Anti-Flag *interview with Pat (drums)*
Anti-Flag
Justin Sane (Justin Cathal Geever) – lead vocals, rhythm & lead guitar
Chris #2 – lead vocals, bass guitar
Chris Head – lead & rhythm guitars, backing vocals
Pat Thetic – drums, percussion
Anti-Flag is an outspoken foursome from Pittsburgh, PA. Â They mainly sing punk rock anthems directed towards political issues. Â They are widely known for disagreeing with Bush’s policies, and often speak ill of him at their shows. While half their fans probably don’t know two shits about politics, they sure love singing along! =)
The band formed in 1988, and while all the members aren’t original, I had the chance to talk with one of the founding members, Pat Thetic (drums).
Me and Pat (drums, Anti-Flag)
*interview is best viewed in browers OTHER than Internet Explorer. For some reason the text won’t show up nine times out of ten in IE.
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Pat live @ Warped Tour 2009
What do you say to people when they accuse you of being anti-America because of the name Anti Flag? I know you all probably get that a lot.
Yes, and it depends who’s asking. If it’s some redneck guy then I say “yeah fuck you, I’m anti-American” just because it’s more fun to say. If it’s someone is actually looking for some information, who’s actually questioning and not just attacking… We grew up during the era of the first Gulf War, when George Bush senior was trying to rally everybody to go to war in Iraq the first time. And we noticed that they wrapped themselves in the flag, figuratively, in the sense that if they put the flag around themselves, and say well, “I am in possession of the flag, therefore anything I say goes.” And we always thought that was complete crap, and we thought that was blind Nationalism and you should always question everything. People think that Anti Flag must be against America, but no, we’re against the idea that people in power use the flag and use patriotism to get young people to go off and do things that are against their own self-interest.
Is that where the name came from?
Yeah, that’s where it came from. I mean, what is a young person gaining from fighting and dyeing in the Middle East? Their fuel prices are not any cheaper, you know, they’re not getting better jobs from doing that, they’re not getting more food for their families. It’s amazing how people can say, “oh, well it’s for country, you should do it.” And the actuality is, it’s for corporations and you should do it. We always thought that was a pretty screwed up thing. So, when people ask “are you against America?” the answer is no, we’re not against America. We’re against the corporatization of America and the killing of people for their personal gain.
On that same note, has there ever been any riots at any of your shows, since you are very political?
We’ve never had any riots at our shows, but we’ve almost been beat up a couple of times. Actually, we were just in Russia and there were bomb threats?
At your show?
Yeah they brought the dogs in. The one show had already started and they had to clear all the kids out, and they brought the dogs in to sweep the room. So we don’t just piss off Americans, we piss of Russians too. So, no riots luckily.
Any picketing?
Oh, yeah we’ve definitely had people picket. Actually there was this great show, back in the day. This was in Oklahoma City, playing at a fire hall somewhere, and there was this lone guy out front with this sign, an American flag, and so pissed off that we were there. And in that environment, that intrigues me and excites me, because I’m like, this kid is thinking about things. He is charged, he has a vision about the way the world should be. And I’m thinking, I have a vision about the way the world should be. We have a lot in common, so we should talk. And we tried to talk, you know. He was not as interested and willing to talk as I was… but yeah there are always a lot of people out there who are not real happy with us doing what we’re doing, and you know, I’m in favor of that. We are here to say what we think is important, and you’re welcome to come out and say what you think is important. What’s not helpful, is when there’s “fuck you,” “shut the hell up,” “I’m gonna kick your ass.” That doesn’t help anybody…
talking with Pat in the laundry room
Do you feel like this happens more often when you’re outside of America?
No actually, it’s in the U.S. that people are most tweaked by us, and on some levels, we understand the American culture, so we understand what tweaks people. And we all have to feel uncomfortable to change, so I think it’s an artist’s job to tweak people to some extent. So when we go to Europe, we don’t understand the culture enough in order to tweak people as much as we do in the States.
Do you think people outside the U.S. understand the political message?
They do, I think they understand it on a simpler level. There’s all those nuances here of whether Obama is better than John Kerry. There’s all the nuances here, but when we’re in Europe it’s more that people deserve to be taken care of, and that we all deserve human rights.
And they probably don’t take it as personal.
Exactly, and that’s the other thing. People in Europe are not as emotionally attached, say to George W. Bush, as some of the people in the South were, or in Texas who actually voted for the guy, thinking he was going to do good things, but then he turned around and became a complete bastard. Then they’re like. “oh fuck, you’re commenting on George Bush is also commenting on my decision making.” You know, it makes people uncomfortable.
Anti-Flag live @ Warped Tour 2009
So with that said, where does anarchism fit into all this?
I’m not an anarchist in the strict sense of the word, I’m more of a socialist. I believe that we all need to put the wealth and the resources into a pot and divide them up, so that everyone gets a fair share. And I realize that in the world we live in that’s not possible right now, but we can move toward those ideals. I would love to be in a world where I come and play music for you, and you make me dinner and give me a place to stay, and we’re all giving what we can and taking what we need.
Because you all are so political, do you play in places like Texas?
Yeah we just played in Texas last week.
Do you ever get nervous, like, “Oh God, people are going to kill me.”
In the world that we live in right now, people know what we are about. When we were younger we’d go to cities and they would be like, “oh we booked this band called Anti Flag.” And then we’d come in with this big upside down American flag, and we’d talk about these issues. And people were like, “now we’re going to kill them,” because they didn’t know, they came to see a punk rock show, and we just made them feel uncomfortable… then they wanna kick our ass. Now people are much more understanding of what they’re getting. They sort of have an idea of what to expect. We’ve been a band for a fucking long time.
I know you all don’t like cops very much..
Not always my favorite people…
Do you all know any cops personally?
I do, haha, and this is the unfortunate thing about the police that I know. My uncle was a cop… complete dick. And guys I knew in high school who became cops… complete shitheads. And I’m sure there’s definitely good cops, but it’s funny because people always ask me, “don’t you know any cops?” And I’m like, “yeah, I know them and their complete dickheads.” But I know there are good cops out there too.
Anti-Flag live @ Warped Tour 2009
Do you ever listen to Leftover Crack at all?
I love them! They’re one of my favorite bands.
I wouldn’t compare you all in sound, but you have the same message, you know?
Yeah, I love them, they’re all good dudes.
How do you think Pittsburg has changed over the years? Do you still live there now?
I do. It’s definitely got a lot more ‘white collar’ work going on. It’s weird because in the seventies it was only blue collar work, and then the bottom dropped out, so there was no work. Now it’s definitely coming back as white collar.
Were you in Pittsburg for the Super Bowl?
Unfortunately I was. I was there for both the Super Bowl and the Stanley Cup, and I don’t care about either one.
Are you involved in local politics?
Not a whole lot, because we’re not really around enough to be in on the grass roots stuff, but we know a lot of the players who are in the trenches doing the local work and local activism. We’re friends with them and whenever we can get involved, we like to be involved, but it’s just that we’re not home enough…
Anti-Flag live @ Warped Tour 2009
So you don’t drink, but was there ever a time when you did party?
No, no I come from a long line of alcoholics and fuck ups, so I made that choice to not continue that.
So what is the grossest thing you’ve ever seen on tour?
We were on tour in our RV and we would load it up with all our gear and all the people and you know, RVs are designed to carry a couple of old grandparents around and not eight to ten dudes and a bunch of gear. And in this RV, if you peed in the toilet, you’d actually have to empty the toilet out, which just sucked and nobody wanted to do that, so we all just started to pee in plastic bottles. This is before we realized that plastic bottles were the devil and we shouldn’t be using plastic bottles… but this was like eight or nine years ago, so we were all peeing in plastic bottles and you could just take them, and get rid of them. So we were going up this mountain in California and the truck started to overheat, and the transmission fluid as it expanded, would get on the manifold and lit the manifold on fire. So the whole bottom of the truck was on fire. Our driver realizes this, and says “everybody out, the truck’s on fire.” The only thing we had to put the fire out was bottles of urine, so we were underneath the truck throwing bottles of urine on the fire, so the whole RV didn’t burn to the ground to kill us all.
On your last record, you did a song with Tom Morello. Do you all feel like you have an obligation to fill the shoes of bands like Rage Against the Machine, after they’re gone?
We don’t have big enough egos to feel like we have to fill Rage Against the Machine’s shoes. However, we were happy, because we were a band for a long time before RATM became the huge band that they were. And it was great to see bands who were out there and talking about that stuff. The more bands, and the more higher profile bands that are talking about these issues, the better for everybody. Tom is an amazing dude, and I would love to be anywhere close to his shoes, but that’s not what we’re doing, that’s not what we’re about.
Is there anything you’d like to add, anything coming up in the future?
Well we had a record come out a couple weeks ago, and that’s called the People are the Gun. Every record has some great moments and some moments that aren’t as great. This record has some moments that are really great, because we were just four dudes in a room, making it happen.
Do you have a favorite song of all time? I mean of your band.
I have a couple favorite songs. “Smartest Bomb”, we did today is a strong song, just in the idea of we’re always talking about smart weapons and how these weapons are going to stop war. And if we only have this one weapon, it’s going to stop people from attacking each other from now on. “Smartest Bomb” is about, “I am the smartest bomb you’re ever going to have,” because I can blow myself up and fuck everything up, but I can also stop, and make the choice that violence is never going to stop violence from happening.
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Official Site
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About the Author
Denise Borders 39, Los Angeles. Denise founded PWV in 2008 and remains the primary manager and photographer/videographer. She is not secretly obsessed with Joey Cape.
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