INTERVIEW
THE CRACKDOWN
by Christer Davidsson, September 2006

Hi! How are you guys doing?

Danny Ransom: -We're all doing fucking spectacular, we're finally getting our asses in gear to get in the van and tour this great nation of ours, and we have a killer split being pressed as we speak called “Broken Guitars and Trashy Bars”, coming out on Longshot Records out of New York. We pretty much figure we're on the road to opening for U2 and doing multiple nights at arenas worldwide.

Ben Rodecker: -We're doing great man. Just gearing up for the new release and working on a new website.

Could you describe the sound of The Crackdown?

Danny: -5 Pissed off, broke as hell, shitty job working guys getting together, drinking a lot, and then playing '77ish rock and roll with a bit of a modern twist to it all. Definitely more along the melodic end of things, but with an attitude.

Ben: -We don't really aim for anything other than for each song to kick more ass than the last. Think somewhere between The Clash and Rose Tattoo.

When was the band formed?

Danny: -Around 2002-2003 I think, we started out as a band called the Scapegoats which never played a show and recorded a 4 song E.P that was kind of fun, that was myself, Ben, and Darwin (Bass). I think they actually deleted my shit from that demo because I played it with my guitar out of tune, and then I had to run off to work and we couldn't afford more recording time.

Where does the name The Crackdown come from?

Danny: -Well, it pretty much just sounds cool. But let's pretend it has some meaning, it means we're gonna crack down on shitty music and lame concerts where no one has fun.

Ben: -Someone just basically blurted it out and practice and it kinda stuck.

How did you guys meet?

Danny: -We actually all except Steve (drums), went to highschool together, which is either cool or pathetic when you consider we're all in our mid-20s and haven't found anybody cool enough to start a band with outside of ourselves. Destiny man, destiny.

Ben: -Yeah, we've all been jamming off and on for years with one another. As for Steve, well he was one of our many rotating drummers

What do you write about and how do you get inspired?

Ben: - For me, I pretty much write about anything that pops into my head. Usually it starts off with a chorus that I keep singing to myself then I sit down and write something that suits it. It's a very quick process when it actually happens.. I don't really have the attention span to sit on an idea for too long so if doesn't work I just toss it.

Danny: -Personally, I've never really written the lyrics for the band, but just from knowing these guys for all of my adult life I know they write about working, the struggles we've encountered as people (girls/drugs mostly), and about rallying the kids together to keep punk rock alive. Scott (vocals) really seems to think that we're fighting a war, and I see where he's coming from, as you get older staying punk rock becomes a war, part of your brain wants you to buy a house and a nice car, but the other half wants to get drunk and play guitar with your buddies. It's been a battle but I think it's safe to say the drunken guitar playing half is winning....

What have you released so far?

Danny: -So far we've been on a comp out of Montreal titled "Canucks Punk Rock", and put out a 6 song EP titled "Rebel Radio", it's out of print (each one was burnt and hand spray painted with the logo onto it, it took a shitload of work and would have been less effort to just work some overtime to pay to have it pressed). We'd actually be assembling them in the back rooms of gigs so we'd have records to sell. There's a few killer tracks on there though, you'll be seeing them leak out on the vinyl versions of our albums if all goes as planned.

You got your first album coming out soon on Longshot Music. Tell me about that.

Danny: -It's called "Broken Guitars and Trashy Bars", it's a split with Hiroshima Mon Amour out of Germany. To be completely honest they show us the fuck up on this one, killer band. Our tracks on it are good though, and really have interesting stories about how we rounded up the cash to record each one, unfortunately if we told them we'd probably get shot or at least beat up really good, so we'll leave them untold.

Ben: -I'm really excited about this. We just got the artwork back and it looks amazing. It's coming out in September and each band has 6 Tracks on it. You can defiantly hear a maturity in our sound compared to the last release and the Hiroshima tracks just plain rule.

How did you get in touch with that label?

Danny: -It was all Bens doing, he got in touch and started the communication. I'm pretty out of the loop on that whole thing, but Ben is a master of the schmooze and Longshot puts out some really, really great records.

Ben: -We've played with lots of bands on that label and Mike has a real great reputation with Canadian bands. He was the first Label we contacted and he seemed really interested in the whole thing so we just went with it.

You have only been around for a little over two years now. Whats the best ting that has happened to the band since you started out?

Ben: - Finally getting this record out. The songs themselves have been recorded for a while so we're currently writing more shit for a full length we wanna record in the winter. Right now we're having a blast playing shows and writing new songs. This whole thing is a trip.

Danny: -I'd say it's cleaning up as far as the drugs go, to all the kids out there who think doing lots of drugs will make you cool or better or more rock n' roll, don't, it just costs a lot of money and drains your will to do anything but. Since we've gotten clean we've made about 500% more progress than we did before.
Other than that, I think the best thing that happened to us so far was hooking up with Longshot so we can actually get our tunes out there so people will come party with us when we play in their towns.

Do you play a lot of live shows?

Danny: -Not as many as we'd like, but we're definately upping it now. We've probably only played 30 shows since we've started, about a show a month.

Ben: -We're working on a tour of Eastern Canada right now and we got about 3 or 4 shows booked in our city for the next month or so. We're keeping busy.

What's the best show you played so far?

Danny: -Every show we play is the best one because we're very focused on improving and playing each show like it's our first and last one. Whether we're playing to 15 kids or 150 we try to make them really fucking glad they came out.

I think you are the first Canadian band I’ve ever interviewed. Do you think theres a difference between American and Canadian bands?

Danny: -There's definately differences, there's a lot more opportunity there for getting you name out there and playing with other touring bands and record labels and general population. I think the bands out of Canada that really work hard really have to love it because of the distances and time commitment to touring is so different. They're also a lot more pissed off about politics, Canadas pretty chill, you can smoke your weed or piss on a flag and no one really gives a shit, so we get a lot less worked up, and we don't have a dumbass redneck running the country...

When youre not playing music in The Crackdown you are...?

Danny: -I'm spending time with my kid and working my shitty job, Scott is sleeping or drinking or hanging out with the wrong kind of women. Darwin is building fucked-up instruments and working, and Ben runs a small clothing company called SOHO Trash where he prints t-shirts for older bands that are much loved and revered but you'd be hard pressed to find merch for anywhere.
Ben: -Listening to old records, watching Gary Busey movies, blowing money on worthless junk...

What do you think of Canadian punk rock?

Danny: -On one hand there's a ton of great bands from Canada, it fucking rules, too many to list. On the other hand it sort of sucks because it's a gigantic geographic country, you can drive 18 hours in either direction of Winnipeg before you hit another major city.
Ben: -I listen to a lot of Canadian punk. Mostly old stuff like Teenage Head, The Forgotten Rebels, The Viletones, Pointed Sticks, D.O.A. Lately we've got some great bands too.

Any cool bands youd like to tell me about?

Ben: -As far as newer Canadian bands I recommend you check out The Tranzmitors, The Wednesday Night Heroes, Knucklehead, The Fallout, & The Farrell Bros. All of those bands are top notch!

Danny: -Check out Hiroshima Mon Amour, the band we're doing the split with, and buy their new split with the Crackdown so those deadbeats can finally record a full-length.

And what about punk in general?

Danny: -I'm not seeing as many kids in the city into it as when I was 16, and that saddens me, it's kept me feeling like an individual who's worth something my whole life, me and Ben got into punk rock together, we traded records and talked about it while we were in pee-wee football together, the coaches would scream at us because we'd be sitting on the sidelines talking about music. This shit defined my life up until now, and I'm glad I can play in a great band with my best friends and keep fucking shit up, punk rocks not a dirty word, I hope to love it until the day I die. We all do.
Ben: -There's a lot of great music out there right now, its just diluted by the amount of artists out there.  

Is there anything else youd like to say before we end this interview?

Danny: -Thanks for getting in touch with us, letting us break your canuck-interview cherry, and keep on spreading the good shit around man.

Ben: -Buy our new record and bring us to Europe.

Thanks for letting me ask you these questions and good luck!

Danny: -You too buddy, I hope we can meet one day. Coming to europe to tour a whole new continent is kind of our dream...

LINKS:

http://www.myspace.com/thecrackdown