As previously mentioned, I was able to chat with singer/guitarist Ryan Ferguson of No Knife, which is supporting three dates (Los Angeles, San Diego and Tempe) on Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity x 10 tour.
A story I wrote on No Knife advancing Saturday’s show can be found here. But there was plenty from my interview with Ferguson that was left out. So I figured I’d present it here, save for our geek talk about spring training and fantasy baseball. (Ferguson plays in an adult baseball league with former Rocket from the Crypt bassist Pete Reichert.)
(Both of 1999’s Fire in the City of Automatons.)
Did you guys envision doing anything beyond this?
“I guess it’s still too early to say either way. But we were gonna do one secret show here in San Diego in April for all the people that were unable to get tickets to any of these Jimmy shows or the Casbah anniversary show last month. Tickets for these (Jimmy Eat World) shows went so fast, there were so many people that unfortunately weren’t able to snake a ticket. … I can’t say for sure, but we are, as of now, technically scheduled to do one more show.”
How often have you been practicing?
“We started back in July or maybe August for that Casbah show. But it’s not consistent, not every week since July. It’s just kind of whenever people’s schedules allowed. We rehearsed maybe seven or eight times before that first show to make sure we were solid and felt comfortable playing those parts again. Of course, (singer/guitarist) Mitch (Wilson) and I, specifically guitar-wise, had completely forgotten everything.”
Had you messed with any No Knife songs since you guys took hiatus?
“No, although in my little pop-song records, I’m still the same songwriter, so I’ll still use some of the same chords and same chord progressions. Although, No Knife tunes higher than any other band I’ve played in. We all tune up to F. So it sounds a little sharper. Some people have described it as ‘candy coated’ sometimes or whatever they wanna say because there’s a weird little unique sharpness to the songs. I sometimes play the same chords and it’ll remind me of the songs … but, no, I haven’t messed with any of that stuff.”
You guys toured with Jimmy Eat World when Clarity came out. What do you remember from that tour? Was it a long tour?
“I don’t remember … we did so many little tours together and they all kind of rolled into each other. I don’t think it was some three-month-long tour. I think we did maybe six weeks with them and took a break then maybe three or four more weeks. I don’t really remember. I just remember there was a solid and automatic chemistry with all those guys immediately. When Static Prevails had come out, I was into the band because they recorded out here in San Diego with Mark (Trombino). I swear to God, and I told all my friends this … even playing together in these little tiny basement shows … we would play shows in people’s garages before or after the actual club show and even just playing these tiny shows in front of 25 people, there was something about Jimmy Eat World that I just knew. They had it. There was something about these guys … I just knew they were gonna go places. Therefore, I was just so stoked to be a part of it from the early days. Those guys have not changed one bit.
“We had so much fun. In the Clarity year, I brought my friend Eric out with us. At the time, he got this brand-new digital video camera. We documented about … I think we have 32 hours worth of tape. I don’t have a mini DV recorder or playback machine and he took his camera with him and he’s living in Argentina. I know he has half the tapes in storage and I was able to snake like 15 or 20 of them. None of it has ever been edited, none of it has ever been seen by the Jimmy guys. I’m sure they’ve totally forgotten about everything. We had so much fun on those tours. … They haven’t changed at all and their audience has only grown and grown and grown. It’s cool to see bands finally get the success they deserve, like true success.”
