Avail On the Deconstruction Tour's recent jaunt to Manchester, Jon from Five Arabs And A Camel Fanzine (now Atom Tan fanzine) and Ros from Exstream Radio caught up with Beau Beau, legendary stage prankster (OK, so he's a "dancer", but then we'd have to lump him in with Bez from Happy Mondays, and since we love Avail, we couldn't bring ourselves to do that...) with hardcore punkers Avail to talk about why Black Sabbath suck, and one band's unhealthily strong attachment to a white van...

Jon: How's Deconstruction been going so far for you lot?

Beau Beau: It's been good! We did the first two shows... then went to Portugal, then came here!

Jon: But you missed out on all the sun in Italy and stuff!

Beau Beau: Nah, it was sunny the first two days in Germany, and in Glasgow! Anyway, it went really well... nice weather and all... except today! Typical... but it's been fun, it's a lot of goofing off and lying around!

Jon: What's it like compared to Warped?

Beau Beau: Umm... it's not as fucking hot! We don't do buses in the States, so we're in this little shitty van, all seven of us, it's about a hundred gajillion degrees...!

Jon: What's the bus called again? Jenny?

Beau Beau: Oh no, it's Kelly. Jenny... rest in peace. She just died... it was horrible when they had to take her away!

Jon: Do you prefer the smaller scale of places like this to the massive things like Warped?

Beau Beau: It's no fun to play stages like this every day, it gets fucking boring and you can't get to anybody... and on the same token, if you play tiny stages every day where people are right in front of you, that gets boring too!

Jon: What do you think of English punk fans compared to fans in the States?

Beau Beau: I don't think they're any different! In the States, when we play the crowd tend to crawl all over each other, going past the bouncers and getting on stage and everything, whereas in England you guys pogo, you clap, you guys play along that way. You still have a good time, it's just a totally different vein, you know? It's funny, I said the other day that this is the only time I've ever felt like Ozzy Osbourne in my life, you get to clap and everything!

Jon: Saw them last night...!

Beau Beau: Black Sabbath fucking suck!

Ros: You can't say that, they're British people!

Jon: They're legends!

Beau Beau: They fucking suck! They legendarily suck!

Ros: Right, I'll have to ask my Black Sabbath or Kiss question!

Beau Beau: Neither!

Ros: No no no, you've got to choose one!

Beau Beau: In that case I'll have to go with Black Sabbath!

Jon: Even though they fucking suck?

Ros: That's the right answer!

Jon: Last time you were here was Snapcase, what was that tour like for you?

Beau Beau: It was fun... I dunno, it was fun!

Jon: Loads of people I know went to see you... I missed you guys cos I got glandular fever...

Beau Beau: What kind of fucked-up English disease is that?

Jon: One where you can't get out of bed for six weeks!

Beau Beau: Ah, OK!

Jon: But everyone I spoke to said that you guys blew Snapcase out of the water!

Beau Beau: That sucks!

Jon: So is the live show part of the whole Avail experience?

Beau Beau: Yeah, definitely, I think our records are decent, they get the point across and what have you, but we're definitely a live band. We've been together 12 years and put out 5 records, and we must've been doing something because we haven't been putting out that many records! It's more fun to play live anyway rather than sitting in a nasty studio!

Jon: Well, apart from when all 7 of you are going round in a tiny van in blistering heat...

Beau Beau: Yeah, that part of it fucking sucks! But onstage, it's better than sex, better than anything, whether it's five minutes or an hour. Other people said that, and it sucks because Snapcase are our friends, but they have a totally different vibe. For me, it's the same thing as another band that play chunka-chunka, say Earth Crisis or Hatebreed - the only person who moves onstage in Hatebreed is the singer James. But once you get a band who jump about onstage and whose singer jumps into the crowd and throws his microphone about, you get "oh, what's that stage show compared to this?!"

Jon: Yeah, it's like last year I saw Less Than Jake supporting Snuff. I mean, respect to Snuff, they're a great band, but Less Than Jake blew them away, they were insane!

Beau Beau: Yeah, even if you're not a huge fan of their music, you still say "fuck, their show is great".

Jon: Have you been a part of the band since the beginning?

Beau Beau: Yeah, I've always been in the band.

Jon: Do you have any input into the music?

Beau Beau: Yeah, I'm as much a part of the band as any of the other guys. If I go "fuck this band, I quit!", then the band breaks up! There's no replacement...

Ros: There are bands who've had members who have left... it's just interesting that they manage to get a replacement and they just gel to a similar or different way...

Beau Beau: Yeah, the thing is that me and Tim have known each other since kindergarten, me and Joe have known each other for seventeen years... the person I've known the least is Ed, our drummer, and I've known him for ten years! We all grew up in the same hometown, we all play music together... we had a bass player originally that wasn't from where we're from, he didn't grow up doing the same things as we did or being the same kids that we were, so when he got in the band it was like "yeah, what's up!", high fives, sleeping next to each other, blah blah blah but there was always this little rift, because he wasn't from the same place. We couldn't go "remember in third grade when Mrs Sally Simple busted Tim for smoking a cigarette?" and everyone went "yeah, I remember that, that was so funny!" - he was like "I can't remember that".

Jon: So have you guys been writing any new material?

Beau Beau: We write all the time, we have like 9 songs now but we probably won't use them all. When we get back home from this we have one show in July, then we're probably going to take some time off and write... and we're either going to release a new record or if we don't like the songs then we're going to break up!

Jon: Or write some new ones?

Beau Beau: Nah, fuck it! If we keep writing and we don't like anything then we'd rather break up than put a shitty record out. Fuck you guys!

Jon: I suppose that's part of the whole thing, you've got to be happy with what you're writing!

Beau Beau: Yeah, if we feel like we're writing shit then...

Jon: There's no point in going along like a band like say Limp Bizkit who aren't in it for the music...

Beau Beau: Yeah but the thing is, bands like that, everyone knows that's what they're for. They're not coming out and saying "we're doing it for the kids!"... they're doing it for the money, and you have to respect that. At least they're honest - "fuck you, we're here for the money. And while you're here, buy a fucking shirt. We want you to walk in and give me money, walk over there and buy shit and give me more money, we want you to go to the store and buy my record and give me more money!". You know, you've got to kind of respect bands like that, especially bands who don't give a fuck about it!


LINKS
www.exstreamradio.com www.avail-avail.com www.fatwreck.de