EXPOSING YOU TO MORE NEW MUSIC

ROYAL DISERTATIONS FROM AN AMAZING CROWN

Stubble Interview by Ken Zebbyn

At THE AMAZING CROWNS show at Lupo’s that we reviewed, Before the show, I got with singer Jason and got into a little history.

Ken: You’re actually based here in Rhode Island?

Jason:Yeah but we’ve been on tour nation-wide and Internationally for like the last two years. Yeah, now its become... its like... I don’t know man... its like I don’t have an apartment anymore, none of us have. How can you? You can be a big fish in a little pond only so long. You have to get out there. Yeah, its good...we’re making a lot of friends and doing well. I am (from RI) and Jack’s from Mansfield Mass. I was actually born in Connecticut but I’ve lived in Rhode Island the past 15 years so.. Yeah, this is my home... definitely... Providence is my home. Providence on our shirts...everywhere, you know... we love it.

Ken: Well there’s not too many big acts that come out of a state that’s this size so you’re bound to be unique in that regard.

Jason: Well, you know, you’ve got VELVET CRUSH, you’ve got SIX FINGER... BOSS FUEL.

Ken: Your good friends THE ROYAL CROWN REVIEW. I guess, the quick little skinny on that.

Jason: Yeah sure... ahhh... When we first formed we were just THE ROYAL CROWNS and then we heard about THE ROYAL CROWN REVIEW out in California so we changed it to AMAZING ROYAL CROWNS thinkin’ that would be enough to kinda put them off the trail. Then we started getting letters from them, from their lawyers and we were on tour constantly at this point... saying it wasn’t enough, it wasn’t enough. Then we were out in Chicago and we got served papers saying they were suing us. They’re on Warner Bros., you know, we’re on a smaller label and ahh...and then we went out to LA on that same tour two weeks later and they served us papers again. Eddie Nickels the singer came down himself and said “This is what’s gonna happen... we’re gonna sue you guys.... blah, blah, blah.” so we’re like “Oh man! What are we gonna do now?”. We were still on tour. We were in Australia when it all went down with THE BOSSTONES and I guess... ahhh... What happened was they took us to court and we didn’t have time to prepare our case... we don’t have the money really to pay the lawyers that much and ahhh.... It got knocked down. We asked for a continuance. It got knocked down so then we were like “Fuck this. Lets settle. It’s just a name. It doesn’t matter.” ya know and we said can we just maybe take the ROYAL out and they were like “Yeah, take the ROYAL out. You have until August 31st to do it.” If we hadn’t settled and we had lost in court we would have lost a lot more money than we lost, we did lose a substantial amount and we would have had to take all the CD’s off the shelf and we would have had to come off tour so... At least we were able to use the ROYAL name for a little while then get back home for a couple of weeks and change it over and then get back out.

Ken: The idea for ROYAL CROWN name. hair grease?

Jason: Hair grease, yeah.

Ken: Now, I did a little research on that and I was told that that was originally... that hair grease was made for African Americans to flatten out curls.

Jason: That’s exactly what it’s made for ummm... funny thing is we recently, right around Thanksgiving and Josh has the photos, we went to ahhh... they gave us a private tour of the factory in Memphis. We happened to be in Memphis. Yeah, so it’s total all ahhh... its always been for African Americans and if you look at Royal Crown hair palmate... Nobody knows this. I found this out. If... We use a lot of palmate, like a lot of hair grease all the time and they always come in metal canisters. Royal Crown doesn’t. It comes in a cardboard canister because what they would do is they would heat it up so they would conk their hair ya know?

Ken: Right, with the heating iron.

Jason: Yeah, so they would heat it up on the oven and that way the metal wouldn’t... you know what I mean? Yeah, oh definitely a great question. I mean... It was hilarious walkin’ through that factory man. All the black guys and girls were like “What are all these weird white guys ya know... what the fuck.” but we’re into it. We actually use it. Yeah, well I like New Nile a lot and ummm... Murry’s I like a lot and then there’s this stuff called Tres Flores and actually there’s this stuff called Black & White which ahhh... the makers of Royal Crown but it’s only available in Europe. They send us cases of the stuff now.

Ken: Any Providence bands of note that influenced you ?

Jason: Yeah, BOSS FUEL. They influenced us. Actually Dennis from BOSS FUEL is here. He’s gonna play with us tonight... 3 songs yeah, but BOSS FUEL influenced us majorly like... seeing BOSS FUEL. Our old guitarist is Johnny the Colonel. He’s not in the group anymore. He’s been out for like six months but ahhh... he was in THE PHANTOM CREEPERS. Jack was in a band called THE MOLE PEOPLE and he was also in a band called THE FLOWER GANG, local bands. Judd, our drummer, was in a band called THE SPEED DEVILS in Boston, a great rock-a-billy band, psychedelic kind of stuff and he was in a country band called THE COUNTRY BUMPKINS. JD our new guitarist was in the FATHOMS which is a great surf band and also in THE SPEED DEVILS so..., I think ahhh... I think the reason ska resurgence happened and got to be so popular is that people were so sick of seeing people just kinda up on stage lookin’ at their shoes, ya know what I mean... not much goin’ on. So rock-a-billy’s the same way whereas... you can dance to it. It’s very sing alongable, high energy, so I think what happened, I mean, like you said before there wasn’t much of this going on when we started out years ago. It was natural for us to play punk rock at ska bills because that’s the same energy level and we translated well. I’m glad we played those bills. It brought us a whole different audience.

Ken: How important was that for you guys being able to facilitate the deal you got with Velvel?

Jason: Extremely important. We released that CD ourselves and immediately started touring... Touring for ten dollars a night in just shitty places, sleeping in the van, playing anywhere. It started from there and started making friends and contacts and going everywhere and branching out. Before you knew it we’d been across the country four times. We’re not on a label and this label saw this and said “Wait a minute. They’re selling records here, here, here. They’ve already sold 11,000 records on their own.” You know what I mean?

Ken: Exactly, where the average major label release sells less than 1,000 copies.

Jason: Exactly, ya know and now fast forward a few years... Velvel’s hopped on with us. They re-released the album. We wouldn’t let them put new songs on it because we have a bunch of new songs for the next album and we didn’t want to hurt the people who had already bought it. We’re upwards of like 55.000 now. We’ve sold... That’s not even including world wide. That’s just America. We sold thousands in Australia. We sold a lot in Europe. It’s been good ‘cause we’ve been over there touring. Ohhh, Australia is phenomenal man. I couldn’t believe the amount of punks and greasers and whatever. They starve for it. There’s a band over there called THE LIVING END and they have a standup bass and they’re really good... really really good band. They’re kinda like GREENDAY with a standup bass but they’re good, they’re really really good. And in Europe it’s totally accepted. It’s really funny because every time we go there... When we went to Australia, every time, every gig they were like “Do you guys know THE REV. HORTON HEAT?” We’re like “Yeah we know’em. Tell them to come over here, OK.” so we’re hoping to get back over there with them.

Ken: Who is it you’re really lookin’ forward to playin’ with in the future?

Jason: In the future? Oh, great question. Ummm. You know who I wanna play with is X because they’re my heroes and I think X is one of the best bands of all time. If we ever could, I hope to God we can play with Joe Strummer one day.

Ken: How far are you away from new stuff on CD from you guys?

Jason: Well actually I’ll answer that in two parts. On this tour we wanted to do a holiday song. We have a new guitarist and he’s amazing and there’s been this huge influx of creativity in the band all of a sudden and so we’re writing all the time, in sound checks and stuff and we wrote a Christmas song just like that. Just like click. So last time we were here at Lupo’s we recorded the show on a little DAT and it was four songs, two new and two old. We put it on a CD and got in the studio, we had one day off in Boston, got in the studio and recorded this Christmas song in the studio. It’s called “One More Christmas To Put Up With You” and then we did a holiday greetings, spoke a holiday greetings, threw it on a CD and we’re sellin’ it for five bucks. We’re putting out 500 of them so that’s available tonight. Ummm... and now we’re... we have about eight new songs now and about eight more on the burner... like we’re workin’ on ‘em. Their umm... I can’t wait. We’re all like really excited about them. We’re gonna be in the studio in February.We’re just spending all of January working on these songs and rehearsing and stuff like that and then we’re gonna record in February and it’ll be out in the spring... definitely be out in the spring.

Ken: Going to be recording in Boston?

Jason: Nope, Providence. Sound Station 7.

Ken: Any particular humorous or bizarre road stories to share with the readers?

Jason: There’s been a huge amount. Everything from vans breakin’ down to gettin’ pulled over by cops and weird stuff happening. I can give you a couple that happened on this tour because I’ve said a couple... there’s some on our website that happened on CRAMPS tour but this tour I haven’t been able to do tour journals so I haven’t been able to you know... I don’t have a computer right now. Alright, We were in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and we played at this place called The Rave Ballroom. This place is fucking huge. We played there with The BOSSTONES once and now there’s three rooms in it. The one room upstairs, the ballroom, you can hold 6,000 people. The middle room holds 1,200. That’s where we played with Horten Heat and there’s another room that holds 500. This is where Buddy Holly kicked off his winter dance party that he died on so... he played this place 3 days before he died. It’s just a Buddy Holly shrine. You go up to the ballroom and you can feel the history. It’s like “Oh my God!” and they have a little Buddy Holly shrine and stuff. This place is like a big fortress right... the whole, you know, big building. The guys from Horten Heat, the guys from FLATOO & JETSUM and THE CROWNS, we got flashlights and we went exploring. You could explore in this place for hours and we did and we found... It’s all decrepit. It’s not kept up. We found an Olympic sized swimming pool from the 40’s down there in the bowels. I’d never seen anything like it before. We found a bowling alley, a running track, different saunas and hot tubs and all this stuff and you know Buddy Holly took a swim there in the 50’s, you know what I mean? It was happening then. What I’m just saying is that you could feel the history. It was so cool to be exploring there.Yeah and then we went up to the roof of this place and across the street is the Ambassador Hotel and we were later told that that’s where Jeffrey Dahmer hid a lot of the body parts that he’s got which is kinda funny. That was kinda funny. That happened just a few weeks ago. It’s been uhhh, you know, stupid things, I mean... We drive our van across country. We’re constantly doin’ it and once in Georgia on this tour we got pulled over by cops. I was speeding. I was going like 25 miles over the limit and got pulled over by a state cop. Now first of all I’ve got my short sleeves on, I’m in a t-shirt, I got lots of tattoos , I’m in my socks and I’m like “Oh Jesus!” cause you know it’s like a ten hour drive day and... and so I get out of the car ughhh... I don’t get out. You never get out. I put my hands up on the wheel. He beckons me out of the car. I got all my registration and everything, insurance... I put on my shoes. He sees me putting my shoes on, you know, covered in tatts. I come out and he kinda looks at me and he’s like “Ut ohh” and I’m thinkin’ “Shit!” so I’m like... I got pretty good luck with cops sometimes...and I’m just like “I’m gonna be polite” and he starts writing me up. I go “Well, I guess it was my time for a ticket.” and he goes “No Mr. Kendall. I’m not writing you up a ticket. This is a courtesy warning.” I’m like “Thank you so much.” He goes “So, you guys in a band?” So we start talkin’ and he knows a lot about rock-a-billy. We start talkin’ about Joe Clay, Johnny Burnett, all the old rock-a-billy legends and he loves it. He’s so into it and I’m like “Well, you’re not giving me a ticket, right?” and he’s goes “Nope.” and I said well can I give you a CD because you’re already not givin’ me a ticket so it’s not a bribe or anything. He says “Yeah, I’d love it. I tell you what. You give me a CD and how about I go wind up your band mates?” He says “They look kinda tired. How about I wind’em up a little bit?” I go “Sure man. You can go do that.” So I open up the trailer and I’m gettin’ him a CD and I walk up behind him and he’s tellin’ the members of our band... They’re all kinda half asleep and now they’re like “Shit, we got pulled over by a cop. What are we going to do?” He goes “Alright, I need all you guys to pull out your licenses. I’m takin’ your band mate, your buddy here to jail, your little friend to jail ‘cause he’s got an outstanding warrant for arrest and were gonna run you all for warrants. You’re gonna be down there for at least 2 days so get your licenses out and follow me to the station. I’m takin’ your little buddy to jail.” They’re all like big wide eyed and “Oh my God!” and I walk up behind’em and I’m like “Yeah, but first we gotta get some Chinese food, right Bob?” and he goes “Right . It was really funny. They were havin’ a heart attack. I just got a haircut last week in Ohio and I went to a really good old barber shop. I love $7 barber shops, you know what I mean?... all these old men in there and I walk in and they’re like “Ahhh, who’s this freak?” I’m like “Yeah, just give me a haircut.” We start talkin’... They start talkin’ about country and all of a sudden I start talkin’ about country... about George Jones and Hank Williams and all this stuff and they were like “Holy shit. This kid knows country.” so we started talkin’. Before I knew it my haircut was done and I had the best conversation. Every one of those guys is like “Hey, see you later. Come back” It was great.

Ken: Absolutely. That kind of music kinda transcends generations. What is your next goal as a band?

Jason: We’re trying to make the best album that we can on this one. You gotta grow a little bit. Dennis Kelly of BOSS FUEL is gonna play a little steel guitar on one song, the lap steel, and ahhh... This album’s gonna have a couple of mid-tempo, almost SOCIAL DISTORTIONish kind of rock, rock ‘n’ roll, rock-a-billy songs and then it’s gonna have our usual like crazy rock-a-billy, surfy, crazy punk stuff and a country song. We’re tryin’ to grow so we’re gonna make the best album we can. I think ahhh... I mean, really, it’s just rock ‘n’ roll so its like... We don’t have any grand illusions. We wanna... We’re not out to save the world but we’re out to have a good time. Yeah and I think what’s gonna happen is we’re gonna release the album and just keep touring. We’ll always come back to Providence. We’re gonna have the Providence pay back this year again. We had it last year and ummm... where we get some local bands and some national bands, put ’em on at the Met for three nights with us at five bucks a night and just let a bunch of people, you know... THE DOUBLE NOTHINGS, they’re phenomenal. BOSS FUEL was... Can I say BOSS FUEL? They were one of the best fuckin’ bands of all time as far as I’m concerned, as far as all of us in the AMAZING CROWNS are concerned. : Yeah, I know. That’s the thing but then there are bands and I’m tryin’ to actually think of a band that I really loved. We haven’t been around here for a little while right now unfortunately. Dennis Kelly’s new band THE PULL TABS are phenomenal and it’s total country. Almost like with a guy that can yodel like some women... So there you have like punk rock, THE DOUBLE NOTHINGS are punk rock / rock ‘n’ roll and then BOSS FUEL is kinda garagey / rock-a-billy / rock ‘n’ roll and then you have THE PULL TABS, good country so there it is.

Ken: Final thought to the readers?

Jason: Just don’t have any preconceived notions when you come to shows. If you like a band just show it. You don’t have to dance a certain way. We’re not a swing band and we don’t adhere to all these trends. We’re punk rock or rock-a-billy or rock ‘n’ roll. Come out. Have a good time. Sing along if you want. Dance if you want. If not just go and buy a drink and check it out and whatever. Things aren’t always what they seem too. We’re from Providence and we’re proud to be from Providence and a lot of people think we come home and... A lot of people think like “Oh, they’ve been out jet settin’ and they’ve been doin’ this and...” We’ve been out driving ten hours, eatin’ shitty food and unloading the van and loadin’ it back in. That’s pretty much what we do. I don’t know? Just say hi when you see us on the street.