Mad Caddies

The Mad Caddies are survivors. Having been one of Fat Wreck Chords flagship bands for the better part of a decade, they can now be considered the elder statesman of the punk rock circuit…

Vocalist Chuck spoke with us about tour pranks, Jamaicans and out selling super popular pop-punk bands…

Mad Caddies interview w/ Chuck

(Vocals) by Cameron Chambers

Friday June 8^th 

Evening Chuck, how are you?

I’m good thanks man, how are

you bud? 

Yeah, I’m good man.

Are you calling from home or are you guys on the road at the moment? 

We’re finally at home and it’s

wonderful! 

How long have you guys been

on the road for this time round? 

We have been on tour since February

14^th, so it’s been a long one. 

What touring plans have you

got to support the release of “Keep It Going”? 

Well, we just did 2 months in

the US followed by 6 weeks in Europe. We’re home for a bit now and

then we’re off to Canada. Once all that’s wrapped up we’re going

to organize to go back to Europe, and then sort out Australia, South

American and Japan. 

The record’s been out since

May 1^st, how’s the reaction from your fans

been? 

It’s been super positive. I

mean, the new songs are definitely slowed down a bit, it’s a little

more groovy but still you know, the response has been really positive. 

Are you happy

with how the record’s been received so far? 

We’re getting the best reviews

we’ve ever had which is great. It used to be hard to even get a review

and they definitely weren’t favourable (ha ha ha) so we’re just

happy that we’re even getting reviewed. And like I said, they’ve

all been pretty positive so far. 

“Keep It Going” was produced

on your music? 

It kind of just came about by

accident, we didn’t seek him out or anything like that. Our guitar

player Sacsha was writing songs which had a more reggae vibe to them,

stuff that was kind of dance hall and yeah, he went to Jamaica and got

talking with Wayne and that pretty much just got the ball rolling. 

Wayne had worked behind the scenes

on a lot of records that we dig which was cool, but everything was just

really casual.  

Was it intimidating

working with a producer who’s got a Grammy sitting above his fireplace? 

Not really, he was just sleeping

most of the time… 

No, I’m completely kidding,

he was great and he’s Jamaican so he’s as laid back as it gets. 

So you guys had a pretty cruisy

working relationship? 

Definitely man. It was just really

cool to hear all his old stories and just talk stuff out with him. He

had heaps of really good stories from back in the day. 

As you guys were working with

the new record? 

Wayne actually came in when most

of the songs were already written so a lot of the pre-production was

already done. He definitely had his ideas though so he put his feel

on it. 

There was stuff he’d suggest

and we’d be like “fuck that” but then he had others ideas and

were all “yeah, that’s cool”. 

We tried to put a bit of pressure

on ourselves to write a great record. We did a few lock downs – we

got a house in the mountains for a week so you know, we had a few really

solid writing sessions. We did a few basement writing sessions too,

just so we were isolated which was cool. 

It worked out really well, we

were really focused so I think we got some great songs out of it. It’s

definitely better than jamming for 2 hours a day, 4 days a week. 

It was just an awesome learning

experience. 

It’s

“Walk The Plank”? 

Well, we feel these are the best

songs we’ve written which is cool. It’s definitely our best sounding

record as far as the production goes. 

We’re really happy with how

things turned out because the sound, and what we wanted as artists,

and the vision that we had was accomplished.  

Earlier this year, Russ from

around for almost 10 years? 

Oh ok, I hadn’t read that. Pretty

interesting though. 

I mean, it’s cool that Good

Riddance did their thing for so long but we’re not really a band that

pays much attention to or judges what other bands are doing so I guess

when it’s over it’s over, you know? 

In regards to The Mad Caddies,

we feel like we have more left in us and more music to make and more

places to go so we’re not going anywhere. 

The world’s a big place, and

even if one place isn’t into your music anywhere I guarantee you that

somewhere else will be. We just want to dance, drink and be merry and

we’re down to go wherever the people are that want to do those things

with us. 

It might not be a full time thing

anymore, but we’ll still release a record every 2 years and tour.

We’re definitely not giving it up. 

Kids seem so eager to jump

more than an album or two? 

Absolutely man! These days, bands

come in and sell a couple of million records and then bang, they’re

done. 

We did this show one time, and

this other band (who shall remain nameless) played on the same night

in another venue and we had heaps more people at our show. I’ll just

say that they were a VERY popular pop-punk band and yeah, it’s interesting

to see how things panned out. 

We’re really proud that we earnt

our fan base through playing live music and I think that as long as

you continue to write good music then there will always be people who

will continue to like it. 

I think a really great example

the shows sold out. 

That’s the great thing about

a band like NoFX. They’ve been going for almost 25 years but they

write great music so people still respond to it. 

I think the coolest thing I’ve

seen at a NoFX show is seeing parents there with their kids.  

For sure, it’s not like their

– they’re definitely a band that can get past all that shit. 

Completely agree man. 

Following on from the previous

kids these days are “here today, gone tomorrow”? 

Well, you know, it was the same

thing back then. Our generation – or should I say my generation -

invented the term sell out. People were like, “fuck those guys, they

signed to a major”. So, that kind of shit has always been there. 

But, you know, the kids that are

in bands today, the bands who are the founding fathers of the whole

screamo/post hardcore thing, I’m sure if you looked at their past,

they’d be like “yeah, I was in a ska band when I was 16”. So things

like that come and go, you can’t really control it. 

I don’t even think it’s a

scene thing, it’s just a band thing. Bands from all different scenes

have been able to transcend the fads and have stuck around and turned

into great bands.  

Bands like Jimmy Eat World and

AFI ignored the detractors, did their own thing and look at them now,

they’re these amazing bands. 

Have you found your crowd has

fan base? 

In some ways it’s changed but

you still see the same faces that have been coming out forever.  

We’re at the point now where

we’re known as the drinking band, ha ha. Our crowd is 24 – 32 year

olds who like partying. So when we play a show the venue is always like,

“the bar’s really happy you guys played here tonight”, ha ha,

which is cool. 

I like hearing things like because

it means real people like seeing us, not just 16 year old kids. 

I know you touched on it earlier,

but when are you looking to schedule in another trip down under? 

That’s something that’s still

to be determined man. We’re working out the logistics to get down

there again but hopefully it’ll be between November and February to

coincide with the Australian summer which would be great. We’ve never

been down there during your summer.  

Like you said, you just finished

a 24 hour party or have you toned it down over the years? 

I think we’ve all just figured

out our bodies, so we’ve become much better at drinking, ha ha. That’s

all it is. It’s like, “oh shit, it’s 3am, I should go to bed”,

or “the sun’s up, what am I doing”?! 

We’ve definitely fine tuned

the art of being a touring, alcoholic band. 

Almost every band has, at some

of? 

On the receiving end? Oh man,

fucken Frenzal Rhomb got us so good on tour in the US. They attacked

our rental RV – which by the way I had to personally put the security

deposit down on – they threw rotten eggs, fruit, meat, and all this

other shit all over it. It took almost 2 hours to clean that fucken

thing before it was driveable again. 

We got em back though! 

And what’s the worst that

The Mad Caddies have dished out? 

Probably the worst thing we ever

did was go to a pet store and buy a few hundred crickets and stick them

in this band’s van. 

Was that Frenzal Rhomb’s

van? 

Nah, it was another band, ha ha. 

That wraps it man, anything

else you’d like to say to all the kids in internet land? 

No man, looking forward to seeing

all our family down there in Australia though! 

Sweet, thanks heaps for your

time man. 

Thanks for doing the interview

man, take care. 

For more info on The Mad

Caddies go to 

www.madcaddies.com 

through Fat Wreck Chords