I saw THE MENZINGERS play a house show this summer and subsequently heard their demo shortly thereafter. I was illuminated by the feeling you get when you hear a band and think “Holy shit! This is really good!” My only instinct was to find out more and see what THE MENZINGERS were all about. Before I knew it I had an interview ready for these guys and was quite thrilled to hear back from them with such enthusiasm.

Pastepunk: Let’s get the generic crap out of the way first, state your name and what you do in the band.

Tom: Tom May, I play guitar and sing.

Pastepunk: You guys are a relatively new band, could you talk a little bit about how the band came together? What was the aim of starting the band?

Tom: Three of us played in a ska/punk band called BOB AND THE SAGETS. Greg played in another local ska/punk band called KOS MOS. Then one day, we realized that we were in ska/punk bands. I was living with our drummer Joe at the time, and we continued to play at Eric’s house, writing song parts and such. Danny, our other roommate started to play with us a bit, then long story short, we ended up moving out and doing other things. Greg was in a band with my brother. They broke up, and we ended up asking Greg to play with us. One night we broke into my old apartment and got drunk, then went to this kid’s mansion. We made out in front of a bunch of hipsters from long island, then did all in our power to make them as confused and uncomfortable as possible. Eventually we had to leave in a hurry, but not without ensuring everyone woke up to the sweet smell of urine, no lawn furniture and a little less pride than the day before. We started the band during a pretty confusing time, it was after high school and nobody really knew what they wanted to do with themselves. We had always known that traveling and playing music was what we needed to do, because school was a joke, and work was even a bigger joke. The thought of choosing a major and going to school for four more years to get a job in a specific field is less appealing than making love to a flaming box filled with razor wire and AIDS. I think that in starting the band our aim was to get more of the taste that we had in high school. We traveled and played a lot of shows, but we took the culture for granted. The people you come in contact with and the level on which you can relate make it the most attractive path to take.

Pastepunk: (As just noted) a few of you guys were in a ska band. Though I wouldn’t consider THE MENZINGERS a ska band by any means, do ska influences make their way into your sound? Is that a conscious thing?

Tom: I’d say they definitely come through in our sound. Ska and other tropical music puts an emphasis on rhythm and musicianship, and that’s what makes it so attractive to us. Plus we enjoy upbeat music. Lyrically and vocally for me, I take a lot of influence from hip-hop and other fast sung lyrics. A lot of the ska/punk bands I listened to also had that faster style of singing. Oh, and of course we smoke a lot of weed; listen to Ghost Town by THE SPECIALS while you’re baked and you won’t look back.

Pastepunk: Being primarily from the Scranton area, is that a bit more challenging than having the luxury of a big city like Philly? That’s gotta be intimidating in some way.

Tom: As far as a source of cultural support, Scranton is not a good place for a band. We had a couple phases/scenes surrounding a few venues over the years but nothing ever really came to fruition. The all ages scene in Scranton is pretty much non-existent. I did hear there were thousands of people at the local football game last night, but that’s cool because everyone got to hang out with there parents and teachers in a vicarious display of competition. Scranton is a very interesting place. It has every aspect of a big city that you can think of, except its all on a smaller scale, and that the economy is based on service jobs. Scranton was a melting pot of immigrants. The Irish, the Germans, the Italians, the Polish, the Welsh, the Lebanese, and the Greeks all had or have sections of the city. The recent influx of blacks and Hispanics mixing with the older neighborhoods and starting businesses has made the area a lot more interesting and entertaining. I wouldn’t consider the bigger cities to be intimidating. Playing in front of bigger crowds would be.

Pastepunk: What’s your biggest fear as a band?

Tom: I’d say my biggest fear would be to get too overwhelmed or caught up and let some bullshit put a strain on our friendship. Either that or to go out Randy Rhodes style.

Pastepunk: Your self released CD has a fantastic cover of THE CLASH’s “Straight To Hell”. I take it THE CLASH is a big influence for you guys?

Tom: Hey thanks a lot. We were definitely concerned a bit, you know, it’s pretty ballsy to cover a song like “Straight to Hell” and we didn’t want to fuck it up. We like how it came out though. THE CLASH are definitely a huge influence for us. “The only band that mattered” is a pretty literal statement to me. Their socially conscious and clever lyrics backed by such a raw and creative sound make them so fucking awesome. They were also were pivotal in showing us other types of music and philosophies that are just so relatable.

Pastepunk: There’s a song called “Richard Coury” on the CD. For those unfamiliar with the origins of the song, could you explain a little what that song is about? Who is Richard Coury?

Tom: Richard Cory is the name of a poem written by Edwin Arlington Robinson. Check it out here: tnellen.com/cybereng/poetry/richardcory.html. Basically the poem (arguably) shows the inevitability of Richard Cory’s (an extremely wealthy employer/business owner) suicide. Richard Cory is described only by other people’s reactions. You as the reader are left up to create your own circumstances or series of events that led to his suicide. I filled in the gaps to show his greed and materialist lifestyle, stomping on others for his own personal gain, brought him nothing but the ultimate grief. Also, there is a family we know personally with the last name “Coury” so we switched the spelling to match theirs.

Pastepunk: Since the CD is a DIY release, where can people find your CD if they want to check you guys out?

Tom: If you really wanted it you could just email us and we’ll let you know how to get one. The thing with that CD now, is that we may end up releasing it with some more tracks as an LP and CD with artwork and publishing and such. If you look online, you could probably find a lot of the tracks.

Pastepunk: What’s the future looking like for you guys? Tours? Recording? Releases?

Tom: We’re in the process of recording right now. As far as touring, we plan to do weekend tours through December and a short tour December into January. We play everywhere we can, playing shows is definitely the most rewarding aspect of being in a band. It looks like we will be releasing a 7″ and a CD/12″ on an east coast indie label sometime in the very near future.