Argus: How was the success of "Zoot Suit Riot" changed your life, both negatively and positively?
Perry: Well, negatively, obviously it's difficult to get people to understand what this band is about. We'd love to be just ourselves. People say: "Why are you giving up on the swing thing?" We're not. We're just doing what we've always done. That's what this band is. And positively, like I said, we got a chance to travel the world and have an effect on pop-culture. Now swing is an option for people to listen to. Before that, not a lot of people listened to swing music, and now people are dancing and going to clubs all over the place. I think that's a real positive effect. It doesn't have to be the only music that people listen to. I certainly wouldn't want it to be like that. And music is not a competition; it's just about options of taste. My record collection is very diverse. Sometimes I don't want to hear swing music, I want to hear punk rock or vice versa, or I want to hear jazz. We're a band that had a lot of different moods.

How did you like WARPED Tour?
It was great. I got a chance to meet a lot of people who are still really close friends. It was hard in a way because the WARPED Tour is such a punk rock tour and we were a swing band in it. It was difficult to win people on that tour. But, overall it was really good. I got to see the world. We went everywhere from Slovania to Australia. And we got to go with a bunch of people who we call friends now. That's really nice.

How exactly did the band form?
Well, we started in 1989. And I just had this idea that I wanted to mix swing music with the other kind of music that I liked the most, which was punk rock at the same time. I wanted to have the energy of punk rock with the sound of swing music. I had a friend who was an alto sax player, and he and I started the band, and that's kind of how we started.

I'm sure you've been asked this question millions of times, but I have to know, who thought of the band's name?
We needed a name before our first gig and a friend of ours sort of suggested it. I wanted it to be a New Orleans, sexy, kind of swinging title. We were throwing around ideas like that, but nothing really sounded good. This friend of ours suggested the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, and we all laughed because we knew it would be sort of offensive, but we came out of punk rock with groups like the Butthole Surfers. Pretty soon they just had to make the poster adn we had to decide. It just seemed to work. We weren't shooting for something like mass success. We were shooting for a name for our show down at the local bar. It wasn't like we thought 'oh jeez that will really catapault us to super stardom' or anything like that. We just went 'that's what we'll call ourselves.' Good next poster!

How much trouble has that name gotten you into?
Well, people don't like it. They think we're idiots for calling ourselves that. In our day we've had a lot of problems between people being offended or whatever. But, you know you can almost look at it like we've given those people a platform. By having a stupid name, people have gotten a platform to speak about the very important issue that they feel the need to address. It's just that we have to be the whipping boy for that. But that's okay. Whatever works!

Who have you been hassled by?
More than anyone, the collegiate left wing, which I actually count myself as a member of. But, for the most part, just by my peers. (Laughs)

What's in your CD player right now?
Roxy Music is in my CD player right now. The first two Roxy Music records I've been listening to. I like them in theory. I listen to them because I'm really interested in their ideas. But a lot of their songs I don't relate to very much. That's how I listen to music. When you're a musician, I think you listen to music a little differently than other people. I listen to it for other things.

Who are your musical influences that made you want to become a songwriter?
Well, there's just a lot. I really like The Kinks a lot. I was really into the mod bands like The Who and The Kinks and Small Faces. And then punk rock, with The Clash and The Damned, bands like that. And you know Elvis Costello and people like that. But the overall thing was that I wanted to do something new. A hybrid of old influences that sounded good to me. And I always liked dance music too.

Who do you particularly like out of the swing bands that are out today?
I know most of the swing bands, or have spoken to them several times. I like their music a lot. The only band I don't know is the Squirrel Nut Zippers. I like all of their music a lot. And I'm not just saying that. We're all different, that's the thing. We all have real different agendas. All the bands are sort of frustrated by the way that the media has pitted the bands against each other. And they've refused to understand what the trick is of each particular band. But, with rock bands they go into depth about their influences, what they're trying to do, blah blah blah. But, because they are ignorant about swing music in general, rock critics, they tend to s--- the music of these bands. They don't understand it, so they dis it.

Do you mind that people label you as a swing, ska or punk band?
Sort of, but it's fine. It just seems that you don't have your own personality. In a way all the swing bands are lumped together. No one really pays attention to their own unique personalities; they just call it swing. So that's kind of annoying. But our music--this is our fourth record--we've had hard rock songs on some of our records as well as country as well as everything else. So yeah, it's a little annoying, but people for some reason need to categorize. But there is no way that I am going to stop them.

The video for "Zoot Suit Riot" has the whole swinger image embedded in it. Is that something you regret doing?
No, it's funny. The video is a joke. There are punk rockers slapping each other around and it turns into a big melee. No, I don't regret it. I wish that the swing scene was a little more open. There tends to be eliteness to it, which I really don't like very much. If you can't do west or east coast steps, if you don't have the right clothes on, blah blah blah. It's just too precious. But that being said, I'm glad there is a swing culture and that people are interested in things that are well made: suits, cars, and stuff like that. I think that's a great thing to be interested in. If it becomes your life however, then you've got a serious problem. I regret if we'd had that effect on people.

When I first heard the song "Drunk Daddy," it was a little shocking to me because I had never heard a swing or a ska song that had such a serious nature. This was probably a shock to most people because swing has such a happy-go-lucky image. Did you write that song thinking you were going to change people's opinions of what swing or ska was?
Like I said, I was influenced by mod and punk rock which are more slice-of-life kind of realism lyrically. With swing, I just combine my influences with swing music. I don't see swing as necessarily happy-go-lucky. But again, it's just a difference in perception between what I see and hear, and what the general public hears. Not all our music is super-duper serious, but a lot of it is. I write little short stories, and not every story is happy-go-lucky, and not every one is serious like that either. I guess I don't necessarily have a formula for writing a song...just what moves me and what I find interesting.

Talking about song writing, you have an album coming out soon. What can fans expect? And when will it be out?
Well, we don't know when it's coming out. We're going to shoot for the fall, but it's sort of a mixed bag. There's a lot of good swing on it, a different kind of swing that we haven't played before, less of a backbeat and some of the songs are more western swing. But a good deal of the songs have a Motown vibe to them, they're more mid-60's sounding. It's something that the Daddies have always done; it's a Daddies record that's for sure. I think that people who have only heard "Zoot Suit Riot" will be surprised.

How do you see The Cherry Poppin' Daddies changing and evolving in the next few years?
Well, we're not going to change, but everyone thinks we're changing. (laughs) That's the thing, everyone's going to be shocked when they hear this new record, but it's not shocking. We're just going to do what we're interested in. We've always been sort of a mod band. Those roots are going to come out a little bit more on this record. And there's also going to be swing on it, and the swing songs that are on it are really good. We always just follow our muse. I'm going to say this time and time again, and no one's going to expect it, no matter how many times I say it, people are still going to be shocked. So, I'm just not going to worry about it.

Wemistress's Note: Thanks to The Argus for printing some of my factoids!