Campfire Girls

Home


Atlanta Attractions

Atlanta Concerts

Atlanta Nightclubs

Band Bios

Band Interviews

Bands on Tour

Boston Bands

Boston Concerts

Boston Paradise Club

Charlotte Bands

Charlotte Concerts

Concert Reviews

Fort Myers Concerts

Gainesville Bands

Gainesville Concerts

Jacksonville Bands

Jacksonville Concerts

Jacksonville Nightclubs

Los Angeles Concerts

Melbourne Concerts

Miami Bands

Miami Concerts

Movie News

Music News

Myrtle Beach Concerts

Nashville Concerts

New Music Releases

Orlando Bands

Orlando Bars

Orlando Events

Orlando Music News

Orlando Nightclubs

Orlando Radio Stations

Orlando Seals News

Pensacola Bands

Pensacola Concerts

Phoenix Bands

Phoenix Concerts

Tallahassee Bands

Tallahassee Concerts

Tampa Bands

Tampa Concerts

Tampa Entertainment News

Tampa Nightclubs

Tampa Radio Stations

Tampa TV Stations

Television News

Toledo Concerts

Video Game News

West Palm Beach Concerts

Campfire Girls Interview

Sunday December 14, 2003

Although the weather outside was frightful, the Campfire Girls trudged their way into Hartford, CT through ice and snow, to entertain us in the intimate setting, which is known as The Webster Theater.

I was fortunate to be able to sit with Christian Stone and Andrew Clark. Two sweethearts from this persevering band to find out more about them, where they’ve been and where they are going.

OFG: Hi Christian, thanks for talking with me tonight.

OFG: So who came up with the name for the band?

Christian: It was actually our original drummer who came up with it. He’s not in the band anymore but it started as a joke. We really didn’t plan on keeping the name and then it stuck and it was too late. It’s actually stolen from a real organization. A lot of people don’t know that.

OFG: How long have you guys been together?

Christian: On and off, about 8 or 9 years. Only, underneath this setup though, for about 3 years.

OFG: Are you all from the east coast?

Christian: No, just me. Those guys are from the west coast. Our guitar player, Mike, is from Arizona and the other two guys are from L.A.

OFG: How did you hook up with them?

Christian: I moved out to L.A. when I got out of high school to try and start a band. Eventually I met up with Andrew, the bass player, and the original drummer and we were Campfire Girls. We’ve had a couple of personnel changes but it’s been me and Andrew, pretty much the whole time since we started in 1995.

OFG: What is the best thing about being in a band?

Christian: I’ll have to give the "PC" answer. I don’t feel right with my mom outside parking her car. No really, honestly the best thing, I think, is playing live shows. I just think that the adrenaline rush and the experience of being able to getting up there and do your music in front of people is awesome. I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

OFG: Ok, what’s the worst?

Christian: Probably having to tour in a van in below freezing weather. But no, I’m not complaining, there really is no downside. It’s that you’re part of a machine because the music business is like this money machine. That’s, I think, probably the biggest downfall but you still get to play music so it all balances out.

OFG: What is your favorite song to play?

Christian: Favorite song to play would have to be "Make It". That’s the third song on our record. It’s the most aggressive punk rock song we have.

OFG: If you could play anywhere, where would it be?

Christian: A girl’s school is Sweden.

OFG: Do you have any "before the show" rituals?

Christian: Yeah, drink! Sometimes we tune our guitars, but not very often.

OFG: How many shows do you do per year?

Christian: It depends on what kind of tours we get. This year has probably been the busiest year for us as far as live shows. In 2003, I would say we’ve have played well over 100 shows, somewhere probably closer to 200. I wouldn’t know the exact number but we’ve been on tour now for two months solid. We were on tour for two months in the summer, we were on tour for two months the winter before that so six months out of the year, we were on tour.

OFG: How do you guys stay sane doing all of this touring?

Christian: We don’t! We are completely out of our minds. That’s the only way you can do it.

OFG: Do you guys have a tour bus?

Christian: No, we have a van. We try to keep costs down because even though we’ve been around a while, we’re relatively new kids out here. We have a name for ourselves in L.A. but no one’s really heard of us too much yet out here on the east coast. So we are trying to start small and build up.

OFG: What do you do to pass the time on the road?

Christian: We watch DVDs sometimes in the van, a lot of us read. We talk, make fun of each other.

OFG: Who chooses the songs you play on tour?

Christian: It’s usually a group decision. If someone doesn’t want to play a song, we have enough songs to mix and match, and make everyone happy. Everyone’s got to play them, so…..

OFG: Do you have to play the same songs every night or do you get to toss them up?

Christian: We used to toss them up but now that our new record is out, we really want people to buy that record and get into it so we’ve mostly been playing songs from the new record.

OFG: Does that get a little monotonous?

Christian: I think for me to say that would be really crazy considering there’s bands who have been around for 10 years, who are still playing the same songs because that was their hit, so no, I think that every night is different and every time you get up on stage hopefully the energy is there. If it’s not, then you should quit.

OFG: Who writes your songs and what inspires you?

Christian: We all write them together. Everything inspires songs, or can inspire songs so it really just depends. You know, whatever any one of us is going through. I write most of the lyrics so usually it depends on where I’m at. Sometimes Mike, the guitar player, he writes lyrics too but our songs usually tend to be about relationships which is something I’m trying to change. Like on our next record, I want to expand that, because I think that we have already done that and we should try something different.

In walks Andrew

OFG: If you weren’t a musician, what would you be?

Christian: I would probably be a teacher.

Andrew: A fireman.

What did you do before you became musicians?

Christian and Andrew: Wait tables.

OFG: Do you have any plans for the future, like acting, settling down?

Christian: Yeah, acting like a retard!

Andrew: After I have my rap record I’d like to do a little acting.

OFG: You’re going to put out a rap record?

Christian: Yeah, his stage name is A-Loc.

OFG: If you could choose anyone, dead or alive, to play music with, who would it be?

Christian: I would have to say Neil Young.

OFG: Why?

Christian: Just because I think he is the most open-minded of all the people that I like. I think I could fuck up in front of him and he wouldn’t make me feel stupid.

Andrew: John Bonham!

Christian: That’s a good one. That’s a bass players answer. That would be a dream. Have you seen the new Zeppelin DVD? It’s amazing! You’ve got to get their DVD. They were the best band that ever lived. No one can touch them. No one has ever come close to what they have done.

OFG: What do you do for fun?

Andrew: We just went and saw "The Last Samurai". It was good, I was surprised. I thought it was going to be crappy, Tom Cruise, I wasn’t buying it, but it was awesome. It was good. We went to see that Siamese twin movie, for 5 minutes and it was the worst thing that I’ve ever seen so we left and went into "The Last Samurai".

OFG: New Release "Tell Them Hi", came out late this year, how is it different from past releases?

Christian: It’s actually in some record stores. That’s probably the main difference. It’s nice to be able to go into a Best Buy or a Tower or a bum fuck wherever and see your CD, although it doesn’t happen all of the time. We still have to call and complain that our CDs aren’t in some stores. It’s definitely a lot better being on a major label in terms of distribution. But musically, the record’s a lot more together and cohesive sounding and the songs, I think, are better written.

OFG: Who wrote "Someday", and was it about anyone in particular?

Christian: We all did, yeah it was but I’d rather the person stay anonymous. It’s definitely inspired by specific events.

OFG: What about the Turtle and the Hare video, I thought that was pretty interesting.

Christian: Oh yeah, Buttercup. Wait until you see our next video.

OFG: When is that coming out?

Christian: Hopefully when the single comes out, I think in the beginning of February.

OFG: What single is that?

Christian: "Someday". We are going to try and shoot a video for it in January cause we have some time off.

OFG: Have you picked a director yet?

Christian: Not yet, but we have some ideas. We’re cooking up some stuff right now, so it’ll be good.

OFG: So, you’re waiting because of all the other releases coming out this December.

Christian: Yeah, that’s part of the reason that we put the record out in October and are waiting to put the single out, cause we know that if we put it out in December, we’d just get lost in the shuffle.

OFG: You’ve been with a few labels, what’s the story with that?

Christian: We started out with Boy’s Life. "Sad Dog" was our first release on Boy‘s Life. "Mood Enhancer" was on Interscope/Boy’s Life, Mootron Records released "DeLongPre" and now we’re back with Interscope. We were actually with Interscope when we released "DeLongPre". "DeLongPre" is actually a record we made for Interscope and we broke up before they could put the record out. It was recorded at the same time that "Mood Enhancer" was. Basically, the record never came out and we had finished the art work and everything, so when we reformed in 2000-2001, one of our goals was to get that record out, because it had been sitting there and we really felt proud of it. We really wanted to see it come out and Interscope said well, we’ll sign you, you can make a new record, and you can have your old record back and you can do whatever you want with it. So, while we were recording the new record, we got an independent label to take the masters and the artwork and the old record and actually put it out. So, that’s why it came out on Mootron while we were back with Interscope.

OFG: Do you think the change up of record labels has affected you as a band?

Christian: Not really, I really think the only label that worked with us on anything was Interscope. They’ve really stuck by us.

OFG: Good luck with your new CD and thanks a lot for your time.

Interview by Melissa Corneliuson-Barnes - Orlando Florida Guide. All rights reserved.


Tell us what you think of Campfire Girls in concert.

For more band information visit the official Campfire Girls website.