DEAD
KENNEDYS
Brandon Cruz and East Bay Ray (Photo Kyle Etris)
Bleed For Me…One More Time
Interview conducted by Devin W. Herndon
February 14th 2002 at The Chamber, Atlanta, Georgia
What can I say about this band that hasn’t already been said a thousand times before. They are one of the greatest and most influential bands in punk rock. They were possibly the first punk rock band I ever heard around 1980 running a close tie to the Ramones. I was in awe the day I received word that the Dead Kennedys were going to play Atlanta again and actually bought a ticket in advance. I was completely unaware of the damage that these guys could still muster after years of side projects and silence. Every song they played was performed to pristine perfection as if there was no lapse in time. They took the stage of the Chamber with a relaxed casual demeanor. Breaking the crowd banter cheer from the stage a came sound or an aural assault on the senses that rivaled a Saint Valentine’s day massacre and the rest as they say you had to have been there. After all its 2002 in the new decade. The music and the message still hold as true as they did yesterday. This after all is hopefully the second arrival of the Dead Kennedys. After most of the crowd had gone home I was able to conduct an interview in the presence of four of my idols. Here’s what they had to say…
Current Line Up:
Brandon Cruz-Vocals
East Bay Ray-Guitar
Klaus Fluoride-Bass
D.H. Peligro-Drums
Wasteland: So how did the connection between the Dead Kennedys and Brandon Cruz materialize?
Ray: Um, let’s see, Manifesto Records was putting out our catalog plus releasing a new record called “Mutiny On The Bay” and D.H. came up with the idea and like oh, and then, I’ve skipped too far ahead. Putting out “Mutiny On The Bay” and, uh, we we’re going to have a record release party in Los Angeles and D.H. came up with the idea that maybe we should get up on stage and play a couple of tunes unannounced. So we talked to some people and D.H. knew Brandon from Los Angeles. We played together so consequently the night we rehearsed some I don’t know like fifteen minutes of songs and there’s like twelve people outside the rehearsal studio listening and they spread the word and it like sold out three weeks in advance. There was like two or three hundred people out in the street hoping to get in. It turned into a really, really fun show after over a decade of not playing together. So and then people said you want to do some more in other places like Atlanta we said okay!
WL: Out of curiosity who is in charge and runs Manifesto Records?
Ray: It’s a uh. It’s a family run label corporation with three shareholders. Is that…Why did you ask that question?
WL: Seeing that it is a venture from the Alternative Tentacles Records label. With the new catalog being reissued.
Ray: Well Alternative Tentacles ripped us off. Like record labels do that to musicians every now and then whether they’re punk labels or corporate labels.
WL: Are there any efforts for new material?
Ray: We don’t know yet.
Brandon: I still have a lot more songs to learn of the Dead Kennedys’ with these guys. You know it’s one thing listening to them in the car and another thing when I’m on stage doing them live with them. So we’ve got to get in the studio. Our tour schedule’s been pretty hectic. Whenever we get a chance we need to learn a bunch more songs.
WL: How did you guys initially form back in 1978?
Ray: Oh uh, I went to the Mubahay Gardens which is the San Francisco punk club and I saw the Weirdos from Los Angeles and it was like wow. It was like my first punk rock show and I said these guys are great, this is what I want to do. So I put ads in the paper and Biafra answered Klaus answered and Ted our first drummer answered.
Brandon Cruz With interviewer Devin Herndon (photo Kyle Etris)
WL: Where is Ted Slesinger and 6025 now?
Ray: Uh, Ted’s and architect know in San Francisco and 6025 lives in the bay area but he’s uh kind of got a disability. If you go on Dead Kennedys.com which is our new web site Dead Kennedys no spaces there’s like a little bios of people.
WL: Why did you guys break up after the release of the “Bedtime For Democracy” LP and tour?
Ray: Oh uh, I thi…the audiences weren’t intelligent. That intelligent anymore as it was in the early eighties and musically we kind of like we were like recycling the same stuff.
WL: How has the tour audience response been so far for the new line up?
Ray: Better than expected. It’s been really great. People that actually come down and see it love it. I had three or four people tonight say it’s the best show they’ve seen.
Klaus: One or two people…
Ray: One or two people have said they liked it better than with Biafra.
Klaus: And three people…
Ray: Three people and so um you know it turns out there’s a lot of rock journalists that’s kind of like old fogies I guess or somethin’. It’s like they’ll like talk about the show without even seeing it or what they’ll do is pair it Biafra’s web site which is like the most high standard of journalism I’ve ever seen. Hey you know they’re out of touch. They’re out of touch. You know they need to go out more. (Laughs) Instead of hanging out on the Internet they need to go out more.
Brandon: Attend a show and then make a decision like.
Ray: That’s a good one. Yeah stop being…
Brandon: Like they’ve always…You know like the Dead Kennedys’ have always said think for yourself until you know both sides of the story. Or you’ve experienced the show with the new line up. You really don’t know.
Ray: And you shouldn’t you know I mean it’s. Everybody has the right to express their opinion but it’s much more healthier, more constructive if you express an opinion after you know the facts. Or after you’ve seen the things.
Brandon: Yeah there’s another web site Dead Kennedys news all one word .com that goes into things about the court case. And uh myths and truths and lies and rumors and various other things that people can gather more information from. And it seems that because Dead Kennedys fans have been a little more intelligent than the average punk rock fan that they should go to that one and visit that one to learn both sides of the story. You know and then make a decision. And then if they really don’t like it, they really don’t like it. And it’s you know its, its uh still a free country as far as I know and people are welcome to have any opinion that they want. In fact we played with a band in California and the lead singer started saying a bunch of stuff against us. And people wanted to beat the guy up. They wanted to take him outside. When he finally ended up outside I walked to him and I started talking to him, introduced myself. And I said you know what, that took a lot of balls to stand up there and say what you felt and you had every right in the world to do it but do you know all the facts of the case. And he didn’t. So I told him where to go to learn more about it you know and hopefully he has learned more about it. You know whether you know everything or not about the whole Dead Kennedys saga so to speak you have the right to your own opinion and we’re never going to please everybody. Even the Dead Kennedys in their prime with Jello were not liked by everybody, even within the punk rock community. So its part of life that not everyone’s gonna like it.
WL: In 2002 with all the events that took place last year and with some international tour dates do you feel safe as an American citizen?
Brandon: Yeah we went to Brazil and Chile and uh, Argentina in November and I felt safe. You know the airports really safe. Uh for me really life hasn’t changed too much. Now I’m married I got two kids um little scared if you know shit really escalated but. You know but it’s just daily life you know life goes on. My kids still need attention and my wife still needs help and understanding and I can only do so much you know I cant go out and change the world but I can help my family and my friends.
Ray: You know from experience I learned a rock band is not going to change the world and nor is any kind of leader gonna change the world. What is going to change the world is people acting individually. I love it when people come up to say you changed my life. And I tell people that if you want to change the world treat your friends, treat your family, treat the people you run into at the coffee shop. Treat them with respect and that’s how a better world starts really ultimately you know. Waiting for it you know to come down from the top down to the people is never going to happen. I remember being a waiter in college you know and the worst people to wait on were the Marxist’s. Sitting there talking about the workers of the world, ignore you and not leave a tip. All talk no action.
WL: Are politics still a major driving force in the band?
Ray: I think personal politics are. Treating people with respect like I was talking about working with the crew here, working with Brandon, I mean being on the road can get a little tense. But everybody we kind of know that we back off when we need to back off.
Treatment like one of the shows in South America like we missed the plane but we did the show anyway even though it cost us a whole lot of money to buy new plane tickets because we wanted to honor our word. Yeah that’s how I’m…
Brandon: A routine we have to stick by. We had a show we had to get to and we got to it. But as far as political things I’m into a lot of environmental issues and like a group called A Minor Consideration that deals with ex child actors. I’m very active in that. Surf Rider Foundation I’m into that.
WL: So do you guys have any new favorite bands?
Brandon: My new favorite band broke up twelve years ago. (Laughs) That was Born Against. I think they were amazing although I do have one new favorite band they are an Oxnard band from where I’m from where Dr. Know started twenty some years ago back in the old Nardcore neighborhood. They’re called In Control and they’re amazing. They’re absolutely amazing.
WL: How many dates total are on this tour?
Brandon: Oh my God I don’t even know.
Ray: Thirty-nine. You can go on Dead Kennedys .com and look at the gig list and the gig history.
Brandon: Pulse star has stuff to and I think artist worldwide artist .com has stuff too.
Ray: I’m gonna sound like Biafra for a minute. Do your homework.
Brandon: Laughs.
Ray: That’s all on Dead Kennedys .com
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Klaus Fluoride with a friend (photo Kyle Etris)
WL: So beyond the tour do you guys have plans to stay together?
Ray: So far so good yeah. No reason to stop.
Brandon: As long as its fun for us and the audiences are having fun.
Ray: And also audiences are intelligent.
Brandon: Yeah then it’s definitely worth it to go out not in a monetary sense. I had to quit a very lucrative job in the motion picture industry to come out and do this. I’ve heard it written that this is a greedy thing that’s going on with the band these days and you it couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s a labor of love for me I love this band I love what is stands for. I am honored to be able to share the stage with three incredible people who happen to be incredible musicians and friends of mine. And you know my wife know that it’s a dream of mine. I’m doing what I love to do and that’s sing punk rock songs. And to get the chance to get up and sing some of the greatest punk rock songs ever written you know I couldn’t ask for more.
Ray: Have you ever seen so much love in a punk rock show? Have you?
Brandon: That was a fuckin’ love fest out there man I’ve never seen more smiles. Usually there’s violence and boneheads and idiots and just chaos. But people were just singing. We didn’t even need a PA half the time the audience was so loud singing along these choruses. You know some of these songs are gonna go down in history as classics. And they’ll be remembered and at some point be on oldies radio. Like old Minor Threat songs and old Black Flag songs and Dead Kennedys songs…well I don’t know if they can play Fear on the radio but uh. You know the Germs and the Sex Pistols, the Ramones you know I could go on and on of just amazing bands that have written songs that are going to stand the tests of time after time after time. I mean they are just classics. They speak about…some of them speak specifically about a time frame during the course of the world. But others just speak to people in general. They aren’t dated. They don’t date themselves they are timeless they can mean something to somebody fifteen years old twenty years from now. Just like they can mean something to somebody whose never seen the Dead Kennedys live, whose only had a record given to them by their dad or their uncle or their friggin’ grandpa. And then they come see it live, sure Jello was a huge part of the band and to take nothing away from him you know he’s an amazing front man. Umm very charismatic did great amazing things but once the music kicks in and these kids hear the music and they’re singing along. It’s the same message the same lyrics and I believed in the Dead Kennedys in ’81 when I first got to open for them. I believed in them and liked them way before that. You know and I still feel as strongly about them today and I have a hard time calling myself a member of them it still really hasn’t quite sunken in yet um I never wanted to be called the Dead Kennedys anyways. I though it was kind of weird, but these are the three Dead Kennedys. We tried to change the name to the DK Kennedys, but promoters, journalists and the fans they all called it the Dead Kennedys. We’re fighting a losing battle here you know call a spade a spade shit. Okay Dead Kennedys you want it you got it. Then the purists the puritan people out there they’ll talk shit about it. But you know like I said you can’t please everyone and you know I’m not trying to. Those that love it will continue to love it. Maybe we’ll win some new fans maybe lose some old ones but I think there’s gonna be a good balance.
Ray: One more question we need to leave.
WL: Why did you initially leave Dr. Know?
Brandon: There were some personal reasons; the drummer and I were having some conflicts. It was moving in a metal direction that me being the punk rock till I die kid back then. I didn’t agree with the directions the band was heading in. So I quit and then four and half years ago I got the original bass player and sort of reformed the band and unfortunately it is without Kyle Toucher who is a cofounder of the band with Ismael Hernandez. And we started doing some of the songs that I had quit over because as I grew older I matured more I realized that they were great songs. Well written and people liked them and so we sped a few of them up and now we play them live. And you know I’ll always respect Kyle for the person that he is and the musician that he is and the songwriter that he is. Cuz he did some really neat amazing stuff. I hear he has new band I don’t know what they’re called but his last band Stigmata was really heavy. Think Black Sabbath slow and crunchy and just you know they were great.
D.H. Peligro (photo by Devin Herndon)
WL: So Dr. Know are still a working unit?
Brandon: Oh yeah, all the guys are at home right now doing a twenty seven song new album. So when I get back from this I’m going to have to track you know my vocals for all that. And then the mixing process and all that and the printing and all that and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And hopefully when I get a break with this DK stuff then I can come back out with the other DK the Dr. Know.
WL: Will you come back to Atlanta?
Brandon: Either with the Dead Kennedys or Dr. Know on or the other here. I love Atlanta this place is beautiful. The fans here are incredible it’s really a great place. I mean we played Pensacola last night. Not to sound badly about them but it just was not quite a Dead Kennedys audience. Tonight this was a very intelligent crowd that really knew why they were here and uh appreciated and uh we couldn’t as for more.
Ray: We need to go.
WL: Last question. What influenced you to get into the punk rock scene?
Brandon: Being raised on Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart.
Ray: For the record when I asked the question has he seen any…so much love in a punk show the interviewer smiled but he didn’t say anything.
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