I first heard of The Get Up Kids back when I was working for a music television show. They sounded like they were some kind of inspirational band in the vein of Indomitable Spirit. But of course once you hear those power punk chords all that junk just falls right out of your head. Its been 8 years since the Kids first hit the scene and a lot of their contemporaries have lost their street cred. Bands like Weezer and Green Day just dont seem as cool now as they did back in the last millennium.
After the disappointing album, On A Wire, The Kids have now released their most polished and accomplished album, The Guilt Show. I suspect its supposed to make us all feel guilty for talking any smack about them. Guilt Show rocks your socks off. I got a chance to talk with Kids drummer Ryan Pope about cats, not getting married and his favorite Kansas SuicideGirl, Sarah.
Check out the official website for The Get Up Kids.
Daniel Robert Epstein: Did you just wake up?
Ryan Pope: Yeah I wake up about 10:30 then I just sit around for a while smoking cigarettes. Where are you?
DRE: Im in New York City but SuicideGirls is headquartered in Los Angeles.
RP: Yeah I thought so. I saw a special on HBO. I saw it a few times.
DRE: The girls are hot!
RP: Yeah theyre super hot.
DRE: Is that the kind of girls youre into?
RP: Definitely but I wouldnt say they were the only kind of girls Im into. I have friends who go that route. They are only into girls who are tattooed up, pierced and you never know whats going to happen with them. But there are definitely some hot young females on that site.
DRE: Well get you an account and you can mete it out to the other members of the band.
RP: Ill only give it to the married guys.
DRE: So are you married?
RP: I am definitely unmarried.
DRE: I thought everyone took time off a couple of years ago to go get married.
RP: Not me! Hell no!
DRE: Do you hang with the groupies?
RP: Weve actually hung out with some of the SuicideGirls but I wouldnt call them groupies. One of the girls, Sarah, is from Lawrence Kansas.
Ive played around and theres been some of that.
DRE: What does The Guilt Show mean? Is my mom going to be onstage?
RP: Yeah, it means youre mom knows you are looking at SuicideGirls. Busted!
The Guilt Show is something that just worked as a title. It started when we went to our studio, in the small town of Eudora Kansas, there is this sign that said The Eudora Quilt Show. It looked like it said Guilt Show and we liked it. Its not that great of a story. We like the story and we will have to make stuff up to make it more exciting.
DRE: Like what?
RP: I can make up something right now
DRE: Something about Jesus.
RP: Definitely something about Jesus. The record is about how were dying for the people of Eudoras sins because theyre so guilty from being in this cult of chicken and dog fucking. Were getting punished for their sodomistic acts.
DRE: So youve never been attracted to a chicken?
RP: Naw Ive never gone down on a chicken.
DRE: Not a live one.
RP: Yeah thats gross. Only when theyre dead.
DRE: Some people werent happy with The Get Up Kids last album.
RP: Some people werent happy at all! There were others that were happy though.
DRE: Did you guys do anything different for this album?
RP: We did a lot of things different. Not necessarily different in the way we were writing and playing songs but we did the record at home in our own studio which is way different. We did it with a guy named Ed Rose who is one of our best friends and he runs the studio. He was the first guy to ever record our band back in 1996.
DRE: Whats he bring to the table?
RP: Id say he brings knowing us each individually so he knows how to push us, like if we suck one day he will tell us so. Then he will help motivate us without having to be an asshole.
DRE: Sometimes producers can be assholes but thats not a bad thing.
RP: Not at all. It can be a very good thing in fact.
DRE: Did you guys have tough producers before this?
RP: Our last record, the one that not very many people liked, Im kidding, we worked with Scott Litt and he was the first producer we ever worked with. Hes a big producer thats worked with REM. He wasnt that tough. I would say Ed is the toughest producer weve ever had.
DRE: How did you feel about the previous album?
RP: I think its pretty good, I like it. We definitely worked hard on it. Looking back it sounds like what it was. It was us living in Bridgeport Connecticut for two months when it was freezing cold outside and were all held up in this house. We were all uncomfortable because it was the first time with a producer. We had a lot of songs that we threw away then we went to tour and we were a little lazier as far as the tour schedule. We had higher expectations than we were willing to work for which was our own learning process. This time were on the opposite end of that. We are going to go out and work really hard and not have any expectations.
DRE: What about the way it was marketed?
RP: There was a lot of stuff that fell through the cracks. There was no one person to say anything negative about. At that time our record label was in the process of being bought by Interscope. We basically rushed the album. We put it out two months after we got done making it so there was no real interviews before the album came out. We waited three years before we did another album which is way too long. Does all that help you out?
DRE: Does it help you out? They say confession is good for the soul.
RP: These are all things I know. Sometimes there will be times at band practice where we all have a heart to heart.
DRE: And a group hug.
RP: Yeah a big hug then we have arm wrestling matches then we have gay sex.
DRE: So what they say about the emo bands is true?
RP: Yeah it is. Those emo bands are all a little confused.
DRE: I saw that you guys use some drum machines on this new album. Thats new.
RP: Weve done it a little bit in the past and its minimal on this album too. Its more like drum programming. There is one song on the album that has a drum machine that goes through the whole song.
DRE: Did everyones side projects help out at all once you got back together?
RP: It was good because everyone came back with a clear head. It kept everyone doing music. I toured with Reggie and The Full Effect then before that I was in the studio with Matt and Rob and we did The New Amsterdams record. Matt pretty much toured with that by himself.
DRE: Did it change The Get Up Kids music at all?
RP: No I dont think so. With Matt he just writes songs like no ones business. He just wanted to do songs he wanted to do with The Get Up Kids.
DRE: A critic said The Get Up Kids has a great ability to make somewhat depressing lyrics seem upbeat and fun.
RP: Thats very true. Its funny because the lyrics on The Guilt Show are kind of dark. But if you put it into a pop song then it can sound happy.
DRE: When Matt writes these songs do you ask him why he is so unhappy?
RP: We always give him a hard time but he is able to make it relate to all of us. He doesnt necessarily like to write songs from his point of view because hes married with a kid and other peoples stories can be a lot more interesting than his.
DRE: So he becomes somebody else.
RP: Well he listens to other peoples stories then goes from there.
DRE: Does he hang out at bars and listen to some drunk guy spill his guts?
RP: No were the drunk guys.
DRE: Towards the end of this album there is a few slower songs, not ballads though.
RP: Yeah we made a conscious effort to put no ballads on this. The last few songs are less upbeat.
DRE: Why is that?
RP: Those last two songs on the album are the two songs we worked the hardest on. We spent the most time on them and we were really excited about them. They are on the dark side of things but we had to get them on the album. We sat down and listened to the record in so many different track listing orders to see how it played together and finally we made the decision to put them in that order. I think it leaves you content.
DRE: What was it like posting some of that behind the scenes footage on the website?
RP: We want to do that every week. We are going to continue to put that stuff up. We are going to have secret portions of the site with wacky crazy stuff up there.
DRE: Why put it on the web instead of releasing a DVD?
RP: Were trying to get a little more involved with our fans. Being more tangible to fans so they can actually get to know us a little better. We dont want to just take their money and say, fuck you. Not that weve ever had that image. Radiohead is constantly putting stuff on the website and its fun.
DRE: How did you all first get together?
RP: Well my brother and I got together from my mother.
DRE: But youre not twins?
RP: No but I do have a twin sister.
DRE: What does she do?
RP: She lives in Portland Oregon married and with a good job. shes hoping to have a baby soon. Thats what she does.
DRE: Is she jealous of you two?
RP: I wouldnt say jealous. I would say she is more intrigued and excited by us because we get to travel all over the world. Most of my family has never left the United States or even been to New York City.
DRE: Do you look exactly alike?
RP: No.
DRE: Can you read each others thoughts?
RP: No but I do with my brother.
DRE: Whos older?
RP: He is by one year and two days.
DRE: Does he think hes all that?
RP: Maybe when we were younger but were tight now.
DRE: I read that a few years ago when you guys were put on the same bill as Kittie and Nickelback in Boston, people flipped out.
RP: We definitely got some shit thrown at us because we played after Nickelback. The best thing about this story is that I had never heard of Nickelback. They walk offstage and we were hanging out with Kittie. Nickelback yell at each other Did you rock? I totally rocked. Then they bumped chests like after a big football game. That made the show all worthwhile. It was one of those things where we thought it would help but I dont really care.
DRE: I heard that the bands favorite place to go is Japan.
RP: Definitely we love Japan.
DRE: Whats special about Japan?
RP: The way the shows are run, the extreme environment because its like a different and we always get treated well. We played a festival there and it was so much fun.
DRE: Do you have any pets?
RP: I have a cat.
DRE: Whats his name?
RP: Otis. Ive had him for about a year.
DRE: Do The Get Up Kids do drugs?
RP: We drink and weve experimented with illegal drugs.
DRE: Whats your favorite alcohol?
RP: Lately Ive been drinking White Russians.
DRE: Like The Dude?
RP: The Dude. But Id say Jack Daniels is the official drink of The Get Up Kids.
DRE: Whats coming up next?
RP: The tour just started. Were doing a quick US tour then were hoping to go over to England then Japan!
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
After the disappointing album, On A Wire, The Kids have now released their most polished and accomplished album, The Guilt Show. I suspect its supposed to make us all feel guilty for talking any smack about them. Guilt Show rocks your socks off. I got a chance to talk with Kids drummer Ryan Pope about cats, not getting married and his favorite Kansas SuicideGirl, Sarah.
Check out the official website for The Get Up Kids.
Daniel Robert Epstein: Did you just wake up?
Ryan Pope: Yeah I wake up about 10:30 then I just sit around for a while smoking cigarettes. Where are you?
DRE: Im in New York City but SuicideGirls is headquartered in Los Angeles.
RP: Yeah I thought so. I saw a special on HBO. I saw it a few times.
DRE: The girls are hot!
RP: Yeah theyre super hot.
DRE: Is that the kind of girls youre into?
RP: Definitely but I wouldnt say they were the only kind of girls Im into. I have friends who go that route. They are only into girls who are tattooed up, pierced and you never know whats going to happen with them. But there are definitely some hot young females on that site.
DRE: Well get you an account and you can mete it out to the other members of the band.
RP: Ill only give it to the married guys.
DRE: So are you married?
RP: I am definitely unmarried.
DRE: I thought everyone took time off a couple of years ago to go get married.
RP: Not me! Hell no!
DRE: Do you hang with the groupies?
RP: Weve actually hung out with some of the SuicideGirls but I wouldnt call them groupies. One of the girls, Sarah, is from Lawrence Kansas.
Ive played around and theres been some of that.
DRE: What does The Guilt Show mean? Is my mom going to be onstage?
RP: Yeah, it means youre mom knows you are looking at SuicideGirls. Busted!
The Guilt Show is something that just worked as a title. It started when we went to our studio, in the small town of Eudora Kansas, there is this sign that said The Eudora Quilt Show. It looked like it said Guilt Show and we liked it. Its not that great of a story. We like the story and we will have to make stuff up to make it more exciting.
DRE: Like what?
RP: I can make up something right now
DRE: Something about Jesus.
RP: Definitely something about Jesus. The record is about how were dying for the people of Eudoras sins because theyre so guilty from being in this cult of chicken and dog fucking. Were getting punished for their sodomistic acts.
DRE: So youve never been attracted to a chicken?
RP: Naw Ive never gone down on a chicken.
DRE: Not a live one.
RP: Yeah thats gross. Only when theyre dead.
DRE: Some people werent happy with The Get Up Kids last album.
RP: Some people werent happy at all! There were others that were happy though.
DRE: Did you guys do anything different for this album?
RP: We did a lot of things different. Not necessarily different in the way we were writing and playing songs but we did the record at home in our own studio which is way different. We did it with a guy named Ed Rose who is one of our best friends and he runs the studio. He was the first guy to ever record our band back in 1996.
DRE: Whats he bring to the table?
RP: Id say he brings knowing us each individually so he knows how to push us, like if we suck one day he will tell us so. Then he will help motivate us without having to be an asshole.
DRE: Sometimes producers can be assholes but thats not a bad thing.
RP: Not at all. It can be a very good thing in fact.
DRE: Did you guys have tough producers before this?
RP: Our last record, the one that not very many people liked, Im kidding, we worked with Scott Litt and he was the first producer we ever worked with. Hes a big producer thats worked with REM. He wasnt that tough. I would say Ed is the toughest producer weve ever had.
DRE: How did you feel about the previous album?
RP: I think its pretty good, I like it. We definitely worked hard on it. Looking back it sounds like what it was. It was us living in Bridgeport Connecticut for two months when it was freezing cold outside and were all held up in this house. We were all uncomfortable because it was the first time with a producer. We had a lot of songs that we threw away then we went to tour and we were a little lazier as far as the tour schedule. We had higher expectations than we were willing to work for which was our own learning process. This time were on the opposite end of that. We are going to go out and work really hard and not have any expectations.
DRE: What about the way it was marketed?
RP: There was a lot of stuff that fell through the cracks. There was no one person to say anything negative about. At that time our record label was in the process of being bought by Interscope. We basically rushed the album. We put it out two months after we got done making it so there was no real interviews before the album came out. We waited three years before we did another album which is way too long. Does all that help you out?
DRE: Does it help you out? They say confession is good for the soul.
RP: These are all things I know. Sometimes there will be times at band practice where we all have a heart to heart.
DRE: And a group hug.
RP: Yeah a big hug then we have arm wrestling matches then we have gay sex.
DRE: So what they say about the emo bands is true?
RP: Yeah it is. Those emo bands are all a little confused.
DRE: I saw that you guys use some drum machines on this new album. Thats new.
RP: Weve done it a little bit in the past and its minimal on this album too. Its more like drum programming. There is one song on the album that has a drum machine that goes through the whole song.
DRE: Did everyones side projects help out at all once you got back together?
RP: It was good because everyone came back with a clear head. It kept everyone doing music. I toured with Reggie and The Full Effect then before that I was in the studio with Matt and Rob and we did The New Amsterdams record. Matt pretty much toured with that by himself.
DRE: Did it change The Get Up Kids music at all?
RP: No I dont think so. With Matt he just writes songs like no ones business. He just wanted to do songs he wanted to do with The Get Up Kids.
DRE: A critic said The Get Up Kids has a great ability to make somewhat depressing lyrics seem upbeat and fun.
RP: Thats very true. Its funny because the lyrics on The Guilt Show are kind of dark. But if you put it into a pop song then it can sound happy.
DRE: When Matt writes these songs do you ask him why he is so unhappy?
RP: We always give him a hard time but he is able to make it relate to all of us. He doesnt necessarily like to write songs from his point of view because hes married with a kid and other peoples stories can be a lot more interesting than his.
DRE: So he becomes somebody else.
RP: Well he listens to other peoples stories then goes from there.
DRE: Does he hang out at bars and listen to some drunk guy spill his guts?
RP: No were the drunk guys.
DRE: Towards the end of this album there is a few slower songs, not ballads though.
RP: Yeah we made a conscious effort to put no ballads on this. The last few songs are less upbeat.
DRE: Why is that?
RP: Those last two songs on the album are the two songs we worked the hardest on. We spent the most time on them and we were really excited about them. They are on the dark side of things but we had to get them on the album. We sat down and listened to the record in so many different track listing orders to see how it played together and finally we made the decision to put them in that order. I think it leaves you content.
DRE: What was it like posting some of that behind the scenes footage on the website?
RP: We want to do that every week. We are going to continue to put that stuff up. We are going to have secret portions of the site with wacky crazy stuff up there.
DRE: Why put it on the web instead of releasing a DVD?
RP: Were trying to get a little more involved with our fans. Being more tangible to fans so they can actually get to know us a little better. We dont want to just take their money and say, fuck you. Not that weve ever had that image. Radiohead is constantly putting stuff on the website and its fun.
DRE: How did you all first get together?
RP: Well my brother and I got together from my mother.
DRE: But youre not twins?
RP: No but I do have a twin sister.
DRE: What does she do?
RP: She lives in Portland Oregon married and with a good job. shes hoping to have a baby soon. Thats what she does.
DRE: Is she jealous of you two?
RP: I wouldnt say jealous. I would say she is more intrigued and excited by us because we get to travel all over the world. Most of my family has never left the United States or even been to New York City.
DRE: Do you look exactly alike?
RP: No.
DRE: Can you read each others thoughts?
RP: No but I do with my brother.
DRE: Whos older?
RP: He is by one year and two days.
DRE: Does he think hes all that?
RP: Maybe when we were younger but were tight now.
DRE: I read that a few years ago when you guys were put on the same bill as Kittie and Nickelback in Boston, people flipped out.
RP: We definitely got some shit thrown at us because we played after Nickelback. The best thing about this story is that I had never heard of Nickelback. They walk offstage and we were hanging out with Kittie. Nickelback yell at each other Did you rock? I totally rocked. Then they bumped chests like after a big football game. That made the show all worthwhile. It was one of those things where we thought it would help but I dont really care.
DRE: I heard that the bands favorite place to go is Japan.
RP: Definitely we love Japan.
DRE: Whats special about Japan?
RP: The way the shows are run, the extreme environment because its like a different and we always get treated well. We played a festival there and it was so much fun.
DRE: Do you have any pets?
RP: I have a cat.
DRE: Whats his name?
RP: Otis. Ive had him for about a year.
DRE: Do The Get Up Kids do drugs?
RP: We drink and weve experimented with illegal drugs.
DRE: Whats your favorite alcohol?
RP: Lately Ive been drinking White Russians.
DRE: Like The Dude?
RP: The Dude. But Id say Jack Daniels is the official drink of The Get Up Kids.
DRE: Whats coming up next?
RP: The tour just started. Were doing a quick US tour then were hoping to go over to England then Japan!
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 10 of 10 COMMENTS
that just means i will end up loving it.