Sunday 6 November 2011

“Ode to the cheesy triangle” Cerebral Ballzy Exclusive Interview… Honor Titus



Cerebral Ballzy have taken to the road on tour with The King Blues. Get ready for chaos, alcohol, girls, pizza...oh and a bit of skateboarding!



 “If you own a skateboard and think we can’t skate, you need to lick my butt” 
brags lead singer Honor Titus. These boys mean business.
Lead singer Honor Titus
The Brooklyn Punk quintet deliver an aggressive, yet endearing stage show here in Manchester; you can’t help but be captivated. Honor bounds around the stage as though he owns it; Cerebral Ballzy don’t really care if you like them, they’re just having fun, along with copious amounts of Jack Daniels. Between that and their love of "the cheesy triangle" [aka pizza!] the night has started in a suitably debauched fashion. With songs such as “Junkie For Her”, “Puke Song” and “Insufficient Fare” the crowd is valiantly riled.  


Honor chants “circle pit, circle pit, circle pit; it’s a couple of lines away from a heart or something”, and as the crowd submit you cant help but get the feeling that behind their confrontational and hedonistic exterior these boys are sugary sweet deep down. Or maybe not? Whatever the case, Cerebral Ballzy live show is a must; they’ll be the band you love to hate and hate to love. 



So, post show, we head backstage to hang with these crazy kids..
 
Heya Honor. How’s the tour going so far? Are you enjoying being on the road with The King Blues?
HONOR [lead singer]: We’ve been touring for a really long time, and no! No, I’m kidding, I’m kidding. They’re great guys and there are a lot of kids at the shows and we’re shreddin’! It’s fun.

Cerebral Ballzy
What do you like most about touring in the UK?
H: That the girls are ridiculously in love with us! It’s a fun and sexy endeavour. Kids like our music too, put that down!

On a scale of 1-10 how much chaos have you caused so far on this tour?
H: [Laughs] How much K have we done?
JASON [guitarist]: [Laughing] No! Chaos!
H: Enough to euthanise the Queen- I’m kidding! Chaos? A ton, a lot, a great amount of chaos. What have we done?- orgies, loud music and tons of party supplies.

Sum up a Cerebral Ballzy live show
H: It’s like when Northerners meet Southerners; (girls from London), and go for a kebab soirée and then end up with a donor machine up their bum! It is what it is.

Have you found much time to skate over here?
H: We just toured with Keith Morris with his band called Off! in the States and we skated so much. So last month we were skating a ton. No we haven’t been skating a lot this tour. The weather’s been shit and too many girls like us and there have been a lot of party supplies. There hasn’t been enough time to skateboard.

Cerebral Ballzy support The King Blues in Manchester
In terms of writing, who or what inspires your music?
H: There are so many that inspire us. In terms of writing, Burroughs is a big influence on what we do; William S. Burroughs that is. Also, Patti Smith’s latest- Just Kids is an amazing read. Music- Dead Boys, big Beach Boys fan and The Ramones of course. Also, fast food menus in terms of the writing; a dollar menu kind of job. We just did a Stone Roses cover on Radio One. The Smiths too, they’re from Manchester. Can we take a picture in front of the Sallsberry Lads’ Club?

Tour Manager Mike soon corrects the boys that it is infact The Salford Lads’ Club-and no, unfortunately there won’t be time to swing by!

Did you deliberately set yourselves apart from the most recent bands emerging from the NY music scene?
H: No, we didn’t deliberately. It just happened. I don’t think we’re really like a lot of guys, or anyone. I don’t like a lot of guys, I’m not like them either. There are a lot of kids reviving a lot of things and we’re not an exclusion from that category, but there are a lot of kids not practising what they preach.

 Do you practise what you preach?
J: Drinking, drugs, puke, skateboarding?- yeah we do.
H: We preach what we practise and we practise what we preach.
J: We’re also not just a revival but also a continuation. We get to tour with the likes of Keith Morris and get hardcore people behind us that are handing us the torch.
H: We’ve played with the greats and we’re the greats of today, and I practise; I’m the preacher. 


If not Cerebral Ballzy what other names were in the running?
H: The Junky Faggot Whores.
J: That was one, or the Helen Kellers.

What would you say the Cerebral Ballzy ethos it?
H: That’s a good question. Not having an ethos is our ethos, to a certain regard. I don’t know. What people think we are, that’s what we’re not [laughs at Arctic Monkeys album title reference]. New York, that’s our ethos; having fun with kids around us. Remaining true
J: Fast, loud and fun.

Cerebral Ballzy on stage in Manchester
What would you be doing if you weren’t in the band?
H: I’d probably be a millionaire marketer, advertiser. I’d be in a high rise on Madison Avenue with an elaborate harem of beautiful women.
MASON [guitarist]: I’d be an astronaut.
J: I’d own several franchises of Hooters.
H: Mason would literally be in Space.
M: I’m an astronaut at heart.
H: Abe would be fighting in the streets drunk, so he’d be doing the exact same thing as now! And Mel? He would be fixing fridges….


What music have you been listening to that you recommend we should check out?
H: So much! Listen to Off!, The Spits- a great punk band. We are in Manchester so listen to The Smiths, Crazy Spirit. Listen to Cerebral Ballzy. There’s so much! 

  
Rollcall. Cerebral Ballzy are-

Honor Titus - lead vocals
Melvin Honore - bassist
Mason - guitarist
Jason Bannon - guitarist
Crazy Abe - drummer