Here's some shitty photos taken with a shitty camera in Tuts (pre barrier - fucking good times) followed by the interview I did with them for ENZK zine before they played.
Avail are one of the best hardcore punk bands I have heard in a long time, mixing power with melody, aggression with subtlety and topping it with some great lyrics. On record they are amazing and after conducting this interview I got to witness how awesome they are live too.
Present were Tim, Beau and Joe of Avail and a couple of Bouncing Souls.
Enzk : ok, I’m not too sure who everyone is so who’s who?
Tim: I’m Tim, I sing in Avail, Gwomper plays bass, Beau, does whatever the fuck Beau does, Joe plays guitar and Erik plays drums. This is actually Erik’s last tour with the band, he’s been in the band 9 years and he’s ready to do something else. Our friend Ed Trask who also plays in the band Kepone is taking over.
Enzk: So you’re coming up for your ten year anniversary.
Tim: Well we started putting out records in ’92 so we’ve been together since…?
Joe: About ’89, ten years or so.
Enzk: Have you toured a lot in that time?
Tim: Woah, yeah, like last year we played something like 14 countries and 135 shows.
Enzk: Do you still enjoy it?
Tim: Oh I fuckin love it! Obviously not every minute y’know there’s some days where you’re like " I don’t want to be here" Sometimes like say you’re in Germany and it’s been raining and cloudy all week and you start getting depressed and thinking "What the fuck am I doing in Germany?" Then you get down to Italy and it’s so beautiful there, it balances out.
Enzk: Do you get much chance to play at tourist when you’re out?
Tim: You know I think this is the first tour ever in europe where everyday we’ve had a chance to just like fuck around. The reason is that this is the first time we’ve ever been in a bus. It’s totally weird, it’s a totally different thing for us because we’ve always toured in a shitty little van and always been like a scummy punk band. This tour is different because we normally play squats in europe which means you sleep at them, and we got a bus because we’re playing clubs and we can’t afford to stay in a hotel every night. So we split a bus with the Bouncing Souls and we sleep in that. And we’ve got a driver which means we finish the show, get in the bus and we wake up in the next city and we have all day to fuck around. For example this morning we got up and got to go round the city centre and check out the cathedral and dork around looking in all the shops and stuff. So, yeah on this tour we get to see stuff.
Enzk: Would you define yourselves as a punk band or a hardcore band?
Tim: We pretty much define ourselves as however anyone wants to define us if that makes sense?
Some call us a hardcore band, some call us a straight up rock band, others a punk band. I just say we’re a bunch of rednecks from Virginia that play music.
Enzk: So what music defined the band then?
Tim: I think the driving power or the influences of the band have always been DC music from the late eighties which was punk music with a rock edge, Dag-Nasty, Marginal Man, Minor Threat, Bad Brains things like that and that’s where we grew up in Virginia which is right next to DC.
Enzk: That clears up a bit of my ignorance of American geography, I thought you were from like the back of beyond, Inbredsville or something.
Tim: No we’re about 2 hours from Washington. But we’re happy to be whatever anyone wants to label us.
Enzk: What does punk mean to you? Do you view it as a way of life, just music, a fashion or whatever because different people think of it as different things.
Tim: I don’t have a definition for punk but I do think that the whole punk clique thing has gottten a little boring. Not being offensive to people that consider themselves punk, I’m not saying I’m too grown up to not be punk. Some people are y’know. I’ve never tired myself trying to define it. I think it’s just, um, like another religion, you have ceremonies which are like shows and you have zines which are the bibles and whatever and people will always interpret it differently. Um, so no I don’t have a definition for it.
Enzk: Ok, so why did you move over to Fat?
Tim: The main reason was distribution, actually the only reason was distribution because our records are available in a lot of stores in the United States but not as many as Fat records are. We come to Europe and on Lookout we can’t find our records anywhere. You can find them someplaces in England, in the UK in general and a little in Germany but nowhere else, and Fat, they get them everywhere. This is our fourth time over here and last time it was like ‘What the fuck?! Nobody knows any of these songs!’ because they can’t find any of the records anywhere. They knew the old songs because we sold them at the shows before. So that became a little bit frustrating in Australia, Japan, and other places because you just can’t find them. And we love the people at Lookout, they’re excellent people, it’s a fucking great label, it’s always been perfect for us but we wanted to take a little step up in distribution and they’re struggling with their own distribution as well, and we talked to Fat and we all decided to go ahead and try it out for a while. It’s that simple.
Enzk: I thought maybe there was some sort of poaching game going on with Fat and Lookout
Tim: Ha ha, well, no, it’d be a more interesting story though if that’s what it was.
Enzk: what motivated you to start the band?
Tim: Joe started the band.
Joe: just for the usual reasons.
Tim: Drugs, girls, money, hotel rooms…
Joe: Fast cars…
Beau: It was pretty rad back then.
Tim: Everybody who is in Avail or has been in Avail, whoah, except for one guy, the motivation has been making music we all enjoy. You know when you grow up making music, you just can’t ever stop doing it, and all of us have done that.
Enzk: So this is something you’ve wanted to do since you were kids, you didn’t want to be a fireman or anything?
Tim: No, I’ve said this many times before… ha ha ha, do you want to be a fireman? Ha ha, they tried to get me to be a fireman in highschool.
Beau: I wanted to be a drummer but my dad wouldn’t spring for a drumkit, so I got a guitar but my hands just weren’t right so I tried bass and I sucked really really bad at that, so then I got into this.
Enzk: So what is it that you do, because I know you go up on stage.
Beau: So you haven’t seen us?
Enzk: No, first time.
Beau: It’s hard to explain. You’ll see.
Tim: We’ll have fun. What I was saying before, playing in a band that is semi successful , that we can live off of and enjoy what we do and express our creative sides has just been a big fucking accident. We’ve always played music, always and we’ve been playing music together a really long time and us putting out records and being able to tour or anything has all been a big accident. The first time we went to California we were pinching ourselves going ‘Oh my god we’re in California and we’re playing shows!’ even though it was in peoples basements. You know things like that, we just couldn’t believe it, and then we got to Europe and we’re like ‘Holy fuck! We’re in Europe. With a band. How did this happen?’
Beau: All I wanted to do was put out a 7" and go to California and ever since then it’s just been a big goof off.
Enzk: Is it still as exciting or unbelievable now?
Beau: Hell yeah. I mean, I don’t have a real job. I don’t have to answer to any one except my four friends, I can do whatever I want, I can get a stupid haircut if I want…
Enzk: I see you can, yes.
Beau: Yeah, I could tatoo my face if I wanted, not that I do. We can do whatever we want.
Enzk: Do you still hang out together outwith the band?
Beau: Um, we used to when we were growing up, but everyone does that. Yeah we still hang out but not as much.
Tim: Yeah we hang out man we’re together 24 hours a day, 6 months a year so when you get home it’s like ‘Whaowng!’ everyone’s going in different directions ha ha.
Beau: Well after a month and a half on tour listening to Erik snore
Joe: And staring at my ugly ass.
Beau: Yeah you look at that for a month and a half and you don’t want to look at it the first day you get back…
Enzk: Well I don’t know you might get some sort of perverse pleasure out of it or something.
All: Laughter
Beau: Maybe there are bands like that but we’re not one.
Tim: Well, you know the Bouncing Souls, I’ve heard things about them.
A Bouncing Soul: We’re into all the perverse pleasures.
A different Bouncing Soul: All the fun ones anyway.
Enzk: Are you happy with the level you’ve reached with the band, how far do you want to take it?
Tim: I’m content with the level we’re at and I’m always content moving forward as long as we’re doing it in a fashion that we consider ethical and we’re happy. If we get more popular it’s absolutely fine with me. Some bands, y’know when you talk about punk and their definitions, their definitions are to, their goals are to draw no one and put out records that ten people buy and I really don’t understand it.
Enzk: It’s a contradiction to the point of making music.
Tim:Well yeah, because music is about sharing. Any kind of arts stuff is sharing. If you write a book you don’t just want you’re room mate to read it you want a bunch of people to read it and give you feedback and say ‘Hey, I like this.’ Or ‘This sucks.’
Enzk: How long do you see yourself doing it?
Tim: Until we stop.
Enzk: The Rolling Stones of hardcore, but without the lips?
Joe: We want more money, more women and more cars!
Enzk: Well you came to the right place.
Beau: We can get more women here?
Enzk: If you get the more money part first I can’t see a great problem.
Tim: We kind of have this thing where when we go into the studio to record the next record and we’re happy with what we’ve written, once we’ve got to like 14 we’ll start recording them, but if we start writing the next record after that and we don’t like the music or it doesn’t seem right or it doesn’t fit with how we feel or how we are we’ll maybe take a break for a couple of years and go ‘you know, maybe we should just wait and try again later’
Enzk: Does it get harder to write songs as you go on?
Tim: No, I’m getting more into it, I think it’s easier, what do you think?
Beau: Way easier
Joe: It gets more exciting.
Enzk: You don’t find yourselves running out of ideas or doing the same thing?
Tim: Noo, that’s the weirdest part because usually bands are supposed to write well until their fourth or fifth record and then you’re supposed to really just start sucking incredibly by your fifth record. I suppose you guys’ll be the judge of that but I like the shit so far.
Enzk: Actually, I didn’t want to say it but the last album really did suck incredibly.
Tim: Well we only did the songs you sent us.
Enzk: I still want paid for those.
Beau: We’re going to keep playing and doing this till we reach the retirement home. Or until we completely suck, and we know we suck.
Tim: We don’t care what you think.
Beau: Yeah, you guys aren’t important, this is our band, we’ll play to no one if we want to.
Enzk: Do you do anything outside the band, jobs or that?
Tim: Nope.
Enzk: You’re self sufficient then?
Tim: Yeah and we also live in a town with a really bad economy and rent’s extremely cheap. I pay $84 a month rent. I haven’t worked a regular job since 93 or 94 and it’s solely because of that. Joe and I live in a house, sort of the hub of Avail, we practice in that house, Beau doesn’t live there right now but if something went wrong with where he lives, he;d move back in. It’s always been the house we’ve all shared.
Enzk: My god, you’re actually the Monkees!
Beau: We’ve got better hair.
Enzk: I wouldn’t let that go to a vote.
Beau: I do have a better beard.
Enzk: Only by default, so I wouldn’t celebrate too much, though they did have some mean sideburns.
Um, ok what three songs do you wish you’d written?
Tim: Wish we’d written… um, Freebird by Lynnrd Skynnrd.
Beau: Minor Threat by Minor Threat.
Joe: Some Bon Jovi song, no, um Luka by who was that?
Beau: Ani deFranco or some shit!
Tim: No, Suzanne Vega.
Beau: You wish you wrote that?!
Joe : It’s inspired.
Beau: Oh no, you can’t be in this band anymore.
Tim: That’s it Joe’s fired. Luka by Suzanne Vega, that’s Avail’s top pick ha ha.
Joe: Angie by the Rolling Stones
Tim: Yeah take back Luka. That’s a good fucking question man. I wish more people asked that, but then we’d have our standard answers.
Joe: Maybe we should record them.
Enzk: What would be your perfect night in and what would be your perfect night out?
Tim: The perfect night in would be two forties of Old Milwaukee, my dog curled up
Joe: do they have forties here?
Tim: Shhh, reading, ha ha. Perfect night out would be er…two forties of Old Milwaukee riding a frieght train down to North Carolina.
Beau: Perfect night in? Watching Matlock. No my perfect night in would be sitting on the couch watching Premier League till five or six…
Tim: What’s that?
Beau: Soccer, and then eat dinner, and watch wrestling till about two in the morning. Perfect night out would be to go out and pick up.
Tim: And back home again.
Beau: Yeah and catch the end of the wrestling.
Enzk: Right we’ll finish off with the worst joke you’ve heard.
Tim: Worst joke? Oh, Erm, ok, what dou you call a skinhead at the bottom of the ocean? An oister, get it?
Enzk: I’t’s a close contest between laughing or crying.
Tim: That’s the only joke I know by the way.
Joe: Knock Knock
All: Who’s there?
Joe: Interrupting cow.
All: Interrupting cow wh…
Joe: MOOOO!
Enzk: That is a bad one. Thank you.
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