EXCLUSIVES

The Vandals: 25 Years Later, Still Punk and Ever Crisp
By Joshua Rotter

October 2004

Fame and money have never been driving factors in the careers of most punk rock bands, and Orange County punksters, The Vandals, are no different.

"The basic tenets in punk rock have always been to play music and don't worry about the corporate success," Vandals' founding member and bassist, Joe Escalante, said in a recent interview at his Hollywood-based record label, Kung Fu Records. "And you have to not care to win, and The Vandals do not care. And we can't worry, that 'Oh my god,' our band is not on the radio or MTV. But we played music, and got some corporate success, and have had fifteen years with this line-up, but we're not on MTV or on the radio in most markets. But we're fine and happy to be on the main stage of the Vans Warped Tour 04."

For the summer-long tour, which wraps August 19 in Foxboro, MA, The Vandals will band with several punk rock outfits past and present, such as Bad Religion, NoFX, and New Found Glory. "We really like New Found Glory", the 41-year-old bassist said. "People assume that we, as an older band don't like the new kids. Some do and some don't, but we do."

Cramming nine fast and furious tracks in a 30-minute set, the eight-album band will heavily focus on tracks off their new album, "Hollywood Potato Chip," made on ProTools®, which they will tour this Fall in Europe and Japan.

"Hollywood Potato Chip", with its 13 tracks that combine punk intensity with the band's trademark sarcastic lyricism on such tracks as the anti-conformist "Be a Good Robot" and "Dig a Hole", and the rocking anthem-to-cheaters "Just a Man", takes a crisp look at the notoriously seedy side of the Hollywood dream.

"To me, the seedy side is you're never gonna be satisfied in the world of Hollywood, because you could always sell more records or be more famous," he said. "And the clock takes its toll, because you're too old and yesterday's news. There are always unfulfilled dreams, and no one dies satisfied with their group of Hollywood friends. It's a world of suspicion and backstabbing."

So The Vandals continue to shun corporate Hollywood, remaining self-reliant and "DIY," aided only by the wonders of Mac® software on their numerous online and DVD productions, including the feature film "Cake Boy" and the "Vans Warped Tour 03" DVD, both produced using Final Cut Pro® editing software.

"It's the 20th DVD made here, an ambitious monster of a project," Escalante added. "We recorded 28 acts and got them on hard drives, capturing them through Macs® and editing them down to 24 bands and 24 songs, as a song compilation. We did the audio portion of it on the Mac®, before sending it to an audio studio. For the video editing, a bunch of editors worked on individual segments, but the overseer, Nate Weaver, put them together into a one hour and forty-five minute concert film that turned out really good. We didn't start out making it like a film, but it sort of emerged with its own feel and stories, making it a legitimate concert film."

The Vandals began gaining legitimacy in the Orange County punk scene shortly after forming 25 years ago in Huntington Beach, CA, by guitarist Jan Nils Ackerman, along with vocalist Stevo, bassist Steve Pfauter, and drummer Joe Escalante. "When The Adolescents and TSOL were at their peak, we were just getting started," he said. "And there was not much going on after that, which propelled us to nowhere."

But as they played shows on their home turf, they built a local following, due in part to their satirical, yet silly humor and catchy punk-pop.
"When we started, there was The Clash, who were more serious and political, and then The Ramones who were silly, and we loved them both," he said. "But we were from Orange County, and had nothing to complain about, and The Ramones made more sense to us. And there was no social change that inspired a passion in us to write. We became ridiculous, but there is always a serious message in our music-you just have to look for it."

Things became very grave when their chaotic early shows got them banned from several venues, but also worked up enough buzz that their 1982 debut EP, "Peace Thru Vandalism", on Bad Religion's Epitaph label, featuring early numbers like "Anarchy Burger (Hold the Government) ", and the local radio hit "Urban Struggle" gained the band some success on the heels of their first full-length, "When in Rome Do as The Vandals", with the local radio hits, "Lady Killer" and "Mohawk Town."

Several member shifts followed over the next few years; ex-Fallen Idols singer Dave Quackenbush joined up later in 1985, and Escalante switched from drums to bass. When guitarist Warren Fitzgerald joined in 1987, and drummer Josh Freese was added two years later, a new Vandals lineup emerged that would last till the present.

Several more albums would be released over the next decade on two additional labels as The Vandals' popularity rose, following the California punk revival of 1994, thanks in part to The Offspring's success.

Soon all four members quit their day-jobs and devoted themselves completely to their musical careers, even forming their own label, Kung Fu Records, in 1996 to ensure the band's financial independence in the wake of their growing cult popularity on the punk scene.

In 1998, at the height of the dot com boom, Escalante, who had little prior computer experience other than typing up papers on WordPerfect® in law school in the late 1980's, and use of the Wang® computer system, a precursor to Windows®, as Director of Business Affairs at CBS Studios in the mid-1990's, furthered the band's exposure, flirting with Mac® technology for the creation of the television series, "Fear OF A Punk Planet", for the Internet.

"That was when the Internet was exploding and companies like Digital Entertainment Network would spend a bunch of money fast and go out of business," he said. "And we were at the right place with this show, and they bought the TV series: seven 30-minute episodes that are ridiculous and kind of funny about these irreverent kids taking over a punk rock club, who turn it into non-profit to bypass club codes, so the evil, racist fireman won't shut it down."

Executive producer of the show, Escalante, also performed editing duties for the show using Final Cut Pro® software. "So I bought a system and had to learn how to edit myself, which builds on a punk rock model, where you do things yourself to keep a low cost," he said. "I took a two-day course and by the third day, I edited the trailer and credits needed to finish the film. Soon, I had every version of Final Cut Pro® and was editing every weekend."
Since then Escalante has bought the latest Apples®. "I have an iBook® at home and a Mac® on my desk," he said. "We have three editing stations for post production at Kung Fu. I'm now switching everybody to Macs®. Everyone in The Vandals and everyone at Kung Fu use Macs®. I like the editing software, because they keep making it more fun."

Additionally, although the band's last two albums were created using ProTools® software, Escalante has found his more recent .Mac account even more beneficial to the album-making process. "We used it to import tracks our guitar player wrote without vocals," he said. "Then I put the mic into my laptop and wrote some lyrics and added a scratch vocal, emailed it to the singer and guitarist. And they critiqued it, did another version, and magically they recorded the real version in the studio. It was very helpful and cool too, because you don't need ProTools® or a hard drive recorder in your home anymore."

Graduating from an Internet series to feature films-Escalante, who has by now produced twenty--edited his most recent work, "Cake Boy", on a G4 PowerBook® with a Firewire drive and Sony® monitor deck on a makeshift desk on a bunk in a tour bus. "While everyone else was running around, I was editing the film on my Final Cut Pro® 4.5," he said.

Out this Fall, "Cake Boy", about a roadie who slums in an erotic cake bakery and is abused by his girlfriend, who goes on tour with a punk rock band, who abuse him more, until he falls in love with a girl in an electric wheelchair, and she helps him follow his dream of becoming a baker at a French patisserie.

And as strange as it seems for a lowbrow punk rock bassist to toil away on a computer, to Escalante, Mac® technology, which has allowed the band to bring cheap pleasure to the eyes and ears of punk rock fans worldwide, goes hand-in-hand with the punk rock ethos.

"I think it does, because this stuff made us able to do things independently," he said. "When I first got into this industry, to make a record cheaply, you had to do stuff yourself, and that's how you could sell for cheap, and have low ticket prices, because you do not have to worry about price-gouging, and we do this with our film and DVD projects, because we do stuff ourselves. And we couldn't do it without Mac® stuff. So we now make feature films the way we made punk rock records. We get it out to our fan base and do not have to worry about everyone else. There is nothing more punk rock than the Mac® revolution-in fact, it kind of saved it." For further information on The Vandals, logon to www.vandals.com.