Were either of you raised with a religious background? There seems to be some questioning of spirituality in some of your songs.
Paul: I was. My parents and my older sister think we play Satanic music. It's great (laughs).
Phil: If you mean like "Jesus For Dinner"...It's cannibalism and stuff like that. Christian cannibalism...
Paul: It's a fine line...
So is it just the mythic of the whole thing?
Phil: Yeah! Christ walks a fine line between cannibalism and spirituality.
So on "Jesus For Dinner" what exactly were you thinking?
Phil: That's what I was thinking. I was trying to walk in his footsteps for a little while. Not to become Jesus, because I couldn't do that, but I was trying to understand what he was trying to say. Y'know...The whole cannibalism thing.
I must've missed that part of the bible. I never heard about Jesus advocating cannibalism.
Phil: Eat of my body?
Paul & Phil (in unison) Drink of my blood!
Okay...okay! I never thought about it that way.
Paul: I think the story of Jesus Christ would make a great B-horror movie. Black and white, lots of blood!
Phil: It was just the whole idea of it. I think it was the Romans who believed that the christians were a bunch of cannibals.
Paul: Can of bull!
Phil: Yeah! They thought christianity was a can of bull. Yeah! We were just having fun with the whole idea.
Hey! You guys are from Pittsburgh, right? STEELTOWN!!!
Paul: Fuck yeah!
Paul, You had that big piece of sheet metal with you. I saw it laying on the floor but you didn't have it on stage. I was hoping you were gonna break it out.
Paul: I have a stand for it but it wouldn't stay on tonight. I took a pair of scissors and made a hole with the first one I ever used and it always stayed on and it never gave me any trouble but you can get only so many beatings out of one of them. They lose their sound.
So ya thought "Fuck it! I'll just leave it Detroit."
Paul: No, no no! I'm talking about my old one and there's not action to it any more. The one I have now doesn't stay on the fucking stand anymore!
Phil: It's a piece of Pittsburgh we take with us.
Paul: A piece of Steeltown where ever we go.
Is there even any steel production going on there anymore?
Phil: No.
Did you go downtown when the blew up the old stadiums?
Paul: They did it like at fucking 7 in the morning. Who want's to go down there that early?! People were there at 4 in the morning just getting drunk like it was a Steelers game. 4 in the morning tailgating.
Phil: And since we're from Pittsburgh we incorporate metal into our music...
Paul: Yeah, we do.
Phil:...like Maiden and Black Sabbath and stuff.
Paul: The galloping tempos.
Phil: That's what that piece of metal is all about.
It's all about Iron Maiden?
Paul:No, it's just all about metal!
Did you have family that worked in the metal industry?
Paul: My dad sold insurance.
Phil: My dad rodes bulls, took acid and jumped out of airplanes.
Paul: (laughing) That's no joke either. His dad is intense.
Phil: He took a grenade on an airplane.
Paul (bursting out laughing) Holy shit!
So you were born and raised in Pittsburgh?
Paul: I was born and raised in Syracuse, New York which is a fucking shithole!
Phil: No, not originally.
When you first moved there did you get lost trying to find your house. There's all them crazy hills and bizzare street layout in Pittsburgh.
Phil: No...It's easy (laughs). It's San Francisco of the rust belt!
Where there's turns on the hills...What's that about.
Phil: A rust belt San Francisco...That's what it's about.
Paul: Well, Detroit is part of the rust belt too.
Phil: True but Pittsburgh is the San Francisco of the rust belt.
Paul: You don't fuck around when driving in Pittsburgh.
Man! I bet if you opened a brake or transmission shop in Pittsburgh you can make some mad dough.
Paul: Yeah! There's alot of them there too. You gotta know that Pittsburgh don't fuck around. For example, you see them two buildings over there? They'd put a bridge between them just for the hell of it because they can.
It's totally weird driving there. It seemed to me you'd go across a bridge, then up a hill, there'd be a turn while on the hill then another bridge then down another hill to another bridge.
Phil: They're trying to outdo Venice. They're next in line for the most bridges in the world in one city.
Then they can hire some gondola guys.
Phil: We don't have many gondola guys but we have got...
Paul: Three rivers...
Phil:...The Gateway Clipper....
Paul: Yeah! Don't forget get about the Gateway Clipper.
Phil: ...where you can catch the Rock Challange every year. The semi-finals are on the Gateway Clipper every year.
The "Rock Challange?"
Phil: It's like the hottest, most intense battle of the bands....EVER!
Do Anti-Flag host it?
Phil: Nah...but that would be something!
How did you end up doing a record for their label? You don't seem to fit into their thing at all!
Paul: Yeah! They're political.
Phil: But Paul plays like real political drumbeats so we fit in.
Paul: Their drummer, Pat, he's the one who got us on the label.
Phil: Y'know the have the message about Anti-capitalism...Anti...not America but imperialism and all that kinda stuff and when Pat heard Paul's drumming he was like "This guy speaks to that message in his beats."
Then you can get on a Hot Topic comp...
Paul: Maybe...
Do you think within all those hills and bridges there's a hidden part of Pittsburgh where it's one all demented dutch with shotguns?
Paul: Hell yeah! My house, it's a couple miles out of downtown, and there's a backroad you can take to get to my house from downtown and it's pretty backwoods looking. I see all kinds of crazy shit driving that way.
Phil: You don't wanna go up in those hills. The hills are the dangerous part!
Paul: Yeah! The hills are rough.
Phil: We drove up to the King Of The Hill and bought some beer the other day.
Is that up above the big Bayer Asprin sign?
Paul: You mean the one with the big digital clock? That's the nice part of town. That's the Hill District. Ya know the show "Hill Street Blues"? That's what it was based on.
No shit? I always thought it was Chicago.
Paul: No way....Fuck Chicago! You know a famous person from Pittsburgh? BRUNO SAMMARATINO!!! He grew up a block away from where Andy Warhol grew up. Warhol never liked to admit he was from there.
We start talking about local charecters. Paul talks about when he worked at a bar and some dumbass who used to brag about how he shot someone in the face.
Phil: I wonder if my dad ever shot someone if the face...
Paul: Didn't he blow up a house?
Phil:... and he only did acid once...
Was he on the acid when he blew up the house?
Phil: He jumped out of an airplace when he was on acid...Orange Sunshine...
So he was always down with the rock-n-roll I take it.
Phil: Oh yeah! He gave me my first guitar. He was out of a job for a year so we were really poor then he surprized me for Christmas with it.
Paul: My dad was in a garage band from Oklahoma in the '60's called the BEAR FAX. They used to cover "Outta My Tree" and opened for the Chamber Brothers.
So what stuff were they playing around the house?
Phil: My dad used to play "5 To 1" by the Doors over and over again.
Dude! Your dad sounds freakin' crazy!
Phil: It's the truth...
Paul: (laughing) Fuck! My dad liked the Doors but not like that.
Phil: Seriously! At the end when it was fading out he'd be like "Rewind that and play it again."
Paul: My dad found a copy of Led Zepplin IV in a airport once and he gave it too me. It's been all downhill since....A Led Zepplin tape and a drumset. He thought the drumset would just be a hobby...but we are now doing a record for In The Red. So I tell my mom about it and thinking she'd be really happy for me but she was "Oh...So I guess this means you won't be graduating from college." I only have a semester left.
What are you studying?
Paul: Business Marketing.
Really?
Paul: Why, don't I look it? I'm fuckin' straight up (laughs)!
Pat Patano (Dirtbombs/Come Ons) walks up. "Hey Pat's here. Take over..."
Pat: How long you had that hair?
Phil: Awsome!
Pat: Right On! So Paul....Right On! Phil...My man!
Phil: That's how we were gonna answer every interview question. "Right On! My man Paul. Awsome!"
Before their set I asked Phil if he knew the worlds to Anti-Flag's "Die For The Government." He sang them. "Hey! Can I hear all the words to 'Die For The Government again." He knows every word accenting them with handclaps. We are cracking up! Phil just keeps singing...We start commenting on the song not really paying attention.
Phil: You got to DIE DIE DIE for the government!!
Paul: Aww man! (laughs) Why did you get him started again?
The MODEY LEMON are a duo who hail from Pittsburgh, Pa. It seems to be rote for the hipster press to lump all two pieces into the same slot. The reason is, I think, that they know of one and it's easy to do. The further you listen you realize that , except for a blues based minimal songs, The Immortal Lee County Killers don't sound like Mecca Normal who don't sound like the White Stripes who don't like Bantam Rooster and so on. They all brought something different to the table to stake a claim. The Modey Lemon is no different. They impliment some crazy Moog effects here and there and write words that can make ya think a bit...That and they ROCK.
Interview by Dale
Photos by Amanda
