Zoli Teglas - Pennywise (03/08/2012)
The 59th Sound took some time out to chat with Zoli Teglas, new frontman for punk rock veterans Pennywise. What followed was a really insightful discussion about Zoli’s views on the impact of illegal whaling, challenges with recording latest album ‘All or Nothing’ and the responsibility that comes with taking on Jim Lindberg’s legacy.
Hi Zoli, how are you?
I’m good! What magazine are you writing for?
I’m writing for an online review site called The 59th Sound, they’re an Aussie site.
Thankyou for giving me this opportunity!
Thankyou for spending time some time with us today, I was just wondering where you are at the moment?
I’m in sunny southern California at the moment, not far from the ocean
So you’re the front man for both Pennywise and Ignite, have you found it challenging juggling two such well respected bands?
Well it’s just, you can’t have two lives kind of deal, it’s really tough to give both of them your utmost attention, to give both of them your writing energy, to give both of them your time. The hard is part is the poor Ignite band guys have been on the back burner since this Pennywise album is doing so well. Actually I got hurt onstage at Pennywise, and about three weeks ago had surgery on my back.
I asked a friend of mine Jon (Bunch) from Sensefield to fill in for me for the Ignite tour, so Ignite’s touring now in Europe with another singer. He’s filling in because I couldn’t make it, those guys have to tour, people want to see the band and I couldn’t go so I thought get another singer just to fill in for a little bit.
You’re quite passionate about a lot of social and political issues and you’ve supported organizations such as Earth First, Doctors Without Borders and Sea Shepherd. What are your thoughts on the Japanese government’s latest attempt to extradite Captain Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd to Japan?
I mean why does the Japanese government have so much power to extradite somebody because they’re going and enforcing international law. They have power because they’re buying the votes, they have power because they buy so many government’s bonds, especially American’s bonds and they keep so many of these governments afloat. That’s why he’s in trouble now, because the world economy is going to shit and Paul Watson is getting in the way of making more money for the Japanese whaling industry. They’re saying hey you know what America and every other country out there, we want him in jail and we’re paying for your bond and do what we say.
That’s the ugly thing about it, Paul didn’t do anything but get in the way of the whaling fleets to stop killing the whales illegally you know for ‘scientific research’. I mean come on, really for science, you got to kill the whales and cut them up and eat them on sushi plates for science, it’s just a crock of shit the whole thing.
It’d be the same for the Shark Campaign, where they're cutting off shark fins and throwing the sharks back in.
What is it four hundred dollars a bowl of shark fin soup and you can make three bowls out of one fin, course you want to kill as many sharks as you can and make all those millions of dollars. You go to the most beautiful and pristine places in the world, to the poorest people in the world and pay them pennies to go and destroy their eco system, kill all these billions of sharks every year totally turn upside down the eco system, make the oceans sick from no sharks being around, it’s just so disgusting and it’s all mafia run and why isn’t that illegal? How is that not terrorism?
How is the Sea Shepherd terrorism because they’re going out trying to protect these animals, but shark finning is not terrorism, that’s just fishy. Why is it not terrorism to cut down hectares and hectares and thousands of acres at a time of wood to be sent out for Ikea shitty furniture, but if you go out and try to protect the natural environment you’re a terrorist. It’s just an easy label, just like the politicians do at war, oh they’ve been fighting each other for years, bullshit there’s a reason for it. It’s just an easy label so people can say ok, let me just wash my hands of this.
The Japanese are just sick of subsidising multi million dollars worth of subsidised whaling fleets, coming back with half their quota. They took twenty five million dollars from the Tsunami fund and put it into their illegal whaling operations, it’s a losing cause and most Japanese people don’t eat whale meat, you just don’t tell the government what to do.
Pennywise have released their tenth album in May titled ‘All or Nothing’, it’s been about four year gap between releases and this will be debut material from the new line-up. Do you think you guys found your sound and how do you think it compares to what’s been previously released?
It was hard for me to find the sound because you know these guys have been together for twenty years, they have their own sound from a long time ago and here’s a new singer. I don’t want to just try to imitate what Pennywise did before, because then it wouldn’t turn out good. So we had to find our own way but it has to be in conjunction with the fans, that the fans would like the music because that’s the most important thing.
Is that the fans that have a Pennywise tattoo on their neck, now all of a sudden their favourite band has a new singer and they don’t know what it’s going to sound like. I had the responsibility on my shoulders every time I went to that vocal booth, to sing something that a Pennywise fan would like. We went back and rewrote all the songs and rewrote them again, it was crazy, it was a lot of work but I think it turned out good because we all had the concept of this has to be a good album, this has to be an album that Pennywise fans like. It has to, its all or nothing, that’s why we called it all or nothing.
What was the writing/recording process like being involved in the new band dynamic?
Very painful, there’s a guy named Fletcher Dragge that is like the den mother of Pennywise, he is like Chewbacca, its fun to play in the band with him. I don’t know, it was very, very difficult and as the new guy you got to fight for all your parts and there was a lot of arguing, a lot of work and there was a lot of you know, we would quit and just drive home and come back the next day and start it all over again. I don’t know maybe the ends justified the means in this one, because through all the hard work and stuff I think we came out with a pretty good album.
The titles of the tracks off ‘All or Nothing’ are quite powerful, ‘Stand Strong’, ‘Let Us Hear Your Voice’, ‘United’, ‘Revolution’, would it be fair to say you’ve brought a lot of your beliefs into the production of this album?
Times are really hard right around the world and people are having a really hard time, like their houses are being foreclosed on and their having a hard time making ends meet you know. I think it’s important on this album, and everybody in the band had some pretty big suffering that was going on as well, some pretty big difficulties in their life. This album was just like put this thing on, turn it loud forget about your problems, if you can get some power, some energy, some positivity out of it.
So that’s why we were pushing for this ‘stand strong’ and ‘we have it all’ and ‘all or nothing’ is because it’s like you take that Killer’s lyric it says ‘when you can’t hold on, when you can’t hold on, hold on’, you know what I mean, that’s how it is. I’m going through some pretty personal stuff right now and it’s really hard, sometimes I put the Pennywise album on and it kind of gives me some energy you know. That’s what I was looking forward to do with this album, is just give some positive energy to some people who are having a hard time.
The band was together for 20 years or so before you came along, do you think your presence has renewed the band’s energy?
I think so, the band itself we’re a different unit now, there’s no worrying about if someone’s feelings are going to get hurt, you kind of tell the other guy how it is. We’re free to talk to each other in a way that is fresh, we can argue and then right after we’re done arguing we’ll go grab lunch. I guess it wasn’t like that for a long time, it was like nobody could ever talk, like a lot of bands like they don’t get along after a while and you have to watch what you say, it’s very spiteful and everything and now it’s kind of freeing and one can kind of like make their own way per say.
Have you experienced any negativity from sceptics that would prefer Jim come back as front man?
No not yet, I haven’t because he’s a friend of mine, I asked Jim for his blessing, he didn’t want to do this anymore, he wanted to do his own solo thing. I didn’t kick Jim out, he quit and he didn’t want to do it, he wanted to do other things in his career and I totally understand that and Pennywise was Jim for twenty years. If he doesn’t want to be there does the band have to stop?
The people that stuck around and waited out and turned up are excited because the band doesn’t have to stop now. The band can keep on going and I once said to Jim if you ever want your job back you know it’s up to you buddy, and he says he doesn’t want it back [laughs]. So I mean I’m very thankful, respectful for Jim and I appreciate that I sang his songs on stage for the last three years, his hard work and there’s no doubt about it, it’s been absolutely awesome, I’ve a lot of respect for him.
You’re nearing the end of the current tour, you’ve played Japan, U.S and Europe so far, how’s it been? What’s the audience reaction been like to the new material?
The audience reaction has been like this at first, first two songs they kind of step back and are like ok, it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be and the next three songs they’re like ok this is pretty good and by the end of the show they’re all excited because we put on a good show and most of the time we’ve had a very positive reaction at the end of every show, so I’ve been very blessed to kind of see that. These people are a little nervous at first and you can understand you know and then all of a sudden at the end of the show they’re relaxed and we’re relaxed and then it’s like cool, they’re still fans, they still like the music we kicked out tonight.
The band will be playing shows here in August, are you looking forward to coming to Australia?
Yeah I can’t wait, only thing is I’m bummed out I’m leaving this nice warm southern California for ice cold Australia, I forgot that it’s your winter time over there. I’m really looking forward to it, it’s going to fun, there’s going to be big club shows, it’s going to be really, really good.
What’s next on the cards for Pennywise? Will we be seeing more single releases, touring etc?
We’re going to tour til the end of the year and then we’re going to start on the next album, yeah keep on working, keep on writing.
Any video clips?
We just finished one, we should be done with it, should be out hopefully in about a month, it’s for ‘Let us hear your voice’.
Thanks for your time!
Thank you so much, I appreciate it.
Nazia Hafiz
Pennywise w/ Mezingers, Sharks Tour
Thursday 23rd August – Coolangatta Hotel, Coolangatta
Friday 24th August – Eatons Hill, Brisbane
Saturday 25th August – Roundhouse, Sydney
Sunday 26th August – Palace, Melbourne
Tuesday 28th August – HQ, Adelaide
Wednesday 29th August – Metro, Fremantle
Hi Zoli, how are you?
I’m good! What magazine are you writing for?
I’m writing for an online review site called The 59th Sound, they’re an Aussie site.
Thankyou for giving me this opportunity!
Thankyou for spending time some time with us today, I was just wondering where you are at the moment?
I’m in sunny southern California at the moment, not far from the ocean
So you’re the front man for both Pennywise and Ignite, have you found it challenging juggling two such well respected bands?
Well it’s just, you can’t have two lives kind of deal, it’s really tough to give both of them your utmost attention, to give both of them your writing energy, to give both of them your time. The hard is part is the poor Ignite band guys have been on the back burner since this Pennywise album is doing so well. Actually I got hurt onstage at Pennywise, and about three weeks ago had surgery on my back.
I asked a friend of mine Jon (Bunch) from Sensefield to fill in for me for the Ignite tour, so Ignite’s touring now in Europe with another singer. He’s filling in because I couldn’t make it, those guys have to tour, people want to see the band and I couldn’t go so I thought get another singer just to fill in for a little bit.
You’re quite passionate about a lot of social and political issues and you’ve supported organizations such as Earth First, Doctors Without Borders and Sea Shepherd. What are your thoughts on the Japanese government’s latest attempt to extradite Captain Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd to Japan?
I mean why does the Japanese government have so much power to extradite somebody because they’re going and enforcing international law. They have power because they’re buying the votes, they have power because they buy so many government’s bonds, especially American’s bonds and they keep so many of these governments afloat. That’s why he’s in trouble now, because the world economy is going to shit and Paul Watson is getting in the way of making more money for the Japanese whaling industry. They’re saying hey you know what America and every other country out there, we want him in jail and we’re paying for your bond and do what we say.
That’s the ugly thing about it, Paul didn’t do anything but get in the way of the whaling fleets to stop killing the whales illegally you know for ‘scientific research’. I mean come on, really for science, you got to kill the whales and cut them up and eat them on sushi plates for science, it’s just a crock of shit the whole thing.
It’d be the same for the Shark Campaign, where they're cutting off shark fins and throwing the sharks back in.
What is it four hundred dollars a bowl of shark fin soup and you can make three bowls out of one fin, course you want to kill as many sharks as you can and make all those millions of dollars. You go to the most beautiful and pristine places in the world, to the poorest people in the world and pay them pennies to go and destroy their eco system, kill all these billions of sharks every year totally turn upside down the eco system, make the oceans sick from no sharks being around, it’s just so disgusting and it’s all mafia run and why isn’t that illegal? How is that not terrorism?
How is the Sea Shepherd terrorism because they’re going out trying to protect these animals, but shark finning is not terrorism, that’s just fishy. Why is it not terrorism to cut down hectares and hectares and thousands of acres at a time of wood to be sent out for Ikea shitty furniture, but if you go out and try to protect the natural environment you’re a terrorist. It’s just an easy label, just like the politicians do at war, oh they’ve been fighting each other for years, bullshit there’s a reason for it. It’s just an easy label so people can say ok, let me just wash my hands of this.
The Japanese are just sick of subsidising multi million dollars worth of subsidised whaling fleets, coming back with half their quota. They took twenty five million dollars from the Tsunami fund and put it into their illegal whaling operations, it’s a losing cause and most Japanese people don’t eat whale meat, you just don’t tell the government what to do.
Pennywise have released their tenth album in May titled ‘All or Nothing’, it’s been about four year gap between releases and this will be debut material from the new line-up. Do you think you guys found your sound and how do you think it compares to what’s been previously released?
It was hard for me to find the sound because you know these guys have been together for twenty years, they have their own sound from a long time ago and here’s a new singer. I don’t want to just try to imitate what Pennywise did before, because then it wouldn’t turn out good. So we had to find our own way but it has to be in conjunction with the fans, that the fans would like the music because that’s the most important thing.
Is that the fans that have a Pennywise tattoo on their neck, now all of a sudden their favourite band has a new singer and they don’t know what it’s going to sound like. I had the responsibility on my shoulders every time I went to that vocal booth, to sing something that a Pennywise fan would like. We went back and rewrote all the songs and rewrote them again, it was crazy, it was a lot of work but I think it turned out good because we all had the concept of this has to be a good album, this has to be an album that Pennywise fans like. It has to, its all or nothing, that’s why we called it all or nothing.
What was the writing/recording process like being involved in the new band dynamic?
Very painful, there’s a guy named Fletcher Dragge that is like the den mother of Pennywise, he is like Chewbacca, its fun to play in the band with him. I don’t know, it was very, very difficult and as the new guy you got to fight for all your parts and there was a lot of arguing, a lot of work and there was a lot of you know, we would quit and just drive home and come back the next day and start it all over again. I don’t know maybe the ends justified the means in this one, because through all the hard work and stuff I think we came out with a pretty good album.
The titles of the tracks off ‘All or Nothing’ are quite powerful, ‘Stand Strong’, ‘Let Us Hear Your Voice’, ‘United’, ‘Revolution’, would it be fair to say you’ve brought a lot of your beliefs into the production of this album?
Times are really hard right around the world and people are having a really hard time, like their houses are being foreclosed on and their having a hard time making ends meet you know. I think it’s important on this album, and everybody in the band had some pretty big suffering that was going on as well, some pretty big difficulties in their life. This album was just like put this thing on, turn it loud forget about your problems, if you can get some power, some energy, some positivity out of it.
So that’s why we were pushing for this ‘stand strong’ and ‘we have it all’ and ‘all or nothing’ is because it’s like you take that Killer’s lyric it says ‘when you can’t hold on, when you can’t hold on, hold on’, you know what I mean, that’s how it is. I’m going through some pretty personal stuff right now and it’s really hard, sometimes I put the Pennywise album on and it kind of gives me some energy you know. That’s what I was looking forward to do with this album, is just give some positive energy to some people who are having a hard time.
The band was together for 20 years or so before you came along, do you think your presence has renewed the band’s energy?
I think so, the band itself we’re a different unit now, there’s no worrying about if someone’s feelings are going to get hurt, you kind of tell the other guy how it is. We’re free to talk to each other in a way that is fresh, we can argue and then right after we’re done arguing we’ll go grab lunch. I guess it wasn’t like that for a long time, it was like nobody could ever talk, like a lot of bands like they don’t get along after a while and you have to watch what you say, it’s very spiteful and everything and now it’s kind of freeing and one can kind of like make their own way per say.
Have you experienced any negativity from sceptics that would prefer Jim come back as front man?
No not yet, I haven’t because he’s a friend of mine, I asked Jim for his blessing, he didn’t want to do this anymore, he wanted to do his own solo thing. I didn’t kick Jim out, he quit and he didn’t want to do it, he wanted to do other things in his career and I totally understand that and Pennywise was Jim for twenty years. If he doesn’t want to be there does the band have to stop?
The people that stuck around and waited out and turned up are excited because the band doesn’t have to stop now. The band can keep on going and I once said to Jim if you ever want your job back you know it’s up to you buddy, and he says he doesn’t want it back [laughs]. So I mean I’m very thankful, respectful for Jim and I appreciate that I sang his songs on stage for the last three years, his hard work and there’s no doubt about it, it’s been absolutely awesome, I’ve a lot of respect for him.
You’re nearing the end of the current tour, you’ve played Japan, U.S and Europe so far, how’s it been? What’s the audience reaction been like to the new material?
The audience reaction has been like this at first, first two songs they kind of step back and are like ok, it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be and the next three songs they’re like ok this is pretty good and by the end of the show they’re all excited because we put on a good show and most of the time we’ve had a very positive reaction at the end of every show, so I’ve been very blessed to kind of see that. These people are a little nervous at first and you can understand you know and then all of a sudden at the end of the show they’re relaxed and we’re relaxed and then it’s like cool, they’re still fans, they still like the music we kicked out tonight.
The band will be playing shows here in August, are you looking forward to coming to Australia?
Yeah I can’t wait, only thing is I’m bummed out I’m leaving this nice warm southern California for ice cold Australia, I forgot that it’s your winter time over there. I’m really looking forward to it, it’s going to fun, there’s going to be big club shows, it’s going to be really, really good.
What’s next on the cards for Pennywise? Will we be seeing more single releases, touring etc?
We’re going to tour til the end of the year and then we’re going to start on the next album, yeah keep on working, keep on writing.
Any video clips?
We just finished one, we should be done with it, should be out hopefully in about a month, it’s for ‘Let us hear your voice’.
Thanks for your time!
Thank you so much, I appreciate it.
Nazia Hafiz
Pennywise w/ Mezingers, Sharks Tour
Thursday 23rd August – Coolangatta Hotel, Coolangatta
Friday 24th August – Eatons Hill, Brisbane
Saturday 25th August – Roundhouse, Sydney
Sunday 26th August – Palace, Melbourne
Tuesday 28th August – HQ, Adelaide
Wednesday 29th August – Metro, Fremantle