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STAIN: They’ve already been waiting for so long, so fuck them! They can wait longer! (Laughs) Nah, I’m just kidding. It just takes time to get everything together and everything designed, plus money is a huge issue too. I have to focus on putting the cash I have into the bands that are doing shit now, and need the financial help right away, compared to a band that has been broken up for almost two decades. There are just a few albums that I need to put ahead of the box set. But what’s really cool is that when “Harmonies from the Hamper” is finally released, we will be offering digital distribution of the box set. Plus, we aren’t going to be dicks and charge like $50 for the box set, and we will be selling it for around $20, no more than $25.
ASHLEY: That’s cool. Are you going to charge more for the first pressing and second, compared to like the third and fourth? Like will it be $25 for the first pressing, but $23 for the second, $21 for the third, and $20 for the fourth, or something like that? If that makes sense what I’m saying.
STAIN: (Laughs) No, no. Each pressing will be the same price. I mean, we can’t control if a store does something like that, but hopefully they won’t. That’s just fucked up in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s fine if the album has been out for awhile and it cost more to get a first pressing copy of an album that has been out for a few years. But it’s a dick move to charge more from the very start. If that makes sense. (Laughs) That’s just my opinion though. Although I have noticed that my opinions are always right, and that everyone who disagrees with my opinions tend to be dickfaces. So I guess my opinion is a pretty important thing.
ASHLEY: Well okay. (Laughs) Ummm. I don’t even know how to reply to that. (Laughs) Over the years, you have done various different things revolving around the local independent music scene in Phoenix, such as starting Laundromat Productions and booking tons of local bands, and booking larger bands and having local bands open up for them. You did the Arizona Ska Punk Awards for several years, which was basically like a local Grammy’s. You started a few different zines, and of course you’ve played in a bunch of different bands. But the most recent project that you have been working on is Bad Stain Noise Weapons, which is a company that makes custom guitars and basses, correct?
STAIN: Yes. It’s not something that I’m trying to turn into a huge business or anything. It’s just a small company that makes amazing guitars and bass guitars that are super unique and made using the finest materials. But I’m taking my time with it, and just releasing instruments on my schedule.
ASHLEY: Well that was pretty much my question. I was going to ask you to just tell everyone about the business a bit. I know you have two instruments now, and you announced that you are designing a new guitar with your daughter, and should premier the guitar late in 2020, or early 2021.
STAIN: We haven’t released many details about the new guitar yet, but it is a Les Paul body, and the first Gibson design we have created. Well, started to create. It’s not going to be anything fancy, but it will be a great guitar when we finish. We have released two other instruments so far, the Moe Money Signature Fender Strat, and the Chase Stain Signature Fender Jag-Stang Bass. They aren’t cheap, but they are by far two of the greatest instruments that I have ever played. I personally think that the Jag-Stang Bass is one of the top two bass guitars I have ever played. The Fender American Standard Jaguar Bass Guitar might be a bit better, but I’m not sure. It’s just an amazing bass. The Moe Money Strat is in my top five best electric guitars for sure. It plays so smooth, and the tone is really great, and I love the way that Moe used a Seymour Duncan Invader pickup for the bridge, and then had Seymour Duncan modify their Hot Rails pickup and used the custom Moe Money Signature “Money Shot” pickup in the neck. Overall it just turned out so sweet. I should also mention that every instrument we design and create is a limited edition build, so quantities are limited. Although that hasn’t seemed to effect anyone yet, cuz people still aren’t rushing out to buy them. (Laughs) But they are very expensive, and they are a high class guitar. Not something that many people are going to want.
ASHLEY: I should have asked you this when you were talking about the Dirty Laundry box set, but I was wondering if you can try to explain what it was that made your songwriting style change so drastically between Dirty Laundry and Numbers On Napkins. When you were writing songs in Dirty Laundry, they were funny, or just not super intense and put together as well. The stuff you wrote with Numbers On Napkins is totally different. In a good way, or that’s what I think at least. But it was a big change in your overall songwriting style, and I was wondering if that was because you had just matured as a songwriter and became better, or if you chose to write songs that were more personal to you, or whatever (Laughs) Sorry, I know that’s probably a weird question and I didn’t ask it quite right.
STAIN: (Laughs) No, I get it, and it’s a good question. At least I think it is. I honestly think that it’s mostly because of the fact that I had just grown as a musician, but I also think that there are a few other things that factor into it. For starters, when we started Numbers On Napkins, we wanted to write music that was simple, and not too complex. That way anyone who liked a song could easily pick up a guitar and play it by ear with little effort. Dirty Laundry had a ton of simple songs, but we also had some more complex songs, with several changes and just a lot going on at times. I focused a lot on writing the music in Dirty Laundry, and when I was in NON, I focused way more on the lyrics because the music was usually pretty simple. It also had to do with my personal life at the times between Dirty Laundry and Numbers On Napkins. When I was in NON, I found myself inspired by the friends around me, and I wrote about different things going on in their lives. I also poured my heart and soul into the lyrics I wrote about my personal life during that time. I didn’t have a journal or diary, I had my music. So if anyone wants to know more about me, they can listen to the songs that I wrote during that time period of my life and they can get a feel about what I was going through.
ASHLEY: You have a lot of love songs, and after talking a bit earlier, you had an almost abrasive attitude about love. How much has love and being in love inspired your songwriting?
STAIN: A lot. Yeah, love has inspired me a lot with my songs. Although I’ve always found it very hard to write a song about love when I’m actually in love. (Laughs) I find true inspiration when I’ve had my heart broke, or when I’m in love with someone and they don’t feel the same way. I don’t know. That’s just when the words seem to jump out at me. Like when I was in Dirty Laundry, I was in love with this girl Cara, and we dated for almost four years, but I could never write decent lyrics about being in love with her. But when she dumped me after two and a half years, I had no problem writing songs about it. Then when we got back together, the inspiration was gone again. (Laughs) When she dumped me again, the inspiration came back. I think it’s just easier to write when you’re in pain. That’s why so many bands have an amazing first album, because they are having a shit ton of problems and crap in their lives. Then, they become successful and happy, and usually their music suffers from it.
ASHLEY: Now you’ve been married twice, right?
STAIN: Yeah.
ASHLEY: So how did your marriage and divorce effect your songwriting? STAIN: Well the first time I got married I was still in Dirty Laundry, but we were going through a tough period and our drummer Ryan had left the band to pursue college. Brandon actually became our new drummer, or should I say B-Hound became our drummer. (Laughs) B-Hound was the former guitarist and actually the main frontman and songwriter for the band early on. We had pretty much broke up by the time that I got married. After Amy divorced me, I started up Dirty Laundry again, but with a totally new lineup.
ASHLEY: And Amy was the name of your first wife?
STAIN: And second.
ASHLEY: Huh?
STAIN: Amy was the name of my first wife, and second wife.