The Suicide Machines is one of the best bands to come out of the Third Wave Ska movement of the 90’s. Like many of their Skacore contemporaries, they mixed Ska and Punk Rock music. Many elements distinguished them from most bands of the era, though: the played faster, they played harder, and they sounded angrier, both musically and through their politically charged lyrics. You could hear a clear hardcore influence, and their shows have always been high energy, with the band giving it their all and the crowd responding by dancing all night. My very first band, back in High School, used to cover their song DDT. As a longtime fan, it was an absolute pleasure to discuss music with their frontman Jason Navarro, on the phone, while we’re all sequestered in our homes. Make sure to check out their new album, Revolution Spring, out now on Fat Wreck Chords, and to catch them live, whenever the Earth starts spinning again!
What have you been listening to lately?
I can say the new CATBITE 12 inch that came out on Bad Time Records. I listen to that quite a bit. I guess it’s kind of an old record now, I got it about a year ago, but I’ve been listening to KATE TEMPEST, Let Them Eat Chaos. Kind of Hip Hop and House music and poetry. She’s really heavy man. What else did I like? I really love that JIMMY CLIFF album, Rebirth, that came out. It’s got to be 10 years old now but I finally got a physical copy of it this year so I’ve been spinning that a ton. It blew my mind. The guy had to have been pushing in his 70’s when he recorded that record but it was cool. It was rad that Tim Armstrong produced it too. Man, he’s still got it, you know? The guy can sing and he feels what he sings. I really like that record a lot. It seems like I’ve been listening to a lot of older Crust Punk too like SKITSYSTEM.
Can you think of five albums that have been really important to you, either in your music development or personally?
It is not the album that got me into Punk by any means but it was the first time the light switch flipped and I was like “yeah dude, Punk. This is my shit.” and that was probably going to be Group Sex by the CIRCLE JERKS. That and the first SUICIDAL TENDENCIES album, that was it, you know? I’d already kind of been listening to BLONDIE, which has some Ska and maybe a little bit of New Wave influence and some things like that. My parents were listening to MC5 and ALICE COOPER and the STOOGES, but the first time I was like, “Punk Rock. Here we go!” was probably Group Sex.
Then, I really liked Highway To Hell by AC/DC. When I was a little kid, that was probably the first time I realized I liked music. As a kid, recognizing that you actually wanted to have the music. Bon Scott kinda intrigued me. So it would probably be Highway To Hell or High Voltage. The first couple of AC/DC records are really fun stuff. This is the beginning of the 80’s so it’s what I heard and remember liking.
Then, OPERATION IVY, of course. Energy was a gigantic influence on me.
I remember being blown away by ERIC B AND RAKIM. Probably the Paid In Full album? I’ve always listened to Hip Hop, I’ve listened to a lot of stuff like NEWCLEUS and AFRIKA BAMBAATAA because we had a really good Hip Hop station here in Detroit. Late at night, you’d catch really good stuff. I used to listen to him in my room, this guy the Electrifying Mojo. I remember the first time being blown away by Hip Hop and loving it was probably Eric B and Rakim or maybe PUBLIC ENEMY, It Takes A Nation Of Millions and Yo! Bum Rush the Show.
NEGATIVE APPROACH’s first 7 inch EP. A lot of people wonder why Suicide Machines are angry at times and I’d have to say that was a huge influence on us. Growing up in Detroit, all of my first phone shows were all local bands. I didn’t really see big bands probably the first year I was Punk. In ’86 or ’87, going to the first couple of Punk shows, it was all local stuff and Negative Approach were kind of the band in Detroit. When you got into Punk, it was the Negative Approach, there’s nothing more holier in Detroit. It’s hard to top to this day. Now, John Brannon’s a really good friend of mine and I know a couple of those guys and don’t get me wrong, I love the LAUGHING HYENAS -John’s band, more than any of the bands he’s been in- but the NA seven inch was really the holy grail in Detroit, for a lot of people.
Can you think of three songs that you consider to be perfect songs? What makes them so good?
I think the song called Here We Go Again by OPERATION IVY. It’s an outlook of how he was looking at the world and his life. He’s really taking a look at himself yet he’s taking a look at the world around him, what he has to supposedly grow up. That song is pretty perfect man.
I really like that song by JIMMY CLIFF, One More. That song is beautiful. What the song is about and him, at his age, singing that song, it’s coming at you, it’s awesome. Like, I ain’t done yet and I’m coming motherfuckers. It’s sick to think about a guy at that age having that attitude. Bringing it the way he did, you feel his voice inside of you.
I don’t know, there’s so many perfect songs. The Takeover by BAD BRAINS, that song is unstoppable. People don’t realize the Bad Brains are a huge influence on the Machines, for sure. Ghost Town, by The SPECIALS too. I think it really applies right now. I actually just recently covered that song with my solo band and recorded it because that song was amazing. Just the fact that song rose to the chart at the time it did in England, by a real ska band, it’s pretty impressive. It’s an insanely dark vibe with what the lyrical content is about. It’s super fitting, the lyrics with the music.
You’ve mentioned lyrics a lot, what are some of your favorites lyrics? Either a lyricist or maybe some specific song lyrics that you really enjoy?
Well, I’ll tell you right now since we’re on the subject of things I’m listening to now, there’s a song by KATE TEMPEST called Faces. That and her song Europe Is Lost. I’m telling you, she is the greatest lyricist in the past 50 years. I don’t think anyone writes better lyrics than Kate Tempest, I really do. She is better than anybody. She has not done anything bad yet and her lyrics are unbelievable. There’s so many good song and lyrics I could probably think about, I don’t think anyone could touch her.
I like some very weird discordant lyrics to. A lot of people think that’s the easy way out and I don’t think that at all when you bring someone like Mike Williams from EYEHATEGOD in the picture. I don’t think that’s the easy way out with him at all. I think it’s poetry even though people think it’s abstract, fucked up shit, I don’t think that at all.
What are some of the most memorable live shows you’ve ever seen?
Well, one took place in Montreal, actually. It was us with SUBB and LESS THAN JAKE. It was one of the biggest freakin’ three band bill Punk Rock shows I’ve ever seen in my life. It was outside, kind of where they were doing the Warped Tour for a while (note: September 2000 at Parc Jean-Drapeau). You played some giant stage and I remember pulling up before the show like “How the heck are we gonna fill this up?” It was like 7000 people or something? It was the craziest thing ever, it blew our minds. It was almost sold out but it was huge!
Then, I can think about things like, -I don’t back this guy at all. I think he’s scum- but all my roommates came home and were like, “Alright, we’re going to see G.G. ALLIN” and I was like, “Oh dude, I just dropped acid. I really don’t want to go.” “Come on, let’s go!” It was a pretty typical, normal Punk Rock show actually.
One of the wildest shows I was at, I saw CITIZEN FISH in LA, in Compton actually, and it turned into a riot. Helicopters, police lines, that was pretty crazy. More so because of what had happened with LAPD and all that. That was pretty insane. I got hit pretty good with a tonfa by a cop. There’s weird things like that. I also think about my first time ever playing Gilman Street because it’s kind of like the Holy Land or something for the early 90’s. I played there in ’94 maybe, with SPITBOY and BLEED(???) and obviously, that was really cool. I remember the very first NEGATIVE APPROACH reunion show and that was wild. Yeah, that was pretty cool. You know, they had broken up by the time I started going to shows so I never got to see them but I got to see the first reunion show in Detroit and it was insanely intense. AVAIL shows in the early 90’s, their shows were always phenomenal.
I Saw a really wild show…Okay, this is probably my favorite Detroit shows all time actually. It was GANGSTER FUN, which is a phenomenal Ska band from Detroit. They’re the best, hands down, always will be and no one’s been better yet. So they’re a Ska band right, and they open up for NATION OF ULYSSES and FUGAZI. The best part is that you can’t fuck with Jonathan from Gangster Fun, he’ll fucking put his foot up your ass. So Fugazi was being weird about some shit and he’s just like, “(fuck, I’m gonna ….???) It’s kind of how he was but hands down, Gangster Fun went on with everything Fugazi did not want to happen. They didn’t want people stage diving and dancing and it turned into the wildest show. There’s no barricade and a thousand people, right? It was one of the wildest shows I have ever seen Gangster Fun play. Don’t don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen Fugazi play a bunch and I’ve seen them be the worst train wreck I’ve ever seen in my life and be the worst band I’ve ever seen but I’ve also seen Fugazi be the most magical thing I’ve ever seen right. So don’t get me wrong, Fugazi was mind blowing that night as well, and that’s kind of where I’m going with this. Nation of Ulysses is just unstoppable when they’re at their best so it was three of the wildest, most intense sets in a row I’d ever seen. Nation Of Ulysses is definitely more in the Punk world. Then you had ska and then, you had the beginning of Post-Hardcore, and it was one of the best shows I think, to this day, I’ve ever seen.
I remember seeing you guys play a lot in Montréal back in the days, mainly at the Rainbow a couple of times in the late 90’s. Those shows were always packed.
I love the Rainbow! It was fun to stick around because you could dance all night. I love Reggae and Dancehall. If we were lucky enoughto play on a weekend, there were dance nights after the shows, it was fun.
Is there any bands that you didn’t like at first but learned to enjoy over time?
NOFX. Never liked him. But we started playing Warped Tour and more and more I kept hearing it and the more and more I started to realize that I liked some of these songs. Then I started diving into their albums and there’s actually a lot of songs that I really like. I didn’t like a lot of that kind of West Coast-style, melodic Punk until maybe the past 10 or 15 years. You know, I was more of a Midwest, East Coast guy or I liked stuff coming out of England. The whole West Coast, kind of surfer vibe stuff wasn’t really my thing. It’s not that I disliked it, I just didn’t get into it. In the past 10 to 15 years, NO USE FOR A NAME was the one that broke me into that. I really liked the first couple of No Use albums for sure. I love ’em, they’re fantastic. It kinda kicked the door open for me to go “Oh yeah, dude, this is fucking really good!” I’d always considered PENNYWISE kind of thing to have a little more of an edge to it, almost Hardcore. Kinda of like GOOD RIDDANCE was almost kind of Hardcore. So I’m speaking to kind of like the more melodic stuff. So yeah, NOFX was one the ones that I definitely like a lot of their stuff and it has nothing to do with being on Fat, I started liking this stuff 10-15 years ago. I just did not get into them in the 80’s or the 90’s, it just wasn’t my thing.
What’s the most impressive band you’ve toured with? One that you had to watch their set every night?
Oh, man. There’s a lot. This is going to seem crazy to some but I loved watching FLOGGING MOLLY because they’re great musicians. I love watching ROYAL CROWN REVIEW because they’re phenomenal musicians. I’ve never missed HEPCAT on the Warped Tour when we played and I watched them every single day. Phenomenal. I love the DESCENDENTS, they’re always on. I have a big thing for watching really good drummers. When SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, or THE VANDALS had Josh Freese or Brooks Wackerman playing drums for them, I would watch their set every night so I could watch them play drums.
Is that the first thing you notice when you listen to new music or you watch a band live?
No. I think there’s these things that stick out in certain bands, you know what I mean? Like to me, with the Descendents, as much as I love Bill, Karl sticks out on bass. I loves his bass playing, I could watch his bass playing constantly. Just like Steve Harrison in IRON MAIDEN. I don’t think about the songs being anthemic or how good everyone in that band really is, I love watching Harris, play bass.
So in a live context, you really enjoy watching really proficient musicians?
Yeah, someone who is just outstanding in their instrument, you know? I mean, you know it when you see it. Our bass player Rich had a band called BASTARDOUS, and I would actually go watch his band just so I could see him play bass because I can’t really enjoy it when the Machines play. I love his baselines. He looks so satisfied when he plays bass too. If you see someone feeling that shit, that’s what I like.
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