LEFTÖVER CRACK // Laying Down ‘Constructs of the State’

In association with Fat Wreck Chords, we’re proud to present the stream of Leftöver Crack’s blistering new LP, Constructs of the State PLUS a behind the scenes interview with Stza! Listen below:

Their first album in eleven years, much has changed since 2004’s Fuck World Trade…or has it? Police brutality seems like it’s at an all time high, the drug war is as bloody and intractable as ever and state power becomes concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. On this record, they’ve assembled a star-studded punk rock army, featuring Jesse Michaels of Operation Ivy, Penny Rimbaud of CRASS and Joe Jack Talcum of The Dead Milkmen in addition to their friends from The Bouncing Souls, Dark Dark Dark, Blackbird Raum, Mischief Brew, Days N Daze, Chewing on Tinfoil, The Riverboat Gamblers, Rats in the Wall, Intro5pect and even Kate Coysh of Oakland, California’s integral crust-punk band: Reivers. It’s a hand full of napalm, the nuclear A bomb committed to wax.

Read our review of Constructs of the State here.

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Interview with Scott “Stza Crack” Sturgeon – The Screaming Dead

First up, the new record sounds fucking great. Even better since it’s an album I thought the world might never see. What made now the time to return to Leftöver Crack to do another record?

It was pretty random. I wasn’t gonna release another full length LOC record until it could stand up to our other two records. After about three years of insecurity about the songs we were working on, the record that I was hoping for came together. I figured that if I just kept at it, the thing would take shape eventually & I’m quite relieved that it finally did.

Pardon the cliché, but how did you go about ‘getting the band back together?’

I can see how, from an Australian point of view, it might seem like we broke up or went on a hiatus, but that’s just not the case. We’ve been playing intermittently but quite consistently over the course of the last 15 years. Just, not in Australia.

What was the process of recording this one like? Even though it’s been 11 years since Fuck World Trade, you’ve been busy in music, but is there a specific vibe when you’re doing Leftöver Crack stuff?

Leftover Crack is a bit more of what I want to do & play in particular compared to SFH which was more of a collaboration with the lead guitarist, Frank Piegaro or Choking Victim which was a lot more of me “fighting” to do exactly what I wanted instead of what we’re doing now. We’re working with friends that trust my vision or judgment. So, it’s a lot more personal for me & ultimately more rewarding in a way than the other bands I’ve been in. The process though was significantly slowed down because I had been spoiled by working with Frank for several years. It seemed like I had completely forgot how to write music on my own. That didn’t last, thankfully.

What were the sessions for this album like?

Few and far between. But we did this thing that was pretty enjoyable where we would book a tour that would occur over the course of two weekends, but we would’t play during the week in between & we’d hang out & practice for a few hours a day & then just basically holiday in places like New Orleans, New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle & yes, even in our bass players’ new hometown of Sacramento, California. He couldn’t cut it in NYC, so he hitched out west to live in a state capital…

Were there any bands or musical movements that occurred during the gap between releases that inspired what you wanted to do with Constructs of the State?

Yes, there is a band named Days n Daze from Texas that I checked out on the internet when I was in Mexico last Northern hemisphere winter that I really loved right away. I felt like they were influenced by some of my bands and the great thing is that their lyrics and music totally inspired me right back to finishing a lot of the songs for this record. They’re a “Folk Punk” band. I was also inspired by another one named Blackbird Raum. We ended up covering one of their songs with them (Last Legs) on Constructs.

What do you think Leftöver Crack can do or say in 2015 that maybe the band wasn’t capable of in the mid-noughties?

Well, first off, we can not particularly sing about killing cops because their is suddenly this massive movement against police brutality and drug policy that lets us off the hook for having extremist lyrics against them because public attention has finally… Fucking finally taken an interest in the fact that the police are corrupt grifting racist gangs that break the law and murder, steal and rape with absolute impunity. Their fucking days of dictating the “law” and breaking it are fucking over. I’m very happy to sing about all of the other shit going on in the world with a clear victory against these fucking bully cowards. The public and the state have taken notice of their filthy construct. We expect the United States’ status of having 25% of the world prison population is going to be rapidly reduced very soon.

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[The cops’] fucking days of dictating the “law” and breaking it are fucking over.

[STZA]

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I would be really interested to know about the genesis of the bulk of material on this album; when you’re starting to write these songs are you motivated by circumstances you’re wanting to address with your lyrics, or does it start with the music you want to write?

The music comes first. Then I tend to assign the songs subject matter in a way that lines up the most urgent subjects with the music that will first of all fit the content in a way, and secondly which is the best song musically that might send the message that I want to relay the farthest.

I think one of the things that I really appreciate about Leftöver Crack is that you present a truly alternative perspective in a lot of your lyrics when there are a lot of so-called “political punk” bands out there pedalling pretty obvious humanist ideologies. Do you ever feel like you have a responsibility to try and educate kids who might pick up a Leftöver Crack record?

Always.

If you could include a reading list for fans to check out while they’re listening to Constructs of the State, what do you think would fit the album’s vibe? Was there any literature that the band was really turned on to while they were writing/recording the album?

“Chasing the Scream” by Johann Hari in particular.

Has doing this album gotten the group excited about doing more Leftöver Crack stuff? I saw there’s a west coast tour coming up in the start of 2016, how’s everybody in the band feeling about that?

We’re all very excited about the opportunities that having a new record after 11 years seems to be presenting even before the record has been released.

Any chance we’ll get to see you back down in Australia any time soon? Or do the prohibitive costs of international touring mean that a lot of the time you’d need to compromise on ethics to get to a country as far-flung as ours?

We’re planning a tour in Australia as soon as the end of March. I can’t give any details as to exactly when or where for a few weeks, but it’s in the works. As for ethics, yes, a bit. To play down under it seems like we have to compromise our all-ages ethic sometimes & I believe the ticket prices can be way too expensive for as lot of our fans to afford, but, If you’re interested in booking us and helping us avoid these pitfalls, please contact the Drunk Promoter, Glenn Stewart or our homie James Straker in Brisbane… We’ll get the message and we’d love to keep the tickets affordable & the shows all-ages… Vote for Crack in 2016! End the Drug War!!!

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Constructs of the State is out now through Fat Wreck Chords.