Like Sands Through The Hourglass...

Back in late 2009 when Jim Lindberg announced he had left Pennywise, the punk rock world reacted with shock. Pennywise were a band that had always prided themselves on brotherhood, and apart from the tragic death of bassist Jason Thirsk, had managed to keep a stable line-up for their entire career. Even more shocking was the nasty nature of the split. While Lindberg claimed family pressures were at play, the band claimed to have been blindsided and dumbfounded at his decision. Lindberg quickly moved on with a new band – The Black Pacific – while Pennywise drafted in Ignite frontman Zoli Teglas, eventually releasing the solid All Or Nothing album. At this point no one ever expected to see Lindberg back in Pennywise, but fast-forward to late 2012 and the impossible happened – Teglas was out, Lindberg was back in. What the hell happened?

“A few things led to Jim coming back to Pennywise,” explains Fletcher Dragge. “I guess the first step was me getting back in touch with Jim to settle some of our unresolved issues. And I should say at this stage there was no intention of Jim coming back, it's just we hadn't talked for three years and it needed to be done. So we got together and talked – for my part I realised that I perhaps had been too stubborn and pissed off about everything – and we were able to resolve some issues that had been between us. I did say to him that we missed him and it wasn't the same without him but it didn't go any further than that.

“This happened at the same time as Zoli injured his back, which meant we had to cancel a heap of tours including Australia,” continues Dragge. “Zoli's back was actually already injured, then he re-injured it again while he was rehabbing. We took him to the best doctor in America, who told him that he would have him fixed and back on stage within five weeks. But Zoli didn't want anything to do with it and wanted to try do it on his own – which the doctor told him was risky for his health and which would have meant over a year off the road for Pennywise. Obviously that wasn't going to happen. At this point he suggested that we get Jim to fill in for him. And we were like 'If Jim comes back you know you'll be out of a job?' Strangely, at that point Jim actually bumped into Randy and Byron at a bar in our hometown and I got a photo texted to me with those guys together and the caption 'Pennywise motherfucker'. And from that point it was done. Zoli was actually pretty instrumental in the whole thing – he'd talked to Jim and I guess this strange sequence of events shows that it was meant to be.”    

So was Teglas the wrong choice for Pennywise? When the man himself talked to us back in 2012 he wasn't shy in noting that making the All Or Nothing record wasn't the smoothest of processes. And he particularly felt that the band weren't prepared to take his ideas on board. “I wouldn't say that Zoli was the wrong choice for the band,” muses Dragge. “No matter who we got it was a very difficult proposition coming into a band that operated like a family, grew up together, partied together and knew all the same people. Also we are all strong personalities. If you stood back and didn't speak up you'd get walked over. But on the other hand – and this was the case with Zoli – if you had very strong opinions you'd butt heads with the other members. Zoli came into the band telling us what we were doing wrong and we were saying 'You've joined Pennywise, we didn't join the Zoli band',” he laughs.

“Don't get me wrong, we had some very good times with Zoli and he's obviously a very talented performer and singer, but I think – and he would probably agree with this – that he was used to how Ignite did things and found the Pennywise way of doing things very difficult. Zoli is a perfectionist, while we take things a little more loosely – it's a party backstage every night – because that's the way we do things. On stage Zoli was very militant, while Jim had a bit more of a loose swagger that fit Pennywise much better.”

And as for the recording process for All Or Nothing and Teglas' input? “Well I don't think people realise that 95% of that record was written by Randy and myself,” explains Dragge. “What Zoli brought in – the stuff we used anyway – was great. He actually wasn't a huge fan of the record. What happened was that when it came time to record the album he decided that he didn't like it and didn't want to sing it. Eventually he came around to it and wanted to have some input – and when this input was suitable for Pennywise it was great – but in the end he was so entrenched in Ignite and his way of doing things we had to make sure it didn't become an Ignite album.

“With that album [we] definitely didn't have anything to prove but if we made a bad record we would have been on the chopping block – and that pushed us throughout the whole recording process. Overall, it turned out to be a great record and I think Zoli did a great job with the vocals.”

Looking to the future, Pennywise are determined to make up for lost time. “Our first order of business is trying to put together a cool box set to celebrate our 25th anniversary as a band,” says Dragge. “It's going to be really comprehensive and has a bunch of songs that didn't make past albums as well as outtakes and randomly recorded stuff that we think is cool as well other stuff that's never been heard.” And can we expect any new material now that Lindberg is back on board? “Well actually,” he says, “the box set is going to include two or three brand new songs. The band is obviously in a good place at the moment so we want to take advantage of that. Once those tracks have been done we're going to start working on a brand new Pennywise album towards the end of this year. Things are now moving pretty fast for us so we hope all our fans stick with us and get ready for some great stuff in the future.”

Pennywise will be playing the following dates:

Tuesday 2 April - Metropolis, Fremantle WA
Thursday 4 April - Palace Theatre, Melbourne VIC
Friday 5 April - UNSW Roundhouse, Sydney NSW
Saturday 6 April - The Tivoli, Brisbane QLD
Sunday 7 April - Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast QLD
Tuesday 9 April - HQ, Adelaide SA