The Lashes Interview

On May 28th, 2006, Emilee was lucky enough to see The Lashes perform live at the Chain Reaction in Anaheim, California. And after The Lashes' set, she was able to interview Ben, along with other members of the band that were sitting backstage or walking through.

BD: Bandictionary
BC: Ben Clark
SR: Scotty Rickard
JH: Jacob Hoffman

BD: For those who haven't heard of you before, can you tell us your lineup?
BC: Yeah. Our lineup is... Who do I start with? I have to be fair! I don't know who to start with... Well, since Scotty's here, we'll start with Scotty. Plus, he's like the manager; he's like the owner of the band. He's like the mastermind, anyway. But no one knows. So, Scotty Rickard plays guitar, Mike Loggins plays drums, Jacob Hoffman plays the keyboard, Nate Mooter plays bass, and me, Ben Clark, sings and dances foolishly.

BD: So what's the story behind your name?
BC: I had an ex-girlfriend who really wanted to be in a band called The Lashes, and I thought it was a great name, and so I took it from her, and... Well, maybe that's a bad story. We really liked that it was either really tough, like weird, and also it's kinda girly and sweet. And we were like, "Oh, well, we're kinda like that. We're dirty, nice boys." Maybe that's what we should have been called - the Dirty Nice Boys. but, the Lashes fit really well.

BD: How'd you get started? Whose idea was it?
BC: I moved to Seattle right after I graduated high school in Spokane and really wanted to be in a real band that went on tour and put out records and was a band that was a band, not like, a hobby, I guess? So I moved over and kind of bided my time and waited and tried to find the right people to be in the band. It took three years to get all of the right people together. I met Eric when he was my boss at a Levi's store when I got a job there. We'd slack off in the back room and play guitars, so I was like, "All right, you're the guitar player." And we met Jacob when we were working at a telemarketing job, and he overheard us talking about maybe having keyboards in our band, and he was like, "Who's gonna play the keyboard?" and we were like, "Well, we don't really know." And he was like, "I'm gonna play the keyboard." Then he came to our next practice and he never left since. And we were like, "Okay, cool. Yeah, you're right, you are our new keyboard player." Scotty and Nate were living in Spokane and they decided it was time for them to move on from living in Spokane and everything. They were in a bar, hanging out and drinking a jug of wine and they decided, that fateful night, that they were gonna write a contract together and they were going to hold each other to it that they were gonna move to Seattle and form a band or be in a band and really do it. And so, within six months... Right? Six months? Was that the cut-off point of your contract?
SR: I don't really remember. It was...
BC: There was a timeline on it. Nate said it was six months.
SR: It probably was.
BC: So then, Scotty and Nate stuck to it and they moved all of their stuff in a weird old van that Nate was driving for a while, a gold van. And they brought all their stuff to Seattle and we finally forced them to be in The Lashes because they're just too damn adorable, so... Yeah, that's everybody.

BD: Describe your childhood.
BC: I had a great childhood. I had cool parents, who were really nice and always supportive. I liked to play baseball and ride bikes, and I really liked Pee-Wee Herman. I still like Pee-wee Herman.
BD: Well, who doesn't?
BC: Nazis. They're the only ones who don't like Pee-wee Herman. Spokane was a really all-American town; a very odd, small town where stuff happens. On the surface, it looks like a really nice, perfect place, but then there's serial killers and meth addicts, and Neo-Nazis that live nearby. So it's this whole weird thing where everything seems really perfect, but it's all a little bit twisted. The city was a really cool place to grow up, in the way where you kind of hate a lot of things about it. The people who want to stick out or do anything different really stick out. But after I was a kid and playing baseball and riding bikes, I started going to shows when I was 15. Shows in Spokane, like there's no place like the Chain Reaction or any real clubs for kids to go see shows, only in basements of churches, late at night on Fridays. It's all these dirty punk rock kids who would rent out a place and throw a show there and it was really exciting. You never knew where you were gonna go and you'd have to find directions from somebody and everyone would be there and you'd show up and it was really cool. I think all those years of going to every show that came through town, not even caring what the show was, just going to every show that we could go to was a really fun part of growing up there because it felt like you were in on a secret. Rock and roll is a secret in the whole town of fucked up, weird people, oddballs, and meth addicts. And in all of that was these kids that were rebelling by going to some masonic temple or a college cafeteria or something and watching bands play when we totally weren't supposed to be. I also liked amusement parks.

BD: Who are some of your major influences?
BC: Well, let's see. The Beatles are all of our favorites from the beginning. No one can beat them. But we listen to a lot of stuff, first off. And I don't want to be one of those people who says that they listen to a lot of stuff and they like everything or whatever. We like a lot of stuff and we hate a lot of stuff, so that kind of makes it hard. But we're really into 60's garage rock and roll, like bands in suits that play American blues rock and roll. The Zombies, The Who, and The Kinks, and The Rolling Stones, and The Faces, and that whole movement. Then we really like Elvis Costello and The Replacements and the Sex Pistols and The Ramones, like all the... See, we're fans of cool bands. That's what I should start saying. Would that work? We're fans of cool bands. We don't like bad bands and any cool band is an influence. That even goes up until, like, you know Kanye West? Really cool. So, I think he's an influence. There are some things that he's influenced me on, so I count him, even though he's not a band, but he is cool.

BD: What do you think about your increasing popularity?
BC: Are we getting popular? Is it increasing? We don't really think that we're popular yet, because we're not, you know, that's... Scotty's more popular on his own. But what is cool is that we just did our first tour of places that we've never been before and so it was reallly cool. In every town there'd be like three or five kids that totally had heard us before and were there to see us. That was the most exciting thing ever. It was like, "Oh! Great, we get to make new friends in cities that we've never been before and they already know who we are." It was kind of a lot of pressure. It's like going on a blind date and then realizing that the girl has actually been watching you for months and had decided to go on the date with you. So you kind of feel like you have to impress people.
BD: It's funny how a lot of people here didn't come to see The New Amsterdams.
BC: Is that true? Well, sometimes we'll play a show in a town that we've been to a lot of times. We've been coming here for two years and it seems like nobody remembered even who we were until the last couple of times that we played here. I think there's probably some people that were here the first time we played that are still coming, but we definitely know that we're still a small band, so it's just cool that we actually get to play shows for people that actually want to hear it.

BD: How long do you think it's going to take for your band to get really big?
BC: Jacob, how long will it take for us to get really big?
JH: About a week and a half.
BC: A week and a half. As soon as this goes to print, then I think we're gonna be really famous. We've already put in some calls to some real estate agents because we all want to move into bigger houses. And I got a stock broker. I just need to know how to buy and sell stocks now. But maybe that's why you get a stock broker, just tell him, like, "Buy me some stuff" and maybe it'll work... So, a week and a half or never. That's my answer.

BD: Describe life on the road.
BC: It's really fun. There's eight of us in the van together. There's six of us and our tour manager and our friend, Natalie, who's our merch girl and it's really fun. We go to all these places where we look like freaks. We drive to town, we check into hotels, and then we go out and try to explore the city as much as possible and go walk around and stuff, then play a show and we're gone the next day. We're like gypsies or something. So we get a really skewed version of the city we go to. Sometimes that's a great way, though. You get a snapshot in your head of what there is.

BD: Is it hard to remember where you are?
BC: I always remember where I am when we're there, but sometimes I'm hard pressed to answer where I was last night. Sometimes I have to think about it. Time moves way slower on tour for some reason. Maybe it's all the hours waiting around or sitting in the van. Every show is 30 - 45 minutes, so that's a lot of your day, planning for that part. It's really fun for us to be able to play every day because that's all we've ever wanted to do. That's the best part about touring. Getting to try different kinds of pizza in every city is the second best part of touring. ★

To learn more about The Lashes, go to myspace.com/thelashes.

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