Kieran: Is Sicko the cleanest-cut punk band around?
Ean: (thinks) We're pretty clean cut (laughter). We're probably not as clean cut as we come across; we like to have fun. It all depends on your definition of "clean cut"; who do I know that's more squeaky clean? Um...gosh, I can't really think of any.
I couldn't either, which is why I'm asking you. Maybe you've been asked that before and said "No, we're not as nice and clean as so-and-so".
Yeah, not really, no. We try to be really, you know...none of us are...
No noserings, no mohawks, no heroin...
Oh that kind of stuff...noooo. You know the other day I was talking with those guys. We're doing a new album and we showed up at the studio, and we all drive Toyota pickup trucks. We step out of our Toyota pickup trucks and we're all wearing Converse tennis shoes, long shorts, and white t-shirts with some sort of rock band on it. We're pretty normal-looking guys.
"Dude, you don't want us on your label 'cause we're a pain in the ass; we don't wanna tour."
What's your favorite body part, do you have a prosthetic one, and do you bring it on tour with you?
Um...(thinks) wow (laughs). So many to choose from without getting too trashy.
Here's your chance to blow your clean-cut image.
I know...let's see. Small of the back is probably my favorite.
Are you happy with what the band's become over the years, or did you all pretty much have the same goals and visions?
Our greatest aspiration in life when we first started, and we could break up and still be happy after it happened, was get a single out on Empty Records. (laughs) So at this point we've kind of realized those goals.
So the rest is just gravy, huh?
No, you know...anybody who's been in an indie band for years and years and didn't think what it would be like to be signed by a major, done a really big record, gone on a huge tour, made a lot of money and lived off it for a few years, or whatever, anybody who claims they would NEVER have done that, would NEVER think about that...that's just something that does go through your mind. As a kid you dream of that, and to a certain extent you wonder what that might've been like. By staying on Empty we certainly have forgone any chance of this being much more than a, you know...
Kind of a side project thing.
Yeah. It's definitely not something I would choose to live off of.
If you were given the chance, would you guys do it? Make a living doing Sicko?
It would really depend on a lot of things. None of us have any plans to do that. Any interest we've had from major labels have been "Hey, I'm from this record label; how do you like it at Empty?" We're usually "It's pretty good." And recently it's been more like "Dude, you don't want us on your label 'cause we're a pain in the ass; we don't wanna tour" (laughter).
But at the same time, if some huge record label came up to us and said "Look, we think you're gonna sell incredible amounts of records with this, we'll give you all this money, we'll pay the label you're on all this money, they'll sell all the back catalog, it'll be great, everyone will be happy." You know, then maybe we'd consider it. But at the same time, I have my career, it's pretty cool, things are cushy, it's fun. Plus there's that chance of totally killing whatever Sicko is. I don't think that's ever gonna happen, honestly; I think that pop-punk's day has come and is quickly going. It's certainly not like I rule that out because of my insane devotion to the scene, or because Tim Yohannan's gonna write something dirty about me or something...I could give a fuck about that.
What are future Sicko plans?
Well here's what's going on right now: we're in the studio with our fantastic engineer Pete, and we are rapidly approaching a new 15, 16, 17 song album. The sound is going be a lot bigger-sounding, a lot better recorded than some of the previous stuff. We plan on releasing that roughly October, and the hope is that we'll have simultaneous release with an English label and also a Japanese label.
Then it's kind of up to Sicko as to what we want to do as far as touring goes. And it could well be that we do two weeks down the (West) coast and that's it, just because the other guys have basically said that they don't want to quit their jobs and they don't want to go out for another six weeks or more, then go to Europe for another 4 or 5 weeks, then Japan for 2 weeks. I'd be pretty happy to take two months and do a really big tour just one more time, because there will be a lot of time in the future for, you know, working and paying rent, 9 to 5 stuff. But they're also really invested: they've got wives or almost-wives, houses, car payments, so it's easier for me to be detached from that kind of thing.
