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You may remember Bowling For Soup as the cheery chappies singing about the Girl All The Bad Guys want a couple of summers ago, or the fat guys in the bad outfits reminiscing about 1985. Now they're back with a new album packed with the same infectious, incessantly chirpy tunes which first made them famous.
Rebecca Moore sits down with vocalist Jaret Reddick to chat about dodgy burritos, the upcoming UK tour and the end of Bowling For Soup?
Your new album, The Great Burrito Extortion Case, is named after a news story about a lady fraudulently claiming to have found a mouse in her burrito from Taco Bell. Have you ever found anything dodgy in your food?
One time I was having a Taco Bell, and I actually found an ant, one of those big red ones, in my burrito but I just tossed it off to the side and ate it anyway. It was good, I was really hungry. It was in college so I didn?t have a lot of money, I couldn't afford to throw anything away. I thought about it for a second and decided that nourishment was more important.
What's the reaction to the new CD been like?
It's been amazing. It's been pretty overwhelming actually. Very, very positive; there's a lot of support out there. It's been great.
The new CD contains a lot of celebrity references, who's the coolest celebrity you've met?
I met Gene Simmons back in the day, wearing full make up. I hung out with Keifer Sutherland one time on the 4th of July and watched the fireworks; that was awesome. He was really hammered. I really haven't met anyone who wasn't a nice person.
Do you ever get star struck?
I used to get star struck a lot but that kinda wore off. A lot of people know who I am, or sometimes we introduce ourselves, but usually someone else will introduce you. If you're at a party with somebody else from TV or something like that, someone will come over and say "hey, do you know this guy?"
So it's never awkward?
It's awkward sometimes because you'll be in a room with someone and they know who you are and you know who they are but there's no cool way to break the ice. Those moments can get very awkward but you just have to power through them. I think the best thing to do in those situations is not say anything at all.
Who would play you in a movie about your life? Would it be anyone mentioned in the song 'Val Kilmer?'
I would pick Steve Zahn because he looks exactly like me. He was in Saving Silverman and That Thing You do.
Would you ever consider making a movie?
That's something we think about doing all the time. We've always thought about a Bowling for Soup movie; whether it's an actual movie based on our real lives or whether it's a feature film and actually stars us, but we talk about it a lot actually.
There's five or 6 different things that we've talked about doing, it's too premature to tell. We've talked about doing the band's life story from childhood on, but we've also talked about doing something like The Beatles movies where we're just in situations by ourselves. It's kind of hard because the whole Hollywood thing moves so slowly. You can talk about things for years and years and years and then all of a sudden somebody wants to do something. We keep waiting to meet the right people and have the right idea and then we'll probably pull the trigger and do it.
You're 34 years old now. Why are you still singing about high school on the new record?
I don't really reference high school a lot, but there is a song called High School Never Ends. I talk about being a kid a lot and teenage stuff for a couple of reasons. Your teenage years and your high school years really do a lot to shape who you're going to be and the kind of person you're going to be and the second thing is, that's who's listening to our music, that's who relates to it. I'm writing songs I feel like people want to hear.
On the new CD, album track 'I'm Gay' seems to be a tongue in cheek swipe at the clich antihero and the emo culture with Bowling For Soup being the antithesis of that. Are you singing about any band in particular?
No, it's more about how nobody gets in a band because they want to feel sorry for themselves or to talk shit about politics or whatever. We all get in bands because it's fun. And that's pretty much what the song's about. What we're saying is; we haven't really changed.
Bowling For Soup are always such a jolly band. What pisses you off?
Not a lot. I can pretty much let anything go and chalk it up to experience. I'm just a happy person and I try to find the best in every situation and the best in every person that I meet, as cliche as that sounds, that's just who I am.
Your about to embark on your umpteenth tour of the UK. What are the best and worst bits about coming to Britain?
The best part obviously is the shows and the fans are the most amazing music fans on the planet, from their loyalty to their energy, just everything. The UK's a great place to go and play rock n roll concerts, you know?
The worst thing is being that far away from home and the luxuries we're used to: the places we like to eat and things like that. It's just a completely different world.
What are your must have items on tour?
My laptop computer, it's like my heart! I think I would die if I didn't have it. Also: DVDs, my friends and beer!
Ahh, us Brits do have a penchant for beer. Do you ever get into drinking contests with people here?
We're not really a drinking contest organisation. We drink for the social aspect of it, less for the accomplishing aspect. If we throw up on our shoes we want to earn it
Are all Americans actually lightweights?
That's funny you know, we generally have that reputation. But I think if you talk to any British band that's toured with us, and/or any British people that know us; you'd probably find that's not true for Bowling for Soup. We can definitely hold our own. We do very very well in that department. In the States we drink a lot of Miller Light but over in the UK we drink vodka.
What are your plans for after the UK tour?
After the UK tour we'll come back home for a little bit. We've got a few sporadic shows before we go to Japan and Australia, and then after we do Japan and Australia we will come back to the States do some stuff in the spring, spend the summer months in the US and then we'll be back over in the UK in October. We're going to keep ourselves pretty busy.
How hard is it balancing such a packed schedule with family life?
Very, and that's the reason you have to come home. We're not young kids anymore who can stay gone for a year. So when we go out on tour we go for a month or so, and then come home for a few weeks and see our families. Family is the number one priority.
Are there times where you'd rather stay at home with the family than go on tour?
Not yet, but I can definitely feel myself getting to that point. I?m 34 years old and I have two kids and we've been doing this for a really long time. I can definitely see getting to that point, but I'm not there yet.
Would getting to that point mean the end of the band?
We talk about that a lot. I don?t know, I can never see Bowling For Soup not existing. I have other stuff that I want to do and I know the other guys do too. I think we'd still put out records and we'd still tour it'd just be more of a sporadic thing and more of a core fan base thing. I still think that's still several years down the road. I think that right now we're focusing on the new record, and we know that in a year and a half or so, we're going to put out another record. We've got plenty of time to think about what we're going to do after the band.
What would you still like to achieve with Bowling For Soup?
Honestly? We've already achieved way more than we ever thought possible. Literally more things have happened and more dreams have come true over the course of the years we've been together than we thought possible. So in all honesty, everything we're seeing and everything that's happening to us now is all just icing on the cake. We still can't believe we make a living playing rock n roll.
Lastly, who are your top tips for 2007?
Oh. Here's the problem with me, I'm completely musically illiterate now because I'm so freaking busy doing what I do. I don't know any bands. I find out about bands the same way anybody else does; someone sends me a link, or I see something on TV. I don't have any predictions. Actually, you know who's going to be big in 2007 don't you? That Bowling For Soup. They're going to be fricking huge. They're going to be enormous!
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