate Milk Challenge, where he would challenge... bet people fifty dollars that they could not drink a gallon of chocolate milk in a half an hour. And I saw people pukin' out their noses. JS: Did anyone win? JG: Never, it's impossible. You cannot drink a gallon of whole milk in half an hour. You think you can do it, and that's why you end up drinking and giving up your fifty dollars, 'cause you're stupid enough to think you can do it. So we had a great time with them, but his band is doing really well, so they've got other interests -- they just recorded something, so he wasn't ready to jump ship to come and serve Stumpy. So we now have Louisiana's own, Lance. JS: Where's he from? JG: He's from Houma. He's now rockin' the guitar onstage. He's awesome. It's workin' out great. JS: So you're happy with him? JG: Very. Yeah, he showed up and slayed the parts, he knew them all perfectly, so we're very blessed. Stumpy decided that he was malleable enough for us to work with him on the road. So he walked, and he came back up, and we spent a few days practicing, literally, like two days before we left for tour. So, he's been great, and we've just been rockin'. So far it's been great. We're gonna write new music -- see how that works out. JS: Has he developed his stage presence yet? JG: Yeah, he's very energetic. A. Mays was crazy. A. Mays would drool on himself, smell his armpits, spit on the audience. I haven't seen him doing that, but he's definitely got the energy, not as frightening as A. Mays. JS: When will the band be recording new material? JG: Well, I don't know. Stumpy has us on a need to know basis. I know we're on tour now until Christmas, and then we'll be on tour during the early part of next year. So, the soonest I imagine we'd record would be early summer. Stumpy probably knows. I don't know. JS: So I'll just have to ask him. JG: Well, he's not here. Unfortunately, this is the second time that we've come through Louisiana and he's found something more important to do than help us in Louisiana. He comes down hard on us when we come through Louisiana, and he knows that we tend to get carried away. JS: Why do you come through this area so often? JG: We come for the food. JS: You gotta get down to New Orleans, though. JG: No, man, next door, I had the best catfish I've ever had in my entire life. Every time I come to this part of the country, I'll have seafood every time. I love that shit. JS: Has the album been selling as much as you liked? JG: It's selling pretty steadily. We're not huge rock stars yet, but we're working on it, we're trying. It's selling enough that it hasn't shattered our illusions yet. We're hooking up with Incubus in a couple of weeks -- that'll be fun. We just tour constantly, and hope that people come to see us and buy our album. JS: What about the old albums? Will those be reissued? JG: February. Yeah, we wanted to only have the new one just for a little while so the people who hadn't heard of the band wouldn't get confused, between what's old and what's new... maybe they'll like the old one better. So, we're BRINGIN' IT BACK!!! We have some sample shit we have to clear up. It's two old EP's. Probably condense them into one. In the tradition of no new music from 2 Skinnee J's (laughter). JS: Are you getting tired of the songs? JG: I like all the songs. I've played all those songs probably 200 times this year already (laughter). Ummm, it'd be nice to have some music. We were hoping to get the chance to write some new music, but that's when A. Mays left, we had to find a new guitar player. JS: The hell with A. Mays. JG: That bastard. You crazy motherfucker! JS: Do you keep in touch with him? JG: He occasionally leaves rambling messages on our answering machine from California. JS: Crying. JG: No, no, no, he's just pretty incoherent actually. He's a madman. He was a madman before, and he's more of a madman now. California probably does that to you. JS: I know he made a solo record of his own. Did he leave the band to pursue a solo career? JG: Yeah, he made a little cassette with four or five songs on it. The solo stuff he did was more hip-hop, and he was talking about doing more folk stuff. I wish I was making this up, because when I say he met this Cuban woman and ran off to California and Colorado to become a folk singer, that sounds like a lie. It's the Gospel truth. JS: Now, you're really interested in Star Wars. Have you seen the new trailer, yet? JG: I don't want to. I wanna go see the movie when it comes out. I don't need to know plot. I need to know if it's a good movie, and then I'll go see it. There are certain movies, like Pulp Fiction, I would leave the room when the ads came on television. I didn't want to see the ads 'cause I was so psyched for the movie. I don't need to be built up. I haven't perused the web looking for naked pictures of Darth Vader. Tryin' to keep it cool. I should have enough built up tension by opening day that I should be able to plow right through those motherfuckers. Dead bodies everywhere, and me at the front (holds arms up in victory). JS: Did you change your costumes for this tour? JG: Yeah, but I'm not telling you what they are. JS: You don't have to tell me. Is that how you keep the show visually stimulating? JG: Hey, if it works, something different. Look, we're jumping. IT'S EXCITING (clapping)!!! JS: How long do you see the band going on for, at this point? JG: At this point? Well, we're definitely gonna do another album. The frame of mind of the band right now is really good. A. Mays leaving really threw us for a loop, but right now we're happy. Make another album, hopefully in the next year. Tour, see what happens. Whatever. It's ok, 'cause the world's ending in 1999 anyway. Armageddon's coming. We only have a year left, anyway, so max up that year. Everyone's gonna be real disappointed when January 1st rolls around and nothing's changed. JS: Do you let your fans record your shows? JG: Yeah. Feel free, just please send us a copy. If you talk to our sound man, he'll usually let you tape off the board. JS: Do you think this helps to introduce your music to people who haven't heard you before? JG: The people who listen to our tapes trade them over the Internet. I don't think there's a real demand for 2 Skinnee J's tapes. We're not losing a sizable income by doing it. In fact, it's introducing people to the band, and I think we're the sort of the band that if you hear us live you'll go out and buy the album. JS: Yeah, I bought "New and Improved" after hearing your show for the first time, but it didn't quite measure up. JG: Yeah, that was done in a basement on an eight track that was falling apart. I had been in the band for three weeks, and the guitar player had been in the band for two months. It didn't really contribute to the sound. JS: How's your new bus? JG: Yea!!! (cheering) Now, the comfort level is ridiculous. The bus is in better shape than my apartment. You can't smoke in it. Touring has gone from hard work to pretty much... summer vacation. JS: What do you have in it? Is there a playstation? JG: I don't really play the playstation because there's football on it, and if you've seen me you know how I feel about football. Isn't there another big game today or tomorrow? JS: It's tomorrow at Notre Dame. I remember you harpin' on people last year. JG: You know, I got hate mail from some guy 'cause I was talkin' shit about football. JS: I can't believe he said something. JG: I know. We got this new message. It said fuck you sellout, and that's all it said. And it turned out it was because we talked shit about football. Guess who's got the mic again, asshole?!! JS: Do you still try and deter moshing every night you're onstage? JG: Sometimes, there are guys who take it to the point of mayhem and destruction. This is my fucking show! I'm not jumping around onstage and traveling around the country doing this to enable five fucking pinheads in every town to take out their aggression on the people around them. If you're gonna do that at my show, I'm gonna sell you out. People give us shit for it, but generally, most people seem to appreciate it. Some sixteen year old kid who's jumpin' around, that's fine. It's different when you're 24. If you're 24, over 200 pounds, and you're beating someone up because you hear loud music, you have a fucking mental problem. Go to a therapist, Kevorkian. Whatever it takes. JS: Do you have a setlist every night, or does someone call it out? JG: We have a setlist, but we change it up every night. You're talking to the band that can't jam. We don't do anything spontaneous except talk shit. JS: To who? JG: To each other, the crowd, to anybody. JS: Now, I wanna talk about the Cage Match with Kottonmouth Kings and Sprung Monkey. Was that real or was it drama built up for performance's sake? JG: Greenville, NC, was the best. They stormed the stage, we were spraying beer at each other. The roadie, who's with Dial 7 now, picked up Stumpy and threw him into the audience. It was all in good fun, though. The last night of that tour we had a huge food fight. It was mayhem. My hair was caked with mustard. The whole theme for the tour, the cage match -- nobody came to battle except us, so we talked enough shit that they got into it, too. We thought, if this is a fuckin' cage match, we're gonna win. We won! JS: Are you still striving for middle class? JG: Stll striving. I think we're gonna have to update it to middle class in '99. Middle class in '98 was more successful than middle class in '97, but unless there's a big turnaround in the next five weeks, we ain't makin' it. You know, those United Way thermometers. This is the goal (he points up), and we're somewhere in here (he points down). We're starting to get a few square meals a day, rent's comin' in on time. We're not asking for much, but probably once we get it, we'll expand our goals to world domination. You never, never join a band to make money. If you wanna make money, do something else. The last band I was in broke up, and so I was working at a laundromat, minimum wage, not even full time, and I couldn't believe how much money I had. Oh my God, I'm paying my rent, I'm buying clothing, CD's, wow. It's like, what have I done for the last three years of my life? JS: Let's talk about the video. JG: Let's not talk about the video. We have a video, you've never seen it. JS: I saw it. JG: Wow, there you go. You're one of the few. JS: Is that why you're down about it? JG: Well, it was cool, it was fun to make, it was cool that it was on MTV three times, but it did nothing to contribute to the Middle Class in '98 campaign. It cost us a lot of money. Unless you're gonna have this huge Third Eye Blind kinda radio hit, at least for us, there's no point in making a video. I doubt there'll be another one from this album, but we still have singles going to radio, and you hear 'em all the time, no doubt. JS: No, not really. (laughter) JG: It's ok, though. JS: Has Capricorn been on your back? JG: Capricorn helped us, got us the bus. Still pushing the songs to radio. They have Cake now. They're doing much better. I'm sure they're much happier with Cake than they are with us. They haven't said that, but... <====