Featured Artist

Interview with Skottie of The Creeps  

When and how did The Creeps come about?  The three of us met in 1999 at University. It was love (and terrible musicianship) at first sight. Each of us was, in the loosest sense of the word, a “guitarist” first, with me being probably the least skilled of the three of us. However, Jordy and his brother owned a drum kit, so he became the drummer. Bevans owned a bass, so he played that. I wrote most of the songs, so I stayed on guitar.  In the first couple years we toyed with the idea of adding another member to bolster our admittedly flimsy sound and Jordy had repeatedly mentioned that he’d like to abandon the relative anonymity of being behind the drum kit, to join Bevs and I in the spotlight at the front of the stage (although he may not have worded it so..). After our one and only abortive attempt at an audition for a new drummer, though, we decided to keep the status quo. Eight years later, and it’s still the three of us.

How would you describe The Creeps to someone who had never heard them?   If forced to, I would probably describe our band as one that once played straightforward, three-chord pop-punk, but whose musical evolution is informed by our collective taste in music, which ranges far and beyond that scene. I grew up listening to punk rock, and pop-punk in particular, so it isn’t as if I lament these “labels”, but at the same time I don’t allow the constraints of these genres to dictate the sort of song I want to write. Normally, we let the constraints of our musical abilities do that for us!
 Which is all really a long way of saying what most musicians do when asked this sort of question: namely, we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about, or concerning ourselves with what category or sub-genre our music fits in to.

Tell us about the other bands that the members of The Creeps have been in or are currently in?..... I play in the Creeps and the Visitors. I also played in the Riptides for a couple of years.
Bevans plays in the Creeps and the Annoyers.
Jordy plays in the Creeps and the Chelseas.
www.myspace.com/thevisitorsarecool

www.myspace.com/theannoyers

www.mysapce.com/thechelseasown

www.myspace.com/theriptides

So I read that your next CD is planned to be released in 2008. Is that still in the works and if so where are you guys on that project?   Back in January of this year, we gave a release date in 2008 with tongue planted firmly in cheek. We had demoed out about fifteen songs and were basically ready to record at that point. The essentially finished songs, coupled with the fact that we’re recording the album ourselves (Jordy is an audio engineer) suggested that it should be a fairly quick process. However, people who know our band know that we’re idiots and work at a snail’s pace. Now, nearing the end of October, I seem somewhat prescient in jokingly predicting a release next year.
...All of that said, a couple of weekends ago we holed ourselves up in a lakeside cabin and recorded the bulk of the album. It sounds cool. We’ve still got a little more recording to do and then the logistics of artwork and pressing, etc. but I can say with confidence that there will be a new Creeps album sooner than later.

I read the following quote about yet to be released cd; “We've begun demo-ing a bunch of songs for the next record. It will probably be somewhere between 12-15 songs and will be mostly about dying in gun-battles, plane-crashes, mob-hits, and at the hands of makeout-spot-murderers, while a few songs will be about killing.” Please elaborate on that quote for those who don’t know a lot about The Creeps.    I’m not sure that there is a whole lot to elaborate on, per se. The new album is going to have between twelve and fourteen songs on it, and that’s what some of the songs are about. If you don’t know the Creeps, well, those are the sorts of things I write about.

A lot of your songs are really dark and could be graphically disturbing to some. Please elaborate on who writes the lyrics and where the motivation for the dark lyrics comes from.    Briefly, and at the risk of sounding “artsy” and pretentious, I have stories in my head and I’ve found that the best and easiest medium for me to communicate these stories with others is through three- to four-minute punk rock songs. If the subject matter is dark (which it is), then I suppose it simply reflects the aesthetic that I prefer in art of any form. I don’t think I could point to any one thing and say, “this is the reason I write songs about murder and dying in plane crashes”, other than that I find it more interesting than writing about real life relationships and have never done well at the denser, stream-of-consciousness-type of song writing.
I probably differ from a lot of other songwriters who dabble in the “horror” side of music (whether it be the zombie stuff of The Misfits, the sci-fi stuff of the Lillingtons, the crappy fantasy stuff of Maiden.. whatever) in that I don’t enjoy horror movies, and therefore don’t derive any inspiration from them. If anything, my lyric writing is probably more informed by books that I read – but not in the sense that I read a Stephen King book and then write a song based on its plot.
It’s more like a snippet of inspiration – whether a single, otherwise insignificant line from a random song, or a hazy memory of an R.L. Stine book that I read when I was a kid.. whatever – provides the spark for a narrative that usually ends up having little to do with the original snippet. For Back To The ‘Bin, there was a more or less overarching theme or storyline that most of the songs fit into. For the new album that we’re working on currently, each song’s story is a lot more self-contained.
Phew. That was way too much self-analysis for one answer.

Who are some other good bands coming out of Ottawa that the readers might not be aware of?
Our circle of friends here in Ottawa comprises the following bands that I’m contractually obligated to mention before any others: The Visitors, The Annoyers, The Riptides, & The PG-13s, the Poulsens....
Good bands from our province of Ontario (plus a couple from Montreal), who we’re fans of (whether they know it or not): ZUKU, Sexhead, Clothes Make The Man, The Vapids, Million Dollar Marxists, Brutal Knights, Le Volume Etait Au Maximum, Kill Cheerleader.

Any funny tour stories?  We’re very serious individuals.

Who are the influences of The Creeps?  Pop melodies, too much booze & Stephen King books.

If you could meet a serial killer from the past who would it be?
I probably wouldn’t want to meet a serial killer from the past, as he’d likely be apt to kill me. Or at least try. And as much as I enjoy writing songs about dying and killing, I am actually a fan of living. Reading Vincent Bugliosi’s Helter Skelter while listening to Jane’s Addiction’s Nothing’s Shocking on repeat when I was in high school remains a fairly formative experience, or at least one that I remember with decent clarity after more than a decade, but given the chance to meet Charles Mason, I think I’d politely decline.

Favourite beer?
Our favourite beer is free beer. Preferably with free whiskey too.
My favourite beer is the 5^th one on Sunday afternoons watching NFL games with my friends.

Parting Comments?
Check out our Myspace (www.myspace.com/capitalcitycreeps) for even more droning details about us!