Interview with Black Lips’ Jared Swilley

AP Photo/Dave Martin

Black Lips, this crazy psychedelic garage rock act from Atlanta, Georgia, are going to perform up the highway at The Paradise Rock Club in Boston on September 28 with Montreal punks The King Khan & BBQ Show. I had a chat with co-founder, bassist and co-vocalist of Black Lips, Jared Swilley, about the upcoming show and a bunch of other things that’ll tickle your fancy.

Rob Duguay: Black Lips has a show going on at The Paradise Rock Club in Boston on the 28th. You guys have gotten notoriety for vomiting, urination, flaming guitars and even RC car races, but you’ve toned down your theatrics a bit saying that you’ve matured a little. Was there ever a breaking point that signaled to the band that you should clean up your act on stage or was it purely a personal decision?

Jared Swilley: We never really did stuff like that. Sometimes it happened at shows, but we never did it every night. Cole Alexander in the band has a medical condition where he can’t control his gag reflex, but he takes medicine for that now so it doesn’t happen as much. We try not to eat too close to shows. I don’t know where the RC car thing came from, I don’t even own a car and we definitely have never had RC cars. Our shows still get pretty wild; I still don’t know what the word mature means at this point. There was never really a decision made concerning that at all.

RD: Well, if Black Lips ever decide to do an RC car race on stage, please do it at the show in Boston on the 28th. Earlier this year the band put out their seventh studio album with Underneath The Rainbow. It’s been your fourth release with Vice Records, which is affiliated with the magazine of the same name and they’ve created their own media entity. How has it been working with a unique label like Vice?

JS: When we started with them it had be around seven or eight years ago. At the time they were mainly the magazine and they still had the record label, but it was a lot smaller. It’s been cool seeing them blow up like they have. It definitely gives us more resources and opportunities to do things because they have offices around the globe. We do video stuff with them as well as stuff in the magazine. It’s pretty awesome to be on their label because they’re so much more than a label.

RD: It must be great to be part of something that gives you avenues to go to with you having to go out of your way. It’s like they’re working for you which is pretty nice. One crazy story I read about you and Cole is that when you were both in high school you guys got kicked out in the aftermath of the Columbine Massacre in 1999 because you were regarded by the administration as being a subculture danger. Is there any truth to this story? If so, what exactly happened? JS: They started going with a zero tolerance policy in high school after it happened. We weren’t really weird at all. I hung out with cheerleaders and people on the football team and stuff like that. We were pretty well adjusted and we definitely weren’t outcasts. It was just a lot of little things they started expelling people from our class for. Stuff like skipping too much, getting caught smoking too many times, tardiness. I wouldn’t have called us a subculture danger; we were actually good kids. It’s just hard for us to follow rules, that’s why we do what we do.

RD: I can imagine a school cracking down on anti-authoritative kids wouldn’t mix that well. Along with Black Lips, members of the band have been involved in numerous side projects like Diamond Rugs featuring John McCauley from Deer Tick and Hardy Morris from Dead Confederate, the Halloween- themed ghost rock band called The Spooks and more recently Cole is in a side project called Night Sun. When it comes to juggling all of these different projects, does it ever get overwhelming?

JS: It’s actually pretty easy. Black Lips is our main gig and with the side projects we mostly half-ass it to be honest. We don’t try very hard.

RD: Is there any reason why you guys always wanna try something different?

JS: Not really, just for something to do. Just be punk. That’s what we like to do.

RD: What can fans expect from Black Lips in 2015? Will any of the band’s side projects be releasing any material? Will there be another Black Lips album? Will there be a live record?

JS: We pretty much live every day like there’s no tomorrow, like shit’s about to hit the fan, like hell’s about to break loose. So we’ll probably make a record, play a bunch of shows all over the world, y’know — the usual.

Sunday night on September 28 will be bumpin’ at The Paradise Rock Club in Boston when Black Lips show up. Get your ticket or be square, hopefully I’ll see you there.

Black Lips’ Website: www.black-lips.com