Walter Schreifels of New York’s fine rock group, Rival Schools, really surprised us. For those not in “the know”, Walter has been in tons of bands including: Gorilla Biscuits, Quicksand, Youth Of Today etc. etc. When Aaron and Travis encountered him after his newest band, Rivals Schools, rocked the El Rey, he kicked the interview off by screaming the old Project X song “Dance Floor Justice” into our mic, and then proclaimed it as, “one of the hardest jams I’ve ever written· sick breakdown part dude”. In Tom’s encounter, he found Walter equally interested in gash and local L.A. gay hardcore heroes Gayrilla Biscuits. In all our dealings with Walter though, the conclusion was the same: Walter is one of the coolest and most down to earth guys we’ve ever interviewed, and Rival Schools rocks.
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Interview by Aaron Icarus, Tom Apostolopoulos, and Travis Keller. Photo by somebody who got paid by their label. Yeah we know, using press shots is lame but we were lazy this month.
Buddyhead: Let’s start this thing. There are a lot of chicks at your shows now. You’re not married or anything right?
Walter: No, I’m not married.
Buddyhead: You must be getting gash by the second. Mad “trap” brah.
Walter: I don’t know man, not that much. I guess I’ve been so busy with the music and getting into that, I haven’t gotten into the gash yet.
Buddyhead: Don’t you know what the purpose of music is?
Walter: Oh yeah, it’s to get gash, but what I’m saying is that I’m building it. I don’t want to jump into the gash the first chance I get. I want to make sure there’s a gigantic vagina to dive my whole body into, and there’s no way I can miss.
Buddyhead: I think you’re influenced by Gayrilla Biscuits a bit too much.
Walter: Yeah, I’m overcompensating right now.
Buddyhead: Let’s go way back. Tell us first off, when you decided you didn’t just want to play guitar in a band anymore, and you wanted to sing as well.
Walter: In Gorilla Biscuits, I just got tired of showing Civ how to sing the songs. If I was going to go through the struggle of showing him how to do it, I might as well have just done it myself. Not that I don’t appreciate the work Civ did, which is why I collaborated on the Civ record. It was nice to be the behind the scenes guy in Civ, cos if it sucked I wouldn’t be blamed for it. It wasn’t called WALTER. I really like the first Civ record. I don’t know about the second one, I didn’t write that one.
Buddyhead: Of the 2 Quicksand albums, which do you prefer?
Walter: I like the songs on the second one better cos I was reacting to the first album which I thought was maybe sort of a “sell out”. But on the first album, the songs that hinted at the really “dreamy” British stuff I was into at the time, I really appreciate those. That album was a really big struggle.
Buddyhead: You talked before about starting Quicksand, cos in some way you were over the whole “straight edge hardcore” scene or whatever, explain.
Walter: I just think the “scene” became a parody. It was too satirical. It became too easy to pinpoint. I thought Sonic Youth was cool, I thought My Bloody Valentine was cool, and the “scene” was stale. The reason I’m a musician is because I’m into music on so many different levels, and I thought that “scene” had been great, you know, early Bad Brains, Cro Mags, whatever, but it was just so past its prime by that point. Quicksand was about moving forward and doing something different.
Buddyhead: So tell us what happened after Quicksand with Worlds Fastest Car. Tell us how that band ended and how Rival Schools began.
Walter: Well, Worlds Fastest Car was kind of an ambitious idea, but I never really got the guys together to make it happen. I can’t really blame the people that I was playing with, because I didn’t really put everything into it to make it happen. So it ended up being a lot of demos, and we played one tour in Japan, which was fucking awesome. I remember we played one show in the U.S. in Philadelphia, and it was like the fucking worst show you can ever fucking imagine. It was so bad in the way that, we could not physically play the songs. We were so bad. It really turned my head inside out, because I can play fucking songs, ya know? I mean I have good songs, bad songs, etc. But I can play a fucking guitar and sing, and all of the sudden I wasn’t able to do that. And that really kind of fucked me up mentally. I had to replace dudes. All different sorts of fucked up characters. So basically it didn’t work out. So there was this point where I was like, “fuck dude, I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing, I’m playing with too many different people, etc.” So it got to where people were saying, “why don’t you just get Quicksand back together, everybody loves Quicksand, it’ll be wonderful”. So the Deftones asked us to go on tour, and that was even more enticement. So I was like, “o.k., let’s try this”, and I started to feel like all of the sudden I’m twenty-something years old and I feel like I’m an oldies show. It didn’t feel cool. I felt like, “wow, this is cool that people appreciate it, but I don’t feel driven and that’s wack”. Because, if I do something, I feel like even if it sucks, I hope it sucks really fucking bad and offensively in a way that I want it to suck. I want to feel what I’m doing, and feel vital. So after that Deftones tour, I was like, “Dude, I love being on tour, but this isn’t a positive situation.” So I took it from there, and started at grass roots. I didn’t have anyone to play with, and at the time Civ was deteriorating so I played with Sam because we were at the same rehearsal space. We played for months just him and I. Then I built a little confidence to get Cache involved. We played for a while and then it was like “Wizard of Oz”, the next dude is there, and now we have this team and we started to write some songs. Some of the songs we played tonight, we had written then. We’ve written almost two albums full of shit. It’s just been like, from that path in Worlds Fastest Car when I felt like I understood everything about music, and that I knew exactly what I was doing, to being like, “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing”, to now getting back to roots shit· finding chemistry, finding inspiration. To write a song with lyrics is intense, because you have to sing it, and it has to be good. When this album was finished, I was like, “maybe this album sucks, I don’t know.” I have no idea, but I tried my fucking hardest and this is what I got. That’s the shortest version of it.
Buddyhead: I’ve heard newer Quicksand recordings that never came out, what was that about?
Walter: Well, we did that Deftones tour, and did a recording session as well, and it was just dark man. It was just not where I wanted to be. I saw a recent video tape that was taken on that tour, and I look like I’m a hundred years old.
Buddyhead: What is Rival Schools about?
Walter: This band is way more personal than previous ones. I’m a grown man now.
Buddyhead: How old are you now?
Walter: I’m 33. I’ve been through a lot of shit. Quicksand was more personal, like ripping through on a psychological level, heady, more cynicism to it. Gorilla Biscuits was more positive, almost like a “self help” kind of thing. I think this band is a little bit of both, somewhere in the middle.
Buddyhead: It seems like you went from being in bands because you’re driven and inspired, to being in bands because “oh Walter should be in a band”…
Walter: I didn’t know, it got to the point where I was like, “I started when I was 16 and now I’m in my 20′s, is this what I am? Am I a guy in a band?” I thought that I was going to do this for a while and then become a school teacher, and now all of the sudden I’m in my mid 20′s, and it’s like, “who am I?” It took me a little while to say, “this is what I am, I’m a creative person, and I’m not going to stop until I have to.”
Buddyhead: Because you spoke about chemistry before, let me ask you this: Have the different musicians you’ve played with affected your writing at all?
Walter: Absolutely. In this group quite a bit, Quicksand as well. Gorilla Biscuits was really just kind of “my show”, which was awesome because everyone was down with that. In Quicksand, I was kind of the dictator of the band. There was always this dynamic of me telling everyone what to do, and so I was always trying to force that. Of course I would always let the people shine, because I would recognize their ability, but I would work really hard to control it. In this band I’ve worked hard to not control. I’ve worked hard to let people go as far as they can, unless they are fucking up the central theme of the music. Basically, I want these dudes to be awesome and feel awesome. They are really good players, so they inspire me in return.
Buddyhead: How have your goals changed from band to band, like your final point of destination, with regards to how far you want to take it and the means necessary.
Walter: It’s been for me kind of what’s right there in front of my face. I think about it now more, because I’m older and I go to therapy and stuff. I think, “why do I do what I do, and where am I at”. I think through music I figure shit out. I get through situations. With this band, I just needed to create something that was real and tangible. So I put every bit of energy I had into that, and even when I felt that we suck, the show sucked, I suck, my songs suck, we’re terrible, etc., I never quit. Finishing the record was my goal. Having the record come out was my next goal. Getting through this show tonight was my most recent goal. I’m looking forward to a time when I’m not even thinking about it. I would like this record to sell like a million records, but that’s also going to freak me out, because if I sell a million records my life is going to be really different, and I’m kind of afraid of that. So, I’m going with it, but I try not to think about it one way or the other. If it fails, whatever. If it succeeds, I have to be careful to keep my head on straight, because you look at some people who succeed and some people are awesome and some people freak out.
Buddyhead: Just do the drugs.
Walter: That’s what I’m saying, I’m not getting into the gash right now. That’s a little bit later.
Buddyhead: Yeah, it gets to the point where all the snatch is like, the same.
Walter: Exactly, when you’re like in the Eddie Murphy category and you’ve fucked like every girl that you can possibly get with, you just start going with men and transvestites because you’re just sick of hot women. You start having sex with women who you don’t even find attractive. You just bug out.
Buddyhead: Ehhh, right, right. One thing that we noticed tonight is how happy and at ease you look on stage. The whole vibe is so much more upbeat than bands that people are used to seeing you in.
Walter: There’s always a dark side to my character I guess. I think Rival Schools is way more like Gorilla Biscuits than Quicksand, and there is a certain consciousness to that. Gorilla Biscuits was like embracing community and hopefulness, while Quicksand was like going through the darkness within myself. I got into Bob Dylan recently, and I think that Bob Dylan is one of the best lyricists ever. His shit is dark and cutting, and he’s this cynical guy, and I think that Quicksand was a lot like that in some sense. So with this band I was like, “what can I provide people with?”, and the answer is: a good time. The song that we wrote “Good Things” is borderline ridiculous, in terms of everything being possible, just pick yourself up, etc. And that in its essence is as corny as it is true.
Buddyhead: Do you ever think about what Quicksand “could have been” if you’d stuck it out longer or approached it slightly differently?
Walter: I always thought Quicksand was doomed to fail. I thought that it was always going to be good etc., but that we’d never succeed in that way. Quicksand never got a piece in Spin or on the cover of CMJ, and I don’t think this band will either. I don’t care. I have three other guys that I love, and we talk, and we’re sort of “adults” and that’s cool, and it’s going to get me through this. Because for example, like tonight, I felt like we kind of sucked, but when I looked over at one of the other guys, he smiled at me. It was like, “who gives a shit, we’re at Maxwells, and people are out here having fun.”
Buddyhead: You definitely seem a lot more comfortable on stage. Even when we were fucking with you up there, you just kind of laughed it off.
Walter: I feel like it’s more my trip now. With Rival Schools, I feel like these people out there are my friends. If you’re in the room, you’re my friend. So I should feel comfortable with my friends, and they’re going to forgive me if I’m bad or I suck. So if someone yells something at me, I know they mean it out of jest or out of love. And if they mean it in a bad way, well I don’t care.
Buddyhead: So let’s actually talk about the band, and who’s in it, etc.
Walter: Sam is the first guy that was in it. I met Sam when he was 12 years old. He had a skinhead earring, a Circle Jerks jacket, and combat boots. I’ve known him forever. He played drums for Judge, Youth of Today, and he played with Gorilla Biscuits, but we kicked him out. Ha ha. He forgave me. He was in Civ, and I was in the Civ thing. Cache, I saw him playing stand up bass when Quicksand played with Iceburn years ago. He was a little kid with a surfer cut, and he made an impression on me…
(Interrupted by 2 girls who knock on the window smiling and asking if we want to get stoned)
Walter: Do you guys know them?
Buddyhead: No dude, that’s all you.
Walter: No, you guys know them right?
Buddyhead: No dude… that’s your gash. They want to bang you.
Walter: Dude, they’re hot. Wow. Fuck, I’m losing my train of thought here…
Buddyhead: Fuck, we can talk about gash instead if you really want. Oh, no, we should talk about the new record shouldn’t we? Island might get pissed if we don’t. Why are you still on Island, didn’t they drop everyone?
Walter: Island has held onto my contract since Quicksand broke up. I don’t know why, but they did.
Buddyhead: Are you happy on Island?
Walter: Well, at first, I really felt strangled by being on a major. You can’t just put out a single and test the waters, there is this intense element to it. Another thing is the music business has changed. When I first got signed, bands like Nirvana and Sonic Youth could sell a million records. Now they don’t take chances. They’re very tight with creative control. So there’s that constant fight and it gets tiring.
Buddyhead: Did you feel that on this record?
Walter: Yeah, absolutely.
Buddyhead: In what sense?
Walter: In the sense of, “how would I like to do it if it was all up to me?”
Buddyhead: It wasn’t all up to you in the end though?
Walter: Every aspect of it wasn’t up to me. There’s a discussion starting with your band, and then there is a group of people working on it, and it’s a big fucking company, and it’s like, if we’re the three of us working together, and I talk to you about it and we agree on this, then it’s like “cool, you do this, I’ll do this”. With this, working with a large label, you start to feel like, “fuck I don’t want to listen to these dicks, what if I’m not into it?” It’s all part of the struggle. At first I felt like, fuck it, I’d rather do this myself, because this is a lot of hoops to run through. But the reality of it is the rewards are worth it, because now we’re going on tour in a bus, people at the record label are really excited to do this record, they’re excited about it etc. I mean, people who work at record labels work there because they love music, so they’re psyched.
Buddyhead: Did you get that thing where the labels say, “Well it’s up to you how to do this record, but we don’t really like it”? Do you feel the pressure of being able to do what you want, but the label not supporting it in the end?
Walter: There’s politics to be played, but I have to say that I’ve been on this label forever, and they’re really good right now. I kind of had to go to that place during the recording of this record where I said, “I don’t know everything, and maybe I should listen more to people, and get their opinion, and have more openness to that synergy.” I’m never going to do something that I feel stupid doing. I have this super power to throw a wrench into some programs. If I don’t like something, I can make sure everything comes to a halt. But we got through it. I mean, they record albums on computers now. I didn’t know about that shit. All that shit was like, “alright, you want to record it on a computer, it’s your money, I’m going to do my thing. I’ll sing and play guitar and we’ll take it from there.” In the end, what comes through is the spirit of the thing. I think people with music, the spirit that you put into that, the closer it is to who you are as a person and your finer qualities, like if I’m funny, and I can play guitar kind of funny and make that humor come through, then that’s fucking amazing, and that’s fucking real. The closer it is to who you are as a person, the better it is. A great song is about spirit. It seems like people who really are music listeners are complaining about that these days.
Buddyhead: Totally. It seems like that’s the case in so many genres right now, where there are a lot of bands that sound alike, but the one band that is the standout is the one with the aura of being real and honest.
Walter: Exactly, that’s what I’m saying. When I was doing everything, I was really trying to hold on to that, and this is all a real struggle to me. Like tonight was a real struggle to me. I was like, “dude, I don’t know the next fucking chord in this song, I feel like a fucking asshole. The president of my label is in the room, and I don’t know the chord to my song, and he’s paying for my fucking tour bus.” I felt like, “I just gotta get through this”.
Buddyhead: What do you think about the state of music currently, and where this is all heading?
Walter: Well, I look back on the Gorilla Biscuits days as “The shit”. When that was happening in New York, and hip-hop was happening at the same time, and Sonic Youth was happening. The late 80′s in New York was on fucking fire. It was insane. That time was dope, but that time was also when, if you watched MTV where everything was wack, but if you looked in the underground world, there was shit going on that was great, and you could be intimate with it. There wasn’t even the internet, just fanzines, so if you found that shit, it was like “dude cool, I’m different”. Then the Nirvana time was awesome, because they blew shit open, and any friend of yours could be like the next famous dude. I think now it’s sort of back to the “Warrant days”. (some road crew guy interrupts) Sorry, Neil what’s up?
Neil: blah blah
Walter: I’ll be ready in like 10 minutes dude.
Buddyhead: Is that the bus driver or the masseuse?
Walter: That dude is like, “the man”. He’s amazing. He’s going to come out on this tour. Speaking of Gayrilla Biscuits, he’s begging dude.
Buddyhead: Begging for cock?
Walter: I’m worried that he’s begging for mine. You could tell how he looked at me, but I don’t want him to get with me, I want him to get with someone else. I love him dude.
Buddyhead: You dudes are going to bang.
Walter: So anyway, I think that now, and maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but I feel like people in their early 20′s are feeling ripped off· that their pop culture is really easy to figure out. There’s no substance at all.
Buddyhead: I think the industry knows that too, they just have to keep the money coming in.
Walter: Totally. There’s a target and as long as that target keeps coming up with a million in sales, then they’ll keep at it.
(at this point the bus driver/masseuse guy comes back)
Buddyhead: Hey dude, Sebastian wants you.
Walter: Sebastian? Oh Neil. Dude, you just gayified his name so much. (haha)
Buddyhead: Are you scared of Gayrilla Biscuits?
Walter: I just think it’s cool…
Buddyhead: …to be gay?!
Walter: Well, yeah, if you’re gay it’s the best thing in the whole world. If you’re gay, you’re psyched because, well…
Buddyhead: …dudes just want to bang?
Walter: Exactly.
