For what might be the last interview ever on The Thanks List (thanks to all the readers!), it is an absolute privilege to welcome one of our original wish list guest, Joey Castillo! I first became aware of Joey live, on Queens Of The Stone Age’s Songs For The Deaf tour. I came in a huge QOTSA fan, and remained so, but I walked out a Joey Castillo enthusiast! Great drummers often sound unique and Castillo’s feel and energy is simply unmatched. No wonder that he’s been recruited to join so many hugely successful bands over the years! From playing with Danzig in the ’90’s, then QOTSA, to his current main projects The Bronx and Circle Jerks, he’s made a habit of filling big shoes and putting his stamp on it, appear to be the easiest task.
Catch The Bronx live this summer, all across Europe and the US.
The Circle Jerks are also out in the US and Canada this summer, alongside Descendents! Don’t miss this amazing pairing of legends!
Keep an eye out for upstart band Doom Regulator, which marks the reunification of Operation Ivy’s power duo of Tim Armstrong and Jesse Michaels!
What have you been listening to the most lately?
I gotta say THE CHATS, we’re on tour with the guys right now. DRUG CHURCH, obviously a lot, the bands we’re playing with right now, SCOWL. I’ve been in such a tour mode, between the Circle Jerks and The Bronx, it’s kind of tough to really get down to listen too much. I would like to. But obviously, I’m always trying to keep up with what’s happening.
Is that something that you do a lot, check out the bands that you’ll be touring with?
Oh, yeah. I try to. There’s never an excuse not to, as far as I’m concerned. I always look forward to hearing a lot of new things. We were just overseas with Circle Jerks in Australia, we were on tour with PENNYWISE, and we played with this Australian band, CIVIC, that were pretty cool. I liked them a lot. But this tour has been great too.
Do you typically look them up beforehand?
Oh yeah, they were on my radar before. I try to keep up with what’s happening as much as possible.
What are some great discoveries that you’ve made recently?
I love WARTHOG! *pointing to my shirt* They are great. I thought that was really cool when I first heard that. That kind of blew my mind when I saw footage and stuff like that. I’ve never seen them live. Every time I’ve tried to see them back home, I’ve been away, the path never crossed.
There’s a lot of things out. This girl I just started following the other day, she’s been around, LITTLE SIMZ, an English girl. She’s a rapper, kind of GRIMES style, she’s great, man! I heard what she was doing and I hadn’t heard anything like that in a long time. It was just really refreshing.
But it’s cool to see there’s so many bands right now. I see a lot of bands starting up, and that’s always good to see and hear. Especially with Hardcore, there’s new bands every day. With social media now, it’s all getting blasted so quick. A lot of times I see something I’m like, oh, yeah, this is cool, then I forget or something, and a month or two later they’re massive!
Last weekend, I saw Drain from Santa Cruz, friends’ band of Scowl, and it was insane! Pile-ons and singalongs and just such a fun vibe.
Yeah, I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about them. There’s a weird kind of connection there because I play with B’LAST too now, on and off, and I know DRAIN did a take off on the classic Santa Cruz skateboards magazine cover with B’LAST, with the skateboarder over the band. That was kind of cool. That’s how I got to found out who they were.
In terms of bands that you’ve toured with, what’s one that comes to mind that impressed you the most? One that you just had to watch their sets night after night, no matter what.
That’s hard. There’s been so many of them because my career’s been so long. I mean, I’ve been grateful and lucky enough to still be playing as long as I have been. I can remember when I was in DANZIG, seeing HATEBREED at an early stage and it was amazing! I was just blown away by what they were doing, with the energy they had and the power that they had, the Hardcore roots and stuff, so that was rad, you know?
It’s always special to see a band that’s you can feel is just on the cusp of blowing up.
It was early for them, but they were already kind of established for the most on the East Coast, especially with the Hardcore scene. That was cool to see them at that point.
In the Queen’s days, it could have been somebody like a Belgian band called MILLIONAIRE, and they were really great. They were all very good friends of ours and I don’t think there was a night that we missed it. But, I mean, for me, I find something in just about everybody that I watch on tour, for the most part.
Is there anything that you’re a sucker for? Like, if the band has a great drummer, or just the melody or something?
No. Ultimately, I can usually find something for the most part in all the bands. Whether or not I end up being a big fan, there’s always something cool and rad that happens with all bands when you see them. Obviously, there’s a million different bands that I have never seen and that I’ll never be able to see that I know are great, too.
Is there one that’s been on your hit list all of your life but you’ve never gotten to see?
I never got to see Bon Scott with AC/DC and that broke my heart. I was a huge fan as a kid. I was literally going to see them on the Highway To Hell tour and he passed away. For me, that was a big missed opportunity and I wish to this day that I could have still have seen.
Going back to when you were a kid, do you remember the first time that music had an impact on you? The first time that you figured that you had a love for this thing?
I don’t remember the first thing, specifically. I just know that I loved music. My parents listened to a lot of music. No musicians in the family but they listened to a lot of typical radio stuff and everything like that, and I was always pretty drawn to it. From what they told me, from a really young age too. I can remember being young, and always being somewhat sucked in by it. I loved it all, for the most. I really did and I still do.
Is there any beloved music that you share with either your parents or now with your kids?
Oh, everything! My kids listen to everything because my record collection alone is pretty eclectic. They’ll go from hearing something like the Circle Jerks to FELA to COLTRANE to the B-52’s to The Bronx to whatever, it’s all there. It’s funny because they’re young, my kids are four, two and one but their reaction to it is pretty amazing. They kind of get it. I can imagine, I must have kind of been the same way. That’s when I see in them, what I can remember about myself. I can’t specifically remember artists, but I can remember songs and things and hearing that as a kid. As far as I’m concerned, my records are their records so they can do what they want with them later but right now, I’m still collecting for them, you know?
What band or artist do you think has achieved most flawless discography?
Wow! Let’s see…official releases, I would say the CAPTAIN BEYOND stuff is pretty rad. Those two records are pretty amazing. I mean, the first one, of course! That’s a good question!…You know, I could say like everybody, “it’s up to this record, then they should have stopped.”…I mean, BLACK FLAG with Keith, one EP, it’s pretty fucking flawless.
Do you even consider it separate from the rest?
It is. I consider it like that because Keith is the first. It started right there, you know what I mean? I’m a huge fan of Dez, I’m a huge fan of all the singers, but Keith is the beginning. Keith is the first singer, and that’s never going to change. Anything after Nervous Breakdown, there’s no way you could say is not influenced by that. It was a pretty fucking high mark, whether he thinks so or not! It’s a record that’s really important.
How early did you get to see black flag?
Dez. I was still pretty young when Keith was there and it wasn’t that long. It was a window that a lot of people didn’t get to see.
What are some of the most memorable shows that you’ve seen in your life? Shows that opened up a new world to you.
When I was a kid, the very first kind of Punk Rock show was probably in ’80, X at the Whisky. It was X, THE GEARS and THE BLASTERS, a weird kind of bill, but that’s what kind of flipped the switch. Then obviously, seeing Black Flag and then seeing the Jerks and then all that started to unravel and become more and more of a nightly thing. You start experiencing all the other bands that you kind of discovered upon those first few. I’m grateful that I saw so many of them. There were so many great shows, so many great bands at that time in the 80’s in LA. It was hugely important to where it took me musically, where it took me in my career. That’s really where it started. Like I said, Black Flag was always really memorable because it was always nuts. FEAR and all that kind of stuff. Amazing bands, amazing players.
Do you have any unpopular music opinion that you’d like to defend? Something that you truly love but can hardly find anyone to bond with you on that?
It’s hard to say whether it’d be a genre, whether it be an artist or whether it be a record or something. It’s funny, my wife has really got great musical tastes, and she’s always loved music, but she hates Jazz. If I put on a Coltrane record or something like MAHAVISHNU, I like all that crazy shit, and that’s what it sounds like to her, crazy shit. She can’t get down with it at all. To me, it’s funny because I also found that later, but musicians all down the line at some point, have been like, “I can’t really listen to that”, especially when it gets a little bit freeform and all that kind of stuff. And I love that stuff. It’s just something that I’ll listen to forever.
Is that something that you grew to appreciate yourself?
Oh, yeah, absolutely. But to your question, I’ve had plenty of bumped heads or arguing people about stuff like that as well. But I mean, sometimes when I hear noise bands and stuff, clearly, most people don’t enjoy noise bands but at least check it out and I could be saying in my head like, “What the fuck is happening there?” But I’m still gonna watch it like, “wow, this is great.” A lot of times, it’s just fun to dig through it all, you know?
Is there a song that you would die to hear live by a band or an artist, and every time that you’ve seen them, they’ve never played it?
For the most, when I’m actually going to a show on my own, not playing it, I don’t think I’ve ever gone to see anybody specific for a song. I just kind of got used to that kind of thing, especially coming up through Punk Rock, you’re discovering bands and you don’t even know their catalogue, you’re watching it as it happens. You’re either enjoying it or falling in love with his or it’s just like, “Nah, it’s not my thing.” So, as an artist, I don’t have any kind of expectations when it comes to what I think I’m owed as a listener, you know what I mean? I do think that there’s obviously some artists who are legacy, greatest hits kind of people that are out there doing their thing, that they have to do that, because that’s why people are going to see them. I think even me, right now playing with the Bronx and the Circle Jerk stuff like that. I think that both those bands, especially the Circle Jerks have a long history with their fans and some things, it’d be probably not a wise idea to not. We have to do a lot of things that people really want to hear, especially when you’re touring on two records, Group Sex and Wild On The Streets that are now 40 years old. You’re celebrating those records and for the most, should probably be covered in their entirety. But I don’t expect anything from an artist you know? That’s part of being an artist but, there are things like, when I was in Danzig, we had to play Mother. When I was in Queens, we had to play No One Knows, we had to play Little Sister. The Bronx have got to do Shitty Future and Heart Attack, and Circle Jerks have to do fucking everything on the first two records at least! I think it’s only fair. Your fans are spending money to come see you so you gotta give them something that they want. So I’m always stoked when I hear somebody that I’m expecting, but then it’s also cool when they go for deep tracks that you did not expect. It’s always rad.
You make me think, a couple days ago I went to see King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard in Montreal. And of course, they have this gigantic discography, so I was just poking around for setlists, to see what are they playing? It turns out to be so vast! Only in 2022, they’ve played 115 different songs live! Only the past five nights, it was different sets almost entirely, each night. That’s cool to walk in, not knowing what you’ll be getting? What vibe, what songs?
That’s always cool, too. But there you go, that’s the way you eventually do run into people going like, “Oh, well, they didn’t play this!” When you start to do it like this, you’re gonna hear from both ends. “So glad they did this. Why didn’t they do that?” You can’t please everybody, but if you can do stuff like that, that’s cool. I know CLUTCH does the same thing. With Queens, we used to do that quite a bit too, switch it up every night. When you have big catalogs like that, it’s expected.
Can you name three songs that you consider to be perfect and say what makes them so special to you?
One of them would be Down On The Street, THE STOOGES. That song, every time, it doesn’t matter where I am, it doesn’t matter what I’m doing, or even how I’m hearing it, when that song comes on, hearing that *humming the opening*, I get psyched! Every time! I’ve always said it to the guys in the Bronx, especially because we do a lot of intro songs, and I was like, “Let’s do Down On The Street!” It’s a perfect song. I don’t know what it is, it’s just how I feel immediately.
Then, everybody would probably pick the same song, but Love Supreme by COLTRANE, it’s a perfect song. Everything about it. The mood is so set in that song, by just putting the needle down, the opening…again, I’m a feel guy. I feel like something just opened up when I hear that record, you know what I mean? A lot of Coltrane does that for me, though in a sense.
I’ll say Into My Arms, NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS. I think it’s just a perfect song, man. It’s a beautiful song. When I think of Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, I think it’s everything in one song. I think it’s very poetic. It’s weirdly dark but it’s beautiful, and it’s uplifting, but then it’s kind of sad. It really embodies a lot of who I am. What I look for and find in music. It’s all there. It’s another one that I cannot not listen to it when I hear it. Feeling this. I think you can feel what he was feeling.
Do you choose what you will be listening to based on how you feel currently or how you want to feel?
Okay, here’s the thing, what’s funny is, I have a lot of vinyl and I’ve collected my whole life. I lost a lot of in a fire at one point, which sucks, but I still have quite a bit. So, everybody I know, has always been like, “do you alphabetize your records?” And I’m like, No, I keep them just completely random so when I’m grabbing, literally I don’t know what I’m grabbing. I just don’t have the patience, first of all, but I’ve always been that kind of person where it’s like, I know I want to feel something…well obviously, if I’m looking for a Nick Cave record or something I’ll look, but a lot of times I just go to the records, and I’ll just start pulling, just to see what I get. Just put my hand up and grab or look down here, or you know, for the most, I always feel pretty good either way with what I’m getting, what I ended up listening to. It’s always unexpected where I’m gonna go, am I gonna go back to my youth or it may me something new, I never know. I’ve always kept my records that way. It sucks sometimes when you’re specifically looking for something, “I know it’s here!”, it’s pretty time consuming but I enjoy that, I really do.
Then once you’re done with one, is it the same thing all over again, where it can swing in a completely different direction?
Sure! I usually grab about five or six records. I’ll kind of skip around, put it on if I’m feeling it, maybe or maybe not take something out…if I have the time, first of all to be doing that. If I ended up getting on something that I really dig, I’ll start looking for the other stuff that I may have as well, you know? But yeah, that’s part of my process when I have the time to actually sit down and listen to stuff.
Do you mostly just sit down and listen or you put it on and do something else?
Well, when the kids see me going to the stereo and go through records they like to come over and they want to help and I’m like, “okay, be careful with that!” Then, me and my wife, we listen to a lot of music at night, when the kids are in bed, listen to whatever it is. When I get home too because I like to grab a lot of vinyl and stuff on the road. So when I get home, it’s like, “okay, let’s take a listen to what I got.”
Any good finds on the road, this time around?
I got two MISFITS bootlegs that I’m curious about. I can imagine what they sound like, they’re the LA shows from Bob’s place and the other one was from New York, it’s a typical Irving Plaza, but I’m curious to see what they sound like. Then I got a TONY ALLEN, some kind of rerelease celebration kind of thing. What else did I get? I grabbed THE NORMAL, you remember The Normal? This old kind of new wavy, electro kind. The song Warm Leatherette, I found a seven inch of that, which I used to have as a kid.
So even at the record shop, you’re just an aimless browser?
Always. It’s funny, because when I’m with my wife at home, and we’re driving and we’re listening to satellite radio, the cheesiest shit will come on, I’ll be like, “oh yeah, man, I gotta get this record!” And she’s like, “you always say that every time!” I’m like, “Yeah, but I never could get myself to actually just go get it.” I’ll go digging in the used section or something, find this and that. Like I said, I got a pretty big collection. I got a lot of Dub and like, African music type, I really love collecting a lot of that and a lot of it is really obscure stuff. But yeah, I’m kind of aimless! Like, “oh, what’s this that’s playing!” I still really enjoy all that. It’s always a good way for me to kind of step away from everything and just dig into what I’m kind of feeling right there. And, you know, what’s playing, you know, like you say, walk into plenty of places where, like, somebody I never heard of, or, you know,
You reminded me there of that Western Addiction song, that goes “But it doesn’t sound good like music in a record store.”
Oh, yeah. Totally. It always happens like that. You’re like, “what is that!?”, and half the time, it’s something you already know. Just sounds different in a record store. I think people who shop vinyl, there’s a certain excitement that comes when, walking into a place where other people are digging and music is playing, that nerdy kind of, “I’m in my world, and it’s cool. This is rad, she’s into this, and he’s into this, but everybody respects everybody, for the most, you can do your thing. And you can also be that guy, like, “who is like, what is this?” You’re not embarrassed or something to ask and you’re gonna get an answer for the most, you’re gonna get somebody going, “Oh, it’s this, check it out!” You know? That’s what’s cool about all that. To get to check out from everything else. Feeling like a kid, you know?
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