Totally L.A. Interview with the Cherry Poppin' Daddies
1998

Steve- Yeah, I'm Steve, and I'm the singer in the Cherry Poppin' Daddies.

Sean- I'm Sean, and I'm the tenor saxophone player in the Cherry Poppin' Daddies.

TLA- Hi, and this is what day for the Warped Tour?

Steve- Day 3, it's day 3 of the Warped Tour

TLA- Do you guys like doing the mass, where there's like the mass bands, like the Weenie Roast?

Steve- Yeah, I like the fact that there's lots of bands to see, but a lot of people makes it hard to get from place to place. I think that's my only complaint. Is the food good Sean?

Sean- Uh, no comment Steve. I'd say the food is sub-par.

TLA- And so, do you guys like like touring, would you rather like tour by yourselves or do you like to travel with a lot of different bands?

Sean- You know, it's good and bad, you know. When you tour by yourself you get to play longer and do more, you know, screwin' around, playin' more interesting songs. But, you know, here, you get to meet people and check out their bus and drink their beer and things like that.

Steve- Yea, it's pretty kicked back too. You know, we only have to play a half hour a day, so there's a lot of down time, you can go check out what the festival's offering.

TLA- When you came on the Vans Warped Tour, what bands were you most excited to see?

Steve- Oh man, there's so many of them. Ozomatli we played with and they were like a really good band. Uh, What about you Sean?

Sean- Yea, Ozomatli's my favorite on the tour. I think Bad Religion rocks really hard, and i think the Mad Caddies rock really hard, so does Frenzal Rhomb, there this Australian punk band playin on one of the secondary stages, but they're great, you should check them out.

TLA- And I know that you guys do Zoot Suit Riot in both English and Spanish, why both ways and not just one?

Steve- It's funny, I mean we'd recorded it in English, and I was talking to a friend of mine, we were sitting down having a drink and I had a free day at home, and the studio recorded Zoot Suit Riot, it's a friend of mine's studio, and we were kind of just throwing it around like a while before and they said hey it would be really cool if we did it in Spanish and we said 'hey we have a free day' and she just happens to be a spanish teacher so we went through it and sort of translated it, got it, and went in and just did it, kind of like a lark you know? We sent one to a label and they were like 'This is great! Blah blah blah...' and the next day somebody was calling me from L.A. saying 'KROQ's playing this thing' and i said 'You're kidding me, really?' and it was kind of like this thing, you know, it was sort of a, you know, it wasn't meant as a, you know, we just kinda did it, and it sounded good. I like the Spanish version better than the English version myself, it just has more of a, you know...

Sean- Oh It's a lot less repetitive too.

Steve- Yea, it's true..

Sean- Considering we play that song a million times a week..

Steve- Right...it's a pretty different thing, but the problem is, now I can't do, when I try to sing in English, it's either one or the other, mostly right now the Spanish is in my head so I keep screwing up the words and singing it in Spanish, sometimes I just say 'Oh, screw it' and I just sing it in Spanish.

Sean- So now he needs cue cards actually, to actually get the English version out...

Steve- Yea, we were doing TV, we were on the Leno show and I couldn't remember the words, Spanish put it out of my head, you know, it was just more beautiful, the Spanish version, so...

TLA- So is this like really big for you guys? Are you guys like 'I don't know what to say..

Steve- Yea, you know, it's nice we've been playing for a number of years, and this kind of music is becoming, you know, it's become popular. It's a good thing, it adds more diversity to the music scene you know. What about you, do you like girls, Sean?

Sean- The girls are alright, you know. I take the good with the bad though.

Steve- Like the good girls with the bad girls?

Sean- I fuckin forgot to bring my ...

Steve- Yea, that too.

TLA- Now, for you guys, I know there's a lot of guessing and a lot of controversy, I've been on the velvet rope in it, you guys, your band name was actually the topic of discussion for two and a half weeks..

Steve- Really?

TLA- The Cherry Poppin' Daddies. I mean, do you guys like that kind of controversy around your name? or, where did it come from? If I can ask? or...

Steve- Actually, I think the controversy is kind of good in a way, I mean, it gets people talking about subjects that aren't brought up very often, you know, the name though, when we started, was not, it wasn't meant as, you know, we needed a name to start with, but we wanted a name that was swingin, you know, that had sort of a ring, a swingin ring to it, and we listened to a lot of R&B that was like, the old days of R&B, it was alot of sort of 45's and 78's that they used to call race music that would have like, you know, like Big Ten Inch Record or Marijuana Boogie, thing like that the lyrics were kind of questionable, and uh that's what we were listening to at the time and so you know, it made sense to us, and we didn't think that we would play more than one or two shows, and we didn't think that it was going to be like some issue, but it turned out to be an issue, but then it was our name, and it was like, how do you change it? you know, you could change your name, but it was like, this is our name, and you..

Sean- No one's going to forget it too, it's a pretty unforgettable name, its all jazzy and sleazy, it gets people thinking that we're bad, bad men.

Steve- When we're actually not, but, what I think the thing is, it does make me feel bad that some people just kind of write us off, just as if they were dumbasses or whatever, but and then at the same time I kinda like it 'cause people think that we're dumbasses, so I dont know...

TLA- Alright, do you guys have any last words to say?

Steve- What would your last words be, Sean?

Sean- Well, to be dumbasses means that we're more punk rock, so, that works for us.

Steve- My last words would be 'See, I told you so'

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