An Interview with the Great Mind Behind Reggie and the Full Effect

Rasputin's was lucky enough to have the amazing indie rock band Reggie and the Full Effect come visit us and play a few songs recently in promotion of the new album Under the Tray". After the show and the two hour long signing event (during which every fan got a chance to chat and receive gifts) we sent our biggest Reggie fan, Goatboyy, in with a few questions for the man of the hour. Here is what we found out about the new album, girls, and genies.

Goatboyy: Vampire vs. Werewolf-all out death match-who wins and why?

Reggie: Vampire because they are immortal and the werewolf isn't going to figure out how to kill him. He is just going to be clawing at him like a little cat when they get pissed and barking and stuff. And the vampire's going to be like "I'm a vampire." And the vampire would win.

GB: Tell me about the album. What's with the name?

R: It's one of those things to trick people. There are those kids out there that will be like "Dude! There's no CD in here," and bring it back to the counter. You guys will have be all "Look Beavis flip the tray over." Then they will feel all dumb.

GB: I heard a rumor it was only going to be released on cassette…?

R: That's a whole thing called "Cassette Only" that is seven different songs of like bootlegs and stuff that will only be on tape.

GB: When is that being released?

R: As soon as I get around to doing it. I have been so busy that I haven't had time to do it. I have all the songs done but I am going to make each copy of it by myself.

GB: So how did you hook up with the Common Denominators?

R: Ha Ha, um I was in my car one day and they just got a hold of me.

GB: So, do you find it as ironic as I do that I have a "promotional copy" of Under the Tray?

R: Yeah, and if you look at them then Under the Tray looks like Promotional Copy, but promotional copies of Under the Tray don't look like Promotional Copy. So, if you think about it too hard it's just going to end up confusing you, but that's the point.

GB: If you could have sex with any comic book character who would it be and why?

R: The girl that's on…um…what's that show? They made a show out of her. Oh yeah, Huntress. She's dope on the show; she's so pretty. When they show her commercial and she's like lying on the floor in a puddle, I'm just like YEAH!

GB: I have noticed a death metal influence on your music. Do you really enjoy death metal?

R: Yeah. I love death metal. I play in Coalesce so, I play in drums in kind of a hard core-ish metal band. I like all kinds of music, so if I can combine it all into a pop song than I am going to.

GB: Three wishes from a genie, and you can't wish for more wishes.

R: Who would wish for more wishes? That's so, like, '95 to wish for more wishes. All right. I want Carmen Electra's band to perform at my house everyday until she starts looking old and stuff. And I want a trampoline. And I want a big group of swimming pools and one is full of jelly beans and one is full of skittles, and one is full of Jell-O, and one is full of fudge. Just big groups of kiddy pools that you could lay in and if you want to you could just start eating at any time.

GB: You wouldn't set the genie free with your third wish?

R: No. Somebody else has to get wishes after I am done. And the genie probably wouldn't feel very fulfilled, he would probably be like, "those wishes sucked ass."

GB: Sorry about the drunken people at the Get up Kids shows.

R: Usually it is members of the Get up Kids, too. The girl in the song is actually Andy Jackson, from Hot Rod Circuit's, wife. She was at the show and she was amazing, her name is Amy and she was great. I have like an hour and half of her just telling me stories. Her accent is just perfect. And she just kept getting drunk and more drunk and just when you thought she was going to pass out, she was like, "Oh yeah, I got one more story for you." And that would be another 45-minute story. But she is great. The guy from the first record I met when I was selling merchandise for Get up Kids. Matt was on stage and said "Hi James" form up there, and this guy standing in front of me assumed that he was talking to him, because his name was James too. He was telling us all about how like his son and stuff. We were all just like, "whoa, you need to slow down, dude." He's not allowed to drink at the bar, so he had a bottle of Jack Daniel's and a syringe. I don't believe him, but he said he would go in the bathroom and mainline Jack Daniel's. That's got to be not good for you.

GB: So what do you think of emo in the mainstream?

R: I don't know. Um, it's kind of funny because hard core kids made up the name to make fun of all those kids and now its like "I'm emo! Kiss me I'm emo! I'm so emo! Emo emo emo emo." Now all the old school hard core kids are like, "God, this is fucking pathetic." All the new school hard core kids are like, "My girlfriend is emo, but I am hard core." There is nothing wrong with it, its just another classification. Alternative music was like Sonic Youth, then it became popular music, but they still called it alternative. I mean Sepultura is an emo band, because he sings about the government and how much it pisses him off. And being pissed off is an emotion so it like, "if Sepultura is emo, than so is James."

GB: So, keeping on the emo lines, how many times a week do you cry?

R: When I am out of cigarettes, when I don't have any money, when the gas bill people send me something saying this is your final notice and its cold. Actually, I don't really cry about that though, it's more like I get pissed. And write fucking emo songs about it, (singing) "fuck the Gas Company, fuck em. It's so fucking cold in my house, cold like the Gas Company's heart"

GB: Have you played the emo game at emogame.com?

R: Yeah, I was pissed, I was like how come Reggie's not a character?

GB: But you do fight the dwarf invasion.

R: Yeah, but still Reggie is not a character.

GB: Emo game 2 is coming out.

R: Well there you go. There better fucking be a Reggie in that game if that kid is smart and knows what is good for him. I'll make an emo game of emo game. The kid who designed emo game will be in it while Reggie is spanking his ass with a pin pong paddle.

GB: You don't seem to be afraid to tackle tough issues like love and food…

R: Well, if you don't eat food then you are going to die. So it is a really relative topic to everybody. And if you think you can't identify with the food songs you're fucking dumb because your stomach can identify.

GB: There are lots of spelling and grammar references on the new album, do you find it as educational as it is rocking?

R: Yeah, well, the educational side of it just comes from how dumb it is. I am turning a rhyme my mom taught me about Lincoln birds into a song. It impressed the shit out of my mom, and I am sure that if I played it for my language art teacher from high school she would be impressed too. But, its just something I am trying to do, its not like there are death metal bands from Finland teaching you about Lincoln birds.

GB: Favorite breakfast food?

R: Hash brown at Waffle House that are smothered, covered, diced, chopped and sliced. Topped with chili, ham, onions, and cheese. There's a bunch of good stuff on there.

GB: My roommate made me write this one down. Will you give my roommate a ride to Santa Cruz?

R: We aren't going to Santa Cruz. Halmar is playing there, though; maybe Halmar could give him a ride.

GB: Thanks anyway, so, how many days do you wait to call a girl after you get her phone number? Or better yet, after you did it with her.

R: Are you on tour?

GB: It's your question.

R: If you are on tour then you can do it the next day because you aren't in the same city anymore. Depends on if you like her though too, if its one of those "oops" things then how come she isn't calling you?

GB: I personally think that 5 days is kind of perfect.

R: Five days is good because you know you have given them all the time to be like, "He's a dick, but he is a cute dick. What an asshole but if he calls me I bet I'll forgive him." Then you can call and be like, "I am being cute now. Aw, baby you don't know, my phone got broken and I had to go buy I new one and I was at Sprint and they were programming all the numbers and this guy came in and robbed it. You know I have had a rough day, so just don't give me that lip, woman." Or you could just call her the next day and tell her that you think she's cool and hope that she doesn't think you are over reacting and calling too soon. Make sure she knows you're not a freak.

GB: My last question may be more of one for God than you, but I'll give it a shot. Why does bad stuff happen to good people?

R: I think its just what happens to everybody, but people who are bad all the time just don't care because they are used to it. They just decided when they were young, like fuck it, they were going to be bad. And people who are good just need to know that bad shit happens to everybody. Seriously, people who are bad all the time are just like, whatever about it. "What my mom just died? Well I am going to go kill four moms! My mom dying sucked but not as much as it is going to suck for those other four moms!" That's just my logic behind it. Don't go out and kill moms, though, cause that would blow ass.

GB: Is there anything else I missed? This is my first interview.

R: No, it was a very good interview. What did you think about your first interview?

GB: It was a lot of fun. I was a little bit nervous, but I had a solid list of questions.

R: Do you find that writing your questions down helped you to remember them when you were asking them?

GB: It did, that and the reading part were really helpful.

R: So then you are relaying it back to the fact that you learned to read at an early age.

GB: Its important.

R: Like food?

GB: Like food.

R: See it all goes back to grammar and food. It's all there, I'm on to something. Cool.