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INTERVIEWS AND ARTICLES: "DON'T BLINK:
BOX CAR RACER SPITS OUT THE BUBBLEGUM" Box Car Racer have been stuck in traffic, and, consequently, are late for our interview, the first of many they have set up for today. When the four members of the band — David Kennedy, Anthony Celestino, Thomas DeLonge and Travis Barker (the latter two members also serving as two-thirds of pop-punk juggernaut Blink-182) — finally arrive at MCA’s midtown Manhattan offices, 30 minutes behind schedule, they are surprisingly serious. Instead of a funny excuse or silly joke, Kennedy, Box Car’s rhythm guitarist, originally from the Orange County hardcore band Over My Dead Body, explains very soberly, “A circuit or something blew underneath the streets and set a few of the manholes on fire.” The rest of the band, tattooed and pierced, now sitting around a glossy, oval-shaped wooden table, nod in agreement. “People went freaky,” he says. The gravity of Kennedy’s response perfectly reflects the intention, characteristics and direction of Box Car Racer. Rather than being perceived as another Blink-182 (minus the voice and bass of co-frontman Mark Hoppus), they want to be taken seriously, they want to be judged separately — and they want the music to speak for itself. “It’s totally different,” says DeLonge, the singer and lead guitarist for both groups. “Everything about it is different. Everything we did, the way we wrote the songs, the way we recorded the songs, our vision for where the songs were going to end up — everything was completely different. Listen to this record in a completely objective manner. And listen to it as just a band. Get past this point that my voice sounds identical to some other guy’s voice. The songs are really different and they’re meant to be different and it should be looked at as unique.” Today, the band appears tired; maybe even a little annoyed. With a full day of press ahead of them, complete with phone interviews and seemingly recycled questions about the future of Blink 182 instead of Box Car Racer’s agenda, who can blame them? Though, with two members of the group from Blink, aren’t those questions, as well as comparisons, inevitable? “The sad thing about it is that people are always going to refer [to Blink],” says DeLonge, spitting up into a half-eaten sandwich in front of him. “But we never thought of it when we did it.” DeLonge and Kennedy first started what would come to be known as Box Car Racer back in October, 2001, when DeLonge was rendered unable to tour with Blink due to back problems. His original vision for the side-project was “to do a punk-rock acoustic record ... like a Violent Femmes-type thing.” But when he and Kennedy asked Barker to lay down some beats, the project took on a life all its own. The songs became louder, harder and more experimental. And the subject matter became that much darker. Most of the lyrics are about loss, death and the end of world. (The name itself, Box Car Racer, even took on a deeper meaning than expected for DeLonge: He was shocked to learn the plane that dropped the second bomb on Japan in WWII was named Bockscar.) But throughout its creation and recording, the focus of the band remained on the music. “For me, personally, when I think Box Car, it’s all about the music,” says DeLonge. “In our other band it’s all about the music as well, but we pride ourselves that we actually have personalities. And in this band, it’s just really about the music. I don’t feel right going up there and just fucking around. I never even thought about videos, I never thought about interviews, I never thought about anything other than just ‘Hey, let’s go record these songs.’ It was like a growth experiment, songwriting and trying to do something totally different and have it be what it could be. I actually was hoping that somehow it’d be on an independent label.” But instead of anonymity, Box Car’s video for the single “I Feel So” found regular rotation on MTV and VH1, and their record debuted on the Billboard Charts at #12. Contrasts and comparisons between Box Car and Blink were rampant; fans and critics began asking if the band’s success meant the doom of the latter. Perhaps an indication is found on the interior spine of the CD, where a quote from Henry Brook Adams reads: “Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.” “I thought it was a real punk rock quote for a guy back in whatever
it was — the late eighteen-hundreds or whatever,” explains
DeLonge. “It’s some guy a hundred years ago, talking about
stirring things up and creating a little bit of anarchy. And that’s
kind of how I envisioned this music.” “I think we want to play as long as people want to hear it,” he says. “I mean, all of us — you know, Travis and I especially — we have ideas for more than twelve songs every two years.” But the band’s ambitions are even grander than just that. CREDITS: CHRISTOPHER TWAROWSKI // THE NEW ISLAND EAR |