Lars Frederiksen.

"You can't con me, I'm a fuckin' con man..."

LARS IS ONE OF THE MOST SINCERE PEOPLE I've met. Where most will say "I'll give you a call," just to be polite, surprisingly, Lars actually calls.

Eben Sterling

Who are the Bastards?

It was Tim's idea for me to do this. We wrote songs in Rancid together, so for him to bestow his abilities and his talents to this was really fuckin' cool for me. I'm not only in Rancid, I'm a fan of Rancid. The Bastards are: Scott Ables, the drummer for Hep Cat--Rancid is a family and it's all filled with nepotism, so Scott was Brett Reed's drum guy; then I've got Big Jay Bastard on bass. He's about 6'5", 275 lbs--big mother fucker--he's Matt and Tim's guitar guy. So I pretty much just had to look behind me to get the rhythm section. Then the unknown bastard is this kid from Campbell, this old skunx kid. He wears a ski mask and sings background. And Craig who plays in a band, the Forgotten, from Campbell. He's a skunx kid and he's playing second guitar. We call him "Craig Forgotten" because he plays in the Forgotten, and the other thing is, we kinda forgot to put him on the record.

Did you write all the lyrics and Tim helped out with the music?

We did everything--he'd bring in music, I'd bring in music. We really spent a lot of time working on the songs. We didn't just churn shit out. Once we had everything done and nearly completed we said "Fuck it, let's just go record."

How did that differ from doing a Rancid record?

That's the thing, it really doesn't. We're like a family and it is that family environment that I always looked for as a kid. I joined gangs to kinda find it; I ripped off people to find it and fill that gap. When I finally got into this band I felt at ease 'cause I had this unconditional friendship, unconditional acceptance, and unconditional love from those guys. I finally felt like I belonged. It was not that different 'cause I had my best friend, he's producing my record, it's on his label; it's kinda like this in-house sorta thing, so it's really just an extension of Rancid.

How is it you became so prolific with the song writing?

It's just a natural thing to do, it seems. We don't know anything else. Punk rock's my fuckin' life. It's like the color of my skin, it's my race; it's what I know. We couldn't try to be Boyz II Men, not with tattoos on our faces. I think it attests to the family environment we have. We just love being together. We've been through so much shit; most bands would break up after all the shit we've gone through together. We have that bond. We all come from working class families. None of us went to college or had any other aspirations. We're passionate about what we do and that's important, it helps that creative process. There's lots of time and dedication involved in writing.

There's no substitute for passion in the recipe for success Those who love and live music put out the best records, just like true skateboarders are go to head the best company. People that just want to jump in and tap the market--you see it a mile away.

That brings in an interesting point: One of the reasons I take pride, in our longevity is because we've been independent artist throughout the Whole fuckin' thing. We never signed Some big fuckin' corporate major rock deal. Major labels just keep Putting out that Velveeta cheese that's all processed and tastes the same, looks the same, and it's just shit. It's funny 'cause it's almost like a big fuckin' con, but don't con me. You can't con me, I'm a fuckin' con man. Whether it's watching bands or playing our show or going to the supermarket kids come up to me and say, "Man we're a band and we're never going to sign with a major label 'cause of what you guys did." If kids come up to me and Say that, then you know you're doing something cool. We're punk rockers, this is what we do, and this is the only way we know how to do it. There's only a handful of bands that can say that. If you're feelin' like you're pissed off at the world you're gonna be pissed off. And I know 29 years of being pissed off at the world . That's Where the inspiration comes from.