Reel Big Fish: Interview

Formed in 1991, Reel Big Fish are renowned for their sarcastic lyrics, wacky outfits and let’s not forget skanking. The band are currently in the UK on a joint headline tour with fellow ska punk band Less Than Jake with support from Zebrahead.

Fans were left shocked in October 2013 when long time trombone player Dan Regan left the band in order to spend more time with his wife and children. After 23 years in the ska music scene, frontman Aaron Barrett remains the only founding member.

I joined Barrett and trombonist Billy Kottage for twenty minutes prior to their gig at the Manchester Academy. There, we covered a range of topics including songwriting, tour life and crazy fans.

How do you go about writing music and who generally takes the lead when it comes to writing new material?

Aaron Barrett: I started the band, so I’ve always written the songs, at least 90% of them. Sometimes I’ll be stuck on a horn line or something, or some other part. I guess I bring in the skeleton of the song to the band and say, “Hey, this is the idea, do your thing.” I don’t just sit down and write songs, I just come up with ideas. They pop into my head, a little tune, some words here and there, and then I just wait to put it together as a whole song. I don’t sit down and noodle on guitar if anything. It’s all in my head; I’m always in my own head.

Despite line-up changes, RBF has been going as a band since 1991. In your experience how much has the industry changed over time?

Aaron Barrett: Oh my God, I compare the way things have changed in the last twenty years to how it must have been when cars were invented. People were riding around in horse and carriages, and then suddenly there were cars.

Billy Kottage: Then there was the internet.

Aaron Barrett: We had radio, recorded music, aeroplanes and spaceships too. I know that it was over a long period of time, all those things I just mentioned. The internet coming along was that important and life-changing for everyone I think. Being there before and after in the music industry and watching the internet just turn everything upside down, that’s crazy.

How did you manage to promote all your work before the internet?

Aaron Barrett: I can’t imagine. We used to have a physical mailing list that we would have at the shows and people would write down their home addresses. I would go to the copy store and make a bunch of little flyers, lick the stamps and write the addresses out because I didn’t have a printer. I would then drive to all the record stores and put flyers in there for the shows. Now it’s just like, Facebook post, we’re playing.
How are things with you Billy, you’ve only been playing with RBF since October haven’t you?

Billy Kottage: Yeah, October-ish.

Aaron Barrett: He has been playing with the band since last January because he’s been playing with one of the bands that have been touring with us.

Billy Kottage: I had been joining them on stage for a year. It has been good. I was with the band Big D for warped tour. When Dan had his baby, I did the first three or four shows just covering for him and doing things for him here and there.

You guys are well known for your cover songs. How do you go about translating a pop song into a ska punk song? How long does the process usually take?

Aaron Barrett: I don’t know, it just kind of makes sense in my head. It’s easy to make any song a ska punk song, for me anyway. That’s my one talent, my gift.

What’s your favourite cover song that you have done? 

Aaron Barrett: We’ve done some really weird ones. We’ve done a few cover songs. I think my favourite is the Oingo Boingo cover, ‘We Close Our Eyes.’ It has a mash up, a dub sounding piece of shit with all these weird noises and stuff in it. It’s awesome. Then we did a cover of a Poison song with this band called Tat. I think that might be my favourite cover song, but those are not really ska punk songs. Those ones are almost impossible to play live. I think ‘Take On Me’ is one of my favourite songs ever. I always like that one. The fact that it became one of our most popular songs and having an excuse to play it live almost every night… I love it.

So, this is your 4th sold out UK date so far. What are you bringing to the table this time around? Can fans expect many surprises? 

Aaron Barrett: Well, we don’t really make plans. We just kind of evolve I guess and do different things, maybe play a few different songs. We will play a few of the newer songs that we didn’t do last time.

Billy Kottage: and a couple of old songs that we always play.

Aaron Barrett: I think that’s why people like us because we’re half always the same and you can count on it and half you don’t know what we’re going to do, unexpected, which is nice. You can count on us to play Beer, Take On Me and Sell Out, you know, all the favourites. You can count on us to surprise you.

What would a person who is attending a RBF concert for the first time expect to experience? I’m guessing a lot of dancing? 

Aaron Barrett: Yes, definitely an outgoing audience, sweaty bodies, writhing, feet flying in the air.

Billy Kottage: Maybe a kick to the head.

Aaron Barrett: Yeah you’ve got to be careful, it gets dangerous. On stage expect a bunch of wacky guys doing wacky things. We’re playing music, jumping around and having a good time. It’s just a party. I think that’s why people like to see us again and again. You can watch the show. We are entertaining if you watch. It’s also fun to dance to. Even if you’re way back at the bar, it’s just good background music for dancing.

How do you feel about people that just watch gigs through their phones? 

Aaron Barrett: That’s another thing that’s changed because I remember before everyone had a phone in their pocket.

Billy Kottage: It’s not really bad if people are taking pictures, maybe even a short video but when they stand right in front of you, the moment is happening right there, it’s live, it’s real. You’re only going to remember that you looked at shitty little images and that’s all you’re ever going to see. That’s just the way it is now, especially with younger kids. That’s just how they see the world.

Have you got any plans whilst you’re in the UK, What have you been up to so far?

Aaron Barrett: I think everybody has terrible jetlag.

Billy Kottage: I woke up at 4 O’clock today.

Aaron Barrett: I think everybody made a mistake. We landed, got on the tour bus and went straight to bed and got onto the worst schedule. We were up all night long.

Billy Kottage: We got on that ferry from Ireland too, where we stayed up till seven in the morning.
Aaron Barrett: Plus everybody has been fighting off a cold for the past month or two, so don’t get too close.

You’ve been on your own record label since 2006. Is there much difference to being signed independently as opposed to a major record label?

Do you have to do a lot more for yourself?

Aaron Barrett: Well, when we were on a major label and things were working for us it was awesome because they had a whole group of people, an advertising department and the radio department. They were getting us played on the radio and putting ads in magazines, so that’s cool. We still have that but on a smaller scale for the record label we’re with now. It’s more of a distribution deal, it’s not like we’ve signed to them. Our deal right now is just, “Hey guys, whatever you record just bring it to us and we will put it out.” Before, we had to ask permission to see if it was a good idea and business choice to put on a new album.

Billy Kottage: There’s no pressure to record.

Aaron Barrett: They understand what kind of band we are and what we’re not.

So do you prefer being independent then?

Aaron Barrett: I do, when it was working for us way back in the 90s in the USA it was really cool to have a major label behind us, pushing and helping us get more exposure. When they didn’t care about us and it was more about working against us, it was holding us back from doing what we knew was right to do. In the early 2000s our label got bought out by another label, Jive Records. That kind of all happened again over here in the UK, which was nice. We had the support of a major label over here that were pushing us. It was good but also very nice to be independent. You get to do things the way you think they should be done. From experience up close we know what our band needs, what are fans are like and what they like.

According to Setlist FM you’re playing 20 songs on this tour. Which are your favourites to play live on the current set-list?

Aaron Barrett: We’re doing 20 songs? That’s crazy. They’re short songs though. I like to play all the songs that make people go crazy. A lot of bands don’t like to play their hits but I love to play them because I love to see the crowd explode and cheering, “YAAAY.” You hear a little guitar riff or a horn part and just start moving. That’s what I like, to see the crowd move and react. A song that’s really fun to play on guitar but makes the crowd stare at you in a fused way is not as fun live.

Billy Kottage:  Aw man, that’s kind of hard.  My favourite Reel Big Fish song to play live is probably ‘She Has a Girlfriend Now’, just because it’s a great song. Usually we will have a guest and if not, Matt will sing it. That’ll be fun. It’s got an awesome trombone solo. We’ve been playing some Forces of Evil songs and there’s a song called ‘Angry Anthem’, I love that song so much. I think it’s probably all the “mother fuckers” parts.

You’re a band renowned for getting a mass of fans to skank to your songs. Besides crazy dance moves, what’s the strangest thing you have witnessed in the crowd whilst playing a gig?

Aaron Barrett: Last year there were some people actually having sex, way off to the side. It was at that college, one of the universities. Two crazy kids getting it on right in front of people, it was very strange. Yeah…that was weird, it’s not like we have the sexiest music or it was the safest place to do it.

Are there any current plans for a new album? Have you been writing much since ‘Candy Coated Fury’ (2012)? 

Aaron Barrett: Well, ‘Candy Coated Fury’ was my ultimate masterpiece so I don’t think I’ll ever write another song again. There are no plans right now; we’ve got too many songs already. Eventually we will probably make a new album. Matt just wrote a little piece of a song that sounds really good.

What is your favourite RBF album?

Aaron Barrett: Definitely the live album, which is my ultimate masterpiece, it’s so awesome. We edited the shit out of it, took all the funniest jokes and put them all together. We overdubbed the crap out of it so it sounds so fake. It’s not even real. That was one awesome show the night we recorded it, bam that was it. ‘Candy Coated Fury’ came out really good and we are happy with the songs.

Billy Kottage: The same for me with the live album. It’s kind of hard to not like it, for me at least anyway.

Aaron Barrett: They’re all good in their own way.

I didn’t realise how much editing it takes for live albums.

Aaron Barrett: Well, I don’t know, I think we over did it more than we really needed to. We had a lot of new band members and we’d been playing a lot. We felt like a better band. It was just an excuse to re-record everything. I mean, it was recorded live but we’ve added extra and doubled the guitars, little things like that. The jokes are all live. Then we did a DVD in 2009 called Live In Concert…what a creative name. The DVD wasn’t overdubbed or anything, it was completely live. It really sounds just as good. We were going through a time for a crazy period in our lives.