...Now let's sit down with Justin and Kyle Bawinkel, drums and bass respectively, of this ass-kicking, beer-drinking band.

Warped Touring...in a Van!

33: Is this your first year on the Warped Tour?
Kyle Bawinkel: Ah, yes.  This is our first.

33: Any expectations coming in?
KB: Expectations of the Warped Tour?  Everyone says it's a tough tour to do if you're in a van.  It's rough to do it that way but it's been a blast.

33: You guys are in a van?  That's hardcore touring.
Justin Bawinkel: Yeah.  Save money, and do what you can.

33: So far this year what is the craziest experience you've had?
KB: Well...a few nights ago we played in Jersey, and they have this Barbeque every night for the bands.
JB: Yeah, it's like a big party, and they asked us to play it for all the crew and stuff like that.  They don't get to see shows and stuff all day.  We started, and like typical backyard punk shows the cops came and shut us down.  Literally pulled the plug.  It wasn't really that crazy but it's a good story.  Cops shut us down.  It was perfect.  Perfect punk rock end to a night.

33: So while you're here are there any bands you're trying to check out when you got a free moment?
KB: There's a whole lot of bands.  There's Riverboat Gamblers, AM Taxi, Andrew W.K., the guys in Set Your Goals...there's a lot of bands out there we're trying to check out.  Far From Finished, the Mighty Regis...there's so many bands.  We all want to see so many bands we end up running ourselves into the ground every day.

33: Any bands you've already caught so far that you would suggest?
JB: All those bands, they're great.  AM Taxi is a fellow band from Chicago and they're awesome.  Like definitely kind of a rock and roll with definitely a punk flare.  Great song writing and really awesome rhythms and melodies.
KB: Yeah, I think that's basically it.  We caught Reverend Peyton and His Big Damn Band.  It's really good.  It's really fun. 

33: How did you guys get your start?  How did this all come to be?
KB: Basically our older brother Toby was like, “Hey, I want to start a band.”  And me and Justin were pretty young at the time, and he was our brother.  We're like, “Alright let's do it!”  So we just started playing music, we played one show, and then later on one of our buddies played bagpipes for our junior high basketball team so we were like, “Let's try bagpipes out and see how that works.”  Turned out it worked pretty well, and we had a lot of fun with it, so we played the next Saint Patty's day in 2001 at this Mexican mariachi bar on the southside.

33: Have you guys always had that Celtic kind of punk sound?
KB: Yeah.  We were a little bit softer back then but was definitely with a punk rock flare.

33: You guys started in like 2000?
KB: 2000 yeah, late 2000 is when we first started.

33: Any influence from Celtic punk rock bands like Dropkick Murphy's...
KB: Yeah, a little bit.  It's kind of weird how Dropkick came into it because we didn't even know anything about them and think we figured out about them in 2003.
JB: Yeah.
KB: And we heard about them...
JB:  Everyone was like, “You got bagpipes, you're like Dropkick Murphy's.”  We were like, “Who?”
KB: So instantly from there we knew we had to check 'em out.  We were like, “Alright.  They got pipes.  Let's figure out what they're doing.”  I guess you could maybe call it an influence.  But we never really listened to them that much.  We've still never got into them that much.  We saw them once.
JB: They're a great band.
KB: They're a great band, but I think we've been trying to stay away from it just because they have pipes and...
JB: We didn't want to take any, you know like...

33: Accidental influence...
KB: Yeah.
JB: Which in the genre it's so specific already that a lot of people are like, “Ah, you guys sound like Dropkick Murphy's.”  And we're like, “Well, we try not to.”  We listen to a lot of hardcore punk bandsm, too, so we have a lot of punk influences.

33: Any earlier Irish influences like the Pogues, the Dubliners...
KB: Of course.  Actually it started with the Clancy Brothers.  I'm trying to remember but the Clancy Brothers I'm pretty sure was at a thrift store, and we heard some good things about them through folk music, through our parents, we got the vinyl of it.  We always had a record player at our house.  We really loved the Clancy Brothers.  We got more into the Dubliners after that.  Then there was the Wolfe Tones, the Chieftains...and then one of my buddies was a skinhead kid, really into punk and Oi! music...a really good kid, burnt me the best of the Pogues.  Ever since then I had every single record.

33: So over the last few years you've had to have noticed the growing popularity of Celtic punk, almost a “world punk” sound that's come about.  You've got bands like Dropkick Murphy's, Flogging Molly, and then you've got more world punk sounds like Gogol Bordello...what's your take on that and the general acceptance of the whole “world music meets punk” sound.
KB: I think it's helped.  It's cool that bands are taking different spins on everything, and I think it kind of broadens the horizon.  For punk music I think it's great because punk music has kind of been stuck in this hole and not adding anything else to it.  It's like you have to dress the part to like punk rock music and that's not the case at all.  It's nice that it kind of broadens it out to everyone and everyone doesn't have to be a “punk person” just to like the music.  If you like it, you like it and if you want to go to a show, go to a show.

33: So you guys recently switched labels for your new album?
JB: Yeah.  We released our new album on Old Shoe Records.  We were off of our old label, we didn't switch, we weren't on a label.  We put out Knuckles Up and Jungle of the Midwest Sea on a Sony sub-label that has now folded, and when they folded they let us go from our contract, and then we spent about a year apart from anybody.  Then we recorded a new album and shopped it around to a few labels and Old Shoe jumped on it.  They're great guys, they put out Black Thorn in March and it's been doing great.  Really happy with them.

33: Tell us a little more about the album.
KB: It's definitely a more mature songwriting style than the other two albums that we put out.  It's a lot of lyrical content taken from stuff in our lives.  We're just growing up, you know?  We been doing this band since we were really young so you can almost tell our age by each record we put out.  Life experiences that have happened.  Two of us are married now, and the rest of the guys are growing up.  When stuff like that happens it's definitely going to influence the music.  It's matured a lot.  It's a very diverse album. There's even like a ballad on there, like a love song, which is the first we've ever written.  Also a lot of songs about hardships and life's trials and working through them.  Definitely an album that's all about encouraging people to hang in there.

33: What about your plans after Warped Tour?
JB: Plans are after Warped Tour in Kansas City we're actually touring back to the Northeast for a festival we're playing.  Then we're touring back home, then we'll be home for a couple days, and then out to Europe for a week, playing some festivals out there and then come home for a couple weeks.  In the fall we do a big tour with a band called the Street Dogs from Boston.  We're doing two months with them...

33: Didn't one of the guys from the Street Dogs produce your last album?
JB: Yeah, Johnny Rioux produced our album.
KB: Awesome guy.
JB: Yeah, awesome guy.  He did our Black Thorn album.
KB: And in that tour of the Street Dogs Matt Friedman's psychobilly band will be out with us.
JB: Sick of It All will do like a week with us.  And then the Continentals which is the original guitar player from Dropkick's [band].  He's gonna be out with us as well.  And then various other bands are jumping on and off. 

33: The Northeast, so, are you guys gonna be around here anytime soon?
JB: Street Dogs will probably be the next one we come over with.  We usually hit Virginia Beach.  We played the Jewish Mother last time.

These cats really deserve a little more notice.  If you like Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphy's, and the Real McKenzies, you gotta check these guys out!

Flatfoot56.com

By Director, Genre Lead, and Editor: Andrew Wolfe

The Wolfe was born to a small litter in the mountains of West Virginia and transplanted to suburban Virginia Beach in the iconic year of 1984.  Left to the public school system, he soon became immersed in the varied subcultures of suburbia. Quickly he became a connoisseur of the rich substrata of disaffected youth in post-Reagan America.  Having to leave corporate tool-hood behind, the Wolfe prowls the silent alleyways in search of the next great spark of local music - the incendiary device that will reignite creativity in a music world gone wrong (apparently in the throes of Bieber Fever).

And other fun facts ...

Age: 33
Place of Birth: Parkersburg, West Virginia
Gender: Raoul Duke
Religion: Gonzo
Likes: Good music.  Drinking.  Smoking.
Dislikes: Ignorance.  People who take themselves too seriously.  People who say "I just wanted to touch bases with you."  It's "base" asshole, not a baseball reference.