Switch... The first thing I want to say is that is a hell of a web site. Are you the artist? I usually have graphics made for my interviews, but yours is so unique I don't think I can come up with anything any better. Do you want to use some of your art on the entrance page to your article? I'd like to include that angle in your article... so tell me about that.
Rich ...Thanks, mon! Yeah I do all the artwork. If ya want to use any of it, that'd be great.
The website has been through many incarnations of the same theme and it's always a work in progress. But basically we wanted something that promotes the band, but is something different than a typical band website.
We wanted it to be fun and entertaining on it's own so folks would want to come back. Occasionally there are "secret" links to find and stuff like that. I'm working on some interactive animated stuff right now, but I'm fighting with bandwidth issues. If it works out, it'll be pretty cool.
I decided to go with the "Space Bunny-Alien Chick" theme to go with our mascot, LBOE (pronounced "elbow") the skeleton who is perpetually horny. And also for the eye candy value because I likee the eye candee. And I figured if I like it, at least three other people will too.
The characters have taken on a life of their own now. We use them in all our flyers. (Check out the 3D Art deck of the website for examples) And they are even featured in an animated movie projected during our Pink Floyd tribute set. And late at night they talk to me, but that's another interview. lol
"Spank that Puppy"
http://www.lastband.com/TheLastBandOnEarth-SpankThatPuppy.mp3
Switch... Listening now to "Spank that Puppy. Strangely enough a lot of bands write about dogs. What is the significance of that in music?
Rich ... I didn't know that. It's not actually about a dog though. It's really about guys. This gal I know was always saying "Men are dogs!" Maybe because I'm always humping her leg. I dunno. So I just started thinking about parallels between guys and dogs. It's funny because most girls think its about a dog and most guys get the not so hidden references to a guy's behavior.
Insert song "Jack Rabbit"
http://www.lastband.com/Jackrabbit.mp3
Switch... JackRabbit... what can you tell me about this song?
Rich... Our drummer, Steve Ryan, wrote the lyrics and most of the music. I set the arrangement and punched it up a bit. He kind of referred to it as "a new kid taking on the local pro type of thing".
The funniest thing happened while we were playing "Jackrabbit" at a local club. Casper, the bass player, lost one of his "funky fingers" down a girl's shirt. Got your attention? Okay, here's the poop. On this song, Casper uses a couple of devices called "Funky Fingers". They were developed by bassist, Tony Levin.
They are short, rubber coated, drum stick like appendages, that strap on to the first two fingers and you tap the bass strings with 'em. It's a cool percusive bass sound. Well he was tappin' away and one of them flew off and went straight down the shirt of a gal dancing in front of the stage and lodged in her more than ample cleavage.
Without missing a beat, he bent over, rammed his hand down her shirt and came up with the "Funky Finger" back on. He also got a date out of that deal too... Lucky bastard!
Switch... In all music, you hear a lot of riffs from other artists. Some say, they put the riffs in hoping the public will identify with the original. Others say, it is a type of loose communication in music and certain riffs mark answers. What can you tell me about this?
Rich... Riffs to me are the meat of a song. That may be because, I'm a guitar player. When you've been around as long as I have (let's just say I started out on a coal-powered guitar amp) you've heard every riff known to man and it seeps into your music.
I don't think you can help having a "familiar riff" in a song. If you listen to music at all, something is gonna stick in your head and it'll probably come out in your songwriting. My bass player is always saying, "Hey, that sounds like Skynyrd" and "That sounds like ZZ Top". And I always correct him, "No, they sound like me!" Frickin' #%^*& bass players!"
I grew up and learned to play guitar in the Land Down Under, or as you Yanks call it, Texas. It was pretty much Southern Rock or C&W on your radio, sometimes both. So alot my songs always have that flavor to them. Certain songs, like "Spank That Puppy" and "Mental Floss" are straight out homages to the "Top."
There again, we're not trying to come up with an original sound. Our music is pretty much about drinkin', partyin', and gettin' laid, which may explain why we're fairly popular in Ireland, Germany, and Australia. I mean look at our song titles. We like to write funny songs.
Whenever we get together, we start crackin' each other up and things just degenerate from there. If we ever do write something serious, it's usually an accident. I used to write serious stuff along time ago. But I lost my angst at Mardi Gra one year and I can't find it anywhere.
"The Last Band On Earth was formed in February 1996 by Colorado Springs radio personality Steve Ryan ." Quote from your message board.
Switch... Tell me a little about the naming. Was your band set up strictly to follow certain market trends and then evolved?... Did you boys belong to other bands and do this as a joke? What was the occassion, that you would have been with Steve Ryan?
Rich... Steve, who was a dj on the morning show of the #1 local rock station, decided to put together a party band and held an audition. The band I was in had just broken up, so I figured what the hell. I actually didn't make the cut, because he decided to go with some other guys that were already a band and just needed a drummer. That band did one show and broke up.
So a couple of weeks later, I get a call from Steve and he says he remembered me from the audition and he wanted me and this other loser, we'll call Casper, to form a band. Well, I'm thinkin' free beer so I say "okay!" And the rest is Rock History.... well, not quite.
We three amigos hit it off immediately and decided to make the Party Band from Southwestern Hell! Casper came up with the name of the band. As we're going through lists of ethereal and pathetically overused band names, things just naturally degenerate into a joke band name session. Monkee Poo, The Liver Spots, Delll Starrr (3 l's and 3 r's) and the Nifty Tones, Hu Flung Du, etc.
Then Casper tells us, "We gotta call it The Last Band On Earth!" Of course we're thinkin' he's been eating the cotton out of asprin bottles again, when he tells us this long-winded story of when he was in a band back in Jersey and they really sucked. He would always try to get his girlfriend to come and see him play and finally she told him, "I wouldn't come to see you if you were in The Last Band On Earth!" Now he is! She still won't come see him.
So now we got a name and the gigs are rollin' in. We really had no intention of doing originals to any degree, but because of Steve's radio connection we get a concert opener for a national band. Well we're thinkin' we can't go out there and open with all cover songs, so we start writing our own stuff, just like I like my women, fast and dirty. lol
We did the show and the originals went over much better than expected. Then the radio station gets hammered with requests for our stuff. The next thing ya know we're recording. Through some Internet connections, we got our first CD airplay overseas and it caught on pretty fast. "Party In My Pants", Mental Floss" and "Rot-Gut Whiskey" all hit the #1 download spots on the Southern Rock chart of MP3.com. Remember them?
"Party In My Pants" even made it into a movie. It was an East Coast Indie film called "The Good Life". We were hoping it was in a sex scene, but we got the next best thing. It's playing as the main character is flyin' down the road in his new Corvette!
Then we got a request from an Italian record label to do one cover and one original song for a Queen tribute album. We have no idea how that came about. So we did it. Ya just never know who's listening to your stuff, huh.
In 2002, we added our keyboard player, Billy Wa. He fit right in as he's just as big of a chauvinist, politically incorrect, beer swillin', skirt chasin' pig as the rest of us. He has really broadened our horizons as to the kind of stuff we can write and play now. Now we can write songs about porkin' a waitress with lilting, yet haunting strings.
So all this limited success inspired us to keep on with the originals. Currently, we're working on songs for the next CD which will be more of the same debauchery. After all, Billy Gibbons can't live forever.... or can he?
Of course for the local club scene we still have to play covers, but we pull out all original shows for concerts and special events, etc. and that's when it really gets fun. We decided along time ago that we'll keep doin' it as long as it's fun. The day things get too serious is the day we'll quit.
At the time of this writing Rich assures me, they are definitely having fun!
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