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Interview with All Star United

Ian Eskelin

7 / 27 / 99

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Bold text – Ian Eskelin

In the song "Popular Americans" from your latest album International Anthems For The Human Race, who is the voice of the announcer yelling the intro, "Ladies and gentlemen, the greatest band in the world, All Star United!"

Actually, that's a direct rip-off from a Kiss song.  But we obviously had to redo it because they didn't say on the Kiss album, you know, "The greatest band in the world . . . All Star United!" (laughs) The guy that played trumpet on our album on that song, he had this really gruff voice, and I said, "Man, you've got to do this!"  So I kept him in there after the trumpet part he put down and said, "Alright, you've got to say this."  And he's like, "Why do I have to say that?!"  So his name's Vinnie, he's from New Juh-sey.  He sounded like that . . .

Like a boxing announcer?

Yeah, I thought he was perfect!

In the song "World Wide Socialites Unite," in the background there's a singing/howling, like a . . . well, it sounds like a woman's voice.  Who does that voice? 

Well actually, ironically enough, that is me believe it or not.  Pretty much all the background vocals on the album are me.  But the funny thing is that what we did to record that is we slowed down the tape machine and I sang in my highest falsetto and my best scream.  And when I sped the tape back up to its normal pitch, it made my voice sound really fast.  A little studio trickery there . . .

You held it for a long time!

Nice! (laughing)

On your CD jacket, you guys thank 'Carolyn Arends and band,' among many other people. Could you explain why you mentioned her?

Actually, everybody in All Star United had a lot of people to thank, and that was one of our first Christian music gigs.  And I believe Adrian, our bass player, he played for Carolyn Arends on the Steven Curtis Chapman tour that they did.  So he was thanking all the friends and family he had played with I guess.  

On the song "Theme From Summer," were you really poolside at the Flamingo Bay [a line from the song] when you wrote that?  It sounds so stream-of-consciousness, like you're really right there.

(laughing) Well, I can't tell you that I exactly was at that moment.  But there was a time in my life that I was, and I have to project myself back into these weird places because a lot of these songs are written in studios.  So you kind of have to mentally project yourself to these weird places where you can conjure up the images of where you once were.

Before your album came out, in some of the interviews and articles you expressed concern that the song "If We Were Lovers" would generate a lot of negative response.  Have you received any, or have people been pretty receptive to it and understand what it's about?

You know, I think anybody who's an All Star United fan digs a little deeper into the lyrical content.  I mean that's one thing we've kind of been known for.  Besides our high-energy stuff and our quirkiness, people dig into the lyrics a little more because they're a little bit more sarcastic and a little bit more tongue-in-cheek.  And I try and paint vivid pictures with a little bit of humor and somehow relate that back into your face.  And you know, that song title for me, I thought it was just . . . I kind of love pushing the envelope a little bit and kind of scaring people at first, but then having them realize, 'Ah, it's okay.'  So we haven't had too many people complain about it.  That song has done great things in international mainstream radio.  We had our first number one with that song this year in a couple of countries in Asia, like Singapore, which is really, really good.  But unfortunately, I think Christian radio is probably going to shy away from that, even though I think it's one of the better pop songs on the record.  And that's unfortunate for the listeners because I think that would be a little pop gem for the people to cling onto.  And ironically enough, even though the title is a little risqu้ sounding for some people, it is actually one of the most Christian lyrics on the record - talking about how 2000 years ago Christ displayed amazing love and compassion in all situations.  And if the world would show a little more love and compassion in their daily lives . . .

That's an excellent message and hopefully it will get more recognition here in the United States.

Well, we'll see.  You never know.  One thing I've learned with All Star United, I don't hold my breath.  We kind of have our own thing going on and people love it or hate it.  And I respect both decisions.  So we definitely have our own niche thing going on.  It's kind of cool. 

That is cool.  On a related subject, there seems to be a dilemma for parents today who want their kids to go to a concert that is both fun for the kids and seems safe for the parents to let their kids go to.  The kids want to go and yell and scream and jump and dance and sweat, while the parents want it to be a safe experience and one that sends a Christian message.  What can you say to parents about All Star United concerts that would help reassure them that you are coming from a Christian base and that just because you're wild and crazy and not singing all these soft songs, that you're still a Christian band?  That their kids are going to have a good time and a safe time and a "Christian time."

Right, well you know, we're not living in the 1950's anymore.  It's not Elvis shakin' his pelvis up there, you know what I mean?  It's like we've moved into the year 2000 and I venture to guess that any Christian family in this country has a television in their house and any of their children can turn on the 'Beach Party' on MTV at any given moment.  So music fans and young adults have to make decisions.  And just by the nature of being young, people seek out interesting and amazing and fun things.  And I'm not going to slack on delivering a high-energy, full-on entertainment value rock show just because I'm a Christian.  That whole argument is quite the opposite actually.  We have the divine creativeness of God dwelling in us and we should use that to the maximum.  And when we go out and do an All Star United show, we just literally blow up with the pyrotechnics and stuff.  And everything we do is completely safe.  We've never had anybody get injured.  It's not about beating people up.  It's about enjoying a show and in some way, shape or form . . . I never beat people up with the gospel.  But I've never done an All Star United show where I haven't expressed my feelings and expressed the truth and reality of the saving grace of Jesus Christ.  So if you're coming to an All Star United show to go to a church service, then you might as well stay at home and read the Bible.  But if you're going to come out and experience something that's creative and fun and, I believe, completely given by God, then come on out and we'll have a great time together.

Which of your songs get the strongest reactions from your audiences?

Well, we have two CDs out now and it's funny because I find that some of the sarcastic ones, the fun and quirky ones, are the ones that really get a crowd response.  On the first record, "Smash Hit" is always a crowd pleaser.  And on the new record, I would have to say that "Welcome To Our Big Rock Show" definitely gets a little bit of activity going in the room.

Do you speak any other languages?

Uh, no. (laughing) But I can say, "thank you" in a lot of them!

All Star United has been to many different countries.  What is the most unusual food that you've eaten while traveling abroad?

Well, when we were in Singapore this year, we went to this really nice Indian restaurant and it was known as . . . ah, I can't remember the name of it, but it was something like Somebody's Fish Head Curry, and they bring this big bowl out to you.  You're all sitting at this big table and they don't give you silverware or anything.  And they put these banana leaves down in front of you and they bring the big bowl to you and there's a real fish head floating in this soup.  And on a complete dare, on a bet, I ate the fish eyeball!

You did?!

Yeah, (laughing) it was interesting.

Did it stay down?

Oh yeah, it did. (laughing) The eyeball was a little harder than I thought it'd be. 

Do you ever lose your voice?  You guys have so many concerts!

Ah . . . I've been touring a long time and your voice is a muscle, and you're using muscles you wouldn't normally use.  And when I first started out, I was really freaking out every night because we started doing so many shows night after night.  And I'd get to the show and [in a raspy whisper] I'd sound like this.  I went to a vocal training coach in New York City on a stop.  We were playing in Vermont and the next show we were driving down south, and the guys just dropped me off in New York and I went to see this guy for two days.  And he's one of these guys who, I can't remember his name, helps all these screaming bands, like Limp Bizkit and stuff, or whoever, to figure out how they can do that big screaming night after night.  And I've never had a problem since!  I just learned how to breathe and just grind it out.

Speaking of Limp Bizkit, did you watch any of the bands that were at Woodstock '99?

Yes, I did.  Actually, we were in Toronto playing at the Air Canada Center, and right before the show in our dressing room on the television there was a big special on Woodstock '99 and I couldn't believe they were tearing the place apart, literally!  And then all of a sudden on Sunday they burned the whole place down.  They got the whole thing shut down. 

Were there any bands playing that you really like?

Well, there are all kinds of music I really like and all kinds of bands I like.  I'm not a huge hip-hop fan . . . I have to give kudos to what Limp Bizkit can do to a crowd.  I definitely envy that and I think it's really, really cool.  I'm not so into their lyrical content and stuff, but they're doin' what they're doin'!  And I'm really into pop music.  I'm really into in-your-face pop music.  There's a bunch of bands like Blur . . . and there's a cool scene coming out of Sweden right now, which is kind of cool.  Bands like The Wanted Eyes and This Perfect Day. 

Do you guys really like ABBA like a few articles have you saying, or are you just being sarcastic?   It's hard to tell.

(laughing) Our keyboard player was ecstatic about the band for such a long time.  I have a soft spot for Swedish pop music.  I think there's great stuff coming out of there. 

Are there any people you'd like to meet?  Any performers or stars?  Not people that you envy, but people you'd like to . . .

Pick their brain?

Yes!

You know, it's really hard because there are so many people that I just respect who I think are doing great creative stuff.  But I'm at the point now where I don't think I'd flip out meeting anybody.  Off the top of my head, I can't think of any people.  But I'm sure later I'll think of 10 people I'd really like to hang out with.  I have met random people before and I've always kind of been let down.  Especially people in film and stuff.  You meet somebody and it's like 'Oh, they're not really who I thought they were going to be.'  Because they're not playing that character. 

Do you remember the first album that really struck you, that you really liked many years ago?

I'd have to say I was a huge Police fan.  I bought all those early Police records like Outlandos D'Amour, Regatta De Blanc, Zenyatta Mondatta, and all those weird sounding names.  I was really into that, and then I went through my punk rock phase.  And then I went through the whole Adam and the Ants phase.  And Duran Duran.  And then I got into Depeche Mode and The Cure.  And then I moved on.  I've always tried to search out interesting and new forms of creative music.  It's funny, I used to be scared in interviews to talk about this stuff . . .

Yes, you're talking about stuff other people won't . . .

You know, I just kind of got to the point where if anybody has a problem with me listening to a mainstream rock band, then they should probably not ever go to a movie ever again.  Because there's more crazy stuff in a film than you'll ever hear in someone trying to pour out their heart in a lyric.  And I really get into listening to where people are at, and I love a lot of mainstream music.  But I do think you have to approach it with a discerning ear.  I'm not going to tell everybody to go out and do that if they're not ready.

Is there anything you want your fans to know about the "Chase The Sun" tour with The Supertones, Plankeye, 180, and All Star United?  Other than come and have a good time!?

Just to expect something new and exciting from All Star United.  We've got a few tricks up our sleeves.  I think one of the things that really excites me about what All Star United has been able to do is that we have 'return fans' who come 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 times to a show within a two year period.  So with that in mind we always try and mix it up and try new things.  We try and play some of the hidden tracks on our albums.  We did a show one time in Sydney, Australia where we did a half-hour of total requests.  No matter what you said, we could play it. (laughing) Or if we didn't know it, we would learn it real quick.  I think we ended up playing Hanson and all kinds of crazy stuff.

On International Anthems For The Human Race, there are three hidden tracks, is that right?

Well, we just end up writing so many songs that we don't know what to do with them.  In Christian music there's no outlet for releasing B-sides.  In the mainstream you have CD singles that go out and you can release B-side songs.  But not for us so one of these days I want to do an album of just hidden tracks.  (laughs) 

What do you do on your down time when you're not on the road and not in the studio?

I sit in my apartment and I have my little studio computer room.  I pretty much write everything on my computer, and I try to write everything just with piano and vocals.  I lay it down on my computer, and that way I know that if it sounds good just with piano or acoustic guitar then I know it's going to sound good when we put all the candy on it.  So currently I'm working on a song right now, entitled "Baby Come Back."  But we'll see, most of my songs I end up changing before the album comes out, so you never know.  If that one sticks, then you've heard of it a year in advance! 

Listening to All Star United's last album, one can hear what could be construed as a lot of musical influences – like the Beatles, Steely Dan, Beach Boys and even Lynyrd Skynyrd.  Is that so off base as to be ridiculous?

I wouldn't think so.  Our guitar player, Dave, he's one of the older ones in the band and he has influences that range way back with stuff like Steely Dan.  I never really was a huge Steely Dan fan.  I kind of figured all this stuff out late.  I never even owned a Beatles album.  And all of a sudden we're doing these songs on the last record and people are like, "Man, you guys sound exactly like the Beatles!"  And I'm like, "Oh really?"  Obviously I've heard the Beatles (laughing) . . . yeah, but we kind of had this like 'monsters of rock, glam-rock' thing going on in our brains when we approached this record.  I don't really know . . . sometimes I look back on it now and I go, "Oh okay, that's where I was a year ago."  So yeah, there are definitely Beach Boys type harmonies and melodies on there, some of those little falsetto (sings) 'oooohhhheeeeeeeeooohhhh.'  That kind of stuff.  Those are always fun.  I'm really into music counterpart and filling up space and if there's ever like a dead space, I try and figure out how to put something in there.  Hence a lot of weird little vocal things like 'ooh la la' and stuff. 

Have you ever ordered anything from Christian Book Distributors or Christianbook.com?

You know, I have not.  Christian Book Distributors?  Maybe some of my dad's books . . . I don't know. 

Has your tour bus ever broken down?

We just recently bought our first tour bus.  Got it in January, and I can't believe it actually made it all the way through to the spring.  It has stopped a few times, but never broken down.  We had to learn how to . . . (laughing) I know far too much about tour buses than I would have ever wanted to know.  Now I can do weird things like tap on the starter with a wrench and get it going when it doesn't start. (laughing) I can pick out a bad solenoid!  I never wanted to know that, but unfortunately I was forced by signing my name on the bank loan. 

Do you guys drive yourselves or do you have a driver?

We'll definitely have a driver this fall.  We decided just to get to know our vehicle, and to save a little money we would go ahead and get out there and drive.  And it was kind of funny because the very first day of our headline Spring tour, "The Big Rock Show," we had to drive over Mt. Eagle, which is going through Chattanooga.  And we had a 12-foot trailer on the back of this big rock-n-roll 12-bunk tour bus.  It was kind of funny because it was my first time driving and I was just (laughing) freakin' out!  So you know what, once I figured out how to do that, the rest of the tour was pretty easy.

Are there any members of the group that the rest of you don't really like to have driving?

Well, we don't let the Wolf [Adrian] drive. (laughing) We really don't let him drive.  He plays bass and James Bond on Nintendo.  That's what he does. (laughing) And occasionally he eats and sleeps.  But I find it quite therapeutic.  I get up there and start driving.  And I've written so many songs sitting in the driver's seat.  Actually, Superstar was one of those songs that was written completely behind the wheel.

So you think of stuff and just jot it down?

Well, I write songs in a very odd manner, I think.  Everybody I know that writes songs does it in a different way.  And that's where people say, "How in the world, what's up with you, you're a whack-job!" (laughs) I can write a whole song, lyric and melody, in my head with no music.  And then what I do, it's kind of like my brain is like a computer, but I need a RAM upgrade or something like that because I can only hold one or two songs.  And if I have more than that then my computer-brain starts to fragment and I start to lose information. (laughing) It's really odd.  But see, I'll do that and then if I get too much going on, I'll put something down on my little Panasonic piece-of-junk cassette mini-recorder thing. 

Any favorite bumper stickers you've seen while driving along that have really stuck in your head?

Ah man . . . how 'bout . . . (thinking . . . laughing) . . . you know what, I don't know . . . I can't think of any . . .

Do you have a favorite fast food?

Every time I go to England . . . it's kind of odd because Indian food is one of my favorite foods on the planet.  And actually I just had it for lunch today.  But whenever we go to England, they have somehow turned that into fast food. (laughing) You can go to a service station on the highway . . . I remember pulling the tour bus over in December and I got out and I thought, "Okay I'm stuck.  I'm hungry in the middle of the night.  I'm gonna be stuck with a microwave cheeseburger."   And the next thing I know, I'm being served a luscious meal of non-bread and chicken tikka masala in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere, England!

Any fish eyes?

No, not that time.  Not that time.  But I've been known to eat anything.  I'm not afraid to try it once.  If it's terrible then I'll probably not try it again . . . (laughing) Ah, maybe I would.  I had a really strange thing the other day.  I went to eat dinner with a friend at this Iranian restaurant.  I love hunting down odd places to eat.  And I had this thing called doogh .  I thought it was going to be really good, but I poured this thing out and it was a canned yogurt and chunky-milk soda. (laughing)

How do they make chunky milk?

It's just kind of like yogurt and it had chunks in it.  But it was also carbonated.  It was like soda water.  It was one of the sickest things I've had lately.  So the next time you're in Iran . . . don't get the doogh! (laughing)

What CDs or tapes are you guys playing in your tour bus these days?

You know what, I just brought them in.  I'll read you what's in my CD collection.  We just got back from Toronto and these are the ones I took with me.  Are you ready?  I'm going to name them all!  (laughing) Marvelous 3, a band from Atlanta; Robbie Williams; Vertical Horizon; the new Kula Shaker record; Silver Sun; new Boo Radleys; the new Rentals; Built to Spill; '13,' the new Blur album; Fountains of Wayne, which is one of my favorite bands.  That one's called Utopia Parkway.  And another of my favorites today is the new Suede record, it's awesome; and the new Cast record, it's really good.  That's it!  I'm sure I'll get some phone calls on this one, (in a high pitched voice) "How can you call yourself a Christian artist . . . "

What book are you reading right now?

I have a bunch of little weird books I'm reading right now.  I've been going through this poetry phase.  I've got this book I always come back to, The Contemporary American Poets – American Poetry since 1940.  It's all kinds of weird Alan Ginsburg kind of stuff.  And then I bought this University of California Book of Modern and Post-Modern Poetry.  It's kind of cool.  It's called Poems for the Millennium.  It's completely tweaked in that they put the words in weird places on the pages.  I just read The Testament by John Grisham.  I found myself completely enthralled.  I finished it very quickly.  Another book that I thought was really cool was Give Me An Answer by Knechtle.  It was really cool.  It's a book that is broken down super easy.  It will have any question I've ever been asked by any of my non-Christian friends.  [mimicking an aggressively inquisitive voice] "Well how can you say you're going to go to Heaven? " or "How can God be so good if there's so much pain in the world?"  You know what I mean.  And then there's a two-page answer.  And I've really been getting into that because it's kind of like the Cliffs Notes of good answers.  And I find myself getting asked these questions all the time.  (pause) I guess I've been reading a lot!  And then I have this weird obsession with other religions and finding out about them and stuff.  So I've been reading Larson's New Book of Cults.  And there's another one that I'm half way through, Dangerous Wonder by Mike Yaconelli.   

Do you always read a few books at the same time?

Always at the same time, yes.  (laughing) I get them all going. 

Do you have any favorite t.v. shows?

You're going to laugh, man.  I'm a total sucker for those completely horrendous high-school t.v. shows like Saved By the Bell and U.S. High and California Dreaming.  And I don't like them because I like them.  I like them because they're so awful that they just kill me.  And I just can't turn them off.  It's kind of like watching TBN for 6 hours straight  . . . (laughing) which is a huge All Star United hotel pass-time.  Sometimes we watch it without the sound and make up the words for everybody. (laughing)

Well Ian, thank you very much for your time and answering all these questions!  Your honesty is greatly appreciated! 

Nah, you know, I'm a human being.  And unfortunately I find myself in the situation where I get put on a pedestal.  I'm not a preacher.  I'm not a pastor.  I'm just an average guy who writes songs and tries to live his daily life for the Kingdom.  So I'm going to answer questions how anybody would answer them.

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