RC: So you guys just got back from Europe. How was that?
SN: Oh, it was fantastic.
RC: And what's this I heard about a tutu?
SN: Daniel J. Travanti lost a bet and had to wear a tutu on stage at one of the shows in England.
RC: Was it an interesting bet?
SN: No it was a stupid bet. There was some dispute over where the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy was filmed, whether it was filmed in Africa, or... I can't remember. I wasn't involved in the bet, but it was a bet on where that movie was filmed. And Dan lost.
RC: So you guys are back in Seattle right now?
SN: Yeah, we've got like 10 days off. We did six weeks in Europe, home for 10 days, then we're back out doing the states.
RC: That sounds grueling. How long have you been on tour leading up to this round?
SN: You know, we'll go tour for a month and a half, stay home for a couple of weeks, and go back out for another month and a half, stay home a couple weeks. It's hard to say; we did a full U.S. Tour in the fall, were home for Christmas, and then we went to Europe. We're gone for about half the year, touring.
RC: What can expect on the latest tour?
SN: Just the Briefs. If you wanna see a band that's just gonna attack you from the stage and make you wanna jump up and down and spaz out, come to our show.
RC: Now, you guys get compared to new wave a lot. How do you actually feel about that?
SN: Probably some people feel like there's a new wave edge to the kind of punk rock we play. Labels are pretty easily thrown around and mean different things to different people. To some people new wave means The Rezillos and The Damned, and the Ramones were called new wave at the time, but to other people new wave means Culture Club and Flock of Seagulls.
RC: And that's very not like you guys.
SN: No, not at all.
RC: Well, how would you describe your sound?
SN: We're just a traditional punk rock band. And we're weird. I think that our influences are pretty varied, and we're mainly inspired by the first wave of punk rock where there's a lot of different sounding bands. Primarily, you're worried about having the abrasiveness and a good song; having an abrasive raw attitude behind it, full of spite, sarcasm and p**s. And a mouthful of shampoo.
RC: On the new album, there's a lot of different sounds, definitely some stuff that sounds influenced by the Buzzcocks. Are you guys fans of the Buzzcocks?
SN: For sure, the Buzzcocks, Undertones, the Boys, all that kind of stuff, where there's kind of poppy songs. But we're big fans of early Los Angeles Dangerhouse Records-style punk rock. The early Orange County stuff like TSOL, the Adolescents, DI and early Social Distortion. With our songwriting, we can veer it a little bit toward power pop, late '70s power pop, or we can veer it toward Orange County early hardcore, but it's still the Briefs.
RC: Is there a decent punk scene in Seattle?
SN: Yeah, of course.
RC: Are there any remnants of grunge there anymore?
SN: No, there's no grunge. There's like a tribute band called Grunge, that everybody from the sticks comes out to see. What's big in Seattle right now is indie rock. Rainy day music is probably the big thing. But for all-ages punk rock shows we do pretty well. We just played with the HorrorPops Friday night and it was sold out. It was like 750 kids. It was great.
I think our scene's really good in Seattle. People come to the shows enthusiastic and go nuts. You walk in and it feels like you're at a punk rock show.
RC: How long have you guys been together?
SN: Seven years.
RC: How did you guys get hooked up?
SN: You know, we all hung out at the same bathhouse (laughs) and started talking about music one day and there we were. Found out we all had the same taste.
RC: As a band, who runs the show? Who writes the songs?
SN: We all take turns singing lead vocals; some sing more than others, but we all sing, and we all sing backup. Kind of like Abba, a little bit. For the most part Dan, the other guitar player, and I write most of the songs. We'll sit at home, work on songs, bring them to practice, try them out, get everybody to play along and either it flies or it doesn't.
