The Queers Havin' Fun!
Robert Anderson: So who plays what?
Joe: I play guitar and sing, Eric plays guitar, B-face plays bass and sings
once in a while, and Hugh is on drums.
RA: Where are you guys from?
Joe: New Hampshire.
RA: How long have you all been playing together?
Joe: About five years. Eric's been on the the last couple tours with us.
He's from Indiana, actually. Indiana..Ohio...Iowa...
RA: How did you guys all hook up, five years ago or whatever?
Joe: Actually I put out two singles as The Queers back in `84. Early stuff,
it's coming out on a compilation CD on Lookout in January. It's called A
Day Late and a Dollar Short. That kind of tells the whole story of the
early days. We only played like a few gigs. And then, in the late `80's I
met Hugh, and in 1990 we met B-face and I was like let's start a band,
let's start the band of the Queers. And we did the Queers and Really.
People say we've been around since early, and we haven't. We've been around
since 1990, late `90 we started jammin'. And then I met Ben Weasel. I did
three or four different sessions and I put it together as a record called
Grow Up. And it came out on an English label, Shakin' Street, they went out
of business, this was 1990, so I sent the record. We got four copies of the
fuckin' record off this guy from England. I take my copy and I send it to
Ben Weasel. I guess it was worth it because that's how we hooked up with
Lookout. We wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for that. But that's
how we met.
RA: Who are some of your influences and influences of the band.
Joe: Well obviously the Ramones, early Black Flag, ya know, Six Pack, TV
Party and all that good shit. No More, uhm...I like the Dickies and the
Angry Samoans, but the Beach Boys and the Ramones, and late `50s, early
`60s pop, I love. We're really into that stuff, girly melody stuff.
RA: What do you guys like to sing about?
Joe: Just everyday shit. Being fuck ups, ya know. It's just about having
fun, and that's what we're about. Havin' fun. You know, go to a Queers show
and have fun. We have a good audience, as nice as anybody else out there.
But there's no big, deep message. It's about havin' fun with the Ramones,
Dickies and the Samoans and all this. You go to the show and you have fun.
Like tonight is gonna be a fun night. You're not going to worry about some
fuckin' skinhead beating your ass, or they'll get thrown out you know. And
that's what we're about. These other guys, they try to be political and all
that, we're not into it. We don't get much deeper than writing a tune when
our girfriends dump us (ha ha), which is often enough.
Joe: It's weird seeing some of our friends get bigger like Green Day or
Jawbreaker, or Rancid, you know. People ask me about them and give me shit,
"Oh sell out", and all that and it's like well, they're our friends and we
wouldn't necessarily make those moves but that's their trip and more power
to `em. But the Queers, we're gettin' a bigger audience and we're doing it
the way we should do it. You know touring and stuff, and going out and
having fun and pretty much doing what we were doing years ago. So it's big,
we're making a lot of money, havin' fun, I just love to meet people too.
You know, how do you put a price tag on having friends in like all 50
states and all around the world literally. You can't put a price tag on it
because when all is said and done you don't have anything else, you got
your records and you got your friends. So we're having fun, who knows, we
might do a video, I don't know. I don't even know if it would get played
but we're having fun. We've got a good fan base out here. We're as good as
a lot of bands. I mean we're not as good as NOFX, but we can out-draw a lot
of the Epitaph bands. They sell way more than us. To me, Epitaph is major.
They wanted to sign us but we said no. They wanted to sign the New Bomb
Turks and they said no. They sign too many bands and they're just trying to
find the next NOFX and Rancid. Lookout, it's our friends.
RA: What's up with Ben Weasel? Is he really an asshole?
Joe: I can't remember why we did that song, we were just joking around. I
always wanted to write a tune called Ben Weasel, give him some shit. He
actually sings on the song. He produced Beat Off and Love Songs For The
Retarded. Shitty production, he's no producer.
RA: No?
Joe: No. We know more than he does but we didn't know Lookout and Lookout
didn't know us so he was the liaison. He's really overbearing, I don't mean
that in a bad way, but I gave him too much leeway and the vocals on Beat
Off didn't come out that good. He likes it, I like the album. Move Back
Home is too overproduced and Love Songs and Beat Off are underproduced, he
did them virtually overnight. Move Back Home is Larry trying to make us
sound like Green Day or something. So, live and learn, you know. The songs
come out live. We play all the shit together, we just have fun. We got to
go out with the Cub and the Muffs Tour, that was fun, this summer. That was
a great tour. That's how we know all these guys. It's fun to go on a tour.
That's what it's about. It was a good experience, traveling.
RA: What do you have planned for the future?
Joe: We're doing the compilation CD A Day Late and a Dollar Short, that's
one. We're gonna record our new album the last week in February, back at
Fort Apache in Boston. Like Rancid has worked there and all these other big
names. I'm excited, it's gonna be our best album.
RA: Why do you guys call yourselves the Queers?
Joe: We just wanted a name people would remember, ya know?
RA: You guys aren't gay?
Joe: No.
-Robert Anderson
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