INTERVIEW: Yuppie Pricks

Questions answered by Nigel Smythen-Wesson (drums) and Ricky the Intern (bass) of The Yuppie Pricks. 

1)      What do you want people to hear most when they hear your music?

Nigel:  Me.

Ricky:  Their own squalid existence compared to ours.

2)      Having music on Band Camp, along with other such platforms in music right now such as Sound Cloud, Spotify and others, do you feel that music is moving into a virtual age?  Personally, I fully support the idea of downloading songs for free from Band Camp and then if I like them buying them on vinyl.

Nigel:  I would prefer to siphon every single cent from our audience by encouraging them to purchase our music in as many musical formats as possible, from as many sources as possible.

Ricky:  Band Camp?   Whatever that is…  we already have your money, and we will be getting much more of it soon enough.

3)      How important of a factor do you feel that record labels play in music these days when pretty much anyone can put their music on the internet as opposed to having to hand out demo tapes at shows, the distribution record labels can offer, etc.   It just seems like it’s a bit easier these days to succeed as a band- and even build up a strong fan base- before a label possibly comes calling for you.

Nigel:  There will always be the need for cross-collateralization.

Ricky:  We are not here to “succeed as a band”… we are here to show the world why people like us will always be rich, and everyone else will always be poor.

4)      If you could tour with any single band or musician who would you pick and why?

Nigel:  A 3-D hologram of The New Kids on the Block. Why you ask? It would be an awesome waste of someone else's time and money.

Ricky:  I would hire whoever is popular with the ‘kids’ nowdays.  But by no means are they to play any music.  They’re just there to bring us drinks, clean the wet spots left by super-models from our bedsheets, and fetch groupies for the road crew.  Skrillex, perhaps?  Yes. That would  please us.

5)      Who is your favorite New Kid on the Block?

Nigel:  The one with the least talent.

Ricky:  Have any of them died? If so, that one.

6)      Who would win in a musical fight: Jack Black or Jack White?

Nigel:  I think you're asking the wrong question… A more interesting question would be who, at their peak, would have won a fight:  Don Arden [manager of Black Sabbath and Sharon Osbourne’s father] or Peter Grant [manager of Led Zeppelin]?

Ricky:  Whichever one is ACTUALLY white.  And I’m not just saying that because my grandfather sold airplane engines to the Nazis.