Stereoboard Speaks To CKY Following Their Opening Set Of Download Festival 2011 (Interview)
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Written by Heather McDaid
“Don’t pay attention to hairstyles and fashion – it’s just music. It’s all about the fucking music.”
Forming over a decade ago, Pennsylvanian quartet CKY have had their fair share of successes over the years. Supporting the likes of Metallica and Guns N’ Roses to opening stages at the UK’s Sonisphere festival last year, the band returned once more to open Download Festival’s main stage for a weekend of pure rock indulgence. Catching up with drummer Jess Margera, he had a lot to talk about following a recent release of rare tracks and a fantastic opening set for the festival.
“We just played and it was interesting opening the big stage. It was like we had to warm everybody up,” he laughs. “It was fun. They seemed to get into it, so. I like playing to new people. You could tell half the people watching us had probably never even heard of CKY before, which I actually like.” Deeming Sonisphere a highlight of 2010, he discusses where Download ranks in 2011. “We love doing the festivals. I mean, both of these have been awesome and I love doing them. We’ve never played any UK festivals until recently. It’s been a good experience so far.”
“My close friends say that you won’t understand CKY without it,” says Jess on seeing CKY live for the first time. “It’s hard to understand CKY until you see us live because the records are a bit polished. Once you see us play raw, gnarly and in your face then that’s when you’ll get us.”
Earlier this year, CKY also treated fans to a release of rare tracks entitled ‘B-Sides and Rarities’. “It was really out of necessity,” he quips, regarding the decision to release these special tracks. “Our fans have been seriously asking for non-stop, ten years about releasing some of the songs that we’d never released. After ten years of hearing that after every show you’re just like “Okay, let’s do it! Let’s just go do the studio and get it done.” So, we finally did it.”
“We’re coming up on 15 years, which is scary,” laughs Jess. “But yeah, I mean, it’s just like we needed to get something out and it seemed like the perfect time to do all that rare stuff that everybody wanted. We’re pretty stoked about that.” As for working without a record label on their last record, “We just gave the record to a distributor and hired a PR person and I think that these days, you don’t really need a label so much. All they do is just take all your money!”
“To All Of You’, the acoustic version,” remarks Jess when talking his personal favourites on ‘B-Sides’. “I’ve been wanting to hear that for years. And ‘Halfway House’, the heavy one. We did it in the CKY documentary a few years ago and everybody’s been wanting it since then, so we finally did that. I’m pretty stoked at how it turned out.”
Now that the band have released their collection of rare tracks for fans and successfully warmed up Download Festival for the weekend, what comes next for CKY? “We’re going to go home and take a much needed break because we’ve been touring pretty relentlessly for about two years. We’ve got some shows coming up in August and then we have this Gathering of the Juggalos festival, which should be interesting. I’m just stoked I get to smoke weed in the woods.”
As for when to expect new music, Jess isn’t sure. “I don’t actually know what we’re going to do. It’s tricky these days. We’re going to get pretty creative with it, I hope. Deron usually writes a bunch of really cool guitar riffs and then we just build it from there. It’s a lot of work and it takes a long time because we’re very picky. These days it’s hard because you can’t take a long time recording and you can’t spend much money. It’s going to be hard when we get around to it.”
“I think probably our last album that we did – ‘Carver City’ – was like CKY on steroids,” he says after thinking about his personal achievement in CKY. “I think it takes a lot to hear that record, but once you hear it I think it’s good. We went nuts on that but I like the way it turned out. It’s gotten mixed results . We basically took CKY and pushed it to its maximum level of gnarly-ness.” He also talks about having his two favourite bands – Clutch and Graveyard – opening for his band over the years. “Weird. It was really weird. It’s strange having your heroes play before you. I didn’t really know how to take it. These days they’re doing really well. We’d probably have to open for them,” he laughs.
Instead of recapping the past, we turn our attention to the future of CKY. When discussing what is left to achieve, longevity is the overriding factor. “I’m just happy to still be here. We’ve been around for almost 15 years, which seems a big achievement these days. It seems like everybody is here and gone in a matter of two years or so. A lot of the bands we’ve toured with, we’ve seen just come and go. I feel fortunate that we’ve been around for so long, it’s cool. I want to just stay here.”
What Jess recommends for those looking to form a band and succeed, he leaves us with his tip for success: “Don’t go with the trends.”
“Once a certain scene comes and goes then you go right with it,” he continues. “Sometimes it’s hard for a band like us because we don’t sound like anybody and we get left out of a lot of stuff because we’re not part of any scene. In the long run, that’s what keeps you around for so long. I would advise bands: don’t pay attention to hairstyles and fashion – it’s just music. It’s all about the fucking music.”
CKY’s latest release ‘B-Sides and Rarities’ is available now.
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Forming over a decade ago, Pennsylvanian quartet CKY have had their fair share of successes over the years. Supporting the likes of Metallica and Guns N’ Roses to opening stages at the UK’s Sonisphere festival last year, the band returned once more to open Download Festival’s main stage for a weekend of pure rock indulgence. Catching up with drummer Jess Margera, he had a lot to talk about following a recent release of rare tracks and a fantastic opening set for the festival. 
