Did you have to change the name to f-ed up to get played on more mainstream radio?

Well we never changed the name; people can call us what they want. If they can‚Äôt say Fucked Up, they‚Äôll say F-ed up. Fine, we‚Äôre not going to freak out– we understand. In The New York Times they won’t write F or anything. They‚Äôll just have 9 asterisks‚Äîone for each letter. No F, no D. It’s funny because we‚Äôve been come to be known as the band with the unprintable name. A lot of times when were crossing borders, the border officials will have a bit of a laugh‚Äîonly a couple times will they be offended. I remember on our first tour when we were getting our permits at the border he was like, ‚ÄòYou‚Äôre never going to get anywhere with a name like that. I don‚Äôt know what you‚Äôre thinking.‚Äô And then three months later we were in The Times. It’s like everyone swears; it‚Äôs no big deal. Slowly but surely its just going to be more accepted.

As a kid did you have a rebellious streak at all?

Not really. When I was really young, I used to not quite run away from home but, I used to wander. I had that wondering spirit. I could get lost in a city. The problem though is when I was young, like six, I would end up on the side of the freeway and then the cops would find me and bring me home. But I was never running away, I was just a very independent child. During my teenager years, my mom was menopausal so it was like two sets of different hormones at each other and we fought but that‚Äôs typical teenage rebellion nothing that was directly related to punk kind of rebelling. Now it’s like I‚Äôm in my late-twenties and I‚Äôm not angry anymore, I‚Äôm doing alright. Generally, I guess I‚Äôm kind of normal.

In your words what happened with that whole Rolling Stone/Camel thing?

It’s kind of ongoing. Even though we’re involved it’s kinda of away from us. We got an email form Chloe and AIDS Wolf in Montreal saying that there was an ad in Rolling Stone that featured her band and our band. It was just kind of a mystery of how that happened. We dug into and realized there was 190 bands that were mentioned. It’s a vague ad-slash-editorial piece but was book-ended with Camel Cigarettes insignia. We were contacted by [the] lawyer [who is] representing all the bands in a class action lawsuit. It affected us, like most of the band members don’t smoke—I do—but I would never want to align my band with it. Like it’s something I’m not proud of. It’s a disgusting habit and it kills and we just don’t want to have to condone the use of it—without our permission especially. So we hopped on, but I haven’t really heard anything. You know court proceedings take a long time. It was a bit upsetting to hear about it and I was also kind of shocked we were even included in it.

But I’m not expecting to get anything from it—that’s not the point of it. The point is these multi-billion dollar companies can’t use someone’s identity for their own purpose. It’s ridiculous. It’s a matter of principal.

How does it feel to come from a really underground scene and to now be a band that’s playing on MTV and being mentioned in The New York Times?

Everything is unexpected like everything I thought about this band has been the opposite in every way. Mike, 10,00 Marbles, brought as all together. He has said that his purpose was to create the most destructive band–a band that just would not work together. We all have very different personalities‚Äîwe look totally different, we don‚Äôt share the same style or interests or anything. While we only aimed to release one record, we‚Äôve now released like 30, like I‚Äôve lost track. Originally our aim was only to play in Toronto and here we‚Äôve been touring around the world. It‚Äôs just been a total shock to us that things have taken off as they have.

And I think it’s kind of exciting now. I’m of the mind set, like, what else can happen? It’s totally been outrageous. I’m not going to say no to anything it seems like this is just a snowball that keeps getting greater and I’ll just go where it goes.

What about The Times?

That‚Äôs like a total honor and I have clippings at home. I‚Äôm just really excited ‚Äòcause we‚Äôre a pretty awkward band, awkward acting, awkward looking and I never though that that would work in a mass setting because so much of what‚Äôs popular is mass manufactured and fabricated and just put together so the fact that five real people can do what we do with their own blood sweat and tears and get noticed for it. It’s reassuring. It‚Äôs kinda cool that that still happens: You don‚Äôt have to have a manager and make meetings with big record labels and all that fake stuff. You can still do it on hard work and on ingenuity.

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TAGS: Fucked Up | Sandy Miranda

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 9:38 am and is filed under Back Issue, Features, Issue 5, The Cover Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.