The
Perpetual Motion with Alien Ant Farm
Words and Photos Chris Carnel
Alien Ant Farm were fresh off a tour in support of their first
major release ANThology and just off a flight from LAX. The
interview was scheduled for 5:00pm, it was 4:30. "The guys
are napping and pretty tired," their manager Steve Varga
told me from his cell phone as I was chomping at the bit in
Heckler's offices. "Can we just move it till later?"
Varga pleaded with the band sacked out somewhere in downtown
Sacramento. I could only roll with his request, but Oates thought
otherwise. "Dude how could they be tired? It's an hour-and-a-half
flight from L.A. to Sacramento!"
Brad Oates (music editor, connoisseur of weed products) was
with me to basically just assist as I would be doing both photos
and interview. Again, he gave his advice; "Dude I've never
gotten an interview after any show, it will never happen."
His words frightened me as I had really looked forward to doing
a piece on these guys some months back but they were on the
East Coast for most of their tour. Tonight, by chance, they
were doing a radio show in town. And at this point the band
was pretty big: they've had a #1 hit and high rotation video
and airplay with their version of Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal.
Just maybe they might not be into doing a Heckler interview.
Things like this have happened before. So I chose to just wait
it out, with hopes to see a good set, and get a good interview
with good photos a little later. It was 6:15 as we left the
hectic entrance of the venue after attaining our patches from
Varga who stressed, "AAF is totally into the interview
and photos after the show, you'll have plenty of time, no problem."
Plus we still had our hard tickets; assuring at least we would
get inside to see the show. Oates apparently agitated, vented,
"I just can't wait around for 3 hours after that show is
over to do an interview, at least not tonight, if this piece
was gonna happen it should have been almost done by now!"
It was now 7:30 pm as he requested to be dropped back at his
car so he could head home and study for a college final happening
the next morning.
It was 8:15 pm as I parked five blocks away from the Memorial
(due to the influx of people) and rushed towards the venue.
By coincidence I was trailing two unsuspecting girls also apparently
going to the show. "You guys need tickets?" I yelled
like a scalper with camera equipment loaded to the gills on
my back. Being kinda hesitant at first they claimed all they
had were credit cards and no cash. So I gave a ticket away to
one of them exclaiming, "Don’t worry, it's free."
She was stoked. I then endured a front entrance bag search and
was denied, but then, minutes later, my backstage all access
patch got me in through the side entrance. I walked over and
handed the other girl ticket number two and wished 'em a fun
show, hoping for some karma points in scoring this interview.
I shot photos past the typical three songs with the manager
giving me thumbs up from across the stage, and then watched
the rest of the set as they rocked the house. Vocalist Dryden
even went around the barriers and into the crowd to sing "Movies"
surrounded by a nest of crazy kids and fans. Their set ended
as my cell rang, and Varga was calling from behind the stage.
After a rocking set and a good phone connection, the karma kicked
in and an interview in the old and stylish confines of the Memorial
went down upstairs...
I like the "Movies" video. How did you guys do that
concept wise?
AAF: We used the same director who did “Smooth Criminal”
and all of us just sat down and did a bunch of "what ifs.”
We took some stuff from the Michael Jackson video, and it was
like, what if the sidewalk lights up like in "Billy Jean?"
So we took like 15 movies and ended up doing like four or five
of them. Ghostbusters and Karate Kid (with the real Miyagi)
were in there.
How long did it take?
AAF: We did it in one day with real quick set changeovers. And
we wanted to do The Matrix but we were all too good of actors
for it (laughing). "Smooth Criminal" was just a song
we really liked and decided to cover. I guess Michael (Jackson)
thought we did a good job too.
Do you guys travel by bus still?
AAF: Probably forever except for today. Saturday we were in
LA, today we are here and tomorrow we are in Denver. So we flew
up here and played on rental gear and the bus went straight
to Denver. So we're gonna meet the bus there in Colorado and
jump on.
Has it been just non-stop, the touring?
AAF: We've been touring for 11 months now. We've gotten a few
three day breaks here and there but (pauses) when you’re
home for three days after being gone for three months it's like
you go to the store, get what you need, do your laundry, see
a couple friends that are like a priority, and then you're gone.
Then every other friend is ragging on you and calls you a rock
star cause you never see 'em (laughing).
So playing music on the road is working in a sense; your friends
are at home on the couch and you guys are.. well actually you’re
on a couch right now but....haha.
AAF: But it's after our show and that's why we look so out of
it now. It's like we were just running the quarter mile (laughing).
Here's our itinerary after Colorado; it's East for ten more
days or so, and then we’re off until Vail, Colorado where
we play for New Years Eve; then we’re going to Australia
to do some shows. So now we got like 10 more days on the road.
I fucking love playing, but traveling is, you don’t get
to see anything. My mom is all, 'You get to see the Country!'
You get to see a shitty bar in the middle of the country and
you get to see a lot of truckstops!! You're gonna get me talking
shit about everything I hate and I'll make us look like assholes.
(laughing)
Any new album plans?
AAF: We will start writing material again for a new album, which
we’re all looking forward to in 2002. But for now I'm looking
forward to us all going home and not seeing each other every
minute of the day and relaxing by myself for a while. Yes, on
the couch (laughing).
After this story was done Alien Ant Farm had just received a
nomination for a Grammy, which they were really stoked on. Considering
Alien Ant Farm was only meant to be a side project for each
member, all of whom were in other serious bands around Riverside,
California around five years ago, they've come a long way. Oates
was up most of the night but finished his studying. He got all
A's in class and recently moved to Santa Cruz to worship Hemp
and dominate UC Santa Cruz’s film school. See, it's just
like the movies.
Brad Oates (music editor, connoisseur of weed products) was
with me to basically just assist as I would be doing both photos
and interview. Again, he gave his advice; "Dude I've never
gotten an interview after any show, it will never happen."
His words frightened me as I had really looked forward to doing
a piece on these guys some months back but they were on the
East Coast for most of their tour. Tonight, by chance, they
were doing a radio show in town. And at this point the band
was pretty big: they've had a #1 hit and high rotation video
and airplay with their version of Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal.
Just maybe they might not be into doing a Heckler interview.
Things like this have happened before. So I chose to just wait
it out, with hopes to see a good set, and get a good interview
with good photos a little later. It was 6:15 as we left the
hectic entrance of the venue after attaining our patches from
Varga who stressed, "AAF is totally into the interview
and photos after the show, you'll have plenty of time, no problem."
Plus we still had our hard tickets; assuring at least we would
get inside to see the show. Oates apparently agitated, vented,
"I just can't wait around for 3 hours after that show is
over to do an interview, at least not tonight, if this piece
was gonna happen it should have been almost done by now!"
It was now 7:30 pm as he requested to be dropped back at his
car so he could head home and study for a college final happening
the next morning.