"SCAMP" INTERVIEW
By Michelle Queeny of Queens

Imagine if you will, a tiny, cramped, rehearsal space in a large and laxly guarded manhattan music studio. I was told I would know the place by the potted plants outside, that would be the only way I would find it. So , feeling like a spy i made my way between the two large ficus, slipped easily past the fat oblivious, security guard and fell quietly into the toilet boys’ hidden world. Immediately I noticed a hum in the air. Guitarists Rick and Adam were giddy with excitement anticipating the upcoming "ozzfest" at giants stadium. I nearly passed out myself when they informed me of the "ozzfest’s" Black Sabbath reunion show which will feature the Blizzard of Oz himself on vocals. Naturally the prospect of this much fun led us all on a merry trip down memory lane, and soon, vocalist Miss Guy, drummer Edward O’Dude and bass player Sean were traipsing down the path of new wave haircuts, teen sexual frustration, and the sometimes winsome world of rock.

MQoQ: Lets talk about the haircuts that changed your lives.

At this point Adam coolly indicates the devillock on his misfits t-shirt.

EDWARD: Duran Duran.

RICK: When I was in fifth grade I just decided I was going to let it grow.

 GUY: I think that when I dyed my hair black and had the Phil Oakey thing, that long bang over one eye, then i realized I was like "turning heads" at school. (Said in a tone of mock scandal).

MQoQ: Did dysfunction play a role in bringing your style to the surface?

 GUY: Well, being hated in school made me want to get out. You’re hated anyway so I just wanted to do things to outrage them, whatever I could do, shave off my eyebrows, anything to make them more angry.

MQoQ: How do you feel about the co-opting of so-called, "underground" culture?

 GUY: Well, you can buy at Contempo Casuals what you used to have to go to the thrift store to buy.

ADAM: Its still different tho’. If you go to the stores...I just did that stupid Diesel runway show and they fucking took a picture of my jeans and made thier own version of my jeans!

GUY: Nobody’s really creative anymore. I mean, there are creative kids out there, but not like when I was in junior high and me and my few friends made our own things, or you would thrift shop high and low to find certain clothes. Kids used to make their own T-shirts when they’d go to shows now they know they can buy those same ugly mu-mu T-shirts on St. Marks.

EDWARD: I always made t-shirts because I couldn’t afford the ones I saw or I wanted an original one.

MQoQ: Style and sexual identity often go hand in hand. Some of you are gay and some of you are not. How do your sexual identities factor into the band?

RICK: We’re all weird.

MQoQ: Yeah you’re all weird.

GUY: I don’t really sing about one thing or the other.

EDWARD: I don’t want to be labelled as any particular kind of band, I’d rather be open sexually.

GUY: I guess my sexuality comes out in the way I look because obviously if I was like a "straight dude" i wouldn’t look the way i look.

MQoQ: So do you feel the need for a seperate , queer punk movement considering the fact that punk is twenty years old?

GUY: Well there were queers doing it back then! Rock and Roll was queer from the beginning. I mean my influences... I don’t know if they’re straight or gay or what and it doesn’t matter to me and I don’t think it should matter. I don’t know if paul Stanley sleeps with men or women or what, and I think what I think but it doesn’t affect the music.

MQoQ: Despite the fact that you see your preferences as incidental to your music, have your implied preferences affected any fans?

GUY: I had this cute kid, like fifteen with a mohawk come up and he hugged me and said he was glad we’re doing what we’re doing and he’s gay and sick of being in the closet and that’s great. I made him feel comfortable to say that. He didn’t know whether..,what I am, I mean he probably has his ideas and he’s probably right!(everyone laughs). its like when I liked certain people when I was younger I didn’t really know what they were and it didn’t even matter ‘cause they brought something out in me that I didn’t think I could...You relate to something and you make your own decisions.

MQoQ: How is the current backlash against nightlife making you feel?

GUY: Well, I don’t go to Times Square to fucking tittie shows or peep shows anyway. I think its great that they have those, people should be allowed to do what they want especially in New York! Give everybody who wants to move to N.Y., whether its to go jerk off in a booth at midnight or go see Annie...(laughing) well, the whole country is pretty much one way and it’s like let one teeny place in this country be basically free and anything goes!

SEAN: That’s why people come here, if they want to go to Disneyland they can go to Florida.

MQoQ: Being in a band and living in New York are not easy but, we all know the myth of the slutty rockstar who gets sex easily. Have you gotten more sex since joining the band?

EDWARD and GUY: LESS!!!

RICK and SEAN: MORE!!!

GUY: Honestly that’s part of your fantasy of being a rock star, being able to sleep with whoever you want, but unfortunately for me I used to have more luck before! But, I would totally use my whatever I have or whatever I will gain as far as star status goes to get people in bed!!! You hear stars saying "it’s so hard to have friends or lovers cause you don’t know who is wanting you for you or who you are" but its like, WHO CARES?! I mean if there’s like a cute kid who wants to sleep with me because I’m the lead singer of the toilet boys that’s fine! It’s different if you want to be in a relationship but if you just want to have sex with someone, who cares?!

RICK: You know as a teenager you start playing guitar because you aren’t able to have sex or you become an artist or a serial killer.

MQoQ: Speaking of serial killers, can you think of any dangerous women who impacted your life?

EDWARD: Tina Turner.

SEAN: Kembra Pfahler and Theo from the Lunachicks they’re the scariest women I’ve met since I’ve been up here. I’d never met girls that rock, but New York girls rock!

RICK:The women in my family. My aunts and grandmothers were always like dangerous Italian ladies who pretty much ran the family. It was like a Martin Scorcese movie, that kind of grandma!

GUY: I’d have to say Debbie Harry, cause at the time I’d never seen anything like that. I grew up in California on the beach and everyone was like tan, blonde and no make-up and she was like platinum, pale tons of make-up, mini-skirts I had never seen anything like that.

ADAM: Who’s the one that played Olive Oyl in "Popeye"?

MQoQ: Shelly Duvall?

ADAM: I used to be hot for her (laughing) she scared me and excited me at the same time!