Universal: Coming to you live from Universal Studios - it's The Backlot Cafe. Today is Tuesday, March 17 and you're chatting live at Real Hollywood - the place you need to be. My name is Jeremy Berg (aka MingoJones) and I'll be your moderator for the evening.

Universal: Tonight we're happy to have Steve Perry from the band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies chatting with us. Before we begin, I want to take the time to introduce The Backlot Café crew and explain to you how to participate in tonight's moderated chat.

Universal: As always, your Backlot Café crew consists of the following stellar individuals: Jennifer Koziol (aka Tommy Boy), Steve Leff (aka Pierce Me Please), Jeff Pakosta (aka Mr. Final Four) and Troy Rutter (aka Zoot Suit Rutter). To put it simply...these guys (and gal) jam!

Universal: OK chatters, listen up!!! Here are some instructions on asking questions during tonight's live chat: If you'd like to ask a question, there is a question mark icon on the menu bar you can click on, or just type /ask space and then type in your question. If you're using the Java client, click Ask Question (it's located in the bottom right section of the screen).

Universal: And for all of you Excite users out there - Thanks for joining us!!! If you're using Excite's VP chat, ask a question by clicking on the "Something to Say?" button on the lower right corner of the stage.

Universal: All right folks, let's move onto the big event. This evening we're privileged to have Cherry Poppin' Daddies lead singer Steve Perry with us!!!

Universal: Let's get one thing straight - Eugene, Oregon's Cherry Poppin' Daddies are a band that swings, not simply a swing band and unlike many of the bands that have recently jumped on the swing bandwagon. Cherry Poppin' Daddies have been unabashedly swinging since 1989.

Universal: The Daddies' Mojo Records debut, Zoot Suit Riot, collects the best of the band's previous three independently released records and adds four new songs (including the title track) for an exciting 14-track introduction to one of America's most dynamic music ensembles. Perry's vision of contemporary swing/ska/rock hybrid expands boundaries while it pays homage to a wide array of influences.

Universal: All right chatters, let's get to it!! Ladies and gentleman...it's chat time!!! Without any further ado, please welcome Steve Perry to the Backlot Cafe!!! Have you done a chat like this before?

StevePerry:You know, Im not sure this way.

Universal:Like over the phone?

StevePerry: I did one one time where I had to type for myself. Stuff like that.

Universal: We handle everything for you here!

StevePerry: And its a good thing - because it would take forever!

Universal: We had Sean Cassidy one time chatting and he was typing for himself. It was painfully slow!

CherryPopper: Where did you guys get your name??? ;-) Who came up with it?

StevePerry: Well, when we first started out we lived in a band house with 2 other bands. We decided we'd do it all together. The getting of the name was... We had to have a name so one of the guys from the other bands used to collect 78s, old race records - Bull Moose Johnson kind of stuff about marijuana and screwing and stuff like that. One of those records, said "I'll be your cherry poppin' whatver" - and the guy said suggested we use Cherry Poppin' Daddies. It made sense since it was crude, sexual and had a ring to it. We didn't think we would be a band for very long, we just had a show and we used it.

Universal: When was that?

StevePerry: It stuck! Yeah! In 89. One gig led to another and here we are.

MingoJones: What are some of your all-time favorite bands?

StevePerry: Well, swing wise I like Jimmy Lunceford and Fletcher Henderson's band. Duke Ellington of course. As far as rock bands, I like Elvis Costello and the Kinks, Randy Newman. Who else - Mighty Might Bosstones, Fishbone, The Wipers from Portland. The Meat Puppets. It kind of spans the globe with a constant variety of music.

Universal: Do you generally like the music today?

StevePerry: No, I generally dont like it.

Universal: There's just a few odds and ends. . .

StevePerry: That Afghan Wigs record a couple years ago - that was a good record.

Universal: I liked that one too but the next one wasn't so hot.

StevePerry: I didnt like that one either, I was disappointed.

Universal: I think that band is good but they strive too hard to be different.

StevePerry: I don't really know what to say, the guy's a great lyricist. Afghan Wigs. He's really good at it. For me - I don't like ANYTHING you know. I like a good song no matter what, even if it's about nothing. I like if the song's constructed well, I can appreciate it.

SouthPkKenny: Is all of your music programmed or are your brass instruments real?

StevePerry: That would have to be the real variety. Nothing computerized about us.

Universal: I noticed on your new album that you guys have a big band, and lots of additional musicians.

StevePerry: We wanted to do one that was kind of a big band chart... You can't really write a lot of huge, big band stuff for a band as small as the Daddies. So we decided to do one huge struttin thing, mostly it's small group kind of stuff. It's pretty rough edges stuff compared to some of the other swing band stuff. Our recordings are really rough edged and there's mistakes all over it. It's not slick at all - not as slick as some, definitely. That's sort of the way we like it.

Universal: When you play live, is it the same 8 guys each time?

StevePerry: Same 8 guys - we bring people on stage though, we brought a string quartet up once - couldn't hear them.

Universal: The horns overpowered them?

StevePerry: Yeah.

Universal: Do you even have to mic the horns in a small club?

StevePerry: Yeah, we play pretty loud, our trumpet player is pretty loud. No, we have to mic them, generally. We're like a rock band - we're less of a swing band. We're like a rock band that plays swing. We're louder than people expect. We're more of a hybrid than anything else. We're influenced by swing, ska and punk rock and country music.

Universal: At your shows, do you see mostly swing people or do you get a mix of people?

StevePerry: Not many country folks. Mostly ska people - we've been in the scene for many years. The swing scene is pretty small actually. We've never really been interested in playing bars.

Nobb: What is the best and worst thing about touring?

StevePerry: You know, the best is you aren't at home and bored out of your mind. When I get home from tour, I'm happy for about 24 hours and then I'm just stir crazy. The worst thing is you get sick all the time and are up 24 hours a day. You have to listen - people get irritating - you just want to strangle some people.

Universal: It gets pretty monotonous after a while.

StevePerry: Imagine if someone had an irritating personality and you have to be with them for a year.

Universal: Sounds like my job!! [Universal laughs]

StevePerry: Yeah! Except you're in a real real real enclosed space.

Universal: Trapped on a bus!!

StevePerry: I like all the guys though - it's going to happen when you get people together, you know.

Universal: And as far as sleeping is concerned I guess you don't get a good nights' sleep at all for a full year?

StevePerry: Yeah, kinda. You just kinda [get] autistic for a while. You just sit there and bang your head. It's hard to have thoughts of your own - it's your own little world. But you get used to it.

Universal: I think that if you're in a successful band you have to love the road.

StevePerry: You have to! We've had a lot of changeovers in the band - there are some people who just can't deal with it. We changed because they just went mad.

TheDiesel: Did you like the movie Swingers?

StevePerry: Yeah! I thought it was a good movie. I just saw it recently. It was always at the local video store and I never bothered to pick it up and it was always out too! We've known all these people for years and eventually I got around to it and I thought it was a good movie, you know.

Universal: Has any of your music turned up in movies?

StevePerry: It's starting to, we've had a few things in trailers.

Universal: That's a Universal movie!

Hazelnb: Have you ever tried to do some of the "swing" dancing?

StevePerry: Yeah! We're not real good at it, but people give us, girls give us lessons and we appreciate it. We generally end up just playing swing and bugging out. Especially when we have a day off. When I get a chance I'll do it - Im not real good, like I said.

Universal: Is this much swing dancing in Alberquerque?

StevePerry: There was that night! I mean, there's lots of swing. Swing dancing is really.... You'll see it all over the place. What's exciting is that we do a lot of all-ages shows and everybody is geting into it. Dancing has been so alienated for so long, people dance in their own universe and not with someone else. With swing, there's steps and a discipline involved and it's a lot more of a art rather than just hump the air. At a disco, people just move their pelvis back and forth and its ugly!

6PackSally: Who comes up with the concepts for your cover art?

StevePerry: But I like swing dancing - people dancing together is a good sign for the future. I think I've come up with every one so far.

Universal: How many do you have out?

StevePerry: This is our fourth. I came up with the concept. How you see it in your mind and how it comes out are 2 different things.

Universal: Have you been pleased with most of them?

StevePerry: Yeah. Pretty much.

Universal: It's clean.

StevePerry: I like Zoot Suit Riot. Yeah. I have a tendancy to be too cluttered and I was trying to get away from that.

CherryPopper: What was the first concert you ever went to????

StevePerry: I went to a, when I was really little, my mom was in the prison reform movement. It was the Guess Who and it was Steppenwolf, they were wearing the sandles with the truck tire bottoms and the Persian rug, and I remember it being super loud.

Universal: Was this in LA?

StevePerry: And I was the little kid who ran around with his fingers in his ears. I'm from New York - I was really little, late 60s probably.

TheDiesel: Is the band as a whole really tight as a group? Do confrontations ever arise about the direction of the band or the music?

StevePerry: Well, we're kind of a, our band is not about having a direction, rather experimenting with different cuts of music. We've never had a problem because everybody is interested, the horn players dont HAVE to be playing all the time - it can't happen. We haven't had that many run ins that way. Our band is a wanderer, we've wandered rather than gone to push ourselves in X direction or Y. That's why we didn't become a "ska" or "swing band."

Universal: What about any fistfights over what's for dinner tonight?

StevePerry: We're more bitchy - nobody gets in a fist fight. There's been the occassional "I'm gonna kill you" kind of thing."

Universal: If you get on my side of the stage again . . . !!

StevePerry: I can be a hot head, I have a long fuse, but when it goes off....

Universal: It seems like it is your band. You write all the music. . .

StevePerry: I wouldn't say it's my band, but I'm a compulsive worker. I write a lot of stuff.

Nobb: What was the first instrument that you learned to play?

StevePerry: Guitar was the first one. I screw around on the piano - but it helps me focus on the harmonies. I can only think one way on guitar. If I use piano it helps out.

Universal: And when was the first time you picked up a guitar?

StevePerry: I was old! I was like 20.

Universal: Did it just come naturally?

StevePerry: Yeah. I dont know why - it did.

Universal: I would love to play guitar, but whenever I try it's like there is no way!

StevePerry: I dont know why it is like that - this is my theory. When I was a kid, my mom made me take dance, I ran around with bunny ears at recitals. I was always singing in the car... Both my parents played piano. I didn't even think about it, it was just normal. I've known people who were way more musical than I am. I'm not good, I'm too undisciplined.

Universal: So you play the songs each night, but there is no soloing or anything.

StevePerry: No, I'm terrible at solos. I'm not interested in that either. I like the dirty blues type stuff. I would never be like a Steve Vai or anything, I wouldnt want to do that.

Universal: I don't think it would go well with the band.

guest2280: We blew it when you played in San Diego on Friday, when do you plan on being back in the San Diego/So Cal area again?

StevePerry: I bet we'll be back probably in May, late May something like that. We have to apologize for that gig, it was one of those gigs where that we were under the understanding it was all-ages, and it wasn't. This happens every now and then, so far 2-3 times, it's disappointing. People have to understand it wasn't what we wanted. Clubs do it so they make money on the booze. We're the last to know on that. That was a disappointment.

Universal: Was it a place that was normally all ages?

StevePerry: The last time we played there it was an all-ages show and then this one wasn't.

Universal: That sucks!

StevePerry: Totally sucks, you know! We'll be back soon to make it up!

SukiSuki: Do people confuse you with the other Steve Perry?

StevePerry: No, if they listen to my voice, Im the Steve who can't sing. So no.

Universal: Any jokes when you were in high school? What was that song? Oh Sherry!?

StevePerry: High school was just a blur to me - I hated it. I don't even remember what people said to me. It was horrible - I was in Siberia!

MingoJones: Do you believe in the existence of Extra Terristials???

StevePerry: Oh yeah, totally!

Universal: Are you an X-Files fan?

StevePerry: No.... But there are definitely Extraterrestrials... I'm not a big conspiracy theorist or anything. I'm not a lunatic!

[Universal laughs]

StevePerry: I just know they're out there, you know!

8BallWilly: Do you get any type of stage fright or does performing just come natural?

StevePerry: If I'm afraid before a show, then I know I'm going to be good. So I try to get scared. Stage fright's weird - I haven't been afflicated with it too much.

Universal: What about any other members of the band?

StevePerry: "Almost, generally they do more than me but I'm guessing, they get more worked up about stuff.

Universal: What's the biggest size gig you played?

StevePerry: We played one at the Oregon Fair, like 20,000 and then Reel Big Fish in Cal Irvine and there were 6-8,000.

Universal: That's cool.

StevePerry: It's totally like swimming in the ocean. There's this weird sensation of being in the front of a clipper ship and just plowing through the waves.

Universal: So you guys are cool with crowd surfing? The guys from RBF don't like that.

StevePerry: Yeah, I dont know if I'm totally... I don't like people mucking up other people's good time. I have not taken a stand on that yet - we're just a band that plays. I don't like preaching to people, but I mean, I guess when you get to a point where people ask you to be the one who lays down the law - it's against my nature, but my instinct is to let people have respect for one another, don't kick each other in the head. Sometimes it just seems like a good time!

StevePerry: I used to see Angelo from Fishbone do it - and it was a good time. If it was all in good fun. When I saw Descendents, everybody would do it, but I guess today, moshing is such a big part of the live music culture that bands have to take some sort of a stand I guess. I'm not there yet.

ShyGuy14: Do you like to play tunes when u are alone

StevePerry: Yes. Very much so. That's how you write. You have to be alone to write - I'm pretty much a loner when I can be. I'm shy also, I'm exteremely shy. People always laugh, and say sure, but it's true. There's 2 sides of it. One side is the performer, and sometimes I'm extraverted on stage as a defense as opposed to like... I don't know. I write when I'm alone and I like to write a lot and you can't write if you're not alone.

Universal: You can't really write in the back of the bus or anything like that.

StevePerry: No, it's very difficult, I'm always running away from people.

SukiSuki: How did you get signed?

StevePerry: We went on a tour with Reel Big Fish and Let's Go Bowling. It was one of those tours that everybody was really cool and it was sad to see it end. Somehow along the way, we made contact with Jay who was their head of the label and we got to talk and what the band wants to do, trying to get CDs into stores. You'd call Tuskaloosa and say we're doing a show and they'd say they've never heard of us and wouldnt sell our CDs. We had done as much as we could independently. We didnt have enough distribution - it was more like a family kind of thing.

StevePerry: It didn't seem weird. And so with that in mind, he said we knew what we wanted to do, and we made a deal and went on with our business, you know. We just sort of said we've always done it this way, and that's what we'll continue to do. As we went along, we got bigger and bigger fast and, you know, we graduated to hotel rooms.

MegaBoy: Are you guys playing tonight anywhere for St. Patrick's day??

StevePerry: Yeah we are. We're in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Universal: Do you know how to spell it?

StevePerry: Fayetteville!

Universal: Troy got it right! Who are you playing with?

StevePerry: We're playing with the Mad Caddies - they're from Santa Barbara and a very good band. They do some wild stuff. They play some bump and grind Dixie Land kind of thing.

Universal: So what's Fayetteville like today?

StevePerry: It is kind of overcast and a strange little college town.

Universal: Have you been there before? Are you at the club already?

StevePerry: Yeah, I'm here right now. No, never been here. It's sort of like the northwest, you can't mistake it, it has a strange aura. It has its own personality.

Universal: That's cool though. You get to go to a new town and check it out.

StevePerry: One thing about touring, you get a chance to - I meet people all over the country and so I know my way around everywhere. It's pretty awesome that way.

MinnieTheMoocher: How do you feel now that your music seems to pop up everywhere, like in movies, on commercials (a Grammy ad used Dr. Bones)??

Universal: Did the other band just start?

StevePerry: Somebody's practicing in the background. The Grammy thing - we didn't know about it - we were leaving for a gig and one of the guys had seen it and said we were on the Grammies! I said "Get out of here!" I feel fine about it - it's good. I don't feel particularly like it's some gnarley bad thing, you know.

StevePerry: Sometimes it's embarassing you know. Sometimes the recordings aren't as good as they can be. More like that than anything else. Production value type things. There was this one thing on Meet the Deedles, we were in the hotel room and I turned on the TV and there it was, Dr. Bones and at the very end... We recordeed it a long time ago and I had this chipmunk voice, and we get to the end and lo and behold there's a chipmunk dancing around.

Universal: Oh man!! [Universal laughs]

StevePerry: As if the chipmunk was singing the song and I was like OH MAN! I thought it was funny too, but it was embarrasing and funny at the same time. I can take a joke. It must have made sense to them. So, I mean, it's funny, you know.

Universal: It's getting the music out there and people are recognizing it.

StevePerry: You know, it's alright.

MegaBoy: What do you do with all the women that throw themselves at you?

StevePerry: Oh dear! Well, after they throw themselves at me, I wake up. Not a lot of women throw themselves at me. If they do, there's this thing where girl, it's like a joke... I used to do an Elvis, on his birthday, we'd get together and dress like Elvis and do Elvis songs. All the girls squeal - and sometimes when the Daddies are performing, they will do that. And it's fun - they don't really mean it. So, in that same tradition, you know, good fun, the girls would go "woo woo" but everybody knows its not real.

SouthPkKenny: As a musician, how do you know if you are really good or if you suck? Some people only say what you want to hear.

StevePerry: I really don't know. I think you are your own worst critic. If you think you suck, you try and figure out why and see what you can do about it. It's a process, it's not really... I'm a very critical person. Sometimes I can't believe how bad I am. But, I don't know. That's a tough one. That one hits right at home. Some nights I know I'm crappy, or the song was terrible. I'm plagued with that.

guest2281: What else besides music do you like to do?

StevePerry: I like to read, I'm a big reader.

Universal: What do you read? Contemporary novels?

StevePerry: I read some Charles Portes, and weird stuff like Nabokov, stuff like that. My grandfather who just died, when I was little, he taught me to play golf. He used to make a big deal about it, and this was the first year I haven't had him. I have a few beers sometimes, I don't drink too much.

Universal: Do you go to the movies?

StevePerry: I used to go to a video store... It was called Great Society Video, it was all Richard Kern and Holy Mountain and all sorts of weird stuff.

Universal: Cool. Actually I was talking about them today!! Did you ever read Film Thread magazine?

StevePerry: I really like... I have pretty weird tastes.

Universal: I used to write for them!!

StevePerry: Maybe I remember your name - I used to sell it in a store. This was 88, 89.

Universal: I was more like 1992.

StevePerry: That whole business, that was my... right before the Daddies.

Universal: Cause when you said Richard Kern . . . Film Thread distributed all those.

StevePerry: One of my good friends went out with Richard. I had some of those connections, my ex-girlfriend teaches film at Iowa. I've just been involved in that for a long time. We just did a video, with Gregory who did New Wave Hookers - he has a weird taste in shots. So yeah, that's my other interest. I went through this 2 or 3 year period that I didn't see anything. Then I went back and had to see foreign films and B movies, I dont like Hollywood too much. Most of them I just don't bother with.

BroncoFan: If you could be doing anything else, what would it be? Would you change a thing?

StevePerry: I think I have a pretty good gig, you know. I think I would be involved in the arts. No matter what it was, I'm interested in painting and film. I'm also interested in chemistry - I'm interested in the Human Genome project and things like that. There's nothing that has the soul of just being in the band and traveling around with people and experiencing the world like this. I don't think I would change anything really. I'm interested in other things, but I wouldn't change it at all.

Universal: Last question!

guest2281: Would you be happy if the band got seriously mainstreamed?

Universal: Kind of headed in that direction I think.

StevePerry: Well, you're into movie soundtracks - that's pretty mainstream. If somebody went and said "Give me that Zoot Suit Riot" again. If someone said you couldn't do this or that, I would be bummed. I don't share that whole, you know, fear of the corporate ogre kind of thing, you know. Maybe I'm just blind to it, I always wonder about it.

StevePerry: People are so ferocious about The Man coming and taking your art away from you. There are plenty of indie labels that have screwed bands - far more that I have known than the major labels! At least the major labels, it's a huge machine, an independent label will just screw you and keep your money and say they didn't sell anything. As far as the audience changing, my mom likes this band!

StevePerry: My grandparents like the music! I don't really at this point need to fit in with anybody or alienate anybody else. I don't have to make my mom upset right now. I'm past that, and I don't have to prove myself to anybody but myself. Although I don't know yet. We are just becoming popular right now. Check with me at the end of the year. I might regret doing the soundtracks. We're still doofuses, you know.

Universal: I'm going to let you go now Steve! Thanks a lot! We're at Universal Studios! We'll have to meet some time!

StevePerry: Alright buhbye!

Universal: That's going to wrap it up for another episode of The Backlot Cafe. Our thanks go out to Steve Perry of the Cherry Poppin' Daddies for taking the time to chat with us!