Chicago – L.A. surf punk band and partying aficionados FIDLAR (Short for: “Fuck It Dog, Life’s A Risk”) are having a pretty busy year for four guys known for their slacker odes of “Cheap Beer” and “Cocaine”. After releasing their self titled label debut in January, FIDLAR (Zac Carper/Guitar & Vocals, Brandon Schwartzel/Bass, Elvis Kuehn/Guitar & Vocals, Max Kuehn/Drums) have been wreaking havoc on the road ever since, playing alongside fellow rockers The Hives, Wavves, and currently The Orwells. Known for their rowdy shows and riotous tour stories, they show no signs of slowing down after recently announcing they will be opening for The Pixies in support of their comeback North American tour. I chatted with bassist Brandon Schwartzel about thieving prostitutes in Memphis, Ron Swanson pissing on everything, and surviving a relentless tour schedule.

Q) You guys are currently in Nashville right now. I read that someone was robbed and molested the last time you guys were in Tennessee. Care to explain?

A) (Laughs) Yeah, in Memphis, on our very first big tour with The Hives. We were there crashing for the night and then this crackhead prostitute came in and started going around and groping us. I was terrified, but eventually she left. When I woke up in the morning, I realized she stole my wallet, so I got robbed and molested by a weird unsolicited prostitute. Last night we were at the same motel too.

Q) You’re touring currently with The Orwells. You toured earlier this year with Wavves, and then The Hives before that. Do you guys ever get burnt out, or is that where the cheap cocaine comes in handy?

A) The cheap cocaine definitely helps. It gets tiring but it’s hard to complain about it. Not many people get to do what we do, and we’ve been playing nonstop for a while now, so you get used to it.

Q) What is your goal for the audience to experience at a FIDLAR show?

A) I think we just want everyone to have fun, and be rowdy as they wanna be. We always try to have as much fun as we can when we play, doing stage dives, crowd surfing, or whatever. You’ll get worried time to time about someone getting hurt, but for our shows, there’s a lot of pushing around, moshing, and crowd surfing, but it’s not like hardcore punk shows. They’ll drop you, then pick you up and give you a hug.

Q) How does the transition from being an unsigned band to joining Mom + Pop Records affect the band overall? 

A) It wasn’t really much of a compromise, but it was definitely one of the biggest, scariest things we’ve ever done. We’ve never had anyone else involved with us before, we were always doing our own thing. We were playing at CMJ when we first started meeting with them and their whole label was there. We were meeting with other labels at the time too, but they seemed the most interested in us. They were like, ‘You guys do whatever you want, we’ll just put it out’. So we have one hundred percent creative control which is really what we wanted, because we know our band better than anyone else.

Q) Please explain how getting Ron Swanson to piss all over everything for the music video of “Cocaine” comes about?

A) It was actually was totally his idea. Max (Kuehn; Drummer) and Elvis (Kuehn; Guitar) have known him and his wife for a while because of their dad. He used to play music with their dad before he was an actor, and then he mentioned to us if we ever wanted to do a video together, to let him know. It’s gonna be hard for us to top that video now.

Q) “Cocaine” was also on the Grand Theft Auto 5 soundtrack. I must say it’s been pleasant running over pedestrians to your song. What kind of GTA player are you? Missions or Mayhem?

A) I’m definitely a Mayhem player. I don’t play those games that much, but when I do, I’ll do like, one mission, and then just wind up stealing cars and shit. But that whole thing just kind of came out of nowhere, not sure exactly how it happened, but it’s cool. We got an artist demo of it, and it’s funny because the game’s based in LA, so in the game, we were driving by towns that looked like places we used to hang out at. I thought my mind was tripping.

Q) Everyone can listen to your songs and seem to get the message, but there’s a darker side to partying in your songs, like “Awkward”, where partying gets in the way of achieving what you truly desire. What are the downsides of too much cheap beer and cocaine, if any? 

A) Partying, drugs, drinking, and being young, there’s two sides to it. There’s the fun part with your friends having a good time, and the other part when you’re by yourself being hung over or coming down, and it sucks. Sometimes we write about the latter.

Q) I read that you used to do rap shows out in L.A., and Max and Elvis were also in a hip-hop duo for a while. Can we ever expect a FIDLAR hip-hop album? Or maybe you’ll finally get to open for 2 Live Crew?

A) We pretty much did (rap) just to get free drinks. We’d just play shows or house parties and try to get stuff for free because I was broke as fuck. I definitely was really bummed that 2 Live Crew cancelled on me, but in the end it was all about getting free drinks, which we got.

Q) What’s the best drunken menu decision you’ve made at Del Taco?

A) Definitely the chicken soft tacos are a good way to go. Also, the spicy jack chicken quesadilla is dope, but you have to get all the hot sauce you can on it. And it’s all for $3.29, it’s crazy.

Q) How are the Lakers gonna fare this year?

A) It’s not looking good, it’s gonna be tough, especially because who knows where Kobe’s gonna be at. Hopefully we can have a good season, although we got Jordan Farmar back. That guy sort of looks like a deusch.

Q) What’s the future looking like for FIDLAR? Better than the Lakers?

A) I think after this tour we’re on now, we’ll start the Pixies in January, and then we just want to get home and take some time off the road. We’ve been touring for our record that came out in January, so we’ve been all over the place. We want to make a new record; we built a new studio back in LA, so eventually we’ll get back to making new shit.

Q) I’ll be catching you guys in Chicago on Halloween. Any costume ideas?

A) I thought about us just being the Ninja Turtles, but then I remembered that they’re all named after renaissance people. So maybe we’d just dress up in old clothes and hats, and be Michelangelo or Leonardo, but have swords. That might be confusing though.

Q) Any last words of inspiration?

A) Don’t do it if it’s not fun, and if it’s fun, keep doing it. (Laughs) 

for more on FIDLAR go HERE and HERE.

Photo By Colosoul