A FIRESIDE CHAT WITH NORWOOD FISHER OF FISHBONE


I have been a devotee of Fishbone since I was in high school, but with all the drama that has surrounded the band in the last handful of years, I was skeptical that they would come back with a killer record. Boy, was I wrong. The Psychotic Friends Nuttwerk is burning and has been a regular in my CD player since its release. So while I eat crow, read on. It's Norwood, unedited and in his own words.


FRED JUNG: Let's start from the beginning.

FISHBONE: We all went to school together and the thing that bound us together was the fact that we used to all have a special affinity for big butts. So we would just sit around and chase girls around and try and touch their behinds. We noticed all the same guys were getting smacked in the face. So we bonded on that level because we could talk about the one that touched it and the one that got hit.


FJ: Dumps like a truck. Interesting approach to starting a band. They should make a television show about that. At what school was all this grab-ass taking place?

FISHBONE: It was a school Hale, George Ellery Hale High School in Canoga Park.


FJ: Did the band gel right away?

FISHBONE: Yeah, it just felt good. We all mutually liked a lot of the same things like girls with big butts and the same music.


FJ: Sounds like a modern Cinderella story.

FISHBONE: Well, starting out was not difficult. The difficult part was obtaining the knowledge of what should be happening. We didn't know what to expect from the music industry. It became more difficult later on.


FJ: Influences?

FISHBONE: Well, there was a lot of Funkadelic in the mix. Clash got a lot to do with where we came from. Bands like Fear and Ex and Bad Brains. A lot of older stuff like Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, and Duke Ellington.


FJ: Ellington's centennial was last year.

FISHBONE: Right.


FJ: And it was only after a hundred years have gone by that the mainstream media finally recognized Ellington as not an African-American jazz composer, but as an American composer. Took a while.

FISHBONE: Right. It takes time to not think white. It is going to take some time. We're here to just push it as forward as we can. In the late Eighties and early Nineties, when Living Colour was rockin' the scene and Vernon (Vernon Reid) had that Black Rock Coalition, I was down with it. The first thing I said was, "The job is done when the Black Rock Coalition is obsolete." It ain't about black rock. It's about being respected as a musician no matter what color you are. It shouldn't matter. Once you put the black on it, you separate once again. But it was necessary to go through that to get it to where it is.


FJ: Fishbone was playing ska before there was such a term. You guys are OG.

FISHBONE: You know what, Fred, I thought we invented ska for a little while. The way that it came about was such a natural thing that I thought we invented something new. We had been experimenting with reggae and it was about '79 or '80 and we were still in junior high school going into high school. They were playing Bob Marley on the radio at that period of time and later they started playing Steel Pulse. So we were experimenting with rhythms and through a natural act of testosterone rebellion, we just started speeding the shit up, going faster and faster and faster. At the end of the joint, I was like, "Oh, shit. We just invented something brand new, punk rock-reggae." But it wasn't the case. And Walt (Dirty Walt Kibby III) knew because he was listening to Selecter and English Beat. He brought in the cassette tapes the next day.


FJ: I was there for your in store last week and you guys burn pretty damn good.

FISHBONE: Yup, I'm pretty Speedy Gonzales when I feel like it.


FJ: I noticed your crowd spans all walks of life.

FISHBONE: Yeah, and that was one of our goals once we started playing live. We were like, "Man, the whole scene has to represent the world."


FJ: You guys certainly represent.

FISHBONE: Yeah, that is why we got songs like "One Planet People" and "Everybody Is a Star" on the new record. Those songs, they get across those messages and at least bring up something that people can talk about, especially with "One Planet People."


FJ: You guys have been around for almost twenty years and the last handful must have been difficult, changing labels. It has been almost five years since your last studio recording.

FISHBONE: Well, even in our darkest hours, we stayed positive. We wrote a song a long time ago called "Party at Ground Zero" that brings that feeling across. In your darkest hour, can you bring about something else? That is the most difficult thing. All the other shit is easy. That is why it feels good because if you go negative, it is easy to go to, just straight anger and violence. We try to bring it about on another level of evolution.


FJ: You guys have always gotten a helping hand from college radio.

FISHBONE: Hell yeah! Yeah. That is where we got a lot of our songs played in the first place, college radio in LA. College radio was also one of the first places that I heard music that changed my whole life.


FJ: Funny that college radio is ahead of mainstream radio.

FISHBONE: You know what, Fred, through the years, there have been periods where some mainstream radio has come closer to where college radio has been. In fact, that is why you have got the music scene where it is now. It is a little more wide open now, but it is still nowhere near the adventurousness of college radio. It did open up to where there is a lot of things that is accepted in the mainstream. The Butthole Surfers had a hit record a couple of years ago and the shit was impossible in the Eighties, just because of the name alone. It is a little different.


FJ: Let's touch on the new album, The Psychotic Friends Nuttwerk on Hollywood Records. First, "Aids & Armageddon."

FISHBONE: It was written by a friend of ours, David Baerwald. He actually owned one of the studios that we recorded in. Actually, Fred, David Baerwald and Fishbone took ten percent of what we would get a piece, a total of twenty percent of the song goes to AIDS research. We started recording the album a little more than a year ago, we started on it. It went about nine months. I'm really happy with it. We had some goals that we wanted to make and I think that I reached our goals and actually may have exceeded them on some levels. Basically, we just wanted to get across some of our experience and the fact that we had gone through a lot and come back with an upbeat attitude through our current record because we feel so much better than where we are now. We had a few temper tantrums in the past and some hard times, but right now, we just feel like everything is on the upswing. That has been the sense for a long time and that is what you get on the record.


FJ: Are you more focused because of all of that noisy drama?

FISHBONE: Yeah, well, we are becoming better human beings and a better band every step of the way and if that is all I ever got, to be a better human being and for my band to be the baddest band in the world, then (laughing).


FJ: A frightening reality that is never publicized is the alarming rates at which AIDS is spreading in Africa.

FISHBONE: Yeah, right. Some people might say it is a conspiracy plan or whatever, but regardless of that, it is definitely sad because you have got to imagine that the level of education in a region like that is little to none. Those people are just trying to survive on so many different levels that the proper information is not getting to a lot of people. I mean, you can see that in America, Fred. We have that at home, but it is deeper in Africa and South America and whatever they want to call a third world region.


FJ: Who gets the most amount of tail in the band?

FISHBONE: Our drummer is like the reigning king.


FJ: John gets the most, huh?

FISHBONE: Yup (laughing).


FJ: Does Fishbone have groupies?

FISHBONE: We don't like to call them that (laughing).


FJ: Right, how politically incorrect of me, dedicated lady fan clubs.

FISHBONE: (Laughing) We love the ladies. When ladies sense that you love them, they are like you know (laughing).


FJ: How's the tour coming along?

FISHBONE: This is just the beginning, Fred. It started off really great. We got a couple of awesome shows under our belt. It just gets better every day. By the time we get back to you all, the shit is going to be off the hook!


FJ: Any guilty pleasures?

FISHBONE: One of my guilty pleasures is, you know, Ricky Martin and that "La Vida Loca" shit. When I first heard it, I was thinking that maybe it was a ska band from New York or something because I heard a ska version of it. I had never had no prejudice against him. I'm like, "Ricky Martin! Hey!" I want to go on tour and open for Ricky Martin. That shit would be off the hook and I know he got a lot of big booty honeys coming up in his gigs, Fred. He might not be trying to get none of it.


FJ: More for you.

FISHBONE: Yup, more for me (laughing).


FJ: Just tell John to spread around the wealth.

FISHBONE: Hell, yeah. He leaves an open space for everybody that needs it.


FJ: Any shout outs?

FISHBONE: May 6 is the Million Marijuana March. It is worldwide, eighty cities plus. I'm involved in it.


FJ: Back the truck. I was going to let you get some sleep, but you can't go now.

FISHBONE: All right.


FJ: The government of this country is way behind the times on this subject and contrary to public opinion, fight weed at every turn.

FISHBONE: One, is that marijuana represents a certain level of freedom because that shit is a weed. It will grow anyway (laughing) without any cultivation. It makes it hard. The wind blows the pollen around and then the next thing you know, you got weed everywhere. That is why I am an advocate of the Johnny Appleseed theory with marijuana. People get a lot of seeds, Fred. Don't just throw them away. Just toss them motherfuckers on the side of the freeway. Have the shit just growing everywhere. How are they going to keep it illegal?


FJ: Now that is a plan. Run for office on that platform.

FISHBONE: You know (laughing)? Basically, the Dutch model of decriminalizing all drugs practically, that shit has proven that it works. They're always trying to prove that it doesn't. They're coming up with false facts about marijuana and cancer. The fact is is that, right now, there is evidence that marijuana helps in the process of fighting cancer. So basically, it is a matter of social control and misinformation. That is why I'm down with the Million Marijuana March. There is an organization that is called Cures Not Wars (www.cures-not-wars.org) and it is a website. You can go to that website and find out about alternative cures to narcotic problems. There is one thing that I am really involved with and it is a root. The Eboga root from Gabon, Africa and they make a substance called Ibogaine, which is supposed to cure cocaine, crack, nicotine, alcohol addiction. It's an addiction interrupter is what they call it. I hooked up with the information about this through Cures Not Wars. Most people would rather be smoking a joint than smoking crack. It is just that they bring the price of crack down low that poor people go, "I need to get high so." People from every walk of life want to drink, smoke weed, do something to alter their reality. Just because of the way of life that we have.


FJ: You can't find a bar in this country where on some given night a guy has too much to drink and a bar fight ensues, whereas, people who are high are passive. They chill.

FISHBONE: You don't go out and get a bunch of speeding tickets smoking marijuana. Running red lights and shit and killing a family of five. It just don't happen like that. And you can imagine, Fred, if people stopped drinking and smoking cigarettes, look at who marijuana would threaten, tobacco companies and alcohol companies. They are two huge lobbyist groups.


FJ: You can't turn on the TV and avoid a Budweiser ad.

FISHBONE: Exactly. You could eliminate nicotine and alcohol and you just have your marijuana.


FJ: But then the Bud "Whassup" guys would be out of work.

FISHBONE: Yeah, and the Budweiser girls might have to find another job too (laughing).


FJ: Well, I'm sure they can come on board with Fishbone.

FISHBONE: Yeah, word.


Fred Jung is the Editor-In-Chief and is certain that the 2002 elections showed the nation that there is a mandate for a mandate.Comments? Email Him