Joanna: I want you to tell everyone, all the millions and billions people who are now going to lose so much respect for you because you're on a filthy porn website -

Syd: - Probably, for sure.

Joanna: Uh, I want you to tell all those people your name.

Syd: My name is Syd, and I play bass in Les Savy Fav.

Joanna: Oh yeah?

Syd: That's correct.

Joanna: How long have you been doing this for?

Syd: I've been playing music in Les Savy Fav since 1995.

Joanna: Wow. That's a long time. What year is it now? It's two thousand....

Both: Eight.

Syd: It's a long time.

Joanna: Jeeze. Yeah, that is a long time.

Syd: For sure.

Joanna: You guys just, like, recently came out with a new album, is that correct?

Syd: We did. It's called Let's Stay Friends and uh...

Joanna: Aw! That's so cute.

Syd: It's kinda cute. It has many, many meanings.

Joanna: Is it an album about break-ups?

Syd: Um...if you want to interpret that, for sure. It's an album about break-ups. It's also an album about being friends.

Joanna: Oh.

Syd: Like us [motions to Joanna]. Over the years.

[Joanna laughs]

Joanna: We have been friends over the years!

Syd: Yes, we've been friends a long time.

Joanna: Did you ever break up with anyone?

Syd: Yes. I have broken up with people, and people have broken up with me. It's a lot harder to be broken up with, I think.

Joanna: Are you friends with a lot of the people you broke up with?

Syd: Actually, most of them, yes.

Joanna: Oh, well, that's good. You're not like the kind of guy that's like...you know...people don't get restraining orders against you and -

Syd: - No, actually I get restraining orders against them.

Joanna: Really!?!

Syd: Yeah. I've had two stalkers, which is really uncomfortable.

Joanna: Really!?!

Syd: Yeah.

Joanna: Did that happen from being in Les Savy Fav, or just from being, like, so good in bed or something?

Syd: No, no nothing like that.

[Joanna laughs]

Syd: The stalkers...there was no sexual stuff at all. It was just random people deciding to stalk me.

Joanna: Really? Like they saw you on the subway, and found you on Myspace, and stalked you? Or is this before Myspace?

Syd: It was way before Myspace.

Joanna: They stalked you the old fashioned way. Because now it doesn't take that much effort to stalk someone.

Syd: No, it really doesn't. And this was the old, olden days.

Joanna: Oh my god. They found you in the phone book? Did they look in the phone book?

Syd: No, they didn't look in the phone book.

[Joanna laughs]

Syd: I wish it was that creepy, because that would be more interesting.

Joanna: [Laughing] That would be interesting!

Syd: Yeah. No, there's a really good friend of mine in high school and when I went to college at RISD, she was like “Oh my sister's going to RISD; can you just look out for her because she's kind of socially awkward.”

Joanna: Mmmhmmm.

Syd: So I was like, “Yeah sure, you know, whatever.” And I met her once or twice, and said hello, and she's totally not my style. Anyways, I went home the following summer. I came home one day and there were yellow Post-Its all over my room...

Joanna: What!?!

Sid: And I was like, “What the fuck is going on?” And I was like, “Mom, what - why are there yellow Post-Its with, like, creepy handwriting on everything?”

Joanna: Did your mom let her in?

Syd: My mom let her in.

Joanna: She was like, “Hey, how ya doing? Go on up to my son's room, even though he's not home.”

Syd: Absolutely. And uh, yeah...basically she kept it up...I went to Europe, and she followed me to Europe.

Joanna: No! She didn't! Really?

Syd: Yeah. And then it got really bad, and -

Joanna: So did you ever even have sex with her?

Syd: No, not at all.

Joanna: So it wasn't like she, like, tried a piece of Sid once...

Syd: No.

Joanna: And, like, wanted more?

Syd: No, no, there was no fruit tasting.

Joanna: She wanted a piece of Sid.

Syd: No, I think that she was just crazy.

[Joanna laughs]

Syd: And actually, ironically, when she came back into the U.S. she accused her father - her father went to get her in Europe.

Joanna: Really?

Syd: Yeah. And she freaked out on the plane, and the cops had to come and totally separate.

Joanna: Mmmhmm.

Syd: She went to Ian McKaye's birthday party - his 30^th birthday party - and just showed up.

Joanna: Really?

Syd: And when she pulled up, I wasn't at the birthday party. This is what i heard. She opened the car door and another car hit the car door. Everyone ran out of the house like, “What is up?” But the sad part of the story is that her sister, who is my friend, had no idea that any of this stuff was going on.

Joanna: She didn't know that her sister - that would be weird! Because if you told me that my sister was stalking you, I'd be like, “No, she's not!”...you know?

Syd: You wouldn't believe it.

Joanna: Like, “You're the crazy one, not her”. Like, you don't want to believe that somebody in your family's crazy, you know?

Syd: Yeah, it was weird. And she would write things on toilet paper.

Joanna: Really!?!

Syd: Yeah, I mean, I could tell you - I could go into the story for much longer, the long one. But that's the short one.

Joanna: That's the truncated version.

Syd: Yeah.

Joanna: Nobody's ever even done that to me! I mean, you know, knock on...something.

Syd: Knock on wood?

[Syd laughs]

Joanna: Yeah. I mean, yeah. I'm pretty easy to find, actually. I might be a little too easy to find. The nature of work that I do...

Syd: Well, maybe that's why they aren't stalking you.

Joanna: [Laughing] It's too easy!

Syd: Ah, it's just too easy! They need to find someone who's really playing difficult, and just work at this one.

Joanna: Definitely! So, being a band for ten years, why should somebody buy this record? As opposed to, if they have the rest of the Les Savy Fav collection, why should they add this? Or is this a good way for it to be somebody's first introduction?

Syd: I think it's the fullest record I think we have. I think what makes this record unique is that there's a song on the record for everyone, and the album itself is sort of complete. As for our previous records, people are like “Oh, you know, this is the good song. Everyone loves this song.” So when we were playing the shows and playing the old records and the old songs, we knew what songs to play.

Joanna: Because everyone was looking for that one song.

Syd: Yeah, it was like the single or the hit. And then with this one, you don't know what it is and even amongst the band, people are like, “Oh, we're gonna play this one tonight because it's my favorite. No, this is my favorite.” And so, it's like an interesting process to see how we've written different records over the years. And the first record, 3/5, was really controlled and we want to represent the songs as how we played them live.

Joanna: Okay.

Sid: And then sort of the history of the band, with Let's Stay Friends, we recorded differently, we added, the process was very additive. We start with the piano, or bass line, or drums, and sort of throwing things in the mix as if we were cooking. And as before, we started with everything and tried to extract things. So that was an interesting process for us, to get to where we came from. But I think it's the most polished, the most thought about, the most considered. Chris Zane, who helped us with the record, produced the record, did a great job of sort of keeping us focused.

Joanna: You put it out yourself, right? It comes out on French Kiss?

Syd: Yeah, French Kiss put it out.

Joanna: So, do you have to call yourself and yell at yourself when things are going wrong?

Syd: Actually, the meeting I had tonight before I came over here...

Joanna: Was with yourself?

[Joanna laughs]

Syd: Was with myself.

Joanna: [Laughing] You sat in a bar, and talked to yourself.

Syd: Yeah, it was just me, and a mirror: “God, get on it”!

Joanna: [Laughing] “I'm not happy with the way things are going. You really need to step it up and sell more albums.”

Syd: No, it's definitely schizophrenic. I have to be bass player, manager. Although we have a manager now.

Joanna: Look, I gotta do the same thing.

Syd: I know, BurningAngel. You gotta do the same thing.

Joanna: It's hard, you know?

Syd: You gotta be in it, you gotta run it, you gotta make sure everyone else shows up.

Joanna: You gotta be creative and business-minded at the same time.

Syd: There's not that many of us out there.

Joanna: I know. And then you get angry at everybody else who doesn't appreciate. I don't know.

Syd: Are you a Leo like me?

[Joanna laughs]

Joanna: No, I'm not. I'm a Capricorn. So, anyway...that's good. Have you ever had any experiences with other record labels? Have you been on French Kiss since day one? I don't know, I haven't done my Les Savy Fav homework.

Syd: No, it's totally cool because that means I can talk about it.

[Joanna laughs]

Syd: We did a bunch of 7” and singles with nine different labels. And that was great, to sort of work with those different people in “the business”.

Joanna: Have you ever worked with a major label, or no?

Syd: No. We've never worked with a major label. We signed to Wichita in the UK and they're sort of part of Universal in a weird way. But, no, we're not sort of funded by, you know, a major label and we've never gone down that road. Ever.

Joanna: That's pretty amazing that you could be a band for more than 10 years and never had the help of a major label. I think that's rare these days. I don't think people really go that route anymore.

Syd: Well, when we were a band, we didn't want to be a band. It's like we did it as like, something in-between classes. And all of a sudden people started coming to our shows and we were just really surprised; we're still surprised people come to our shows!

[Joanna laughs]

Syd: But it's nice that now we can make a living doing it.

Joanna: That's great. That's fun.

Syd: It's a lot of fun. And it's gonna run out soon, I'm sure. No one wants to see a bunch of old guys in wheelchairs playing music.

Joanna: You never know.

Syd: You never know. So thank you, people, very much.

Joanna: There are even old guys in wheelchairs doing porn. So...

Syd: Really?

Joanna: If people want to watch old people bang, they definitely want to watch them play music, you know?

Syd: Yeah, I don't know anything about that. You'll have to point me in the right direction, I don't know that I've seen that.

[Joanna laughs]

Joanna: There's a whole world of it.

Syd: I'm sure there's a whole world for everything...I just haven't seen it.

Joanna: So, your singer, I forget his name...

Syd: Tim.

Joanna: Tim. Tim's the singer. So, he's always getting like, kind of naked on stage or close to naked. Does he ever get fully naked? I've never seen him get fully naked.

Syd: That's a good question. Because people always think he gets fully naked and he doesn't.

Joanna: Yeah, he always leaves on a thong-type thing.

Syd: Yeah, he's actually only been naked, to my knowledge, once. And that was in Barcelona. Or Madrid maybe. It was in Spain.

Joanna: Everyone's naked in Spain, all the time. I've never been there but that's how I imagine it.

Syd: Yeah, I think for sure that people are always partying. But we had a show with Mars Volta actually and uh, the bouncer/promoter was a real asshole. And everyone was about to kick his ass. And just real angry, a total fucking asshole. Tim was like, “I understand everyone's anger at him but before everyone kicks his ass can I try to turn his cheek? Just can we just give him lots of love first? Maybe he's had a fucking shitty day; let's just give him some love first”. And we were, like, alright Tim. You have til the end of the show, and if not we're all going to kick his ass. The Mars Volta guys were pissed, we were pissed, everyone was pissed.

Joanna: Okay.

Syd: So anyways, Tim got naked at the show.

[Joanna laughs]

Syd: And there was a woman selling roses or carnations or some flowers at the show, and he ran outside or something and grabbed a bunch of the flowers and walked up to the bouncer or the promoter or whatever and started doing this very sexual dance, fully naked, with these carnations, sort of throwing them at the floor.

[Joanna laughs]

Syd: Of course, it broke this guy's testosterone will and he started laughing. So then Tim got on stage and put his clothes back on. Anyway, at the end of the show, he was like “I was in such a bad mood, thank you guys” and everyone got along in the end. So it's a real testament to Tim's ability to get naked and make people laugh, because when Tim gets naked they laugh.

Joanna: That's awesome.

Syd: But he did a great job.

Joanna: He could like, solve world problems.

Syd: He probably could. He could probably go to the Middle East...

Joanna: He should go to the Middle East and wave his fucking -

Syd: Israel, I know you guys are pissed off at the Palestinians and I know the Palestinians are pissed off, but just check out this dance!

Joanna: Yeah and he could just do a little dance and give out roses and stuff. That would be awesome.

Syd: Yeah, he goes to church. He's a good boy.

Joanna: Well, how come there's no partial nudity from the rest of the band while you're playing? Why is it, like, always one guy? Haven't you guys ever - for the whole time you've been in the band, none of you have looked at him on stage and thought “Maybe I should take my pants off too?” That hasn't happened?

Syd: Actually, my pants ripped pretty bad but that doesn't really count.

Joanna: That was just because they were worn down.

Syd: Exactly. I think there's sort of these weird rock rules, that I have, or the band has or I feel like other people have, where guitar players are not allowed...like, bass players are not allowed to wear shorts.

Joanna: Really?

Syd: Period.

Joanna: Even in the summertime? Why?

Syd: Even in the summertime. Because you're the fucking bass player. You don't get to wear those fucking shorts.

Joanna: Is it okay for a drummer to wear shorts?

Syd: Absolutely. Drummers and singers.

Joanna: Is it in fact encouraged? Do drummers always need to wear shorts, no matter how hot or cold it is?

Syd: No, but they're constantly sweating. They're constantly in motion so they're allowed to wear shorts.

Joanna: Right.

Syd: The singer's doing things that are performance-based. But I don't think guitar players should be wearing shorts. Unless you're Angus Young. But even his whole thing, it's a performance, it's his whole shtick. But I just think it looks weird. I definitely don't think bass players should wear shorts.

Joanna: Okay. And they shouldn't be naked?

Syd: I think it looks - I mean who are your heroes?

[Joanna laughs]

Syd: If you're a bass player, and you're like “I bought a bass!”, there are no bass heroes that played in shorts. If you love soul, there's no guy that's like, oh man, that guy's the best bass player, those motown bass lines are amazing, and oh, his shorts are awesome.

Joanna: Right. You're right.

Syd: I can't think of one bass player that played in shorts.

Joanna: That's a good point.

Syd: So who are your heroes? So if you're in a band and you're playing music, who do you emulate and who are your heroes?

Joanna: Okay. So were Tim's heroes scantily clad?

Syd: Maybe, maybe, guitar players could get away with shorts. But rarely.

[Joanna laughs]

Joanna: Like what would have to be the occasion for it to be an excuse? Would it have to be really hot out at the time? Or would they have to be really drunk?

Syd: Think about also the short shorts. Tim, from Rancid, do you see him in shorts?

Joanna: No, I never have.

Syd: Lars? I don't think Lars could jump around and be awesome in shorts.

Joanna: I've seen him kind of wear shorts and then these stripy stockings underneath them kind of. So I guess that doesn't really count as shorts.

Syd: But like, Abercrombie & Fitch boxer shorts. Not going to happen.

[Joanna laughs]

Joanna: No. Not going to happen. No, you're right. Do you think maybe one day in the future? Like, what if people start to get bored with you? Because in porn, if a girl sees that her career is starting to get stale, she'll start doing anal, you know, to get more attention.

Syd: So jumping the shark. Is anal jumping the shark?

Joanna: I guess so. I mean you gotta do something, you gotta pull out a new card.

Syd: A new move?

Joanna: You gotta pull out a new move. Guys, don't stop liking me! Fans, come back.

Syd: The Ace! The A-hole is the card.

Joanna: Yeah! I mean, I gave away my card really quickly so I got nothing if people get bored of me. So I don't know, I'm just going to have to keep my lovely personality to keep it going.

Syd: For someone who does porn, I mean, there's so much porn.

Joanna: There is so much porn.

Syd: And still, I think as a man, and as women, seeing people have sex no matter if it's anal, whatever it is, a blow job, whatever it is, I think people are still turned on by it.

Joanna: That's true. No, people are ever going to get bored of sex. People are never going to stop having sex, people are never going to get bored.

Syd: I think that's what makes Les Savy Fav unique, is that every show, we look at every performance for that performance for whether we succeed or fail. So we take a risk. And I think Tim is phenomenal at getting the crowd to be a part of that, that creativity, and break down the barrier of band to audience.

Joanna: Have you seen people in the audience, like, get naked during shows? Has that ever happened?

Syd: Absolutely.

Joanna: Oh. That's awesome. That's good. It's really rare that an indie rock band can do that.

Syd: Yeah, well we also don't have two left feet and don't look at the ground.

[Joanna Laughs]

Syd: I think it comes from our punk roots, and there's some sort of inhibitions that come out when we play. And I think Tim's a mastermind. And he doesn't sort of hit serious buttons, like “My dad was a jerk.”

Joanna: Yeah.

Syd: It's more like, “I've really been curious about kissing somebody.” And then Tim will kiss a male or female, all of a sudden and the guy's taking his shirt off. And sometimes it's uncomfortable when all of a sudden people are like “AHHH!” It's like he's healing somebody and then all of a sudden they're naked. But one of my favorite shows, this girl came backstage and she was naked or something. She was like, “yYou guys are awesome! I've never felt so free” or something. We were in Texas.

Joanna: That's awesome.

Syd: And she's like, “Will you sign my body? Will you sign my tits?” Tim took the marker and wrote on her inner thigh “Nice boobs.”

Joanna: Aw, really?

Syd: I thought it was very clever.

Joanna: That's cute! That's really cute. Well, anyway. So what do you think of my little company?

Syd: Well, I've known you a long time, Joanna.

[Joanna laughs]

Joanna: Do you like what I've come up with?

Syd: I think you've done a phenomenal job.

Joanna: Do you get to enjoy the content? Because I know that when your password runs out, you're very quick to ask me for a new one.

Syd: I do it for the interviews.

Joanna: Which leads me to believe that you might actually be looking at the stuff on the website. Do you?

Syd: I've definitely checked out the website.

Joanna: Do you like it?

Syd: I wish I was a better liar but I'm not. But I've definitely checked out the website.

Joanna: You can't lie to me. I see the stats. I know when you're on and when you're off!

Syd: I mean the nice thing about the website is if you have, I mean I definitely checked it out even when preparing for this interview. I wanted to see who else was engaged in the interviews, what interviews and what questions. I think that's an important part. I think the nice part about the website is the fact that you try to bring all these different worlds together and I think a lot of the world of music and porn and art and business are all connected in a way. And if people disagree, I think they're lying to themselves. I mean, if you look at all the bands, most guys, you know, I ended up playing the bass, it's awesome, but I also wanted to play the bass because of women.

Joanna: Right.

Syd: And the idea of that, the old guard of the rock and roll stories that we heard, it's a part of it. So whether or not we act upon it is one thing. But I think that people like to see beautiful women.

Joanna: They do. And there's a lot of beautiful women on BurningAngel.

Syd: You have some good looking women.

Joanna: And if you could see anything in a video, anything at all. Let's say there's a guy and a girl standing here naked and I'm about to direct a porno and I have no ideas, or there's two guys and two girls, or as many guys and girls as you want here. What do you want to see?

Syd: Puppies.

[Syd laughs]

Joanna: We can't do that.

[Joanna laughs]

Joanna: What do you want to see?

Syd: I think I've said this before...

Joanna: I mean, what do you want the set-up to be? Is there any fantasy set-up that maybe you haven't seen but you want to see? Like groupie and rock star, not that it hasn't been done before, or naughty nurse and patient, or you know - is there any set-up you want to see? Like do you want to see a girl and twenty guys, a girl with one guy, do you want to see making out?

Syd: For me personally, I don't go towards more dudes to one girl.

Joanna: What about all girls?

Syd: I think there's a balance. I think for me, something that turns me on is sort of the balance between - this is going to sound horrible, or not horrible but corny - something that's too hard it might turn me off, something that's too soft, then it's boring. So there's that fine line between something that's softcore and something that's too hardcore.

Joanna: So you want something that's in the middle?

Syd: Yeah.

Joanna: Do you want it to be a guy and a girl or a girl and a girl? I want to make your porno fantasy come true, so I need to know what you want in here.

Syd: I think that a guy and a girl's always the best.

Joanna: A guy and a girl. One guy, one girl?

Syd: One guy, one girl. To see what their fun's about, like maybe throw in “Oh, the neighbors stopped by! Whoops!” But I think that something that's simple can work also.

Joanna: Something that's simple. Okay.

Syd: And just executed well.

Joanna: You don't want it to be degrading?

Syd: Well, even though it's porn, and the Republican Right and everything thinks porn is so degrading, I think that there's a point where porn is not degrading. Am I making any sense?

Joanna: I understand. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. Phew!

Syd: Sorry.

Joanna: Is there anything you want to say to the people who took a break from, you know, doing whatever it is they do?

Syd: Checking out the site?

Joanna: From checking out the pornographic part of my pornographic website. Is there anything you want to say to the people who took a break from jerking off to read or listen or watch this interview?

Syd: I appreciate your time in listening to my yap. I know there's many beautiful women that you could be looking at and I know that I'm not a woman.

[Joanna laughs]

Syd: I try to be pretty enough for you guys, I'm sorry.

Joanna: He did, everyone! I think you're pretty.

Syd: Don't do something horrible, and have a good time.

Joanna: Awesome. Well, thank you!

Syd: My pleasure. Congratulations.

Joanna: Say bye.

Syd: Bye bye. Bye BA!