Lucky Boys Confusion

2-7-04
The Rave
Milwaukee, WI

Interview with Stubhy

Scott Hanson and I (Joel Koszyczarek) recently had the opportunity to sit down with Stubhy from Lucky Boys Confusion before their show at the Rave Basement / Rave II in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  I won't waste your time with a big intro, I will just stay I was extremely excited about this interview and I hope everyone enjoys the enciteful information Stubhy gave us!

Joel: Thanks for Sitting Down with us number one.
Stubhy: Thanks a lot, thanks for having me.

Joel: You played a couple shows in Wisconsin, I think Green Bay, and La Crosse the past couple days... How has Wisconsin Been Treating you?
Stubhy: It's Been Awesome!  We played Oshkosh first and that show sold out, we had to turn away 200 kids.  So, that was our first time in Osh Kosh and that was just a great first time to be somewhere and have it be sold out.  That means that the word is spreading and people are paying attention to what were doing out in Chicago.  La Crosse sold out, but we've been there a bunch of times and that was a good time, good show, really energetic kids, and there's a great little bar across the street called Yesterday's that we always go to and party at.

Scott: Lots of beer on this swing of the tour, eh?
Stubhy: For sure!  Lots of beer obviously on every tour!  Green Bay was our first time there in five years, but we're the number one band on the top 40 station there...  The number one song, sorry.  "Hey Driver" is doing really well there and a good 800 kids showed up, the show was great, and the kids were going nuts.  And tonight is going to get really, really close to selling out and that's the key, is having really packed shows with kids that are really eager to have fun.

Joel: Were all the shows at universities?
Stubhy: No, the only university show was the Oshkosh show

Joel: They [universities] usually have a pretty good turnout?
Stubhy: It has a good turnout, I mean it's a different kind of show when you do a university show, it's a sober show, kids don't move as much, It's like sometimes college students are a little too cool for school.  But, they enjoy it... they just don't move as much and we're a very crowd reaction type of band, we are a very, "You give some, you get back" type of band... So, it's very difficult sometimes to get college kids to move without alcohol or without the right setting.

Joel: With Commitment out now, how have your fans you've had for a while responded?
Stubhy: There's this thing that we call "The 5% Nation" and that's how five percent of our fans.. or not even five percent of our fans who have been around since Growing Out Of It, which is our first record, are like "well, why don't you sing about weed anymore," "why aren't there any 4:20 geek references," and "why aren't you rapping anymore," and "why aren't you 311?!?!?!?" or whatever the fuck they want us to be, and its like well...  I wrote those songs when I was 19 years old, I'm 26 now.  I didn't sit down and go "I don't want to rap anymore" ya know?  When I sit down I just want to write.  I don't think about what style of writing it is.  I mean who knows.. maybe the next album will have all rap songs on it, but I'm not going to plan it ya know?  I really wanted to make a good rock record, that's just what I wanted to do.  I didn't plan it out, but once the songs were done, I was like, "We've got 28 songs to show, and what out of these 28 songs have we already written from the heart and not thought about it, not like analyzed it."  Out of these 28 songs, what, 14 or 15 songs are going to make an awesome cohesive rock record, and I think that's what we did.

Scott: Some of the songs that we've gotten the best reaction to on the website so far, are "Broken," and "Mr. Wilmington," and obviously "Hey Drive.r"  What are you're favorite songs off the record. I mean I know your 14 out of 28 but...
Stubhy: My favorites would most likely have to be "Closer To Our Graves" and "Broken."

Scott: Why is that?  Personal?
Stubhy: "Closer To Our Graves" I think has really good lyrics and just the arrangement is non-traditional.  The verses are really loud and big, and the choruses are actually really broken down and have a stecatto kind of feel to them.  It's just rare music especially because were a pop rock band, and for us to do some things is a little bit more experimental. "Broken" I just love because I think its really powerful and I think the verses are very original.  And, a lot of times songs are how I like doing them, like performing them live and it really reflects on my tastes.

Scott: So, are those your best live songs you'd say?  Or are they your favorite to play live?
Stubhy: I think "Blame" and "Closer To our Graves" are probably my two favorite songs to play live.  I like to do my little acoustic songs too like "South Union," "King of Apathy" and those type of things, that's just more personal.

Scott: What do the kids react to best out of, like, everything you guys play?
Stubhy: "Hey Driver" just because its such a fun song that always gets a good reaction.  "3 to 10" just because it's a crazy half beat, and "beware"...  Ya know all the songs we get pretty much good reactions.  Right now it's weird because we did the opening band thing for like the last three months.  So I kind of forgot which ones people reacted to. But, when you headline, most of the kids know all the songs so they just kind of go nuts for all of them.

Scott: "Hey Driver" is a good driving song!... You guys were saying that on your Electra artist Bio.  First time I heard it I was driving out of Madison and I was on the road on I-94 and it was pretty cool.
Stubhy: It's just fun.  It's like if you're only selling a record that kind of sounds like that, well "Atari" I guess too, but it's kind of like head bobbing, fun, and the rest of the album is pretty dark actually, if you look into the lyrics they are pretty full of angst, like frustrated, because of stuff that we were going through the past couple of years.  It was pretty tough, so that's what it's about.  So, like, "Hey Driver" is pretty powerful and hopeful; it's one of the few hopeful songs on the record.

Joel: You guys are from Chicago, so that's probably your favorite place to play, and..?
Stubhy: Yeah, Chicago, and after last night, Green Bay.  That was Crazy!... those kids were nuts!  Milwaukee is always awesome; Champagne is huge, Florida.

Joel: The Canopy Club in Champagne?
Stubhy: Yeah the Canopy Club... We're doing two shows there and Florida is really fun for us.

Joel: Anywhere warm!
Stubhy: Yeah, Florida.... I like going to LA, we always do well in LA.

Scott: Are those your favorite venues too?
Stubhy: Yeah, I mean I really like doing all the House of Blues type stuff, because they usually treat you really well at a place like that.  But, I mean I'll be honest... put 500 kids in front of me, I'll like any venue.  I don't care... it's just more about what town is going to bring in the kids.

Joel: You mentioned your live show... are you guys planning a lot more touring?
Stubhy: Yeah, we're just doing our own headlining kind of stuff for the next two months and then we're going to be hitting the road for ten days with Story Of The Year and they are cool guys that we've known for a long time.   And then, right after that, we're going to go hit the road with Allister for a month and then after that I think we're just going to try to put together some more stuff, some more tours, so it's gonna be busy.

Joel: Yeah, I read somewhere that you had played like 200 something shows in one year.
Stubhy: I mean, we don't know what to do if we're not touring.  This last month I was home, and I was like, "What am I doing?"

Scott: You guys arent going to bust out any pyrotechnics Great White style or anything?
Stubhy: No. We keep our live show pretty Rock 'n' Roll ya know?  We try to be as gimic free as possible.

Joel: I know that Throwing The Game was titled because of being pressured into sounding a certain way.  Did you really feel that kind of pressure with Commitment?
Stubhy: Not at all.  Miguel from Sublime produced the new record so what he tried to do with us was just like he picked the songs that he liked with us and after that we just took it from there.  He really only interjected and really only got in the way when he felt that something needed to be fixed.  He didn't fix it just for the sake of fixing shit.  And, he didn't produce just to be producing.  We had a better idea of how to write a cohesive song when we were writing Commitment than we did with Throwing The Game.  We were just kids, it was our first real record, and we didn't know what we were getting into.  So, they were a little bit more defensive as well.

Joel: Do you guys still play a lot of stuff from your older CD's?
Stubhy: Yeah, we are gonna play a whole bunch of shit tonight.

Joel: Something I've noticed lately is a lot of people from bands doing side projects and stuff like that... is there any members of Lucky Boys doing that or anything?
Stubhy: More than a side project, I write a lot of songs for people.  Like other people, and that's what I'm getting into. Like, I just went out to Maryland to write some songs for these kids and then I wrote a song with a famous DJ and so I'm getting more into the producing side of things.  I don't have time, nor do I care really, to do another project, because I'd be the frontman again, and I've already got a good band to be in so what do I need another project to be in really?  And, it's like then, if I'm in another project, I have to write songs for that, and if I write a good song I want it to be for Lucky Boys, not something else.  Maybe later on in life when I have more time.

Joel: What music are you really into right now?  Anyone up and coming who we might not know about?
Stubhy: Yeah!  Gin...he's a rapper... he's a Chinese rapper.  He just got signed to Ruff Ryders...DMX's label, whatever it is.  He's great.  I really like it, and it's just so weird to see this Chinese guy rapping.  That's not really like the kind of music I listen to a lot.  I love Brand New; I love the Distillers; I love Swizzle Tree, who we're playing with tonight, I think they are great.  And, I like, you know... probably the same kind of stuff you guys are into.  I'm managing this new band called 15 Minutes Late.  And a band called A...the letter A from England.

Joel: Yeah, I like A.
Stubhy: Yeah they are cool.  Kind of different.

Joel: Kind of electronic rock, without as much rap.
Stubhy: Coheed and Cambria.  I just got that record, and it's pretty good.  I think it might take a few more listens for me to really get into it.

Joel: Touring so much you've got to have some really weird stories, just weird stuff that happens...or lately?  Maybe Wisconsin?  You know we're all kind of crazy up here!
Stubhy: Well ya know.. there's always the normal stuff with girls and stuff.  The craziest thing that a fan ever did was she walked up to me and she's like "hey" and I'm like "hey what's going on" and she pulls down the side of her pants, and my name was tattooed on her hip.  Not Lucky Boys Confusion, not one of my lyrics, MY name, and I was like "Whoa!" That's pretty crazy.  I was really flattered, but I was also just... it was crazy.

Joel: I mean I know people who have bands even, and even that, it's like, what if they put out something you can't stand?
Stubhy: I like tattoo's, ya know... You've got to get stuff that really means something to you.  Some people just do it for the art; I do it for like the meaning.

Scott: Don't have any weird experiences with a stalker or anything like that?
Stubhy: No, I had a full on stalker... but I don't want to talk about that.  But, yeah, that was crazy.

Joel: Right now what are your main goals?  Just pretty much writing music?
Stubhy: Write music and sell records.  And I'm not going to lie and be one of those guys who says "Oh, I don't care if we don't sell records."  Fuck yeah I do!  I mean if we don't sell records then we're not going to be able to put out another record.  And that's what people don't get about when they are like "Well, I burned your CD."  And they are like "Well, you just care about the money."  And I don't see a dime for when you buy records ya know?  But, if we don't sell a lot of records, they aren't gonna let us make another CD.  That means that we're going to get dropped.  That means that we're going to have to put out albums independently and it's going to be harder for people to get them.  I mean it's a big circle, a big viscious circle, and people don't understand...  You have to buy the artist's music or they are going to fade away...fade away into nothing.

Joel: So do you make most of your money off of touring?
Stubhy: You don't make shit until you're [big]... Yeah, I mean you can make some money off of publishing, if you sell records.  You can make money off royalties, if you sell records.  You can make money of touring, if you sell records.  I mean, if you don't sell records then nobody's coming out to see your show.

Scott: We focus on a lot of unsigned bands on our website.  If there is one piece of advice you could give out to have some success in their career what would it be?
Stubhy: Play Hard...Play good.  Find people to play with who you're not just friends with, but can actually play.  Don't be afraid to collaborate with people.  Two heads are better than one.  Be nice to everybody that you meet because you never know when that band that you just made fun of is going to be the next big band and then you want to play shows with them, but you were total assholes.  And when you go play a show somewhere, be good to the staff, be cool to everybody, and just the rules of life.  And wear condoms!
Guy behind the bar: [Agrees]

Joel: White Sox or Cubs?
Stubhy: Chicago, after being gone for so long...I didn't realize how much of a Chicagoan I really am.  Anything good that happens in Chicago, I'm supporting.

Scott: You guys didn't catch any of that Green Bay love last night?
Stubhy: I like Brett Favre, but I'm from Chicago!  I've got my love for my city.  So, you guys going to party tonight, going to have a good time?
Scott/Joel: Yeah!

Scott/Joel: Thank you very much!  Have a good show!
Stubhy: No Problem, thanks!

Click here to read Joel's review of the Lucky Boys Confusion show later that night!

Joel Koszyczarek & Scott Hanson
joel.koszyczarek@XROXX.com
scott.hanson@XROXX.com