This interview was supposed to take place in person, but my sister decided to go into false labor that day, leaving me to feed her dog and babysit my nephew. By the time that was done and I had a second to think, the show was nearly over and this phone interview with Black President guitarist Charlie Paulson took place on Thursday, May 7, the day after my nephew was born.
Black President have a sound that any fan of L.A. punk should check out, and this interview covers some good information about the band and Paulson's views on various topics.

PL: Say something interesting about yourself.
CP: Oh Jesus. You realize you're putting somebody on the spot with that. Where are you located?
PL: Rhode Island.
CP: And you were going to go to one of the Boston shows but your sister had a baby?
PL: Yeah, she went into false labor and finally had the baby yesterday.
CP: Congratulations. Is it a boy or a girl?
PL: Boy. He's actually gonna be my Godson.
CP: Cool. Is he named after you?
PL: No. He's actually named after Matt Ryan.
CP: Who's that?
PL: He's a football player.
CP: Oh. I'm not up on my SportsCenter. Um-I don't know. Okay, I was having a conversation with a friend the other day if you want an interesting quote from me. We were talking about politics, and I said "nobody wants to hear what a high school dropout has to say about politics. And fortunately, with my band, they sure do love to sing along, and thats been the case thus far.

PL: Thats actually a good lead in. Do you think its gonna be hard for people to not think of you as a political band with the name Black President?
CP: We are a political band. What we are not is an endorsement of this current administration or the status quo. We clearly were born out of fucking hatred of the Bush administration and what was happening at the time. And collectively, as a band, we feel that things have taken a turn for the better, but we're weary and suspicious of any politician regardless. So, absolutely we're a political band.

PL: How difficult was it to solidify your band?
CP: Quite, as you can probably tell. If you read anything about us on the internet, you'll find several different line ups listed.
PL: Do you think everything is stable and this is what its gonna be?
CP: Definitely. Christian, the singer; Jason, the bass player and myself have been playing in different situations for seven years probably. Black President, with the three of us, started in 2004. We've had different rhythm sections. As you may know, Greg Hetson was in the band for awhile, but he was too busy with the (Circle) Jerks, Punk Rock Karaoke and Bad Religion to do anything. At one point we sat around for eight months before we started the record waiting for him to come home. As soon as he got home, the Jerks had booked a tour, so we had to cut him loose at that point because we were ready to go. We love the guy. He cowrote a couple of songs on the record and he's still a very good friend of ours. The dude is one of my best friends, but we're just stronger with just the four of us.

PL: Was it hard getting Black President's name out there, even though you have been in bigger bands in the past?
CP: Not really. We had the advantage of coming from other bands, so we had a platform; we had a soapbox to shout from, so that helped. What didn't help was that our other bands were so fucking different from Black President. I don't know that the average Goldfinger or Lagwagon fan gets Black President because we're so completely different from those bands. Some people were expecting another pop punk thing, but thats not what we're about, so thats been a hurdle. I never really wanted to ride on Goldfinger's coat tails, or Lagwagon's or Dee Dee Ramone's or any of the other bands that we've played with in the past. This is its own thing. Its not a fucking side project; its a real band, and I've actually tried to downplay connections with other bands. We are very much starting from scratch. We're out on tour opening for people. There's five of us in a van and we're sleeping on floors and its pure; I wouldn't have it any other way.

PL: You were saying how people were expecting this to be a little more pop punk-ish. What do you take to any criticism you've heard so far, whether from reviews or word of mouth?
CP: Its criticism of anything. We saw a documentary recently about critics and they were interviewing a comedian and he said "No kid says that when they grow up, they want to be a fucking critic." So I think by the very nature of the position means that you've failed at something else, whether it be at the art form itself or not being a writer of any merit. I'll apply this to our reviews. As far as I know, we've gotten 23 glowing reviews of our record, and one bad review. Reading the bad review, and even some of the good ones, makes me wonder if people even listened to the record. If I like a band, I'll buy their record and I'll go to their show and I'll wear their T-shirt. Thats my critique of the band. If I don't like the band, I won't buy the record and I won't go to their show. And if you think about how trivial and how insignificant an entertainer of any sort is, and how people rail so hard, even against a band like Good Charlotte-they're fucking entertainers. When you've got Wal Mart moving into small towns all over the world and destroying the communities and robbing their workers. When you've got oil companies holding drivers hostage, I just don't see how its a worthwhile use of anybody's time. So, what I did was start a band to express my views, and hopefully we'll find some like-minded people that will like what we do and we will give them something to sing along with. If you're stuck in a job that is exploiting you and does not appreciate you, but you have to keep the job because you've got taxes to pay and kids to feed, then the best I can do is that you can put our record on at the end of your shitty day and it will make you feel better. It will make you feel like you're not along in the world. I would hope that thats what art does for anybody.

PL: What would you say your band is about? Musically, lyrically; however you want to take that.
CP: I would say that we're the musical version of a baseball bat and a can of spray paint. I have a lot of respect for bands like Rage Against the Machine or Bad Religion that go and voice their views of the world. We could be considered similar, but we come from far more of a sort of a union mentality; far more of a Black Panther mentality where you don't really need a dictionary to figure out what we're talking about. Its very visceral and its very street. Its about educating yourself and its about standing up for yourself and standing up for your fucking kids. Everybody that lives in Western society-if you have a job, if you drive a car, if you live in a town where there is police-is treated unfairly every hour of every day in some way, and Black President is just saying Fuck You to those people.

2. Do you feel like you have a lot to live up to with your follow up release?
On the one hand, we definitely feel the pressure, there's a lot riding on this release, but at the same time we've never been the kind of guys to worry about that stuff a lot, we're just writing songs we can be happy with. Rise or Die Trying got some pretty shitty reviews once in awhile and nothing changed, we just keep doing what we do and if people dont like it, thats fine. I think they will though, a lot of good stuff.

3. Explain the deal between I Surrender and Fueled by Ramen.
Well, we're actually on I Surrender/ Decaydance, which I don't think is still a part of Fueled By Ramen (when did this happen?), but as far as our labels go we've had great luck with all the people we work with, so its good!

4.Why do you think people look at musicians (or any entertainment personality) as almost God-like?
Haha People are maniacs, I dont know if I can answer this very well, the MA hardcore scene was a lot different than coming up idolizing Michael Jackson or something. I guess any of the people I looked up to were just normal dudes who would actually be at the show and hanging out, so it was never godlike, if you liked someone's band you'd introduce yourself and it'd be cool.

5. What is your biggest fear about the music industry?
The scary part about the music industry is exactly what everyone's idea of the music industry is, yeah there's alot of weasels out there, but right now we've got a good team behind us and we don't work with anyone we dont trust. The industry is going through a lot of changes right now which is scary, but at the same time things could be going in a better direction, who knows.

6. How hard is it to break apart from being a local or even regional band?
You just have to go out there and kick ass, people will dig it or not. I think you have to go into it being ready to just have fun and play music you love, maybe something will come of it, maybe not. You cant go into it expecting to be the new Guns n' Roses, you have to be in it for the right reasons.

7. Why are most tours now package tours?
Wasn't there a cat wrapped up in a package in the movie christmas vacation?

8. Is it hard to keep up with either new bands or upcoming releases?
Honestly, we're all idiots and we dont keep up with anything, I literally dont know what day it is. Yesterday I thought it was still February, it isnt. Most of the bands i get into I'm freinds with or friends of friends, hah is this even an answer? I'm sorry...

9. Which upcoming album are you most excited about?
The Last Lights discography, best hardcore band ever? might be. Our good friend Dom was the singer and he passed away recently, and everyone needs to check out how awesome this band is/was. RIP Dom.

10. What's a little known fact about Worcester?
There's a statue of a boy fucking a turtle downtown. Really. Its bronze. And hilarious. This isnt a joke, turtle boy is real.


11. The show on March 2 at Lupo's was cancelled due to weather. Can you give a behind the scenes look at how those decisions are made; who makes them; the communication process; what you do instead?
It depends on the type of tour, but on this production made the call and we jsut got informed early that morning, we were kind of lucky I guess that we were really close to home. I just sat in this parking lot all day with our guitar tech Rich. Everyone else hung out with their family and girlfriends, good times!

Written by: RF
BACK