conducted by Ernie Mejia
JACKASS first came to my attention at a benefit show at La Luz De Jesus art gallery. Their sound was so refreshing yet familiar. I couldn't help but to use it as a soundtrack in my head for all the things that I was thinking about at the moment. Last week they were kind enough to invite NO-FI to their studio to listen to their fabulous JACKASS sound and sit down with us to talk about the band, music and the twists in life that make it so refreshing and wonderful. The interview began with the discussion of a pitbull puppy and its mommy and daddy.
E = Ernie Mejia [Answer Seeker] / C = Chris Beyond [Shadow Man] / B = Brien Heinz [Guitar Vocals]
Bd = Brandon Heinz [Bass/Vocals] / Bk = Brooke Sauer [Guitar] / N = Nikki Graveline [Drums]
E: So...the parents (of the puppy) are incestual?
Bk: Mmmm Hmm.
E: Excellent.
C: No it's not.
Bk: Hey, what's wrong with incest? Keep it all in the family.
E: You're being recorded.
Bk: Oh, did I say that?
(giggles)
B: So you guys interviewed DEVO? That's cool. Those guys rock, but they don't rock as hard as JACKASS. Put that in your interview.
C: (Joking) They never really rocked.
B: They kind of did though.
C: They just went BEEP! beep! BEEP! beep!
(Brien sits down to play the drums)
Bk: He wants to be the man of many talents.
N: Yeah, he just wants...he just THINKS he is, but he's not!
Bk: Some people are just defensive about their instrument, you know? Most people are like, "I play guitar, you don't play guitar." I want to sing, but no one will let me sing.
C: So sing. Just go "Loooooh!"
E: How long have you been in the band?
Bk: Since February. I moved here in January and I work with Brandon, so I started in February.
E: Who are the original members?
N: Me and Brien.
E: Really?
Bd: They started as a two-piece and uh...
Bk: Tell the whole story. It's beautiful.
N: Noooo.
Bd: Brien was going to Layola Marymount and Nikki was living next door. She was, I think, eleven at the time and, uh, Nikki, kind of, had a big crush on Brien at the time.
N: You didn't have to include that.
Bd: She would write Brien little love letters and leave them in Brien's mailbox. This was in...
N: This was back when I was in 5th grade.
Bd: And so...this was in Inglewood. Then Nikki professes her love to Brien and Brien goes, "Look...we can't go out. There's an age difference here, but lets start a band. So Nikki was down and they started a band called JACKASS.
N: And then I got to know Brien and I didn't like him any longer!
E: The truth comes out.
Bd: She loves him still. It's a secret love... But that's the short story. Brien's story is a little different. It's all, "She was in love with me and blah blah blah..."
E: When did it turn into a full band?
Bd: Well Nikki was playing with him a lot and then they recorded it with this guy Robert Hammer's studio and they sent their demos to this one label Piece Of Mind and they wrote back saying, "I love it. Let's put this out" and they put out a CD. My best friend at the time Alan Coy was actually the original bass player and he just joined up with them, but He's such a stoner flake...
N: Flake.
Bd: ...that they kicked him out and I took his position. (To Brian who had walked out and now back in) You're missing the whole JACKASS interview. We're recording now.
Bk: It's over.
N: Go eat your watermelon then!
B: I had to make a very important phone call to Mike.
N: Sure.
B: Now my landlord will find out what's going on in this studio, but that's a story in itself. He's trying to kick me out of the apartment because I walk like a drunken asshole.
Bk: There's a special way you have to walk on hardwood floors.
B: The landlord's handyman lives below me.
Bk: He'll even come upstairs to demonstrate how to walk on hardwood floors.
B: "Somebody's discombobulated!"
E: So he's the mole or what?
B: Yeah, exactly, he's the mole.
E: So, on your tour, where are you guys going?
Bk: We're going to San Francisco, Olympia... NO...Portland first then Seattle, Olympia, Vancouver and back again.
B: And San Diego when we get back.
E: So it's a West Coast tour.
B: Yeah, it's our first tour.
Bk: Someday we'll go to France.
B: Hey, so our label is going to put our record CD out in Europe. We just found out.
E: Oh, yeah?
B: Yes, a label in London called Rose Reunion... We might go out and tour over there.
C: That's really cool. Are they going to pay? Hopefully?
B: Yeah, well, they have promoters there that buy the plane tickets and rent the van for you and get your equipment...
C: I think that's what Japan does.
B: TWO TRACK STAR and CYCLER SET went to Japan for two weeks... Isn't that rad?
E: Who's your favorite local band?
N: I don't have a favorite.
Bd: I do! I think BURGUNDY's not so bad.
B: THE NONCHALANTS are a great band.
Bd: There you go...THE NONCHALANTS.
C: I know Joey Sensitive.
E: Are they Silverlake or Hollywood?
B: They're Silverlake locals. Let's play a few songs for you guys.
(JACKASS plays a short set of songs for us!)
C: "Nowhere Faster" is my favorite.
B: That's a damn old song. Five years. Six years...
E: Is that one of the original songs?
B: Yeah, well it started with just me and Nikki...
N: We already told them the story.
B: Yeah we wrote like ten songs then we picked up this crazy cockroach Alan to play bass, but he was way too funky for us so Brandon took over. I taught Nikki how to play drums.
N: Play drums and we'll see about that.
B: Dude, you couldn't play a beat when I met you.
N: I played one beat. That's all.
Bk: all right! all right!
N: I gotta go.
E: Weak!
B: Ask her anything.
C: (cutting in) Have you ever held a monkey?
N: I wish. This is my little monkey. (She hugs her girlfriend Jennifer)
Bk: No, actually I haven't. That's a sensitive point. I want to, but I have not.
E: If you were stranded on a desert island and you could bring one thing with you, what would you bring and how long do you think you could play with it until it broke and you became a miserable wreak.
N: I'd bring her (Jennifer) and I don't think I'd break it.
C: Let's hope not.
Bd: I'd probably bring a tambourine. It's endless fun. How many beats can you come up with on a tambourine?
E: Millions!
Bk: I'd bring monkeys.
E: Monkeys?
Bk: Yeah.
C: Wouldn't they already be there, maybe?
Bk: It depends on what island. If I was stranded on a desert island, I would really want there to be monkeys so if there were none, I would have to bring them.
C: Cuz, you GOTTA have monkeys PLUS they can be good food.
Bk: Monkeys inspire me. You have no idea how much they inspire me in my art, my music, my life.
B: I'd bring Crime And Punishment. No! I'd bring my girlfriend.
E: Then you can make an island community.
B: Yeah, I mean...you need to, but you mean an object...not a person. I'd bring THE CURE's "Standing On A Beach."
E: But again, you'd need a CD player. That's two things.
C: You would need a Standing On A Beach Machine® that specifically plays nothing but that.
E: What's your best childhood memory?
N: Playing in this band...probably when it first started. Trying to play drums.
E: That's cool. I didn't get to join a band until I got out of high school.
N: I was eleven.
E: Have you ever ridden a horse?
N: Depends...
B: The room is so sexy tonight.
C: It's Ernie's mystique.
E: Who would you like to jam with?
N: Like famous band? Dave Matthews.
B: No way, really?
N: They're jazz! Of course I would like to play like that drummer.
E: You're a jazz head?
N: I wish I could play jazz. I'm intimidated by it. Them and THE RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS.
B: You know who would be good to play with? That band, "Hey now! You're A Rock Star..."
E: Noooo!
B: That song reminds me a lot of JACKASS.
C: THAT song?!?
B: Yeah.
C: No. It's like pa-poo-pa-peer-poo!
(Nikki has to leave...and does)
E: What are the band's separate personalities?
Bd: Brien is an asshole, Brooke is a bitch, Nikki is the total bitch and I'm the cool.
Bk: Brien is the big brother organizer.
C: That sounds kinda' scary.
Bk: He can be scary.
E: Does he have a big poster of his face on your wall?
Bk: He would. But he's a totally good guy...takes care of shit. He's totally overworked and stressed out. Nikki is the amazing drummer, but she doesn't hang out. She doesn't like the same music we do. She kind of shows up, plays, leaves...you know...takes care of business.
E: But she likes YOUR music.
Bk: She likes the music we play...and Brandon...he's the bass master. The middle man when we fight. I don't even want to get into my personality.
Bd: Brien is the jackass. I am the monkey. Brooke is the giraffe and Nikki is the hedgehog. That's it.
E: What's in your CD player?
B: My influences are THE PIXIES and THE CURE.
Bd: Yeah we all listen to THE CURE a whole lot.
B: I was a death rocker in high school. I wore dresses to high school dances and wore lots of make up.
E: Who writes the songs?
B: Lately, like the new songs, we've been kind of conglomerating, jamming...which is nice.
Bd: I'll come up with a bass-line, then Brien will rip off of that and come up with a structure around it.
Bk: And I'll chime in on things that are worked out.
Bd: And Nikki and I are just locked. And that's the way it works. I like bands from the 50s where the bass and drums are locked and the song is performed around that.
E: What do you think about "Hip-Hop Hard Rock?"
Bd: Like Kid Rock?
E: Yeah, like that *@!%#$!
Bd: I don't think about that at all. I try to stay away from all of that. It corrupts the mind.
Bk: I've always been closed minded about dancing. It's always, kind of, bored me. I've been more open to ambient dance.
(We talk about work and religion. Brooke used to work in a Catholic Bakery)
E: Has JACKASS ever played a show on Halloween?
Bk: It's [Brandon's] birthday actually.
Bd: They played an in-store when I wasn't in the band and they all wore masks.
E: Where do you see the band in 5 years?
B: Broken up.
Everybody: Awwwwwww!
Bk: Don't say that! Pessimist.
B: I don't know. If everything goes well, I'll be playing music all of my life.
Bk: We'll be touring Europe.
E: Who's from out of state or town?
B: Brooke.
Bk: Yeah. I kind of moved around a lot. I came up here from, I guess, Chicago and I, kind of, lived around Texas, Arizona, Georgia, Chicago, wherever.
Bd: Brien and I grew up in East L.A. and Nikki grew up in Inglewood.
E: How has growing up there influenced you?
Bd: I think it influenced me in great ways. I think I'm a street smart person.
Bk: He is.
Bd: And I always know how to buy drugs properly. I've never been arrested. I've never been up against the wall. But Brien and I understand the economics and the politics and the passions of the people as opposed to growing up in Orange County...which I've spent time there too...and it was a nice experience, but that's just it. It was nice. It wasn't an educational experience.
C: Did you have big spiky hair?
Bd: No, I had hair that looked like Morrissey.
Bk: Big hair. Big black hair and make-up. I lived down the street from the ku-klux-klan when I was growing up in Georgia.
C: That's very frightening.
Bk: Yeah. I never had a T.V. so we all used to listen to public radio talk shows and they'd say, "Billy Bob's Klan Get Together down the street" or whatever.
Bd: I'm going to pee around the corner.
C: Take the tape recorder with you.
Bk: And this was all totally on the radio when I was about 8 or 9. back when E.T. was popular and everyone had the T-shirt and you weren't cool if you didn't have the T-Shirt.
C: I had the doll.
E: How old are you now?
Bk: 24. I'll be 25 this year on September 25th. I'm a Libra.
C: Now everyone can send you presents.
E: Heads or Tails?
Bk: Always tails. Where are you guys from?
E: I've lived in (South Bay City infested with two-faced backstabbers) my whole life.
Bk: Really? Do you know Mike Watt?
E: He almost ran me over in the alley outside of (Coastal region breakfast restaurant with really bland food) with his van.
Bd: I almost got run over by David Hasselhoff after some concert at The Troubadour.
C: I almost got ran over by LOVE & ROCKETS and that bald guy from The Hills Have Eyes.
Bk: Do you know that place in (previously mentioned town where people hate you if you are not from there) that has that wiener dog with the tail that used to wag?
E: Yeah, he doesn't do that anymore.
Bk: I used to go there all the time. I'd eat there and I'd look up Mike Watt's name in the phone book and I always felt that I'd run into him so I hung around (smells like fish town) all the time because I was so into MINUTEMEN and I'd go to the Cabrillo Marine Museum and I'd go whale watching all the time. I was just obsessed with Mike Watt.
E: I used to ditch school and watch fIREHOSE when they would play at Harbor College in the middle of the day.
Bk: Isn't he great? (We talk about Mike Watt some more.)
(Well, we all went inside and that's where I think we'll stop. The conversation actually continued in the apartment, but slowly-but-surely everybody just migrated away and left me 'n Chris talking to Brien's roommate about Blair Witch Project and bad interior decoration. I'd like to thank JACKASS for welcoming us into their studio and for being so gracious for our interview. Look for their brand new CD out now. -Ernie)
2003 Update: Several months after this interview, Jackass seemed to disapeer from the Earth. We heard that Brooke was out of the band somewhere through the grapevine and that they were coming back with a new lineup. If they did, we never heard of it and so it seems that they may have passed into band oblivion. If you have any info on anything they're up to or any other projects they've done or are working on, e-mail us and let us know. In the meantime try to find their CD E.P.s "Where Truth Is A Beacon" and "Reality Bites (In Santa Barbara)" on Smilex Records and their self titled full length album on Piece Of Mind Records. They're rare, but they're out there. Oh, and some show called Jackass hit the scene a couple years later and
ThE EnD!
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