Okay we’re here with THE CORPORATION, introduce yourself guys and tell us what you do in the band.
David (D): I’m David Corporation and I play guitar and sing.
Ian (I): I’m Ian Incorporated and I play the bass and do some vocals too.
Derrick (De): I’m Demented Derrick and I just beat the shit out of my drums.
Okay, how long has the CORPORATION been around for?
D: We’ve been around since June 2006 and so, how it all started was sort of ah…we’ve been in previous bands, ah, and Ian and Derrick here had been in a band called the SHITKICKERS and I had been in a band called LOW FREQUENCY and we used to play you know ah, back in like 2004 whatever, we met each other at a show… like, you know those crappy supernova shows? The one good thing that came out of it was that I met these guys and so both our bands…
De: We had a loving friendship after that.
D: Yeah (laughter) and both our bands kinda fizzled off at the same point, so Ian here came to me and just said like maybe we should start something together, you know.
De: And now we have this.
D: Yeah and so he just said like yeah, you know Ian came to me and we just ah, you know we wrote a few songs and then we just said who would be the best drummer and we just like, Ian was like let’s go back, let’s go to Derrick. Something friendly, something familiar.
I: ‘Cause the thing was we wanted to take advantage of the fact that we knew we were going to play a lot of songs from the SHITKICKERS and I was like well Derrick knows pretty much like all those songs.
De: I’m that special.
I: There was this guy Steve, Steve Heretick and ah the problem with him was like he had another band going so we were like, go with the old guy use some old songs so.
D: Not to mention Derrick had hit almost all the toms man, you know, that’s rare, so...
Do you still do a lot of SHITKICKER songs?
I: Yeah we still do. We play like songs like “She” or “Coffee”, ah “My Choice”.
D: This new one that we just finished recording, “Toxic World”.
I: Yeah “Toxic World” is like an ancient song we just brought that back out. I mean the way I look at it, you know, I just wrote those songs. Those songs have a lot of meaning behind them a lot of positive energy in them and I just want to keep these songs, you know.
Was there a different, I guess you decided to really start as the CORPORATION was there a change in song writing and ideas or? Did you guys have a discussion about like, what you wanted to do?
I: Right off the top man.
So, what was the idea behind the band?
I: We were just like, we wanted to make a band that’s like just totally makes fun of corporations and just totally, like totally, like bring ‘em down and really just a ska-core band, like really hardcore punk and like ska and just rip into corporations. I don’t know if you want to add to that?
D: Yeah obviously you know, it changed you know, but they had been in a band together. I hadn’t. This is my first time playing with them but whenever you add new people you change the dynamics.
Sure.
D: But like, When Ian came to me you know ah, ‘cause I sort of looked up to the SHITKICKERS or like they, you know my band wasn’t really that good but ah, they were definitely. I liked what they were doing so when Ian came to me I was just sort of like, what do you want and he was just saying let’s go more that ska core route. Let’s put more ska into it but keep it like hardcore punk, you know.
De: Yeah, Ian always had a thing for trying to implement ska with punk.
Yeah.
De: He tried it back with the SHITKICKERS.
Yes.
De: But it works a lot better with this band. Way more.
D: Yeah and it was just the focus was just going to be you know sort of that political satire, like, let’s talk about corporations…
De: Well we sort of joke around about it.
D: Yeah have fun with it, but we talk about serious issues and we get actual, like, good facts out there to people and raise awareness about stuff and so, have fun but be serious and sort of give it your all.
You were talking a bit about your musical influences like ska, can you tell me a bit about who you consider influences on the band?
I: DEAD KENNEDYS right here man. Jello Biafra is like huge influence on me like to… like that satire that’s where I get it from like I love how he would joke around songs like pull my strings and stuff like that. Such joke around sarcasm I love that and that was really inspirational for me. And then like, as far as ska goes I was really, very influenced by the SPECIALS like a lot of two tone stuff, so that’s for me I don’t know for you guys.
De: Ha, way too much.
That’s okay, go ahead.
De: The list is way too big.
Well I’m curious to know what makes you guys tick so, feel free to just mention a few things that you…
De: Well, for me it was a lot of metal back in the day so, like I was big into SLIPKNOT and...
D: I remember when I met this guy. He had a huge CASUALTIES backpatch.
De: Yeah I was a huge CASUALTIES fan as well but ah, I also loved a lot of the UK ah, punk like EXPLOITED, well the EXPLOITED are more Scotch, but like the DAMNED, SEX PISTOLS everything man, everything from the 70s and on.
I: All I can remember is like we’re like playing like “come on Derrick play the skate punk” and he’s like, “I don’t like skate punk man, it’s Street punk man, steet punk!”
De: Give me a break, I was 16 at the time!
I: Whatever, it’s the same frigging beat man.
D: For me it was a lot of just the ah, I like a lot of American hardcore from the eighties, like actually I’d say one of my biggest influences is HÜSKER DÜ and I was listening to them on the way down is “Zen Arcade”, I think that’s the best album of all time, personally.
It’s a great record.
D: Yeah and MINOR THREAT and BLACK FLAG a lot when it comes to the punk stuff and when it comes to ska at the time you know. The SPECIALS grew on me more as I was in this band with Ian and I have to admit I wasn’t into ska but I didn’t know…not necessarily. I knew a lot about it, like I always like to research things but I didn’t really listen to it a lot but lately like it’s been a lot more like, I’ve been listening more to like DESMOND DECKER, PRINCE BUSTER, the SKATELITES and ah, actually BOB MARLEY and stuff and ah… like a lot more than the new stuff that maybe fans haven’t heard yet is influencing at least my guitar work and so a lot of I’d say very punk driven but in back, you know, in us is still that ska roots.
De: We try to keep that root.
I: And you can hear in our sound that we’re influenced by CHOCKING VICTIM and LEFTOVER CRACK and OPERATION IVY.
I was going to ask about that.
D: The usuals.
I: It’s just we don’t like to go ahead and say that because a lot of people that don’t know you better will be like, ah you’re just a rip off.
Well the thing is, although it may seem obvious, you didn’t mention it and I was thinking that’s peculiar that you didn’t mention something like that.
D: See to be honest, I own all those records but if you asked me the last time I put it on, like me myself.
I: Months ago.
D: I haven’t put it in for, like years but I’ll be in a car with someone and they’ll be like do you have that CD and I’ll be like, yeah I do and I still like listening to it, but to me, like, that’s not what’s really influencing me anymore. I feel like I’m past that, you know…
Although it was one of those, “Energy” was one of those records that just, you know, changed the face of punk at one point right?
D: No it did, and it’s true because..I mean..
That whole Gilman Street scene that grew out of that, it put the spotlight on that Gilman Street scene that was, like, under-sung.
D: You talk to anyone though it’s just like: punk, ska aside, like whatever side you want to say you’re on on, you know everyone seemed to like them. Their favourite songs you know, just always quote some lyrics and stuff, it’s true it was a very important record.
It was yeah. Okay I’m going to ask you just about the punk side now, if you had to limit your record collection of five punk releases what would they be collectively as a band so you need to put your heads together for this.
D: Well, I’ll take one and then we can agree on two, how about that?
I: Hold on a second.
D: Okay so we’ll start ...
I: “Out Come The Wolves”, man, that record is sick by RANCID. It’s one of my favourite records.
D: (laughter) Are you serious???!!!
I: Yeah man.
D: Oh god, if you were stranded on a dessert island man??!
I: Buddy!
De: I’d use that for fire wood.
I: Every single song on that album kicks ass man. Every single song man. There’s not one song that people won’t fucking cover like “Every Day”. That song, that album is just like jam packed.
D: But for the pure fact that you’re getting nineteen songs too.
I: It’s insane, and every song is good man.
D: You take another album and you might only get eleven, so that one will last you longer.
I: That album was extremely influential for my bass playing, for sure.
D: I already threw out “Zen Arcade” by HÜSKER DÜ and I don’t think these guys will agree with me so much, but definitely me.
I: Eh, whatever you can get one fifth of the vote.
D: Okay good.
De: I can’t pick.
You can’t pick?
De: I can’t pick. It’s too hard!
This shouldn’t be hard, you should just say.
D: You know what, I could list you five right now.
De: Out of my head?
Don’t think.
I: See you’re thinking now, look what you did!
D: Okay I’m going to put out BAD BRAINS “Rock for Light” because I’d say maybe the first self titled but it was just faster on “Rock for Light” and you got more songs.
I: I’m going to say DEAD KENNEDY’s “In God We Trust” if that is the album that I’m thinking of ...
“In God We Trust?”
I: If that’s the one with all the pure fast songs on it…
Yes, that’s it.
I: That is it. That album kills. That’s wicked.
De: You know what it would be for me? It’d be the Punk-core sampler from 2000 that really drove me into punk actually. I snagged it off one of my buddies. I saw it in his basement. Saw the cover and I was like, that looks cool, I’m going to borrow this. Never gave it back.
Yeah.
I: One thing is we actually did a cover…
De: Played it to the ground…
You know, what’s interesting is, no one has ever picked a comp before and I’d have to say that, like one of the first comps I ever listened to was probably “Welcome to 1984” which was an MRR comp that had so many…and it makes sense that you would pick a comp because there’s so many.
De: It’s got so much on it
I: You know what’s also good man those…
De: You know, granted it was a street punk one, it’s got CLIT 45 on it and LOWER CLASS BRATS, A GLOBAL THREAT.
I: The original Hellcat samplers like “Give ‘Em the Boot” I and II, those ones are wicked man, they got me into…that’s what got me started on CHOKING VICTIM and stuff like that and then VOODOO GLOW SKULLS man, kick ass.
VOODOO GLOW SKULLS, I forgot about that...
I: That’s what got me into that, for sure those albums man, they’re really...
D: I’m gonna be a bit more nostalgic and we actually covered a song “Mannequin” by WIRE and I’d say “Pink Flag”.
Okay I’m going to cut you off because you’ve already reached your limit.
D: Cool.
I: We talk too much.
No, no, I want to ask you about the name of the band, where does the name come from “ Is it like based on the movie, “the Corporation” ?
I: I have to say that I did um actually take some influence from that it was just like...
De: We were just kinda sitting in my basement thinking of names...
D: Yeah well originally you guys had NASH and I’m like that’s that Wal-mart skateboard brand…
I: Yeah well, the reason why NASH was more to it than that, it was because it was the four possible ways to die: NATURAL, ACCIDENTAL, SUICIDE, and HOMICIDE and I thought that would be a cool idea for a band and then...
D: That’s a rare fact you’ll find about this band.
I: Yeah for sure, you’re not going to get that anywhere else.
De: Now everyone knows.
I: And then all of a sudden I was like, a cool name that would be good for a ska band and it’s just like really simple, like one of those names that someone says all the time and they’re like something that’s like simple.
De: You can’t simplify it any more.
I: Just a really simple name and also really insulting name too to corporations. It’s like an insult. We dress up like business guys like with blood on us and shit.
Yeah, it makes me think of that DEAD KENNEDYS picture where they have the ties and the dollars signs on their shirts.
I: Yeah that fucking, than, that’s a wicked picture man.
But does anybody criticize you for like, stealing the idea from the movie?
I: I don’t care, I just don’t care man. You know? Whatever, man.
D: I’m actually surprised with how few people have actually mentioned anything about that movie like…It’s a Canadian film too so I’m surprised by that a lot ...
Well, maybe that’s part of the reason why, because it’s a Canadian film so it’s not that well known. Also it’s got a political agenda. The movie is long because it’s dense with stuff that they’ve got to cover about the entity, ‘the Corporation’ right, um but ah, I think it’s a difficult movie, in some ways, to watch because, you know, it’s not a, you know, in the junk information generation of ...
I: My girlfriend fell asleep (laughter) when we were watching it.
My point exactly.
I: I loved it man my eyes were opened. I was watching it. I couldn’t get my face off the screen. I wanted more man. It was just awesome.
I have to agree with you. I’ve seen the movie a million times already, well not a million, but I’ve seen it at least four or five times and...
De: I can’t say I’ve watched it yet (laughter). I haven’t seen it yet.
D: You need to, that’s pretty bad.
I: Another big thing that was interesting from that movie was ah, like there the whole thing about corporations not having to take responsibility because ah, it becomes a person of its’ own so it’s like instead of saying some guy owns a business, a corporation is its’ own person and I thought that was an interesting thing and I wanted to roll with that in a way too that like, we’re like, we’re this entity you know...so I don’t know, I found that interesting.
D: It’s very much how we deal with our band too like it’s not like this is, like it’s almost like the band is like its’ own person, like you take the three of us and you put us together but it is like...
De: Well we are a business too, right?
D: Well yeah, yeah. The other thing too is..
De: I guess if you look at it that way, I mean you get paid for gigs, it’s a business right? You’re entertaining.
I: I don’t know man, I wouldn’t say that we we’re making very much money man. I wouldn’t be playing with this kinda crappy gear...
De: Well, definitely not those giant four bass drums and 8000 cymbals.
I’m not really sure you could be accused of like, you know, basically destroying the world or fucking over people everywhere.
I: Actually we kinda kid around that we’re going to actually this is 100% serious, all the money that we are earning we are going to build a giant Deathstar to blow up the world so, that what I want to say we’re just like every other corporation. We’re going to take out the world, and we’re going to do it. It’s going to cost us a quadrillion dollars but we’re on the way slowly.
D: Yeah, like we’re going to test that on Alderon first but ah, once that’s proven successful, Earth will be next.
I: So with your help we can destroy the Earth together!
Okay what are some of the things you sing about?
D: Ah well.
I: Sex. Sex and violence, free TV porn.
Is it all about Corporations? I mean, there is a song about Coca Cola on a recent CD...
D: There is a song about Coca Cola and actually, we felt like it was so strong lyrically that the first time we didn’t do it justice, we re-did it on a split, that we did with BEYOND DECAY. But uhm it’s not all about corporations you know like the thing was for me I listen to ANTI-FLAG and they’re great but like well, ah...there music’s kinda gone down but the message...
I: (singing) “One trillion dollars, could buy a lot of things. One trillion dollars...” (laughter)
D: But like the thing was, It seemed like too much though you know like for the message like very rarely did they actually have a joke song or care to take it back a bit and so, like, we will have some joke songs. We will have some fun songs. It’s never lame like BLINK182 joking around, like ‘go fuck a dog’ or something like that.
De: I touched grampa’s penis the other night.
D: Yeah like it is a strong focus though on CORPORATION’s or just more like stuff like we said that song one is about pollution, which I guess corporations have a big part of contributing to pollution but you know like songs like “Channel 39” is just a song about tv porn. You know like that rare thing back in the day before the internet.
I: You wait for the nipple shot.
D: You wait that half hour for that one nipple.
I: I would tape in man cause you see it for the one second that one titty would come out.
De: Wait for the boob.
I: You better catch that that’s maybe just one of the night man, you know like. Before everyone was all like Ohh, ohhh...wait..noh...ahhh ohh, wait, wait ahhh there it is yay. I was sitting with my buddy Steve man I was sleeping over at his house like years and years ago and uh I couldn’t even believe it was on T.V. like, I’d never seen it on TV before. I thought you had to like pay for this and then. I don’t know, we just recently...
De: I think what’s worse is, you know when you’re younger and you’d watch the like, scrambled porn on the real high channels? And you get the perfect audio but it’s all like static.
D: Then you find out it was the surgery channel and you’re like, oh damn!
De: I just whacked off to someone’s open heart surgery that was a long...oh.
I think in some ways though you’d expect a balanced approach you know some fun as well as some serious stuff.
I: We didn’t just want to put it in people’s faces you know.
At least with a band that would be doing some ska I mean it seems like, you know ‘cause ska is like actually kinda this (fun music in some ways?)
I: Ska man is like that.
Of course, I don’t disagree you know. Things like “Pressure Drop” they talk about economic system collapsing and things like that.
I: That’s an awesome song man. That’s one of my favourite songs.
I agree but in the same token it is considered with you know...
De: You can dance to it.
I: Yeah we like that aspect too. It’s like a good groove like, we throw a bit of reggae in there. It’s really chill like the thing is too, we’re not trying to sound like mediocre or nothing but the like it’s good to see a lot of kids like ska better than our punk stuff, but we still play our punk stuff. We still stay true to it because that’s just what we love. We love being that band. We’ll show up to a ska show and there’ll be a lot of ska bands like STOP DROP AND SKANK and they’re amazing at what they do. I mean they do their ska thing but then it’s like we always come there and bring that punk element always.
D: It’s good to have that diversity you know I mean we can fit into a punk show we can fit into a ska show and ...
De: I don’t like idolizing ourselves actually.
Well I’m going to ask you, I want to go back to the lyric stuff what is your favourite song from a lyrical standpoint and why?
D: I would have to say from a lyrical standpoint it is “Coca Cola” because that was the first time I, like ‘cause like whoever sings the song writes the lyrics...
I: Except for “Bibles for Cambodia” which was written by me because I couldn’t sing it ‘cause it’s pretty hard to sing and play that song so...I failed, I suck!
D: But from a lyrical standpoint “Coca Cola” that was the first time I actually tried to really focus on you know like one, like one corporation and kinda one thought and one cause ‘cause and it came out really well and since then I’ve been able to do that. Like, it’s all been, like this one song that we have called “Charon doesn’t have change for a million dollar bills” on the new album “The Corporation Strikes Back” but that’s one that’s kind of more diverse. It talks about corporations in general, but “Coca Cola” that song is the first time I tried to target one specific corporation and really tried to raise awareness.
Okay, what about the rest of you?
I: Ah, “Guantanamo Bay” is my favourite song ‘cause like it is just really disgusting to me like the kinda things that went on down there and not only that it’s just kinda funny that they’ve got like bowling alleys and like a McDonalds and all this and yet there’s like all these people suffering and not even getting a chance at trial, and, like, if they do it’s just like guilty. Do you know what I mean? That kind of thing is just totally disgusting you know. I wrote this song as a joke cause there actually is a website you can go to where you can go to a US Navy base you can go to trips to Guantanamo Bay in the U.S. and it’s like “Come to Guantanamo Bay”, “we’ve got bowling alleys the nicest, warmest beaches”, and like and I just thought it was disgusting ‘cause it’s like all this crap is going on there man it’s like so to me I wrote it like a joke song like, just like you know like, well read the lyrics for yourself.
Well the US is using the ‘War on Terror’ as a way of kidnapping people and bringing them to this place to torture them.
I: For sure man. So I wrote this song as like a vacation song like trying to like come on down to Guantanamo Bay we’re going to have a good time kinda thing and like you know.
Yeah, like “Holiday in Cambodia”.
I: (laughter) Hey, yeah it’s not a rip-off, don’t call it that. It’s inspiration.
I’m just saying.
De: Cheap shot, cheap shot.
I: In a way you know what? Like I said man I’m not going to lie, Jello is a very huge influence of mine.
Hey, his stuff is still pertinent.
De: I just play drums, I never hear what they sing.
There’s nothing that you, that stood out for you?
De: Like, I like a lot of their songs.
I: Except he does “1, 2, 3, 4!”
De: Yeah, on “Guantanimo Bay”.
I: That’s it, that’s his vocals on that one.
D: I have to say that lyrically another one though, “Invasion of the Wal-Martians”. That was another early song from us and Ian wrote those lyrics I just thought they were clever and funny and it’s that whole political satire thing again coming at you, but if you read those lyrics it’s just, it’s really funny but it really does make you think like wow you know, Wal-Mart is sort of like these alien invaders coming in and they just keep spreading and taking over.
Did you hear that they tried to set up a Wal-Mart really close to one of the Mayan ruins?
D: No, I heard about that too.
Because there’s not a Wal-Mart within like, I don’t know, 50 miles of it. That’s their rationalization.
D: Someone told me they’re actually is one at the pyramids, you can visit there, there’s actually a McDonalds which I thought was. Yeah you just saw uh, king tut and now you can get your Big Mac.
I: Best part about Cuba man is you don’t have that crap. I went there not too long ago and down there I went down there and they don’t have any of that. It’s so nice to get away from Wal Mart, Coca Cola, McDonalds and it’s just like, yeah I mean, they have there own set of problems but, it is nice to get away from corporations.
De: I think “Toxic World” and holiday in...er, not holiday “Bibles for Cambodia” the two that I’d choose from, lyrically.
Yeah. Who are some of the bands you play with locally.
De: Too many.
I: Uhm, we’ve played with the VILETONES, the TOASTERS we’ve played with the CREEP SHOW.
De: That’s not locally!
I: Well, I mean we played those shows locally.
It’s okay, it’s okay
De: It’s like KEEPING SIX, JOHNSTONES, FLATLINERS.
D: Mainly though, THE FLATLINERS.
I: We play a lot with like...Yeah, like they said KEEPING SIX, JOHNSTONES, FLATLINERS I mean...
D: CEREMONIAL SNIPS, THE EXPOS...
I: We just played with HOSTAGE LIFE.
D: We do, we seem to be doing a lot especially sorta in the Mississauga area with the big man himself in STOP DROP AND SKANK and so you know, we’re getting to be good, good friends with them.
I: Shout out to ORGANIZED CHAOS...I hope they’re listening.
D: They’re good friends of ours, you know.
I: Yeah those guys. I love those guys to death man, they’re amazing. I don’t know, who else really we played with...oh...THE BRAINS from Quebec I don’t know ...
D: One cool thing was BROWN BRIGADE.
I: Yeah, BROWN BRIGADE! Those guys are actually... man he did the right thing and left SUM 41 ‘cause that band is wicked man, they’re playing like IRON MAIDEN.
D: He is fucking serious about his metal man.
I: But he’s amazing man.
D: He’s like the coolest guy ever he just came out to our car and just started, he was like “Do you need a hand with gear?” brought it into the club for us.
I: Yeah, that was cool man.
De: He’s nice. He’s awesome nice. Really nice guy.
I: MAXIMUM RNR we will be playing with so ah, there. That’s going to be a good show, that’s coming up this month.
Okay, How many releases do you have out?
De: Three currently.
I: We got three.
Okay, ah, are they all self released ?
I: Self released, recorded we do all the art. Derrick does all the art.
De: Yeah, I usually do all the art. Our very first album we used to hand-press ourselves just print it out, burn it.
D: He made the first 100 copies by hand...
Okay what is the first release?
D: The first?
De: “New Pope”.
And when did it come out?
D: It came out in December 2006.
Okay, and is it still available?
I: Yeah you can still buy it. Actually that’s not true. Currently it’s out of stock. There’s only one copy left out of the 200 so...if you want it really badly ah, you’re going to have to come to Niagara Falls this weekend ‘cause we’re going to sell it there for sure.
D: Like we said, the first 100 were made by hand and that just got really tedious and so we ended up having to send them away to get it made but in terms of... like it’s as DIY as possible.
De: They also had a habit of getting caught in people’s CD players...
I: Yeah ‘cause it’s like the label that was like really sticky it happened to me too man, I put it in, I like busted my girlfriend’s like CD player...
D: You know what though? Yeah, we did it on purpose because then people can’t get them out and they have to listen to it...
I: Yeah, you have to listen to it over and over again.
That would be clever.
D: But in terms of being DIY, we recorded it ourselves like we said Derrick here would draw the artwork you know. We would compile the liner notes together and you know, we got it made by hand as much as possible.
Let me ask you about the recording then. Was it recorded like in a practice space or something like that?
De: Yeah, in my basement.
I: Uhm, the multitude of...the very first album was actually only recorded with like three mics...like that was it.
De: Was it three? I thought we had like two?
I: You know what, I think at one point maybe we only had two...
De: We did the drums with one hanging from the rafters...
I: One hanging from the roof and one shoved in his kick drum, and then there was like the bass guitar...
De: It actually worked out...
I: Yeah, you know what? There was only two mics and then there was just the bass and, afterwards we did everything else and it was really, that was before I knew what I was doing so...I mean.
De: We were still in school then.
How did it turn out?
I: You gotta see for yourself...I think it turned out pretty good considering man. We didn’t know what we were doing you know...
D: I think the results speak for themselves, like for the time, I mean, like we said we were a band in June 2006. It was out December 2006 and you know for what it was just sorta. It’s nine songs. We call it an album but I guess it’s technically an EP like it’s not ten songs. It’s less than half an hour.
Well nine songs is still...
D: But for what it was it was good, the songs speak for themselves. I mean to us it was always.
De: Technicalities.
You know what? The first MDC record was under fourteen minutes. The first CIRCLE JERKS record was under twenty.
D: Oh the CIRCLE JERKS oh I love how, I got the CD, double play and it’s still like 30 minutes...
Anyways, so, time is not an indication.
De: I agree.
I: But ah, the second album we lucked out right because my buddy Linton, we went to school with him and we just recorded the drums and everything in his house and that was cool and I think it sounds really good and at that point I was like sure, I knew a little bit more about what I was doing and then the third album is like well the second one was more of a split. It wasn’t an album but....
De: The third was in my basement.
I: Third one, we did the drums and bass in Derrick’s basement and ah we did guitar in my kitchen in my parents house.
D: Yeah, clean guitars in the kitchen and distorted guitars in your room.
I: And then we did vocals in my bedroom and then also we had the JOHNSTONES come over and they did like their trumpets right in my bedroom. It was jokes ‘cause you know like when they play live they like take off their shirts and everything and they like did that too in my bedroom. It was getting pretty sweaty in there.(laughter)
De: Yo, A lot of girls would love to have those two guys in their rooms with their shirts off so... (laughter)
I: I bet a lot of girls are jealous out there, I had Julian and Renee, half naked in my room and they were drinking beers so I mean.
D: We were getting them drunk but you know they had a rush so.
De: I wasn’t there, so I couldn’t take advantage of them.
I: You know what? Those are the two coolest guys from that band, for sure.
D: I have to say, they came by, they it was for a song called “Dead at the age of 18” on our new album...
I: I love those guys.
D: We sent it to them. All the music was done and we told them, hey, you know, feel free you got four bars, do what you want. They wrote their parts. They came down. They drove all the way. I mean we gave them gas money but I mean they pretty much like, they just did it for free. They just did it to be nice guys. And they did a great job, and ah, really cool guys right from the beginning they were really excited about it, and you know they kept coming to us like “oh are you ready?”, like “oh what do you want?” You know it was great we didn’t really have to bug them. They were all for it.
I: I mean considering the dudes are like travelling with like HEDLEY and all these huge bands like for them to just come over and do that for us. I mean take time out of there day, we were even late too from getting this microphone...(laughter) which we did take the microphone back saying it was broke didn’t we?
D: No.
I: Or did we wimp out? I think we wimped out...
D: You wimped out I would have done it.
I: Whatever, whatever, whatever.
D: But no, the thing I remember about that day though is that they got there early and uh, Julian calls me up and he’s like, is this your house?
Curse of having a conscience...
D: Because the neighbour, his neighbour was like some old woman and apparently she was yelling at them cause they were like...
I: No, it wasn’t my neighbour man, it was my mom’s friend.
D: Oh okay, but just kinda like...
I: And she’s telling them off like, “nice hair !” like making fun of them and shit. It was like my mom’s friend.
D: Not only did they have to wait for us, they got made fun of and we’re like, oh shit.
I: But yeah not cool, for sure.
What are the band’s future plans?
De: Keep going ‘till we’re dead.
I: Ah, world domination with the Deathstar?
We’ve already covered that.
I: Realistic wise, I guess.
De: Realistically?
Are you going to be touring or recording soon?
I: Well, we were supposed to tour in Quebec, but that got canned but we sold out in Montreal and Quebec City. But that’s going to happen again man we’re going with our good buddies the ROCK ONS another amazing band. We just love those guys. We’re going to do that in May hopefully and we’re sorta thinking about going across Canada but that probably won’t happen this year maybe it’s probably more like probably next year...
D: That’s more of a pipe dream.
De: Pretty much go as far as we can get, simply.
I: We’re going to just keep playing our crap and hopefully someone out there likes it and we’ll just keep playing it...
De: I’m in for like Tokyo and Australia, but that’s like the big picture.
D: The one thing I can say about the band though is that since it started it was like we were shot out of a cannon. It was immediate and we constantly do shows. We’ve never taken a break. We took one, well when we couldn’t get shows that one weekend, but like one time we took like a week off when he went to Cuba but besides that it’s been constant shows and it’s just been...
I: He holds that against me you know.
D: I do not.
It almost sounds like it.
I: We’ve played over...we’ve only been together for only like a year and we’ve done , I would say in between 100 and 150 shows.
D: It’s actually, it’s actually we’re at 122 was yesterday was our 122nd show.
I: That’s pretty close.
D: But you know what I mean, pushing as far as possible so, you know, we’ve been doing a lot around Southern Ontario and we feel like maybe we’ve saturated that a bit so we will be spreading but it’s kind of like pushing it as far...
I: Sneak into the States illegally.
D: But it’s just going as far as possible, and I mean its’ constant releases, like, it’s been a year and a half and we have three releases.
When did the latest release come out?
D: Ah it was October 20th.
De: Oh yeah, I was thinking December...
Have you been writing new stuff since then?
D: Yeah, actually we have a new song that we recorded, it’s called “Money Machine” and hopefully we’re gonna get it on a split or a comp or something.
De: I think we should just pump out another album, personally.
I: We recorded it with our buddy ‘Hot Carl’ from Uxbridge.
D: Bridge Promotions.
I: Yeah, Bridge Promotions, like he recorded that and he’s recording “Toxic World” and those will be on our new album that we’re gonna be releasing in the fall, for sure.
Okay, how can people get in touch with the band?
D: We have a Myspace, ah it’s http://www.myspace.com/corporationskaband and you can catch us there. All our information is up there and there you can find our individual emails if you even want. We will respond to you, any comments or messages people send we respond to every single one. All our info: Shows, CD releases, merch, anything. We make blogs after every show just to let people know, like if they couldn’t make it to the show, what happened anything crazy happened, good, bad whatever so if you didn’t make it to the show you know what you saw and we give shout outs to the bands and the people that were there and...
That’s good, that’s good.
D: All our main information can be found there.
And I also appreciate that you put your e-mail addresses up there because a lot of people don’t so you kinda have to be part of the Myspace thing...
De: I find it sometimes a little annoying but I don’t mind at the same time.
I: I like it though cause if a fan, a lot of the time it’s like, some people just want to talk to you more personally as opposed to your whole Myspace, you know like maybe they got something to say to you directly or just want to talk to you because they liked you in the band not... I think it’s cool you know a lot of people just add me and it’s cool you know I like talking to them yeah if you want to add me...
De: I’m lonely.
I: It’s a pain in the ass when I’m checking e-mail and you just get bands asking to add you, so.
Well thanks very much for playing today.
I: Thanks a lot for having us.
And good luck with things.
D: No, good luck to you.
I: We love you.
Good luck to us all.
David (D): I’m David Corporation and I play guitar and sing.
Ian (I): I’m Ian Incorporated and I play the bass and do some vocals too.
Derrick (De): I’m Demented Derrick and I just beat the shit out of my drums.
Okay, how long has the CORPORATION been around for?
D: We’ve been around since June 2006 and so, how it all started was sort of ah…we’ve been in previous bands, ah, and Ian and Derrick here had been in a band called the SHITKICKERS and I had been in a band called LOW FREQUENCY and we used to play you know ah, back in like 2004 whatever, we met each other at a show… like, you know those crappy supernova shows? The one good thing that came out of it was that I met these guys and so both our bands…
De: We had a loving friendship after that.
D: Yeah (laughter) and both our bands kinda fizzled off at the same point, so Ian here came to me and just said like maybe we should start something together, you know.
De: And now we have this.
D: Yeah and so he just said like yeah, you know Ian came to me and we just ah, you know we wrote a few songs and then we just said who would be the best drummer and we just like, Ian was like let’s go back, let’s go to Derrick. Something friendly, something familiar.
I: ‘Cause the thing was we wanted to take advantage of the fact that we knew we were going to play a lot of songs from the SHITKICKERS and I was like well Derrick knows pretty much like all those songs.
De: I’m that special.
I: There was this guy Steve, Steve Heretick and ah the problem with him was like he had another band going so we were like, go with the old guy use some old songs so.
D: Not to mention Derrick had hit almost all the toms man, you know, that’s rare, so...
Do you still do a lot of SHITKICKER songs?
I: Yeah we still do. We play like songs like “She” or “Coffee”, ah “My Choice”.
D: This new one that we just finished recording, “Toxic World”.
I: Yeah “Toxic World” is like an ancient song we just brought that back out. I mean the way I look at it, you know, I just wrote those songs. Those songs have a lot of meaning behind them a lot of positive energy in them and I just want to keep these songs, you know.
Was there a different, I guess you decided to really start as the CORPORATION was there a change in song writing and ideas or? Did you guys have a discussion about like, what you wanted to do?
I: Right off the top man.
So, what was the idea behind the band?
I: We were just like, we wanted to make a band that’s like just totally makes fun of corporations and just totally, like totally, like bring ‘em down and really just a ska-core band, like really hardcore punk and like ska and just rip into corporations. I don’t know if you want to add to that?
D: Yeah obviously you know, it changed you know, but they had been in a band together. I hadn’t. This is my first time playing with them but whenever you add new people you change the dynamics.
Sure.
D: But like, When Ian came to me you know ah, ‘cause I sort of looked up to the SHITKICKERS or like they, you know my band wasn’t really that good but ah, they were definitely. I liked what they were doing so when Ian came to me I was just sort of like, what do you want and he was just saying let’s go more that ska core route. Let’s put more ska into it but keep it like hardcore punk, you know.
De: Yeah, Ian always had a thing for trying to implement ska with punk.
Yeah.
De: He tried it back with the SHITKICKERS.
Yes.
De: But it works a lot better with this band. Way more.
D: Yeah and it was just the focus was just going to be you know sort of that political satire, like, let’s talk about corporations…
De: Well we sort of joke around about it.
D: Yeah have fun with it, but we talk about serious issues and we get actual, like, good facts out there to people and raise awareness about stuff and so, have fun but be serious and sort of give it your all.
You were talking a bit about your musical influences like ska, can you tell me a bit about who you consider influences on the band?
I: DEAD KENNEDYS right here man. Jello Biafra is like huge influence on me like to… like that satire that’s where I get it from like I love how he would joke around songs like pull my strings and stuff like that. Such joke around sarcasm I love that and that was really inspirational for me. And then like, as far as ska goes I was really, very influenced by the SPECIALS like a lot of two tone stuff, so that’s for me I don’t know for you guys.
De: Ha, way too much.
That’s okay, go ahead.
De: The list is way too big.
Well I’m curious to know what makes you guys tick so, feel free to just mention a few things that you…
De: Well, for me it was a lot of metal back in the day so, like I was big into SLIPKNOT and...
D: I remember when I met this guy. He had a huge CASUALTIES backpatch.
De: Yeah I was a huge CASUALTIES fan as well but ah, I also loved a lot of the UK ah, punk like EXPLOITED, well the EXPLOITED are more Scotch, but like the DAMNED, SEX PISTOLS everything man, everything from the 70s and on.
I: All I can remember is like we’re like playing like “come on Derrick play the skate punk” and he’s like, “I don’t like skate punk man, it’s Street punk man, steet punk!”
De: Give me a break, I was 16 at the time!
I: Whatever, it’s the same frigging beat man.
D: For me it was a lot of just the ah, I like a lot of American hardcore from the eighties, like actually I’d say one of my biggest influences is HÜSKER DÜ and I was listening to them on the way down is “Zen Arcade”, I think that’s the best album of all time, personally.
It’s a great record.
D: Yeah and MINOR THREAT and BLACK FLAG a lot when it comes to the punk stuff and when it comes to ska at the time you know. The SPECIALS grew on me more as I was in this band with Ian and I have to admit I wasn’t into ska but I didn’t know…not necessarily. I knew a lot about it, like I always like to research things but I didn’t really listen to it a lot but lately like it’s been a lot more like, I’ve been listening more to like DESMOND DECKER, PRINCE BUSTER, the SKATELITES and ah, actually BOB MARLEY and stuff and ah… like a lot more than the new stuff that maybe fans haven’t heard yet is influencing at least my guitar work and so a lot of I’d say very punk driven but in back, you know, in us is still that ska roots.
De: We try to keep that root.
I: And you can hear in our sound that we’re influenced by CHOCKING VICTIM and LEFTOVER CRACK and OPERATION IVY.
I was going to ask about that.
D: The usuals.
I: It’s just we don’t like to go ahead and say that because a lot of people that don’t know you better will be like, ah you’re just a rip off.
Well the thing is, although it may seem obvious, you didn’t mention it and I was thinking that’s peculiar that you didn’t mention something like that.
D: See to be honest, I own all those records but if you asked me the last time I put it on, like me myself.
I: Months ago.
D: I haven’t put it in for, like years but I’ll be in a car with someone and they’ll be like do you have that CD and I’ll be like, yeah I do and I still like listening to it, but to me, like, that’s not what’s really influencing me anymore. I feel like I’m past that, you know…
Although it was one of those, “Energy” was one of those records that just, you know, changed the face of punk at one point right?
D: No it did, and it’s true because..I mean..
That whole Gilman Street scene that grew out of that, it put the spotlight on that Gilman Street scene that was, like, under-sung.
D: You talk to anyone though it’s just like: punk, ska aside, like whatever side you want to say you’re on on, you know everyone seemed to like them. Their favourite songs you know, just always quote some lyrics and stuff, it’s true it was a very important record.
It was yeah. Okay I’m going to ask you just about the punk side now, if you had to limit your record collection of five punk releases what would they be collectively as a band so you need to put your heads together for this.
D: Well, I’ll take one and then we can agree on two, how about that?
I: Hold on a second.
D: Okay so we’ll start ...
I: “Out Come The Wolves”, man, that record is sick by RANCID. It’s one of my favourite records.
D: (laughter) Are you serious???!!!
I: Yeah man.
D: Oh god, if you were stranded on a dessert island man??!
I: Buddy!
De: I’d use that for fire wood.
I: Every single song on that album kicks ass man. Every single song man. There’s not one song that people won’t fucking cover like “Every Day”. That song, that album is just like jam packed.
D: But for the pure fact that you’re getting nineteen songs too.
I: It’s insane, and every song is good man.
D: You take another album and you might only get eleven, so that one will last you longer.
I: That album was extremely influential for my bass playing, for sure.
D: I already threw out “Zen Arcade” by HÜSKER DÜ and I don’t think these guys will agree with me so much, but definitely me.
I: Eh, whatever you can get one fifth of the vote.
D: Okay good.
De: I can’t pick.
You can’t pick?
De: I can’t pick. It’s too hard!
This shouldn’t be hard, you should just say.
D: You know what, I could list you five right now.
De: Out of my head?
Don’t think.
I: See you’re thinking now, look what you did!
D: Okay I’m going to put out BAD BRAINS “Rock for Light” because I’d say maybe the first self titled but it was just faster on “Rock for Light” and you got more songs.
I: I’m going to say DEAD KENNEDY’s “In God We Trust” if that is the album that I’m thinking of ...
“In God We Trust?”
I: If that’s the one with all the pure fast songs on it…
Yes, that’s it.
I: That is it. That album kills. That’s wicked.
De: You know what it would be for me? It’d be the Punk-core sampler from 2000 that really drove me into punk actually. I snagged it off one of my buddies. I saw it in his basement. Saw the cover and I was like, that looks cool, I’m going to borrow this. Never gave it back.
Yeah.
I: One thing is we actually did a cover…
De: Played it to the ground…
You know, what’s interesting is, no one has ever picked a comp before and I’d have to say that, like one of the first comps I ever listened to was probably “Welcome to 1984” which was an MRR comp that had so many…and it makes sense that you would pick a comp because there’s so many.
De: It’s got so much on it
I: You know what’s also good man those…
De: You know, granted it was a street punk one, it’s got CLIT 45 on it and LOWER CLASS BRATS, A GLOBAL THREAT.
I: The original Hellcat samplers like “Give ‘Em the Boot” I and II, those ones are wicked man, they got me into…that’s what got me started on CHOKING VICTIM and stuff like that and then VOODOO GLOW SKULLS man, kick ass.
VOODOO GLOW SKULLS, I forgot about that...
I: That’s what got me into that, for sure those albums man, they’re really...
D: I’m gonna be a bit more nostalgic and we actually covered a song “Mannequin” by WIRE and I’d say “Pink Flag”.
Okay I’m going to cut you off because you’ve already reached your limit.
D: Cool.
I: We talk too much.
No, no, I want to ask you about the name of the band, where does the name come from “ Is it like based on the movie, “the Corporation” ?
I: I have to say that I did um actually take some influence from that it was just like...
De: We were just kinda sitting in my basement thinking of names...
D: Yeah well originally you guys had NASH and I’m like that’s that Wal-mart skateboard brand…
I: Yeah well, the reason why NASH was more to it than that, it was because it was the four possible ways to die: NATURAL, ACCIDENTAL, SUICIDE, and HOMICIDE and I thought that would be a cool idea for a band and then...
D: That’s a rare fact you’ll find about this band.
I: Yeah for sure, you’re not going to get that anywhere else.
De: Now everyone knows.
I: And then all of a sudden I was like, a cool name that would be good for a ska band and it’s just like really simple, like one of those names that someone says all the time and they’re like something that’s like simple.
De: You can’t simplify it any more.
I: Just a really simple name and also really insulting name too to corporations. It’s like an insult. We dress up like business guys like with blood on us and shit.
Yeah, it makes me think of that DEAD KENNEDYS picture where they have the ties and the dollars signs on their shirts.
I: Yeah that fucking, than, that’s a wicked picture man.
But does anybody criticize you for like, stealing the idea from the movie?
I: I don’t care, I just don’t care man. You know? Whatever, man.
D: I’m actually surprised with how few people have actually mentioned anything about that movie like…It’s a Canadian film too so I’m surprised by that a lot ...
Well, maybe that’s part of the reason why, because it’s a Canadian film so it’s not that well known. Also it’s got a political agenda. The movie is long because it’s dense with stuff that they’ve got to cover about the entity, ‘the Corporation’ right, um but ah, I think it’s a difficult movie, in some ways, to watch because, you know, it’s not a, you know, in the junk information generation of ...
I: My girlfriend fell asleep (laughter) when we were watching it.
My point exactly.
I: I loved it man my eyes were opened. I was watching it. I couldn’t get my face off the screen. I wanted more man. It was just awesome.
I have to agree with you. I’ve seen the movie a million times already, well not a million, but I’ve seen it at least four or five times and...
De: I can’t say I’ve watched it yet (laughter). I haven’t seen it yet.
D: You need to, that’s pretty bad.
I: Another big thing that was interesting from that movie was ah, like there the whole thing about corporations not having to take responsibility because ah, it becomes a person of its’ own so it’s like instead of saying some guy owns a business, a corporation is its’ own person and I thought that was an interesting thing and I wanted to roll with that in a way too that like, we’re like, we’re this entity you know...so I don’t know, I found that interesting.
D: It’s very much how we deal with our band too like it’s not like this is, like it’s almost like the band is like its’ own person, like you take the three of us and you put us together but it is like...
De: Well we are a business too, right?
D: Well yeah, yeah. The other thing too is..
De: I guess if you look at it that way, I mean you get paid for gigs, it’s a business right? You’re entertaining.
I: I don’t know man, I wouldn’t say that we we’re making very much money man. I wouldn’t be playing with this kinda crappy gear...
De: Well, definitely not those giant four bass drums and 8000 cymbals.
I’m not really sure you could be accused of like, you know, basically destroying the world or fucking over people everywhere.
I: Actually we kinda kid around that we’re going to actually this is 100% serious, all the money that we are earning we are going to build a giant Deathstar to blow up the world so, that what I want to say we’re just like every other corporation. We’re going to take out the world, and we’re going to do it. It’s going to cost us a quadrillion dollars but we’re on the way slowly.
D: Yeah, like we’re going to test that on Alderon first but ah, once that’s proven successful, Earth will be next.
I: So with your help we can destroy the Earth together!
Okay what are some of the things you sing about?
D: Ah well.
I: Sex. Sex and violence, free TV porn.
Is it all about Corporations? I mean, there is a song about Coca Cola on a recent CD...
D: There is a song about Coca Cola and actually, we felt like it was so strong lyrically that the first time we didn’t do it justice, we re-did it on a split, that we did with BEYOND DECAY. But uhm it’s not all about corporations you know like the thing was for me I listen to ANTI-FLAG and they’re great but like well, ah...there music’s kinda gone down but the message...
I: (singing) “One trillion dollars, could buy a lot of things. One trillion dollars...” (laughter)
D: But like the thing was, It seemed like too much though you know like for the message like very rarely did they actually have a joke song or care to take it back a bit and so, like, we will have some joke songs. We will have some fun songs. It’s never lame like BLINK182 joking around, like ‘go fuck a dog’ or something like that.
De: I touched grampa’s penis the other night.
D: Yeah like it is a strong focus though on CORPORATION’s or just more like stuff like we said that song one is about pollution, which I guess corporations have a big part of contributing to pollution but you know like songs like “Channel 39” is just a song about tv porn. You know like that rare thing back in the day before the internet.
I: You wait for the nipple shot.
D: You wait that half hour for that one nipple.
I: I would tape in man cause you see it for the one second that one titty would come out.
De: Wait for the boob.
I: You better catch that that’s maybe just one of the night man, you know like. Before everyone was all like Ohh, ohhh...wait..noh...ahhh ohh, wait, wait ahhh there it is yay. I was sitting with my buddy Steve man I was sleeping over at his house like years and years ago and uh I couldn’t even believe it was on T.V. like, I’d never seen it on TV before. I thought you had to like pay for this and then. I don’t know, we just recently...
De: I think what’s worse is, you know when you’re younger and you’d watch the like, scrambled porn on the real high channels? And you get the perfect audio but it’s all like static.
D: Then you find out it was the surgery channel and you’re like, oh damn!
De: I just whacked off to someone’s open heart surgery that was a long...oh.
I think in some ways though you’d expect a balanced approach you know some fun as well as some serious stuff.
I: We didn’t just want to put it in people’s faces you know.
At least with a band that would be doing some ska I mean it seems like, you know ‘cause ska is like actually kinda this (fun music in some ways?)
I: Ska man is like that.
Of course, I don’t disagree you know. Things like “Pressure Drop” they talk about economic system collapsing and things like that.
I: That’s an awesome song man. That’s one of my favourite songs.
I agree but in the same token it is considered with you know...
De: You can dance to it.
I: Yeah we like that aspect too. It’s like a good groove like, we throw a bit of reggae in there. It’s really chill like the thing is too, we’re not trying to sound like mediocre or nothing but the like it’s good to see a lot of kids like ska better than our punk stuff, but we still play our punk stuff. We still stay true to it because that’s just what we love. We love being that band. We’ll show up to a ska show and there’ll be a lot of ska bands like STOP DROP AND SKANK and they’re amazing at what they do. I mean they do their ska thing but then it’s like we always come there and bring that punk element always.
D: It’s good to have that diversity you know I mean we can fit into a punk show we can fit into a ska show and ...
De: I don’t like idolizing ourselves actually.
Well I’m going to ask you, I want to go back to the lyric stuff what is your favourite song from a lyrical standpoint and why?
D: I would have to say from a lyrical standpoint it is “Coca Cola” because that was the first time I, like ‘cause like whoever sings the song writes the lyrics...
I: Except for “Bibles for Cambodia” which was written by me because I couldn’t sing it ‘cause it’s pretty hard to sing and play that song so...I failed, I suck!
D: But from a lyrical standpoint “Coca Cola” that was the first time I actually tried to really focus on you know like one, like one corporation and kinda one thought and one cause ‘cause and it came out really well and since then I’ve been able to do that. Like, it’s all been, like this one song that we have called “Charon doesn’t have change for a million dollar bills” on the new album “The Corporation Strikes Back” but that’s one that’s kind of more diverse. It talks about corporations in general, but “Coca Cola” that song is the first time I tried to target one specific corporation and really tried to raise awareness.
Okay, what about the rest of you?
I: Ah, “Guantanamo Bay” is my favourite song ‘cause like it is just really disgusting to me like the kinda things that went on down there and not only that it’s just kinda funny that they’ve got like bowling alleys and like a McDonalds and all this and yet there’s like all these people suffering and not even getting a chance at trial, and, like, if they do it’s just like guilty. Do you know what I mean? That kind of thing is just totally disgusting you know. I wrote this song as a joke cause there actually is a website you can go to where you can go to a US Navy base you can go to trips to Guantanamo Bay in the U.S. and it’s like “Come to Guantanamo Bay”, “we’ve got bowling alleys the nicest, warmest beaches”, and like and I just thought it was disgusting ‘cause it’s like all this crap is going on there man it’s like so to me I wrote it like a joke song like, just like you know like, well read the lyrics for yourself.
Well the US is using the ‘War on Terror’ as a way of kidnapping people and bringing them to this place to torture them.
I: For sure man. So I wrote this song as like a vacation song like trying to like come on down to Guantanamo Bay we’re going to have a good time kinda thing and like you know.
Yeah, like “Holiday in Cambodia”.
I: (laughter) Hey, yeah it’s not a rip-off, don’t call it that. It’s inspiration.
I’m just saying.
De: Cheap shot, cheap shot.
I: In a way you know what? Like I said man I’m not going to lie, Jello is a very huge influence of mine.
Hey, his stuff is still pertinent.
De: I just play drums, I never hear what they sing.
There’s nothing that you, that stood out for you?
De: Like, I like a lot of their songs.
I: Except he does “1, 2, 3, 4!”
De: Yeah, on “Guantanimo Bay”.
I: That’s it, that’s his vocals on that one.
D: I have to say that lyrically another one though, “Invasion of the Wal-Martians”. That was another early song from us and Ian wrote those lyrics I just thought they were clever and funny and it’s that whole political satire thing again coming at you, but if you read those lyrics it’s just, it’s really funny but it really does make you think like wow you know, Wal-Mart is sort of like these alien invaders coming in and they just keep spreading and taking over.
Did you hear that they tried to set up a Wal-Mart really close to one of the Mayan ruins?
D: No, I heard about that too.
Because there’s not a Wal-Mart within like, I don’t know, 50 miles of it. That’s their rationalization.
D: Someone told me they’re actually is one at the pyramids, you can visit there, there’s actually a McDonalds which I thought was. Yeah you just saw uh, king tut and now you can get your Big Mac.
I: Best part about Cuba man is you don’t have that crap. I went there not too long ago and down there I went down there and they don’t have any of that. It’s so nice to get away from Wal Mart, Coca Cola, McDonalds and it’s just like, yeah I mean, they have there own set of problems but, it is nice to get away from corporations.
De: I think “Toxic World” and holiday in...er, not holiday “Bibles for Cambodia” the two that I’d choose from, lyrically.
Yeah. Who are some of the bands you play with locally.
De: Too many.
I: Uhm, we’ve played with the VILETONES, the TOASTERS we’ve played with the CREEP SHOW.
De: That’s not locally!
I: Well, I mean we played those shows locally.
It’s okay, it’s okay
De: It’s like KEEPING SIX, JOHNSTONES, FLATLINERS.
D: Mainly though, THE FLATLINERS.
I: We play a lot with like...Yeah, like they said KEEPING SIX, JOHNSTONES, FLATLINERS I mean...
D: CEREMONIAL SNIPS, THE EXPOS...
I: We just played with HOSTAGE LIFE.
D: We do, we seem to be doing a lot especially sorta in the Mississauga area with the big man himself in STOP DROP AND SKANK and so you know, we’re getting to be good, good friends with them.
I: Shout out to ORGANIZED CHAOS...I hope they’re listening.
D: They’re good friends of ours, you know.
I: Yeah those guys. I love those guys to death man, they’re amazing. I don’t know, who else really we played with...oh...THE BRAINS from Quebec I don’t know ...
D: One cool thing was BROWN BRIGADE.
I: Yeah, BROWN BRIGADE! Those guys are actually... man he did the right thing and left SUM 41 ‘cause that band is wicked man, they’re playing like IRON MAIDEN.
D: He is fucking serious about his metal man.
I: But he’s amazing man.
D: He’s like the coolest guy ever he just came out to our car and just started, he was like “Do you need a hand with gear?” brought it into the club for us.
I: Yeah, that was cool man.
De: He’s nice. He’s awesome nice. Really nice guy.
I: MAXIMUM RNR we will be playing with so ah, there. That’s going to be a good show, that’s coming up this month.
Okay, How many releases do you have out?
De: Three currently.
I: We got three.
Okay, ah, are they all self released ?
I: Self released, recorded we do all the art. Derrick does all the art.
De: Yeah, I usually do all the art. Our very first album we used to hand-press ourselves just print it out, burn it.
D: He made the first 100 copies by hand...
Okay what is the first release?
D: The first?
De: “New Pope”.
And when did it come out?
D: It came out in December 2006.
Okay, and is it still available?
I: Yeah you can still buy it. Actually that’s not true. Currently it’s out of stock. There’s only one copy left out of the 200 so...if you want it really badly ah, you’re going to have to come to Niagara Falls this weekend ‘cause we’re going to sell it there for sure.
D: Like we said, the first 100 were made by hand and that just got really tedious and so we ended up having to send them away to get it made but in terms of... like it’s as DIY as possible.
De: They also had a habit of getting caught in people’s CD players...
I: Yeah ‘cause it’s like the label that was like really sticky it happened to me too man, I put it in, I like busted my girlfriend’s like CD player...
D: You know what though? Yeah, we did it on purpose because then people can’t get them out and they have to listen to it...
I: Yeah, you have to listen to it over and over again.
That would be clever.
D: But in terms of being DIY, we recorded it ourselves like we said Derrick here would draw the artwork you know. We would compile the liner notes together and you know, we got it made by hand as much as possible.
Let me ask you about the recording then. Was it recorded like in a practice space or something like that?
De: Yeah, in my basement.
I: Uhm, the multitude of...the very first album was actually only recorded with like three mics...like that was it.
De: Was it three? I thought we had like two?
I: You know what, I think at one point maybe we only had two...
De: We did the drums with one hanging from the rafters...
I: One hanging from the roof and one shoved in his kick drum, and then there was like the bass guitar...
De: It actually worked out...
I: Yeah, you know what? There was only two mics and then there was just the bass and, afterwards we did everything else and it was really, that was before I knew what I was doing so...I mean.
De: We were still in school then.
How did it turn out?
I: You gotta see for yourself...I think it turned out pretty good considering man. We didn’t know what we were doing you know...
D: I think the results speak for themselves, like for the time, I mean, like we said we were a band in June 2006. It was out December 2006 and you know for what it was just sorta. It’s nine songs. We call it an album but I guess it’s technically an EP like it’s not ten songs. It’s less than half an hour.
Well nine songs is still...
D: But for what it was it was good, the songs speak for themselves. I mean to us it was always.
De: Technicalities.
You know what? The first MDC record was under fourteen minutes. The first CIRCLE JERKS record was under twenty.
D: Oh the CIRCLE JERKS oh I love how, I got the CD, double play and it’s still like 30 minutes...
Anyways, so, time is not an indication.
De: I agree.
I: But ah, the second album we lucked out right because my buddy Linton, we went to school with him and we just recorded the drums and everything in his house and that was cool and I think it sounds really good and at that point I was like sure, I knew a little bit more about what I was doing and then the third album is like well the second one was more of a split. It wasn’t an album but....
De: The third was in my basement.
I: Third one, we did the drums and bass in Derrick’s basement and ah we did guitar in my kitchen in my parents house.
D: Yeah, clean guitars in the kitchen and distorted guitars in your room.
I: And then we did vocals in my bedroom and then also we had the JOHNSTONES come over and they did like their trumpets right in my bedroom. It was jokes ‘cause you know like when they play live they like take off their shirts and everything and they like did that too in my bedroom. It was getting pretty sweaty in there.(laughter)
De: Yo, A lot of girls would love to have those two guys in their rooms with their shirts off so... (laughter)
I: I bet a lot of girls are jealous out there, I had Julian and Renee, half naked in my room and they were drinking beers so I mean.
D: We were getting them drunk but you know they had a rush so.
De: I wasn’t there, so I couldn’t take advantage of them.
I: You know what? Those are the two coolest guys from that band, for sure.
D: I have to say, they came by, they it was for a song called “Dead at the age of 18” on our new album...
I: I love those guys.
D: We sent it to them. All the music was done and we told them, hey, you know, feel free you got four bars, do what you want. They wrote their parts. They came down. They drove all the way. I mean we gave them gas money but I mean they pretty much like, they just did it for free. They just did it to be nice guys. And they did a great job, and ah, really cool guys right from the beginning they were really excited about it, and you know they kept coming to us like “oh are you ready?”, like “oh what do you want?” You know it was great we didn’t really have to bug them. They were all for it.
I: I mean considering the dudes are like travelling with like HEDLEY and all these huge bands like for them to just come over and do that for us. I mean take time out of there day, we were even late too from getting this microphone...(laughter) which we did take the microphone back saying it was broke didn’t we?
D: No.
I: Or did we wimp out? I think we wimped out...
D: You wimped out I would have done it.
I: Whatever, whatever, whatever.
D: But no, the thing I remember about that day though is that they got there early and uh, Julian calls me up and he’s like, is this your house?
Curse of having a conscience...
D: Because the neighbour, his neighbour was like some old woman and apparently she was yelling at them cause they were like...
I: No, it wasn’t my neighbour man, it was my mom’s friend.
D: Oh okay, but just kinda like...
I: And she’s telling them off like, “nice hair !” like making fun of them and shit. It was like my mom’s friend.
D: Not only did they have to wait for us, they got made fun of and we’re like, oh shit.
I: But yeah not cool, for sure.
What are the band’s future plans?
De: Keep going ‘till we’re dead.
I: Ah, world domination with the Deathstar?
We’ve already covered that.
I: Realistic wise, I guess.
De: Realistically?
Are you going to be touring or recording soon?
I: Well, we were supposed to tour in Quebec, but that got canned but we sold out in Montreal and Quebec City. But that’s going to happen again man we’re going with our good buddies the ROCK ONS another amazing band. We just love those guys. We’re going to do that in May hopefully and we’re sorta thinking about going across Canada but that probably won’t happen this year maybe it’s probably more like probably next year...
D: That’s more of a pipe dream.
De: Pretty much go as far as we can get, simply.
I: We’re going to just keep playing our crap and hopefully someone out there likes it and we’ll just keep playing it...
De: I’m in for like Tokyo and Australia, but that’s like the big picture.
D: The one thing I can say about the band though is that since it started it was like we were shot out of a cannon. It was immediate and we constantly do shows. We’ve never taken a break. We took one, well when we couldn’t get shows that one weekend, but like one time we took like a week off when he went to Cuba but besides that it’s been constant shows and it’s just been...
I: He holds that against me you know.
D: I do not.
It almost sounds like it.
I: We’ve played over...we’ve only been together for only like a year and we’ve done , I would say in between 100 and 150 shows.
D: It’s actually, it’s actually we’re at 122 was yesterday was our 122nd show.
I: That’s pretty close.
D: But you know what I mean, pushing as far as possible so, you know, we’ve been doing a lot around Southern Ontario and we feel like maybe we’ve saturated that a bit so we will be spreading but it’s kind of like pushing it as far...
I: Sneak into the States illegally.
D: But it’s just going as far as possible, and I mean its’ constant releases, like, it’s been a year and a half and we have three releases.
When did the latest release come out?
D: Ah it was October 20th.
De: Oh yeah, I was thinking December...
Have you been writing new stuff since then?
D: Yeah, actually we have a new song that we recorded, it’s called “Money Machine” and hopefully we’re gonna get it on a split or a comp or something.
De: I think we should just pump out another album, personally.
I: We recorded it with our buddy ‘Hot Carl’ from Uxbridge.
D: Bridge Promotions.
I: Yeah, Bridge Promotions, like he recorded that and he’s recording “Toxic World” and those will be on our new album that we’re gonna be releasing in the fall, for sure.
Okay, how can people get in touch with the band?
D: We have a Myspace, ah it’s http://www.myspace.com/corporationskaband and you can catch us there. All our information is up there and there you can find our individual emails if you even want. We will respond to you, any comments or messages people send we respond to every single one. All our info: Shows, CD releases, merch, anything. We make blogs after every show just to let people know, like if they couldn’t make it to the show, what happened anything crazy happened, good, bad whatever so if you didn’t make it to the show you know what you saw and we give shout outs to the bands and the people that were there and...
That’s good, that’s good.
D: All our main information can be found there.
And I also appreciate that you put your e-mail addresses up there because a lot of people don’t so you kinda have to be part of the Myspace thing...
De: I find it sometimes a little annoying but I don’t mind at the same time.
I: I like it though cause if a fan, a lot of the time it’s like, some people just want to talk to you more personally as opposed to your whole Myspace, you know like maybe they got something to say to you directly or just want to talk to you because they liked you in the band not... I think it’s cool you know a lot of people just add me and it’s cool you know I like talking to them yeah if you want to add me...
De: I’m lonely.
I: It’s a pain in the ass when I’m checking e-mail and you just get bands asking to add you, so.
Well thanks very much for playing today.
I: Thanks a lot for having us.
And good luck with things.
D: No, good luck to you.
I: We love you.
Good luck to us all.
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