Undead - Interview

  by Aaron Brown

published: 16 / 4 / 2007

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Article

Bobby Steele, singer and founding member of the Undead, and one time member of a New Jersey band called the Misfits, has been a busy man of late. After years of legal rangling involving the rights to his band’s name, he is back having finally succeeded with a fierily abrasive new album entitled ‘Still Undead After All These Years’. Taking time out from promotion duties, Bobby is happy to share his thoughts on everything from running a successful indie label, his hatred of emo to dealing with the ramblings of the mental insane correctly. PB : So what have been up to ? I understand you are quite busy at the moment. BS : Yeah I’ve just started promoting the new record and I am organising a few shows locally so it is going to be hectic from the next few weeks. PB : I understand there’s a certain relevance to the title the album regarding you recent legal issues. BS : Yeah, there was this guy from the West Coast claiming that he had the rights to the name ‘The Undead’. He was basically going around slandering me. He claimed members of the Ramones had played on his albums and he was friends with a lot of influential people on the punk scene, things like that. I ended up hiring a lawyer and took a case against him. It turned out this guy had basically fabricated this incredible story. For example, he had had even made fake show flyers and posters with him on the bill playing with the likes of the Dead Kennedys. Even from the start his label was warned that if they signed this guy there would be legal issues. When I asked the some of the bands involved they said they had never heard of the guy and certainly didn’t remember playing these shows. PB : A serious nut job then? BS : Pure fantasist. I eventually won the case but it seems even the US Government ruling against this guy will not stop him from trying to use the name. PB : You’ve got your own label Post Mortem Records. Have you got a problem with major labels? BS : I like to have control and a say in my music. I remember around the start when I got signed to Stiff Records. There were these bands saying that I had sold out because they were a big label. The thing is, when we got signed we called the shots and managed to get full control and rights to my back catalogue in the contract. The very same bands also signed to major labels, but they ended up with no control over there music and don’t have any rights to re-issue it. PB : Being a small label, do you think it is lot easier release and promote albums via the internet? BS : I am kind of new to the whole technology thing but I find it quite interesting. Luckily a friend of mine is a web genius. But it is cool. PB : What does it mean to be a punk then? BS : I think it is just about being yourself. I cannot stand this emo whining crying emotional bullshit that passes itself for punk. It simply about being yourself. PB : Your lyrics to me suggest you have something of a pessimistic outlook on life. BS : I actually have a very positive outlook on life. I mean I was born with spina bifida and also got polio when I was a kid so I definitely think it has made me positive. I do have a satirical outlook though. PB : Band reunions, good or bad? BS : Bad. Although I am going to see the Stooges tomorrow night and Iggy is always a trip to watch. I think it is cool that at least the Ashetons are in the band. I cannot stand these bands that get back together and there is only one original member. It is all or nothing. PB : You mean like what Jerry Only is currently doing with the Misfits? BS|: Well the thing about Jerry Only is that he has basically created this lie and he is basically fooling a generation. The first Misfits bass player was a girl called Diane and it was always Glenn Danzig’s band from the beginning. PB : Finally, what would be written on your epitaph? BS : Fuck, that is a hard one. ‘Here lies Bobby Steele’. I am sorry I can’t think of anything. PB : Thanks.

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