Fan Q&A ~ The Slants: May 9, 2009
ACen - Chicago, IL
After their concert on Friday, the Slants gave a Q&A panel for their fans. Unfortunately, few people showed up due to a scheduling conflict. However, it was a very intimate and relaxed setting that was more fun than any interview could've been. For forty minutes, the Slants answered questions about the band and their personal lives for their fans.
So you guys are going through a line-up change, right?
Simon: Yeah, our keyboardist Gaijin is leaving the band.
What about Jen-Cho?
Simon: Jen left last September. She kind of wanted to focus on school, so that was a priority for her, and our schedule is so crazy that she just can't keep up with both the band and school. And then Gaijin, he's moving to Japan for school.
Aron: And I'm being replaced by Ken! (everyone laughs)
Ken: Not!
Aron: Ken's the new lead singer!
Ken: Nah!
Simon: So yeah, but we go through a lot of line-up changes, anyways.
(to Ken) Are you a member of the band, too?
Ken: I am! I do everything but sing and play!
And what's your name?
Ken: Ken.
Simon: Ken fixes all our stuff that we break.
Ken: I kind of came with Tyler, the new drummer. Tyler and I have been together on projects for six years.
Where is Tyler?
Ken: He's asleep.
Simon: He's like super sick. And actually Ken was holding a vomit bag behind the drum set the whole time, in case, whenever Tyler needed to puke.
Ken: If he tipped over, I was gonna pick him up.
Simon: He was just feeling ill.
Well hopefully he feels better!
Ken: He's feeling better now, he just took a shower, he sweated out a lot of it drumming. I'm proud of him, he got through it even though he wasn't feeling well.
No more eating bad food!
Johnny: (pointing at Aron) He and I both ate it, and we're both fine.
Ken: Yeah, they both survived!
Aron: We both have really strong Phillipino and Vietnamese stomachs, we're used to eating like dog and stuff! (laughs)
Is dog pretty good?
Aron: I actually haven't had dog, I wanna go back and try it. I tried tortoise this year.
This is a question for Aron. Do your tattoos meet anything for you?
Aron: Yeah, they're all Asian tattoos, and really they go, one side's Hell, and one side's Heaven. Kind of ying yang, good and bad, cause they interlock on my chest. I've got the good done but I don't have the bad done yet. I've got my head tattooed with Vietnamese stars.
Where, under your hair?
Aron: Yeah, and actually when it grow out you can kind of see it through my hair. See the yellow? When I first got 'em, everyone was like, 'Why did you get a tattoo of Carl's Jr on your head?' I even went to Vietnamese restaurants and they're like, 'Carl's Jr!' No, dummy, it's our flag! (laughs)
I recently got a tattoo, too. It's "merveilles," it's French for "wonders" but it's also an album from one of my favorite bands.
Aron: We haven't put that album out yet!
(everyone laughs)
No, I'm sorry, my favorite band is Malice Mizer!
Aron: It's in our future, you know!
You guys have to last long enough for her to get a tattoo of you guys.
Aron: We've actually had a girl get a tattoo of the Slants on her arm!
Is she in the Slants army?
Aron: Uhm...no.
Simon: You know, surprisingly this girl got our tattoo, and she like never goes to our shows or anything.
That's kind of sad. What's the point of getting the tattoo?
Simon: I don't know, and I was like, hey you got us tattooed on you, you can go to any of our shows for free if you want. And we invited her out, and she's like, Oh, I can't make it, or Oh, I was doing something else. Get that tattoo covered up! Well I don't care...
Aron: You know, as a member...no, I'm going to say, specifically as a guy, you never get a girl's name tattooed on you, or the name of your band. Cause you might get dumped, you might get kicked out of the band.
Simon: Like Gaijin and Jen Cho...!
Aron: AC, Gaijin, and Jen Cho!
My mom's name is Lucille, and my dad has Louis.
Aron: That's nice! (laughs) I do like the old tattoo, where it has like Sally crossed out!
Simon: That's why he has so many tattoos on his arms! (everyone laughs)
Aron: No! I haven't had a single cover-up! And actually I have been in a lot of magazines because of my tattoos.
That's really cool! Like tattoo magazines?
Aron: I don't tattoo. I go in to shops and just get them done...
Simon: We recently had a calendar published with Aron modeling all his tattoos...
Aron: A what?
Simon: A male model calendar. Portland's Hottest Indie Musician Guys, so Aron was in there.
And you guys weren't!?
Simon: Well, they wanted the whole band, and we just could never work it out in the schedule, so they're like, 'We don't want to do like half the band.' He's the lead singer, so might as well have him since he's the front man. They gave us a deadline, and he ended up being able to do it and it was great.
Ken: So as you can see, it's a very resiliant band! Gone through changes in their line-up...many changes...
Simon: Yeah, that's how it goes...
Are you guys getting more members, then?
Simon: We're looking for a new keyboard player, but we're not in a hurry. We're looking for the right fit. Like the three of us (Simon, Johnny, and Aron), we've been together for like a year and a half, and people have come and gone since then. As long as you have the core.
How many anime conventions do you do, versus actual concerts?
Simon: Well, the band's done about 35 performances at anime cons, and we've done about 140 rock club shows now. It's a pretty good percentage, but it's not all we do. There's a lot of anime conventions out there; not all of them can have us out. We do a lot of regional touring, a lot of west coast touring.
Aron: Last summer we took two months off, and did the US twice. That was two months in a row.
Simon: Yeah we did coast to coast last summer, that was two months in a row, we did six conventions I think just in that one summer. And then we did a show just like every night.
Aron: This summer we are going to do a lot more small tours, nine days at a time, and work on our new album.
When you go to conventions, do you have a lot of people who are familiar with you, singing along with your lyrics, or is it mostly new people?
Johnny: It depends, but generally we find, if it's northwest, most of the kids will know our songs. But Chicago, it's our first time playing here.
Aron: Although I thought one kid was singing...
Simon: Yeah, I did see a few people.
Aron: Johnny doesn't really look at the crowd, he's looking at his guitar to make sure he's doing his close chords right...and yeah, there were several kids singing our lyrics tonight.
Simon: There were some kids here who saw us in St.Louis, and some other kids from Nashville who came up, so it was pretty cool seeing that. It just kind of depends, usually west coast, that's were most of the devout fans are, because we spend a lot more time out there.
Aron: But then we were in New York, in a club, and this one girl was singing all of our lyrics! She heard about us from angryasianman.com. The internet is so easy to get ahold of, to kind of dig bands and listen to them over and over. So when they hit your town, even though we're from Portland and we're visiting New York, we have fans come out that we've never seen before. It's cool for them to be there supporting us and give us good vibes. That's really nice.
Have you guys ever played in Milwaukee, WI?
Aron: Yes! Or...no!
Simon: We played in Eau Claire, WI last year.
Aron: I like Milwaukee, but my favorite town in the country to play, and I've told the band this many times: Madison. Madison is sooo kickass! But Milwaukee I've been to. I used to ride Harley Davidsons, and back in 2003 they had their 100 year anniversary. I drove my Harley from Portland to Milwaukee. Half a million of us riding Harleys...it was such a party! Milwaukee is a great party town, but Madison, I just love the scene.
So you've never been to Madison as the Slants?
Simon: No, Eau Claire is the only Wisconsin city we've been to.
You should change that!
Simon: We're working on that, it's just kind of hard with our schedule, plus we have our normal life that we get around to, as well. So we try to balance it out!
So what is your life?
Simon: Like our secret lives outside of the band?
Yes, tell us all your secrets!
Simon: Well, I work for American Cancer Society. I raise money for people who have cancer, and help those who do have it to get education, services. We do free wigs for people who are going through chemo. It's a very rewarding position there. It takes a lot of time, but they're really awesome and super flexible, so I love it there. Then I have a little puppy.
Aww, what's your puppy's name?
Simon: It's an American Eskimo, his name is Bao Bao. He's a little white fluffy ball. I just rescued him from the shelter like two or three weeks ago.
Aron: A shelter that my old band-mate runs now!
Johnny: (to Aron) I always tell Simon that Bao Bao reminds me of you. (everyone laughs)
Aron: Like how?
Johnny: He's always sneezing and blowing! (everyone laugsh)
Aron: I manage a bar and besides being a registered stud offender...(everyone looks at Aron) That was pretty good, right?
A registered stud offender? (laughter)
Aron: I offend studs a lot, cause I'm so studly. I've been working on that for a while!
Simon: That was pretty bad! (everyone laughs)
Aron: I thought about that one for months! What's funny, in the mirror, I did that a lot better! (everyone laughs) No, I manage a bar, and I used to snowboard professionally, and I like to ride motorcycles.
You used to snowboard professionally?
Aron: Yeah, I used to enter competitions and stuff.
Johnny: And you were a dishwasher--
Aron: And hated it! I was a dishwasher and it was terrible! Everyone was a dishwasher at 14! It was my job after I got a paper route! It was so horrible!
Johnny: I manage a drywall store. It's very simple, but I have to wake up at 6 o'clock every morning.
Ken: I'll speak up for Tyler. Tyler is an administrator at Clark College in Vancouver, WA. He runs the e-learning division, and he does a lot of side jobs, as well. He builds websites for people. It's extra money to come in. And I work for Tyler, whatever Tyler needs; he's in two bands, the Slants is one of them. Anything to help him be successful.
Simon: I also manage and consult bands, as well, so I manage like half a dozen bands.
So you're used to this, touring and everything.
Simon: Yeah, I've been doing music for a very long time.
Aron: I played in a band, and he came and wanted to get lessons from me. I told him, that's ok, he can do that, and then he wanted to start a band with me, and it was pretty cool. (everyone laughs)
Simon: Not really!
Johnny: (to Simon) What's your side of the story?
Aron: Besides taking lessons from me in how to rock! I heard you fell on stage today! (everyone laughs)
Ken: That was funny, did you all see that!?
Simon: I stumbled twice!
Johnny: (laughing) I totally tripped him!
Simon: That wasn't right! (everyone laughs)
Johnny: Well we have a thing, if someone doesn't fall or bleed or get hurt...it's fine.
I know you're all Asian, do you release your ages? Like most Asians don't release their ages, especially in Japan and China.
Aron: Oh yeah we totally do. They're on our website.
Are they your real ages?
Simon: Actually there's nothing on our website about it.
Aron: I'm 34.
Johnny: He's the old man in the band.
Yeah? Who's the youngest?
Johnny: I'm the youngest.
Simon: I'm just in the middle...actually now I'm the second oldest.
Ken: Tyler's 27.
Johnny: I'm 25.
Simon: I'm 28, and our drummer's 27.
Ken: So they're all in their twenties...just one in his thirties.
Simon: See, he acts like he's in his teens, so it balances out!
How many languages do you have to learn for your concerts?
Simon: Well we mainly just tour the US and Canada, where they speak English. We are planning some overseas things, but usually we'd get a translator. We have someone named Yumi, she can be seen at a number of our shows, she's our Japanese translator.
Aron: And my fiancée. (everyone goes Awww!) Yeah, she's the love of my life! It's thanks to Gaijin that I met her. She was an exchange student for four years. This is a little different from an exchange...
Speaking of Gaijin,now that he's leaving the band, are you going to have another non-Asian in your band?
Simon: It's just gotta be the right person.
Aron: We prefer an Asian, to keep it with the Slants, but it's hard to find sometimes. Especially Portland, we've got a big Asian community, but...
Simon: Not many of them are into the rock 'n roll scene. The most important thing to us is just that we can find someone that we can really get along with, and someone who has the availability and is just really committed. Someone who cares about the music, and cares about the fans.
Aron had to leave; everyone says good-bye
You guys are doing another show tomorrow...
Simon: Yeah, we have a show tomorrow at 2pm.
Are you going to play the same set as yesterday?
Simon: I don't know, you'll have to come to find out! We might switch it around a little bit, play different songs...
(editor's note: the Slants were unable to perform Saturday due to extrenuating circumstances)
Speaking of which, you played a couple new songs today!
Simon: From the forthcoming album.
What's the album called?
Simon: Well we haven't decided on a name yet...right now it's possibly going to be called The Yellow Album.
Johnny: Don't say that! You burst the bubble...!
Ken: It's ok, it's anticipated! The Beatles had The White Album, the Slants have The Yellow Album!
Johnny: JAY-Z has The Black Album, too.
Simon: So we're still writing and recording. Hopefully we're going to have that released in late summer, possibly early to mid-fall.
What are your thoughts about Gaijin leaving?
Ken: He's going to study in Japan. His major is JAPANese, and he was accepted at a university in Japan, so it's just an excellent opportunity for him.
Simon: Yeah, we're really happy for him, because it's been his dream. He's been wanting this for his whole life, and since he got into this very prestigious school, we're very happy for him. You know, sometimes people just come and go in the band, and we keep going.
Johnny: It's not going to affect the way we tour.
I was on your MySpace, and I saw you uploaded some remixes, Slants Slants Revolution mixes.
Simon: It's kind of DDR-inspired, in that it's very para para and kind of techno, dance-heavy. They're just a bunch of remixes of our songs; we haven't decided yet...we might or might not release them in this album called Slants Slants Revolution. That would just be a remix album of Slanted Eyes, Slanted Hearts, with a more dancy, club kind of vibe.
Have you ever dealt with a crazy fan?
Simon: Yeah, we have an interesting following sometimes... Well one time, one of the convention staff members who was working security...I was actually stuck in Florida, so I couldn't get where the band was playing to help take care of these kind of things. She invited herself to stay in our band's hotel room, and claimed to be our guest liason to take care of everything when she didn't have that position.
Johnny: It was really awkward...
Simon: And then she got everybody's phone numbers, because she was like, 'Well I have to call you for when your panels are and everything.' And she was texting the band like five or six times a day, and there'd be like ten emails a day. It got ridiculous, so I sent her a message saying, 'Look, we actually have to pay for our cell phones, so unless it's business-related, please just send us an email.' She was ringing up our phone bills because she was texting us every couple hours! We'd be playing a show, and she'd be texting us while we were on stage, even though she wasn't there! It got kind of old after a while. Sometimes that just happens, and you just deal with it.
Did she stop after that?
Simon: Yeah, she has been really respectful since then. Some people just don't know where the line is, and they keep pressing. But it's ok, we're still here.
So speaking of your fans, can you talk about The Slants Army?
Simon: Well The Slants Army is kind of going through a makeover right now. We like to say that are our biggest fans are like an army, that's going to cause this rock'n roll revolution. We used to have buttons that said Proud Member of The Slants Army, we had stickers, and some other things. We're working it out to be a fan club for people who want to take a street team that want to take it to another level.
Johnny: There's a group of kids, I think from Eugene, who made us a really huge flag that says Slants Army. They went all-out! It was pretty amazing. When I first saw it, we were playing at Kumoricon, our first convention we played, and they were running around with this huge flag that says Slants Army.
Simon: They all dress up like they're in the miliary, and they all have their own ranks. It's pretty cool. What I wanted to do was take that and go to the next level and have special assignments for people that are in our army. Like, Operation Book Drop, where you go into a bookstore or library and throw Slants flyers into random books all over the store so when people open them, it's there. I've got another one called Operation Junk Mail Return, so when soliciters give you that junk mail envelope, you just stuff a bunch of flyers in that envelope and mail it back to them. They're paying for the postage, and then they have to read about us! Just random things like that. Just to take it to another level and give fans something to do. Not just plague people with flyers, but do stuff like encourage them to bake cookies and bring it to record stores that carry our album.
Which places carry your album? Does Best Buy?
Simon: Best Buy carries it online, Borders, Tower Records. iTunes, Amazon, those are probably the most popular, and then there's a slew of others. We're really supportive of the independent record industry, so we try to work with the independent stores, too.
Have you guys ever been asked to sign anything weird or crazy?
Johnny: Anything and everything you can imagine.
Simon: Anything from body parts to cell phones. Oh one time! This was awful! We were in Sacramento, and these kids, they asked us to sign their shoes. They'd been wearing them all day and during the concert, so they were sopping wet. We were trying to write on them, but the ink was spreading on them..! It was really gross! Those were Chuck Taylor's so it wasn't leather, it was thoroughly-soaked canvas.
Johnny: They were pretty moist...
Simon: Yeah, that was probably the grossest thing I've had to sign.
What's the coolest thing you've had to sign?
Simon: Well the coolest thing was probably signing that giant flag that says The Slants Army. This thing is around six feet wide, it's huge. It was really cool that someone made it, because we've never seen that big of a sign, and they drove four hours away to come see us, so it was a big deal.
Those were the ones from Eugene?
Simon: No, they were from outside of Bend, OR.
Johnny: Oh, I thought they were from Eugene.
Simon: No, they came to Eugene. They've been to a few of our shows actually, mostly conventions we've been to. They actually drove to Sakura-Con to see us, and that was a six or seven hour drive.
Johnny: I'm just honored to have anyone ask me to sign anything, I'm like, Ok! (laughs)
Ken: This band is really gracious about giving autographs and photo opportunities. I've seen so many bands, because I've been associated with a lot over the years, and they just blow their fans off, they don't give their signatures up for anything. These guys are always there, they'll stay after late and take photos. It's really refreshing.
Johnny: I think besides music being our high point, we have our fans right next to that. We really care for them.
Simon: It's a huge part of what we do. We run our own MySpaces and websites. When people add us and talk to us on there, they're actually talking to the band, it's not just somebody we hired. Unlike a lot of major label acts, they hire a company to actually do it. I have a friend who works for Sony/BMG, and she had to take over that job for a few days and answer messages for Clay Aiken! (everyone laughs) She had to do random things cause she's like a personal assistant. Like laundry and such.
At your concert, you released balloons into the audience before you played. How did you come up with that?
Simon: We used to blow up balloons full of confetti and explode them into the audience, but our balloon pump broke, so when we were in Boise, we had a bunch of balloons and we didn't know what to do with them. So we just blew them up and threw them into the crowd, and they loved it. They started tossing them up, throwing them at us, so we thought it would be fun to use them here and there.
Johnny: It reminds me of one of the first videos we ever made, it was like a home video, before the Slants even started playing live shows. Simon and I would find cool movies and try to splice images. There's this one part where Bryan Adams has these big balls out in the audience.
Simon: I made a trailer for our album, comprised of other people's videos! And then I mixed in some of our own on there, it was just kind of a fun thing to do.
Ken: Hopefully you all like the new photographs that have been popping up! We have a professional photographer who trails us, and shoots shows. She isn't here, but she's at most of the shows in the northwest.
transcription and photos by Melony
Thank you to The Slants for taking the time to answer our questions, and thank you to ACen for making this possible.
links
The Slants Official Website
The Slants Official MySpace
BACK
