Words: Scott Harrell

Back in the late '80s and early '90s, Hermosa Beach punk act Pennywise helped redefine the Southern California fast-rock sound, inspiring a legion of followers and imitators. Now, nearly 20 years later, the band is still at the leading edge of its craft; by joining forces with Myspace Records and offering new album Reason to Believe as a free high-quality digital download before its physical release – an offer that almost half a million fans eagerly took up – Pennywise is actively reshaping the music-industry model for the digital age. REAX recently spoke with bassist Randy Bradbury about the group's groundbreaking new distribution moves, as well as the music they delivered.

REAX: How was Australia?

Randy Bradbury: Australia was awesome. We always have a good time down there, but it was great being down there with The Vandals, they're old friends of ours, and Sum 41, they put on big, really great shows every night. And Bowling for Soup turned out to be really cool dudes too. And the crowds were pretty big. We played to double the size crowds we've usually played to down there.

REAX: The band has been courted by labels bigger than Epitaph before over the course of its career, what made now the time to switch rosters?

RB: Well, I think it had more to do with the changing horizon, I guess, of the music industry. We've realized the importance of the Internet for a long time, and the opportunity to be on Myspace Records, which is one of the hugest sites around, period, we just thought ... it's always been our number one priority to get the music out there. The opportunity presented itself, and we've done eight albums with Epitaph and have no complaints, they're like family. We actually went and talked to Brett Gurewitz, head of Epitaph Records before we went ahead with this, and he gave us his blessing. So basically, the reason we went now was just so we could take advantage of the Internet.

REAX: Was it a difficult decision?

RB: Yeah. Like I said, they're family to us. But also, we all felt like we needed to do something new. Everything just fell into place. Of course it was a difficult decision, but in the long run we felt like it was the best thing to do. And it just panned out that way. And the official number on the downloads was somewhere over 400,000. We could never have done that on Epitaph, it takes years to sell that many records. In retrospect, we're still friends with everyone at Epitaph, so we get to maintain a relationship with them. And they put out the records in Australia and Europe. It's the best of both worlds.

REAX: Did you expect a number that big? Did you think that 350,000 or 400,000-plus people would get in there?

RB: We had no idea. We were hoping. And you've also gotta figure that they've downloaded that many, but we're also streaming the songs on our Myspace page, and if you combine the totals of each song, it's well over a million. We were hoping we could expose our music to that many people, and it did seem like it was a possibility just because of the hugeness of Myspace. But without them being involved, we never would've thought we could've done something like that. We didn't know what to expect. Our biggest question, really was whether anyone was going to buy the album after that. (Laughs)

REAX: Well, given the loyalty of your fanbase, it's that community. They're people who are more likely to still go buy the thing than people who are into more mainstream stuff.

RB: That's the thing. We've got a great fanbase, they're very loyal. We've had a long, steady run, and the reason why we ended up with fans in the first place is because we basically have the same attitude – we're fans. Before I was in Pennywise, I was a fan. We're all on the same level, so they're not gonna be alienated anytime soon. We always keep in mind to just do what we do, and – I'm gonna use a cliché – keep it real. (Laughs)

REAX: Where did the idea to make the album available as a free download come from? Was it the band? The label? You guys together?

RB: Actually, we realized that people were illegally downloading music years ago. And we've thrown it out there a couple of times almost jokingly. 'Wouldn't it be cool if we could just release our album for free,' not expecting to really be able to do it. But Fletcher Dragge, Pennywise guitarist started talking to J. Scavo from Myspace, and from what Fletcher says, J. brought it up. So it was actually something they thought would be cool to do. So it was him and Fletcher talking about the whole format, and then Fletcher came back and talked to the band about it, an we all instantly thought it was a great idea.

REAX: The new record is one of the most varied Pennywise albums in recent memory. There's some more heavy stuff, there's some catchier stuff, and there's classic Pennywise stuff. Did you set out to make a more eclectic record?

RB: We always keep an open mind. We don't wanna go and start playing a completely different style of music, but we like to stretch the boundaries of what we do without being too contrived. We'll all work on songs at home, and then when it's time to get together, we'll bring in half-finished stuff and riffs, but we'll also bring in all our own songs. So it's gonna be pretty diverse. I go out in my garage and write anything, fast songs, slow songs, and Jim Lindberg, vocalist and Fletcher do the same thing. So when we bring 'em together for the final tally, we just listen for what we like. Not 'is this Pennywise?', just what catches our ear. At the same time we're trying to offer ... we want the album to have some variation. In the end, we didn't really set out to do something like that, it's just what catches our ear. and we try to keep it in mind. But that wasn't the plan.

“Alien” was one of those songs, back in '98 or whatever, that we thought 'wow, this doesn't really sound like a Pennywise song, but we like it, so fuck it.' That's kind of what we did on this album.

REAX: Are you guys super-conscious of what you've done before? Do you ever throw stuff out because it sounds too much like an older song?

RB: Yeah. That happens a lot. The process of elimination, i mean, we had over 60 songs to work on for this album. They get thrown out for a million reasons. I wrote a song that had the word 'wallow' in it, and Fletcher just didn't like 'wallow' (Laughs), so that one was out. Everyone has to resonate with the song, and there's tons of songs where we know we've done that riff a million times before. But there are also songs on there that kind of reminded us of the Full Circle era, and we kept 'em for just that reason. We don't want to always do the same thing, but that's been, like, ten years. It's a nice reference, it keeps us tied to our roots, I guess.

REAX: There's also that nice lyrical mix of the personal and the political, something the band has always done well. Do you think that punk acts in general have a responsibility to weigh in on political and cultural issues?

RB: I actually think that there should be no responsibility at all, other than to do what feels natural to you. That goes to our message, just be an individual, be yourself. We do that because we feel the need, and we feel good about doing it. I know for us, we enjoy doing it, we sing songs from our own perspective. The band started out more on a friendship level, a brotherhood thing, almost like self-help – you can do it, be the best you can. And as we've progressed, obviously things have changed in the country, and things have changed for us personally, so the perspective changed to more political view. So it's gonna be all-incorporating, that's all gonna still be in there. You're basically a product of your own life experiences, you know? You don't really throw anything out.

myspace.com/pennywise