After almost ten years of playing on the road, DC ska band, The Pietasters continue to deliver crazy beer-fueled mayhem to the masses. The band has played with big stars and even graced the screen of MTV. They still maintain their DC residence when they’re not touring however, and manage to easily sell out DC’s 9:30 club several times a year. Singer Steve Jackson and bassist Jorge Pezziment recently sat down with the Hatchet’s Andrew Phillips to discuss their success, new ventures, and their love for his book-bag.
SJ: I dig the plaid bag man.
AP: Hey Thanks
SJ: You should get a kilt that matches it.
AP: I wish
SJ: The best thing about kilts is you don’t have to take anything down to pee. You can stand right at the keg and take care of your business, then grab another beer.
AP: Well I guess I got my big quote. I can go home now. Anything else you want to say?
SJ: What else can we tell you?
AP: Well, What’s going on with the new album?
SJ: We’re kind of piecing it together now. We’ve done about nine rhythm tracks. We’ve got a new home studio thing.
AP: No more big studios?
JP: Wasting money in studios is bad. We’ve learned that by wasting money in big studios.
SJ Right, wasting money is bad, recording songs is good. It’s coming along. It’ll be out this spring we hope. We had Christmas and Chanukah and then our old friend Todd died, and that threw a monkey wrench into everything.
JP: And of course someone flew a plane into some buildings. It been a rough couple months.
AP: No doubt man, no doubt. On a lighter note, is it true that you guys demand a case of beer for every show?
SJ: Only one? We need like four or five. We try and get as much as we can.
AP: That’s a lot of beer. So you guys do make requests on the road?
SJ: There’s nothing outragous about it. Every band..
JP: Let’s put it this way, ten guys on the road, what would you rather have a bunch of green M&M’s or beer?
SJ: You’ve got to be reasonable. If your selling a million records you can be like ‘I want a blonde and a brunette and a bag of coke.’ We’re just a little rock ‘n’ roll band. All we want is another case of beer
SJ: We had to take the liquor off the list. We bring it ourselves.
AP: What like you got it in a flask?
SJ: All these people try to steal our beer, the people that sneak backstage. I’m like ‘you dick, I got you in for free, now your drinking my beer. Buy your own drink asshole.’ We don’t come to your job and drink your beer.
AP: You guys went over to Europe recently. What are the audiences like out there?
JP: Smellier.
SJ: They like American bands. They hate our government and they’ve got a lot more mustaches.
JP: And there’s the “German Compliment.”
SJ: We get the German complement which is like 20% praise and 80% insult. It’s always some German guy and he thinks he’s being really nice.
JP: “I’d really like you band if it weren’t such shit.”
AP: You guys all have day jobs in DC, right?
SJ: Day jobs, night jobs, or rich girlfriends. You just have to hustle. Jorge sells a lot of drugs.
JP: Yeah mad weed, to the kids I give guitar lessons to. Not really though.
AP: Hey, you do what you’ve got to do. How do you guys work up the crazy stage show?
SJ: Weren’t you listening? We’ve got like seven cases of beer.
