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| Backstage at the Camden Underworld |
We went to see Versus The World put
on a true Punk-Rock performance at Camden’s Underworld a little while back and
caught up with bassist Mike Davenport to answer some Louder Now Grab Bag
Questions!
Donald (vocals) and Steve (guitars)
also jumped in on the action, because the Grab Bag is just THAT much fun that
it almost has magnetic powers.
Who is your musical hero?
Mike: That
one’s really easy. That’s Kurt Cobain. I am a huge Nirvana fan. I started on
The Beatles as a very young kid maybe 5 years old and that got me
into music
and then I started playing by 9. By 12 I played in my first band but Nirvana
came up and made Punk Rock mainstream. They made it so that bands like ours who
were just playing in our garage, who didn’t really think we were going to be
able to do anything more than play shows, could tour the world which I’ve been
doing now for 20 years. Their song writing is genius his lyrics are genius. I
don’t really like him as a person but I love him musically. I think he was kind
of a whiny bitch and he should still be around.
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| Would have never guessed who Mike's hero is |
I was in a
band called The Ataris before I was in this band and when I was in The Ataris
we got to play Reading and I remember thinking then “Wow, this is where Kurt
played maybe 12 or 13 years before.” That was sort of, completing my journey.
What excites you most about the
future of your band?
Mike:
Probably touring right now. We just finished our third album I always tell
people, if your newest album isn’t your favourite thing that you’re doing then
you should probably change what you’re doing. I love our new record and I’m
excited to play it for people. We hadn’t played shows in a year and half. We
broke down to make this record and spend some time at home. We just started
touring again two weeks ago and the reaction to the new record is so great! I’m
just excited because we’re going to New Zealand, Australia, Japan, China, The
US, Canada so it’s a lot of touring coming up and I can’t wait to play these
new songs to everyone.
Where are you the most excited to
see?
Mike: I
haven’t been to New Zealand ever in Versus The World so I’m really excited
about that. I’m tentatively excited about Canada because Donald has big
problems getting into Canada all because of a DUI. We’ve been turned away, not
for whole tours but for shows here or there because of that. It doesn’t help
that Donald is a little bit of a smart ass so his smart mouth definitely has
kept us from getting in a couple of times.
Donald:
Canadians are the nicest people…but they just keep on throwing me out!
You’re feeling ill and you can only
have one home comfort. What do you choose?
Donald:
When I’m sick as shit, like I can’t leave bed, my favourite thing to do is to
order a pizza in bed and then play video games for like a full day.
Mike: My
total cure is Thai pineapple curry. That’s my chicken noodle soup. I’m not
vegetarian completely but I was one for 23 years so I get a vegetable curry
pineapple. It’s spicy and it will get rid of anything. Fuck Chicken Noodle
soup.
Is there anything you know this week
that you didn’t know last week?
Mike: Yes!
Amsterdam! They say, about the canals, 3 meters water, 3 meters bikes. So many
people throw their bikes into the canal that if you were to dive in you would
probably get stuck by a bike. I’ll tell you another little tidbit, because I did
a walking tour in Amsterdam, there are actually 16 men employed 24 hours a day
365 days a year to fish bikes out of the canal and they probably fish between
12 and 15,000 bikes every year. See what happens in Amsterdam is that the
locals don’t like the bike rental companies so if they see one, and it’s not
locked up, they throw it in!
Is there any musical instrument that
you would love to be able to play?
Steve: Oh
this is a cool one! I would love to be able to play the Cello, I think it’s
such a romantic instrument. I think it’s because I don’t actually plan on
playing the Cello anytime soon but I would like to.
STALK VERSUS THE WORLD:
