I called Greg Attonito, lead singer of THE BOUNCING SOULS, from the floor of my filthy, beige bedroom carpet. I had my cell-phone set on loud-speaker, and propped it up against my roommates MacBook pro, a jerry-rig set-up that matched up with THE BOUNCING SOUL'S DIY mentality.
The Souls started twenty years ago as of this year; I've listened to them almost half of their lifetime. They've been a musical cameo in my life since I was 15 years old. I saw them in concerts at sweaty punk venues, in the dusty mountains of Tahoe's Warped Tour, singing strong to the proud and positive "True Believers" in the back of a sea green, sixties era mustang. Even when I moved to San Francisco from the agricultural haven of Chico, California at 20-years-old, the Souls provided me much needed nostalgia and comfort with their release of the The Gold Record, an old sound for a kid in a new and very different city.
I'm sure many kids and adults across the world have a similar space for THE BOUNCING SOULS within them.
This interview was recorded on Tuesday, February 9th, Greg talking to me over the rumble of the 'L' Taraval train, which roars and squeals along a rail in front of my house.
Greg: So you're in San Francisco?
Pastepunk: Yeah. You guys come here very often?
Greg: We do. It seems like we're out there around a couple of times a year.
Pastepunk: Cool. Are you coming out this year?
Greg: Yeah. I don't know when. Probably not till later in the year. This fall probably.
Pastepunk: Are you guys out on tour right now?
Greg: I'm leaving for South America the day after tomorrow though.
Pastepunk: Killer. What are you doing there?
Greg: We're doing about a week and a half of shows. It's pretty exciting because it's going to be our first time there.
Pastepunk: Is it your first time there or your first time there touring?
Greg: I've been to Guatemala, and we've toured in Costa Rica and Panama. Now we're going to do Mexico City, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Argentina.
Pastepunk: That's pretty exciting. Have you gotten a lot of requests from fans to go down there?
Greg: Yeah. It's going to be interesting to see. There's a trickle of people that are like, 'I'm from Argentina, I've been waiting to see you for years.' So it will be interesting to see, now that it's been so many years, if it's just a small group of super passionate fans, or a big group. I don't even know. I guess we'll see when we get there.
Pastepunk: And then you guys are coming back here to do a tour in the states in February?
Greg: In March, we are doing kind of like a South, Midwest run that ends up in Austin, and then we're flying to Hawaii to do a couple of shows, and then were going to Alaska which will be the final state. After that THE BOUNCING SOULS will have played in every state.
Pastepunk: You going to say hello to Sarah Palin?
Greg: We just might. Maybe she'll come out.
Pastepunk: I read that you guys have done quite a few tours with LIFETIME, who are from New Jersey like THE BOUNCING SOULS. How long have you been friends with those guys?
Greg: The first U.S. tour we did was with LIFETIME back in 1993. They had done a U.S. tour the summer before, and they already had a record out. So they were actually bigger than us. We had a funny relationship back then. Back then there was much more of a divide as far as the scene; straight edge, and punk was divided much more. There were more segregated scenes and styles and it was definitely not as integrated as it is now. It was funny. We lived in a house, and we lived literally three blocks down the street. So we would always pass by. We started to become friends because we'd end up seeing each other. The idea came up for them to take us on tour and we were stoked. It was funny because we had this kid that was going to book it. Then it came up to about a week before the tour and we found out that the kid hadn't even booked one show, and hadn't told anyone that he hadn't done it.
Somehow, someone got Margie, who books us to this day. We got her phone number and she said she would do it. So that was how it all started, with LIFETIME They took us out on tour for the first time.
Pastepunk: They were more part of the straight-edge hardcore community?
Greg: Yeah. What was cool about LIFETIME though is they kind of had their own thing. They gravitated towards that straight-edge scene. But most of the New York bands and Jersey bands were like real hardcore clobbering. LIFETIME really created their own thing. And then, later on after they broke up, we were beginning to see all of these bands that were influenced by them. It was really amazing to see all these bands that were influenced by them. It was pretty cool to see that because we always thought LIFETIME was cool. But they did really well for a little while and then they broke up and it was like they were gone for a little while. Totally gone. Then all of a sudden these bands started coming out and they were talking about LIFETIME. I don't know, it was just cool.
Pastepunk: And you guys weren't from that same group at all right? You guys weren't a straight-edge band?
Greg: No, we were kind of like the opposite, leaning towards classic punk. The one thing THE BOUNCING SOULS was always good at was pretty much dividing the lines, breaking down the lines. We'd play these huge straight-edge hardcore fests. We'd get on these bills and we'd manage to make it work. Even the most hardcore, straight-edge types would be like, well THE BOUNCING SOULS are pretty cool.
Pastepunk: Why is that? That's funny.
Greg: That's a good question. There has got to be some sort of element in what we bring out on stage as people... You know when you see a band, it's like what they're putting out there is so without any pretense. All you care about is connecting as humans, in a sense, and that's what I'm pointing out as the most important thing. I don't care what you're into, I don't care what you like or don't like. Let's just have a good moment right now. I think that being the priority of THE BOUNCING SOULS. Whether we are good at playing songs or not or what style of songs you like or don't like; I think that part of every human is naturally going to go to that default, like, 'Yeah, I wanna have a good moment right now too.'
Pastepunk: Yeah, like who is going to be like, I don't want to have a good moment right now?
Greg: Some people don't. Like whatever, they're pissed off or their in their own little world. I've been there myself too. You're not happy or whatever it is going on in your life. In general most people will be able to be there with you.
Pastepunk: I read on your website that the band just finished some kind of 30 minute music video.
Greg: We met with a director, his name is Justin Stagg and he's from Minneapolis. He was recommended by our publicist Vanessa. We told him we've been real happy with some of the videos we've done recently, and it's the band's 20th anniversary and we wanted to something different; we didn't know what. So he took it really seriously. He's done some really cool stuff. Nobody knew what he was going to come up with. We threw a few ideas around. We came up with this idea, this like 70's style parody of, 'THE BOUNCING SOULS, 20 year T.V. anniversary special. Complete with a host, a very cool, very funny comedian, who hosts the whole show. There's jugglers, there's ventriloquists. I don't want to give too much away, but it's pretty fun.
Pastepunk: So it's kind of like a variety show of sorts?
Greg: Totally. We went to Minneapolis and filmed all the footage. I had a really good time. We're going to put it out in segments throughout the year. When it came out on paper, we were like, this could be really bad. Not good, you know? But we had an awesome time doing it, and we had a ton of fun so I think that's going to come through it.
Pastepunk: I read your children's book online this morning, which I really liked. You and your wife did that?
Greg: Yeah. She did the story and I did the illustrations.
Pastepunk: Are you guys still pushing that at all? I know that was a few years ago...
Greg: Yeah, um. Here is what happened with it. We put out a book and just did what we know how to do, which is tour. Both Shanti (Greg's wife) and I put out a message on MySpace that said if anyone wants us to come and play in their school, read our book, whatever than just let us know. So we got a bunch of messages, and booked a bunch of tours on the East and West Coast and it went really well. It was a cool experience. We went into a lot of elementary schools, met a lot of people and kids and it was really cool. It was a great break from the regular touring thing too.
PBS got in touch with us after reading an article in the San Francisco Chronicle. So now were in the midst of working on a kids music show with PBS. We went to the PBS headquarters in Boston. It was like this huge building with like lyrics to Mr. Rogers songs written on the side.
Pastepunk: Big Bird running down the hall?
Greg: Haha. Not quite. But I was pretty stoked to be involved and now starting this project with them and seeing how they work. It's been a cool experience being involved and now starting this project with them and seeing how they work. It's been a cool experience so far. We even did a screen test with some puppets that was pretty fun.
Pastepunk: What's the show going to be?
Greg: We're creating it right now. The general gist of it is we're going to take all the aspects of all the kids shows we love and they love like Mr. Rogers and the Muppet Show, and have good music be the key that fuels the fire, so that the kids and the parents like it. Not some inane, annoying music that parents just put on and the kids start to like it because their tastes are totally being developed at that moment. If you put something on, most likely a three-year-old is going to just listen to it, because what is he going to do. And the thing is, five percent of people who have kids are music fans. So they're going to be like, 'Alright, let's put on BOB MARLEY for the kids,' or something cool. And their gonna have that interaction with their kids. But most people are going to go to Target and they are going to buy... whatever bad kids music. Tons of it. They're just going to buy something and give it to their kids as a gift and they're going to pop it on and make them listen to it. Those tastes are being underdeveloped.
And kids... everyone underestimates kids all the time. Especially with things like music and stuff like that. The idea being that, when I was a kid in the 70's, I'm dating myself, we would turn on the Muppet Show and my dad and I would watch it together. The cool thing about The Muppet Show is it was adult humor; it was funny for adults. But today, people are like you can't have that kind of humor in a kid show. But truly that was challenging as a kid. I remember checking the old guys cracking the jokes on the balcony, and a lot of times as a kid I just didn't get it. It would challenge your intellect to just try and figure it out. So that kind of vibe is where we're starting from. We want to connect music with kids and make it so it's a family enjoyable thing like the Muppet Show was.
Pastepunk: When is that shooting for?
Greg: The first thing they said to us is everything we do has to have a certain quality level. Everything that you see from them does have this quality level that is undeniable. So they said that, 'We've decided that we want to do a show with you guys and we've chosen that, but we're not going to push it out if it's not good. So, it could be a year, it could be two years, it could be five years.
Pastepunk: What kind of similarities are there between what you're doing with this show and what you're doing with THE BOUNCING SOULS?
Greg: That's a good question. I think in essence it is the same because you're working on creativity and you're bringing it to people. A big part of why they wanted us involved is because we're young, and we're connected to the temporary music scene. We have a capability of bringing temporary musicians to the show, which the Muppet Show did. They had JOHNNY CASH on the Muppet Show. Which we could do that kind of stuff, like I could call Frank from MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE and he would love to do it, you know? I think that's another reason that they like us because we're connected to that whole world. But they also know that, all those people my age are having kids. They grew up as punk rockers and stuff and now they're all having kids. Those are the people who are going to watch it and hopefully they'll grow from there. In that sense, it's doing the same thing, you know, it's bringing music to people on the most basic level.
Pastepunk: Yeah. Now you get a chance for children to hear your music who may not have had a chance to hear it otherwise.
Greg: Yeah, and their parents. When BOUNCING SOULS fans who had kids found out about our book, they were so stoked. It was like a dividing line between twenty year old kids who were BOUNCING SOULS fans. They were like, 'Oh, that's cool,' but they didn't really care. Maybe they'll check it out, but some of 'em who were like my age and just had a baby or something, they were like, 'Oh, that's rad - I can get a book from a band I like, and share it with my kid.' So that was kind of fun to see that all happening at the same time.
Pastepunk: Does doing things like that help keep THE BOUNCING SOULS interesting for you?
Greg: It's like, any job that you have, you don't want what you have to become the job. So it's always a fine balance and it's taken a lot of years to figure that out. I've toured for like nine or ten months out of the year and, it's insane. It drains all of your emotion, like everything you have out of you. So suddenly you're like, this fucking sucks. What happened? I used to love this. But then you figure out that you're just exhausted and you love doing this for weeks or for months and it just slowly chops away at you until you're like, 'What the fuck's wrong with me? I'm insane. Why do I hate everything.' So we've been there, and we've learned not to get to that point.
Pastepunk: You know when to stop?
Greg: Yeah. We know when to tour or how much to tour so we won't get there. Like we're going to South American for a week and a half. It's going to be good, and we're going to bring some good times to the shows, and it'll be fun and then we'll go home. And not kill ourselves to the point until we suck. Especially when you think about it, I've been doing this for twenty years. I've seen plenty of bands where I'm like, they used to be better. We all talked about that and we're like, no matter what, I don't want that to happen. I'd rather not play anymore. I'd rather play once every five years and it's a huge event, and everyone's like THE BOUNCING SOULS rule. They used to rule, and they still rule. I'd rather do that than just be so accessible and just not that good. That's just no fun.
Pastepunk: I also thought that the digital release you're doing is pretty interesting. Who came up with that as a marketing idea, and why did you do that instead of releasing an album?
Greg: Like most BOUNCING SOULS things are, it was a collaboration, kind of like the fire that everyone throws the log on. It started out as, first we didn't want to do the same ol' thing. We weren't on Epitaph anymore, and we were thinking about putting out our own music again. We started there, and then we were like, it would be more affordable, because times are tougher than they were a few years ago, it would be more affordable to just do digital releases, and then put out some physical thing as well. Just those ideas kicked around. Then somebody was like, 'Hey, it's our twenty year anniversary, maybe we should do something with that.'
Pastepunk: So it's partially just economics?
Greg: Economics, yes. Being broke makes you have to be creative. Make things work with what you have. I think a lot of the most ingenious creations come with that necessity.
Pastepunk: How long do you think you guys are going to be doing this? Do you have any idea?
Greg: My answer to that is always, as long as we can still play guitars and sing, we're going to be doing it.
Pastepunk: You love it that much?
Greg: Yeah. I'm a musician, and performer to the core. I have fun getting better at it. I've learned how to do it without killing myself, because I've gotten to the point where I hated it because we over did it.
Pastepunk: When was that?
Greg: Probably through like 2001, up to like 2003, and 2004. Those few years, where it just started feeling like a treadmill. Like, we'd put out a CD and we'd just start touring and touring like crazy, and then put out a CD and just tour, tour, tour. After a few that we put out, we just started hitting a wall. We were all chasing these carrots to a certain degree. It's a combination of a lot of things, because the music industry changed a lot also. Like, '99 and '00 - a little bit after that, CD sales just plummeted. Across the board, things just started changing really fast. Back then we were literally in our tour world. Life was going by in other places and we weren't experiencing those different things.
Pastepunk: Was that when you were touring like ten months out of the year?
Greg: Yeah. It stops becoming this adventure and it becomes like you are on a treadmill.
Pastepunk: All that time you're probably eating a lot of food and sleeping on a lot of people's couches.
Greg: Yeah, it's like you're in a box, and you have to stop and reevaluate. I think that goes for everything in life, like you have to reevaluate and see where you're at. You have to get into some kind of groove or another. It tends to happen to all of us in a number of different ways.
Pastepunk: I read this quote that you said. You were talking about how THE BOUNCING SOULS has helped you face yourself. I think that was the way that you put it. Instead of just being stuck in a grind, you have to constantly deal with your emotions. How does touring and all that help you do that? How is that more real than a day job?
Greg: Yeah. That's a good question. The aspect of a day job is always sort of tempting in that sense because if someone else is the boss, and you just have to go in and do your thing. Make it work and do it well. Then at the end of the day you're just like, 'It's over.' It's like cool, I'm just going to do whatever and hang out; just whatever I feel like doing. You can shut it off. But truly like, our life is our creation. Every moment I'm thinking about things I can create. That kind of thing can either be fun, or... it just kind eats you up if you take it so seriously. I think part of that is something I had to face with my personality, as far as it being like all too important or whether it's like an ego trip or...
Pastepunk: You just felt like you were taking it to seriously at one point?
Greg: Well yeah. Like, it made me question like why I started doing things. Once you get success, you're like, 'Man, I have to keep that success, and I have to make money doing this.' All these other elements are now in play as opposed to before, you're just like 17-year-old's in a jam room with absolutely no hopes of anything except just that moment and making a cool song. Like, 'Man that fucking rules. That song sounds cool, and we rock. Let's go like drink beer in the park or something.' You didn't have any hopes of anything, but all of a sudden, stuff starts piling on and people start wanting things and theirs expectations. It really makes you start questioning who you are and why you're doing it on a whole different level. Do I still want to do this? Yes I still want to do this, but now it's a whole different pile of beans, and I have to figure out how to make the whole thing work.
Pastepunk: I guess maybe it evolves more than maybe you're standard day-job, which could feel the same for twenty years.
Greg: Exactly, and I think that so many times in my life, I've been like, 'I want to work in a 7-11. At least that'd be simple.' There is a simplicity to that which is awesome. I envy these people. But at the same time it's like, I'm going to South America the day after tomorrow, and I'm not going to trade that for anything. Despite all the pressure I put on myself, it is always worth it.
I called Greg Attonito, lead singer of THE BOUNCING SOULS, from the floor of my filthy, beige bedroom carpet. I had my cell-phone set on loud-speaker, and propped it up against my roommates MacBook pro, a jerry-rig set-up that matched up with THE BOUNCING SOUL'S DIY mentality. 
