Vinnie Fiorello (LESS THAN JAKE) Interview by James Hepplewhite
When Vinnie Fiorello (LESS THAN JAKE drummer) says he runs on caffeine, he's not kidding. Aside from the fact that admitting in the below interview (recorded in a Starbucks) "it's his third cup today," and the fact that his schedule consists of enough artistic endeavors it's surprising he has time to speak or sleep. Between Sleep It Off, Paper and Plastick, Less Than Jake, and oh yes, a toy company, Wunderland War, he's got his hands full for the next year, give or take. Just don't ask him what he's doing for fun.
So, during some time off from recording LESS THAN JAKE's new record and my own spring break, I met up with Vinnie to talk about Paper and Plastick, THE EXPLOSION and releasing digital/vinyl discs in the so called digital era. If Vinnie minds the marathon, he didn't show it, so think of this as a cup of water along the way.
Pastepunk: It's an odd time for music, vinyl's coming back...
Vinnie: I don't know if vinyl's coming back, vinyl's always been "back." It's just that people are recognizing the fact that people are still buying it. Without getting overly technical about how I feel about the state of the music business right now, I think that for me to do a label, I came to a crossroads, where I like bands (and are friends with the bands) that are living in a certain void.
Pastepunk: What does THE EXPLOSION record sound like?
Vinnie: I'm a fanboy for THE EXPLOSION, straight up. It sounds like a cross between the last two records (Flash Flash Flash and Black Tape) with a few curveballs thrown in there reaching out of the box. It has the hyperactivity of Flash Flash Flash, that I absolutely love. There's about half the record that has that all out abandon and then the other half moves out from that.
Here's the thing about Black Tape, I think Black Tape would have been great, but it seemed very smooth for a band that should not be very smooth. That's the only complaint that I had with it. The songs, as for the length of it, it's far from me to tell someone how to write a song, but as a listener, do I think punk rock songs should be two minutes long? Yeah, I do. No doubt about that. But, I like THE EXPLOSION when THE EXPLOSION are being THE EXPLOSION, you know what I mean? It's all out abandon, you can feel the energy even in a studio records. Half of Bury Me Standing is like that.
Pastepunk: I assume one of the curveballs is "New York Cannot Dance?"
Vinnie: I'm not reviewing the record, I can tell you that there are some curveballs, but I'm proud to release the record, I think if you're a fan of THE EXPLOSION, you'll dig it.
Pastepunk: The idea is not to tease a review out of you, but to have you speak about it for like the other 40 people who are still into THE EXPLOSION and to get some idea of what the last EXPLOSION record is...
Vinnie: They'll know in about a month and a half. It's almost ready to go...
Pastepunk: How did THE EXPLOSION hook up with Paper and Plastick, and how did you take the idea of Paper and Plastick, which I presume to be very artwork focused towards THE EXPLOSION record?
Vinnie: Here's the thing about THE EXPLOSION, you know this, and anyone who likes the band knows, they don't need me to bring that edge to it, that's why I'm a fanboy for it. They've got a great art aesthetic and their friend Scott, a talented tattoo artist out of Brooklyn is doing the art for it. Again, what am I bringing? I'm just a vehicle for something that already exists. They already have an art aesthetic as a band. For me, it's taking their last record, and making sure that it's right so that the people who followed the band can be stoked on the last thing they've ever done. Funny and weird story about how I stumbled across that EXPLOSION record. I was inside Virgin Records in New York visiting a friend of mine. He was like "Yeah man, we have this Explosion record, but we're sort of waiting around, we don't have a release date for it yet." I'm like "Can I hear it?" He said "Well, I'm not supposed to, but let me go get a CD-R of it." I waited around there for 45 minutes and he finally came back with the CD-R, we listened to it, and I was like "This is fucking great..."
One of the things that got me into Paper and Plastick was just the excitement, you're in a band, and you're releasing records, but it's your band. I always found that when I was releasing other bands music, I equally got that sort of high from releasing records in LESS THAN JAKE. I miss that, I miss being able to do that. A second chance to do that, I suppose.
Pastepunk: Is Paper and Plastick terribly distinct from Sleep it Off?
Vinnie: Yeah, absolutely. Sleep it Off is predominantly, I'm not going to say Sleep It Off will never release other bands, but right now we're only focused on releasing LESS THAN JAKE'S back catalog, and LESS THAN JAKE'S new record, then more LESS THAN JAKE back catalog after the new record. We're [starting off by] releasing four releases: Losers/Kings, Pezcore, A People's History and Goodbye Blue and White, and the new record we're going to release at the end of June, then more back catalog later fall. With that release schedule, that's heavy to start thinking about adding another band to the roster. It would be very much on a band by band basis. A blanket statement of we'll never release a band, I can't say, but I also can't say we're definitely not going to. We're just LESS THAN JAKE-centric at the moment. For me, Paper and Plastick was a chance to release music of things that I like without getting in the realm of "I have to do X amount of CDs, then they go to a distribution company, it goes out," then I have to worry about lots of other things besides that. Digital and vinyl is the way to go. For me. It's simple.
Pastepunk: Will the vinyl come with a download card?
Vinnie: Yes, but... there's also going to be a tier where you can buy the vinyl .pdf of the art, and it'll be cheaper than the vinyl. So if someone doesn't really care about the aesthetic of Paper and Plastick, but just wants the music, it'll be cheaper than the vinyl Dropcard package.
Pastepunk: Could you explain a little more about the phrase artwork-centric?
Vinnie: I'll give you this, that Damian from THE EXPLOSION emailed me and asked if we could do a gatefold for Bury Me Standing, and my response was "whatever you guys want," because that's the exclamation point on their career as a band. When I mean artwork-centric, I mean the packaging of Paper and Plastick, let's say for ANDREW DOST'S Columbus, it's a 12x36 inch poster, it's a print.
Pastepunk: So it's like the MURDER BY DEATH vinyl?
Vinnie: Yes. There's a twist to the artwork anyway, Inside what's in the package of what's in the Columbus record it's a sealed envelope that has all of the pertinent stuff; overall when you're holding it in your hand, it feels more like a piece of art with music attached to it, that's what I'm looking forward to. Then again, there's going to be sometimes where that's going to be a limited [run] this other thing will be the traditional slip-sleeve of the vinyl, and it'll go out but there will be a twist to it. It all depends on what the band is looking for. I want to guide the band a certain way, but I also want to do what the band wants to do, ultimately for the package. If the band wants a slip-sleeve, which again, is a traditional way to package a record, but wants the most insane cut color vinyl, then I'm gonna do that, because that's the aesthetic I want. I want people when they go to it, they know that this thing that's coming out, whatever it is on Paper and Plastick whatever band it is, whatever release it's gonna be, the visual aspect of it is going to be mind-blowing and a little bit above the traditional way to package a record.
Pastepunk: So it's No Idea but more so, with all the crazy colored vinyl...
Vinnie: Absolutely. You have to think of where I come from in that way. If you look back on LESS THAN JAKE releases the amount of stuff that we've done, we've done cheese shaped vinyl with holes in it, birthday cakes, you go down the line, all of it is it No Idea-esque, Paper and Plastick? Absolutely. But! The focus of the entirety of what Paper and Plastick is not just releasing the vinyl with a digital download, but also doing prints by modern artists, it's also doing books, toys... I'll give you an example. Richard from Horsebites, who is doing the art for the Columbus record, art for the FOUNDATION record I'm doing in the summertime, ultimately, I spoke to him, I went "You know what? If you want to do a toy, I'll do a toy for you, if you want to do the book for Horsebites 8 months from now we'll talk about doing that." I think that by bringing in the people that bring the visualizing anyway to bands, it's a natural progression to bring them in there. The people that are responsible for a band logos, band t-shirts, band packaging, go down the line, by focusing on a Horsebites or focusing on Adam Wentworth or Heather Gabel those are the people that give bands their sense of identity, so why not do prints by those people, why not do a toy or book or anything that would be visually interesting? It fits together.
Pastepunk: Truth is, I don't have the knowledge base you do, so trying to wrap my head around the idea, the closest I can understand easily is Mr. [Scott] Sinclair and HOT WATER MUSIC...
Vinnie: Absolutely, let's say you went to someone like Scott Sinclair, said hey can we can Paper and Plastick do your book? That book is still involved, if you follow the timeline behind it and history is still involved in the punk scene, still responsible for the vibrancy and visuals of punk rock bands. It's a natural progression, man. Especially right now, the medium people are getting music is visual-less. It's digital, so there's minimal artwork, if any at all, if you're ripping it peer-to-peer and BitTorrent, unless someone is on top of the ball and including all that inside the folder. And that's cool, because it's modern times, and you're in that digital headspace, but there has to be this other thing, you have to start bringing back the visuals, because for me, ian equal part to the music is the visual of the band, it's not only holding the record and reading through the lyric sheet, but it's the t-shirt, it's the backdrop to the band, it's everything down the line that takes up this whole experience of music.
Pastepunk: If you could write five names down on a sheet and have them call you up the next day, who would they be?
Vinnie: Who would I? *thinks for a moment* FLAMING LIPS... I think would be amazing. I think THE MATCHES would be amazing, because I think Shawn is super talented as far as the visual aspects of THE MATCHES go, and a talented artist to boot, besides his stuff in THE MATCHES. I'd love to work with BRAND NEW, but just like everyone else would, but I think that Jesse Lacey, lyrically speaking, as a big lyrics person, he's one of the guys I'd like to work with because I dig the way he writes songs and writes lyrics. Who else? Honestly, who I'd really like to work with? I'd like to really work with SET YOUR GOALS, just because we had a two week run with them in LESS THAN JAKE, I really like them as people, when I think of their band I think there's a visual-ness to their band, that could be a good fit with Paper and Plastick. Let me think of who else off the top...*thinks*... AGAINST ME!, you know? Because STEAK MOUNTAIN is heavily involved in their visuals and I always think they have really good visuals as a band. If I was going on my reckless abandon wishlist, I'd love to do something with SLAYER, *fanboy grin* I would love to actually re-release all the old SUICIDE MACHINES records on vinyl. I think that's it. That would be my straight up, overall, wishlist, that would be good.
There's plenty of people who are interested in the visuals... it's not like I'm doing this fucking magic trick "oh, this is brand new" - what I'm doing is something I believe in, something I'm passionate about, so it doesn't matter if I'm reinventing the wheel. I think it's timely that I'm doing something like this, if you're looking at how things are in the music business. You're either self-releasing or dealing with indies acting like majors or funded by majors, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but there's this really dead space in between both those things that I want to fill in the gap of. I want to work with vibrant bands and do something creative with creative people.
When Vinnie Fiorello (LESS THAN JAKE drummer) says he runs on caffeine, he's not kidding. Aside from the fact that admitting in the below interview (recorded in a Starbucks) "it's his third cup today," and the fact that his schedule consists of enough artistic endeavors it's surprising he has time to speak or sleep. Between Sleep It Off, Paper and Plastick, Less Than Jake, and oh yes, a toy company, Wunderland War, he's got his hands full for the next year, give or take. Just don't ask him what he's doing for fun.
