Rob
Hampton
PROBE
Poptart
Monkeys
(continued)
By Alyce Wilson
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PROBE Poptart
Monkeys By Alyce Wilson |
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ROB: I came
up with a couple of the songs on the last album, where I just came up
with maybe a minute, or 30-second snippet of something that I wrote on
a piano or something like that. I'll take it to Bill; he's really good
at taking something that basically sounds third-grade BILL: I'll
at least get it to fifth grade. ALYCE: Now, were you one of the guys who was in it originally? ROB: Yeah. Me and Paul are actually the two original members. ... We actually started it ... It's probably been four years now, actually. ... ALYCE: Do feel that, like, with Chris joining ... What does he bring to the band? ... ROB: ... We try to put on a performance -- and James is definitely the one that always stood out: the guy who was just fun to watch; you can't take your eyes off him. And it was nice when Chris joined, because now we have two guys that are just hard to take your eyes off. So you're going back and forth between Chris and James. ALYCE: Well, the tattoos alone... I can't take my eyes off them. CHRIS: They're fun. ROB: Well,
I'll tell you what; you won't even see the tattoos once you see the faces
he makes. ALYCE: Speaking of tattoos, whose idea was it to do the Darth Maul kind of face thing? ... CHRIS: On the new album? ROB: That's an actual, real guy. ALYCE: Really? ROB: He's our tattoo artist, yeah. CHRIS: That's the guy who did all of our tattoos. ALYCE: That's amazing. ... Because it almost looks like it could have been one of you guys made up. Like, I was thinking you [points at Chris]. CHRIS: We do have a lot of similar facial features. As you know we play down South a lot, in Panama City, and he has a tattoo shop down there and we'd go in there. Actually, one of the bands we play with in Florida suggested we check him out. We went in there and made good friends with him and continued to play down there; we'd see him all the time. Just jokingly we always used to say, "Why don't you come up to PA and make a living up there?" And our last time down there, he took us up on it. And he moved him and his fiance; they moved to PA. They were living with me. ... he's the nicest guy in the world. You wouldn't think it to meet him, though, because he has facial tattoos. It's kind of like, you can't judge a book by the cover. And that was the concept we wanted with the Just Like Me album. ALYCE: Well, what you were saying too about the music is, like, you're gonna use a word that you don't feel is the right word just because it's not a four-letter word. So, take me as I am. CHRIS: Right. ... ALYCE: So, you guys have plans for more touring? CHRIS: Yeah, we actually will spend the whole month of March pretty much down South. Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi ... We're trying to add... Tennessee onto that, too. ROB: Usually the winter months we'll stay close to home. And when warm weather starts hitting, like March, April, we start heading out. ALYCE: Where's home? ROB: Home is actually Berwick for me ... and then we have James from Hazleton and Chris from Frackville. So there's three of us that're from Berwick; that's our home base. That's where rehearsal takes place, and meetings, all that good stuff. BILL: I can't find that set of strings. ... Lead singer Paul Reddon, a compact guy with dark blonde hair, stepped in and immediately tried to duck out again, but the other band members stopped him. When he found out that everyone else had already been interviewed, he wanted to know why no one had come to get him. ALYCE: The idea was, having everyone in the room together talking at once was going to be a little too confusing for me to sort out later. PAUL: Right. ALYCE:
But I spoke to James and I spoke to these guys CHRIS: [laughs] ALYCE:
It just happened that way! ... You're last because you're the most important
because, you know... Well, everybody's important. BILL: Oh,
don't fill his head! That's why I'm leaving. CHRIS: Yeah, get out of here. BILL: Guys
our size won't fit with his head. PAUL: Somebody
stay and help me out. |
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