Introduce yourself…
How y’all are? I’m Brian Krashpad.
How did the band start?
I had been playing bass and doing some backing vocals in a local band called Allen Wrench, after I got burned out being the “guy in charge” in the first band I fronted, called Smart Bomb. One night an Allen Wrench practice more or less turned into a party that got a little out of hand, and we all narrowly avoided arrest. While checking our ID’s, one of the cops looks at mine and goes, “You’re the oldest, you’re responsible for all this.”
I was like “Whoa, this isn’t even my house! I’m just the bassist.” I loved those guys, but not enough to get a criminal record, haha! After that, I hooked up with drummer Mike Irwin, who had recorded Smart Bomb, and we found bassiste Vicki Ralano through flyers. We never did find a rhythm guitarist, for the initial line-up, though I had intended to.
How did you come up with the name?
I and Mike Irwin were sitting around Casa Krashpad trying to think of names. This was back in ’96 or so, when booking and touring was done much more over the phone or by actual written correspondence, rather than by e-mail and websites. There used to be this book/magazine called “Book Your Own Fucking Life.” Which I’d bought not because I thought I would ever tour, but because, without my knowledge, someone had put contact info for me in it, under the Gainesville listing, and I thought that was pretty cool.
Anyhow, this copy of BYOFL was sitting there, and on the back it noted that they listed crash pads in various towns that people might want to tour to. So Mike goes, “How about Crash Pad?” We liked the sound, and it has a hard/soft internal conflict between the two words, and it references a cool place that creative people can use to help them do what they do. So that was that.
Who would you say are your influences?
I like anything that’s both melodic and raw at the same time, back to early rock (like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley) and rockabilly, Brit Invasion, and garage. For punk stuff my big influences are ‘70’s and early ‘80’s bands like the Ramones, Pistols, Clash, Damned, 999, Buzzcocks, Heartbreakers, Voidoids, etc. Bands that still exist that I like tend to be ones that probably have those same influences, like Rancid and Social Distortion.
What was the punk scene like back in 1996?
Those were halcyon days in Gainesville. We had our own little version of CBGB’s or Gilman Street, called Hardback Café, where everybody played, everyone knew each other, and many many good times were had.
How do you feel it has changed?
Things go in cycles. Hardback closed in 2000, but other venues always spring up, despite that it hurts to lose a great place to play. Gainesville is about to lose another great venue called Common Grounds, but the scene has always been bigger than any single venue, and will rebound from that.
The band stopped doing shows in 1998, can you tell us the story behind that?
We’d been playing with the original trio version of the band pretty regularly, and hit a summer that was extremely slow, which is to be expected in a college town. The other two members, Mike and Vicki, got burned out and depressed and just packed it in. I hooked up pretty quickly with another guitarist/singer called Adam Unhinged, whose band (Unhinged) Crash Pad had gigged with, but it took us the better part of a year to find a suitable rhythm section. So the break was just while we re-tooled looking for new members. That’s happened a few times since. People move, or have kids, or get jobs, or (in my case) get cancer, and you’re back to square one. For a little while at least.
The band that would not die!
What is the song writing process?
I write in a weird way. I hear a melody in my head, and write lyrics to that melody, typically for the whole song, without ever picking up an instrument. All that is done away from the band (I’ve written a couple entire songs while mowing my lawn, for example). Once the song is written in that way, I pick up a guitar and figure out the key it’s in and what the chords are. So the song is presented to the band in fairly finished form. Once the band is involved, the respective players and I work out the arrangements and what each person will play, with the other members pretty much free to come up with their own parts, so long as they work.
One advantage to writing the melody without an instrument is that I have to sing the melody to write the song, so the result is that it’s almost impossible to write something I can’t sing.
To the extent I can “sing” at all, that is.
Your first release was ‘Nine Minutes of Pleasure’, tell us about it…
Actually that was our first CD release. Prior to that, we recorded a full-length eponymous cassette release at our drummer Mike Irwin’s home studio.
‘Nine Minutes’ was a 3-song stopgap recorded at the same place, done while Adam Unhinged and I were looking for a rhythm section, as the band morphed from the original trio into a four-piece. Our original drummer, Mike, agreed to sit in on drums, and Adam and I did the guitar and bass and vocal parts. We recorded and mixed the 3 songs in one night, even though at least one of them Mike had never even heard before. There were 3 three-minute songs, roughly speaking, so that’s the explanation for the title.
Tell us about your most current release ‘High-Gain Villains’…
It took Adam and me forever to finally get into the studio, because we kept having membership changes in the rhythm section. We finally were able to go into Goldentone, with local producer and musician Rob McGregor, and bang out a full-length, in 2002. I think it’s a pretty decent record. A couple rocked-up covers (“Time Warp” and “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”), a few of Adam’s rocking songs, and the rest mine.
Is there a new full length album in the works?
Well, in my head at least! As usual, there have been ongoing membership changes, while I’ve been striving to change our setlist to excise everything from ‘High-Gain Villains.’ We’re finally about there. I’m just about done a brand-new song called ‘Chemo Brain,’ and the rest will be more stuff that’s not on ‘HGV.’ Mainly, more songs written since, like the two songs that’ve been on the two compilations CD’s (put out in 2003 and 2009, respectively) for local homeless charity the HOME Van (we’ll record all-new versions of those), but in a couple cases resuscitating some very old songs that were on the trio’s first cassette-only release and haven’t been heard in years.
Where have you toured?
We really haven’t toured in the traditional sense, because my work situation doesn’t allow it. But over the years Crash Pad has played at a number of venues outside Gainesville-- in Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Ocala, Orlando, Tampa, and Ft. Myers. Oh, and in an oak grove in the middle of an orange grove in rural Lake County, Florida! I would love to cross a state border sometime to do a show!
Who are some of the bands you have done shows with?
Well, we played an Alachua Music Harvest (a locally-done regional fest) that also featured George Clinton and They Might Be Giants, but it would be stretching things to say we did a show with them—it was a 3-day fest, and we didn’t play the mainstage where the big acts were. Some other bands we have played with include having Against Me! Open for us in 2000, horror-punks the Independents, LTJ side project Rehasher, Unsung Zeros, Nuclear Saturday, Billy Reese Peters, Gun Moll, Nashville’s Jason and the Punknecks, and Boston’s Swaggerin’ Growlers. And of course, we played penultimate support for the Gainesville stops of both of Roach Motel’s reunion tours in Gainesville, in 2003 and 2004.
Is there a favorite band you like to do shows with?
I think my personal favorite is the local band we’ve played by far the most shows with, No More. They’ve been around as long as we have, and are great people and rock out mightily. Plus, their drummer Danny and I used to be in the band I mentioned at the start of the interview, Allen Wrench, back in the ‘90’s.
Is there a favorite place you like to do shows at?
Back in the olden days it was the Hardback Café, for sure. Currently local clubs 1982 Bar (an ex-bandmate is the soundman, and No More singer Jen tends bar there) and Backstage Lounge.
What do you see is the future of Crash Pad?
We’ll just keep rocking out! That’s how we roll.
How can people contact the band?
Anyone who’d like to can shoot me an e-mail, bkrashpad@yahoo.com. But I get tons of spam, so if you don’t hear back, send another!
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