I remember the first time I heard Rancid. I was heading to a movie one summer and my friend Len stuck a tape into my car stereo (as he was in the habit of doing, the second he got into anyone's car he took over the tape deck). The tape in question was Rancid's second album, "Let's Go". As soon as I heard the song "Burn", I was hocked on Rancid for life. A few months later I saw their first Vancouver appearance at the Sub Ballroom and found out that they we're just as amazing live as on tape. Finally after several years of wanting to interview the band I finally got my chance. This interview was conducted with Lars and Matt at the Vancouver, B.C. stop of the Vans Warped Tour. Captain Haircut was not present.

James: How has the tour being going so far?
Lars: Amazing! It's been great!
James: You've been enjoying playing with all the bands on the Warp tour?
Lars: Yeah, you got NOFX, H2O came on today. You got Civ, Deftones, Bad Religion. There's a lot of great bands.
James: When you guys started Rancid it was straight ahead punk, like not really much other influences. But now you seem to be putting in a lot of ska and reggae elements. Is that a direction you see yourself heading in? Do you think you're going to get more and more diverse with each album?
Matt: We don't worry about the next album until we do it. This one just came out the way it did. Who knows how the next one will come out. Whatever we're feeling at the time, we do.
James: So it's not really a conscious effort. Just what ever songs you write, you record?
Matt: I think some people think we have a master five year plan or something.
James: Like trying to revert back to Op Ivy. Do you guys get a lot of requests to do Op Ivy songs since some of you were in the band?
Matt: Not anymore. We use to when the band first started. After the number of shows we've played now people seem to get the message that we're not going to play any of those songs.
James: Some of you guys are in side bands. Tim is in that band the Silencers. Are any of the rest of you guys in any side projects?
Matt: I play in the Silencers too and I was in Auntie Christ with Excene from X, but not anymore.
James: Was That a studio project, one off type of thing?
Matt: We played a lot of shows for about a year, but then Rancid started recording a new album so I had to quit.
James: I noticed you guys have a lot of guests on the new record and even a couple on the last one. Is there a lot of people that you like having on albums or was it just people hanging around the studio?
Lars: That's pretty much what happened. The record was all about a vibe, about having fun. I think it was the funnest record any of us have made. It was just about getting people in there. I think we really showed off our influences on this album. We went so far to get some of our influences and have them play on this record.
James: You guys took a pretty long time to record this one compared to your other ones.
Lars: Once we put out "Out Come the Wolves" we were on tour for a year and a half. So there's a year and a half right there. We put out the first three records in two and a half years. This record was a collection of tapes.
James: So you just recorded bits and pieces here and there.
Lars: Yeah, we didn't book out a whole year and spend time in the studio. The first session was done after we got home from Australia and Japan and we did "Something In The World" and that made on the final record. We also did an early version of "Bloodclot" and then we re-recorded it in Brooklyn, New York at Coyote Studios. So it was like a collection of tapes from over the last two years. We'd just go in for maybe a week or two, take a month off, then go back in for another week. Whenever we wanted to go in and make the record, we just did it.
James: Do you think that gives a better representation of the band, because you have a two year period as opposed to a couple months?
Lars: It would have been easier for us to do what we did before, but we didn't want to do that. I mean, we made "Let's Go" in six days and "Out Come The Wolves" in four weeks and we did forty something songs for that album.
James: You did forty something songs for "Out Come The Wolves"? What happened to the rest of those songs?
Lars: They either became b-sides, ended up on compilations or we just never used them.
James: Do you guys have any involvement in Hellcat Records, or is that just something Tim does?
Lars: It's pretty much majority Tim. The closest thing I got to it was that all the bands that are on it are some of my favorite bands and I produced the Dropkick Murphys record for the label. It's such a perfect thing for him to do because when Rancid stops and takes some time off, he can continue to make records for some of his favorite bands. He puts so much effort and love into music in the first place whether it's Rancid or the bands on his label. He's really creative and he knows how to make a record from the ground up. It's really good and healthy for him.
James: You guys have a lot of tattoos. Tell me about them.
Matt: I got my first one about seven or eight years ago. It was my X one, I got it when I was in my mid twenties.
Lars: We've all been getting tattoos for the last ten years. It's something we enjoy.
James: It looks like you're running out of space.
Lars: I'll just laser some off and do it again. Although, I kinda want to finish so I don't have to go through it again. I hate getting tattooed. It's a very painful thing. I mean I enjoy the tattoos, but it's so painful getting them.
James: Between Op Ivy and Rancid there was a band called Downfall (with Matt and Tim), what was the deal with that?
Matt: I don't know how many shows we played, it wasn't more than seven I think. It might have only been five. We recorded some songs which are going to come out on Lookout when we get around to it and that's about it.
James: I've read that the band is like a family and you guys share a real deep bond, do you think that influences your music and the way you treat your fans and everything?
Lars: Oh yeah, I mean the thing about us is that there comes a point in your friendship that you think your never going to get tighter, but we keep getting tighter. Because there has been so many instances when it's been us against the world and we were the only ones who understand what were doing. For instance with that whole major label thing everyone had an opinion on what we should do and we just listened to our gut instincts and you realize how many friends you really have when it comes right down to it. James: There seem to be a lot of rumors that fly around about you guys. Like with that Whole U.S. Thugs thing. I was reading about members of it perpetrating violence against other people and you don't know how much of it you can believe.
Lars: When people are jealous and want to be part of something and they can't, there first instinct is to put it down and make up lies about it. U.S. Thugs was pretty much a family thing. It actually started out with us wanting to make a band. Me, Tim and this guy John Reid. But Rancid was already going. It was going to be like four-minute Oi songs and we just didn't do it. So we were like why don't we just start a crew and that's what we did. It's like all our friends. You go anywhere in the world and whether it's DMS or U.S. Thugs or whoever it is, they're your boys. We have a family in pretty much every town in the United States. That's what it and the violence thing… anyone is capable of violence. Just because they have U.S. Thugs tattooed on them, doesn't make them more so then the next.
Matt: Things get blown way out of proportion.
Lars: It's just a crew. I remember hearing rumors that if you didn't like Rancid, then U.S. Thugs were going to come and kick your butt. That's Maximum Rock 'N' Roll that wrote something. It's people without an understanding of what it really is and pretty much they're just jealous they don't have the family unity or friendship that we've got.
Matt: That whole thing was a letter somebody wrote. It wasn't even an article, it was a letter to Maximum Rock 'N' Roll. I actually talked to Tim, God rest his soul, and said "You've got to be kidding right?" and he just growled at me.

James: Are you one of those bands that they have a vendetta against because you've gotten to popular.
Lars: I don't think so. They just stopped reviewing our records. They dropped a lot of stuff and it wasn't just Epitaph stuff either. You have to respect Tim Yohannon for what he did. He stuck to his guns.
Matt: Tim was just badass in his own way. He didn't mess around. He was very consistent. He wasn't in it for anything except to put out his magazine every month. He's gone now, God rest his soul.
James: Is there a story behind the title of the new album, "Life Won't Wait"?
Lars: We've seen a lot of our friends go through trials and tribulations with crack and other things. It's saying get of your butt because life won't wait for you to catch up. We're in the nineties now and it seems the faster you move it the harder it is to keep up. I think it's just appropriate to where our head space is at.
James: Tim had quite a problem with drugs didn't he? I read that he credits the band with saving his life.
Lars: He was pretty to the curb at points but like a trooper he came back up and headed the call, so to speak. He's doing good. We've all had our bouts with it.
James: I think that's it for my questions. Any final comments?
Lars: Buy corporatedethburger!