Phone: ring ring.
Jason: Hello.
Lars: Is Jason there? This is Lars.
J: Yeah. Hey How ya doing..etc....
L: 916 area code. Is that Sacramento?
J: Yeah it is.
L: I like Sacramento. I spend a lot of time there.
J: Cool. So lets talk about Rancid.
L: Alright.
J: When did Rancid Form?
L: In the winter of '91 I think. I joined right before the first record came out.
J: How did you meet up with Tim, Matt, & Brett?
L: One of my old Bands opened up for them at Gilman St. A couple of weeks later I went to see a show that Tim & Brett were at & they were talking about adding a 2nd guitarist. They gave me a tape & I loved it. That's basically how it happened.
J: I hear you used to play with The U.K Subs.
L: I did for a short while but it seemed like 20 years. It was a pretty horrible experience.
J: How so?
L: At first it was really cool. One of the first punk records I ever bought was by them so I was stoked. But when I joined, they wanted me to grow dread locks and wear tie-die & shit. I just wasn't into it. I'm a punk rocker & my mother couldn't change me so they definitely weren't.
J: When can we expect a new Rancid album?
L: We're recording it soon & it should be out sometime mid summer.
J: What kind of places are you guys playing on the tour?
L: were playing 1000 to 1500 seaters.
J: Is it weird playing bigger venues like that?
L: I don't know. When we were on one of our first tours, we played places that held like 100 to 300 people. The next time we went out, we played some of those same places and more people showed up than could get in. We felt bad about people being turned away so we decided to start playing bigger places and I love it that more & more people are coming to the shows because that means that more & more people are listening to our music & liking what we have to say, and I think that's cool.
J: So do I. I heard you guys almost signed with Epic, what was up with that?
L: Well at the time we didn't feel like we were getting all the love that we wanted from Epitaph. So we started looking elsewhere because it's never been about money or anything else for us. It's always been about the love we got from our record label. So Mr. Brett from Epitaph came to us and said I love you guys, I don't care what you do & I'll support you 100%. So we decided to stay on Epitaph.
J: Who are some of your favorite bands?
L: I know Tim really likes The Clash, Brett's really into The Pixies, Matt loves X, and I listen to a lot of old reggae like Jimmy Cliff, Eric Donaldson, The Upsetters and all sorts of punk rock stuff.
J: Who are some of the newer punk bands you like?
L: The Swingin' Utters, The Struggle Buggies, H20 and Guns & Wankers.
J: Do you like Elvis?
L: I love Elvis. Everyone in our band loves Elvis.
J: Any Elvis covers in store for us?
L: I've always wanted to do this one song but I can't remember the name.
J: Cool. So where is Rancid going from here?
L: Were Going to Chicago.(laughs)
J: That's Fair enough.(laughs)
L: Who Knows? I'm in for the ride and we'll see what happens.
J: Do you have any parting words or any messages you want to leave our readers with?
L: Yeah, I want to tell the people of Sacramento that Rancid loves them & appreciates the support and someday if I'm not living in Oakland or New York I'll be living there because I think Sacramento is a really cool place. And thanks again to everybody for all their support.