sandiegopunk.com

Justin Pearson Interview
by Joe Stein

Unless you've been living inside a bubble the past six plus years you know who the Locust are. I had the pleasure of talking with their most charismatic and popular member, bassist and screamer Justin Pearson on November 30th, 2001. Justin Pearson has been a part of the San Diego punk/hardcore scene since the late eighties and probably is the most well-known of all San Diegians in the punk/hardcore scene today. Not only has he created a subculture and a large cult following, he also fronted such great hardcore bands like Struggle, Swing Kids, The Crimson Curse, and currently is playing bass in Holy Molar with members of The Locust, Antioch Arrow and Mark from Charles Bronson. Justin also runs the very popular ThreeOneG Record label. And on October 31st, had a same-sex marriage to band-mate Gabe Serbian in Hawaii.

Joe: So how is the marriage going?
Justin: Hahaha. You mean with Gabe? It's pretty good.
Any plans to adopt children?
No, because we're both children as it is, you know, it might be kinda weird. Besides, neither of us can financially survive at the moment so we probably shouldn't take on the responsibility of children.
About your husband: what do you think of him playing in Atari Teenage Riot?
He's not really in that band actually.
Really?
No, he just plays with Alec Empire from Atari Teenage Riot. It's kind of a mixture of people. It's the keyboard player from Nine Inch Nails, and Merzabout that noise guy from Japan and then Alec Empire
and maybe someone else, and Gabe plays drums in it. But I think it's great, it's good for
him, he's a sick drummer and you know obviously they caught on to that so it's cool.
Moving on to The Locust now. Do you write the lyrics for The Locust?
I write some of them, there's three of us that write lyrics.
Did you write the lyrics for Crimson Curse as well?
Yes
Are you in anyway lyrically influenced by William S. Burroughs?
I'm a fan of William S. Burroughs but I don't know if I'd be really influenced, I mean I really respect his talent and stuff but I don't think I would really call him one of my influences.
So I understand you were randomly picked to play bass in the band
Hahahaha, for the Locust?
Yes
Not really randomly it just kinda happened, you know, I knew the two people that forced me to be in the band and I guess it was kinda chance but it worked out. I don't know, I wouldn't say random. No, it wasn't random, it was like it just happened somehow you know.
What do you think you'd be doing now had that opportunity not come around?
Probably some other horse-shit band. I don't know, it's been such a long time. Other opportunities have aroused, but I think they were kinda shut down because I was too busy with The Locust. But who knows what could have happened but something would have been going on.
What music influenced the unique sound of The Locust and The Crimson Curse?
I can't say for both bands because I didn't do any, well, very little song writing for the Crimson Curse, so I think as far as musical influences for those guys it'd be up to them, but I mean, for the Crimson Curse we kinda set out to be this shitty kinda like snotty punk band and not really have a whole lot of direction just like kinda. . .
. . .and then you gained this huge following. . .
I don't know it just kinda turned into something. . . I don't know. As far as like musical influences I don't know but as far as ethical influences we just wanted to be kinda shitty and piss people off or something. As far as The Locust goes I mean seriously our influences are just like the whole spectrum, it goes from anything like Björk to Slayer to The Birthday Party to Led Zeppelin, to Beatles whatever it's all over the place which I think is why The Locust sound is a little different than other bands or most bands. So I don't know, that's where our influences come from musically.
Speaking of The Beatles, are you saddened by the death of George Harrison?
Yeah, definitely I mean it's always a drag when a talented, important individual passes away. But, yeah I was saddened by it, it kinda made me feel shitty today.
That's how I got waken this morning, that was not fun my whole day has been shitty because of it.
You got woken up because of it?
Yeah, my alarm clock, right as it woke me up I heard "Former Beatle George Harrison is dead."
Oh that sucks. I mean every great person has to die eventually, it's just sad you know.
I grew up with his music. His, their, music was basically my other parent as a child.
Shit.
Back to the thing. Are the songs going to be more electric on the upcoming Melt Banana split EP?
What do you mean by electric?
Well, like every release that's come out by The Locust uses more of the electronics in it, like the last 7" had the all electronic song on it. Are you going to be using more of the electronics you have?
Well, Joey got another keyboard that he uses so now he has a couple now and Bobby and I have a lot more pedals that we're using so it can come off with more of a kinda sci-fi sound. So yeah, I think the new recordings are going to head down a different path. But the new 7" we recorded with Melt Banana it's interesting. I think that the song-writing is a lot different, I mean we have a different drummer so it comes out a lot differently, but I don't know about more electric. The music is written a little bit better I think I don't know, I really don't know what to say about it, it's just different I like it more. I think that the newer stuff we're writing now for our new LP is by far is the most fucked-up and challenging stuff we've come up with it's. . . I'm really excited about it. It's crazy to go to practice and like get kinda confused and try to figure out how the hell I'm going to play something which is great. I'm excited about it. I think the newer stuff will be even weirder or whatever sounding.
What record did "Priests with Venereal Diseases Stay Out of My Bed" appear on?
oh well, it's on the split with Melt Banana but there's a live version on this compilation called "Pop Life" Volume, let me look real quick. From "Pop Life Volume 11". That song came out on there. It was from this live show in Japan that we did.
Yeah, cuz I heard you name off that song at a show and I was laughing, I've been whoring it around ever sense. It's brilliant.
It's actually "Priests With Sexually Transmitted Diseases Get Out of My Bed"
Have you listened to any of the Locust copy-cat bands?
There's some 7" inch that just came out that looks like our record with our logo on it and everything and it's not us. It's kind of weird and annoying. It's all vocals and it's not any of us singing, but I don't know. That's probably the weirdest copy-cat band we've come across. I don't know what you're talking about as far as other bands maybe we can influence people musically but that's just part of the whole game, I mean The Locust is influenced by people and everyone influences everything so it's cool. As long as people are being sincere having the music they create from their heart, that's all that matters I guess.
It's like, I've heard people look down upon bands like that for trying to copy the "illustrious Locust" it kinda annoys me. . . .So umm about Holy Molar. Are you going to get together with Mark again and do another Holy Molar release?
Well, actually what we need to do is get together with our drummer cuz he lives in Oregon, because I live with Mark so we're hanging out all the time but our drummer is coming down on the 15th of December we're gonna write another record and we actually have a tour planned that starts January 11th.
Dammit, you answered my other question already.
Hahaha. But uh, that's what we're doing. Another Holy Molar record.
Did you write the jacket blurb on the back of the record?
No, Mark wrote that. That's actually stolen from another band too.
I love the "white dreads, waiting for Pokéz to open"
It's kinda influenced by the writings on the back of a, I think Rolling Stones December Children LP
I have that one, ummm, fuck it's not December Children it's. . . it has a cartoon on the back of it.
I can't really remember.
Shit, I have it in my closet somewhere, I'll have to look for it. Anyway, how old were you when you started ThreeOneG Records?
Uhh, maybe I was 19 or 20.
Speaking of 31G, when did you start listening to Joy Division?
Woah shit, probably when I was about 13, I guess. 12 or 13.
Did being a child of the eighties have any effects on you positively or negatively?
I'm sure it had both. Being a child of the eighties I was exposed to some pretty cool shit musically I think and at that point people were getting really freaky. It's definitely not like the sixties psych era but I think there was a lot of really. . .just kinda like bizarre shit going on and tacky which can be looked at as good in some sense, hence The Locust, but there was a lot of negative stuff too I mean there was a lot of fucked up shit going on socially I think just like dealing with, I don't know there's a lot of weird stuff that happened I think like politically. It kinda took a toll on people, including myself I guess growing up being a kid in the eighties. It's not any better now, I probably would have rather grown up then, than in the nineties so I can't complain.
What do you think of this new found patriotism like kids in High School getting turned on to The Roger Hedgecock/Rush Limbaugh type people?
It's kinda weird, I guess. I'm glad that people are interested in politics. When Rush Limbaugh was getting a lot of hype when he first hit the top radio scene and he had his T.V. show and stuff, I listened to him every day, but it's always good to listen to your enemies to hear what they're saying. I was never a fan of him and what he thought, same with Roger Hedgecock I mean, it's good that people are interested in current events. I'm kind of thinking if they're younger they're influenced by their parents. Like with me when I went to High School, for a few years I went to Mission Bay High School and it's predominately a lot of military housing around there so you have these kids who might as well be their fucking jar-head fathers and they're like beating my ass, saying I'm gay, saying I'm a freak and saying I'm this and that whatever. I think a lot of it can be due to parenting. It's a trip, especially with all this shit that went down September 11th, you know, and all this patriotism is being crammed down everyone's throats. It's like, it's sick, I mean there's like 35,000 kids dying world-wide of hunger everyday you know, so it kinda makes September 11th look like a drop in the bucket. But people are never going to realize that. They're never going to realize it's all about Karma, I mean the U.S. is the pick of the world and they're shitting on every other country so when it comes back in their face it's like this huge ordeal. So I don't know, it's weird. I don't think people are educated enough on stuff like that, I guess that's why The Locust is around to maybe try to help people out. I dunno.
Seriously, those people don't seem to understand that sanctioning other countries because they won't give us oil is more of a terrorist act than blowing up a couple buildings. I mean 2,000 children die every week in Iraq because of US sanctions.
It's a trip because people are never going to be educated on that shit and it's really depressing. But I guess that's part of the media and you know American Culture.
Back to The Locust. You just got back from a huge tour of Europe, anything interesting happen to you while you were out there?
Well, it's funny cuz it wasn't all Europe. We did a U.S. tour then we went back out and did another chunk of the U.S. with Rocket From The Crypt. Then we went to Europe for a little while, then we went to Hawaii. So it was like all this shit piled up. Not a dull moment in any of it. It was just one thing after another getting in fights with people, getting our tires slashed, getting sprayed with mace, getting. . just crazy shit. Non-stop, like people throwing beer bottles at us and getting hit with chairs, I dunno, it's been a crazy fuckin' tour. It was cool, whatever, it was good.
Where are you big in Europe? Like, what countries are you really big in over there?
It really depends. I guess things are really good for us in Sweden. We played this huge festival in Belgium when there were like 40,000 people there just crazy shit like that. It's always good here and there. Germany is good and then we play things like the UK. The UK sucks and I don't know what the deal is I mean it sucks to tour. Everyone there is just like old and more concerned with drinking their Guinness and being like overly critical of everything. "If you don't sound like Doom, you're shit." Whatever, it's kinda depressing but we played London and that was a great show. It's kinda like hit-or-miss at some points, it's really weird being there, socially things are different and so it's just hard to grasp what is going on and I don't think people understand our sense of humor or we don't understand theirs and I think the people think we're rude assholes. We are, but not hourly to people who don't deserve it. You know, it just comes off wrong and I don't know how to correct it. But I mean, Europe's a great place I really enjoy playing there and stuff. We actually had a good time, this time we did Spain and Italy both countries were amazing, I loved it, I had a great time there. Just depends I guess.
Are you guys really big in Japan?
We did a tour there once and it was really good. We ended up doing our second tour with that band At The Drive-In and it was kinda at their peak of popularity, it was pretty crazy so we got a lot of notoriety there. On top of that GSL licensed both of our CDs over there to a record label so that's kinda helping with our notoriety in Japan, so it's cool. It's actually my favorite place to tour so I'm pretty excited that we do so well over there. It's amazing.
The kind of music you play has the kind of mix between punk and noise and that's really big out there so I was wondering.
yeah
What do you think of the people that worship you like you're some kind of god and they're afraid to talk to you and have to do everything you do, you. . .
I don't know these people. Hahaha. I don't know about that, I've never seen it happen.
A lot of people I've talked to are like "ohh JP he's the genius of life" and such.
I'm just normal, I've never really encountered those people they should just be mellow. That's weird, usually it's like "Look! There's that asshole JP" and I end up getting beat-up or my car ends up getting keyed or something bad happens. I'm not used to be being over-excited, they're usually upset at me for some reason I don't know about.
Do you get off on the rumors that are spread about you around San Diego with the whole asshole persona. Do you revel in it or is it something you'd like to go away?
It's really interesting it's not just San Diego, because we'll go on tour and meet people and they'll be like "woah I thought you guys were total fucking assholes, you guys are really nice" and they're kinda surprised. But I mean, I think it's weird, like we'll play a show; for instance we played a show in Austin and before we even started playing like this girl poured her beer all over me and all over my bass and I was like "what the fuck? we haven't even started playing and I have to get in the Van for the next 14 hours after we play, that's just really fuckin' rude" and she started yelling out we're not punk and all this crazy horse-shit and she threw her bottle and it hit me in the head. So I was like, All right, and I threw it back at her, I mean it fucking hurt so I was like all right. I was fucking pissed. And everyone was like "you're fucked for doing that to a girl" Well, first of all she poured her beer all over me and hit me in the head and called me all these names. I had never even met her before, whatever, and I threw it back at her and it didn't even do any damage, and besides she was too drunk to feel it. It just escalated into this big thing, and people ended up fucking fighting at the show and people stole a bunch of our equipment. It was all because of this fuckin' asshole girl that didn't have a half a brain to know what was going on anyhow. I don't know, it was just lame. So I think people perceive shit like that as us being assholes and we're totally normal people, like at San Diego at home I just work all the time and I hang out with three different people, I hang out with my room-mates and my label-mate, my band-mates and it's just fucking mellow. I don't do anything, I don't have a crazy life. I'm not out starting shit or doing whatever the fuck people talk about. On tour people are like "oh, I heard you did this this and that" Fuck man, if I did all that crap my life would be so interesting. Instead, I just work my ass off and run a record label and play music. And I think people just need to chill out. Like, I guess their lives are so boring they have to talk about other people's shit. But, it's pretty lame like hearing all this crap I think. I'm totally normal, I'm like everyone else. They need to get over it.
Yeah, yeah, I know. I mean, I've talked to you at shows before and talking to you right now and you're like a real down-to-earth guy.
Hahaha! I guess.
I mean, you're not like "I'm Axyl Rose don't fuck with me now, heh heh heh"
Haha. I'm not Axyl Rose I'm just normal, it's mellow. You know.
Anyway. . . umm. What is the item at Pokéz that only members of The Locust can order?
Hehhehheh, there isn't one. Did somebody tell you that?
Someone said when I was at Pokéz with them they were like "yeah there's this one thing that only members of the Locust can order" I was like huh? "Ohh, it's like some special Tofu burrito."
For me, I always got the super tofu burrito, then I found out you could get Tofu strips grilled, and they taste so much better that way. And for a while, whoever was the cook didn't want to do it cuz it's like a big hassle. So I would like always hook people up with records and shirts and shit so I guess they felt compelled like "oh that guy gives us free shit, we'll do this for him, we'll make him this rad burrito" so it became this thing that a couple of us would order, the grilled tofu burrito. Anyone can order it, I mean Mark orders it and he's not in the Locust. One of my other room-mates always orders it. So it's totally mellow, there's not like some special item just for the Locust, maybe it's just the people in The Locust wanted it, I don't know. If I was in another band or if I had something else to barter with them about if I made nice paintings and brought them nice paintings maybe I could trade that to get them to cook me good burritos. But yeah, that's another rumor that's not true.
Well, I'll just close it right now. I dunno, I had a bunch more questions but magical elves or something made them disappear.
hey don't worry about it, if you think of something else just call me back or e mail them to me or something.
Ok. Well, I must know. Can a Jesus fish save you from a car crash?
No, it can't.
Damn.
yeah, I've seen accidents with Jesus fish on the cars and they have not been saved.
Thanks Justin, you are a true human being. I hope.

For more information on Justin Pearson and The Locust check out
http://www.thelocust.com
http://www.ThreeOneG.com