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On Saturday July 29th, I was fortunate enough to grab a hold of Jon Pebsworth of Buck-O-Nine to do a short interview with him before Buck-O-Nine took their set at the Epicentre. Thanks a lot Jon for stopping to talk to me!

Joel: Anyways, you’re Jon.
Jon: Yes I am.
Joel: And you’re in Buck-O-Nine. And I heard rumors from all over that tonight was going to be your last show ever-
Jon: Yeah.
Joel: So could you tell me about that?
Jon: Yeah New Year’s Eve, this last New Year’s Eve, we kinda hit a point with things where we kinda felt like we were spinning (?) our wheels, and weren’t sure about our future, and, you know, some of the guys in the band weren’t getting along so well, and it was just kinda like a really- it just seemed like we were coming to the end of a really long road, we were tired I think. So we decided that we were going to break up and play a few farewell shows. And then the farewell shows got pushed back, and pushed back, and pushed back; and in the meantime I think everyone just started to relax a bit and get over their exhaustion of the band. And eventually people started saying, the guys in the band, we were just kinda like, “Well f#ck, why should we break up? We might as well just stay together and play shows here and there.” And we were thinking nothing real bad had really happened, that was like unfixable, no one like stole anything, you know, kicked each other’s a*s, or anything like that… It was just words and things so apologizes were said and we all kinda mended our ways and whatever, and took some time away from each other. And now were kinda like, “Yeah we’ll play shows whenever we feel like it,” mostly only in San Diego though, it’s probably the only place. So…

Joel: Would you ever think about recording again, or writing any new songs?
Jon: Um… well, we actually did record some songs early this year. We have a new album coming out in Aug- next month-
Joel: It’s a live album, right?
Jon: Right, it’s a live album, it has 14 live songs on it, then at the end of the album it has five brand new songs, recorded in the studio.
Joel: That’s pretty cool.
Jon: Yeah, it’s alright.

Joel: So, um, looking back at everything you have done as a band, how do you feel just about all the things you have accomplished.
Jon: I feel great, you know, honestly I feel really proud of everything we’ve done, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’m very stoked. I spent a good third of my life doing this, and I’m thrilled. I’m really stoked on the new album too, because now we’re not affiliated with any record label, we don’t have a manager, we don’t have anybody working for us or with us, except us-
Joel: You’re releasing it on your own record label (OffRamp Records), right?
Jon: Yeah, my own record label. Right now I’m feeling really good and feeling the freedom of being able to do everything ourselves, even though we usually won most of our battles with management and record labels, but that 10% of the battles we lost still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. So I feel really good about being able to do this now. It’s kinda making Buck-O-Nine a really cool circle for us, I think we all feel really pretty good about everything we’ve done.

Joel: So, where was the live album recorded at?
Jon: In Japan.
Joel: In Japan? That’s pretty cool.
Jon: Yeah, it was actually pretty cool. The cool thing about it too, is that it’s a true live recording, it’s not something like we had a big recording truck in the back of the club-
Joel: No studio tricks.
Jon: No studio tricks, no tools, or anything like that after it. We recorded it directly off the board right onto a Sony MiniDisk player, and we took that minidisk player and we made CDs of it, that’s it.

Joel: That’s great, I can’t wait to hear it. So are you excited to be playing tonight at a place a fan-friendly like the Epicentre?
Jon: Yes, definitely. Me and Rob (from Lpt1: Presents) have been talking about doing this show for about 6 months now, and I’m stoked. Honestly just looking at that line right now (the line was out past the Epicentre parking lot and about 150 feet down the street) and watching all the people come in, it really truly reminds me of back in like the early days of our band when we used to play at the old SOMA in downtown San Diego, it was like 9 years ago. And it was just like this, so I feel good.

Joel: Well as a fan I’m super-excited about this show, I can’t wait to see you guys in there. Um, one last question while I have you, can you tell me about “What Happened to My Radio,” (“Take the cutting edge and slit my wrist”) does that song have any correlation to 91X?
Jon: Ahh… Not really, our old bass player Scott wrote that song, and what his intentions were exactly have been elusive to all of us. But, you know, probably. But one thing to keep in my mind is that we get that question asked to us by people all around the country, because in a lot of the major cities all their alternative stations say “the cutting edge of rock.” So 91X isn’t the only station in the country that does that, so I think it’s more or less all those alternative radio stations that claim to be playing music that’s like “cutting edge” when it’s really just top 40 music.

Joel: Okay, well thank you so much for doing this for me, is there anything else you’d like to say?
Jon: Ahh… No, I think I’ve spoken my needs (?) here.
Joel: Than we can look forward to seeing you open for Brian Setzer (August 6th, SDSU Open Air Theatre), right?
Jon: Yeah. That is actually- for a band, I’m a fan of his, so that’s a real treat for us to be able to play with him and get to meet him. That’s all I want to do, just meet the guy, shake his hand, and just f#cking, you know, see if he can sooth me with a little bit of his wisdom.
Joel: Well thank you again, I really appreciate you doing this with me.
Jon: No problem.