The word “unique” doesn’t even describe half of the qualities that make the WORLD INFERNO / FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY a compelling recorded and live act. This compact of friends and roaring musicians is “disorderly conduct” in motion, enacted with a fervor that cannot be washed out. Inferno recently released Red-Eyed Soul, the group’s first full-length for Chunksaah Records, and is their latest in an existence that began in 1997. If there’s one thing that’s a given, no three-ring circus will be able to contain the entertainment that’s on hand. This interview was conducted by James Hepplewhite by email with lead singer Jack Terricloth in early July of 2006 – Jordan.

Pastepunk: For those of us who are not familiar with the extended history of The World/Inferno Friendship Society, can you bring us up to speed?

Jack: World/Inferno first started as a kind of a mischief gang back in the wilds of New Jersey. We would go around and sort of good naturedly break stuff, light frat houses on fire, hook up free cable in ghetto neighborhoods, steal heavy machinery from construction sites, arrive in official looking trucks after anti-abortion rallies and pack up their Public address system, fun stuff like that. We did all this for the fuck of it of course but also to blow off steam from the extremely stressful work of being in earnest punk bands who really wanted you to either know how they felt or be outraged at the gross injustices being perpetrated by whom ever had even a little more power than they did. It was after one extremely satisfying caper (it was something small, I think we were trying to have a drink in a neighborhood bar and there was some annoying athletic event on the giant screen TV that was getting all the dunderheads excited so one of us went behind the building and snipped the cable wires. Small stuff but as I said very satisfying ’cause the rest of got to watch the screen go white and the dunderheads slam the top of it and try to reach around the back and scratch their heads. Oh I can almost taste that sweet sweet beer now!) that somebody said “wouldn’t be great if we could have this much fun in our bands?” and somebody else said “I’ve got this idea about circus music . . .” and there we went and there you go.

Pastepunk: Was it odd working with Don Fury, a producer known for producing Hardcore bands?

Jack: Nope, we’ve known Don for years and would have worked with him a lot sooner if we weren’t so keen on “Doing It Ourselves”. Whose idea was that anyway? Oh wait . . .

Pastepunk: Just how fast is the “Velocity of Love?”

Jack: Headlights broken, shattered grill, hood waving and crumpled, roof collapsed, windshield blown, fenders lost, frame smashed and dented, airbags blown and spent, tires blown and still tumbling. The Velocity of Love.

Pastepunk: Where/when does inspiration strike for a World/Inferno song?

Jack: When you recognize your whimsy in history, when you ask yourself questions you’ve never thought of before, where the challenges never stop, where the last night’s triumph does not prepare you for today’s problem, where the songs make you dance dressed in words that make you cry, boy.

Pastepunk: How did you guys get on the second rock against bush comp?

Jack: It was all very cloak and dagger. A woman I didn’t know came up to me at the Bowery Ballroom and said her name was ‘Trash.’ I said I can’t call you that, she said no really it’s my name, I shrugged. She said “do World/Inferno have any protest songs?” I said, “They’re all pretty much protest songs,” and she asked, “Are any of them about president Bush?” I said “Not as such, why?” She said, “I’m putting together a comp for Fat Wreck Chords called “Rock Against Bush,” and we’d like you to be on it.” “Ok,” I said “I’ll get myself outraged, it’s unhealthy but I’ll do it, when do you need the song by?” “Two weeks” the woman I refused to call ‘Trash’ replied “Here’s my card.” I played the show, went home, listened to a few speeches from our illustrious President, got pissed off and wrote a punk rock song. We recorded it a week later at Atomic Studios in Red Hook and delivered it on time. Later, when the comp came out we discovered none of the other bands had written numbers specifically for the project but simply mailed in their latest single or a b-side or something and when people asked why we didn’t I felt a little foolish but I never would have written lyrics so topical or pointed without the assignment so you know that’s cool, I enjoy a challenge. Oh and plus it was great the way we changed the mind of the nation and fascism was defeated and all the troops were home by Christmas.

Pastepunk: A Sticks and Stones question, if you’ll permit. Where did you get the germ of the idea for the line my unemployment check came in the mail from a government that would rather have me in jail? in “Theme Song For Nothing?”

Jack: I was living in a punk house outside of New Brunswick and had lost my job as a rent a-cop so started collecting unemployment and food stamps and most of the house was happy about it. The fridge was always full but there was this one guy who got all protestant work ethic on me with “you’re young and healthy, you could get a job! Don’t you know there are families who really need those benefits?” and when I pointed out that he sounded like a Republican he came back with “yeah, well you’re taking money from a country that would rather have you in jail anyway! What do you think of that?” He was supposed to be the more politically active of the two of us as well. I think I agreed to stop with the food stamps as a compromise to keep the house together (oh the joys of communal living!) but I continued to collect the checks for a good seven or eight months.

Pastepunk: What does a good glass of wine go best with?

Jack:Breakfast, lunch, dinner, friends – friends is the best answer really. Also smooching, pills, a book, pasta – I really like pasta, sometimes just knowing it is there.

Pastepunk: What were the two shows you played with the Bouncing Souls for the Release of The Gold Record like?

Jack: I was kind of worried about the “Class of 1991 reunion” aspect of the thing but no ex-girl (or boy) friends showed up and it was in the middle of a tour so it was just down to business. Sticks and Stones got a sound check while Inferno didn’t which I put towards the Jersey contingent’s long held anti-Cloth, pro-X bias but I’m Pro-X myself so I can’t blame them.

Pastepunk: If you had five minutes to explain your band to the average Warped Tour attendee, how would you do it?

Jack: See if you can find the key to your mother’s liquor cabinet.

Pastepunk: How would you define masculine and feminine, and do you see a problem with definitions today?

Jack: Finding this out is one of life’s most enjoyable pursuits and I would never butt in on anyone’s internal dialogue on the subject for fear of depriving them of any possible moment of the journey. Good question though.

Pastepunk: How far do you go with hedonism, and where do you draw the line?

Jack: Pretty damn far. I draw the line at the point were it fucks up a performance but ah, not always.

Pastepunk: Is there a certain mood or theme the group was gunning for with Red Eyed Soul?

Jack: About six or so years into doing the clickity-clackity circus punk gig and after a certain amount of attrition, Inferno realized we had the same instrumentation as the classic Al Green records, you know percussion, horns, organ, flamboyant singer (ah hem ah hem!), etc., so we started writing some more croony-type numbers (it is every singer’s ambition, whether they acknowledge it or not, to croon). Of course though, since it is us, and because we added Don Fury to the mix, it ended up sounding more like Screaming Jay Hawkins than Al Green, but we were going for a soul thing and we already had the red eyes.

Pastepunk: What books do you enjoy reading?

Jack: Let’s see… I could tell you the last couple books I’ve read. I’ve been enjoying Rex Stout’s “Nero Wolfe Novels,” I just finished Paul Robeson Jr’s “A Black Way Of Seeing,” and I am re-reading Michael Moorcock’s “Blood: A Southern Fantasy.” I’ve also been slogging through “House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power,” by James Carroll, but I keep putting it down because a) it’s heavy and b) I really don’t need to be more outraged by our feckless thugish government.

Pastepunk: Who are some brave men and women that you’d like to shout out?

Jack: Anyone who really gives a damn about things that ain’t fair and is not afraid to stand up and call it thus. Anyone who ever put the good of others, of strangers, above their own. Anybody who was ever a fool for hope, anyone who ever betted on it. And anybody who has ever played the fool.

- Above photo courtesy of Rose Callahan.