Back in March, my friend and I interviewed Anti-Flag after they played at the Tune Inn in New Haven, CT. The current members are Pat Thetic - drums, Justin Sane - guitar, vocals, Cock - bass, and Chris - guitar.
How did you get started?
Pat: Justin and I were hanging out when we were kids. We were like, I play drums and Justin played drums too, and then Justin moved to bass and then to guitar and we got a bunch of other people to hang out with us because we were losers and had nothing else to do on a Saturday night, and formed a crappy band.
Justin: Basically, it was like this: I sucked @ drums so they made me play bass, and I sucked @ bass, so they made me play guitar. I sucked least @ guitar so now I play guitar. Then we had another bass player [Andy Flag] but he quit and we met Cock in Canada when we toured Canada last year, and we really liked her. We met Chris, he was just living up the street and we said 'hey you have nothing to do?' and he was like 'yeah' and we were like 'join our band.' And that's kind of how it happened.
Why did Andy Flag leave?
Pat: He didn't like us anymore.
Justin: Yeah... The truth is we weren't getting along. He was interested in other things and plays drums in another band. We weren't getting along really well and he just bailed.
How'd you get signed to New Archieves?
Pat: We didnt' sign. We agreed to do 1 CD with them.
Justin: We leased them a record. They said they'll do as many records as we want to but we're not binded to them or anyone else.
If you had the opportunity to "sell out" would you take it?
Everyone: No...
Pat: If there was a lot of $ involved.
Justin: Yeah, tons of $.
Pat: Big money! No...we decided that we are happy doing what we're doing, and that's where we are now.
How's the Pittsburgh scene?
Pat: It's really cool. There's a lot of bands doing a lot of good things, and they're doing well. Pittsburgh is doing well. We won't be back there for a while but when we left it was good.
Are there a lot of punks not getting into the music?
Pat: Who go to Orange 9mm shows?(laughter)Yeah, actually there probably are but we're the cool kids that don't get into the music.
Cock It happens in Toronto. I'm from Toronto, and it's pretty bad there. There's like the cool time to show up for shows - 11 o'clock when the last bands go on and you see tons of punky punk kids on the street who NEVER go to shows. It's really weird.
Who's sxe and why?
Justin: Go for it, Pat.
Pat: Yeah. I'm sxe because when I was in high school the cool kids were doing things and I wasn't a cool kid, so I was hanging out playing my drums. I've grown to think that a lot of people that use drugs and alcohol to a great extent are the most depressed people in the world, and if you look at the most depressed people you find the most drug and alcohol usuage. So that's one of my major reasons. I think there's a lot of positve people that do drugs and drink too but my choice is not to.
What do you think of girls in the punk scene?
Cock: I think it's a good thing but there's not enough. I never thought about it much. I think it's good but I don't know how to answer the question. It's a positive thing. There weren't many girls at the show tonight, and I was glad to see that there were girls up front. There never are, or they are holding their boyfriends coats like 'I'm going to go mosh now, here hold my coat'. I think that's stupid. More girls should get involved.
Justin:Y eah. I see it that punk is like something to stand for change and a lot of women are oppressed. Punks a good way to stand for change.
Any last words?
Pat: Bands to look out for - Stiff Little Fingers, The Jam, The Buzzcocks, some old bands that are really great. Bouncing Souls.
Cock: The Clash.
Justin: Those are the bands that some kids might want to check out.
Cock: Upcoming humans.
Justin: From Cincinatti, Ohio, Less than Human - Our favorite band right now. The Useless Fucks, The Unseen, Showcase Showdown.
Pat: DBS from Vancouver, Canada. Kitty Badass, we have to put in.
Justin: From Pittsburgh, Regan Squad, Submachine.
Advice for Kids?
Pat: Sxe is a choice. If you choose it, it's for you, not to show off how cool you are, and not to beat people up. So my choice is to be sxe, Cocks is to drink so it's all good.