#7 interview by Kevin Chanelfrom ChinMusic!
#7 interview by Kevin Chanel
Over barbecue and Sierra Nevada beer, a drunk ChinMusic! editor slings it with bass-player/singer Max Leavitt.
Max Leavitt: “Note to self: Blue couch fabric.”
ChinMusic!: “...Sell Amalgamated
at plus-3.”
ML: “Take it to the Zurich account. Account number ‘XJ29.’”
CM: “...Make sure he uses the red boat–NOT the blue
boat, because security...”
(much laughter)
ML: ...I wish I was a spy...
CM: I wish I had a job...
ML: I’m in a band, and it’s cool...but I wish I
was a SPY!
CM: (after another round of Sierra Nevadas are opened) How do
you get around, being a band in New York?
ML: It’s a bitch! It’s such a bitch. I mean, it’s
got its goods and bads, I guess.
CM: So you’re living in town then?
ML: Yeah, I live in Manhattan, the other guys live in Brooklyn.
There are some really tough things and some really cool things about it.
CM: I would think it would be logistically tough.
ML: So hard...
CM: I mean with all your equipment—
ML: That is like, the biggest pain in the ass, I would say.
But like, it took us at least two years just to figure that shit out. Once you
do know how it works you figure the ins and outs of it. But, all of the equipment
is stuffed in my apartment. My little apartment that’s just packed—
CM: Is it like the Ramones did it, where you have to take your
guitars on the subway, in paper bags?
ML: We have to call and get this weird hippie, with a van, to
pick us up, take us to the show, drop us off. Come back at like, midnight, pick
us up, take our shit back...you can’t have a fuckin’ vehicle in New
York.
CM: There’s a hippie van service though?
ML: Yeah! There’s a man with a van. Bob, dude. Bob is
so crazy. Bob...shaves the front half of his head. And he’s got really
long hair. And he shaves it this way...he looks kinda like Gallagher. It’s
like so weird...like “I can’t come to the phone right now, I’m
shaving the front half of my head.”
(laughter) “Leave a message.”
CM: Cuz you know what happened was, he was shaving, and just
fucked up, and somebody said “hey, that’s pretty cool.” And
he had to stick with it after that. For like, twenty years.
ML: –“Everyone shaves the sides...why don’t
I...shave the front!” I think he probably lives in that van, too. He’s
got like the microwave and the TV back there, with all our equipment—
Nat Hays: Fax machine...deep fryer...
ML: The man with the van though, that’s how you do it
in New York.
NH: So what happens if you and some other of his clients have a
show on the same night, on opposite ends of town?
CM: Yeah, does he have you scheduled? Are there spreadsheets?
ML: Well, the other, the good thing I was going to say about
New York is that all...most of the clubs in the rock...are all in the same area.
And you just can coordinate it; so if one band’s playing at nine, he has
to drop them off at like six, and pick them up at...ten. But we’re playing
later, so he can drop them off, pick us up, blah blah blah...it’s like
fucking Southwest Airlines.
NH: “Uhhh, we’re departing in six minutes...
ML: Be ready at 7:40, your flight leaves at 8:10, kinda shit,
you know?...The only time he ever gets surly is every now and then he’ll
be like “Yo, can I come to the show tonite?” And so you put him on
the list, and then seven Maker’s Marks later he’s like “Load
up the gearrrr!...Let’s go!...You fuckerrrs!” Fuckin-A, dude. And
he just gets full of suggestions too. He’s like, “Now when Nirvana
started the first song in their set...you know you gotta do it like this, you
gotta...” And we’re just in the back going, “uhhhhh...”
CM: Well you gotta understand, that was back when he was just
“Mini-van Guy”...He was just starting out, just kinda going—
ML: “Back in ‘85, in Buffalo, they were...”
CM: “There was a Goo Goo Dolls van ethic that started
in Buffalo, see...It actually started with Rick James, but that’s beside
the point.”
ML: “My friends owned the restaurant, and you shoulda
seen who came in there...” Uhh...just drive the van.
CM: And a hippie shall lead the way. That’s enterprising,
at it’s hippie best.
ML: He’s the main inspiration. Van, no van...as long as
he’s there rootin’ me on.
CM: Well that’s cool, cuz someday he’s gonna lose
that van, cuz he can’t pay the tickets, and he’s gonna be Rickshaw-Guy.
Cruising around the Lower East Side...
ML: —With a big SVT cabinet! It’s got wheels; you
could just bungee-cord the SVT to the back. It would be heavy though. I’d
be yelling “Faster! Faster!...You rickshaw-mother-fucker.”
—————
CM: So why did you go with Hurry-Up Offense, instead of, say,
Two Minute Warning, or Prevent Defense, or...
ML: —No Huddle Offense...people have suggested—
CM: —Run and Gun...
ML: —Dude, don’t tempt me, cuz if I’m in the
van, I have too much time to think about it, You know, like if you start to say
a word, or your name, over and over again...like, “My name’s Max...I’m
Max...Max...Hurry-Up Offense...our name sucks! God it sucks...we oughta change
our name!” The first show we played in New York. We basically had been
rehearsing for three months, and we had these three songs that we wrote, and
we just started walking around to all these cheesy bars in the Village. We showed
up at this one place and we were like “Hey, can we play here tonight?”
And they were like, “No, you can’t play tonight!” So finally
we bothered the club owner enough, so he let us play three songs. He was like
“Alright, but hurry the fuck up!” And he kinda sat there, at the
side of the stage, like, “Okay, three songs, GO!” So we just did
it like that, and that’s kinda how we got our name. Cuz that’s like
the style we play. It’s this last-minute, extremely urgent, highly-aggressive
situation. It’s how we play; it’s like a hurry-up offense. It’s
like “Quick-quick-quick-quick!”
CM: So there’s like an “Elway Factor.”
ML: Or the uhh, Kelly. Jim Kelly.
—————————
CM: So besides touring, when are you guys coming out with something
new?
ML: Well, we have all these things we wanna do, and we just,
we wanna do it properly. Not like, fuck...”Mom?...can I get some moneeeyyyy?!
I wanna make another record!” But right now it’s too hard to have
your brain in two places. Cuz right now, I’m on tour. I’m just concentrating
on playing great shows. Not getting lost...not running outta gas. Not getting
sick. Getting laid. I mean, there are things in one brain, not in both, but you
gotta do both. But really, I just wanna work on just playing, and writing good
songs, and getting everybody psyched. We book our own tours, and that takes so
much time. We spend like six or eight months just booking a one month tour. So
once we’re finally on the road, it’s like just...kick ass. Cuz we
have one chance to do it while out, and we don’t have to worry about jobs
and girlfriends and New York and shit, so let’s just do it and see what
happens.