The Suicide Machines – Interview with Jason Navarro [2001]

Is there pressure?

Nah. We’re not a huge band so I’ve never experienced pressure.

I saw the album release and I just knew it would be good.

You know, I think the only pressure I ever felt was the last record because I had to learn how to sing. The guys were writing all these crazy melodies that they couldn’t sing themselves. That is the only pressure I’ve ever felt with this band.

Did you grow up on the DIY bands of old?

The first tape I got in my life was a copy, me and my friend Ed got it from these older friends we had and it had Black Flag on it. I think it was the My War record. And it had Circle Jerks and Suicidal Tendencies’ first record on it. We lived on that tape for like a year.

How old were you and was your only musical exposure before that radio stuff?

Yeah, pretty much. There was a lot of radio exposure, but in Detroit it wasn’t that bad because you could hear Iron Maiden on the radio at night.

Because I remember literally going from Thriller to Black Flag. It was one hell of a transfer.

Absolutely. In fifth grade I was listening to Thriller and Van Halen.

Me too, and the first or second Motley Crue record.

Totally. And when sixth grade rolled around, I was into Slayer and Metallica. When I went into seventh grade was the summer we got that tape. It was a breath of fresh air. That tape never left our pockets. Any time someone had a cassette player, we were like, ‘You’ve got to listen to this!’ We were addicted from that point on. And we had these older punks who were our friends and they started to take us to shows so we could see the local punk bands.

I had a kid who was like six years older than me who was a skater punk and he always made me mix tapes of Black Flag, The Exploited, Minor Threat, and groups like that.

Same here. The older guys just took us under their wing. Going into the ninth grade we skated with older kids, and we found out about the Misfits and Minor Threat. We’d sneak out at night and see bands with them. I got to see some amazing shows back then. At that time, really not a lot of people were into it and it was cool to have the feeling that it was just our music. We were just the skaters that listened to punk. It was an amazing world to me. It is still refreshing now, but back then you had to watch your back. I was like fifteen and was getting pitchers of beer. The scene is a lot safer now, which isn’t bad, but it was so exciting.

I almost forgot about the scene for a while and they are so underestimated. All the bands they influenced is just insane. I think no one talks or thinks about them because they weren’t on Mtv and they never made any money.

The funny part is I remember seeing the “Institutionalized” video by Suicidal and the “Agnostic Front” video on Mtv and I was like, ‘Oh my God, Suicidal is on Headbangers Ball.’ It blew my mind. I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t afraid it was over. Now I was psyched.

You thought you and only five guys ever heard them before.

Exactly. It was crazy.

I remember waiting up with my friends to see Headbangers Ball just for those punk videos.

You couldn’t wait until the Slayer or Anthrax videos.

Totally. I remember how stoked I was when the “I’m The Man” video first got played.

(laughs)

Were you ever into the Replacements?

I was more into the Smiths and the Cure. For some reason, in my neighborhood those bands were acceptable to the punk kids, but the Replacements, yes, but not really.

I was wondering, because you guys really come up with great melodies.

We try to do that. We try to mix it up. We have melodies and some are just all out.

That is what made me think of Black Flag because you have some songs that are just pure diesel.

The more aggressive side.

I mean, some of those bands back then had songs that were a minute long and no chorus, well, none that you could tell.

We have a lot of that in us. Every record has that on it. Like “Reasons” from the last record was just balls out. Dan and I are the old guys of the band. Dan was going to shows even before I was and he was raised on Negative Approach and Black Flag too. That’s where we come from.

“Off The Cuff” has that.

Yeah.

I just remember hearing songs like that, just skating at a friend’s house with the ghetto blaster.

(we both laugh) Absolutely. That’s what I’m hoping will happen with this record. I want it to be overheard at backyard ramp sessions.

I always tell kids who like punk to check out those groups. The one group I could never figure out was the Butthole Surfers.

I loved them.

I thought their t-shirts were hilarious.

Hairway To Steven is one of my favorite albums ever.

Punk was so diverse. For someone to say music today is aggressive and there has never been nothing like it is insane. Black Flag was just monstrous.

Absolutely. It’s funny because a friend of mine took a picture recently with Keith Morris and all these huge punk kids came to where she was selling merch and she showed them the picture and asked them who was in the picture.They were like, ‘That’s you,’ and she said, ‘Who’s the other guy?’ and of course they didn’t know, but I mean, Keith Morris actually sang for Black Flag and they had on a Black Flag shirt.

They went through a bunch of singers.

I know.

When I grew up, I didn’t know what they looked like, who they were, nothing. I was happy if I could figure out what band was what.

You just knew the songs. (laughs)

Yeah. I just knew the singer from Exploited had a big old mohawk because it was on a t-shirt my friend had and I didn’t even know if he was the singer.

(laughs)

My tapes were so trashed.

Mine too. I remember this girl Laura who went to my high school and was the punkest girl from the worst neighborhood and nobody would mess with her. But she made me hellish tapes. I just got lucky because I had friends who wanted me to be punk.

I miss it.

I still do it. I make tapes for kids at the skateparks.

I lost all my tapes.

At this point I have an unbelievable collection. I have like Minor Threat bootleg demos before they sang everything. Ian sounds even younger.

They were like sixteen or seventeen.

Yeah, they were young. I have so much obscure shit. I’ll tell you one thing, if it wasn’t for Bad Brains or Operation Ivy, the Suicide Machines wouldn’t even be a band. Bad Brains was just a huge influence.

I know you consider yourself mainstream. Is that because you are on a major label or because the songs are very melodic?

A little of both. Think about the Descendants, they wrote great melodies.

And the Sex Pistols. Talk about power pop that was called punk.

I know, and even the early ’80’s stuff like X. Total melodies. I think the bands that broke it are considered mainstream. Rancid isn’t on a major label but they are considered in that vein. Green Day of course helped to break it wide open.

It makes me think about how the word sellout gets tossed around for bands like these from people who know nothing about the roots and about what bands you had to suffer through before so you could make a living playing music.

Right.

I think it’s funny too that people will dog a Green Day, but they’re only doing what the Sex Pistols did except when they did it they were the scariest band in the world at the time.

I know. And you know what is weird? For some reason, punks won’t admit that they love the Sex Pistols. It is really strange. I love them.

I do too.

Never Mind the Bullocks, I mean, I was rocking that last week.

I play it and people who don’t know them listen to their record and don’t know the album is over twenty years old.

You can’t. I’m really aspiring to write a record that will stand the test of time, one that will always stand the test of time. To be able to pop in a record in twenty years and still love it. Man!

So you do try and make a legendary album each time you make one?

Yeah. This new record may be the closest we ever get to it.

How many tracks did you record for this album because there already seems to be no fat on Steal This Record.

We actually cut some that I really liked. There are some that got cut that we saved for the Japanese release. One I really like called “Brass Ring”. We had one that sounded like Nirvana that we cut, but it was really good. Sometimes we make the mistake of not putting on tracks we really liked.

Have you ever thought of putting only ten tracks on an album so it’s compact and each song is really just an anthem, like Bullocks?

No, I just write what I feel. I don’t set out to do anything. I write what I feel. I usually write more of the aggressive stuff, but on the last album I wrote “Fade Away” and that was really mellow. Then on the last record we had a ska song. And this album we had one with a straight up Reggae feel.

Yeah, “Stand Up”.

Yeah, and I would have never thought I would have written a Reggae song.

I was wondering where that came from.

Dan wrote the chorus and I loved it. I wrote the verses and went with it. We never say what we are going to do. We just do what we do. Royce does most of the poppy stuff, but he wrote “Scars”, which is the fiercest song on the album.

Do you feel lucky you all can contribute so much and it comes out so well?

Yeah. Honestly, this is the first record where I’m satisfied with more than half the stuff on it. Almost every record I can pick out five songs and say, ‘This doesn’t satisfy me.’ This record, almost every song is satisfying.

+ charlie craine