Gatsby's American Dream

Here's a little background info for everyone. Nic Newsham, the singer for Gatsby's American Dream, went to high school with everyone who runs Belchin' Waffles. We heard him sing one day, and asked him to jam with the band we were starting. Things worked out nicely, and we had a band, Dead Last, for a little over a year. It was a pretty casual thing, and we played a few shows and recorded a crappy demo before calling it quits when we realized that we couldn't maintain the band and go to different colleges at the same time. Well, Nic moved on to bigger, and (trust me) much, much better things! Gatsby's American Dream have taken the Seattle scene by storm, and very quicky established themselves as one of the premier punk bands of the Pacific Northwest. Their debut CD, "Why We Fight," has become one of my all time favorites, and Gatsby's are one of the best bands I've ever seen live. Read this interview I did with Nic and Kirk from Gatsby's American Dream, and if you haven't heard of them, do yourself a favor and check them out! (www.gatsbysamericandream.com)

Alright, if one of you could just give some band history; who the members are , where you got the name, how long you've been around...shit like that. Also, if you been in any former bands, let us know.
Kirk: Um, this is huge! The band started about a year and a half ago, so that was the summer of 2000, correct? Nic: Yeah. Kirk: We were a band for about three months, and then we recorded a demo... Nic: (to Kirk) Slo-mo! Ok, we recorded a demo real quck, did that. We played a show, Kaylin from Acceptance is friends with Darrick, who runs Rocket-Star. He gave him a demo. Darrick thought it was OK, so he came to see us practice, liked us, signed us to a two record deal. We've done our first album, which is "Why We Fight" on it, and we still have one more to go. The members are Kirk Huffman, Nic Newsham, Bobby Darling, Ryan Van Wieriegen, and Rudy Gadadajar. Rudy is our most recent, new member. He plays in Waxwing, he plays in Bugs in Amber...to name a few, he plays in a lot of bands. Kirk was previously in KthroughSix. I've been in Dead Last (laughter), and Good For Nothing. Ryan was also in Good For Nothing, and Bobby was in One Point Two. So, yeah...that's a pretty good history.

Yeah, that's good. Can you talk about the new record? What's the name of it, if you know? What can we expect, and when will it be out?
Nic: We don't have a name yet. Kirk: Yeah, we're kind of unsure on the name. But, we know that the theme is going to be from Orwell's "Animal Farm." We kind of put our own spin into what Orwell is talking about. We kind of see the whole process of what happens in the book, "Animal Farm," like the process of what's happening with the major music market, and as well as independent labels. How they've kind of like...a lot of these independent labels start out as these independent labels, but then as soon as they get the taste of money, all of the sudden they jump, and they just become against what they started for. They started to be an independent, and do something of their own, and they end up doing exactly what MCA and Warner Brothers, and all the bigger labels are doing. So, it's kind of like our twist on that, and kind of a concept album that we're trying to work with. Nic: Musically, it's got a lot more of a rock feel. Still trying to keep it real, and be technical musically, but at the same time stray from a lot of things that would pigeonhole a lot of bands. Just trying more to sound like Gatsby's American Dream than anything else.

Whose idea was it with the whole
Kirk: When we were talking about doing artwork and stuff, I had these old illustrations from the early, early 1900's. They were illustrations from nursery rhymes, and there was one of a pig, and he was at a barber shop. And we thought the picture was really cool, and we thought, "Oh, we can use this in the artwork." And then we kinda started talking about, "What if we did an Animal Farm type of thing?" And then, looking at the picture, and thinking about "Animal Farm," the two kind of made sense how this barber was 'doctoring up' and making the pig look pretty. Which is kind of like, we looked at the barber as being major labels, and the making these independent labels look pretty and doctoring them up. So, it just kind of fit. And then we started reading "Animal Farm," and we were just like this is really great, this explains kind of what we, as a band...our kind of...Gatsby's American Dream is to live by your heart, and the two just kind of intertwined and go well together.

So, what can we expect lyrically from this album? Did you think of the concept, and now you're putting lyrics to that concept? Or...how is that working?
Nic: It's been weird, because everyone's writing...like, everyone! Pretty much equally. I'll probably have like two to three songs of lyrics on the record, same with Bobby, Ryan, Kirk, like all of us. So, I don't know. As far as concept lyrically, I'd say there's some reoccuring themes for sure, but as far someone be able to look at it, and be like "Oh, that's exactly the whole concept of this album is;" I wouldn't say it's so much like that. It's not like a Pedro The Lion album where like every song is a chapter, and it's all one story. It's not like that, just some reoccuring themes.

And, you're going down to Florida to record with James Paul Wisner, what are you hoping to get out of that? How long will you be down there? And what else can you say about that?
Kirk: We're going to be down there for about six and a half weeks. And, pretty much what we want to do with this record is just like...I think we're all in agreement that "Why We Fight" was really just...it seems like a 10 song demo. We didn't really put a lot of production on it. It was just like "Alright, let's do this, and get it out." And now we have Wisner, who's giving us this huge chunk of time, and I think we're in agreements with him from a production standpoint, that we want to make this record, really make it be us. This is going to define who we are, and this is what people are going to look at in terms of, "Oh, who is this Gatsby's American Dream band? What do they stand for? What is their sound?" If you can clasify it. Including the artwork; we want the artwork to look how we feel, how we sound. So I think this whole record is going to be a big step for getting our message out to kids. That's the big point, we want people to hear this. Nic: As far as working with "The Wis," we're looking forward to being able to focus, 'cause that's where we're gonna be.

Total package huh?
Nic: Total package.

Can you just take a minute to tell people what happend to you coming home from your last tour, and how that's affected you as a band?
Nic: OK, we were driving. We just played our last show, in North Dakota, and we're driving. It's probably five in the morning, and Rudy, our drummer, is driving. It's freezing, like 10 degrees there. All of us were asleep, except Rudy I think...yeah. All of the sudden, I look over because I hear Rudy yell kind of. And I look at him, I'm like "What, what?" And he tried to say something, but it all happened so fast, ya know? So the first thing I saw when I woke up was us fishtailing to the left, then fishtailing to the right. We just start rolling. It's hard to tell, but we did like about 2 and half, maybe 3 complete turns. We land up upside down, skid for a couple hundred feet upside down. So, going 65 miles per hour, we hit black ice. And like, I wasn't wearing my seatbelt, most of us weren't. I was in the passenger seat with a TV next to my head, fully reclined, no seatbelt on. No one had a scratch, not one of us. We took a Greyhound bus home. We put all of our equiptment and some of our clothes on a Greyhound bus, and shipped it home. Basically just got home as quick as we could. Kirk: It's pretty much nothing short of a miracle that we survived. For us as a band, I think as we were climbing out from the van being upside down, and looking at the van, realizing that we were supposed to be dead...it really was like...especially when, on the whole tour we're talking about recording the new record, I think it was, it was really like, "God, we gotta get our asses in gear. We have something important to say, and we want to try to change things." And it was like this second breath of life. Now, we're able to really get our asses in gear, and try to accomplish something.

Right on. Do you have any favorite places on the road, while you been on tour? And, what is the funniest thing that's happend out on tour?
Nic: Arizona's been awesome. Arizona's always been cool with us. We have friends there, the shows are always good. Uh...Utah was totally cool too. Can you think of any other places that are just awesome? Kirk: Um...gosh. Well, every once in a while you hit some really cool places, and you meet alot of really cool people. But one thing that is for sure, that we see, is that Seattle is...we're so lucky to have a scene like Seattle. It's amazing ya know? I mean, there's a lot of crappy, crappy places, and I think that people in Seattle take for granted the fact that there's this great punk rock scene, and there's this great underground of bands who are just doing amazing things. Obviously how that scene has affected our lives is tremendous, so it's tough when you go to a place where there's 10 kids there who come up to you and say "Oh wow, you're from Seattle? I hear there's a lot of bands there." And then you talk about the bands from Seattle, and they go, "God, I wish we had that." So, we're very lucky to be where we are. Nic: Funny things? Kirk: San Diego.

Or you could tell about Jay.
Nic: Ok, so we have a friend named...I don't want to be specific, but his name is Jay, and he's been a good friend of mine since I was young. Anyway, so one thing that he's always been able to do is suck air in his ass, and blow farts and stuff. I mean, that's pretty common, I'm sure everyone has a friend that can do that. So, he'll get on all fours, and suck air, and blow farts. So, we're all sitting in the hot tub, the band and Jay, at his house. And he's like "Nic, ya know how I can suck air?" And I'm like, "Yeah?" He's like, "Well, I've got a new trick!" And I'm like, "Oh...alright, well show us the new trick!" And so he kind of squats down like he's taking a shit, and he's under the water, and he's like, "I can suck water." And so we're like "Okay, what does that mean?" So he does that, and then he gets out of the hot tub, lays on his back, puts his legs in the air, puts his hands behind his knees and just pulls, and water shoots out of his ass a good 20 feet! Kirk: It's like a drinking fountain. Nic: Yeah, it just shoots. And then we're like, "Dude, you gotta do it again, shoot water out of your ass again, that's really funny Jay!" So, he does it again, shoots water out of his ass, and we're just busting up laughing ya know? I mean like, I've never heard of water shooting out of an ass. So he does it again and again, and after he's done it about two or three times, we're like, "Dude, you gotta do it one more time!" And he's like, "I don't know man, I don't know if I can." And we're like "C'mon, one more time!" So, he's like, "Okay." And he gets up there, same thing, gets on his back, puts his hands behind his knees, just pulls, and it's like water, water, then there's a break in the water, and there's a couple little nuggets! Then water follows it, and we're just dying by this time. So, that was probably the funniest.

That's awesome! What do you guys do besides the band, and what does everyone else do besides the band? What are your other jobs and hobbies?
Kirk: We all have day jobs that we do while we're home from tour and stuff, and we really like video games. Nic: Yeah, we're really into "Halo" and X-Box, and stuff like that. Kirk: And I swear to God, if any other band wants to challenge us at Halo, we'll totally kick their ass!

Yeah, I was going to say...you tak it on the road, has anyone ever beat you on the road?
Nic: Never.

Not even close?
Nic: Not even close. Kirk: In Syracuse, we played "Halo" with one of the guitar players in Stavesacre, and he was talking about how he was the best in California, and we played him and just smoked him! Nic: Yeah. Pretty much, you can't handle it. As far as jobs go, Kirk works at a store in the mall, Ryan works at an engineering firm, I'm an electrician, Bobby works at Banana Republic, and Rudy works at UPS, those are the daytime jobs.

In the band, who's the best at
Nic: Bob. Kirk: Yeah, Bobby...dickhead. Nic: Yeah, Bobby is. He's been great at video games for like...forever. Kirk: That's 'cause that's all he does! Nic: Yeah.

What have you guys been listening to these days?
Kirk: Gosh, that's a good one. Um...me personally, I've been listening to a lot of hip-hop. Guys like Aesop Rock, the new Common is really good, um...Atmosphere. Plus, I think we've all been listening to a lot of Radiohead which is really, really good. The new Blood Brothers record is unbelievable. But, we're all very, very, very different in musical taste. Like, we can agree on some things, but there's other things that we just cannot agree on. So I mean, it's very open with all of us, and I think that's why our music is so different, is because we're so different with our tastes. Nic: I've been listening to a lot of...well I think a lot of us have...Flaming Lips. Me personally, I've been listening to Granddaddy quite a bit lately, and just always the Neutral Milk Hotel, and that new Bright Eyes record is really good. Uh...Palace, The Palace Brothers, and then...I don't know. As far as heavier stuff, like, Monorchid. (to Kirk) Have you heard of them? Kirk: Yeah. Nic: Really good! And then, Shalack is really good too. New Blood Brothers, new Mock Orange...just some of that jazz.

If you could be anyone for a day, who would you be, and what would you do?
Kirk: I was thinking about that the other day. So, I'll just tell you what I was thinking about the other day, because that's a really hard question. I was listening to an old Chet Baker record. He's '50's jazz trumpet player, but he sang, and I have this record of him singing, and he is just like, he is cool as fuck. He's so rad. If I was in the '50's, I'd totally want to that guy. But I mean, there's a million people I would love to be, but that's just what popped into my head a couple days ago. Nic: We all listen to Phantom Plantet too, I meant to say that. Kirk: Ah...Phantom Planet, very good band. Nic: I don't know, there's always like the Hugh Hefner..."I want to grab fake boobs for a living." But, I don't know...I think it'd be cool...I don't know. Ok, I'd want to be Fred Durst, just so I would know what it's like to be a complete shithead for a day. Just what would that feel like to walk around and be like "I'm Fred Durst." I don't know...yeah.

If your house was burning down, and you could only grab three CDs, what would you grab?
Kirk: I think I would grab...I'd grab Nirvana - In Utero, I'd probably grab...the new Tom Petty is really good, so I'd grab the new Tom Petty. And the last one... Nic: A hip-hop CD. Kirk: Yeah, I'd probably grab A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders. Nic: I'd grab the second Eminem album, whatever one that is. It's genius, what is that, The Marshall Mathers LP? Ok, I'd grab Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, and oh I don't know! Probably something classical...ya know, to chill.

If you wont the lottery and had a million dollars, what would you do with it?
Nic: Wow, I don't know what I would do with a million dollars. I'd invest some, I'd give 10% to my church, probably give some to charity, and I'd like to buy my parents something. Kirk: One, I would totally, like...charity, charity, charity, charity. There are so many great people that are doing something important with the money, and I think that there's everything from defense funds, to equal rights groups and stuff. So, my money would go to charity, and then also to probably to help my mom out.

What do you think of MP3s, and people downloading your music on the internet?
Nic: Awesome! As long as people can hear it, that's all we're doing. (sarcastically...) Ya know, we wanna get real rich and stuff, that's definitely the main goal, but if people want to hear the music, whatever. (laughing)

Finally...Britney or Christina?
Kirk: Ya know, there was a time when I would say Christina, and then there was a time when I would say Britney, but now I'm just kind of like...neither! I'm just so sick of it. It's so riddiculous! The thing that pissed me off so much, is Rolling Stone's edition of women in rock, and Britney Spears is in that shit! It's just...it's mind-blowing the girls that they put in Rolling Stone. I always thought that Rolling Stone was kind of a pile of shit anyway, but that was the cake. That was me never buying Rolling Stone ever again. Nic: I'd go with Britney, hands down. But, I mean, Christina is dirty...."Dirrty!"

Alright, if you have anything else to add, this is the time.
Nic: Belchin' Waffles forever! Dead Last forever! Kirk: Just be supportive of the punk rock community. That's a huge, huge thing. Just...grassroots orginizations, and don't be satisfied with the things that are out there. Look for good things, and work hard for it. Because, I guarantee you'll find something that's meaningful, and it will totally benefit your life.

BW (apparently forever)