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This month, punk rock overlords Pennywise will be returning to their beloved Australian fans to unleash upon us their formative album Full Circle from start to finish.
A talismanic album to the punk rock scene from the get-go, it even debuted in the top 20 of our album charts. The release was the first from Pennywise since the untimely passing of bassist Jason Thirsk by his own hand. As a result, the record is heavily informed by mental health, struggling with the human condition, and ultimately how to rise above it all.
It just so happened that the twentieth anniversary of the album lines up with a period of mass awakening regarding mental health in music. The tour couldn’t have come at a better time. Before their arrival we caught up with key ingredient Fletcher for a chat.
HYSTERIA: Fletcher, man very stoked to get a chance to chat with you today. As this tour has absolutely snuck up on us, you’ll be here in a matter of weeks. But how’s everything in your world today?
FLETCHER: Oh, my world’s alright. I’m dealing with an IRS audit so not the best of circumstances but you know, I’m just sitting around crunching numbers.
Dang. Well it’s very cool to get a chance to chat with you considering just how quickly your upcoming run of Australian tour dates has sneaked up on us. It’s a bit of a head trip to think we’re already in October. So, I imagine you guys are getting your head around this tour right now. So, tell me, you must be buzzed to be getting back?
Yeah, yeah. I mean for us Australia’s one of the best places to play in the world, hands down. Energy, crowd, fans, you know, have been with us for a long time. I mean the first time we played Oz is one of the most memorable experiences of my life or of the band’s career. All the way up to About Time on the last run, it just never disappoints. Good people, good beer, good weather. It’s a good time. So we’re totally stoked to get down there and bring Full Circle. You guys deserve it.
We tested the waters with About Time. You guys were the first ones to get the About Time album in its entirety. And it went so hard and off the hook that we decided to do it in a few spots in America and then we wound up doing the whole country with About Time. It was awesome and so we’re bringing you guys Full Circle. We’ll make all the mistakes in Australia and get it all done there. You guys will be so drunk you won’t know the difference. No, seriously, it’s gonna be off the hook and having The Bronx out with us, it’s just gonna be a good night.
How weird was it, or awesome, or a head trip for you back in the day when this album charted so well in our weird part of the world?
The whole ride’s been a head trip. We’re not really about charting or singles on the radio, we’re just about really fighting to make a good record and then hopefully fans are stoked on it. Australia’s definitely come through for us every time. But around the About Time record, that’s when everyone was blowing up on the radio. Green Day and Offspring and Rancid and all this stuff was going on and you know we have a little success but we weren’t the Offspring. We weren’t Rancid. We were just kind of under the radar. We weren’t playing the game as much as some bands would have back in those days. We were just kind of keeping it more for the hardcore fans.
When Full Circle came out I’ll never forget Brett, that’s when it was hot, you know. Everyone wanted to be the next Green Day or Nirvana you know. And Brett sat down and said, “Yeah this song’s got no radio singles on it, no radio potential. We’re not trying to go commercial on this, we’re just trying to concentrate on your fans.” And we were like, “Hell yeah.” So that’s what they did and I think that’s who we still got was our fans. And that’s it, our fans are our number one priority.
It’s not about getting famous or becoming millionaires, it’s about playing music you believe in with a message you believe in, and getting that out to your fans and having them say, “Fuck yeah you did us proud again.” So I think we did that with Full Circle. There’s a lot of emotion, a lot of passion on that record and to be able to go play it from start to finish in Australia is beyond a dream I guess. Something I never thought would happen. I never thought we’d play Full Circle start to finish ever, let alone in Australia. So it’s gonna be something for the record books I think.
I respect [Chester’s] music. You know he lived a mile away from me, and I’ve just been thinking, “Fuck, why didn’t he call me?” You know, why didn’t he just fucking call me and say “Hey let’s get dinner” or something. He didn’t call me because he was hurting and he couldn’t take the pain anymore. That’s why he didn’t call anybody.
[FLETCHER]
It is a bit surprising to hear that you thought you would never play this one because from a fan perspective this feels like it’s such a strong album and a fan favourite. Why did you think that you’d never get the opportunity to do it?
You know this whole trend of bands playing an entire album from start to finish probably started, who knows 20, 30 years ago I don’t know with who; but in the punk rock community it was like eight or nine years ago bands started doing this and we were like, “We’re not gonna do this.” But Full Circle, it’s a whole different animal. This record is so hardcore and it’s got so much stuff going on.
We’re not very technical guys. None of us have been professionally trained. I took one guitar lesson, Byron probably had zero drum lessons, and we all just grew up in bands as teenagers learning our own styles and how to play. Well when we went back to listen to this Full Circle record to have a band practise and find out if we could even play it, it was insane. At this time in my life I’m like, “How in the fuck did we play this? How did I remember this?” There’s so many parts, there’s so many little tiny things. I’m not Yngwie Malmsteen, I’m not a technical guy, but there’s a lot of stuff on this record that went into it and I just … there’s probably six or seven songs on this record that we’ve never played live or we’ve played like one or two times in 20 years.
There are songs that have almost never, I guarantee, have never seen the light of day. And if something’s seen the light of day it might have one time like, that’s too hard to play live. They’re that hard vocally.
Take Did You Really for example. We’ve never played that song ever. We played it at band practise and we played it in the studio and that’s it. I mean that song is about Jason passing away. So obviously it’s not something that we want to bring out at shows and stuff. It’s a very emotional song but it’s also insanely fast. There’s just a lot of stuff on this record that I just figured we haven’t played it in 20 years … we played it once and it was like, “No, that’s too fuckin’ hard.” We fucked it up. It’s just too much to throw in a live show because you’ve got a lot going on in a live show and you want to make sure you play everything well. Some of these songs are so difficult, and so fast that we just haven’t played them. So this is gonna be an insane challenge for the band and it’s gonna be like a real blow-out for the fans because if we’re able to go out there and get it done, I think the energy level’s just gonna be off the hook.
The message behind Full Circle is a really important one as well. Discussing mental health and things along those lines. I feel that this topic has now reared its head again in the music community, and it’s now become so prevalent. So I guess it’d be interesting to hear from your perspective, since releasing this album, have you seen much of a change in the 20 years since you’ve released the album or is it still a bit of an unknown kind of challenge when it comes to dealing with these kind of issues?
No I think there’s been a lot of change. Obviously we just recently lost Chester and Chris Cornell to this problem. It’s a real tragedy. I saw Chester a couple weeks before. He was happy as could be, you know. Super cool dude. Always really liked him and respected him. And you would’ve never known … I mean, looking back on his songs, just like Jason’s songs, you see a pattern of a cry for help. A lot of times the fans don’t equate it that it’s coming from the singer himself. They figure he’s writing a song about someone else or another topic that he’s seen, but when you look back it’s pretty shocking.
It’s a real tragedy. I saw Chester a couple weeks before. He was happy as could be, you know. Super cool dude. Always really liked him and respected him. And you would’ve never known …
[FLETCHER]
But I think the good news is that the drug use in the music industry, which has taken so many people’s lives, which is a lot and it’s still a problem; I think that’s really mellowed out a lot. I think people are a lot more conscious. Fans today, you could literally have had a band where three out of five members were strung out on heroin twenty years ago and the other two were doing coke and drinking. We saw that all the time. We were partying pretty hard back in the day but I think we saw so much tragedy and heartbreak with drug use that it kind of straightened a lot of people out.
Chester Bennington // Shutterstock.com
The suicide issue is a huge issue. It’s a huge issue in the world in general, but mental health and recognising and getting people help, and making people feel like when they’re that low that they can still reach out, that’s the problem, it’s that one minute when you don’t call your best friend or you don’t call your therapist or you don’t call a suicide prevention hotline. And you know, just by making that one choice you might be gone forever. Whereas if you’d just had the strength to just reach out that one more time, you might’ve lived for another 30, 50 years.
So that’s the problem. Kids, musicians, doesn’t matter who you are, adults … you need to know that there’s help out there no matter how bad you feel. If you just reach out and just give it one last effort, even though you’re trying to talk yourself out of getting help because you want to go, you can’t take the pain, just reach out and try to get help one last time. Because when you’re gone you don’t really realise how you affect the rest of your family and friends and fans.
The whole thing is, people don’t understand. You’re so deep in it, you’re not trying to hurt people. You’re trying to stop hurting yourself. But the pain’s gotten so bad where you’re willing to do anything to stop it. So I don’t really agree when people say it’s a selfish act to take your own life. It’s kind of selfish for us to not recognise how hurting this person is, and understand how far gone you have to be to check out. To take your family, friends, and everything and just put it aside and go, “I’m out of here” and have no remorse or understanding of what you’re gonna do when they’re gone.
Your brain is broken. So people have just gotta watch for the signs and stuff. But I think there’s a lot of awareness these days and these two deaths are gonna be even more of a warning for people out there. I think people are gonna be more open with what they need. Hopefully.
Bands that have experienced it are gonna talk about it and they’re gonna try to raise awareness. It’s a painful subject but at the same time I’m super bummed because Chester had my phone number and we knew each other. We didn’t hang out all the time but when we saw each other we always had a great time together.
Bands that have experienced it are gonna talk about it and they’re gonna try to raise awareness. It’s a painful subject but at the same time I’m super bummed because Chester had my phone number and we knew each other. We didn’t hang out all the time but when we saw each other we always had a great time together.
[FLETCHER]
I respect his music. You know he lived a mile away from me, and I’ve just been thinking, “Fuck, why didn’t he call me?” You know, why didn’t he just fucking call me and say “Hey let’s get dinner” or something. He didn’t call me because he was hurting and he couldn’t take the pain anymore. That’s why he didn’t call anybody. So I don’t know, I think bands being out there speaking on it, actors raising awareness and trying to keep people understanding that there’s help out there no matter what, to just make that fucking call … we’re gonna keep talking about it when it’s necessary, you know?
Listen to this interview with Pennywise’s Fletcher Dragge on Hysteria Radio
Pennywise ‘Full Circle 20th Anniversary Australian Tour’
with The Bronx
Friday, 27th October // Forum Theatre, Melbourne
Saturday, 28th October // Eatons Hill Hotel, Brisbane
Sunday, 29th October // Enmore Theatre, Newtown
Tuesday, 31st October // Exhibition Centre, Newcastle
Thursday, 2nd November // HQ, Adelaide
Friday, 3rd November // Metropolis, Fremantle
Tickets >
