LA’s Veteran Ska/Punk/Funk Pioneers Reflect on the Band’s 30+ Year History

“You know what? Nobody promised that this road would be easy and we continue to break down the barriers.”

“Everybody in the music business is stupid but Fishbone”

Fishbone has been blazing a bass-poppin’, funk-stompin’, ska-studded trail for over 30 years. Often cited as a primary influence on bands such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, No Doubt, Sublime and countless others, the group recently unveiled a new documentary on their history entitled Everyday Sunshine. Founders Angelo Moore (vocals and sax) and Norwood Fisher (bass) chatted with Performer on the origins of the group, their new recordings and what it’s like to still be fighting racial stereotypes in rock and roll.

I’ve been a huge fan of Fishbone for many, many years. I think I actually saw you guys for the first time in the movie Tapeheads as the country house band. I know that you’ve got the new documentary out and I was wondering if you could explain to our readers a little bit about why now, and what the documentary means to you guys.

Angelo: Well, why now? Because it’s about time. What it means to me, man, is it’s a really good artistic representation of Fishbone as we know us now. I don’t think it could ever really truly describe Fishbone in detail, our whole history, man, but it’s a pretty good representation of how we put the band out there.

After 25 plus years, you guys are still making new music. I know you’ve got an EP out now – what still drives you to create when other bands who have been in it so long kind of just trot out the hits and do the same old thing?

Norwood: Well, one, as artists, we are very fortunate to continue to have a high level of output. Like Angelo with Dr. Mad Vibe as a side project, constantly writing, constantly creating. I have my side project that I do on my own and with other people and I’m constantly writing, producing, creating – there’s still a lot of room to do it with Fishbone as well, as we’ve got new members in the band with a lot of creativity, too. We really look forward to tapping deeply into that. And as artists, it’s important for us to keep it fresh.

You actually touched upon something – the core of the group, you and Angelo, have been in it since the beginning. But there have been a lot of people that have come and gone through Fishbone. Is that part of what keeps it fresh for you guys, playing with new musicians all the time?

Angelo: Yeah, man, y’know…being a part of the evolution I guess it’s all…it’s fresh whether you like it or not – when you get somebody new in the band, get new blood in the band. It’s like a new blood transfusion; it’s like a new refreshing component in the whole operation. Some bands stay together with the original members, but with Fishbone we’ve had some people quit and then some new people come in and put a different flavor on it. A new interpretation and perspective on the music.

Yeah, and you’ve had people leave and come back, too.

Norwood: Yeah, Walt [Kibby, trumpet, vocals]. Originally, he took a little break and seven years later he came back and that excites me to no end, actually, having Walt back. Walt was a big part of being in Fishbone and coming to this point in my life.

Awesome, I’m glad to have him back in the band, as well. You guys have obviously been around the block in the industry. I’m curious – if you could go back and talk to the young Angelo and the young Norwood, is there any advice you would give them, knowing what you know now?

Norwood: Well, actually, we’d be like ‘take that music business course in city college when you get outta high school.’ [laughs] ‘Or take an accounting class along the way.’ Something to that effect.

Angelo: Yeah, yeah – because we learned it the hard way, y’know? Yeah, so you gotta watch who’s handlin’ your money and shit like that. Even though your head might be immersed in the music and the art, which in a lot of cases that’s what [music industry executives] like – they want you to keep your head in the art and the music and not really in the business and the money. But it’s good to be able to see both of those things equally, man. And not get ripped off.

Do you guys feel that you’ve been taken advantage of?

Angelo: Yes.

One of the cool things about Fishbone is that you guys constantly get cited as an influence – Red Hot Chili Peppers, No Doubt – tons of bands that came out in the late ’90s, that new wave of ska. Is there any frustration when you see a band blow up, knowing that they are making it bigger than some of their influences, or is it just a cool thing to see people dropping your name when they get to that level?

Norwood: For me, personally, I enjoy seeing people come up. And if they happen to be influenced by Fishbone, I feel like in some ways that validates where we’ve come from, what we’ve done that year, if they drew from us and were able to create something. And the fact that the music business might have been confused by looking at the color of our skin and hearing our music and going like, ‘We don’t know what to do with them,’ well that’s not those artists’ fault. I just look at it like, ‘You know what? Nobody promised that this road would be easy and we continue to break down the barriers.’ And partially why we keep making new music is because every time we make new music, we keep knocking the doors wider open.

That’s a good segue into talking about the new record. I know for me, at least, part of the Fishbone experience is seeing you guys live. I’m interested to hear what the recording process looks for you guys. How do you take that energy and put it on tape?

Angelo: We just do a lot of overdubs, man. We’ll record it and in most cases, just strip it down and then do a lot of overdubbing until we can get a precise part right.

Do you guys prefer live band takes for rhythm or horn sections to keep that energy?

Norwood: There’s a process. We do as much live…we try to get as much live energy as possible. And overdub what’s necessary. Lately we don’t practice a whole helluva lot, so we end up doing a lot of overdubs. Really…we know how to perform and attack our instruments in a way that when you bring out that energy, you focus and put the energy you want to hear back out into your instrument.

Do you go into the studio with fully realized songs or are you still doing a lot of songwriting during the recording process?

Norwood: You might go in thinking you have something completely figured out and you get in there, listen back and go, ‘There’s a lot of different things that need to change.’

The EP just dropped and the rumor is that there are plans for a full length after that. Care to comment on that?

Angelo: Yeah, sure man, we’ll have a new record coming out.

Great. And I’m assuming there are plans to tour behind that?

Angelo: Yeah, behind the full length, and we got the EP that’s out right now, we’ve got touring coming up on that, too.

After 25, 30 years of doing this, what are you guys most proud of? If you had to pinpoint one accomplishment from Fishbone’s rich history, what would that be?

Norwood: Personally, I’m proud of still being here, of enduring and the fact that this far in the game we can still be discovered like a new band to some people, along with having a very dedicated and strong fan base. The longevity and the influence on the music industry is really the thing that I hold dear.

Does it bother you guys at all that after all these years, the press, for some reason, still has to describe you as a ‘black band’?

Angelo: Well, man, I just look at it as the American music business is stuck on stupid.

I’m going to quote you as saying ‘everyone in the business is stupid.’ That’s going to be the headline.

Angelo: Well, everybody in the music business is stupid but Fishbone. That’s how you’ll title it.

That’s how I’ll do it: ‘Everybody in the music business is stupid’ with an asterisk and then at the bottom put ‘except for Fishbone.’

Norwood: Hey, that’s right. There you go.

Well guys, I know that you have to run…

Angelo: Awwwww shit…[laughs]

What?

Angelo: It’s true that after all this time, they’ve still gotta be, ‘Well you guys are a black band and blah blah blah.’ It’s like, man, didn’t that shit…that shit shoulda been gone with the fucking whole racial shit with Little Richard and Chuck Berry, right? Even after the Black/White Coalition came around that shoulda been a big enough red flag to know, that it’s like…white, Mexican, fucking every goddamn body, man. Just be together. A lot of people don’t know what’s really going on.

And I still see it in descriptions of the band – for live shows or if you’ve got a new record coming out or a press release on some website – it’s always in there. I’m frustrated with it and I’m white.

Angelo: Yeah, you know it’s that teabaggers shit.

Norwood: You know, one day black youth will create the next [style] of music that everybody wants to jump on and hip-hop will turn into a white dominated music form. And then fucking 20-30 years into it there’ll be black rap bands.

Well, here’s hoping.

Norwood: Just like, I don’t know of any 19-year-old reggae bands from Jamaica that are selling out concerts all over the place but there are a whole lot of white kids playing reggae. And it’s beautiful, but reggae…

Angelo: [cutting him off] You gotta sell the white boy reggae coming up. It’s selling bigger than the originals by Jamaican reggae acts in a lot of places.

Norwood: I’m not mad at the white guys playing reggae, but I do wonder. Where are these young 19-year-old black guys doing reggae getting bigger? The young black guy that’s playing reggae that’s killing it on bass, the young black drummer… It’s like, ‘What happened?’

I wish I could answer that.

Norwood: That’s what happened to rock and roll. We’ve seen it happen to reggae…it’s gonna happen to rap one day. The black youth will create the next thing that people gotta fucking hang on their nuts on.

www.fishbone.net

Photos by Jeff Farsai