Throwback Thursday to an interview with Guttermouth! We took a look through the archives of San Diego Punk to bring you throwback interviews and reviews from our history. Today we picked an interview with Guttermouth from the early 2000s. You can see Guttermouth, Get Dead, The Cryptics, and Skipjack at The Soda Bar on December 2nd!
Read on…
Original interview by Matt Pierce
Guttermouth recently put on an amazing performance at Lou’s Records. They played three songs from their new album Gusto, and the rest of the set consisted of old fan favorites. After the show the band stuck around to meet fans and sign autographs, during this time, I had the privilege of asking Mark some questions…
San Diego Punk: So Gusto seems to be getting a lot of hype. Everyone is talking about how it’s so different from your other albums, some people are saying it sucks other say it’s good, what are your thoughts on all this?
Mark: Well what I think is that we made the party punk album of 2002.I was getting so tired of the same old watered down punk that you hear every day. It’s like that same band, with different album titles and different song titles. And I hate that, you know, it’s so boring and I wanted to do something different.
San Diego Punk: So when you went into the studio you had the idea to make it sound like that, it didn’t just come out naturally like that?
Mark: Yeah we wanted to do it like that.
San Diego Punk: Where is your studio?
Mark: It’s in my house, so when we do albums we just party and write music, and it’s all mine so we don’t have to pay money for it. We just throw back a couple of drinks and get that cool kind of buzz, not horribly drunk, and just start playing.
San Diego Punk: So how many of your lyrics are written while under the influence of alcohol?
Mark: I would say the majority. Like with Gusto, we were pretty wasted, I was on drums just going at it, screaming, and the other guys were starting to put a rhythm to it so we recorded the crappy version.
San Diego Punk: So you recorded the real version when you were sober?
Mark: Yeah we came back a day or two later and finished it up.
San Diego Punk: Alright, you just did this free show promoting the new album, and…
Mark: Didn’t you have fun?
San Diego Punk: Yeah I had a blast, the music was great the band was funny, it was a great time.
Mark: Yeah I felt a bit awkward, playing in a parking lot, it felt all ghetto, didn’t Warped Tour play in a parking lot?
San Diego Punk: Yep.
Mark: Wow, it’s amazing how ghetto Warped Tour is and it still sells. But yeah, we just wanted to play some new songs and show kids what it was like.
San Diego Punk: Why didn’t you play “Scholarship in Punk” isn’t it the song of the new CD?
Mark: Well, to be honest with you, I don’t sing that song very well, so we decided to cut that one out this time around.
San Diego Punk: Are you going to be going on tour, playing at venues?
Mark: Yeah we are we will be back in San Diego soon too!
San Diego Punk: Right on do you know where or who will be opening or anything?
Mark: No that’s all far away and we have no idea now. HEY THERE’S CLINT!
Clint: Hey what’s going on guys? (Clint starts to talk with other people).
San Diego Punk: How is the situation with Clint, have you convinced him to stay in the band?
Mark: Yeah almost. We are trying to get him to quit his day job.
San Diego Punk: Clint, what’s you day job?
Clint: I am a…
Mark: He is a farmer.
Clint: Yeah, I farm toads.
San Diego Punk: You will be shooting a video for “Scholarship in Punk” soon, right?
Mark: Yeah in like two weeks or something, up north.
San Diego Punk: You know what it will be about?
Mark: No not really, the video probably wont even be released here in the US. It will over in Australia.
San Diego Punk: Yeah you guys are huge over there, huh?
Mark: Yeah we are like rock stars or something.
Clint: It is fun to be away from the band and then get back together and go over there, because we are apart for so long then we are together and all big, it’s a good feeling.
Mark: I think Clint likes being away from the band period.
San Diego Punk: At your show at Cox Arena, with Pennywise, it looked like you broke your foot, what happened?
Mark: I broke 3 bones on top of my foot, it was so lame, after our set I went to the hospital, over by the college, it’s kind of ghetto over there, isn’t it?
San Diego Punk: Yeah kinda.
Mark: So yeah, I go there and the doctor looks at it and tells me it’s nothing and hands me some painkillers and a bandage. A couple weeks later it is all swollen up and I can barely put pressure on it, so I go to a real doctor, he actually X-Rays it and tells me I broke three bones. And I still had to pay the doctor at the first hospital.
San Diego Punk: Wow that’s lame.
Mark: Yeah but I have insurance so it wasn’t a big deal.
San Diego Punk: What type of sports do you play during your off time?
Mark: Uh nothing really, stuff here and there.
San Diego Punk: Weren’t you at the Punk Rock Pro Am, at the golf course?
Mark: Uh yeah, we played 3 holes and then we got drunk and talked to people.
Clint: That’s what you do, the only way to play golf; play 3 holes then you’re out.
Mark: It was so weird, I got paired up with the manager of Rock 105.3, I had never met him so I am all wasted drooling all over the place while he is driving the cart, it was funny.
San Diego Punk: Do you remember how you did on the first 2 holes?
Mark: No man, it didn’t really San Diego Punker, my mission that day was to talk to as many people possible.
San Diego Punk: Your new album cover, you painted that 7 years ago?
Mark: Yeah, and when we decided to name the album gusto they wrote that in the thinking bubble and that’s how the cover was born.
Clint: We also came up with the name soup.
Mark: It’s a fun word to say, I even drew it one day.
San Diego Punk: How old is your drummer? (He looks really young).
Mark: He is 12.
San Diego Punk: Haha, what is he really?
Mark: He is 25, he is younger than us and he is loosing his hair so its all good. We all like to call him 12 though.
San Diego Punk: Well that’s all the questions I got, anything you want to say.
Mark: Yeah, I would just like to say that we made a new album, it’s is a bit different, but it’s good. Who knows what we will make for our next album, it could be another Musical Monkey album, we don’t know. I was just so tired of all the same punk, that tries to like, send a message to the world and everything, I mean who really cares, we just want some good music and have fun, and that’s what we did.
San Diego Punk: So if your fans turn out to not like this album, will you lean towards making a Musical Monkey style album or will you keep on making Gusto type albums?
Mark: We will do what we want, because we are at a position that whatever we do, we will have a fan base behind us. I like songs like “Gusto” and “Foot-long” I think they are rockin’ songs. We played them a little differently today, to try to get the crowd more into it, but I still love those songs.
San Diego Punk: Yeah they sounded different live, they were a bit faster.
Mark: So yeah we are just having fun and doing what we love, so that’s all.
San Diego Punk: Right on, we will see you when you come back to San Diego.
Mark: Cool, later.
This interview also appears on Epitaph.com…
epitaph.com/news/article/sandiegopunkcom-interviews-guttermouth
