CKY

Shauna O'Donnell: HEY JESS, THANKS FOR TALKING WITH ME TODAY.
Jess: Hey, how's it going?

Shauna O'Donnell: IT'S GOING PRETTY GOOD. YOU GUYS HAVE A NEW SINGLE OUT CALLED "THE AFTERWORLD."
Jess: Yeah it just came out a little bit ago. We basically did it for the Jackass 3D movie.

Shauna O'Donnell: WAS THE SONG WRITTEN SPECIFICALLY FOR THE MOVIE OR WAS IT SOMETHING YOU WERE WORKING ON ALREADY?
Jess: We've been friends with those guys forever and we got really excited when they said they were doing a third one in 3D. They wanted us to do a song and we already had the music written, but we did shape the lyrics a bit. Originally it was called “You’ll Never Die in the 3D World." Jackass loved it, but they said it was a little to literal. They didn’t want us to be too tied to they movie, so we switched up the words a bit.

Shauna O'Donnell: IS IT IN THE MOVIE OR ON THE SOUNDTRACK?
Jess: Yeah it's in the movie right at the end. Did you see the film yet?

Shauna O'Donnell: I HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET, BUT I INTEND TO SEE IT. I HEARD YOUR BROTHER (BAM MARGERA) GOT PRETTY BEAT UP IN IT.
Jess: Yeah of course they dropped him in a snake pit again. He made the mistake of telling somebody one time that he is terrified of snakes. You don’t tell those guys that because they will use it against you.

Shauna O'Donnell: YEAH REALLY, YOU TELL THEM YOU LOVE SNAKES.
Jess: (Laughing) Yeah I can't get enough of them.

Shauna O'Donnell: IS THIS THE FIRST SONG TO FEATURE SOMEONE ELSE ON VOCALS OTHER THAN DERON?
Jess: No, Chad has done some stuff, he is our soundtrack guy. Whenever someone asks for music for a soundtrack, he is always the one to step up to the plate. Chad sang on some other songs, my brother needed something for his movies and t.v. shows, so he has sung before on some stuff. It is mostly Deron though; I’d say 95% of the time.

Shauna O'Donnell: WHEN DID THE SOUNDTRACK RELEASE?
Jess: It came out on Epitaph a week or two ago. It’s a really good soundtrack. There are a lot of good, old punk songs. It was put together really well and we were stoked to be a part of it.

Shauna O'Donnell: IF YOU DO A VIDEO FOR THE SONG WILL IT INCLUDE FOOTAGE FROM THE MOVIE OR WILL YOU DO SOMETHING TOTALLY DIFFERENT?
Jess: It's funny that you mention that because we have been talking about doing a video. No, it’s not going to have anything to do with the movie really. Chad has this big elaborate plan, but I won’t go into it too much. I think we are going to probably film it this week coming up.

Shauna O'Donnell: I TALKED TO YOU BEFORE YOU RELEASED CARVER CITY. IT’S BEEN OVER A YEAR.
Jess: Yeah, time flies.

Shauna O'Donnell: I READ THAT YOU ARE NOT WORKING ON A NEW ALBUM, BUT YOU WILL RELEASE SONGS AS SINGLES.
Jess: Yeah, we're not a low maintenance band. When we do a record it really takes a lot out of us, it costs a lot of money and it takes a lot of time. In today’s day and age it doesn’t seem worth it anymore. People have too much A.D.D. to even pay attention to a twelve song album. I'm leaning towards more of an EP or singles. I think that is the way things are going. I think it's going to go back to the way it was in the 50’s and 60's. People rarely put out full length records. They put out EP's and singles it seems like.

Shauna O'Donnell: YEAH IT WAS A SINGLE WITH A B SIDE.
Jess: Yeah and we did a B side for "The Afterworld." It has received such a great response. It’s cool because when you do one song at a time you can focus on that song. You spend all of your time working on that one song instead of a batch of a dozen. You can pay attention to detail a little more and get more intricate with production.

Shauna O'Donnell: I HEAR THAT YOU MAKE MORE MONEY PUTTING OUT A SINGLE ON ITUNES THAN YOU DO WITH PUTTING OUT AN ALBUM.
Jess: Yeah, digital is definitely the way. It has officially taken over I think. It's sad to say and I hate to say it, but physical media has gone away. It’s not just CD's anymore, it’s books and DVD's too. The craziest thing is I never thought we would see books go away because a book is a book. I didn’t think you could replace paper for when you are reading, but these IPads are pretty awesome. I saw someone reading a book on an IPad the other day and it looks great. It looks just as good as a piece of paper. I have to get my wife one for our anniversary coming up. It's taken over and it's crazy.

Shauna O'Donnell: HOW MANY SONGS HAVE YOU WRITTEN THAT ARE READY TO RELEASE AS SINGLES?
Jess: We have so much stuff that it’s crazy. My brain wants to explode just thinking about it. Fifteen years of songs building up, B sides that we have and radio BBC sessions from England. We are going through it right now. I have been arguing back and forth with Chad for months about how to put it out. Yesterday we finally agreed that it should probably be a box set. I think if you have three CD’s worth than people might not want to download all of that, they will want to buy it.

Shauna O'Donnell: YOU HAVE A NEW BASS PLAYER BY THE NAME OF MATT JANATIS.
Jess: He has been around a long time. I've known him since the day we started recording our first record. He’s very talented and he plays everything. He's like a Dave Grohl. He even played drums on one of the B side songs that we have. I was out getting some dinner and they threw the song together while I was out. They said "Yeah, Matt played drums." I was like “Okay, cool, that makes my life easy." He's a great guitar player, a great bass player and he used to play keys in CKY on a couple of tours and then we switched him over to bass. Who knows, maybe on the next tour we will have him on guitar.

Shauna O'Donnell: NEXT WEEK YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO EMBARK ON A FOURTEEN CITY TOUR. YOU HAVE BEEN A BAND FOR TWELVE YEARS NOW. HOW HAS THE ECONOMY AFFECTED THE BAND AS FAR AS TOURING IF AT ALL?
Jess: I hate to say it, but we find ourselves going overseas way more. We just came back from New Zealand and Australia. We go to Europe a lot because the concerts are better there. They don’t have country and rap so much, it’s just all rock over there.

Shauna O'Donnell: I HAVE NOTICED THAT A LOT MORE BANDS ARE STARTING TO PLAY OVER IN AUSTRALIA NOW, BEFORE I WOULD ALWAYS HEAR IT WAS TOO EXPENSIVE AND NOT GEOGRAPHICALLY REASONABLE.
Jess: Oh yeah, it's brutal for sure, but once you are over there it's great.

Shauna O'Donnell: I WONDER WHY THAT HAS CHANGED.
Jess: Those people are nuts over there. Those shows that we just did were some of our best shows in years. The people just go crazy, they love it.

Shauna O'Donnell: BAM JOINED YOU ON THAT TOUR. WHAT DID HE CONTRIBUTE TO THE SHOW?
Jess: He tagged along on the tour and played a preview for the movie. They brought out a big screen before we went on and played some of the Jackass stuff. He gave people a taste of it.

Shauna O'Donnell: HE DIDN'T DO ANY STUNTS THEN?
Jess: No, he sat next to me on my drum riser and sipped on beers the whole time. He did a lot of press, more than I could ever think of. It was a good time.

Shauna O'Donnell: THAT'S COOL, DID YOU GET DENIED ENRTY AT THE CANADIAN BORDER FOR THE OCTOBER 31ST SHOW?
Jess: Yeah we did, some of us had DUI's and they are getting really strict on that stuff. We were just in Canada last year and somehow we managed to get through. This year they are really cracking down I guess. We found out a week ago that we wouldn’t be able to go, so I’m really bummed about that.

Shauna O'Donnell: I BET THE CANADIANS ARE BUMMED TOO BECAUSE A LOT OF THEM ARE FANS OF YOURS.
Jess: I hate to say it, but it looked like it would have been one of the best shows of the tour so we definitely have to get back there somehow. We have Europe coming up next year and I was thinking "Oh great, is that going to be affected?" They said no, they are mellow about it, it's just Canada.

Shauna O'Donnell: WILL YOU BOOK A SHOW SOMEWHERE ELSE IN ITS PLACE?
Jess: We were thinking about it, but it's just so last minute now that I don’t think it will be worth it. I will get to trick or treat with my daughter now.

Shauna O'Donnell: DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR SIDE PROJECT?
Jess: Yeah, I'm doing The Company Band with Neil Fallon from Clutch, James Rota from Fireball Ministry and Brad from Fu Manchu. We have been talking about re-doing that EP and throwing some extra stuff on there because we have some cover songs that we've done. It’s tough because both Clutch and CKY are relentless tourers. Fu Manchu has been doing a lot of touring too.

Shauna O'Donnell: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE INTERVIEW. WOULD YOU LIKE TO ADD OR SAY ANYTHING?
Jess: Thanks a lot for talking to me Shauna.

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Tags:  CKY  , Jess Margera, interviews

Shauna O'Donnell    October 20, 2010