SP: Really?

...and you guys broke two snare drums in one set.

SP: Oh man (laughing).

But it was still cool. I was kind of wondering; you guys have had quite an image change.

SP: Yeah.

What was the reason behind that?

SP: Well, we played a show with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones one time, and Dicky said to us after the show, we were standing around and kind of talking after the show, and Dicky goes, "Yeah, you guys are a really great band, but you know you look like the fuckin' wreck of the Hesperus up there." And after that, we decided, we said, "Okay, the next time we play with the Bosstones, we're going to have to outdo the Bosstones, you know, be all pimpin' and stuff." So, we realized that it was a very difficult row to hoe with us at the time. We were, well, whatever. We looked like shit. We actually made a conscious effort to try to... when we did it, it felt good. Everyone took it more seriously.

DS: It clarified things for people outside of the band.

SP: Yeah. Which I think is rather stupid in a way. We still play music we played back then. But somehow the suits made it more palatable or something. We were trying to do something that was not necessarily to hit you over the head with it. We said we're a modern, 1998, not like we're trying to be 1943 or whatever. But I think it helps. It's kind of a small deal with the devil. We changed, and it was more fun for us, so we continued to do it.

I remember the older albums are really diverse.

SP: Yeah, I'd still like to do that. That's the ideal Daddies state. I think that's what the Daddies really are, those records, making very diverse...we were always a swing band. All our songs have been mostly played swing from the beginning, the majority of our songs. We mixed up more in the beginning because that was what was interesting to us, trying all different genres as opposed to being a swing band. We didn't want to be a swing band. What happened was that our manager said, "Everybody comes up and they ask me which CD has the most swing on it." That's what we mostly played live. "And I don't know what the fuck to tell them because two of the CD's have the same amount and the other has less. So it's between these, and I don't know what to do. I swear to God, if you put all of those swing songs on one record, people would just shit. They would really want that, because how many people have all three Cherry Poppin' Daddies records?" "Well, none." "Well, yeah. There you go." And I went, "I don't think that a band from Eugene with three records out could put out a greatest hits record out." "Then record some new songs." We had talked about it for a while, and we decided to do it. And it was cheap. So we did it. And soon as we did it, people started fuckin' buying it like crazy. It was just weird, you know.

That was the self-released version?

SP: The self-released version. Then, Mojo asked us to sign a deal with them. Actually, first they wanted to license the thing, which was cool with us. And as the negotiations went on, they decided that they wanted to sign us. We decided to go with that because, first of all, being a do-it-yourselfer for many years, we couldn't get CD's in the stores. We'd play in Chatanooga or whatever, Tennessee, and call up and say, "Hey, we're playing your town, blah blah blah blah, can we get CDs in your stores?" They wouldn't, they just wouldn't because they didn't know who we were. So it was either break the fucking band up, or get some distribution for the son of a bitch. That's all we wanted when we signed with Mojo was distribution from the deal.

So, you've recorded a new album?

SP: We've recorded 15 songs toward a new record. We're not done, it's the beginning. We probably won't even get started on it until April. We have pretty much every day booked until March.

Will you be playing Seattle again?

SP: Yeah, I bet we'll do that in the fall, in October, because we're going to do the Warped Tour, and then we're going to do the Warped Tour Europe, and then, in October, we're doing a US tour. And I bet that'll be the time we'll be doing a Seattle show. It'll probably be early, I would say...late October.

How were the talk shows? Like Howie Mandel. That's airing today.

DS: We're missing it. We missed it about a half-hour ago.

SP: Really?

DS: Yeah.

SP: Are you sure?

DS: Yeah. It came on at three.

SP: We don't know. Well, how was it, Dan?

DS: Didn't get to see it. It was great. Totally exciting. Not stressful at all. I wasn't staring into the camera, and seeing two million pairs of eyes staring at me. It wasn't like that at all. We played pretty good. That Leno show, that was scary. I don't know how that was for you...

SP: That doesn't scare me.

DS: That was the day that I thought I would be a fool to think to myself that I am just playing for the studio audience, because there are millions of people out there.

SP: I didn't think that at all. It's hard for me to fathom TV, so I just try to play to whoever's there. I just play to the audience like I always do.

Have you seen a tape of the show yet?

SP: Leno? We saw it. Actually, it was weird because we had to do another TV show the day after that. We flew to Vegas, and we got into our hotel room basically as it came on. So we saw it, in the western time zone. The plane landed and we ran to the TV to see it.

Why did you re-do the "Zoot Suit Riot" video?

SP: We didn't spend that much money on the first video. We were going to do it ourselves. We basically paid for the first video, and when Mojo signed us... Mojo decided that it wasn't good enough and that we should make another video. And that they wanted us to spend $80,000 on it.

DS: MTV said, "It's not up to our standards."

SP: It wasn't good enough. It wasn't synched up and shit. Then we made another one, which was not much better. A lot of people say they like the first video better.

(Question inaudible)

SP: Dan just loves to be in movies and TV.

DS: King of all media, that's my job.

Is it strange to hear your stuff on the radio at all?

SP: Yeah, very strange. When they first said that they were going to put out a single, "Zoot Suit Riot," I told them not to do it. I just couldn't conceive of anyone playing it, first of all. And in our contract, everything that they spend for promotion, we have to pay half of, up to a certain amount. So, if they go and try to promote this record, then we'll have to pay for it. So we were thinking, well, if you do this, you're going to run up this big bill, we're going to have to go out and fucking make a bunch of money and pay you. And I was like, no one is going to play swing on the radio. Don't be stupid. And I tried to stop them. I tried to stop them, and I actually got them to, at least this is what they told me: they said, "Pick a few scattered markets, and just try it." "So you're not spending a lot of money, like ten markets." And they said, "Oh yeah, that's what we're going to do." And they did it. They came back a little while later and said, "Look at this market. Everybody's digging it." I didn't even trust them. I thought, "They're totally lying to me, and they're going to go everywhere." But, apparently they didn't lie.

So that turned out alright.

DS: I haven't heard the song on the radio. I don't listen to the radio. Like, the first couple of times I heard it was in LA...

SP: Dude, I heard it in a hotel when we were recording in January and February. I'd drive up to the studio, and have the radio on, and I heard it then.

DS: I heard it at Goodwill. Shopping at Goodwill. Nooooo!

I heard it twice in one night on the local station. I was just hoping that they wouldn't overplay it.

SP: Yeah. Right.

About the new album, did you happen to record "Mona Lisa?"

SP: We didn't. We did not do that. We wrote a whole bunch of new stuff, and there's going to be a bunch more. I will probably write 20-25 more songs before we even cull it down. For some reason, there's so many good ideas that I have that doing "Mona Lisa" seems like a waste. After hearing Nat King Cole do it, no one wants to hear us do it again.

DS: Yeah, that's true, but we do it totally differently. We do it in a quasi backbeat version.

How was the 12 Angry Fathers thing?

SP: Oh God, that was really weird. They wanted to spice it up by having some sort of controversy. And yet they have these people, these dads, that like the fucking people in the videos. And what are you going to say? And plus, all the fathers and dads on there, every one of them, were totally competing for the spotlight, trying to be funny and stuff. Pauly Shore's dad...

Was he as crazy as he seems?

He was just stupid. I mean, it was like, "Hey, look at me! Look at me!" It was really embarrassing, and you're sitting there. The only other musician was Big Daddy Kane, and he was really cool. He was just really stoned, and I was going, this is fucked up.

I thought he was going to fall asleep, fall right out of his chair.

SP: He was cool.

DS: I was reading some of our fan mail today, and some girl wrote in and said you and Dustin, on the 12 Angry Daddies show, looked so money.

SP: Oh she did?

The Swingers reference. How's the Warped Tour been?

SP: I like doing short sets. I'd like to add two or three more songs ideally. But thirty minutes is cool. It's like a sampler. People get to check out these different kinds of bands. Or at least a couple of kinds of bands. Punk rock bands. A couple of different other kinds of bands. It's alright. The food's shitty. People are pretty nice. I guess I'm a little disappointed with it just because I thought it would be more...something. But the shows have been okay. I don't get flipped off nearly as much as I thought I would.

I kind of was wondering how the Bad Religion fans react.

SP: (inaudible sentence)

DS: Like today, some guy threw a lemon at the band that happened to hit our guitar player right on his guitar.

SP: That always happens. Every band gets shit thrown at them. Getting shit thrown at you doesn't mean "I hate you," (it means) somebody's throwing a party right.

I've known a lot of people who wouldn't listen to your music because of the name. But then I'd be playing it, and they'd say, "Who is that?" What kind of flak have you gotten because of the name?

SP: All kinds.

DS: When the band started, we played for maybe six months in bars. In bars we were playing at we started getting phone calls. Bomb threats, and all kinds of stuff. Club owners wouldn't let us play with the name Cherry Poppin' Daddies. We went for about three years calling ourselves the Daddies or various forms of the Daddies in Eugene.

SP: That's in Eugene. Not very often in Portland.

DS: And in Portland sometimes. Nowhere else in the country did this kind of controversy come up. In the height of political correctness. So mostly in our hometown. People will come up to us and say, "I was listening to the CD the other day and it occurred to me that Cherry Poppin' Daddies has this other meaning that I didn't pick up before."

SP: People will still come up to me and say, "Yo, dude, good band, bad name." We were playing with X one time, and Exene was all bent out of shape, and John Doe, who I look up to...don't idolize, but a good musician and stuff, came up to me and said, "You guys are a really good band but you should change the name." Whatever.

It's kind of late for that.

SP: It's kind of late for that, and it's like, you know what, whatever. That's how I feel about it at this point. And in a nutshell, I guess I was going to say, what's wrong with being sexy? I think there's this whole thing about, you know, most people don't even take it that way. They don't even think about it in that way. There's a long tradition in rock and roll, white rock and roll, of sexual self-loathing. And everybody's supposed to buy into it. If you're frank in any way, they don't like it. That's when I get flipped off. When I'm fuckin' jacking around on stage and touching myself and shit. People don't like that. They hate it. They hate a dude jerking himself around. You're not supposed to do it. You're supposed to be white repressed dude. I think it's similar to that, to a white guy being sexy or anything like that. It just makes them feel uncomfortable. Much less the name the Cherry Poppin' Daddies. I think that much of the baggage has to do with that. But we're a swing band, and that's how I fucking feel. It's how I express myself. I don't even know why. Just tough shit, you know?

You guys have been around for quite awhile. Nine years, is that right?

SP: That's right.

Do you think that having that time to develop musically was a good thing?

DS: We sure had plenty of time to develop.

SP: I think that it was a good thing. I can appreciate it...now. I think it would have been better if it had happened earlier. I'm pretty old now. I can't dance around like I used to.

DS: The songwriting is way better than when we started.

SP: The songwriting is better, but I think that fuckin' Rapid City Muscle Car is a great record. I don't even know if I can top it.

DS: One cool thing about being around so long is that we're so used to this, the fact that our record is very successful, we've become more popular than we were, nobody's sneaking out, nobody's gobbling drugs...

SP: It wouldn't be like that. We're not like that anyway. We're just kind of...

DS: ...nice guys, approachable, like to hang out and talk to people.

SP: And there's no attitude now. There are a couple of guys who can kind of be shitheads every once in a while, but they don't know any better. But mostly, we're just regular dudes.

Any chance of seeing "You Wiped Your Ass With My Heart" on a disc?

SP: I've actually been thinking about the tune, because I really like the tune. I was thinking of turning it into a western-swing song. I don't like the tune, I mean I wrote it in like five seconds. I would like to make it more musically interesting and use the same idea. So, yeah. There's a real good chance it'll be on the next record. But it won't sound the same, it'll be more (vocally imitates bass line). It'll have pedal lap steel.

I've got a couple of questions that aren't really related to anything. I was wondering what happened to Billy Jack.

DS: (laughter)

SP: Bruno, the lead singer, had a baby. Joe now has a baby. It was tough, they couldn't tour. That was part of the problem. Dave initially moved to Japan. They didn't take it as seriously...they did take it seriously, but they didn't really get a chance to tour, and when they did tour, it was really hard. They'd all get drunk, and hate each other and yell at each other. They weren't cut out for the road, I think.

Okay, I think I'm down to my last question. Who's the bigger flirt on stage, you or Rev. Horton Heat?

SP: Who's the bigger what?

Flirt.

SP: Flirt? Wow.

DS: I say Steve is.

SP: Yeah, I think I'm more obvious. He's way slicker.

DS: He does a lot of eye stuff.

SP: He does this (winks, Rev. Horton Heat style).

DS: Yeah. He has that killer eyebrow.

SP: I'm too obvious. The weird thing is that I'm not really flirting with people, I'm doing a show. I'm too shy, I don't really flirt with people at all. When I hear music, ever since I was a fucking kid, that's how I would react. He's doing a show too, but...

DS: It's like a cartoon version. As opposed to...

SP: Mine is more physical. Mine's kind of like this. Teasing like this. (Steve does a convincing imitation of a grade school boy poking a girl in the arm, with Dan playing the role of girl) And his is more like... (winks, gives a sly laugh) I prefer that kind.

Is there any musical influences that wouldn't be obvious, like other than the swing stuff?

SP: Right. Mr. Bungle, in a sense. That's because Mr. Bungle really tried for a lot of stuff. It's just trying to make new shit. They'll throw a lot of stuff up in the Cuisinart. I've tried to do that a couple of times, like them, putting different styles together in one song, and it just didn't float my boat. I liked the parts, but putting them together seemed so contrived. I couldn't get my head around it. But I like the idea. The Kinks. I just love their story songs. The point of view is really humorous, but dry.

DS: I always think about Elvis Costello. It all goes back to that for me, it was my introduction to music.

SP: This Year's Model?

DS: My first record. The Wipers too. The Wipers were the reason I dropped out of school and started to play music.

So there you have it. The product of my time spent with Steve and Dan of the Daddies. I hope it was mildly entertaining, at least a little interesting, and not the same old shit that you would read in any other article. But that goes without saying, doesn't it?

Oh, and please don't swipe this interview for your own site, okay? Should be self-explanatory why. Thanks so much.

Webmistress' Note: Well, yeah, sure, but I had to steal it because the original site no longer exists, and this is too damn good an interview to lose.