An Interview With Stza Crack Of Leftover Crack & SFH
By Tao Lin
TC: Your songs and lyrics are really affecting to me, especially if I’m already depressed or lonely. “Born To Die” for example is really emotional and bleak. I’ve actually cried when listening to it, alone in my room, thinking of how meaningless life is. Have you ever cried while singing one of your songs at a show?
SC: Yes. It’s not something that has happened a lot though.
TC: What kind of animals living in what circumstances would each of your bands—No Commercial Value (1990-92), Choking Victim (1992-99), Leftover Crack (1999-????), Crack Rock Steady 7 (2001-????), SFH (2005-????)—be, in your view, if you had to describe them as animals?
SC: That one should be elaborated on by you before I answer.
TC: For example No Commercial Value could be like a Chupacabra (the Mexican monster-like thing that’s rumored to exist) since it’s not that known and is somewhat mysterious but people are interested in it.
SC: I think, that as an actual writer, you should suggest what animals my bands seem like & I will either support or tear down your arguments with my own interjections.
TC: Choking Victim: black-colored buffalo.
SC: I’m color blind when it comes to animals & food, so I only know what a buffalo is, not a “black-colored” buffalo. Is this because Choking Victim is semi-extinct? Also, why does ketchup taste like mustard half of the time? I’m also condiment illiterate…
TC: Crack Rock Steady 7: breed of dolphin that is rarely seen because it lives really deep underwater but has been known to unexpectedly surface.
SC: Is this a really smart dolphin? I believe that all dolphins need oxygen, so you’re suggesting that The C.R.S.7 is a dumb dolphin. That’s fine, are we handsome dolphins at least? Ya’ know, like one of those D.I.L.F.’s that you hear about all of the zoo-a-philes discussing? There are two C.R.S.7’s in the works right now, an Irish version featuring the Dublin area based band Chewing on Tinfoil & a C.R.S.7 Sweden with a band named Gang Control. Europeans all look like sexy dolphins to me…
TC: Leftover Crack: velociraptor (the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park)
SC: Ah! The most fuckable of our 7,000 year old frienemies. I can see that, savage & quick… Is Jurassic Park that movie where Jeff Goldblum goes around fingering baby dinosaurs? Yeah, I have never seen that movie.
TC: SFH: medium-sized, healthy, consistent “killer whale.”
SC: So, you’re saying that S.F.H. is fat? I know what “healthy” means. I mean, I can’t recall any shocking images of “unhealthy” killer whales… Smoking cigarettes & drinking 40’s of ice beer with sagging breasts & a huge gut. & “consistent” equals boring. Why do you hate Star Fucking Hipsters? We’re only little… Wait, are we K.W.I.L.F.’s at least?
TC: I was thinking a “killer whale” that is maybe in better shape than its peers. I can imagine some of them being kind of lazy and swimming slower and caring less than the other ones, even though they still look as healthy and like they care. I think killer whales are one of the sexiest animals so yes re K.W.I.L.F. People on Tumblr seem really attracted to you and Nico. They post pics and say things like “this man is everything I could wish for.” Do you know what Tumblr is at all?
SC: I’ve heard of Tumblr, but I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen it. I like that people say nice things about me in addition to all of the horrible things that I’ve read. Neither are based on any actual facts though. I think that people tend to gravitate towards extremes when prompted to write something anonymous on the internet. It’s very suggestion box-y in that way. Out of hundreds of notes, you’ll get very few suggestions & the most practical will usually be “Go Fuck Your Self!”. I enjoy the more specific & convincing arguments where there is a testimonial like “No, I met that guy, he’s a fucking asshole!” It’s unfair to judge people that you don’t really know or perhaps have seen at their worst or on a bad day. I’m skeptical of people that gossip & perpetuate rumors, but I’m more skeptical of people that make extreme statements or judgments, whether it be condemning or loving. Usually the people that claim to love you are the most likely to hate you when their unrealistic expectations aren’t met. But still, I prefer nice, sweet off-base comments to cruel off-base comments. I especially like love/hate mail: Scott Sturgeon, 155 Ave. C #5-B, N.Y., N.Y. 10009.
TC: I’ve been saying things about Twitter in other emails, do you know what Twitter is?
SC: Really? Come on Tao. I mean how else would I know how many record executive dicks fuck Justin Bieber every night? Not that there’s anything wrong with the music industry…
TC: What are some of your favorite things to eat?
SC: Sushi in NYC is great if you find the cheap places that hook it up.
TC: What thoughts do you have about Wu-Tang Clan?
SC: I love 90’s hip-hop. A lot of Wu Tang.
TC: Have you been steadily focused on each new album or 7″ since 1996 or so, or have there been like years or six months where you’ve been focused on other things? What other things?
SC: I have never focused on anything as positive as music or politics since ’96. That encompasses a lot of bad shit.
TC: What hope was there in the world that caused you to work hard on creating music instead of succumbing to increasingly larger amounts of heroin and cocaine usage until you died, as a young man?
SC: Well, I did have access to PCP…
TC: What other drugs have you enjoyed?
SC: Nicotine, alcohol, cough syrup. Really, I wouldn’t say enjoyed, but I’ve “tried” most of them.
TC: When and where did you lose your virginity?
SC: What makes you think that I’m not a virgin? I don’t remember writing any lyrics about sex. That’s probably why we don’t make any money selling records…
TC: What are some things you’ve read on the internet about you or your bands that aren’t true? (You could let the people know the official truths here and shame them for spreading false information.)
SC: Nothing important really. I mean calling someone an asshole is fairly speculative. Though I have read things in the past that were the opposite of the events that transpired & although that can be infuriating for a moment, it’s not something healthy to hold on to. I know some fairly respected & popular artists that have held onto grudges for decades & it can trap them in a box to be labeled & dismissed to a great extent, not that I’m not trapped in a box that has often been labeled & dismissed… Maybe I should hold onto more grudges & let anger eat me up instead of sadness. I’m not just talking about personal sadness, I mean the type of sadness that you can only perceive when you know too much about human nature & the way that the world is a cage full of smaller cages within smaller cages, like a Babushka doll, but full of the most horrifying & upsetting things that we have learned about our history. All of those hideous things are still happening to people to this day. That’s not as easy as thinking about someone that fucked you over 10 years ago.
TC: What’s your main memory of high school?
SC: Pressure & alienation.
TC: Do you have any happy or at least non-alienating memory from your childhood? Like when you were six and eating ice cream in nice weather or something?
SC: I remember that time when my ice-cream fell off of the cone. I remember talking to another kid at the playground when I was really little, behind what is now the Kips-bay cinema & mini-mall that I thought it was cool that we both had “Spiderman” sneakers on & him saying “so what?” I mean, that was in a sand-box & the kid couldn’t of been more than a year older than me… I mean, we were in a sand-box… I really can’t think of any really good time that I can recall from childhood, I liked “free-lunch” that we got in the summer-time from public school cafeterias, which was shit food in retrospect, but the “non-denominationalism” of a school cafeteria in the summer was way better than the regular, everyday school cafeteria & the social stigmatism involved, I always loved NYC in the summertime when school was out, but that was something that I didn’t get to enjoy much because of traffic & over-protection amongst drug-dealing & violence around my apartment building.
TC: Have you ever played a lot of video games?
SC: Not really. I never had enough money to put a bunch of quarters into any machine at any given time. & my brother & I were given a Commodore 64 when we were little without any games. I got to play a small amount of Nintendo at a friend’s house when there was just Mario Bros. & Duck Hunt. Since then, video games have mainly felt like work for me. Like right now, my back is hurting from writing answers to these questions. That’s exactly how most video games make me feel… Unless I’m shooting zombies or something. That’s fun…
TC: Is October 11 the last SFH show ever? After this SFH album are you going to focus on another Leftover Crack album?
SC: SFH will play again, we just don’t have anything booked at the moment. Things are hectic for several members of the band at the moment, so, we’ll figure it out & should have news about touring soon. I have a few things to focus on beyond SFH in the upcoming months & next year & working on another Leftover Crack record is one of the higher priorities. We will start production in 2012 for sure…
TC: What can people expect on the next Leftover Crack album?
SC: The next LOC record will only be released if it meets the standards of our first two albums, not an impossible feat by any means, but it requires a lot of research & discipline in addition to the base creativity. I need to buckle down & try to write something really worthy compared to our best material. These things can seem impossible at times, but I know that I have the ability to get it done. Focusing on producing something both musically pleasing & politically relevant is the challenge. I know that a lot of people don’t take my output seriously. But enough people “get” what I’ve been doing to make the anonymous & not so anonymous critics a non-issue. I’m not trying to hide who I am or what I think. I believe that comes across for the folks that actually like this. At the end of the day, the lyrics are the most important part of these songs & also the hardest to create. But the music is what holds it all together & makes it special in its way.