20 Questions with… Stalkers

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In what turned out to be the most entertaining 20 Questions we’ve done in a while, NYC punk outfit Stalkers took some time out of promoting their Ramones-esque single ‘In Your Street Today’ which was released via One Little Indian last week. We caught up with Raze Regal (guitar), Andy Animal (vocals), Danny Gold (bass), Lefty Flowers (guitar) and Josh Styles (drums) to see what they made of our infamous questions. As you’d expect, the answers read like a ‘How to be a Rock n Roll band 101′: Fucking, amyl nitrate, whiskey, beating eachother up, riding motorcycles into swimming pools and the most important one of all – using human tears as a lubricant during masturbation….

1. Describe your sound in 3 words.
RAZE: Rock and Roll.
ANDY: Really Really Great.
DANNY: Drink Fuck Fight.
LEFTY: it’s pop music.
JOSH: UN FUCKING BELIEVABLE.

2. What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it?
RAZE: The Who’s Greatest Hits and I bought it through Columbia House mail order.
ANDY: I think it was the Born On The 4th Of July soundtrack!
DANNY: Ace Of Base – Cause i was Hiiiiiigggghhh & Stupid.
JOSH: Misfits Earth AD Bought at Trash American Style (R.I.P.).

3. What’s the best cure for a hangover?.
RAZE: Gatorade.
ANDY: Straight Cola followed by more booze.
DANNY: More Whiskey.
LEFTY: Probably more booze.
JOSH: Bottle of orange Gatorade with 2 Alka Seltzers in it or a hair of the dog.

4. What’s on your rider?
RAZE: Cigarettes-Camel lights or Nat Sherman mcd’s, ginger ale and clean towels.
ANDY: Jagermeister and socks.
DANNY: Socks, Jager, Poppers and Astronaut Ice Cream.
JOSH: Jack Daniels, White Castle & Baby Powder.
LEFTY: Socks.

5. How do you get ready for a live show?
RAZE: I just relax, talk to the squad and smoke tons of cigarettes.
ANDY: I walk back and fourth on the stage for a while to get a feel for what I’m in for.
DANNY: Rub one out.
LEFTY: find Tantric Harv, he’s normally got the beers for the boys.
JOSH: Get drunk.

6. What’s your favourite song to play live?
RAZE: it changes every gig but at the moment ‘Chez Jay’s’
ANDY: Anything new! ‘Lady Sonia’ is good.
DANNY: Personally, ‘Lady Sonia’
LEFTY: ‘Feral Child’
JOSH: ‘In Your Street Today’

7. What’s your guilty pleasure?
RAZE: I don’t really don’t consider it a guilty pleasure but the squad might, Steely Dan.
ANDY: I’m not ashamed of anything I like.
DANNY: Bob Dylan & Weezer.
LEFTY: Crying.
JOSH: I Never feel guilt.

8. Who would win in a fight, a stoat or a goat and why?
RAZE: Without doubt the stoat, it’d bite the goats udders.
ANDY: I don’t know what a stoat is.
DANNY: FUCK Knows.
LEFTY: A stoat is a vampire goat right, so the stoat.
JOSH: Who cares?

9. Who’s your favourite new band at the moment? Tell us a bit about them.
RAZE: Electric Shadows, they have the swagger of the Faces with the tunefulness of Nick Lowe, check them out.
ANDY: Sean Kingston. He’s a 16 year old from Miami!
DANNY: Hmm…i don’t really listen to new bands. Nothing past 1979 for me.
JOSH: I Don’t Like New Bands.

10. Who would play you in a film based upon your life?
RAZE: A man with a hat and a tan.
ANDY: Johnny Depp or Brad Pitt… Obviously!
DANNY: Andy would be played by Brad Pitt, I think Ewan Mcgregor would be Me. Lefty would be played by Orlando Bloom (cause he cries a lot) Josh would be Mel Gibson and Raze would be played by non other than… Morgan Freeman.
LEFTY: Either Orlando Bloom or Keira Knightly.
JOSH: O Lucky Man era Malcolm McDowell.

11. Dead or alive, what 5 acts would you have play with you at a festival?
RAZE: Wendy and Bonnie, the Kinks, Ghostface Killah, Brian Auger-Julie Driscoll and the Trinity, the Nazz.
ANDY: Jan and Dean, Cuddly Toys, Monkees, Motorhead, The Who, Snoop Dogg.
DANNY: Ex-Humans, Electric Shadows, The Hunt, The Weight and Amy Winehouse.
JOSH: Ronnie Bird, Outsiders (Dutch), GG Allin, Screaming Lord Sutch, Ramones.

12. If push comes to shove, what is your all-time favourite album?
RAZE: How dare you.
ANDY: Beach Boys Shut Down Volume 2.
DANNY: I would go with the Damned first album Damned Damned Damned.
LEFTY: Tir Na Nog’s first album
JOSH: 1st Love LP.

13. What’s your most memorable on the road story?
ANDY: One time I rode a motorcycle into a swimming pool.
DANNY: Beating the shit out of each other on top of a hill somewhere in Beverly Hills.
LEFTY: Wrestling our UK tour bus driver, Russ the Bus, in a patchy knoll of grass outside a Little Chef.
JOSH: When Andy drove the motorcycle into the swimming pool at that party in LA.

14. If your life flashed before your eyes, what would be the highlights?
ANDY: My first three way, our first show in Paris, the birth of my niece and buffalo wings.
DANNY: Fighting & Fucking.
JOSH: Falling In Love, Acid Trips, Sex, 1st time you hear an amazing song.

15. What’s the best piece of advice someone has ever given you and did you take notice?
RAZE: My mother told me always look sharp and I think I try to the utmost.
ANDY: I always tell people not to beat themselves up. It does work sometimes.
DANNY: A) This Too Shall Pass B) It Is What It Is! words to live by.
LEFTY: Don’t juggle grenades, don’t play in traffic, not yet.
JOSH: If you’re having fun somewhere, stay there.

16. If you had to leave a body part to science, what would it be?
ANDY: Somebody elses’.
DANNY: My spectacular Abs of Steel.
LEFTY: One of my kidneys.
JOSH: I want to be cremated. I’m selfish like that.

17. What’s the best book you’ve read and film you’ve seen in the last 6 months?
RAZE: Best book- The Spook Who Sat By The Door by Samuel Greenlee. Best movie- The Pope of Greenwich Village.
ANDY: Hush volume 1 and 2 and The Dark Knight!
DANNY: Best Book – S. Freud – Civilization and its Discontents. Best Film – Bad Santa.
JOSH: Book: Black Dahlia Avenger / Movie: Spirits Of The Dead.

18. What three things could you not live without?
RAZE: Fender Telecasters, sex and reading.
ANDY: My Band, Sex, booze.
DANNY: My bass, my pornography, my converse sneakers.
LEFTY: The 86 Mets, Poppers at the Gates, Tantric Harv.
JOSH: Sex, 45rpm Records, Alcohol.

19. Tell us a fact about yourself we probably don’t already know.
RAZE: (silence)
ANDY: Like devils on a Ouija board I’m spelling doom.
DANNY: I masturbate using my tears as lube.
LEFTY: I have one working kidney, and webbed toes to boot.
JOSH: I don’t eat the crust on bread.

20. And finally, we’d like you to make us a mix-tape. Pick five tracks with a theme of your choice.
RAZE: The theme would be ‘Regal in summed up in 5 songs’and the 5 tunes would be
Beach Boys- ‘I Wasn’t Made For These Times’
Iggy and the Stooges- ‘Shake Appeal’
The Nazz- ‘Elo It’s Me’
James Brown- Mind Power
Suicide- ‘Gost Rider’
ANDY: ‘Astral Joe’ by Cuddly Toys
‘City Kids’ by Motorhead
‘Funny Funny’ by Sweet
‘California Girls’ by Beach Boys
‘Your So Good To Me’ by Beach Boys. The theme is friends and lovers!
DANNY: Ok, my theme, Top Songs that start with ‘All’
‘ALL Of My Friends Were There’ – Kinks (off VGPS)
‘ALL My Loving’ – Beatles
‘ALL Kindsa Girls’ – Real Kids
‘ALL I Really Wanna Do’ – Bob Dylan
‘ALL I Have To Do is Dream’ – Everly Brothers
LEFTY: A mix what?
JOSH: Theme: Serial Killers
Hollywood Squares – ‘I’m The Hillside Strangler’
Child Molesters – ‘I’m The Hillside Strangler’
Chain Gang – ‘Son Of Sam’
Dead Boys – ‘Son Of Sam’
Mentally Ill – ‘Gacys Place’

Links
Stalkers [myspace]