“We’re not trying to do things normally. We’re not a normal band,” says No Age singer-drummer Dean Spunt. That’s certainly true. After all, would a normal band issue its latest album (“Nouns”) with a 68-page full-color book of photos and art pieces? Would a normal band say one of its best gigs ever was at a school for the deaf? Would a normal band spend its downtime giving swimming lessons to kids?
No Age has done all of those things, while making some of the most exciting music around—a combination of Sonic Youth-style dissonance and driving punk with melodies strong enough to make Green Day, um, green with envy.
We talked with Spunt about the vegan shoe empire he plans to launch and why monetary compensation is not important for the group.
You've said No Age is more than a band but an umbrella for all kinds of art projects. What do you mean?
I mean that we play music and do other things beyond music that we think are interesting and can put the No Age name on, like art and food.
So you might pull a Paul Newman and create a No Age salad dressing?
We might. We’ve had No Age vegan food parties. Maybe we’ll make a salad dressing or a peanut sate sauce. We’re not a band, we’re a brand.
Isn’t being a brand a very commercial goal?
I never said it was commercial. You’re putting that connotation on it. But I don’t know what’s wrong with being commercial. We don’t have an attitude like that. If I say we’re a brand, I don’t think someone should assume that means a giant company. We do things ourselves. If I made salad dressing, I’d put it in the bottle and ship it to the health food store myself.
What are the No Age vegan food parties like?
We invite friends over, get the ingredients and make food for people. It’s free. We don’t like to charge for things. Now that we’re making shitloads of money, we give back to the community.
How do you do that?
We try to play free shows. Randy does community service at the YMCA and the YWCA. I put records out on my label PPM Records. That’s a form of community service. Randy was court-ordered to do his community service, but we still think it’s a positive thing for him to do. Actually, he’s done with the court-ordered service, but he still does it. He gives swimming lessons to kids at the YWCA.
If you don’t like to charge for things, why aren’t you giving away your music for free?
I give away CDs all the time. Sub Pop can’t give them away, but we can.
So, you hand out free CDs at shows?
No, we sell them at shows. I hate charging money, but when we’re spending money to tour we have to charge money. If I had it my way, we would play for free everywhere, but we wouldn’t have enough money to put gas in the tank. We’re trying to figure out how to play for free and not use gas.
Besides music, what other projects are you working on?
We’re making a documentary and we have an old car that we’re trying to make go back in time.
How’s that going?
Pretty good. We have the DeLorean already. Now, we’re looking for a flux capacitor. We always have a lot of little things going on. We built a skateboard ramp in our backyard. And we’re trying to make a No Age vegan shoe. It’ll probably fall apart after you wear it for a day or two.
You enjoy playing unusual venues. What's the weirdest place you ever played?
We played a school for the deaf. We played in a statue factory. We also played an Ethiopian restaurant. Those are the three weirdest. We’re playing Letterman in August, so that’ll replace the Ethiopian restaurant as the third weirdest one.
What was it like playing the school for the deaf?
That was awesome. The school had these cables hooked up to Randy’s amp and my drums so the kids could hear the music through the vibrations. They really enjoyed all the dynamics, whether it was stop-start or quiet-loud. We would do a whole tour of schools for the deaf if we could.
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