*Please tell us the backgrounds in which the band was formed.
My name is Marko 72 and I play guitar in Sugarcult. We started out about 4 years ago in a little town called Santa Barbara in Southern California. We played a lot of shows, put out our own CDs (now available only through our website mail-order as Wrap Me Up in Plastic), put out Start Static in America, toured for almost 2 years straight, and now are finally coming to Japan (this summer!). For a more detailed history go to www.sugarcult.com.

*Who is YOUR first rock star? When you were a teenager, we see that there was a movement of grunge, and alternative rock music moved to more mainstream ones. Did these movements make any influence to you?
Tim is a couple of years younger than me so his early stars were probably Billie Joe and Kurt Cobain. When Nirvana and Green Day came on the scene, I had already been listening to bands like them for a while. I used to see Green Day play in tiny clubs all the time. When those bands got popular it gave me more confidence and made me trust my instincts more in my own music. It’s always sad to see something beautiful get destroyed by becoming too big for its own good, but that’s the oldest story in the world. Accept that nothing lasts forever, and enjoy it while it lasts!

*Listening to your music, they make us feel that they include the essentials of classic rock music such as Beatles, Cheap Trick, Elvis Costello, and West Coast punk bands after the appearance of Green Day. Did you grow up listening to these kind of music?
Here is a partial list of my favorite bands from childhood to the present: Kiss, Cheap Trick, the Police, Stray Cats, Devo, AC/DC, David Bowie, Rolling Stones, the Ramones, Motley Crue, Guns n Roses, Hanoi Rocks, the Clash, the Decendents, NOFX, Social Distortion, Elvis Costello, the Pixies, Tom Waits, The Replacements, Nirvana, Green Day, Screeching Weasel, Jawbreaker, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Oasis, Teenage Fanclub, Weezer, Superdrag, Foo Fighters, Radiohead, Elliott Smith, Wilco, At the Drive In, Refused, Jimmy Eat World, The Strokes..., All of these bands have at least one thing in common: good songs. I hope that has influenced us to write good songs too.

*Sugarcult is put into a frame of punk music, but as we listen to your music, we think that is rather near to something called as “power pop” music. What do you think of this?
Some of my favorite bands of all time are considered to be power-pop or punk, so when those words get attached to our band I take it as a compliment. It’s not like we sat down, had a meeting and decided to be punk or something. We don’t worry about labels, we’re confident that our music speaks for itself. There’s really only 2 kinds of music; good music, and bad music; we play the good kind!

*We think that you have received big influences from the early ages of Elvis Costello’s music, please tell us from when you started listening to his music and in what parts do you respect him?
I knew his hit songs from growing up, but when I went back and bought My Aim is True (1977) and This Years Model (1978) I was blown away by how cool they sounded. He was like the missing link between the angst of the Clash, the wit of Cheap Trick and the soul of early 60’s rock n roll. Our drummer Ben thinks Costellos voice is annoying, but I fucking love it! We do a cover version of No Action (off of This Years Model) as a bonus track on the Japanese release of our album, Start Static.

*Talking about recent matters, Ataris have appeared from your home town, Santa Barbara. What is the music scene in Santa Barbara like? We have this impression of having bands that make much of good melodies, for example, Summer Camp.
A lot of great bands for such a small town. We’ve all either been in bands together through the years or slept with the same girls! I guess we all just inspire eachother to work hard and make up good songs. First there was Toad the Wet Sprocket, and NOFX; then Lagwagon got big; then Dishwalla, Nerf Herder, Snot, and Summercamp; then the Mad Caddies and the Ataris; The interesting thing is that each band has a unique sound of their own. It’s not like the Seattle sound or anything, just a lot of good music. There’s a whole new generation of bands coming out of SB as we speak, be on the look out for: Bad Astronaut (my side-project band with Joey Cape from Lagwagon), the Black Plastics, Brightlife, Postfontaine, the History Of, Low-Pro, the Penfifteen Club, Nogahyde, Blazing Haley, etc.

*Your debut album was released just 20 days before the tragedy of 9.11, and “Stuck in America” had some troubles right after this because of some misunderstandings. If we speak ironically, that was part of the start having people’s eyes focus into you. Please tell us how you felt during those times when such thing happened to you.
We had bigger things to worry about than Sugarcult, we were just glad to be alive. After the shock was over, we realized that people needed us. Our shows felt more like therapy for people that were so sick and broken hearted from the news of such a tragic attack. People just wanted to be around other people, listen to some loud fast music and have some form of hope. For the first time ever on stage, I didn’t feel like an entertainer, I felt like a healer.

*You have gone around tour with famous bands such as 311 and Blink 182. Of all the tours in the past that you went out with other bands, which one was the best?
We’ve been lucky, all the tours we’ve been on have been awesome. I love being out with other up-and-coming bands, it’s fun to watch them grow along with us, some even get really big fast. We’ve shared hotel rooms, gas money, drugs and girls with Finch, The Used, Yellowcard, the Reunion Show, the Flipsides, Rufio, Death on Wednesday, The Exit, and so many other great new bands. Blink 182 are known for treating smaller bands extremely well, we even got to eat their fancy catered dinners and they keep sending us free Macbeth shoes!

*Next time you go out on a tour, who would like to go out with?
I’d love to tour with the Rolling Stones, but I’d settle for the Foo Fighters. They are an amazing live band to watch; great musicians to learn from; and their guitar player (Chris Shiflett) and I grew up together and are good friends, so it would be a lot of fun. We toured the States with The Ataris recently, they are our good friends; I actually used to play bass for them back in 1997. I’d like to put together a package tour of all Santa Barbara bands; we’d never get homesick because we’d have our whole scene on the road with us!

*What do you think of the phenomenon of so called mall music? What would you think if for some case, you are included as one of those mall music?
If you call us mall music we will kick your ass! I stay away from malls, they make me want to vomit. People walking around indoors all day spending all of their money consuming overpriced mass-produced things that they don’t really need. Punk used to be a secret world, you had to discover it through word of mouth, fanzines, flyers and going to the shows; You made your own clothes out of things you found at the thrift store or in the trash. Now you can turn on the mainstream radio or TV, go to the mall, or open up a glossy magazine and be exposed to parts of a culture that used to only exist in the underground. We all knew punk, like skateboarding, was too good a secret to keep hidden forever. It’s no surprise that huge money-minded corporations came in and found ways to market it and sweeten it up so it was easier for the masses to swallow. Punk rock is very sacred to many of those that liked it and lived it before it went mainstream. Mall punk was kind of an inside joke some old-school punks used to clear up any misconceptions between a punk band from DC like Bad Brains, and a punk band from DC like Good Charlotte. Punk used to scare people, now its become so safe and organized. Who cares? The is it punk or not? political debate bores me to death. I know what punk means to me, but who am I to judge what it means to some kid out in the suburbs? If something is good turn it up, if it sucks throw it against the nearest wall as hard as you can until it fucking shatters!

*Listening to your music, they sometimes make us feel wow, this band may be coming up with an idea, making a different approach in music by jumping over the frame of punk music, before long.
Well, do you have any idea of how you would like yourselves to be? Take for an example, Elvis Costello makes an approach to all sorts of music. Would you like to be like him, taking these stances? Or, would you like to be more rock n roll?
More rock n roll, I don’t see us collaborating with Burt Bacharach or conducting orchestras any time soon. Elvis Costello obviously loves music and means well, but we all still secretly wish he would start snorting cocaine again and play songs like No Action and Radio Radio. We never said we were a punk band, that’s just what some people like to call us so we can do whatever we want, our fans expect us to be creative, but still rock!

*What is your recent favorite album?
Here’s what I’ve been listening to lately: The Clash (ever since Joe Strummer died, I’ve been paying tribute to him by re-visiting the great music he made); Primal Scream Evil Heat (soulful electronic music mixed with Stonesy rock n roll attitude); Tim Cullens (ex-Summercamp singer) amazing new demos; Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (amazing power-pop from outer space!); The Ataris So Long Astoria (great new album!); The Used album is great, I like Spoon’s new record a lot as well. Also lots of dub reggae, down-tempo electronica, etc. I love listening to music I don’t know how to play, its more interesting. I don’t listen to very much punk or rock music anymore, it’s too close to home.

*Many of your lyrics sing about teenagers gloomy feelings, and we heard that these were based on Tim’s actual experiences (moving from one place to another quite often). What is the theme for making these lyrics?
Stuck in America is our tribute to teenage boredom and frustration. Tim moved around a lot in his teens, he probably went to 10 different schools. On the other hand, I grew up in a small town (Santa Barbara, CA) where everyone knew everything about everyone else. We both felt trapped in our own ways. I’m sure teenagers all over the world can relate to the feeling of wanting to get out and start life out on your own, but being too young to leave home. Thats probably why there are so many bands in the world, you sit home and practice your guitar and form a band with your friends as a cure for boredom. Fast forward a few years and, if you’re lucky, you and your guitar are on stage in another country singing your songs.

*When we interview recent artists, it is especially common among punk bands that say the 90s of singing negative things is over, now is the age of thinking positive and singing positive. Does Sugarcult’s music fit in with this?
We write songs about stuff the things in life that make you passionate; love, hate, happiness, anger, etc. We aim to write timeless songs, rather than follow the trends. Any sad songs we wrote in the 90s or happy songs we’ve written in the 2000s are purely coincidental. Some of our most positive sounding songs are actually about negative things like drug addiction (Bouncing off the Walls) and broken hearts (How Does it Feel). You never know.

*Please tell us what you think about President Bush’s attack against Iraq.
I do not profess to be an expert on world politics, but I am definitely against violence and killing people as a solution to problems. I suspect it goes far deeper than what they tell the public. Why launch a preemptive strike on a country that has missiles that can barely travel outside its own borders, let alone halfway across the globe? Saddam Hussein is a horrible dictator and should not be in power, nor should any leader that rules by instilling fear in his own people. If we want to encourage a regime change, there must be more reasonable ways to do it than by military force. Bush is not my President.

*What do you think about the against war activities that is going on among many musicians?
Fat Mike from NOFX has done a lot of research and started a new website aimed at educating punks about Bush, the war, etc. www.punkvoter.com Many young people respect the bands they like more than their own parents, teachers and political figures, so it’s great when musicians use their power of influence to spread positive messages. I don’t know what the answers are, but I know that war is the wrong answer. However, I do think it’s in bad taste when some media figures (actors, musicians, etc) use their anti-war stance as a shameless means to get publicity for themselves more so than their message of peace.

*We hear that the 2nd album may come up quite soon. How is it going at this moment?
Good. Sometimes we want to kill each other, but the songs are coming together nicely and very fast. If you ask really politely, we may play some for you this summer!

*How is the 2nd album different from the 1st album?
It’s exactly the same only we play and sing all the songs backwards!

*Please tell us your plans in 2003.
Here’s what we have planned so far: Record some new songs in California, get on a plane to Japan, drink as many free drinks as the flight attendants will serve us, land in Japan, eat as much sushi as possible, play some shows, make lots of new Japanese friends, go do some shows in Europe and America, return to Japan and play the Summer Sonic Festival, eat more sushi, fly home, do our laundry, pay our bills, then continue touring until our families call us and tell us it’s time to come home for the holidays!

*Message to your fans in Japan, please.
Make sure you brush your teeth before you come to our shows, because our drummer Ben wants to kiss each and every one of you! See you this summer!!!!

Peace, Love, and Understanding,
Marko 72