Interview with Lars Frederiksen from Skratch Magazine.
LARS FREDERIKSEN & THE BASTARDS
Shouting out to all the crews and cities, Lars and the Bastards represent the street life, raw and uncensored. Whether they're "Mainlining Murder" or simply popularizing a form of gangster punk, the crazy past is the most significant memory to share. Lars takes this album one step deeper than the first solo record, as he's not afraid to spill his guts out about being in gangs, losing his best friends, getting beat down, and almost losing himself. Instead, Lars told me that writing these stories "is a way of therapy."
Not having heard the album before my interview, I missed out on a lot of questions I could have asked. But now that I have dug deep into the music and lyrics of VIKING, the portrait of the album relates to even bigger issues, like its extreme explicitness. Laced with pornographic pictures and aggressive issues, as a female it's really hard for me to relate to the album. But I was very touched by songs like "The Viking", where Lars uses the spoken word to grasp everyone's attention about the voyages in his life; and "Skins, Punx and Drunx", which pays respect to his multicultural group of friends in a way that really shows his sensitivity towards friendship. Regardless of the delicate topics, VIKING is a strong album that is held down with an amazing team of musicians. The Bastards consist of Big Jay (U.S. Roughnecks), Skatty P.R. (Hepcat), Craig-Leg (Transplants), and Known Bastard (The Forgotten). With the kick-ass drum beats and the hardcore guitar riffs, Lars always continues to expand his talents with every project he touches.
SKRATCH: I'm a big record collector myself, and I heard that you collect vinyl. How diverse of a record collection do you have?
LARS: It's mostly punk rock and reggae. I got a little black metal in there and psychobilly stuff. I think some records sound better [on vinyl], so, if there's a record I really like, I'll get it on vinyl.
SKRATCH: Are they alphabetized and categorized?
LARS: How did you guess?
SKRATCH: Spending some extra time in Tokyo must have been just the creative experience you needed to write new songs for your new album. How different did it feel for you to live in a new country for a while? Was the experience reflected on your album significantly?
LARS: [...] On tour, it's like, you're in different cities pretty much every night, so you always have your creative juices flowing. Whether you're in Lancaster, CA, or you're in Tokyo, Japan, there'll always something that comes to mind. [...] Some days you're connected, and some days you're not. I think it shapes the record, in the sense that [...] the ideas we had for the record kind of took shape in Japan. [...] but they weren't realized until I got home and showed the songs to the Bastards and they put in their own two cents, their style. That's when the record really came to life.
SKRATCH: Having your own solo project must be a completely different experience from Rancid. What are the biggest differences?
LARS: Well, it's not really so different. Me and Tim write all the songs together. We do that with Rancid, too. He produced the record, and he took all the photos for the artwork that's inside the record. It's just another extension of Rancid. [...] Like, Big Jay is my guitar tech, and his band (The Roughnecks) is on Hellcat, so it's all a family thing. Craig plays in Transplants, and Gordy, who has been one of my best friends for 20 years, he plays in the band The Forgotten. Skatty, of course, is in Hepcat, which was on Hellcat Records. It's just kind of another extension of the Hellcat family and the Rancid family.
SKRATCH: I love how your music takes on the title of "keeping it real" both musically and lyrically. You tend to stick to the ruggedness of punk rock, like, by talking about life on the streets, the rough past and the tough future. Is this your own way of keeping memories, of writing your own autobiography, in a way?
LARS: I don't really know what it is. All I know is that it just kind of goes through your conscious in your writing. Even in Rancid, we just talk about what we're going through at the time and what we're facing and the shit that we dealt with when we were kids. It's just a stream of conscious, going through shit with your music and using it as way of therapy and a way of getting a lot of things out.
SKRATCH: Politics definitely makes an appearance on your albums. Do you think your lyrics are politically powerful enough to teach your listeners the concerns they should look after?
LARS: I'm not that type of person [who tries] to teach any of my beliefs down anybody's throat. I think that if there is any message that I have politically, it's: think for yourself. I mean, if you think George W. Bush is the best person to be in office, then go ahead---I'm not going to judge you. I don't particularly think that that's the best person, but, I mean, everybody's got the right to think for themselves and believe what they want to believe. That's what America was founded on---and I'm American. I think it's everybody's own decision how they want to interpret things, and I don't force-feed my politics down anybody's throat.
SKRATCH: Are you a registered voter? How important will the elections be for you this year?
LARS: Yes. Well, I truly believe Bill Clinton was the best president we've ever had, and I wish we didn't have the rule about the terms, because he was the greatest president that we've had in my lifetime. I'm not a Democrat, I'm not a Republican, and I'm not a Green Party person...I'm just kind of like an independent sort of thinker. I believe that people should be able to own guns, but I don't believe that we have the right to tell a woman if she could have an abortion or not, so I'm all over the place when it comes to things. I'm a gun-owner myself, and if someone tried to break into my house, I'd blow their fucking head off. I believe in capital punishment, too. I think that if you rape a young child, you should get your dick cut off and you should be dead; and I think that if you kill, you should be killed.
SKRATCH: I was at the Punks vs. Psychos Tour here in L.A., and I couldn't help but notice something different about your performance. I was always speculating about who is the "Unknown Bastard," and he is now revealed, and is the "Known Bastard." Was it just his time to take off his mask?
LARS: He [Gordy] sings in a band called The Forgotten. The Bastards is always something kind of fun for me. I like to consider myself a pretty humorous guy...and I love professional wrestling, so I thought the guy in the mask would be kind of cool, you know what I mean? But shit changes. You try to do different stuff---and I didn't want him to be in a mask all the time!
SKRATCH: It's a given that you have many tattoos on your body. They must be like a diary to you. But there's something more powerful about your new tattoo on your forehead that reads "SKUNX." In relation to your previous album, Skunx was the street gang you were in as a youth. How does this tattoo mark the importance of this memory?
LARS: Well, there have been a lot guys who passed away who were part of that---my brother being one of them. It's something I believe in. It was a part of my life---and still is a part of my life. I was in Japan, and I've always wanted my forehead tattooed, and fuck it! I'm not embarrassed of anything, and I don't really give a fuck. I've been stupid as a kid. I've been a junkie, I've been homeless. [...] My identity for three or four years was a junkie. I just do things that I feel natural and comfortable with, and I pay homage to those who came before me. I think that's history, and my history is very important to me. I think that my culture is something that I have for my very own [...] and how I'll probably raise my kids, if I ever have any. [...] Part of growing up and joining gangs and stuff is part of my culture, a part of where I come from, a part of what makes me who I am today.
SKRATCH: Would you teach that same thing to your own children?
LARS: My mother taught me and my brother to think for ourselves, and if my kids get out of line, I'm going to spank them on the ass. I think parents these days, they're too hippie about their shit, and I think that this government passes all these laws so that we can have young animals out on the street---because I was one of them. I think that I'll raise my kids how I [see] fit. I won't beat the shit out of them, but I think parents should rule with an iron hand, take control, take responsibility for what they've created. Their whole way of parenting is so much rooted in fear. I never wore a helmet when I rode a bicycle. I crashed into palm trees and got hung by the neck. [...] You got the TV media saying that you should be afraid and you should stay inside for the rest of your life[...] We're driving through fucking Arkansas, and there's a big sign that says, "You call it abortion, God calls it murder." It's the whole right-wing/fucking Christian deal. And yet, you got a right-wing Christian guy in the White House sending the kids who weren't aborted over to Iraq to get killed for his blood money. It's ironic how they think---like, it's okay to go and kill children for somebody's greed. They're pointing the finger, saying they're murdering an unborn child. Yes, they're sending your children off to war to go die for somebody's oil. It's all a scam. Don't even get my wrong by thinking I don't support the people over there who our fighting for our country, because I believe in them. I do not support what the government says this war is about.
SKRATCH: Being that I have not heard the album yet, can you elaborate on the messages behind the ideas and directions you take on VIKING?
LARS: It's basically my life. I'm not a role model or a punk-rock cop or anything like that, I'm just kind of doing what comes natural to me. Willie Nelson plays country music for the last 70 fucking years, and I play punk rock.
SKRATCH: Is there a sense of completeness when you make your own record? Are there more chapters to come?
LARS: I think it's a sense of closure and a sense of urgency to do the next one, because you're always gathering new ideas and new thoughts.
Interview & photo by Annette Ovanessian
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