The Smut Peddlers

The Smut Peddlers were at one time a great power-pop band from California. They had some great shows and had some great songs on mp3.com. I got Gish and Julia to tell their story...

Introduce Yourself...
I'm Gish, I play bass and I'm Julia, I play drums.

How long has the band been together?

Gish: I love this question..... Close to 10 years.
Julia: Since may 1993.

How did it start?

Gish: I got off drugs and got board really quick. I wanted to start a band, Julia was my next door neighbor, John and Mike "first axe" were my friends.
Julia: Gish was my neighbor, he asked my boyfriend of the time if he wanted to play drums, he said he was busy with other bands, but to ask me if i wanted to play...

How do you come up with the name?

Gish: Off a video called "SLEZZO'MANIA", It was a video with all these "cult" trailers.

Describe your music..

Gish: Fun to play, if you want to put us in a "group" go buy the record and do so. Their are so many ways it could go but I can always find more reasons to not want to be a part of a "group" than reasons to want to. NEW BEACH INVASION !
Julia: It's intense. It has life and soul. It's music I'd like to listen to even if I wasn't in the band...

Who are your influences?

Gish: "Another one of my favorite questions" Drug dealers, Drugies, Drunks, Surfers, Skaters, Guitar and Drum players, anyone who has some Demise, rich, poor, old, young, Goverment, bin laden, It goes on and on.
Julia: Every band I have ever heard has influenced me, whether I love them or hate them, they help me know what I like and don't like. I listen to just about every type of punk rock to traditional jazz to Johnny Cash...

Describe the song writing process...

Gish: Riff + Riff + words = song.
Julia: The music usually comes first... Gish, Roger and I all write music. Sometimes one of us come to practice with a whole song, other times we have parts and pieces that we fit together and work into a song. We've all written lyrics, but John writes the majority. It can take a week or it can take 15 min.

Tell me about "F A I L U R E "...

Julia: We recorded failure in about 20 hours in a weekend. The original engineer that was supposed to do it drank himself into the hospital a week before we recorded, so the guy that did the record was this total 80's metal guy,.... Overall it came out better than it could have, and it was a lot of fun...

How does the "FREEDOM" album differ?

Gish: Not much.
Julia: We had our 2nd guitarist leave just before we recorded so it came out a little thinner than it should have... It's definitely not our most popular record, but there are some songs on there that I think are really good.... It's just a weird one.

How does the "TARBALL 2000 " album differ from the other two?

Gish: We kind of started learning to play...
Julia: Tarball is our first record that showed a musical change for us. We had a fuller sound, guitar leads, a good mix on the music and vocals, etc... The recording was a step up from anything we'd done before.

How does the "ISM " album differ from your other releases?

Gish: It's newer, It's better, Um...
Julia: Ism took a while to get together. We knew what we wanted, but had a harder time getting it together. I think it's because our personal lives were all changing and that was somewhat of a distraction. Our relationships all were changing with each other and with our better halves. A good friend of ours was murdered and it kinda gave us all a new perspective of life and each other...

What else have you recorded?

Gish: Live 7" and 2 Hostage 7"s.
Julia: We've done many recordings for comps, demos, etc... I was figuring it out with Rick from Hostage Records the other day and we figured out SMUT PEDDLERS have recorded 69+ different songs.

What is Ransom Records?

Gish: Our record label.
Julia: Ransom Records is the label we created in order to have our music heard. We weren't going to wait for someone else to do someday what we could do now. We put everything we make into a band fund and pay for the things we need out of that. It pays for equipment, travel, recording, cd pressings, t-shirts, etc...

Have you guys toured?

Gish: A little, Nor Cal, AZ.
Julia: We've done 3-4 day tours, but nothing major. We all have jobs we all have rent and bills and we put out cds on our own label, so tour support is whatever we have in the bank.

Who have you guys played with?

Gish: Almost all my favorite bands "of this time era".
Julia: Jeeeez.... the crowd, uk subs, the vibrators, dwarves, swingin utters, flogging molly, smogtown, the stitches, di, throwrag, one man army, the bodies, the numbers, the pushers, texas terri, the dimwits, bonecrusher, the fakes, the upsets, the spooky, the negatives, tiltwheel, the ducky boys, the distillers, hit by a semi, the women, the metermaids, jumbo size, fluf, vida, the co-dependents, uxa, don't no, defects, one handed readers, 98 mute, the deviates, dsfa, fishsticks, retread, prop 13, rosemary's billygoat, us bombs, the hunns, discontent, angry samoans, china white, channel 3,... Probably another 200-300 bands I can't think of right now.

Is there a favorite band you like to play with?

Gish: SMOGTOWN, Stitches, Fakes, The Crowd, Third degree, Bone crusher, U.S. Bombs, I'm sure there's more.
Julia: I like to play with bands that have fun, but not always the same band, cause that gets boring for us and the fans... One of my favorite bands to play with right now is THROWRAG.

Is there a favorite place you like to play?

Gish: Hermosa Saloon, Club Mesa, Wagon Wheel.
Julia: Club Mesa was great but it closed, and there was Toes Tavern, oh wait it closed too... I like Gypsy Lounge, but they won't let us play there. I guess I don't currently have a favorite place.

What is the Redondo Beach scene like?

Gish: "The scene".... Needs some new clubs.
Julia: I haven't lived in redondo beach since 1994 or so. I haven't lived in the So. Bay area in a couple years, so I don't really know what's going on there, but I can say we seem to be playing there more the past few months than we have in years.

What do you see is the future of the Smut Peddlers?

Gish: More Fun.
Julia: I see us continuing to play & record for years to come (or until John breaks a hip). I'd like to see someone like us enough to back us for a European tour and a US tour. I'd love to be doing this into my 50's-60's or until my hands are too crippled to hold sticks...

How can people contact you guys?

email: bandinfo@smutpeddlers.net - show info line: 310.762.7688 - regular mail: smut peddlers - 1525 Aviation Blvd. #289, Redondo Beach, CA 90278 - web site: www.smutpeddlers.net.