Pennywise

“Justin is coming to Australia with us because he’s a huge fan of Pennywise, and About Time was the last album that we wrote and recorded together before Jason passed,” says guitarist Dragge. “We’re planning on playing it in its entirety, so hopefully he’ll get up and sing with us. He’s actually the guy singing on‘Bro Hymn (Tribute)’ on Full Circle [1997]. He sings with us in the chorus – you know, ‘Woah / Oh oh oh’ – and then he does his own tribute, so it’ll be cool to have him there every night.

“We’re great friends actually, Justin and me,” Dragge continues. “I played bass and did background vocals on a record for his band, Chaos Delivery Machine. He writes all the music and the lyrics. He was also the drummer for a band called 98 Mute. We put out a record [Chaos Delivery Machine’s Burn Motherfucker Burn] a couple of months ago and it’s done pretty well. It’s super hardcore punk rock – completely crazy. You’re either going to love it or hate it, but I’ve been listening the hell out of that. I didn’t write any songs, I just produced it and played bass – and made them mad!” he laughs. “I love that record.”

You can hear the joy in Dragge’s voice when he reminisces about the good times with Jason and his brother. “It’s never easy, but we’re stoked to be honouring him by bringing this record back. This is the first time we’ve actually done anything like this in our career. I know a lot of other bands have done similar stuff, but we’ve been holding out. Australia is our first stop if we decide to do a bigger tour, so we hope everyone gets crazy and is happy with what we do.”

Dragge speaks in the slow, laidback style you’d typically expect from someone who grew up in Hermosa Beach, AKA ‘The Best Little Beach City’, in Southern California – but Pennywise have never become slackers. They’re serious about giving About Time the anniversary bash it deserves. “We’re been practising our asses off re-learning the songs,” Dragge says. “Some of them we haven’t played for 15 years! So it’s pretty scary, but it’s coming together.

“Today was actually the first morning that we ran through the entire album back-to-back and it was really fun and it went by really fast. These songs are pretty hard and I don’t think we realised it until we got back in the studio to start playing them again. We were all like, ‘Wow!’ We were just talking about how crazy Jason’s lyric style was and his melodies. He would come up with a melody and then he would shove like 20 words into one little line and it’s really difficult to sing, but it’s really effing cool.

“So we’ll play the whole album and then we’ll go back and do a mash-up of songs off all the albums and throw in some stuff off Yesterdays [2014], and it should be a good eventful night of mayhem.”

Pennywise’s most recent release, Yesterdays, is actually a collection of previously unrecorded songs written in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Revisiting these forgotten treasures was a way to pay homage to the late Thirsk, but also seemed like a fitting way to welcome back lead singer Lindberg after his departure in 2009.

“We had to go back and re-learn these songs too,” says Dragge. “They were all just demo tapes or recordings from backyard parties and very early shows. Nothing was really salvageable, so we had to re-learn that stuff. We were fighting over the notes because the quality was so bad on most of the recordings [laughs]. But it was pretty cool to get in the studio and give them a proper going over to get them sounding kind of contemporary, even though we used a lot of old-school recording methods. It was fun. It was a good way to remember Jason again – and going back to the beginning of the band, to the very first thing we’d recorded, was a good healing process. At the same time, being all together in the recording studio is a nightmare, because we’re all freaks!”

The good news is that Pennywise are preparing to let their freak flag fly once again with word that they’re working on a new album. “We’re working on new stuff – I have about six songs right now,” Dragge confirms. “I know Jim’s got a bunch and Randy has some too, so we plan on throwing them all together. Hopefully we’ll get in the studio early next year and try to have something out next summer – maybe earlier, who knows? But I’ve definitely got new songs and I’m feeling good about them.

“I think it’s going to be an interesting process. We’ve got a couple of people tentatively pencilled in to produce the album – two huge people in the punk rock scene and in the producing scene. I won’t say their names because it’s not 100 per cent confirmed yet, but we’re talking and if they’re involved it’s going to be really cool. Obviously I think it’ll be a really good record, but I think at the same time it’ll be a really cool experience and the fans will be stoked as well – but it’s top secret right now.”

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