When Dave was asked what he thought of the idea of China Drum selling out with "Somewhere Else" he answered the following:
"The question of selling out is alien
to this band. I honestly think our
biggest problem is that we are too punk
for our own good. We have tried to do
everything right over the years
(remember what this band has done to
get where it is today)& almost killed
ourselves in the process. We turned
down thousands of pounds to sign to
indie labels when we could have 6
figures from a major. We see how many
bands that we have toured with get
huge under our noses but we always
continued to do things our way.
"Somewhere Else" could be a song
that could break us worldwide and
it is certainly one of the best songs
on SMM. 2 years ago we would have
said let's release something fast &
punky off the album cos it's cooler.
These days we have more sense. As a
band we have a huge problem with
the whole issue of selling out. We
have had guys at our gigs saying that
if we ever got so big that we were
playing to more than 500 people a
night, that he'd stop liking the
band. For fucks sake! So 499 is ok,
but 500... and we're fucked. What
if he was the 500th person???? God
knows. Anyway, if their bands
wouldn't do it themselves. Wouldn't
push vans. Wouldn't self finance
their own records. Wouldn't spend
all their spare time rehearsing. I
remember Green Day being accused of
sell out but they worked their
balls off to get where they are
today and the same could definitely
be said of us".
Jan has been in the band as a live drummer for quite some time. But how did this happen?
"Jan has joined the band as a live
drummer. He did not play on any part
of the record. Adam got the bug for
singing out front on "Die Toten
Hosen" tour last December and didn't
want to get back to the kit after
Stew, out T-shirt guy, was drumming
2 songs a night. Anyway, we thought
about who we would get as a permanent
replacement and we all thought of Jan,
who was the drummer in Compulsion.
We never thought for one minute he
would leave Compulsion, but after
we had toured Japan with them they
left their record company and
decided to split. So we asked Jan
and he said YES! He gets on with us
amazingly and it's credit to him that
he has fitted in so well. It sounds
funny, but I find it hard to imagine
us as a 3 piece these days. Besides,
we sound so much better and the crowd
get a better gig too....so everyone is
happy. The least cool thing about him?
His first band was a heavy metal band
called "Titan".
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