the NO-FI "MAGAZINE" interview with Jim McCray of
Conducted on and around P.C.H. by Chris Beyond, Torrance, CA, Feb., 1998


The first interview we ever did here in NO-FI "MAGAZINE" issue #1 was with my ol' pal Jim McCray; formerly of the south bay punk band SHLuMPF and currently the lead singer/guitarist of his own band GYMICRAE. They just released TWO ep-CDs and a vinyl single and are well on their way up the rock-band food chain. We did this interview in various parts of Torrance. Not present are bass player Mike Peralta and drummer Scott Souza.


C = Chris Beyond / J = Jim McCray

(We start our interview at a bus-stop on P.C.H. and Prospect)

Here we are...the No-Fi interview with Jim McCray...year two...from NO-FI, because it's been two years since the first interview.

Is this an annual thing? Is it gonna be like a...

No, it's every TWO years.

So it's bi-annual.

Yes, yes...which means you have to be bi during the interview.

Like I'm not already bi.

Oh, you bi-ster!

Maybe we should go for a ride.

(We laugh)

Where's that?

I don't know...Oh no! First I gotta say...Nice guy...Joe...bassist of F.Y.P...jumped off a cliff! Sad newz. Very nice guy...every time I talked to him.

That sucks.

That should be at the top of the interview. Just say hi to Joe cuz he was a nice sweet guy.

What's Joe's last name?

I actually don't know, I only talked to him a few times, but everytime I did, he was sweet.

Was it just too much for him?

NO! I think he was just the butt of a lot of jokes. I know I teased him. I always said he was like Keanu Reeves playing bass, cuz he kind of looked like him and it was kinda' funny.

Who was the one everyone hated?

Oh, Jed...He's ex-F.Y.P. Long live Jed!

By the way we're at a bus stop at 11 at night.

Yeah, you'd think the bus would be here any minute. Oh, it's 11:15...we missed it!

Well we'll catch the next one.

Yeah, but the next bus to hell doesn't run for another 2 hours. I'm not waiting two hours.

You wanna go to hell NOW!

I gonna just run across the street to ARCO and start pouring gas on the ground so I can just flame up!

Stoners would like that.

Yeah I saw that stoner movie. It's kinda' funny.

Which one?

The new one.

Oh, yeah...what was it "Tye Dyed?"

No it was "Bong Smoked."

Or was it "Reefer Krazy-Wazy?"

No I think it was "Wacky Tobaccee Smacky."

But I thought it was called "No Tobacco...Just Plain Green Smoke."

I already forgot what it's called...I know it isn't "Dazed And Confused." Anyway, we know what the movie is! With that Saturday Night Live guy. and it's kinda funny.

Starring Jim Bruer!

Yeah, that's it! See, you know what it is! You're just trying to be funny! Yeah, you're really funny.

We're walking to P.C.H. now cuz P.C.H. as we know wuz made famous...by SONIC YOUTH. It wasn't famous before.

Noooo...no one had ever heard of Pacific Coast Highway...in any songs, TV, movies or any media of any sort.

I guess we're going this way.

Medium...I'm sorry medium is the word.

Oooh, we're going to the park, is that it?

Yeah, we can go to the park...

Are we gonna get raped?

Yeah, yeah, c'mon!

Cool. We're crossing the street.

There's some jocks right here in a nice station wagon which I wish I had cuz I really like station wagons actually. My first car was a station wagon a 75 custom cruiser. A bruiser of a car.

FUCK YEAH, MAN! So it's been two years...what have you been up to?

Aw, man...you know...just drinking a lot of beer! Just trying to stay numb like all the other punk rockers!

Did you ever reach your goal of playing with a meatloaf? I know that wasn't printed in the original interview. It was too controversial so I had to cut that out and erase all knowledge of that part of the interview ever existing.

No, I'll have to say no. In all seriousness, I've just been, like, working really hard, trying to get records out and trying to organize myself in general.

So...product placement...

No ex-girlfriends.

You've had no ex-girlfriends?

No, just don't bring them up.

Your girlfriend is now On The Market, so I guess that's product placement, but I guess I'll get past that.

Product placement? I'll start with the promotional shtick. We got two cd-eps out. Ones called "Strong Man Wins", the other is called "Execution Of Karma." We have a split seven inch and we're on a bunch of compilations. Right now we're working on a full length which is fucking giving me a lot of headaches because we have a self imposed deadline of three months from now. It's gonna be called "Existentialist's Handbook" and there's a lot of work to do in three months. Gotta have about 5 more songs written.

CD?

It'll be on CD, vinyl, maybe tape...I don't know...maybe on tape for NO-FI's Spiffy Records.

Ok, I'll put it out on tape. You heard it here folks! Wooo! This is big hot stuff!

And every medium is gonna be different too, because the cd version, not to offend the vinyl lovers, is gonna be a whole emersive experience where everything is kind of linked in...one song to the next...a lot of weird ambient stuff going on like you're going on a little trip. Where as the vinyl will be more song oriented and I haven't even thought about how to do the cassette. Maybe we'll put a bunch of Mr. T samples on it or something.

Do you blow up the bad guys at the end?

No, it's actually all the songs linked together in either theme or mood...this sorta' existentialist feeling.

Cuz I like it when the good guys get a big gun and blow up the bad guys. Like, "BOOOOOOMSSSSSHHHHHHH!!!!!"

Well we're saving that for the next record I think it'll be hardcore punk rock!

Cuz I think that'll be really good...if you do that...with the blowing up thing.

I think when I was a little kid I used to pretend that I had guns and...

(Cutting him off) FUCK YOU! DO IT!!!

OK! YES CHRIS!

(We begin to play on the bars in the park)

I'm going to climb up the rounded ladder for slow kids.

Here's a little anecdote from suburban life...you and I right now are breaking the law...by being in this park after 10. Isn't that pathetic?

A lot of people want to know what happened to and what's going on with The Smiths compilation that you were going to put out.

I think I'm going to hand it to some other guy who's doing a Smiths comp and I basically have all my four tracks. I've finally given up on doing a 12 inch with a buncha' bands but I may give the four I have to this other guy and have him do them. It'll be out one way or the other.

It's hard to get people together to do stuff.

Yeah, it's pathetic. There's a band...I forget what they're called, but all they do is Smiths covers. They sent me a tape.They had 15 songs. I said ok, well, do this song... Did I ever hear from them again? No! I don't get it.

(We decide to slide down the winding slide)

Before you go down...maybe you should answer this question as you slide down. What can we expect, other than GYMICRAE, coming up on your label Flavored With Meat Records?

(we slide down)

(as he slides down) Well not a whole bunch coming out anytime soon. (Talking to the Mic) Chris just slid down on his wiener.

Woo! (pause) I kinda skinned it.

No fly...who else goes down the slide on his stomach facing feet first...but feet first...that doesn't make any sense!

(We go to one of those big spinny things)

(Into the recorder) Ok, now we're gonna get a little spin action...what're these things called?

(Yelling from the other side of the spinny thing) A TAPE RECORDER!

No! This thing that I'm on...that YOU'RE on that I'm spinning. (Chris shrugs) Man, I forgot too. It's like a sideways ferris wheel. (We bust up laughing) It's a sideways ferris wheel!

I had an ex-girlfriend with a kid and I took him on one of these and he disappeared. I spun it around really fast and asked him if he was having fun and he said "YEEEEeeeeesssssss...." and just flew away..

That's why she got another boyfriend.

Oh, yeah...

Ugh...uh..uh...my stomach. I am demonstrating some crazy law of physics. I can stand straight up in the middle, but when I take a step out...(he falls to his knees) That was not fun.

So you don't really have anything coming out?

I don't know...the Smiths comp was gonna be it. I might put out some more splits with other labels, because even if we didn't do anything at all at least we have our name on something.

But you didn't pay for the split with BOSSK?

We didn't pay shit, but at least we got our name on it. I wish I could run a label like that. Ok, I really need to get off this thing.

What's going on with the original SHLuMPF tape. Can people still get it?

I think I still have two or three...and I'm just holding on to them cuz one of these days, someone some big Japanese company will come in and I'll sell out. I'm waiting. I'm waiting. The music world has this way of shifting and one day 10 years from now, there are gonna be four people who'll want that tape.

You can sell them for $1000.00!

Well we used to sell them for $6 and then we sold it for 2! In ten years, though, I'll sell it for $3.50. I mean 10 songs!

I advise people to get it. Let's talk about the record you just gave me.

What do you want to know about?

You like it?

I do. It's funny because Mike, the bass player, got me so down on the quality of the recording and mixing. He had me convinced that it was a piece of shit. I put it in the CD player and it's a rockin' little record. Way more punk rock than I remembered it being too. I thought it was gonna be a little more mellow and sleepy.

What do you think of this interview...

Well, I thought it was fairly accurate in some points, but I felt that the mood of the whole interview should've been more uplifting because I found that by the end of it, I really wish the main character had not gotten leukemia.

Uhhh...uhhh...I'm sorry, but that's really sad.


THE END TILL NEXT TIME!



return to no-fi "magazine"