Capitalist Casualties

Interview with Shawn, vocalist of this fantastic band. No more introduction is needed, let's go!  (all pics. are from gig in Slovakia)

Hi Shawn, hope you are doing well!? Relaxed from the old continent already? Smokin' some good cig and have some drink ready for this interview, I can imagine ...
I am home well and safe, tour was amazing, I was only in the hospital once on this tour jajajajaj such is life and tour.

I’ve read several interviews with CC but only very few answers by you was there ... are you shy or is it simply Jeff who took over this business? Do you enjoy answering interviews at all?
Well a few factors on that I am shy and also I was always very hard to get a hold of for years. I battled drugs, homelessness and a few other things in my life and Jeff has been handling most of CC mail and such for years, he has always been the stable one for years and he has been running a label and distributing for years upon years now.

Let's talk about your european tour first a bit ... so how did you like it in general? Was it all worth it?
Europe was fucking great I had a blast it was all worth it in my eyes and very long over do. I was amazed at the great response we had at all of our shows, some things were hard to get use to like Germany, the people just kind of stand there and watch jajajaj but I think is normal from what I hear? Anyways a lot of great shows Czech was amazing and Nottingham was crazy ass crowd.

What about your musical highlights, food/drinks highlights, tourist highlights ... maybe some other highlights?
awwwww many great shows and bands.  We toured with Wojczech, great guys and a great band, very talented and a great bunch of guys.  They seem to really love 'cupcakes' and 'pizza cutters'.  Those Germans are some crazy bastards jajaja.  We also played with so many other good bands, Gride, Looking for an Answer, The Bristles, Army of Flying Robots, Lycanthropy, and the list goes on and on and I am sure I will forget to mention a whole list of great bands we played with.   The food was fucking awesome, I was astonished at how they feed you so well, in the States it is so different, they do not feed you and the beer mmmmmmm so yummy.  A lot of great shows and people.  Czech was amazing; Slovakia and the UK went way the fuck off.  I also like our Spain shows very much as well and the people had a very good vibe.   And after tour I flew to Spain for a week and that was incredible, I met the woman of my dreams, I won't bore you with all of that but it was my personal highlight of the trip.

Were the shows well attended, did it meet your expectations? Personally, I expected more people to come here in Slovakia, so that's why I'm asking ...
All the shows were very well attended I thought, it more than met my expectations. I thought Slovakia was a great show personally, maybe not the best turn out but all bands were sick and the people were very enthusiastic and friendly and to me that is what is the most important. The crowd response can make or break a show and Slovakia was a fun as fuck night.  Spain's crowd was very enthusiastic and the vibe was more than cool and really our show in Czech was amazing the Uk hands down was probably the best over all.  I had never seen the human pyramid.  I was told about it and that they might do this if they like you, then seeing it with my own eyes it was fucking awesome.

Before your EU tour I have noticed few gig flyers / CC slogans as 'the last going band of the initial wave of power violence'. And that sounds nice, like something that everybody could be proud of, isn’t it? But have you ever, and not only in Europe, been treated like some kind of 'rockstars', 'godfathers of music genre', which can be fun but also stupid sometimes!?
awwwww well I would have to say NO, it has only been in the last few years that we started to get recognition for all the years we have been at it. Before that only real respect given was by some of the other original power violence bands, for years no one really gave a fuck about what we were doing. It was not until the last few years where people started to figure out we were among one of the first bands to be doing what we do, well as far as calling it 'power violence'. We from the beginning always just considered ourselves to be a simple, fast as fuck generic hard core band. We like it simple, bar chords do not get old. Eric Wood coined the phrase and we are more than proud to call ourselves this, but long before that movement even started we were trudging along. CC started in like 1986, I was still in high school, I have truly never been treated like a rock star, my god that just sound funny as fuck to even say.

Now, when it's over, don't you think it would be better to do it sooner? I mean all that sleeping at punk's flats, drunk truths of young kids and unhealthy squat food .... was it still fun / exciting for you? Wasn't it all a bit hard to manage sometimes?
I think we would not tour as long next time, we are getting older and it's hard to keep up that pace every night. Because we feel we must always and every night destroy ourselves and give 200% and this is very hard on the body at our age. Actually, I was surprised at the food was very good and we were taken care of well, so in that department I could not bitch. It was very hard on the body though I am a diabetic, so tour is hell on me with different foods and long drives. It truly can wreak havoc on the body but I made it ok, the only thing as we all got sick on the tour and two out of the four of us were hospitalized and we did have to cancel our last 4 shows of the tour due to health issues.

Yeah, I've heard you've missed and even canceled few shows, that's a pity. Why, what has happened?
Well, I got sick first, then we pasted it back and forth 9 guys in one van it is to be expected, I guess. Then in Nottingham Jeff got the bug and he had been fight it off but then he just was too ill to continue and we had to cancel the last 4 shows, oh well I think our tour was just one20week too long for our old, decrepit asses.

Do you feel like you want to return to Europe with Capitalist Casualties one day again?
Oh fuck yes, we will be back now that we know it is not a total loss and it can support itself, we will be back. Not that we give a fuck about making even a dollar, but as long as it is not out of pocket , then you can count on us being back, just not so long next time.

Now let me ask you few ordinary questions about this band that interest me :  I wonder how the name Capitalist Casualties came up, whose idea it was? Were there any other names to be choosen from  back then?
The name was Jeff's concept and baby, back in the day it just seamed to fit, we all worked shitty fast food jobs and all were homeless and it just seamed to fit like a glove with our ideals, moral and lyrical content, no other names. Jeff  and I were in a death metal band before but it was very different and a totally different band.

Do you remember how did you meet Jeff and Mike? Who first came with the idea to start this band and what band you wanted to sound like back then?
I met Jeff outside of Motley Crue show in the line on one of there first tours jajajajaja.  Mike was later added to the band we actually had another guitar player for the first 3 or 4 years then we met Mike, he played in another local band and we had had it up to our necks with our first guitar player’s drinking and lack of giving a fuck, so we asked Mike to join us and he has been on every record we have done so basically he is like our first guitar player.  Since then all has been pretty smooth and  we were heavily influenced by obviously the first D.R.I., M.D.C., Rudimentary Peni any of that old and fast political punk is where to this day we are rooted and have based all of our aspirations of what we should sound like and after a few years we seemed to grow into our own and begin to have our own sound.
 
You have fantastic collection of CC gig flyers on your myspace, and I've noticed you played with some different/famous bands like Napalm Death, Mentors, Godflesh, Agnostic Front, Nocturnus, GG Allin, Neurosis, Sleep ... do you remember those gigs? Did you use to hang out with those bands, were you friends? Can you imagine to play with any of them again, now?
Thank you ummmmm well, I feel very lucky and blessed to have played some of those bands because nowadays it is all just so very different I would love to play with many of them again however most are NOT what they use to be or  are dead and long gone, but once again I feel very blessed and lucky to have gotten some great memories and stories from a lot of these bands.

Can you share some or do these stories belong to history? Who of those guys were really nice, cool ...?
Ummm? Well Neurosis was an amazing live band back in the day.  MDC has always been one of my personal fave bands and to this day they are a great band.  Napalm Death were pretty funny when we played with them and  got pissed as fuck at us because they were too cool and hung out in their huge rockstar tour bus and when they finally did show their faces ... we had already drank all our and their beer and ate all the cheese off their lasagna hahahahah El Duce from The Mentors was funny as fuck, a guy we all know from another local band went up to him and was like: 'oh it is so nice to meet you ...' and his only reply was 'out of my way poser faggot' hahahah classic shit:) Let me see what else comes to mind? ummmm when we played with Agnostic Front was when they were all straight edge and the guitar player Vinnie went up to Mike and asked him where to score some crank (speed) jajaja all the old school power violence bands were all great guys and that just goes without saying ... ja know

One specific question about your older releases I was always curious about - how CC got into the split with Macabre?
I am not even sure how that one came about, Jeff has always been the one who is the one who has made all the contacts he has been corresponding with people through the mail for years and years running a label and such.
JEFF:    Were good friends with a gal named Metal Mary, who used to be in a great band called WORMHOLE who we played with in the early 90's, from Pennsylvania, and now plays in BEHIND ENEMY LINES and PENANCE. She was friends with Macabre and wanted to do this split. Both bands agreed as we were mutual fans of each others bands. It came together quite easily. Mary rules!!

What was the most ridiculous offer you’ve got for the split release? Did you take lot of offers down (I can imagine you had many of them)?
Again, Jeff would be better suited to answer this question I know we get asked to do a lot of ridiculous stuff.
JEFF:    The only offers i find ridiculous are for 'nerd' records. You know, like very limited releaseses with 200 copies made with bands I've never heard of before. We want people to hear our songs, not just a select few people. Then there's the kind of label/person that offers you everything in the world. One time we had a guy write and say he's been in contact with all these bands, everyone from Heresy to S.O.B., and we could have our choice which band to do a split with. Needless to say, it was all bullshit and lies and he ended up saying we could do the split with a bnad from his town we never heard of before. Shit!

Why did you not release anything for last 8 years? Is it getting harder with age or is there not enough inspiration for you anymore?
No inspiration has always been no problem for us, we had many personal problems like touched on early in this interview I personally battled drug abuse between those years and I was a big part of the reason. I could not be found, I was on a few year long run. I have since cleaned up and life is back to what it once was, so we are back at it again. I hear people say we are back together, I hear this all the time we never broke up we lost Max, our second drummer and it took us a few years to find someone that fit and the drugs and all played a huge part we were always ready to roll other wise.

Who's on the cover of the Hellnation / CC split LP? Looks like some Cambodian dictator to me ... Why did you choose this guy for the cover? By the way, the record itself is fantastic, looks like you are not only getting older but faster as well!
Thank you, hearing this make me a happy camper, I am not sure how you spell his name off hand jajaja but it is the Chinese dictator Kim Jung Ill, I think Doug from Hellnation found the picture and we all just thought it was funny as shit that’s about it really.

When do you think we can expect some new CC release? Or is there something already in the work?
We have already recorded and is all done we are just trying to figure out who the split will be with?

Do you guys practice often, if ever? Do you have your own rehearsal room or how/where the new songs are created?
We use to practice every day back in the day, now a days we all live so far from each other.  Haroldo lives in Denver and Mike lives in Washington so we all write and are ready for when we are together.  A  week before we start a tour we begin to rehearse and start also going' over new m aterial at the same time. Jeff and Mike usually write all the music and myself and Jeff do all the lyrics. We usually just bum time from other people we know for studio rehearsal time like the band Wendal they are super nice guys and they are Santa Rosa locals, very near where Jeff and I are located at.

Shawn, has anybody ever told you that you look like Iggy Pop a bit? Would you take it as a compliment or insult?
OH shit is this a trick question hahah or did the guys in CC put you up to this one jajajaja.
yes
yes
I get this shit all the time hahah. I use to get a little bit hurt because Iggy is a little old and shot out hahah but I guess so am I, hahahah. No it’s all good I love Iggy so at least it is someone cool, I guess? Jajaja

You have started to write a column for SF+L, will you continue only with freak's stories for the next issues? They are great, haha ... hope you knew many such freaks so we will have enough to read for the nex twenty SL+F issues!? Ha, I can imagine 'Tom, Tom fuck his mom' song by some PV band written soon!
Yes, I will continue my column about freaks, I never thought I would even be writing a column in SF&L or any magazine for that matter but was honored when they asked me. I have know many, many freaks in my life, I am not sure if it is because of where I have grown up or because of my past drug habits but anyways, I know a lot of fucking freaks and I still have some pretty funny stories left in me so yes, I will continue, for sure. I was very flattered bye all the buzz and good response to my collumn, to tell you the truth, I was a little nervous about putting it out there at first, but people love fucking freaks so I guess it is all good.

Ok, thanks for the interview, hope to see you again on stage here soon!
Thanks for all the support and the great feed back we will be back you can count on that I hope there is enough of an interview for you to use it? This is probably why I do not do them very often I am not very long winded and I am very shy and to myself. But thank you and we fucking loved Slovakia and Europe, thanks to all of you for being so kind to a bunch of old punk rock dirt bags.