An interview with Keith Morris
by Jason Walsh
What began as a Circle Jerks reunion for an album of new material ended ugly, with founder Keith Morris moving onward with the project’s producer and principle songwriter, Dimitri Coates, to form the most explosive new outfit in modern music. OFF! is the energetic offspring of their creative collaboration in Morris’ Los Angeles living room. A throwback, in many ways, with fast-blazing standards clocking in at a minute a piece, spouting new messages of frustration and anger that echo the same sentiment found in Morris’s early hardcore beginnings in the mid 70s, fronting the infamous Black Flag. Though the times have changed over the past half century, the enemy still remains the same and OFF! sets their sights on all the wrongs they see in this world as well as those responsible, with a vicious rhythm section setting the pace.
Morris and Coates, frontman of Burning Brides, recruited legendary Redd Kross bassist Steven Shane McDonald and Rocket From The Crypt/Earthless/Hot Snakes drummer, Mario Rubalcaba, best known for his time as a professional skateboarder on the notorious Alva team in the 90s. Making their debut at last year’s South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, OFF! has stormed the underground and national media as well, performing on various TV shows, and finally releasing their debut 7-inch, “1st EP,” last October. A soundtrack for the “fed-up” masses, the 4-song vinyl featured “Black Thoughts,” “Darkness,” “I Don’t Belong,” and “Upside Down,” all of which ended up with some well-made videos that spread virally across the internet. The band then went on to release these same songs with “three more EPs,” for their first full-length, aptly dubbed, “First Four Eps.” In keeping with the DIY theme, they enlisted the artistic talents of Raymond Pettibon, who scribbled the art for the early Black Flag album covers, to create a new but recognizable look for the band’s new album covers and graphics.
Keith Morris is an iconic anti-hero, a revolutionary who isn’t afraid to speak his mind, confront that which he opposes, and call out the wrongs in the world, shaking his fist at those who are to blame. I had a chance to talk with the always outspoken Morris about the new project, how it came about, and how it has put the fire back in his heart.
Let’s start at the beginning. How did the whole thing start?
KEITH MORRIS: We were starting to work on a Circle Jerks record and I don’t really want to discuss too much about them because the interview really isn’t about them. I would just like to take this time to thank them for making OFF possible with another one of their really shitty, horrendous decisions. What happened was we were writing the songs for an album that they decided that they didn’t want to make. In the process, while I was writing these songs, Dimitri, who is the guitar player, and I said “we have to come up with a plan B because these songs are too good, to just allow, to not let anything happen with them.” We had to just put our foot down and say, “Look, let’s come up with plan B. Make a list of people that we’d want to play with if we were to start a band.” And, that’s pretty much what happened. I mean it got really ugly. The situation with the other guys that we were working with, who I will work with on occasion, but I don’t really want to. I’ll do everything that I can to not have to work with them because, for me, being around a bunch grouchy, grumpy, know-it-all…a type of like really uncool guys, and I don’t want to dis on them. So, what happened was we got all these songs, it’s like, “let’s do something with them,” but they’re obviously not going to be on a Circle Jerks album. They’re too good to be on a Circle Jerks album. I went and played the music, played four songs for Brett (Gurewitz-Bad Religion) over at Epitaph, and he was pretty much like, “those guys aren’t going to write anything this energetic, this exciting, this fresh, this new.” So, Epitaph made us an offer and we were close to signing a deal with Epitaph and one of the guys in the band I’m playing with, OFF, said, “look, it would be ridiculous for us not to see if there are any other companies out there, any other record companies out there, any other music people out there, that would be willing to put our music out, so let’s check that out.” So, Vice (Records) came along, and a s much as I love Brett Gurewitz, as much as I love all the people that work over there, we noticed there was going to be a new Weezer album, there’s going to be a new Bad Religion album, there’s going to be a new Social Distortion album, and good old OFF would have just been the black orphan. We probably would have got like third or fourth tier and Vice were just like doing backflips and somersaults. It was like we would be stupid not to go with these people. Plus, the fact that all these…there’s this whole wave of people that hate on the hipsters and really dislike them for being the people that they are but the fact of the matter is that the people hate on the hipsters are just as fucking weak as the hipsters are. It’s just this fucking dog chasing its tail. It’s the apple calling the orange fucking green, or what have you. But the thing with Vice is that their roster of bands is just as good or just as bad or just as horrible as any other roster of record companies, but the fact of the matter is, we love some of the bands that are on the label, like The Black Lips and King Khan and the Shrines. But with Vice it’s like they offer up a whole different flavor. They’re the party people. We need to go to the party and we need to prove ourselves to be the entertainment for the party.
So they’ve made themselves a pretty good home for you guys?
KEITH MORRIS: Effin’ great. We already experienced one real glitch, and it’s not that big of deal. It’s just some of the music had to get pushed back because of something that happened at the pressing plant. Other than that, they’ve been incredibly cool to us. They buy us sandwiches when we’re in Brooklyn, come to all of our shows. They love to hang out with us and they love us and we love them. It’s a beautiful situation. We’re all going to hold hands and we’re going to skip down the sidewalk and we’re going hum and whistle “la-ti-da’s” and really happy songs (laughs…) It’s a totally happening thing.
When you and Dmitri first started working on these songs and decided to do this as a different band, how many songs did you have together at the time?
KEITH MORRIS: Well, what had happened with the other band was one of the guys that thinks he’s the guy that has to have the most power in the band, decided he was going to go off with his other band, play on the Warped Tour for a few months, so it was like, “Ok guys, we got to have the record done before I leave.” It’s like, “Ok,” and Dimitiri said, “Ok, if we’re going to record a record, we got to have some songs, so guys, it’s time to write some songs. We’re writing songs. We’re all meeting in Keith’s living room,” because my place is most centrally located. And, nobody showed up. One guy took off and went off on a tour of Europe and one of the guys was just too bored or too lazy or sleeping all day long..the other guy, who probably has the worst work ethic out of everybody in the band, decided he’d show up one day for about 45 minutes and then he had like eleven excuses to ditch out on the deal. So, it was kind of like go off and be what you’re going to be, go do what you’re going to do. Dimitri and I sat in my living room and we continued to write songs for the album and in the process, Dimitri started playing some of these riffs that were like, for me, just mind-bogglingly great and took me back to a place called The Church in Hermosa Beach, and The Church in Hermosa Beach would be Black Flag South Bay headquarters. All of a sudden I’m starting to feel that energy, I’m starting to feel that kind of dark angry kind of vibe. It was perfect for where I needed to go at the time.
That’s something I noticed when I first heard the first four songs. It was like, “this is old hardcore but it sounds fresh.” It doesn’t sound like old songs being done, it doesn’t sound like new songs trying to sound old. It’s classic in a way, but it sounds but still fresh. I’m thinking you guys are having a lot of fun playing these songs.
KEITH MORRIS: We love playing these songs. In fact we just played four of them for some kids at FOX studios down in West L.A. for a television program called “FUEL TV: The Daily Habit.” The crew, the cameramen and the sound guys were like, “you’re the best band we’ve had in here” and they’ve probably had like sixty bands in there. We don’t call ourselves a punk rock band and we don’t call ourselves a hardcore band, because if you listen to our drummer (Mario Rubalcaba), he’s only influenced by John Bonham, which means with what we’re playing, and the kind of basslines that Steven’s (Shane McDonald) playing, because Steven comes out of a Paul McCartney…Alice Cooper Band, Geezer Butler/Black Sabbath, 45 Grave, Thelonious Monster, Gun Club…he’s got that kind of vibe. We’re not into the labeling, you know. Those are labels that somebody had to come up with to describe some bands when they couldn’t be more creative. They had to have their story done by 11:45. We’re a hard rock band and there’s all different directions we can go to. There’s different places we can take ourselves and for people that listen to our music. This just happens to be what we’re about at this time. I live in an area of Los Angeles where I’m at one of the busiest intersections, it could possibly be one of the top ten most busiest intersections in the world and it’s really ugly. People don’t care. People are too busy texting and talking and looking at their cellphones and accidents. People pulling guns on each other. People lining up buying meat to fatten themselves for the government that waits for them when they leave the supermarket. Helicopters, emergency sirens, the fire station, the hospital, the fact that about two-and-half, three minutes from…two Beatles songs from my house in a big parking lot that’s attached to a big supermarket and the people that go there, they’re the beaten down, lower-middle-class, lower-class, got to work three or four jobs to support their families, and so they’re not aware that whales are being slaughtered and porpoises are being slaughtered and dolphins are being slaughtered. Trees are being chopped down and oil companies don’t care about anything but making a profit. Armies are over in the Middle East killing people and there’s no reason for us to be over there. So, I’m just angry…I’m not bitter. I’m angry and I’m just a reflection of…I’m a mirror of what I see and some of the things I hear, and the guys that play in my band, they totally love it…
Very cool. Now that song, “I Don’t Belong,” everything you just described, that song sums up.
KEITH MORRIS: Well, we just may do a big political thing here in California, and it’s totally ridiculous because we have to get rid of a governor who shouldn’t have been a governor in the first place. We had an election to elect Schwarzenegger and 40% of the voting population showed up to vote. It was a circus. Jack Grisham from TSOL, he actually ran for governor and he got about 5000n votes, but he explained to me that the whole political situation was that he would never vote again because of being around all these people and he had the opportunity and the chance to see how these people operate. They’re just polishing stones and buffing these stones to make them as pretty as possible. But, we just had this election here where we were trying to legalize marijuana, which needs to happen, but it probably won’t because Budweiser and Coors, Jack Daniels, Dewers…all the alcohol companies don’t want their profits fucked with, yet the pharmaceutical companies, they want people on pleasant, pastel pills to keep them pacified. They don’t want people smoking marijuana. They don’t want these cancer patients, these leukemia patients, these people who are recovering from having cancer removed, to smoke marijuana to relieve their pain. Or you have these people who go through the radiation and because of the radiation they lose their appetite, and when you smoke marijuana, it gives you the munchies. They don’t want that to happen. You would think that Doritos and Hostess and General Mills would be pumping money into the “Yes on 19” vote. A lot of people don’t want it to happen. They’re afraid that our youth will just be wasted and think for themselves. You’d think that the government would totally back the marijuana thing because then you got a bunch of stoned people, you know where they’re at and you can keep them in their pen. You can keep them in their ghetto. You can keep them in a prison without walls, just keep them stoned all day long. But, yeah, we need to legalize it. And, the situation, the whole world situation is fucking ugly. I would love to sing about beautiful things. I would love to sing about hot-action party-chicks and mountains of cocaine and stripper poles and hanging out at the local bar and rubbing elbows with my bros, and checking out really happening music, but got more important things, more important subjects, more important stuff to sink my teeth into.
Now has this band rejuvenated you? It seems like, when I heard it, like I said, there’s so much life to it and it seems like you have so much energy in this. Has this been really good for you?
KEITH MORRIS: I’m excited, I’m happy, I love this band, I love the guys in this band. There’s not a lot of head trips. There’s a little bit of ego, but that’s OK, a little bit of ego doesn’t hurt, doesn’t kill anybody. A little bit of attitude, which is, “that’s cool.” A little bit of “uumph” and a little bit of toughness. The songs pretty much speak for themselves, the energy of the songs, the way that they blast out at you. I’m just totally psyched over this, totally jazzed. I don’t need to be doing anything else. Maybe mowing a lawn or watering some grass, watching the National Geographic, History Channel, what have you. But this…I needed this, because I’ve grown lazy and one of the guys in this band forced me to become un-lazy, and get with it, and get real. Start jumping around again, and it gives me something to look forward to. We’ve not been able to function as a real band because three of the guys are fathers, one of the guys works at Warner Brothers, one plays in two other bands, and so that all the scheduling is kind of like being in the last band I was in, but it’s well worth it because when the shit goes down, for me it’s fucking happening. It’s totally fucking happening.
OFF! has spent March and April touring the country, causing mayhem and havoc everywhere they go. Check a venue near you because this a show any punk and hardcore fan won’t want to miss, even though Keith said it himself, that they are just a “hard rock” band. But what is a label anyways?
AMP Magazine
