Interview with Jon Rybicki of The Fucking Cops

The Fucking Cops are awesome pop punk. You can read all about them in a previous post of ours here and you can buy their shit here. I recommend both. I adore them. Pre-order the vinyl at that link, you really won't regret it. And as you can see, they're also really fun people.... :)

How long has the band been together, and how did you all meet?

We played our first show in October 2009 with Off With Their Heads, New Creases and Reverse the Curse.  The owner of the club the show was at had asked me to find bands for the show and I decided to start a band to play it.  Our first practice was probably less than a month before that show.   I played in a band called Vietnam Werewolf with Andy.  The rest of us know each other because everyone in Cleveland tends to find each other eventually.  We've all been going to the same shows for years.

If you could have an unlimited source of one food to take with you on tour, what would it be? (Only one!)

Andy says that I have to say burritos.  I guess that works.  They have to be really good burritos though.  I am really picky about burritos, Andy will pretty much eat any kind but I only like "California-style" burritos, like, the order at the counter pick your ingredient kinds.

If you could fight any band in history, who would it be and why?

We would probably fight the Eagles, just like Steely Dan does on the show Yacht Rock.  The Eagles are one of the worst bands in history, and Steely Dan is one of the best.  We would "stab them with our steely knife" and we WOULD just "kill the beast."   It would be a Hotel of Ass-kick.

What has your favorite part of being in a band been? How well do you get along?

 This is a standard answer but being on tour is absolutely the best part of being in a band.  Going new places, meeting new people.  As far as getting along.  I remember reading an interview with Clarence Clemmons, a personal hero of mine, where he said that everyone in the E Street Band gets along well because they do what they do on stage and then they go their separate ways.  At the time this made me sad, because I thought that your band members always had to be your best friends and your only friends or whatever.  Now I totally get what he was saying.  TFC don't all hang out every single day, if we did, we probably wouldn't get along very well at all.  We get together and make music and its awesome and we love each other to death.  Its always exciting to go on tour because you get to hang out with friends in other cities that you don't normally see, but I think its just as exciting for me to hang out with my band members, whom I don't see very often outside of band practice.

How often and how far do you tour?

The goal of this band has always been to tour as far and as often as possible.  Work/money is always an obstacle in that endeavor.  We've been on one short tour and we are about to go on one medium sized one.   We are probably doing a long tour in the fall, and want to do even more in 2012.

What bands influenced your sound?

I can only speak for myself in this regard, and that is a difficult question for me.  I am not very good at being analytical about our "sound."  My favorite lyricists are Craig Finn, John Darnielle, John K. Sampson and Blake Schwarzenbach.  Musically I guess the Replacements, Superchunk, Smoking Popes, Lifetime, Green Day.

Which member is the most fun on stage?

Josh has the most moves.  Andy is the funniest.  I am super shy so probably not fun but people tell me I smile a lot.  It probably looks like I'm having fun but I'm just nervous as fuck. 

If you could have a US tour with two other bands (any bands together or not), who would you choose?

I want to tour with Cheap Girls because Ian is one of my favorite people to hang out with.   I might end up partying myself to death on a tour like that. I am not sure if you mean two other bands on the same tour or not.  As far as bands that aren't together, it would be awesome to go back in time and tour with Frame and Air Raid Barcelona.  Those two bands were almost completely composed of my favorite dudes from New York State (and for that matter, America).  They toured together in 2005 or 2006.  Both bands have been broken up for a while.


-Bear