INTERVIEW
THE POLITICIANS
by Christer Davidsson, September 2006

Hey! What’s up?

Icky Pete: Hey, how are you, it’s good talking to you today.

I really enjoyed “Welcome to the War”! Have you sold a lot of it?

Yeah, sales have been good. On our last U.S. tour in June we moved a lot of discs and our sales on Interpunk.com and at our local music stores have been strong as well.

Have you been getting good reviews of it?

The reviews have been great, over the last few months a lot more people have discover the album and the reviews of it have increased. So far they have all been positive, hopefully it continues.

A lot of shows since the release of it?

We have been touring and playing nonstop for over a year to support the album. However, we are currently recording a new album, so we haven’t been playing as much lately. But, as soon as our new album is released we will be back on the road.

Who’s in the band? Have you been in any other bands before?

The band is currently made up of Ando (vocals/guitar), myself (guitar), and Mike Betancourt (bass). We are currently between drummers, but our friend Louie from the band Code 4-15 is playing the drums for us on the new album. Me and Ando have been playing in bands together since we were in junior high, however most of them were garage bands who only played house parties and various warehouses.

What made you decided to start the band in the first place?

After our last band broke up four years ago Ando starting writing a few songs that were a lot different then the music were playing previously. One night I was hanging out at his house and he said he was going to go jam with this guy Rob (our original drummer), and asked me if I wanted to come along. We went over and met Rob and started playing a few songs. After a few minutes Ando started playing one of the new songs he had written and everything just clicked and the Politicians were formed that night.

How would you describe the Politicians?

I would say we are a Punk Rock band who is influenced 1977 punk and traditional roots rock. Specifically we are very much influenced by the early Clash recordings, Stiff Little Fingers, and the Pogues. However, we are also fans of classic rock bands like the Who, the Kinks, the Animals, and more modern punk bands such as Swingin Utters and One Man Army.

Who does the song-writing?

Me and Ando do all the song writing. Songs are usually written one of two ways either Ando writes a whole song himself, or I bring him a song or song part and we work it out together. After the songs are completed we take them to the band to work out the rest.

You have been playing together with a lot of great bands such as Smogtown and The Forgotten. How was that?

It’s always great playing with bands you have listen to for years. Smogtown and the Forgotten were great guys and put on awesome shows. It was definitely a privilege playing with them. It was real treat opening for the Swingin Utters, they are one of our favorite bands and playing a show with them was truly a great experience. They are cool guys and they gave us a lot of great feedback on our music.

Do you think that has helped you out as a band?

Oh, no question. You get a lot of good advice, more exposure, and you make a lot of new friends.

Why should people check out The Politicians?

People should check out the Politicians because we play no nonsense punk rock. Our songs cut write to the point. We avoid long intros, long solos, and you can always tap your foot to the tune. Our live sets are always different, you never know what your going to get at a Politicians show, except you will always get a show.

I read somewhere about a full-length. When will it be out? Who will put it out?

We completed the drum tracks for the new album last weekend at the famous Orange Whip Studios in Santa Barbara and we are finishing the rest of the album down here in Orange County. We start recording the rest of the album next week and we expect it will probably be out in December. We are putting the album out under our own label Anchor Steady Records at first, but we are going to be shopping it around to a few labels we know.

I’m really looking forward to it, do you have songs for it yet?

The album will be titled “Sunday” which is the first song on the album. The disc will have 12 new tracks, half of which we have been playing at shows for the last few months and the other half which we have never played live. We think the album is great so be sure to look out for its release later this year.

Will it be different from your earlier stuff?

I think it is a bit of a progression from our early music, but not a drastic progression. In some ways I think it sounds more like our first EP “Good and Dead”, there are a few tracks that are similar to “Welcome to the War”, and then there are tracks that are different from both albums.

Tell me a crazy Politicians story!

Any crazy Politicians story will most likely always involve our roadie/merch guy Jimmy. Because he will do just about anything we dare him to do. One story is from our last day of tour in Eureka, California. We got into town early and went to the venue to hang out for a while. We all decided that we weren’t going to drink that much because we had a long eight hour drive home after the show. Well unfortunately trying to hang out at a bar all-day and not drink is not an easy thing to do. Needless to say by the time the show was going to start we were all hammered. But, it didn’t stop us from rocking the show. About half way through the set the bartender brought us a tray of whisky shots. I think we took about 3 shots each, but there was still about 8 left on the tray so we made Jimmy come up and finish of the rest of the shots (much to the amusement of the cheering crowd). We finished our set, loaded up our gear, and found Jimmy on the ground rolling in his own puke. We promptly pulled out the video camera and started interviewing him on the happenings of the tour. After the interview was completed Jimmy started stripping of his all his clothes (except his shoes…oddly) . So, Ando told him to go streaking through the venue. Jimbo went charging into the venue and starts doing the helicopter in the middle of the dance floor. We don’t know what happened next (and we don‘t want to know), but when he woke up the next day he had the name “Rose” written on his back.

Any other crazy Politicians story would probably involve us thrashing random houses with Hit By A Semi.

Any plans of coming over to europe?

We were talking about a European Tour with our friends in Sidekick, but we are concentrating on finishing the album right now. Once that is completed we will start working on our touring schedule, so Europe is a possibility.

What are your plans for the near future?

We are going to finish the album, get it mixed, get it mastered, and then plan the tour to support it’s release.

Anything else you’d like to say to the readers?

Yeah, if your readers are into the Clash and traditional 1977 punk rock please check our tunes at myspace.com/thepoliticians. If you like what you hear our album can be purchased on www.interpunk.com and please feel free to contact us on our myspace page or by email at thepoliticians@hotmail.com if you have any question for us or just want to say hey.

Ok, that’s it! Nice talking to you, thanks a lot and good luck with everything!  
Cheers brother!!!


Links:

http://www.myspace.com/thepoliticians