Legal Weapon interview

MU : When did the band first get together?

Kat : It originally started in 1980 and we had a different drummer and a different bass player. We had Patricia from The Bags, she's in The Gun Club now, and a guy named Charlie Vartanian, I don't know what he's doing now.

Brian : He's in some band in L.A.

Kat : He left the band in '82 because he was going in the Army. He was going to be an Airborne Ranger.

Brian : But he had flat feet.

Kat : In '82 we got Frank and Steve from the Adolescents, and we put out the "Death of Innocence" LP. Before that, the only release we had was "No Sorrow", and that was with Patricia. It was a 12" EP with 5 songs. Then after about a year of playing with Steve and Frank we put out "Death of Innocence", and Adam and Ed did backup vocals. Ed fixed the bass tracks that Steve screwed up and they joined the band shortly after that.

MU : Where did the name "Legal Weapon" come from?

Kat : There was a poem called "Words are Weapons" and we decided that people, their minds, hands, and words are a legal form of weaponry against the established facets of our society. A lot of people conotate it with a heavy metal name for some reason if they see it in the paper and don't know anything about the band.

MU : What's going on in L.A.?

Kat : Most of the clubs are closed, they're closing everything. They've even gone so far as to close The Roxy, which was really an established nightclub.

MU : Who's closing them?

Kat : A lot of places really don't have trouble with the cops, I don't know if it's a financial thing or what. The clubs that have punk shows usually get closed for one reason or another. Most of the shows in L.A. are hall shows and there are a few clubs that will have certain bands, but they would never have a lot of big bands unless it was unannounced. But the scene there is still strong, when there is a show there's a thousand or two thousand people that go if the place is big enough.

MU : Is there a lot of support for local bands?

Kat : Yeah, L.A. is very supportive of local bands.

MU : Where has Legal Weapon toured so far?

Brian : This tour we went to Tulsa, then we went to Boston and played a show over there, we went to New York...

Kat : Those were the best.

Brian : Yeah, East Coast was great, we played "A7" with the Circle Jerks and Kraut and...

Kat : Murphy's Law.

Brian : And Agnostic Front, that was a fun show.

Kat : Yeah, that was great.

Brian : Then we broke down on the way to D.C., we missed that one. We played Bridgeport and then went back to Boston and played "The Channel" with the Circle Jerks and Gang Green and a few others.

MU : I thought that Gang Green had broken up.

Brian : It was supposedly their last show, they were really good.

Kat : They were energetic.

Ed : I remember they had good stage presence.

Adam : Good energy.

MU : Where have you played in the Midwest?

Brian : We just got here.

Kat : Is Ohio the Midwest?

MU : Yes.

Kat : We played Cleveland, that was a good show. There weren't a lot of people, but the people were enthusiastic.

MU : You went from the East Coast to Cleveland?

Kat : No, we came through Tulsa.

Brian : We went through the South. We went to Nashville and New Orleans, and then through Texas- Houston, Austin, and then up to Tulsa.

Kat : Texas was a disaster.

Brian : And then Louisville, then to Cleveland, then here (Indianapolis).

Kat : It's like zig-zagged.

Ed : Well actually it's like a circle, all the way up east, then back around south then back up to Tulsa again.

MU : So you were almost back home again?

Kat : Don't remind me! No, everything has been going O.K. except for Texas, I don't want to go back there.

Ed : The KKK is closing all the clubs.

Kat : And the cops.

Ed : All the cops are KKK.

Kat : Austin was good. We saw the Dicks, they were great.

MU : How long have you been on tour?

Kat : Years!

Brian : Seven weeks.

MU : How much longer?

Brian : We'll be back July 2nd, about two more weeks.

Ed : All those long drives ahead of us.

MU : What did you think of Indianapolis?

Kat : Zero Boys, they rule!

Brian : Yeah, they're great.

Kat : Zero Boys are definately a good band. I like to see bands like that out here. That's one thing you can say about Indianapolis, the bands are decent bands. We have played in some places where the bands have no business gracing the stage, like they're so amateurish. The Zero Boys were a pleasant surprise.

MU : How about the audience here?

Kat : Last night in particular?

MU : Yeah.

Kat : If those little skate punks would come a little closer, I'd bop them in the face with the microphone stand. I don't like guys who sit there and make motions of masturbation at me. They're so cowardly, they do it in the middle of the floor. If they'd come a little bit closer....

Ed : Just the same, we still got a good response, good enthusiasm for the size of the crowd.

Brian : We got rid of a bunch of records.

MU : How's your record (Your Weapon) been selling?

Kat : It's all gone. When we get back to L.A. we're going to do another record.

MU : How many were pressed?

Kat : About 7,000. That's another thing, when you have bands like Black Flag, Circle Jerks, they have like 30,000 copies printed, so they are more accessible to people and consequently at shows, they get a larger turnout. When you put out 7,000, it's like spitting in the air or something. It doesn't really accomplish as much as it could, but hopefully through touring and stuff like that, the name gets around a little better.

MU : Did a lot of people know who you were back East?

Kat : Well, Boston. See, Boston is real good because it's a college town and they have college radio stations. We were real lucky, we went over real well there and made a lot of playlists.

Ed : And got some big crowds too.

Kat : Yeah, they were some of our best crowds, and the people knew the songs, they knew the material.

MU : Have you been breaking even?

Kat : Yeah, we've broken even on gas this tour. We would have come out ahead if we hadn't lost our gigs in D.C. and Texas. The van broke down and it took a lot of money.

Ed : I'm sure we probably lost out on about $2,000.

Kat & Brian : More than that!

Adam : Just through material difficulties and mishaps, we've lost a considerable amount of money, but we're surviving.

Kat : You can live.

Brian : Yeah, we'll break even with all the disasters though.

Kat : It's good though, because at least when you go out on tour you get to see all these bands that you play with. You get really good exposure and you get good, fresh ideas and your mind starts to function again as far as music goes.

Brian : You get away from T.V.

Kat : Yeah, you get away from television, and don't get lazy. Even in L.A., if you just sit around there, you just keep on going to see the same old bands. It stagnates you after a while, you just stay in one channel. So, it's good in a lot of ways to get out, you will get a lot of good ideas.

MU : How did you get on "New Wave Theater"?

Brian : They called us back when they first started it.

Ed : We've been on it about four times.

Kat : We did it twice with Patricia in the band.

Adam : The last time we were on, we did "Equalizer". I was real happy with it. We just went up, played the song, and left. It was a hassle with the intro. They wanted an intro while they were introducing the band.

Ed : Yeah, and they wanted us to do some song that had to do with the destruction of the world.

Adam : Some crap like that.

Kat : Another original idea.

Ed : That's exactly what they told us. "Do you have any songs about war and the destruction of the world?" (Laughter)

Brian : We were going to do "Don't Pretend" but they didn't want that one.

Kat : That's our best song. That's the all-time fight song in L.A. It's got that depressing kind of thudding beat.

Ed : They put "Equalizer" on there. That's the one where we just went up and did one song, but we did have fun breaking some breakaway bottles.

Kat : We beat Peter Ivers up.

Ed : He asked me the meaning of life. I picked up this breakaway bottle, and just slammed it over his head. Glass was flying all over the place.

Kat : He started asking the meaning of life on the second show when Patricia was in the band. He asked me what questions I wanted him to ask. I said, "I don't care, just don't ask me the meaning of life." I swear to God, after that, that's all he asked any band. But now he's gone. (The New Wave Theater host was murdered in March 1983)

MU : Are they going to get a new host?

Kat : Yeah, I talked to (Producer) David Jove several times after (Ivers) died and I asked him about that and he said yes, they are going to continue.

MU : That's good because it's carried on so many different stations.

Ed : I'm surprised they've shown it on so many different stations.

Kat : They showed our video one day and Ed's mom, who is Japanese, was at home and watching the Japanese station and her kid comes flashing on the screen.

Ed : It was a commercial and there was this doll waving and this screaming and all of a sudden there I was just thrashing away on the bass. She called up all her Japanese friends. It was on for like, a week.

MU : Have you ever thought about going overseas?

Kat : Yeah, that's like the next thing. We'll probably tour one more time here, then go over to Europe as soon as we can.

MU : What label are you on?

Kat : We've got our own, it's called Arsenal Records.

MU : Have you put out anyone else's records?

Kat : No, but we've thought about it. Like, Brian has produced other bands. That's another thing when we get back we want to do. Most everyone I know in L.A. is on their own label. Then they get a distribution company like Faulty. (R.I.P.)

Brian : Living up to their name.