Putting the "Fun" Back in Funeral by Mikey Fiend

"The Independents is a unique, original, exciting, infectious, possessed band. They put the "fun" back in funeral. Great songs, punk meets ska meets surf meets the Ramones, with a touch of Elvis. They hail from "Hell" Florence, South Carolina. There is nobody like them!" - Joey Ramone

Formed in the early '90s by Evil Presly and Willy B, The Independents were born out of the frustration of music being stereotyped and just plain boring. Loving all types of music, from ska to country to punk to surf, they wanted a unique musical style. Both Presly and Willy B loved horror and sci-fi movies, and wanted to find some way include it in their music. Thus, the horror-ska genre was born.

The core group is vocalist Evil Presly, guitarist Willy B and keyboard/guitarist Blackie Levay. They've had a constant rotation of bassists and drummers over the year. Tampa's own Craig Huffman (formerly with Awake, Nasty Savage and Gardy-Loo!) took over the drumming duties for a spell. The band refers to him fondly as "Moe." Currently, Ed Hunter is drumming and Brad "Showbiz" Dahmer is taking on the bass duties.

The Independents last ventured through Florida in January of 2002 and we were lucky enough to catch up with them at New World Brewery in Ybor City.

TooSquare: You guys seem to visit Tampa quite regularly. Why is that?

Evil: We always have the best time when we come down here.

Willy: Ben Myer

Evil: Ben Myer set up our first show here at the Brass Slug. Ever since then we've always had good turn-outs, good friends, and always getting' wasted and crazy parties. I can get fucked up and pass out and puke in that fountain and I know somebody in this town is gonna pick me up and take me home and make sure I'm taken care of tonight.

Willy: This town rules.

Evil: We love Tampa. You got some of the best fuckin' people here. If it weren't so hot and humid we'd probably live here.

TooSquare: Any crazy touring stories you'd like to share?

Blackie: Absolutely not. Well, last Friday in Tampa this guy puked backstage.

Willy: Basically, this guy puked in a beer can and it went through the hole and it filtered out so there was nothing left but little chunks of meat.

Evil: Explain what the chunks looked like.

Willy: There were dark brown chunks of meat.

Evil: Tell him about the breast milk.

Willy: Not to mention any names but this certain someone just had a baby and this certain someone wanted to taste it.

Evil: She was hot.

Willy: So this certain someone drank a shot glass full.

Blackie: This girl's husband milked her breast into a shot glass so that Evil could take a shot of her breast milk. That was classic. That's a good touring story.

Evil: But I didn't do it, so Blackie's full of shit. Everybody took some breast milk the other day.

Willy: And it tasted good.

TooSquare: What are the best and worst shows you've ever played?
Evil: Oh, talk shit about other bands. OK.

TooSquare: All right, how about the best bands you've played with.

Evil: Ramones, Cheap Trick …

Willy: Cheap Trick was a good one.

Evil: I like Rancid, Misfits, The Queers.

Willy: The Queers, definitely.

Evil: In our 10 years we've played with thousands of bands. We've already done over 2000 shows.

Willy: The first time we were here in Tampa was '91 or '92 and we've been comin' back at least twice a year since then.

TooSquare: Tell us how great your new album, Back From The Grave, is.

Evil: I think it's the best album we've ever done because Joey Ramone produced it and sang on it. The fact that he was a part of it. I think we are capable of doing a hell of a lot better now. But at the time that was the best we could do and just the fact the Joey had something to do with it is a blessing from God.

TooSquare: How is Daniel Rey to work with?

Evil: He's amazing. He's such a sweet, really cool, down-to-earth guy. He knows what a band wants. He's strict. He knows what he wants too. He's a fuckin' great guy. And if anyone ever has the chance to work with him, work with him. He's fuckin' amazing. Luckily, we had Joey behind us because it's so hard to get him (Rey). He wants to do our next album and we'd be honored to have him do it with us. Last time we were so awe-struck that we let him and Joey just take over.

Willy: But he's cool enough that he's not like overbearing. He just kinda hangs out with everybody. He'll drink beers with you.

Evil: He's like one of us.

Willy: He talks to us like we're talking to you right now. Bullshittin', drinking and getting fucked up.

Evil: We playing in Las Vegas the same night that Frank Sinatra died and Daniel flew out to do sound for us. Joey flew him out and he came out and that motherfucker was winning so much money.
Every time I turned around his machine was ringing and he'd give us money to get away from him.

TooSquare: What's the story behind the band's name?

Evil: Well, it's very simple. There were five of us at the time, it was 1992.

Willy: 1991.

Evil: 1991. And everybody in the band was um ... Will is just Will. Will's always been Will. Will's not into any scene. He's just Will. We had a drummer who was really into English gutter punk.

Willy: Blank 77. Stiff Little Fingers.

Evil: He was really into English punk. We had a bass player named Maggot. He was the first Nazi Japanese Skinhead I ever met.

TooSquare: First? You've met others?

Evil: He's the only one. He's a Japanese guy that liked to wear a big ol' swastika just to piss people off.

Willy: Just to be mean to people.

Evil: Just to be a dick. Half Japanese and half American. He just wanted to play and get rowdy. He was on bass. Our keyboard player was this guy, Danny-o. He was a really into ...

Willy: Gothic.

Evil: Gothic stuff; and there was me and I was into Misfits and punk and metal and stuff and Will was into metal too but a different scene.

Willy: We were all independent from each other but together in this band, so the Independents.

TooSquare: Have you ever been mistaken for the 1970s R&B band, Independents?

Evil: Yes. Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Willy: We're playing this show in Grand Rapids, Mich., in a trashy, punk-rock-as-hell coffee shop in the bottom of an abandoned building. They just had the electricity turned on for the bottom half of the building. This older black couple showed up. All dressed up in their best '70s attire. They were there to see the Independents.

Evil: They were so outta place. We were playing in a squatter punk hotel.

Willy: It was great. Wilmington too, recently.

Evil: Oh yeah.

Willy: That old black lady in a wheelchair.

Evil: I felt bad for her because it was a downstairs basement club and she had such a hard time getting down there. She was waiting all night for us to go on because she thought we were the other band.

Willy: Did she stick around for the show?

Evil: Hell no! She got outta there as fast as she could.

TooSquare: If the independents could be remembered for only one thing, what would you like that to be?

Evil: That's a good one.

Willy: Playing the Blue Chair in Ybor with a naked dude. This naked dude rolls on the stage and his dick plops on my distortion pedal. It was time to go to a distorted part, I'm sorry man. I had to smash it. Smash it in there, man.

Evil: That was good.

Some guy: That's how you guys want to be remembered?

Evil: No, but that's a good story.

Blackie: I'd say for not following any kind of particular trends. For being able to incorporate all our favorite types of music and pull it off.

Evil: To be ourselves.

TooSquare: You seem to go through drummers and bassists. Why is that?

Evil: We want the best. We're bustin' our ass out here. We're three of the most down-to-earth people you'll ever meet. We love playing. That's all we wanna do.

TooSquare: So they can't keep up with you?

Evil: Either they can't play, or they have big egos, or they get girlfriends, ghoulfriends, whatever.

Blackie: Some of them wanna come along for a free ride.

Evil: They take advantage and make us look bad. We just wanna play and have a good time. That's all we wanna do. Go out and make a living doing what we wanna do. These other guys come out and take advantage of us and are assholes to people and we won't stand for it, so we get rid of them. I have no problem with people leaving to get married or have kids. Our old drummer, Moe, left for that and a bass player did that too. And we're still friends. That's totally cool.

TooSquare: Who is the smelliest Independent of them all?

Evil: Willy B.

Blackie: Currently or past?

Willy: Moe was the stinkiest Independent that ever existed. Put it this way, when we had our van stolen in NYC, they found our van and said it had been doused with gasoline on the inside and it smelled like they were trying to burn it. Well, when Evil opened the van, the thing he smelled first was Moe.

TooSquare: What past or present artist would you most like to play a show with?

Evil: Elvis.

Willy: Black Sabbath.

Everybody almost in unison: Joey Ramone.

TooSquare: What's in your CD/tape player right now?

Evil: The Cult's Beyond Good And Evil, that's a really ... that's my favorite album this year that I've heard.

Willy: Bob Rock produced it. Good, good record.

Blackie: Right now everybody complains how there's so many Limp Bizkits and fuckin' Korn sound-alike bands and nobody's playing rock 'n' roll anymore. That Cult album is the most rock 'n' roll album of the last five years.

Evil: That's a great fuckin' record.

Mysterious Voice: Ian, call us for the next tour.

The interview ended abruptly when everyone realized we were out of beer. The band got a few more pints and went to play their set. The energy this band puts out is incredible. These guys have fun. The crowd has fun. It's nearly impossible to have a bad time at an Independents show.
These guys live to tour. With over 2,000 shows behind them they show no signs of slowing down. They show up, play hard, drink hard, have fun, and then move on to the next show. As for the aftermath, Willy B says, "If your toilet ain't been flushed and your girlfriend's pregnant, I'm sorry."