| Todd Kerns |
| March 2, 2005 |
| Todd Kerns |
Katrina: What have you learned while touring?
Todd: Pacing, it’s all about pacing, trust me. That’s the first thing I say to people, don’t fucking blow it on the first night, like don’t go over the top. That definitely is the
biggest thing because I mean honestly rest is fucking very short to find, food is fucking terrible everywhere, so it’s like you kind of have to really pace yourself and I
mean a lot of guys, when I was younger we were ripped the whole time. I mean when you’re doing that it can rally take it’s toll on you especially as a vocalist. Like that’
s the thing, I’ve written articles in Canadian Musician and a couple of things and they always ask “Well what do you do to take care of your voice”, unfortunately
nothing. When I was drinking and smoking and a lot when I was younger and I just plowed right through it. Now that I’m ‘Clean Guy’ it’s like I kind of realized why wasn’t
I doing this all along, it makes more sense stamina-wise because you can always feel the effect of it. Singing every night is really hard because your voice can only
take so much. But I’ve been lucky, I’m going to knock on some wood now. Watch tomorrow I’ll show up in Regina, well it’s all on tape, I’m Ashlee Simpson. I’ve been
pretty lucky, I’m the kind of guy that doesn’t get food poisoning and I don’t do anything like that.
Katrina: Who were your musical influences growing up and have they changed?
Todd: You know they haven’t really changed at all, that’s the embarrassing thing. I mean most people kind of taper their influences as they get older so it’s kind of
like, try and be hop or something. But I’ve always been shamelessly, well they’re all on here (points to jacket). Kiss, Misfits, Bowie, Sex Pistols, Guns And Roses,
Motorhead, The Flairs that’s right, Dead Kennedy, you know most of those kind. That’s the best thing about growing up in a small town. I mean I don’t know about you
being in Saskatoon, it’s kind of a city in a sense that there’s always a scene, when you’re in a small town there’s nothing. You have no clue what’s cool, what’s not
cool. American press, British press so you know I’m kind of like a musicaholic so I was just reading all these magazines and really got into that. You know I had cooler
older friends and the punk-rock people are always really set in their ways, this is cool and this is not cool. There can be stacks of records and you got to listen to his.
But I try not to be like that I think it’s one of those things. But I think that’s kind of the thing for me now is, now the music I listen to or the kind of music I’m making is
very much sort of the music I liked growing up.
Katrina: Who’s your favorite musician?
Todd: That’s a tough question. I think that’s too hard to single out any one person. I think it’s kind of like there’s so many elements of different people I really dig. I’m
on a real New York Dolls kick right now.
Katrina: Which artist would you like to tour or work with?
Todd: Well I would always say I would like to tour with Kiss, only because I’m such a fan. I’d be a nerd standing on the side of the stage singing all the words. But I don’
t know, I honestly, there’s so many, David Bowie, forget about it. That kind of thing would be the ultimate. You know so many of these bands are reforming, MC5, New
York Dolls, bands like that. So that kind of stuff. But I think when you look at bands like Aerosmith or any of those kinds of bands, growing up and you’re like that would
be awesome to be on the road with those people just because it would be such a trip. You know business-wise you’re kind of thinking. I mean we’re very lucky right
now to be going out with Three Days Grace or Thornley, Billy Idol hopefully. You know, people like that.
Katrina: What’s your most embarrassing moment?
Todd: I don’t know. I’ve split pants on stage, when you get on stage you run the risk of that sort of thing. I don’t know how embarrassing it is. I’ve split pants a lot on
stage, I guess that’s fairly embarrassing. Usually just take a shirt off. You know, pants do that.
Katrina: What’s your most memorable moment?
Todd: There’s a lot. I mean being lucky enough to play arenas and stuff with Age, we did a lot of opening for Our Lady Peace and stuff like that, those are all very
memorable. Playing with Bush at Maple Leaf Gardens before they shut down Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Things like that are always memorable you know,
musical stuff. There’s lots of other things in your life that are memorable but for music it’s like, I mean every show I play. A little club like this, it’s fucking great. I love it.
But those bigger shows are always kind of a bit more sort of important in a lot of ways it’s sort of because you feel like, it’s funny when we were opening for Our Lady
Peace and bands like that it was always kind of like there were these small pockets of people there for you.
Katrina: What’s the nicest or craziest thing a fan has done for you?
Todd: I was just at my parents house today because they live in town and there’s paintings, I used to bring like fucking bring home paintings because people would
bring paintings and be like “I painted this picture of you”, well thanks. I’m not going to put a picture of myself up in my house so I gave them to my parents so you go
down there and it’s talented artist people making these paintings, so stuff like that. They used to do crazy things. I mean people at the height of The Age Of Electric
there’s people sleeping in the hallways, weird things like that. It was always a bit unsettling for me but I mean they’re always very kind I mean you sort of take it for what
it is.
Katrina: What’s your favorite song to perform?
Todd: You know it’s kind of funny, we change up our set-list all the time, and doing Go Time of the new record is always exciting because it’s new and seeing people
sing along to the song’s is always exciting. But at the same time people have a lot invested in the older show, I like that, it’s always nice when people react to that.
People are always like “Are you tired of playing those songs already?”, not really no. When you see the reaction people have on that, I feel very lucky that anybody
gives a shit to be honest. So I mean that’s a very difficult question. “My True Love” is always fun to play.
Squid: Todd, if you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?
Todd: I’d fucking be a weed-plant man.
Katrina: What song gets the best response?
Todd: Well I mean the old hits get a big response. “It’s Not You It’s Me” gets a great response. “It’s Not You It’s Me” is really strong, people get a kick out of it. The
album is so new it’s just like you’re starting to see people sing along.
Katrina: What’s one thing you can’t tour without?
Smirf: Me.
Todd: Without Smirf, and a guitar. I’m actually like, the funny thing is when I was younger there was a lot more of those superstitions, this is the way it’s got to be, I got
to get this much sleep, but I’ve really learned to live in such a way, transitory lifestyle where you’re kind of constantly, you really can’t have excuses. Like I didn’t get
enough sleep so I can’t play good tonight or I didn’t bring my lucky rabbit-foot. So you kind of have to suck it up and just fucking play. For me it’s kind of like if there’s a
stage and I have a guitar, we’ll play. So that’s as close as I can get.
Katrina: Who causes the most trouble in the group?
Todd: Our old guitar player used to. We were a four-piece before and he really hurt himself. He’s got like a herniated-disk and he can’t play guitar anymore. So he
caused the most trouble because he’s not even here.
Katrina: How do you write your songs and where do you get your ideas from?
Todd: I steal them. Honestly I think it’s easy I guess because it’s what I do. If you go, write a song right now, Ok, and write a song. The lyrics are always about
whatever’s going on. You know, write a song about breaking up with a girl. When you’re a musician or an artist, you’re always trying to push yourself further and not
have to write something that’s shallow or weak. You just want to be able to write something.
Katrina: What’s your favorite venue to play?
Todd: I’m a really big fan of the Commodore in Vancouver, it’s just a great room. That’s a tough question. There’s a lot of, usually wherever there’s an audience. I
mean like playing rooms like this, it’s not like 3000 person capacity, like before what I was saying it’s all about the moment and that’s very much sort of true, because
you could have a nice venue. It’s so different from one night, I can come here tonight and I can come here three months from now and it will be vibe from the last time.
So it’s hard to judge an audience by the town. Like people will say things like “Oh Vancouver’s lame” and it’s hard to judge that, the audience is constantly changing.
The age of the audience is changing, new people are coming in, old people are leaving and that sort of thing. I think that I’ll take the easy answer, I think the
Commodore’s cool, or Whembly Stadium in London, that’s a good one too.
Katrina: What advice can you give to people wanting to create a band?
Todd: I think it’s really cool when young people get together and just make music, it’s supposed to be just fun and that’s what it was when I was a kid. It’s the best thing
in the world to make music with your friends, it really should be. Don’t take it too seriously, have fun with it but at the same time, I mean advice wise it’s just kind of a
case, just keep practicing and just keep playing because I thing the more you do something better you get out of it to the point where you can definitely tell and see a
person who’s been playing for a while or a band that’s been together for a long time. You can always tell that to a band that’s been together for the first rehearsal or a
couple of rehearsals. Practice makes perfect. Practice makes really good music. I don’t think rock and roll is supposed to be perfect anyway. At least not in my idea of
rock and roll so it’s kind of like just go for it and definitely have fun because a lot of people take things way too seriously. I did for a really long time, now I just, it’s all
about the moment. Because people are all worried about what’s going to happen next year or what’s going to happen here or there. Fuck it. Just have some fun and
have a laugh, make rock and roll. It’s not supposed to be fucking rocket surgery. It’s one of my favorite sayings.
Todd: Pacing, it’s all about pacing, trust me. That’s the first thing I say to people, don’t fucking blow it on the first night, like don’t go over the top. That definitely is the
biggest thing because I mean honestly rest is fucking very short to find, food is fucking terrible everywhere, so it’s like you kind of have to really pace yourself and I
mean a lot of guys, when I was younger we were ripped the whole time. I mean when you’re doing that it can rally take it’s toll on you especially as a vocalist. Like that’
s the thing, I’ve written articles in Canadian Musician and a couple of things and they always ask “Well what do you do to take care of your voice”, unfortunately
nothing. When I was drinking and smoking and a lot when I was younger and I just plowed right through it. Now that I’m ‘Clean Guy’ it’s like I kind of realized why wasn’t
I doing this all along, it makes more sense stamina-wise because you can always feel the effect of it. Singing every night is really hard because your voice can only
take so much. But I’ve been lucky, I’m going to knock on some wood now. Watch tomorrow I’ll show up in Regina, well it’s all on tape, I’m Ashlee Simpson. I’ve been
pretty lucky, I’m the kind of guy that doesn’t get food poisoning and I don’t do anything like that.
Katrina: Who were your musical influences growing up and have they changed?
Todd: You know they haven’t really changed at all, that’s the embarrassing thing. I mean most people kind of taper their influences as they get older so it’s kind of
like, try and be hop or something. But I’ve always been shamelessly, well they’re all on here (points to jacket). Kiss, Misfits, Bowie, Sex Pistols, Guns And Roses,
Motorhead, The Flairs that’s right, Dead Kennedy, you know most of those kind. That’s the best thing about growing up in a small town. I mean I don’t know about you
being in Saskatoon, it’s kind of a city in a sense that there’s always a scene, when you’re in a small town there’s nothing. You have no clue what’s cool, what’s not
cool. American press, British press so you know I’m kind of like a musicaholic so I was just reading all these magazines and really got into that. You know I had cooler
older friends and the punk-rock people are always really set in their ways, this is cool and this is not cool. There can be stacks of records and you got to listen to his.
But I try not to be like that I think it’s one of those things. But I think that’s kind of the thing for me now is, now the music I listen to or the kind of music I’m making is
very much sort of the music I liked growing up.
Katrina: Who’s your favorite musician?
Todd: That’s a tough question. I think that’s too hard to single out any one person. I think it’s kind of like there’s so many elements of different people I really dig. I’m
on a real New York Dolls kick right now.
Katrina: Which artist would you like to tour or work with?
Todd: Well I would always say I would like to tour with Kiss, only because I’m such a fan. I’d be a nerd standing on the side of the stage singing all the words. But I don’
t know, I honestly, there’s so many, David Bowie, forget about it. That kind of thing would be the ultimate. You know so many of these bands are reforming, MC5, New
York Dolls, bands like that. So that kind of stuff. But I think when you look at bands like Aerosmith or any of those kinds of bands, growing up and you’re like that would
be awesome to be on the road with those people just because it would be such a trip. You know business-wise you’re kind of thinking. I mean we’re very lucky right
now to be going out with Three Days Grace or Thornley, Billy Idol hopefully. You know, people like that.
Katrina: What’s your most embarrassing moment?
Todd: I don’t know. I’ve split pants on stage, when you get on stage you run the risk of that sort of thing. I don’t know how embarrassing it is. I’ve split pants a lot on
stage, I guess that’s fairly embarrassing. Usually just take a shirt off. You know, pants do that.
Katrina: What’s your most memorable moment?
Todd: There’s a lot. I mean being lucky enough to play arenas and stuff with Age, we did a lot of opening for Our Lady Peace and stuff like that, those are all very
memorable. Playing with Bush at Maple Leaf Gardens before they shut down Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Things like that are always memorable you know,
musical stuff. There’s lots of other things in your life that are memorable but for music it’s like, I mean every show I play. A little club like this, it’s fucking great. I love it.
But those bigger shows are always kind of a bit more sort of important in a lot of ways it’s sort of because you feel like, it’s funny when we were opening for Our Lady
Peace and bands like that it was always kind of like there were these small pockets of people there for you.
Katrina: What’s the nicest or craziest thing a fan has done for you?
Todd: I was just at my parents house today because they live in town and there’s paintings, I used to bring like fucking bring home paintings because people would
bring paintings and be like “I painted this picture of you”, well thanks. I’m not going to put a picture of myself up in my house so I gave them to my parents so you go
down there and it’s talented artist people making these paintings, so stuff like that. They used to do crazy things. I mean people at the height of The Age Of Electric
there’s people sleeping in the hallways, weird things like that. It was always a bit unsettling for me but I mean they’re always very kind I mean you sort of take it for what
it is.
Katrina: What’s your favorite song to perform?
Todd: You know it’s kind of funny, we change up our set-list all the time, and doing Go Time of the new record is always exciting because it’s new and seeing people
sing along to the song’s is always exciting. But at the same time people have a lot invested in the older show, I like that, it’s always nice when people react to that.
People are always like “Are you tired of playing those songs already?”, not really no. When you see the reaction people have on that, I feel very lucky that anybody
gives a shit to be honest. So I mean that’s a very difficult question. “My True Love” is always fun to play.
Squid: Todd, if you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?
Todd: I’d fucking be a weed-plant man.
Katrina: What song gets the best response?
Todd: Well I mean the old hits get a big response. “It’s Not You It’s Me” gets a great response. “It’s Not You It’s Me” is really strong, people get a kick out of it. The
album is so new it’s just like you’re starting to see people sing along.
Katrina: What’s one thing you can’t tour without?
Smirf: Me.
Todd: Without Smirf, and a guitar. I’m actually like, the funny thing is when I was younger there was a lot more of those superstitions, this is the way it’s got to be, I got
to get this much sleep, but I’ve really learned to live in such a way, transitory lifestyle where you’re kind of constantly, you really can’t have excuses. Like I didn’t get
enough sleep so I can’t play good tonight or I didn’t bring my lucky rabbit-foot. So you kind of have to suck it up and just fucking play. For me it’s kind of like if there’s a
stage and I have a guitar, we’ll play. So that’s as close as I can get.
Katrina: Who causes the most trouble in the group?
Todd: Our old guitar player used to. We were a four-piece before and he really hurt himself. He’s got like a herniated-disk and he can’t play guitar anymore. So he
caused the most trouble because he’s not even here.
Katrina: How do you write your songs and where do you get your ideas from?
Todd: I steal them. Honestly I think it’s easy I guess because it’s what I do. If you go, write a song right now, Ok, and write a song. The lyrics are always about
whatever’s going on. You know, write a song about breaking up with a girl. When you’re a musician or an artist, you’re always trying to push yourself further and not
have to write something that’s shallow or weak. You just want to be able to write something.
Katrina: What’s your favorite venue to play?
Todd: I’m a really big fan of the Commodore in Vancouver, it’s just a great room. That’s a tough question. There’s a lot of, usually wherever there’s an audience. I
mean like playing rooms like this, it’s not like 3000 person capacity, like before what I was saying it’s all about the moment and that’s very much sort of true, because
you could have a nice venue. It’s so different from one night, I can come here tonight and I can come here three months from now and it will be vibe from the last time.
So it’s hard to judge an audience by the town. Like people will say things like “Oh Vancouver’s lame” and it’s hard to judge that, the audience is constantly changing.
The age of the audience is changing, new people are coming in, old people are leaving and that sort of thing. I think that I’ll take the easy answer, I think the
Commodore’s cool, or Whembly Stadium in London, that’s a good one too.
Katrina: What advice can you give to people wanting to create a band?
Todd: I think it’s really cool when young people get together and just make music, it’s supposed to be just fun and that’s what it was when I was a kid. It’s the best thing
in the world to make music with your friends, it really should be. Don’t take it too seriously, have fun with it but at the same time, I mean advice wise it’s just kind of a
case, just keep practicing and just keep playing because I thing the more you do something better you get out of it to the point where you can definitely tell and see a
person who’s been playing for a while or a band that’s been together for a long time. You can always tell that to a band that’s been together for the first rehearsal or a
couple of rehearsals. Practice makes perfect. Practice makes really good music. I don’t think rock and roll is supposed to be perfect anyway. At least not in my idea of
rock and roll so it’s kind of like just go for it and definitely have fun because a lot of people take things way too seriously. I did for a really long time, now I just, it’s all
about the moment. Because people are all worried about what’s going to happen next year or what’s going to happen here or there. Fuck it. Just have some fun and
have a laugh, make rock and roll. It’s not supposed to be fucking rocket surgery. It’s one of my favorite sayings.
