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Altpress.com Exclusive: Fletcher Dragge on the departure of frontman Jim Lindberg

Tim Karan on 8/28/09 @ 6:00 AM

For the better part of two decades, California punk institution PENNYWISE have been fronted by the charismatic Jim Lindberg. Last week, the vocalist shocked the scene (and his band) when he announced that he was leaving Pennywise to concentrate on his personal life and other endeavors. Lindberg said, "After 20 years, nine albums and thousands of shows around the world, my time in Pennywise has come to an end. Being the singer for this band has been an amazing experience." Almost immediately, the remaining members of Pennywise revealed that this would not mean the end of the band, and that they would immediately begin the search for a new singer. In this Altpress.com exclusive interview, guitarist FLETCHER DRAGGE opens up about the departure of Lindberg and what it will mean for the future of one of the most storied punk outfits of the past 20 years.

INTERVIEW: Laila Hanson

Did you guys have any idea that Jim was going to leave?
Not really. It's something that's been going on, off-and-on, for 16 years of the band. He never kind of knew where the band was going to go, or how long he was going to stick around. And at this point, it was kind of a surprise. He kind of feels like we maybe saw it coming, and we didn't. I was just reading an article this morning where he was commenting on some stuff, and he said that we knew this departure was inevitable. I guess that is true, at some point. At this point, though, it was kind of a surprise. I guess it boils down to the fact that we want to tour more than he does. There's always some guy in every band who doesn't want to tour as much as the other guys, and for us that guy's always been Jim. He's got a family at home, and he likes to be home with his family more than he likes being on the road, which is totally understandable. You totally have to respect that. You can't [hate someone] for wanting to hang out with their family. We all have families and stuff, and it's difficult to go on tour and be away from them. But at the same time, our fans are a family in their own right. It's really important for us to get out and play shows, and for years we just felt like we were neglecting our fans all over the world because we were trying to work within the parameters of what Jim wanted. We were going through a lot. It was definitely a point of contention. We tried to keep it cool and keep it at a place where everyone could function, but now that he's gone, we will be able to go play a lot more places in a lot more countries for all these people that have been sending us e-mails all these years asking us to play their city.

You released a statement not too long ago stating that you're going to start searching for a new singer immediately. Are you going to try to find someone who sounds exactly like Jim does, or are you going to go in a different direction?
I don't think we're going to search for any type of particular sound. I think we're going to search for the best fit overall. We're not trying to replace Jim; he's his own voice, his own style, his own persona. We're just looking for somebody who wants to step in, believes in the same things we do, wants to tour and wants to continue bringing our message to our fans. It doesn't have to be somebody who sounds exactly like Jim, but if there's somebody out there who winds up being the perfect fit as far as their political stance and their beliefs on life in general, and who's a great frontman that sounds like Jim, then that'll be the guy. But we haven't really put any constraints on what we're looking to do. It kind of opens up a whole new door for us to branch out a little bit. I was just reading in an interview with Jim that he was feeling a little bit stifled by the fact that our fans expect a certain type of song and a certain type of message, and that it definitely hinders you pretty heavily. We've all written songs over the years that we thought might be a Pennywise song, but when you put it up against another Pennywise album, it's not there. It's a different monster. That's what we've always tried to do: keep our fans in line and give them what they want. If we write a different-sounding record, [our fans] are going to be like, "What the hell happened to Pennywise?" Pennywise have always been focused on what the fans want, and trying to give them what they want. Now we can open up a little bit and stretch our wings, and not try to sound exactly like Jim wanted it, or how Randy [Bradbury, bass] wanted it, or how I wanted it and kind of go out there and do something a little bit new, a little bit fresh. And that's what we intend to do.

Did you have any material written with Jim that you still plan on releasing?
Not really. I mean, the songwriting process with Pennywise is that everyone contributes songs. Sometimes Jim's got a complete guitar part and complete vocal part and melodies when he comes in, and it just needs a little fine-tuning. And we get in there, and we hash it out, and we throw our opinions around. It's the same thing for me and Randy. We come up with complete songs and complete lyrics. There are tons--at least 50 songs--that we've collaborated on together that I'd love to put out. But I don't think we're going to put out anything that Jim actually worked on because we'd be heading into strained issues. We'd have to call and say, "You know, Jim, we want to put this song out, and you're on it. Do you want us to give you a songwriting credit?" It's a possibility, but we have so many songs featuring me and Randy that didn't make the albums and didn't even get demoed. We're not at all worried about writing an album. I've been writing Pennywise albums for 20 years and we actually really don't have any worries. We went through a period where no one wanted Jim to go. We did everything in our power to make the situation work. We wound up doing a 10-day tour in Europe when we wanted to do a 30-day tour or a three-week tour when we wanted to do a four. He tried and we tried. It hasn't panned out on that front, but it opens up a whole new door for us as far as being able to do what we want, and not being withheld in the touring and just making progress. Because a lot of times, we'd all be on one page and he'd be on a different page. We're scared, but it's kind of a liberating feeling at the same time.

With that being said, do you think it's going to be hard for Pennywise to rebound at all from this?
No. Pennywise fans are there for us, through and through. I think the initial shock might be, "The band's over, Jim's leaving." I saw a lot of stuff on the web, and people are like, "Without Jim, they're nothing. He does all the lyrics." But it's like, "No, he doesn't write all the lyrics." He writes a good portion of the lyrics, for sure, but we all contribute, we all write songs. We never actually posted who wrote what because we wanted to feel like a band, and soon people will realize that they're only losing one member of Pennywise. We're all considered equal and three of the guys are still here.

I started this band. I called up Jason [Thirsk], our original bass player, and we said, "We're going to do this, we're going to be successful and not let anything stand in our way, and we're going to tour the world." We switched out our drummer and got Byron [McMackin]. And then Jim signed up with the band. Once that happened, we had great chemistry. He brought this whole new dimension to the band that we had never had before. We had our first single and got our first tour offer for Europe. It was the first time that we had ever seen anything like that, and we were blown away that we were going to be able to play shows, it was really exciting for us. Then he basically said, "I'm not going." We were like, "What are you talking about? This is what we've been working for all these years." And he was like, "I have a job and I'm getting married and I have responsibilities here." We were like, "We have responsibilities too, but this is what we set out to do. You're not going to go?" And he basically was given an ultimatum; go, or you're out of the band. And he chose.

A lot of people don't know this story, but Jim left the band in the early '90s and we didn't even take a breath. We put down one phone and picked up the other, and called Dave Quackenbush of the Vandals. He came over and started practicing, and he went to tour Europe with us. We slept on floors in abandoned apartment buildings. We were crossing Europe probably from Sweden to Spain in a '60s Mercedes Van listening to Sublime on a cassette tape, and did that tour and had the time of our lives.

We came back from that, and Jason stepped over to vocals, we wrote Unknown Road, and then recorded 90 percent of it with Jason singing. I kind of took Jason aside and said, "You're awesome, but Jim's better. We should really consider talking to him and see if he wants to join the band again." So we had a two-year period with no Jim. Jim didn't want to come back, but then he came back on that record, sang the songs that Jason and I had written, then wrote some amazing lyrics to some of the music we had already recorded. And the rest is history.

But my point is that before Jim, we weren't the real Pennywise, I'd say the real Pennywise was with Jim, but we were a band before. And when we ran into this problem before with him 15 years ago, we didn't even come up for air. We just kept going. It wasn't even a question. Our goal was to do this, and we were going to do this with or without him. And that falls right into place right now. Our goal is to bring the message to the fans. We love this, we love going on the road, there's nothing more important to me than being in stage in front of our fans and having them sing our lyrics back at us and feel the energy. This has become so much bigger than just us as a band, it's become a family, and a brotherhood of people that I feel depend on us. I'm still here to continue to deliver the message as are Byron and Randy.

Jim is more than entitled to go do his own thing, to write his own record, and write his books or make his documentary, whatever he's going to do. He needs to do that stuff. Our motto is to follow your dreams and pursue them. Don't waste time because if you're wasting time on something you're not into, then you're not living. We want him to go be happy. It's bittersweet; We'd rather have him in Pennywise and touring, but we're not going to let his departure get in our way of what we've been aiming for these last 20 years. We're going to go out there and have fun doing what we love until it stops being fun. alt

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