whole thing. I am grateful for anyone that likes what I do at this age. I try to repect that legacy as much as possible, which goes a long way to explaining why I have no interest in pissing on it, unike some other people I know. We will leave it at that!
Mike: Of all the music genres available at the time, what made you choose punk?
Jello: Why wouldn't I? I get really tired of people getting this bullshitty academic mindset that people like us start our bands out of guilt about how horrible the world is. Nobody starts a project like this to perform on stage because they are miserable, they do it because they want some joy in their life, want to experience the joy of performing and have a kick ass rock and roll band. It's many people's childhood dream coming true including mine. I didit because it's the music I liked at the get go. I mean right before the explosion in 77, things had gotten really grim for rock and roll. It was all going towards arena rock or adult rock, soft rock, so you are a little younger and not quite a baby boomer, so you are just going to have to like Eric Clapton like everybody else. Sorry...FUCK YOU! I like the Stooges because that's the kind of energy that speaks to me. I was scrambling to find music I like, then punk happened and rock and roll was back. The spirit of rock and roll was coming back out of the woodwork to people that finally got it. The music was more savage than ever before and the topics were more twisted and questioning and sick than they had ever been, which of course was right up my alley. I realized "Holy Shit!" I wasn't born too late, but realized that I was born at the perfect time! It's a rare oppurtunity to get up on stage, and I felt that if I could get my name on one little seven inch record I would declare victory.
Mike: What do you do in your spare time?
Jello: What do I do in my spare time? I never have any...but that is That is where the music lover comes out of me, the vinyl junkie. There are always piles of vinyl that I have not heard yet. Its like a
s where the music lover comes I endless forty year journey of a kid in a candy store in that regard. I roll my eyes at people that say the scene died in 1978, or the scene died after 1983 , or the scene died after 1970. So I say "Come on people, get off your ass, put down the dope, put down the bottle leave your apartment and go see something at random, until you find something you like. "Oh boo hoo punk is next" or Greenday got so famous. Well if you dont want to support that just go to Gillmans Street and support somebody underground that could use some friends. You might even like the music better. I have no patience for people that fold their arms and become old in the head and stuff. As far as I am concerned, music that I have never heard before is new to me even if it was recorded decades before I was born.
Mike: With your label Alternative Tentacles, what would you say your mission is and for the bands what does Alternative Tentacles look for?