Dead Letter Dept

Rob from Dead Letter Dept has a few words to say and of course answers my questions



1. how did the band form?

A. 3 kids living in Canada’s biggest city, Andrew, Mike and myself *still* managed to get bored enough to want to start a punk rock band… It started as the funnest thing ever, and I’ll quit the day it stops being that. After 7 years of breaking strings on stage, making fun of people for “moshing to my emotional baggage”, traveling the continent of North America and even now, getting ready to take the world by storm… Its amazing that it started at all! Fuck I hate so many factors about music, I feel that only about 95% of it is Un-listenable to, let alone purchasable… Um oh yeah back to the question… We started playing in bands together when we were 14 and haven’t stoped. Dan, our new 2nd guitarist who will be playing with us very soon has played in bands for years as well, and things are really starting to look up for us all. This is going to be one exciting summer.(winter for you Aussie’s)

2. what has been your favorite gig so far?

A. The one you’re going to help us get in Melbourne when we come to Australia next year 🙂

3. who were your influences?
A. Personally, my influences for playing and writing music don’t just come from musicians alone… But from a lot of things. Organizations, record labels and people have influenced me to a point where there’s one thing I want to do with me life, one solitary goal. To write songs I’d like to hear, and not work the 9 to 5 or the 10 to 6 for as long as I can. Some of those people include Green Day, Michael Moore, Alkaline Trio, G7 Welcoming Committee Records (CAN), Nirvana, Paul Westerberg, Billy Bragg, Aaron Cometbus, Propagandhi, Jawbreaker and many, many more.

4. what made you want to play music?

A. I was 14 and Kurt Cobain showed me (and the world) that you can dress in drag, smash guitars, play your hit song completely out of tune, not say a single word to the crowd and STILL be considered a fucking Icon… That’s amazing, think about it! Plus I always had this huge crush on this girl Emma in High School and I always thought if I wrote songs about her she’d fall in love with me. The best part is that in reading this, one might think of it as lame, but when you’re 15, living at home with the folks playing shows in the local music scene with bands twice your age… That’s pretty fucking rad! But now when you’re 22, still living at home with the folks, yet now playing with bands HALF your age… Heh. That’s pretty lame… Fuck I gotta move out one day.

5. if you could have a 3 band bill who would the bands be?
A. Ill do them by some continents and countrys.

-for Australia and NZ it would be 1.Sekiden 2. Darren Hanlon 3. The Datsuns

-for Europe 1. Satanic Surfers 2.Randy 3. The Refused (I don’t care if they’re broken up, “New Noise” will kill any fucking lame ass “cookie monster” me-want-cookie hardcore band the world ’round)
-for the UK 1.Billy Bragg and the Blokes 2. Leatherface 3. Radiohead

-for Canada it would have to be 1. Closet Monster 2. The Weakerthans 3. Chixdiggit


-for the US 1. Green Day 2. Dillinger Four 3. Left Behind (any day, any stage brothers!)

6. what is your beer of choice?

A. Last time I was in Australia I drank those “Victoria Bitter” stubbies and they sucked, they made my throat feel like I was swallowing razor blades. I’ll stick to imported Mexican Corona’s for my poor baby throat.

7. what bands do you enjoy playing with?
A. All of them. Ive seen about 2000 bands in my lifetime, and all for free! Although I enjoy and learn from each and every one of them, and some genuinely make me want to break my own “too cool for school” no-dancing rule at shows and tear up the floor with my fist in the air, there are always those who make me want to kill myself. Even so, I honestly enjoy playing with all of them. If there’s one thing I’d like to comment on, it’s gender in the music scene. Please, girls of the world, (Aussie girls!!! I’m talking to you!!!) please for the love of Jihad, start a fucking band! This doesn’t have to be a little boys club… You don’t have to settle for taking pictures at the shows when you can be playing the guitar! Trust me… It’s heaps funner!

8. will we see you come down to Melbourne or NZ soon?

We’re thinking about combing the pacific coast and raising a 200 year-old sunken pirate ship… You know, get a good “fixer upper”, buy some nails, a fresh coat of paint, then we could start sailing to all the places we could never afford to fly to. So yes in about a year’s time we’ll be playing in Australia, but you probably have to come to Sydney harbor because we’re collectively too cheap to pay for work visas so we wouldnt be able to actually step off the ship… Heh. We’ll hit up Australia one day.

thanks for your time any last words

Yeah, unfortunatly for you the editor and anyone who’s reading this far down, I do have some last words.
In the political-themed area of my mind, a good attitude to have is to always ask questions.

Ask not how can we get revenge for Sept. 11th, but ask why did Sept. 11th happen.

Ask why no-one glorifies Iraqi Fire-Fighters when they have to dig through rubble to find someone’s friend, husband or child the way we glorified the American Fire-Fighters of 9/11.

Ask why millions of people have, in some form, protested this war in the many months leading up to it more then any other war since Vietnam.

Ask why George W. Bush is so gung-ho for war, when he himself as a 20 year-old was draft-dodger?

Ask why John Howard sent Australian Troops to Iraq when the majority of the civillian populace was against participation.

Ask Mr. Howard if he’s ready to send his own kids to war.

Ask questions everywhere. Talk with each other. But more importantly, listen. Turn off your fucking televisions.

My father watches CNN war coverage the way corporate sleaze bags watch the stock market ticker.

CNN has got to him. He’s paranoid as fuck and thinks The “coalition of the willing” is justified in killing 3000+ Iraqi’s to get rid of a 60 year old man who is just as evil as the next dictator in the world but *just* happens to be unfortunate enough to be sitting in a region rich in oil. Poor evil dictator…

In some personal last words, a few hints of advice from an angry but charmingly handsome 22 year old Sagittarius,

the game Risk is better then you think it might be, don’t type e-mail Interviews while eating greasy vegetarian pizza, always eat your cereal with a fork and do your homework with your lights out

On a final note Be fucking proud that AC/DC was the biggest thing to come out of Australia, just think Celine Dion is the biggest thing to come out of Canada… Hmm..

Thanks for the interview Chris!