INTERVIEW WITH

JANSEN K .J

K.J JANSEN/ PHOTO :YOU TUBE

J.B: Hey people I’m standing here with Jim and the infamous K.J from “CHIXDIGGIT”K.J: “CHIXDIGGIT”J.B: Let’s do this, let’s just dive right into it! So do you still have those shirts, the original ones you made back in High School before you guys actually played any in-struments? Do you still have like maybe one of those?K.J: Yeah I got like one of those and they don’t look like the new logo and my mom has one and a guy in Australia has one and girl in Germany still has one and as far as I know of it’s just those four

“The E.P is a testament to Fat Wreck Chords”people that have those that still exist.JIM: Hey maybe it’s JOJO?K.Y: No her name is Stephanie and she runs a restaurant in Hamburg called...Mamma...FUCK! It’s such a good restaurant what in the hell is the name oh ya “MOMMALICIOUS”! If you’re ever in Hamburg Ger-many you gotta go! She’s rad because Stephanie in Hamburg Germany bought the first EVER Chixdiggit t-shirt!J.B: The last thing you guys did other than the E.P’s and compilation songs that you’ve done was “ChixDiggit 2” So are you guys going to give us something new?K.J: Ahh ya we did the “Safeways” one, it was going to be a full record but some of the songs I wasn’t into and I don’t want to put out some-thing that I’m not into anymore. I mean that’s an amazing album but for people that are buying it of course but I mean there are a whole lot of shitty songs that we could have put on there to make it a full album but I don’t want to do that anymore.JIM: Well at the same time the music industry isn’t where it’s at any-more and unless you’re out touring, then you can get the EP or you can do the digital download which is the new media way of doing it.K.J: Well the E.P is a testament to Fat Wreck Chords right there like

K.J JANSEN/ PHOTO :YOU TUBE

wait you only have these 7 songs but you want to put out a record? “Okay” and they didn’t hassle us about it and ya!J.B: And EP’s are cool they are collectable with multi colors spe-cial inserts and stuff that go into it right?K.J: And yeah they’re just cheap!JIM: What’s wrong with cheap? So a lot of “Pro Tools” “Digi Design”?K.J: No not at all actually we stay away from that crap - our favorite artist… (heard over loudspeak-er at the venue)...Is this Ice Ice Baby? Actually he did that last Ice

album… is Tom Bagley so he does our stuff and then he sends it to Fat so I don’t know what happens after that so I stay out of that!JIM: You’re from Calgary though? K.J: Yep Canadian bred born in Edmonton so I’m a huge Alberta fan except the Oilers of course (Smiling).The thing about the Calgary punk scene is they are super genuine, they look you in the eye and they look out for each other and not like on the West Coast.J.B: You mentioned before that you would like to tour with your wife’s band. Is that still the same hope?K.J: Oh yeah the “Rift Randalls” they are a three piece but they cause a lot of trouble where ever they go and stir things up and they are known for that tension if you know them.J.B: God I’m having a hard time reading my footnotes! I use these be-cause the years of the lifestyle have just killed my short term memory!K.J: Ya that happens! J.B: So screw the tiny letter footnotes I’m winging it all the way from here. So you guys put out two on Honest Don’s back to back which ev-erybody knows Honest Don’s is like being on Fat because it’s a subsidi-ary division of it. And those releases eventually led to signing with Fat

“We stay away from that crap”

K.J JANSEN / PHOTO: LUKE HARRISON FLICKR

Wreck Chords?K.J: Yeah I never really understood it. I guess it was explained to me in several different ways, it was bands that were really good and wanted to be with the Fat Family but really didn’t kind of fit in with Fat Wreck Chords at the time. And I guess that changed in what the definition of Fat Wreck Chords bands is today in regards to the different sounding bands they have now. I mean everybody loved Erin and Mike.JIM: By the way this is Queen “Under Pressure” just putting that correction out thereK.J: Ah ya your right! My mistake whoops!J.B: So Pop Punk is really big right now and seems to be going strong?K.J: Ah actually it depends where you are? You know it goes in waves really the best way of explaining it is you’re really big on moment and the next not so more and it goes like that. When you play in a place and everyone’s awe-some and it’s a good show and crazy and you go back and it’s not like that anymore.JIM: Okay where’s the craziest Pop Punk scenes?K.J: In the world you mean! Ah To-kyo, Madrid in Spain, small towns in Norway and of course a couple here in Canada where a couple of us did really

“I mean everybody loved Erin and Mike”

K.J JANSEN / PHOTO: LUKE HARRISON FLICKR

well.JIM: (To ladies standing to use the washroom) Sorry this is where we lurk, this is where we hang out! I know it’s a creepy thing but we are all good, we are harmless! Wanna jump in and ask K.J something? (SILENCE)J.B: So you’re on your own this time around and doing an acoustic tour with the iconic Joey Cape. How is that going to go?K.J: Well I just did a show with Chris Cresswell of “The Flatliners” and it was super fun. It’s a new thing for me and I love doing it.J.B: Joey describes doing acoustic as being a true song writer because it’s only you to grab their attention and carry it though and you’re out in the open.K.J: Yeah there’s tricks to still be able to hide your true self still and your song writing abilities thanks to you guys (Hugging the Ladies standing beside us).JIM: The true fans!EVO: Sometimes it’s nice to echo back what you’re feeling and to get input into how you’re getting through right? J.B: Welcome “EVO” you’re now a columnist of Within Punk Zine! Cheers (Dinging of glasses)K.J: Ya totally though the first time I did a show and the guys weren’t there it was the fans that carried me through.EVO: Ya but when you write such great

songs and they are so catchy it’s hard not to sing along! (Another woman walks out)JIM: Hi! Welcome to the front row Q & A with K.J Jansen!K.J: We’re trying to reserve the front row just for you guys!GIRL: Really ah How was it? Did you guys listen to me pee?JIM: No we’re here hanging out doing an interview but now that you mention it you might be on audio?But hey if you break the seal there’s nowhere else to go?WOMAN: Well all the girls are thinking this is the lineup!J.B: Well it is sort of! I’m too lazy to walk around!K.J: Well Story time folks! So what I do at work is we have this wa-ter cooler and I put it into my locker because we have lockers in our bathroom and exercise drinking when I have to pee but sometimes it doesn’t work and it really starts to reek and lately well I haven’t been doing it lately because we just had a baby.JIM: Well I guess this is the Pee View! And…Hello New Girl!NEW GIRL: I really like just listening to the answers and just listening! This is neat! Good thing I had to go!J.B: So K.J, now that you’re surrounded by beautiful women I guess “CHIXDIGGIT”! Ah Playlist what kind of playlist would you be play-ing if you were on this tour?K.J: Well I don’t know but I don’t have a cord in my car to plug into my phone so I have three cd’s I’m listening to right now The Copy Rights, North Sentinel Island - do you guys have that record?They are my favorite band right now and there are so many bands right now that sound like them and they are the first. And I was cleaning out the basement and I found this CD that I had probably about fifteen years ago but I got it about ten years late and the guys from Bum do you guys know Bum?Wow okay this is great! Okay so BUM is from Victoria but no one in Canada knows them and they’re superstars in Spain and they broke up for years and finally got back together and went back to Spain but the” Wanna Smash Sensation” is the record! They don’t like the name but there’s a couple of songs that are so good and I was going to play them tonight. So one of the singers form BUM I feel like I’m lecturing here..LADIES: No this is our education! YA! Woo!K.J: So anyway BUM there’s two guys Andrew and Rob and Andrew writes rock ‘n roll songs and Rob writes pop songs, but together I’m not really sure how it works but it’s incredible. They turned me onto this band called SILVERSUN not Silverspun Pickups but called Silversun

and the first album is self-titled and it’s insane! It’s the best record you will ever hear and it’s one of my favorite records of all time.There’s this one song called “Lava” where it’s him singing about the baby jesus and all this crazy shit and sounds like this crazy choir but it’s these guys singing in falsetto and then it turn into this craziest pop punk song you’ve ever heard and then back into the choir.EVO: I have a list of shit people tell me about like The RemainsK.J: Ahh I’m going to check that out!J.B: Well my high school growing up sucked ass! Maybe I should have been a football player!K.J: NEGATIVE! I know where you’re going with this actually the football players in my school were really nice guys and just not dicks and the biggest dicks were the skateboarders and the jocks but then it switched.JIM: Went from Jock to Rock!K.J: NICELY SAID! I was involved in that so we made up the name CHIXDIGGIT to make fun of these guys and that’s where the whole thing started.EVO: I have a question was does the acronym “CGIT” mean?OTHER GIRL: I know “Can’t Get It Together”?K.J: Nice! Well I meant to play it tonight but I Couldn’t Get It Together! OTHER WOMEN: I will be right back some ass hole ripped me off! (Running Off)K.J: But I was just explaining your question!JIM: Well it may just have been YELLOW, BLUE, RED or GREEN OFFICER! HaK.J: NICE! Actually I will answer her question anyway it’s a small town Alberta saying “CANADIAN GIRLS IN TRAINING”! It was a seven-ties thing in the prairies my sisters were in it so I don’t know if it’s still around! It was actually a group of women that I believed wove things and did like macramé and pottery we still have this owl in our bath-room and this pottery piggy bank and his name is Professor Owl and he held a lot of coins and you can’t get it open probably all pennies but we also had macramé owls in the bathroom so that mostly held soap.JIM: Fat Wreck Chords how does it feel to be signed with them and part of the family?K.J: I love them they are great! I love them way lots, nothing but good times.JIM: Is there a famous book or quote that inspired you?K.J: Yeah my friend wrote a quote in my High School book that helped

me “You can’t blame a compass for pointing North” and I thought that was the sweetest thing that a boy could say to another boy in high school don’t you think?