LINDSEY CUTHBERTSON

Lagwagon rode at the vanguard of the southern californian punk army that marched its way into the skate bowls and bed rooms of punks the world over. Driven by a rhythmical beast that galloped at propulsive rhythms and a vast array of humorous lyrical weapons that were deceptively sharp, Lagwagon have kept on keeping on through the years to the very present day, with their new release, the EP/mini album I Think My Older Brother Used To Listen To Lagwagon.

Front man Joey Cape is generous enough to talk about the new release from a Californian parking lot the day after Lagwagon’s co-headlining tour with fellow veterans MxPx has come to an end. The EP is the first new release from Lagwagon since their 2005 album Resolve, which was written in response to original drummer, Derrick Plourde, who committed suicide.

The EP contains the signature Lagwagon sound: fast, furious songs driven by Cape’s melancholy musings. Five of the tracks are actually songs written by Cape that will be appearing on his forthcoming solo acoustic album.

“Early on I realised that my better lyrics came from melancholic issues in my life that really affect me and being as honest as possible without over thinking it,” says Cape in relation to his lyrics, which are the strongest he has ever produced. “With time you get better with the word acrobatics, because there is pentameter and syllables and they have to fit the rhythm of the song.

“The question for me is whether the songs all start to sound the same. You’re only one person and if you write the way I write you find that a lot of the experiences and issues that hurt you are the same over and over again and that’s always a scary aspect of being a lyricist.”

So in that sense, has Cape begun to explore different personas in his writing?

“That’s something I don’t really do, and I should, because I have such a big fear of running out of subject matter,” he says.

“It’s an interesting world that we live in. There’s two ways to look at everything in life,” Cape muses, continuing on his train of thought. “One of them is to see the dark side and the other is to find the beauty in everything. And in my case and in a lot of people’s cases who are artists we tend to be inspired by the melancholy, because that feeling is so deeply moving.”

So here we are, eighteen years on since Lagwagon’s inception and another Australian tour on the horizon. Times and fashion has changed, lines have become more pronounced on the faces of Cape and company, but he still feels the same thrill of excitement he always has when heading out to tour Australia in the past. Even though Cape has stated in the past that he will never play a show in shorts again, will the Australian heat sway him to break that oath?

“Let me put it this way man: it has to be pretty fucking hot for me to get the shorts on,” he laughs. “But I still bring them.”

LAGWAGON play The Arena on Nov 15, The Sands Tavern Nov 16 &Coolangatta Hotel on Nov 19. Their EP, I Think My Older Brother Used To Listen To Lagwagon, is out now through Fat Wreck Chords/Shock Records. www.myspace.com/lagwagon

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