Original subtitles

it's okay that

records

is it it genuinely

is it's more than just a label that's putting out records you know it's it's

an ethics it's a it's it's a lifestyle it's you it's a family to be taken under

their wing was something that we knew is something special like to be a part of

an era of fat records and that's really cool you know it was good for us being

on fat because suddenly a lot of people thought we are so cool because fat mike

put us on his label that records is important because it puts out the best

quality punk rock that there is.

Finally,

I guess with Phat, there's a label that's not going to rip bands off.

I don't want to live in a world where there's no Phat Records.

I think other record labels could learn a lot by Phat because Phat actually gave

a shit.

You want to have those opportunities where you can work with people that you

respect, people that you love and admire.

You get those compilations and then everything rips on the whole thing and

you end up buying every one of those albums.

Yeah, I remember the comps too.

What was it called? Fat music for fat people.

And the drawing on it looked like pencil or something. These two fat people

partying. And when I put on the fat comps, it was just...

Banger after banger after banger. I mean track one on fat music for fat people

anti-manifesto Gandhi Introduced me my favorite band of all time

Doesn't

laugh at play Like nothing message we convey The synths are only here to

entertain A rebellion catafit Well I refuse to be the soundtrack to it

We entertain, we're still deep in shit We start with something more Than a

faded sticker on a skateboard Rain on your par, riddle around the door I don't

even care any fucking more

And we're so full of it.

Hey, neighbors.

My name is Fat Mike.

I play NoFX.

Please welcome NoFX.

Oh, that's not a hoodie. It looks like a sweatshirt. It is a sweatshirt.

Oh, no, you got, like, you got, you could, no, no.

Me first in the Gimme Gimmes.

Me first in the Gimme Gimmes, everybody.

I have a recording studio.

I had a political organization.

A group called Punk.

Voter is reaching out to the 20-somethings, setting up voter

registration booths. There is no balance here. Mike Burkett, better known as Fat

Mike to fans of his band NoFX, is a founder of Punk Voter.

I'm a father to two daughters.

I'm an avid golfer.

And I have a dungeon in L.A. where I spend a lot of time sleeping in a cage.

Well, the first punk I ever heard, I was in summer camp.

Joe here was on a war crew.

Joe who?

Joe Escalante, the vandal.

He was the only kid in the camp that was...

sufficiently curious about the punk rock music that I brought to the camp. And

then I went home, and I went to your record store, and I go, hi, I don't know

what this band's called, but they sing a song called Beat on the Brat with a

baseball bat. Do you have it? Fat Mike would come back around and say, let me

hear some of those songs again. Let me hear that Ramone song. Let me hear that

Beat on the Brat song again. What's this Sex Pistol stuff?

What can you tell us about the day you turned punk? Well, my friend said, you

want to go see a movie, or do you want to go see Killing Joke at the Whiskey?

I go, wait, you're at a punk show? I'm so happy, so proud.

Well, my experience with Fat Mike go back to when we were kids, and I met him

at a record swap somewhere in the Bay Area, and he had all these great

records. I was jealous because he had a lot of vinyl that I'd never even seen in

my entire life.

So at an early age, I already knew that Fat Mike was ahead of all of us with

business. I went to college in 85. I got out in 91, and my plan was to be a real

estate agent.

So I went to real estate school and got my real estate license.

And then there was a big bubble burst in the real estate market.

And I just, you know, decided to start touring with NoFX.

In the very beginning, NoFX was not good.

I don't know if you've seen the footage.

When Mike first sort of appeared on our radar He had embraced that spirit of

you don't have to be good. You just really have to like it when we were kids

we started a punk band in 83 and There was seriously there was absolutely

no hope of ever making a living or ever making any money playing punk rock

Well, I started putting out NoFX records in 87 because we had no other choice.

He had already had another record label before.

Colossal Wassil Records.

That's what he called it. I bought a record from him at a punk show.

This is in the 80s.

So I spent about $1,000 and recorded and put out 507 inches because no one else

wanted to put out our records.

So that's when I really started a record label.

I got my name Fat Mike because in 1986, I went on tour and I was skinny.

I was like 135.

And then I was in college and my dad gave me a food card. So I ate like two

dinners a night and I gained like 25 pounds that year. So in 87, when I went

on tour, everyone was like, everywhere we went, you put on some weight, didn't

you? You got a little fat, Mike.

And it was, so the band replaying the subculture just kept calling me Fat

Mike. I used the name Fat Records from, you know, so I'd have a little name

recognition. Oh, Fat Mike started a label, Fat Records.

How ingenious.

When he would come into Epitaph, when they were signed and he would come in

and we would just talk about business stuff and he'd be going out on tour and

you could just tell that he was absorbing everything.

I worked for Epitaph for like two weeks when I was going to college.

And they had no employees at the time. It was just Brett and Jay Bentley.

And I did shipping and got ads in magazines.

And I just saw how you could do everything and how it's really kind of

simple. He pretty much said like he was going to start a label.

And he had the advantage of learning everything that we had done wrong.

I think it was 90 when we were on Epitaph.

And I just thought, you know what, I should do this too.

Because I just heard Lag Wagon and we just played with proper Gandhi. I'm

like... I could do this.

My ex-wife and I, Aaron, first started

Phat Records.

It was me and her in an apartment, in a fax machine, in a closet.

In the very beginning, when Mike and I started the label, it was just a hobby,

and it was just for fun.

You know, I got my dad to help me with a $20,000 loan.

to be honest there wasn't a lot of thought put into it it was really just

we like these bands let's put them out and then we had no idea what the we were

doing like none i went to school for creative writing mike majored in

philosophy like we don't i don't know how to run a record label like in the

beginning it was just a joke we had no idea what we were doing you know the tax

machine would go off and get excited and we'd pack up orders and ship them and

when i'd go on tour for four months a year she would take care of all the

you know, the shipping and the mail order and everything.

And so he would get excited, as he tends to do, and say, let's do this. Oh, and

by the way, I booked a four-month tour. That's cool, right? You can handle it.

I mean, I had been touring, but I made $9,000 one year, the year I graduated

college, and I thought, $9,000? I can live off this.

Easy.

Hi, this is Toyota Kawasaki. We're standing backstage live with NoFX.

Starting Phat Records was just kind of a byproduct of touring. It just seemed

like, gee, I'm seeing a lot of good bands on tour. I should just put out

some records. It's cheap.

It just so happened that the first four or five bands I signed were really good.

No Use for Name, Propagandhi, Lagwagon, Good Riddance, Strung Out, Face to Face,

and NoFX.

Everybody was good.

And everybody sold a lot of records.

Everybody. No one is left behind.

Hey, this is our theme song.

It's about huffing. You guys are going to rock out to it, right?

This song is called Lagwagon.

The first band I signed to Phat was Lagwagon.

But you will lie today.

No more waiting.

Already here now.

How much honesty's healthy?

Say what's on your mind.

We'd been a band for a while here in this town, Goleta.

We'd made a few demos, I think three or four.

So we'd made our own cassettes and, you know, t-shirts, and we're trying to do

it our way, you know what I mean? I ended up moving up to the Bay Area and

living with my dad, and I was painting houses up there, and there was a show on

Haight Street in San Francisco one night at this club called The Nightbreak, and

I walked in and there was a couple guys that I knew from this band RKL talking

to Fat Mike, who I had met before, but...

Didn't really know. I knew he had just started this label, Phat Records, right

about that time.

And it occurred to me that I had this demo tape in the car, and I thought, you

know, I can be an opportunist here. Maybe I should give him a copy. And he

gave me a demo tape, and I was doing the dishes at my apartment, and I listened

to it, and I just really liked it. And I was certain that he would think it was

way too metal.

I thought it was too metal, and I called Joey and go, I want to sign you guys.

When we got signed is when it really started happening. There was a purpose.

You know, you had a product.

You had your art, your drugs or whatever you needed to sell to go push your stuff

around the world.

Not long after that, we were in a lot of conversations with him, and he was

telling us how bad our name was.

They were called Section 8 at the time, and I called Joey and go, I want to sign

you guys.

Let's change your name and put out a record.

We didn't want to change our name, but then we went on.

like a little run with no effects, and we kept running into bands called

Section 8. The kicker was one day we were in a record store or something,

somewhere on tour, and we saw this poster, and it was one of those NWA kind

of Compton hardcore rap bands.

These dudes looked like they didn't want to be messed with by a bunch of white

kids from Goleta, and it said Section 8, and that was kind of the...

the final straw.

So once he signed us and we had CDs to sell and t-shirts and a reason to go

out, we just pretty much stayed on tour for like four years.

Without trying to be weird, Joey is one of my favorite people on the planet.

And I'll just go ahead and say it, Lag Laggin' is my favorite band. And it has

nothing to do with the fact that they're on Phat Records. I mean, yes, that gives

me a great source of pride, but I just think they're fucking amazing.

And I have to keep calling you one.

And I forgot to bite my tongue.

It's my assumption.

You know, to be able to connect with a label that was just starting out when we

were just sort of starting out and getting our thing going and to grow.

with them and make the mistakes with them sometimes we laugh about some of

the business decisions you know you kind of think like god we didn't really even

have contracts and we didn't you know i mean it was all a handshake and just

very laid back which is still is that way actually yeah i i think when i see

the record label i just think that i'm very fortunate

He never really asked us to do anything that we didn't want to do. That's the

thing that I often say to people when they ask why we stayed on Phat for so

many years. I say, well, if you're on a great label and you grow with the label

and they don't ask you to change, they let you do what you want to do, period.

I'll never tell a band what to do, but I will give lots of advice.

And some bands like it and some bands fucking hate me because of it.

That's right.

Oh, he's for name.

Biggest sell on Phat Records, you know, do no effects.

I'm not who you want me to be.

Where did I go wrong?

I should have told you from the start. If I could bring so small amount of time

together, then we could make believe this world would never end.

89 or 90, I think we played a show with Lagwagon, Pennywise, NoFX, and us at

Gilman Street. And that would have been the first time that we actually met all

those bands.

There used to be a club in San Jose called the Cactus Club, and NoFX was

playing, and I remember No Use For Name was opening, and he said, I think I'm

going to sign this band.

One day, Mike says, hey, I'm starting a record label.

You guys want to do a record?

We said, yeah, sure, we'll do an album. And there was no papers to sign, and

there was definitely no money involved.

And it was just kind of Mike saying, you want to do a record?

Sure.

Really that easy. Nothing to it.

Probably two weeks later, we were in the studio for two weeks recording the Daily

Grind. And our recording experience was really good. And it was just kind of

cruise control with Fat Records. They really just kind of said, here you go.

Just keep moving forward, whatever you need.

No pressure ever. I don't think there's ever a moment where we were pressured or

talked into anything we didn't want to do because Mike was in a band. He knew

how hard it was.

CEO is not some guy that you see like once a year and he's

totally intimidating or anything like that. The guy is Fat Mike and we go

golfing with him.

Couldn't have been happier.

I love that. It's just everything that was happening at Phat at that point.

That period of the punk rock scene was the first time for me that I ever felt

current in punk rock.

NoFX started making records like The Longest Line and White Trash and stuff

like that. That was the first time that I ever connected to something that was

happening right then and there.

And that's what Phat Records...

world was to me it was like it was like i finally felt like you know i was going

to see all these bands that i loved as it was happening

i'm

very

nostalgic about that time of my life i mean i look back on my 20s as this time

when I lived in San Francisco. There was this amazing scene happening that I got

to be a part of. For the first time in my life, I was making records with

people who I loved.

And I didn't have to work a job. Like, I haven't had a job since then. You know

what I mean? Other than being a guitar player.

So it's like this golden time that just existed for a few years for me, you

know? I was in No Use for a Name for four and a half years.

And it was one of the greatest periods of my life. I remember one of my first

shows that I ever went to was a No Use for a Name show.

The band's up there and playing, and all of a sudden you see this object being

thrown, and all of a sudden it hits Tony, and he finished playing the song

and didn't miss a beat.

And then after the song, he went like this, and he had blood streaming down

his face and picked up this, like, metal object and tossed it aside and just kept

going. It just shows how much heart that these guys have.

Tony was a guy who had two daughters and was touring a lot and kind of going

through the same thing that I was going through. I could see this empathy that

we had for each other, kind of unspoken bond of being the dads on the road. It's

really hard for other people who don't have that to understand what that's

like. Man, I got my girls at home. I don't like leaving them, but I love

playing music. I love being out.

on stage and playing for our fans and things like that. It's tough to leave

your family, and you can hear that in a lot of his music. There's this

heartache, you know, there's a lot of minor chords and no use for a name and a

lot of songs about gray days and things like that. You can tell he's somewhere

by himself, probably in a bar having a drink, wishing he was home.

You listen to Tony's lyrics, you listen to his music, he definitely was, I

believe in my opinion, a step above the rest of his peers as far as a writer and

as far as a lyricist.

And his music really touched a lot of people's lives, and you see it more now

than ever since his passing.

I loved Tony Sly. Tony Sly, he was the best songwriter on Fat Rapids. Best

songwriter. Here's to Tony.

Learning about melody and songwriting, you know, I learned a lot from guys like

Tony Sly. Tony Sly, like, his stuff could have been on, you know, he could

have been on the cover of Rolling Stone.

You know, it's obviously tragic what happened to him, and his music will live

on for...

a long, long time.

So tomorrow we're going to have a cardboard cutout, a fat mic, and we're

going to ask people if they'd like to mosh with them.

But let's go talk to some kids.

I really think the first bands, Lagwagon, No Use for a Name, started the

sound, and then Propaganda came along, and that really changed everything.

That record, How to Clean Everything, couldn't be more proud of anything they

put out, lyrically and musically.

Wow.

At the

time,

I think I was pretty much influenced by Well, there was a lot of influence from

the NoFX Rib record. I thought that was a cool record, and I thought the Bad

Religion Suffer record was good.

And we recorded at the West Beach Studios, so it sort of had that kind of

sonic trademark.

So Propagandhi,

musically and lyrically, were just head and shoulders above everybody else.

At the time, nobody was singing lyrics like that. They were really so

progressive. And musically, no one could touch them. It was super intricate metal

chords, but super melodic melodies.

And I don't think anyone still touched them.

Outside of Winnipeg, nobody really knew who we were at all. We had done our own

work in Winnipeg to kind of, we did what we could.

We'd started playing some local shows in Winnipeg and we had kind of a lengthy

incubation period as a band like geographically we're just so far away

and Winnipeg's such an isolated city like a lot of those bands weren't really

making it up there.

We ended up opening for no effects I think maybe.

I don't know, something like our sixth or seventh show or something like that.

I remember it was a show at the Albert, I'm pretty certain.

I'm pretty sure it was promoted by Derek Riel and his brother, I think, Keith.

And I think Derek was the one who convinced Mike that he should see us

play, as I recall.

Our buddy who was promoting the show gave them a demo tape of ours and kind

of, you know, helped sort of...

Push us on Mike. I think a little bit Mike taking a chance on us basically You

know, hey, it was gonna be a different bet It was gonna be ill repute all of

his friends told him put out this ill repute record and But he said now I'm

gonna do this propaganda bear and everyone's like, oh, it's terrible and

then but he did it in there Here we are.

I asked a lot of people about propaganda.

I asked lag wagon because they were on the label now I said, what do you think

of this demo and nobody liked the demo?

But I don't know, I saw something in them, and that sold me.

Like, wow, these guys can pull off harmony, and they're awesome.

But I don't know, I saw something in them, and still one of the most

important bands I've ever signed.

I guess we turned out to be the token Canadian band to kind of get our foot in

the door.

It seemed a bit like a hobby at first.

in a really nice sense of the word. We had no idea anything was going to happen

with the scene in general or our band. We just thought, this guy's going to put

out a record for us. Nobody else is stepping up to help us out, so let's do

it. We had no real expectations at all.

Go do a record in L.A.? Why the hell not?

We were 23 years old at the time, Chris and I, in and out of school and working

and stuff, so we just...

Kind of went with that, and that really sort of steered the direction of the

band after doing that first record with them.

You know, they fly to L.A., they see Wayne Gretzky at the airport.

They were pretty stoked.

And then we stopped by a studio.

Well, the first time was at Razor's Edge Studios in San Francisco.

We recorded for six days. The first record was six days, including mixing

and mastering and stuff like that.

With less talk, we kind of had to bail on the first sort of...

studio attempt for that record. We went down there and recorded and we had to

bail because we didn't have enough songs.

We were so unprepared those days. It was ridiculous.

It was just a different time.

The records were more realistic representations of the bands, I think,

at the time.

Those original Propaganda records are very much part of what people would call

the fat record sound.

And at the time, nobody was listening to metal.

Everybody was listening to pop punk. That was like when it was all sort of

starting to blow up.

When exactly did this metal influence come?

Focusing on rocking a little bit harder and making things a little bit harder

edge was just sort of where I think our soul was at from the get-go with the

band. Those guys have always been metal. I remember having a conversation with

Chris Hanna and what she said to me that he felt that what he had to say was so

important that it didn't matter to him how it was delivered.

and that it was more important to get the message out there than it was on how

you delivered it.

Mike and Aaron both seemed like really driven and encouraging and charming

people. But it did seem like, it still seemed to me,

At that time, I was just like, well, I mean, the community of people who are

going to want to listen to this music is not going to be massive.

And I was wrong.

This was like maybe 1993, something like that, 94.

So what was currently happening in punk rock was really the epitaph and fat

record scene.

And, you know, my first show I ever went to was Green Day. But after that, like

Green Day led me into Rancid and No Effects.

And so the second show I ever saw was No Effects and the third show was Rancid.

But that whole scene, you know, then getting into like...

reading the liner notes of the albums was how I just you discover bands back

then and it was like okay who did no effects think and oh okay so Fat Mike

has a record label and you know puts out all these other bands and then they

would all do the like you know fat compilations and the punk-a-rama

compilations and it just was you know there was this whole world that existed

in California of punk rock it definitely had an influence on me

Put out your amp, there's a pain in the show.

This won't be close enough.

I'm just a mannequin. Whoa, it's not dope.

What's in the past can't be undone.

You've got to separate.

Oh, I smell the drama, but it dredge my soul.

Pinch your heart and focus.

Bring in the world to its knees.

Behold.

so it was about 1993 and we were shopping a demo tape around we really

wanted to try to get out of our little hometown that we were in and wanted to

get on a label

It was about sending cassette tapes in the mail to, you know, we would look at

the back of album covers like, oh, this is a Rad Record label.

They put out bands that we liked and we just made demo tapes and that's what all

the bands kind of did back then.

And you send it in the mail and who knows if anybody ever listened to it.

And one of the labels that we sent it to was Fat Records because we were fans of

NoFX.

And we knew that Mike had started a label.

The label was still being run out of Mike's kitchen.

It was DIY, full on.

But we had faith that he knew what he was doing, at least a little bit. He

seemed to be onto something.

We got a letter back from Fat Mike.

He actually wrote us a letter and said he liked some of the songs and wanted to

see what else we could come up with. We kept writing new stuff, got a hold of

him again.

He said he'd like to do a 7-inch.

he wanted to hear like our next demo like the next stuff we're recording

while we were in the studio we threw down really quick versions of new stuff

he hadn't heard and when he heard those he said what would you guys think about

doing the seven inch and then doing a full length right after it to which we

said of course we will uh he said i have this uh band called good riddance and we

have to do a record and that record has to be done in eight days and i was like

an eight-day record, because in my world, eight days, you're just finishing

with pre-production.

I said, okay, well, let's do it, and get up to San Francisco, and we go into the

studio, and we worked 17, 18 hours a day, and knocked out this record, and it

was so much fun.

I love the fact that we had to work that quickly, because it didn't give you a

chance to think.

But what it did was it gave you the opportunity to go from the heart.

It's like whatever you felt here is what you put down.

And there was no second guessing it.

When we did our first album, Mike was there in the studio with us to sort of

produce us. Because we didn't know what we were doing. But he didn't want to

take anything away from the things about our music that appealed to him.

Especially when I first sign a band, I'm very involved.

Especially a new band. I want their first record to be totally awesome.

I care a lot.

You know, when it's a band's sixth record, I just let them do what they

want to do, pretty much.

I want to give them the best shot, and your first record is so important that I

want to be involved.

So he was there to sort of guide us and buffer us, but it was very hands-off.

We kind of just did our own thing.

It's kind of silly to say, but I learned shit from reading Good Riddance lyrics.

You know, that affected my worldview, and it opened my mind up to things that

I... wouldn't have otherwise thought about.

We love Russ being real raspy. His

voice is more simplistic.

That's why, for me, Good Rinse was, like, just a straight-up punk band. And

then Good Rinse came along and simplified it and made it just as, you

know, catchy, but with a little bit more of a straight-up punk rock edge.

Equal vision.

Epitaph. B-Y-O. Nacho.

we were supposed to originally get signed uh or byo was looking at putting

out our first record and um they had more of a reputation in the in the punk

world because they were byo and we grew up on uh you know social distortion and

me and jim used to watch another state of mind religiously and um then they

turned us down because they thought we were too metal and so uh fat came along

and um we didn't really know much about fat michael what he was doing strung out

was interesting because I was really on the fence about them. I didn't know if I

wanted to sign them.

I didn't like their demo that much.

And their bass player, Jim Cherry, he called me up one day and said, Mike,

stop fucking around with us. Are you going to sign us? You're not going to

sign us. I'm like, I don't know, Jim. I'm not sure. He's like, look, I'll come

up to San Francisco and I'll carpet your condo.

Because his dad owned a carpet business.

I go, you'll come up and carpet my condo? He's like, yes.

me and jason the singer will come up and carpet your condo me and jim had to go

basically carpet his house jim went up carpeted mike's whole two-story

apartment and i think what was fat records at the time was just like his

addict basically at his place i'm like sign you're signed it's a done deal so

they came up and they they carpeted my condo kind of doing a little bit of

schmoozing you know to get us absolutely down on the label but uh it worked we've

rehearsed six times As the story goes, and bam, you know, we went right into

the studio and recorded the first album, Another Day in Paradise.

It was a really good thing for the band because Fat Records was becoming such a

hot commodity that people knew Fat Records, and if they knew your band was

a Fat Records band, even if they didn't know you, they just... they came out to

see you because we were a fat records man they put out all the melodic music

that i know epitaph was around stuff like that but there was just a different

style of a melodic punk that they put out that just was very important for us

as well because uh it established us i

think it's pretty unanimous that we always felt like we were the

black sheep of the label i don't think that's a very negative thing You know,

we all sort of come from a similar background.

We're just maybe a little more transparent about the fact that we like

metal. We had our own little niche, you know, like people would say that our

band, you know, set off the metal detector.

Touring with Lagwagon in the early days brought that out a little bit more in

the band because those guys are heshers too.

I played punk rock all my life, but I was always very influenced by like metal

bands and metal drummers and stuff like that.

We had let Jim go probably a

year or two prior to his passing away.

And, you know, we had a lot of inner struggles with that whole thing. And it

had just come to a point where we needed to do some separation.

He got kicked out of Strung Out after their, I don't know, third or fourth

record. And it really hit him hard.

And at one point, Jim called me from a pay phone, and he said,

Mike, I appreciate everything you've done for me.

I've got a gun to my head, and I'm going to kill myself right now.

And before I kill myself, I wanted to let you know how you changed my life and

how much you mean to me.

And somehow I talked him out of doing it, and I flew down the next morning,

i drove him two hours to a rehab in palm springs and he was there for a few

months and got clean and ended up dying four months later because he'd done too

many drugs and his heart stopped but i was the last person

he called he called me to tell him how much it meant to him to uh be on fat

records and and what i'd done for him

And so, of course, I had to fucking fly down and help him out.

It's a lonely thing sometimes to be a musician and have faith in yourself that

you're doing the right thing, that, like, you deserve to be up there

playing, and you deserve for people to even listen.

You know, I think when Jim passed away, it was, like, really shocking and

surprising to everyone.

We had already kind of parted ways with him, so it was just like, man, I had

always hoped that someday we could get back together and, you know, do

something else down the line. And having him gone, it was a really hard thing to

face. Generally, it was just something we had to deal with on our own terms.

I think the interesting thing about a musician that passes away that has made

some sort of impact on the music scene is...

Your music lives on, and that's a way for you to continue.

And people still remember Jim Cherry today.

the music that he made, the lyrics that he wrote. His songs are still a lot of

our biggest songs. You know, the songs that kids want to hear, Bring Out Your

Dad and Firecracker and a lot of the stuff he wrote was like, you know, those

are staples in our set.

And, you know, we owe so much to Jim Cherry.

You know, he got the band off the ground and he taught me how to write, you know,

taught us all really how to put together.

He's left this whole path of music.

you know he touched a lot of people so his music will live on for a long time

they

let us do our own thing you know i think mike knows that we're uh gonna work our

ass off for the label you're on fat records because you're gonna go on tour

and you're gonna support the record and you're gonna put everything you got into

it fat records have always given us complete control over everything from

the artwork to the songs you know mike's never asked for a demo except that that

first album so he's always just been like do your thing you know we believe

in you guys you know you're going to tour off it we know you believe in this

so they've been so supportive to us and and that's one of the things that's just

kept us there in 10 years we haven't signed a record contract to me like

joining strung out in the late 90s and being part of the fat record scene was

like that was it like fat records epitaph or like the heavy hitters in the

punk rock scene it never made sense to us to leave a place where you have

complete control you have people that believe in what you're doing and they're

generous about everything so it just it's always felt so comfortable somehow

fat mike always comes out on top and there's a reason because he's a smart

you know and he he's the real deal I'm glad that we're still on fat because I

feel like I'm not a very sentimental person.

And I don't look back at the days in the 90s as being the glory days or the back

in the day. I look at like what we're doing now and how we are representing

ourselves and the label and where we're taking it.

Mr. Emotion Studio, as far as I know, Mike and Ryan started it in 97-ish.

They've done so much stuff here. That sound has been always... In the

foreground as a production kind of person, you know, just, you know,

something to kind of reach for and, you know, try to learn it.

Brian's kind of a master at that, so.

It was the early 90s. Metal was totally on its way out.

Everyone was sick of rock and roll.

Punk bands we had at the time were a little, the performance level really

wasn't there.

A lot of my memories of Phat Records is working at Motor Studios.

He took RKL.

Lifestyles of Rich Kids on LSD and combined it with Bad Religion Suffer.

It was sort of like heavy metal filtered through punk rock. Those fast, crazy

riffs, but with like a tune and a melody.

You know, it was like speed metal with big choruses.

Everyone just evolved, you know, kind of a little mixture of...

old metal, new punk.

We wanted to put the attitude of punk rock behind it and make it, you know,

shorter, more compact, you know, less ego, less, you know, flash.

I exist in a progressive metal scene and it's often very pretentious and

ridiculous. The lessons that I learned listening to the bands that were on Fat

Rack. where you don't have to take yourself so seriously.

If you talk to the Propaganda guys, the Lagwagon guys, any of the guys from No

Use, any of the original batch, we all came from a lot of thrash metal and

speed metal. That's how we learned to play solos and stuff. Mike was kind of

stoked about it in the early days. He was like, I like that all my bands that

I have on the label so far were former metal bands because it's kind of a

different spin.

Mike just happened to get the right bands at the time.

And you had Ryan Green, who was like the engineer producer.

at the studio who did, I have to assume he did like, you know, 80% of the

records that came out at that time.

When you have all those different bands being filtered through one guy's

engineering sensibility, there's going to be a, you know, a common thread to it

all. I think with the, what everybody calls the fat sound, it's a team, you

know, it was a team effort. For me, I always had a vision when we would go and

do a record of approach.

And if the approach didn't work for a band, then we would discuss it and

modify as we went.

But I just always felt that records just needed to sound fresh.

Really, my first experiences in the studio was working with Ryan Green.

And Mike would sort of drop by. But really, it was like as far as like tone

and performance and all that sort of stuff. I mean, we took our cues from

Ryan. We also weren't holed up in the studio working on records for six

months. You did all your guitar tracks in a day.

We were under such a time crunch, we always had to go from the heart. There

was no second-guessing anything.

He was a master of that. He's a fucking master of drum sounds.

Once I heard that beat, once I heard the beat, it was over.

The beat is... I don't know.

I hear it and just go crazy.

The kick drum sound was actually very interesting to me because a speed metal

record will have a little bit of a click to it.

So I was trying to incorporate that into the punk rock sound.

So there was a pad that I would use that had a little metal plate behind it.

But there was actually a time...

on the Lecce Concarne record where I went to Guitar Center to get this pad

and they didn't have it.

And I was trying to think of what we could use to substitute

that sound.

So I went next door to the liquor store and asked them if they had any silver

dollars.

So I bought $10 worth of silver dollars.

taped them to the kick drum head. It was an expensive record for me.

Ryan was like, you know, he was a strong presence, I feel like, in the studio.

At the time, I just thought of him as almost like kind of the boss. Like, does

Ryan say it's good or does Ryan say it's bad? You know, if he says good, good, we

got it. I think that Phat caught a lot of shit in the 90s for signing bands and

supposedly making them all sound the same.

It's kind of like...

a little bit more California streamlining and homogenization of it

all, you know?

A lot of bands that we met along the way tried so hard to sound like all these

fat bands and they kept asking me this question, how do I get on fat records?

For what I like and individuality of music and the way that I saw punk music

before, I don't really think, I don't think Epitaph and

Fat

We're good for it, really?

I think that criticism is bullshit because a label can't be responsible for

homogenizing anything.

Like, I remember kids coming up to me at no-use shows and going, I remember this

kid, this one kid one time came up to me and goes, what's it like to be on a

corporate sellout label like Fat Records?

And this was, like, 1996.

You know what I mean? Like, what?

What the fuck are you talking about? If there's one guy in music that's just

done it his own way and never sold out, whatever the fuck that even is, it's Fat

Mike. We even got called sellouts because we're on Fat Records.

And I thought that was brilliant.

It's that funny thing of when anything gets too popular, there's a knee-jerk

reaction by a certain amount of people.

in that scene to just automatically dislike it. When you start using similar

gear, you know, playing will dictate what that sounds like because I could

play a guitar and you could play a guitar and it will sound different.

But I think that the foundational part of the fat sound is Mike's choice of who

gets signed and production and the band's...

and everybody working together to develop something that seemed to work

quite well.

Mike and Aaron knew what bands to put together to create the fat sound.

He sat us in his office, and he was going through our albums, and he was

playing songs, little snippets of songs, and he was basically saying, I like this

song, hate this song, hate this song, hate this song, I like this song. And he

called me and he said, listen.

If you want to put this record out like this is your band they're your songs Do

it, you know, like like I will never tell you you should not put this record

out but If you want to keep working on it, then sure. And I was like, oh shit,

he doesn't like it at all.

So I think he was trying to give us an idea of what direction he wanted us to

move into with our music.

But not just his want. I mean, what, you know, where he felt would be good for

us. The fourth and fifth and ninth song really are terrible. I wish you had

better songs.

But that's indicative of like what Mike and what Phat was.

It would be really honest.

Hey, your new record sucks.

You know what I mean? Like, he's happy to tell me, like, oh, but this one is

good. You know, one song, which is essentially three songs, he'd, like, cut

it in half and take bits out or completely leave songs off albums.

And we were like, ooh, that's a bit cheeky.

High Standard from Japan. Yeah, they didn't get big here, but in Japan, they

sell out stadiums.

And we

don't even have the record in Japan. It's just our imports sold

more than anything else on the label.

We were going to do the opening of NoFX, but we didn't have a tuning meter at the

time. We didn't tune it.

Then the mic came out and said, OK, if you can use the tuning meter,

we'll release it.

That's when I learned how to use the tuning meter. We all practiced.

And I asked Fat Mike, hey, would you put out my band Wax? And at that moment, we

had some momentum going on.

And he goes, no.

And I go, why not? He goes, you really guys don't have the sound, the fat sound

that I have. And I go, yeah, but wouldn't you want a band that maybe

sounds a little different? He goes, no.

And that was the sound. But then later, it turned into more of a D4, a veil,

rise against sound, where it's still very melodic, but not so much like...

You know, it's more meat tempo.

We had ten years, I would say a good ten years of glory days. The fact that we

had those ten years where everything that we put out sold over a hundred

thousand copies without us even doing very much.

You can't be angry about that. You can't be angry about how the music industry

has evolved and changed because we were lucky to have those fucking 10 years to

begin with. Like, yes, it's been difficult. Absolutely.

Things are definitely not the same. And we've had to adapt.

You know, we have to take on new ways of marketing our bands. We have to deal

with a lot more social media.

It's one of the things that I struggle with.

Well, you know, when the CD industry started taking a shit.

We tried to hold on for a few years, but you know we realized we had three

offices around the world and 18 employees And it was just too much and

we started to lose a lot of money It may have been smart to fold the label, but

that was it wasn't really on the table because you know we all love doing fat

records so we went from 18 people to five people to five employees over about

two years and It's been that way for I don't know seven or eight years, and you

know we don't make money like we used to but we all get our salaries paid and

make a little profit and get to do what we want to do you adapt with how the

industry is but it's always going to be shitty it's never going to get good

again but it's just what it's like now punk rock used to be in the 80s you know

labels would survive but it's really about putting out good music and nobody

sells a lot of records anymore nobody people bands sell 20 percent of what

they used to sell

But if you have a lot of bands and you put out good records, then it's plenty

to survive.

Having Phat Records scale things back and do things a little bit more DIY

than maybe they were at their heyday.

That's the same way anti flags operating right now and we're operating that way

and we're surviving that way because that's how we started So me when I think

of fat records, I of course think of Mike and I think of Aaron, but I think

of Vanessa I think of Toby I think of Chad I think of like everyone else that

I've known who's like either still works there or used to work there and who I

know from there

My name is Patrick Rush.

P-A-T-R-I-S-T... Hi, Fat Record.

My name is Chad Williams.

I am...

production manager slash project coordinator slash label manager.

Hey, Joey, what's up?

Yeah, he is. He just got here. I'll send you up to him.

You're on hold.

You're on hold.

You're on hold.

You're on hold.

We're staying young.

You're getting old.

We're having fun.

Cause you're on hold.

You're on hold.

We're having nap time.

You're on hold.

We're taking long rips. You're there waiting.

We're here debating whether or not we should pick up.

You're on hold.

We're on the golf course.

It's a write-off. We're with the gimmies. We're getting birdies. You're

getting bitter.

We'll talk tomorrow.

So my main job is to coordinate everything that goes along with the

release of a new record from the masters to the artwork and deal with all the

manufacturers and designers and studios to get it all put together.

I'm Pat.

I run the web store, the website, the social media.

So average day I show up, you know, 9.30 to 10.

So I come in between 10 and 11.

Check some emails.

First thing is to go through all the emails that have come in overnight,

which is a lot.

Working my road band ball.

And then it's on to working on the records. Shoot some hoops in the back

with Bart.

You're on hold.

We're playing pinball.

We got better things to do than take your phone call.

Do some orders, fill up some orders, tweet some stuff.

I'm gonna spend five minutes working on the strung out layout and I'm gonna

spend 15 minutes listening to this new seven inch test pressing and then I'm

gonna switch to something else so it's a lot of a lot of different projects are

all going on at once.

One of my favorite things about being president of Phat Records it is it's

it's the best thing of the year is when I get to call a band that I've never

met. and just say, hey, this is Fat Mike. And they always say, who's this

really? And I pick up the phone. I'm like, hello?

He's like, hey, is this Brian?

And I'm like, yeah, who's this?

He's like, hey, man, it's Fat Mike.

And I was like, shut up.

I know it's Fat Mike, and I like your band.

Who put you up to this?

No, seriously, it's Fat Mike, and I like your band. I want to sign you guys.

We want to sign you guys. And I was like, excuse me?

I got Fat Mike on the phone. They want to sign us.

That's so awesome.

And I remember I was like with James in our van in a Target parking lot or

something like that.

And Mike's like, all right, yeah, yeah, you know, I'm into doing it, and this is

how we should do it. And I was like, cool, awesome, you know, like, totally

trying to keep my cool. And then get off the phone, and me and James are, like,

freaking out, punching the roof of the van. Like, we're going to be on fat

records. Like, holy shit. Like, totally, like, your teenage dream coming true.

You're going to be on fat records.

It's a little early.

Drew Arch.

All right. See you in a bit. Hey, MTV rocks the vote. P. Diddy says, vote or

die. The marriage between music and politics never been strong. Several

efforts this election year focus on getting young people involved, including

one group reaching out to the fringes of the music world. A new kind of campaign

to encourage young voters.

Punk Voter is an organization of a few hundred bands and a couple dozen record

labels and a couple hundred thousand kids that care about this country, and

we want to see political change.

First of all, John Kerry was in a band. He snowboards. Now that's kind of cool

right there. What was his band? What did he play? The Cow Sills? I think he

played bass, and I play bass, you know.

You can't tell kids just to vote, they won't do it. You have to tell them why

they should vote and how this administration affects their lives. You

feel fulfilled doing this, or do you feel like you're betraying your punk

roots? Yeah, I do. Well, I wish I didn't have to do this. Yeah, you don't like

speaking about this, do you? I don't like doing interviews. I don't like

politics. You know, like we were talking about earlier, I like gambling, I like

golfing and drinking, and that's what I want to do.

But someone has to do this. Someone has to get our generation involved in this

election.

Propaganda talks shit about me in a song and they put me in the same category

with Kevin Lyman and I think Rance did. A Rock for Sustainable Capitalism

was essentially a lament about the co-optation of a subculture that as kids

we thought was totally inspiring and naively believed had the potential to

change this very deranged society and we were watching that over the course of

the 90s.

be thrown out the window in favor of record sales and access to wealth and

celebrity and status.

You know, I did everything for propaganda.

And because I was backing John Kerry and trying to defeat George Bush, they

called me out. I think we thought it would be received with more good humor

than maybe it ended up being. You know, Mike likes to dish it out.

But I guess...

It doesn't like to take it as much, you know what I mean? Man, that hurt my

feelings so bad.

Yeah, the idea wasn't to hurt anybody's feelings.

I mean, it was, I thought it was like a back and forth, and it was, I guess the

problem was it was a back and forth in public.

Like, the song's serious, but not like serious as some people thought, you

know? Like, I thought all the points in that were legit, and I thought, oh yeah,

people are probably gonna...

I don't know, sometimes you don't think too much about something, you know?

You're just jamming, making the song.

You know, that's funny.

You know, I'm putting Mike's picture in there with fucking Drew Carey or

whatever the fuck his name is. John Carey.

I had a moral dilemma with that.

Propaganda were putting a picture of me shaking hands with John Carey in their

album that I was about to put out.

And they were calling me out in the song.

And I called up Joe Sib from Sidewine. I said, what would you do? He said, I'd

fucking get rid of the record.

And I called up Brett Growitz. What would you do? He's like, fucking drop

him, dude.

And I'm like, fuck.

I should do that if I have a sense of pride.

But I really don't have a sense of pride.

And it was a good record.

And fuck, you know, comedians talk shit about each other all the time.

So a band talks shit about me.

It's fucked, but...

Hey, I was still going to fucking sell the record and make money off it.

What were our criticisms of the punk voter movement?

Well, I guess you could start with, where is it?

I mean, in my estimation, movements tend to last longer than an election cycle.

Yeah, fucking government is totally fucked. But I thought the world would be

a better place with John Kerry instead of George Bush.

And they thought, it's a waste of time.

They're all the same. So aside from this whole thing being essentially Mike's

vanity project that he predictably lost all interest in the second his corporate

show warmongering candidate didn't win. Keep in mind, this was John Kerry, a guy

who had voted in favor of invading Iraq and who Mike was encouraging young

people to vote for because he played guitar and rode a snowboard once.

So they called me out, which is, I don't know. I thought that was cheap.

I never said anything bad about them and I did nothing but.

Always pay them on time. And if you notice, Propagandhi has given some of

their newer records to Phat Records.

And we've been working with them again.

Because they said, you're the only label that's always paid us on time and always

been fair.

So, you know, I don't hold a grudge. And I'm proud to put out Propagandhi.

I had nothing against it.

Not at all, really. Nothing that I didn't have against them.

Before all that happened, you know. Then anyways, I mean, it's fucking

Propagandhi. What the fuck are you expecting?

The bands I sign, like Teenage Butter Rocket, they're alcoholic.

I wouldn't say drug addicts, but drug users, just like most of the bands on

Phat Records.

They're all anti-religion.

They do this because they love it and because they love getting wasted and

playing punk rock. The only negative of Phat or Phat Mike is that when I do see

him do interviews and he talks about, you know, what the label is about.

This kind of debauchery of alcoholism and drug use. I never understood that.

Apparently Mike Park thinks I'm irresponsible by being an alcohol abuser

and drug abuser.

Which is funny because Mike Park believes in Noah's Ark. Mike Park is

such a Christian that of course he's going to say something like that.

I always thought punk is the opposite of that. Punk to me is always about being

intelligent. It's not about...

getting shit-faced, to promote it. I feel like he's such an influence to a

lot of young kids. So I never understood that negative influence on our youth.

This is my responsibility.

Hey, kids, don't do drugs. Wait till you're an adult and are responsible to

do drugs, which is what I did. I didn't do drugs till my 30s. So there's my

message to the youth of America. Don't do drugs till your 30s and be like me.

So what would you do?

You sign a band, get dead.

You don't really think they're that great, but there's something about them

you think is really cool.

They have some really cool songs, and I go to produce their record.

And Fat Mike's all, I got a bottle of fucking whiskey for you, come in here

and record.

And one night they're like, come on, let's party, Mike.

I'm like, I can't party.

I have to go see my daughter's performance in the morning.

He's like, come on, dude. I go, no, I don't want to.

We just got back from Tijuana.

I had this Carmex bottle of Sassafras.

You know what Snazzle Press is?

It's like MDMA mixed with acid, mixed with a tranquilizer, mixed with some K,

XC, whatever.

I took the end of a matchbook and just dumped it in this beer.

And dose me.

And I feel it. I go, what?

I can't party I have to go see my my daughters This

is

good shit

And they're like, we didn't do anything. We didn't do anything. And I knew they

did. And I got home.

My fiancee was mad at me. She thought I was partying with them. We got to get up

and be with the kids.

Three in the morning, this old lady hits us up and goes, the fuck did you get

Mike?

What'd you get Mike?

And I'm on the phone. It was a placebo.

I didn't give a shit.

And I told people to label me like fuck them these fucking this new band drop

them like it's cool I mean fuck the balls on that band We thought we didn't

get kicked off the fucking label They fucking dosed the record label president

I mean fucking assholes, but I still like them And that's the kind of bands

come onto my label. Don't fucking dose me anybody fans But that's a fat records

band

Wearing fucking argyle pants and a mohawk. Who the fuck has a mohawk?

That dude.

You guys are so late.

Sorry, Aaron.

I think to many people, you're a bit of a mystery. What exactly do you do at

FAB?

Wow.

Everything.

I know that, you know, Fat Mike is the head honcho there.

Well, actually, Aaron's the head honcho.

I love Aaron.

We always had a great relationship with Aaron.

I like Aaron. We hang out and drink Jameson.

Aaron's one of the best people I know.

Period.

If I ever needed something, even after the band now being defunct, she was

there. Yeah, I always thought she was a key person.

for Phat to be working. And Mike's more of the guy that keeps an ear or an eye

out for new bands.

Aaron's usually the one that does all the work.

Aaron's commitment to being a stand-up human being, treating people the way you

want to be treated.

She's also honest, but maybe with a little softer touch.

Aaron was working.

I mean, she was doing the day-to-day, you know, taking care of so much. And,

you know, back then, there was a lot going on with the company, so Aaron kept

a lot of things going.

As far as the business side of things go, we probably dealt with Aaron more

than we dealt with Mike. I always sort of viewed Mike as, like, he was sort of

the creative, and Aaron was the bottom line.

Working with Aaron, I love Aaron, too.

if she's watching this she'd probably tell me that you know i did a half-assed

job on my lip liner so yeah aaron was was great and a huge part of that

company and i'm sure a big part of its success because she probably had to keep

mike in line from time to time on stuff he would be touring a lot with no

effects and there were all these bands that were so great and they had no label

representation and they had no means of getting their name out there and we

thought wouldn't this be fun as a side project why don't we just do this She

kind of came in with Mike, and they were a team.

I would say that, you know, in terms of the last 25 years of my life, mostly

what I've done is handle all of the business end. Mike has handled the

artistic part of the label for the most part, and then I've handled the actual

daily operations and the business part of it, all of the finances and the

actual sometimes tedious parts that go into actually running a business that

the creative...

people don't necessarily want to think about or want to deal with somebody else

like you know mike would have a brilliant idea and then somebody has to

make that happen she's definitely a part of that label that also makes it a

really great place to be you know we've been divorced now for five years But we

still work at Phat Records, and we still have a totally good relationship.

You know, even through everything that Mike and I have been through, like the

fact that we are close enough that we can run this business together.

And nothing's really changed, which is awesome.

There was two years where we were not, you know, thrilled with each other.

But we kept Phat Records totally business-oriented, and we still had

weekly meetings.

And it never really affected our business relationship at all.

You know, I'm president, she's vice president, and luckily, president gets

to make the decisions.

It really just truly is a testament to how tight our community is.

There was, you know, it's not like there was an option. Like, when Mike and I

split up, I was like, okay, well, there's no choice.

We have to figure out how to be friends, because we have to figure out how to

make this work, because this is our family.

Fat Records needs us.

But, you know, all the bands know her and they all know me, and I don't think

they'd feel comfortable if one of us wasn't there.

Well, mostly me.

This is our community, and you can't, you know, it's sad enough when a

marriage breaks up, but you're not going to break up your whole fucking family.

You can't do it. Punk rock, it really is about family. It is about family.

It's about chosen family. It's about people you want to spend your life with.

That's the greatest thing about punk rock.

Well, and it's the best music in the world.

I think when you've been on one label your entire career as a band and you've

kind of grown up with everybody that's worked there over the years and their

family. To be accepted into that Phat Rec family was a big deal, you know, a

big, a huge part of who we became.

Well, we keep our family atmosphere at Phat, I think just because

we're honest with bands and

I end up touring with bands a lot.

You know, when I sign a new band, I usually take them on tour with no

effects. And so we end up hanging out a lot and drinking a lot and doing a lot

of drugs together and getting to know them. It was maybe, like, four shows,

but it probably took, like, 30 years off of my life. It was just, like, the most

ramped-up partying ever.

It's really great that they have, you know, that, like, that family vibe as

far as running Phat. You know what I mean? Like, even if you're a brand-new

band on Phat, you're part of the family.

I mean...

We're humbled by being able to be a part of that family.

For instance, Sam was talking about last year, we were on tour and we rolled our

van. That night, we called up Aaron at Phat and we said, hey, we rolled our van

like three times. It's demolished.

Our equipment is on the road freezing out in the snow.

Within 24 hours, Phat Records had us back on the road.

No questions asked. No questions asked. Just like, hands down, what do you guys

need? Like, fucking moms and dads and brothers and sisters.

One thing that sums up Phat Records, besides the bands that are on it, I

would say heart and family. Those two things.

And I think that that was one of the reasons why it had so much success.

There was never, never a time that you ever felt alone.

You had a network.

of friends that were all there for you at all times.

I like that Chris Shepard from the Foo Fighters worked there.

The fact that we were all friends, the fact that I knew every single person

that worked at that label and spent a lot of time with them, not just dealing

with... things related to our band. Most of the time, not dealing with things

related to our band. Most of the time, it was, you know, the fat bowling team

or the, you know, just being at a bar somewhere with those guys.

You know, called that label home for the better part of a decade now.

It's fun to be there, and they're just, they make everything enjoyable. It

doesn't feel like work.

They just, everyone's smiling and laughing and hanging out, and there's

music being played in the background, and it's really good music.

It's supposed to be about playing music and having fun, and you're playing

music, and then it kind of turns into a job.

and you make money off it but it's nice when that's nice when people are honest

it's cool because i think they just treat it that way i mean aesthetically

everything they've ever done like their comps and their videos and even like you

know i remember the peep show videos it always seemed like they were all friends

and they didn't they didn't try to appear like they were selling something

to everyone to all these these kids it seemed like they were just doing what

they did regardless of anyone bought it or cared about it the fat family what a

crazy huge dysfunctional fun creative group of people oh i remember back in

the days in in the 90s we talked about this family thing a lot and we all

wished that it's going to be like a family maybe it was like a family but to

me it appeared more like a mafia i have relationships with every man on my label

and you can talk to any band and whether they left or not We're all still

friends. We're all still family.

Never had a reason to look around.

We were treated well. We were afforded every opportunity to succeed.

We had strong backing.

We had the freedom to write and record what we wanted, where we wanted.

I don't know what more you could ask for.

There's not very many just normal dudes in this scene at all. And Fat Records

was a perfect example of that. You've got a bunch of extreme personalities in

there that are...

having a great time traveling down the road on their tour bus and playing big

shows all over the world to keep that audience for that long.

And Fat Records has managed to do that.

The bands on that label can play to a thousand people in almost any country in

the world.

So that's success.

Business is all about relationships.

When someone says it's not personal, it's business, fuck you.

It's all personal.

It's all personal.

You can't just say, oh, I'm just looking out for myself.

I ripped you off because I'm looking out for myself. It's business.

What a fucking piece of shit that is.

Out of anybody I've ever dealt with in the music business, he is the easiest

guy to deal with.

I got to be honest, like, it's the only record label that's ever paid me.

And that's awesome.

He has no problem telling you just what he thinks. So even if it's negative and

hard to hear.

you know that he's telling you the truth. It's a label that, like, I think

all the bands on it will attest to his generosity and to his honesty and to

his, like, being real.

He talks shit and he's funny and he's super dry and sarcastic, but when you're

being real with him, he'll just tell you what he thinks.

He's kind of like a weird fucked-up father figure.

Fat Records' lasting legacy will probably be fucking Fat Mike with a ball

gag in his mouth.

Well, legacy implies that it's gone and dead, and it's what people remember.

It's not gone and dead.

A few hundred really quality records.

I have a couple Conkers in there.

Each one of those records that they put out is part of the legacy, you know?

It's not like one thing that you could just say, like, that's Phat Records'

legacy. But if there was, you know, I don't know what it would be, you know?

They still put out great music. There's a lot of good bands right now on Phat.

It felt like home, you know what I mean, when you discovered it. You know what I

mean? It was like, oh, okay.

Like, this all makes sense to me. You know, all of these bands are different,

but all kind of are covered under that umbrella, that Fat Records umbrella.

If I'm trying to bring in a friend into punk rock or trying to show them

something... Fat Records. Yeah, I show them Fat Record bands, you know.

Fat Records, you can't go wrong. I mean, they were such a part of a huge force, a

huge sound. I mean, the bands, obviously, the music.

Lagwagon.

That's what it means.

Oh, Propagandi, definitely.

So many great bands. No use for a name.

Lagwagon, of course, no effects.

One of my favorite bands on there, Guns N' Wankers. I love that.

Bracket. Great band.

The record label to this day has a strong following. Like, even my 16-year

-old brother is, like, following all the Phat Records bands.

Really, the main thing that sticks out to me is the longevity of this label and

this scene that we're a part of. It's amazing to see that, like, Phat is still

such an influence, and people still care.

Well, it obviously means a lot to a lot of people. I'm really happy with the

relationship we have with them.

I'm really happy the records came out with them. And I really appreciate that

Mike took a chance on us in the first place.

We'd still be playing in a bar in Winnipeg.

I think Phat's lasting legacy is just, again, do whatever the fuck they want

and making it fun for everybody.

They're realistic. They're fun people.

They're real people.

And they really give a shit. And that's been my favorite part about working with

them.

lucky to be able to be part of this. The fact that they trust us with

their music. Like a band like Lagwagon that has never wandered. They've never

looked at other labels. They've never thought about changing labels.

And I just feel like that in and of itself is a legacy. Like I feel...

so blessed to be able to put out this piece of history. I just can't even,

like, I got, look it, goosebumps.

I'm not kidding. There's goosebumps.

It's so good.

And that to me, like, I don't know how to answer the legacy question exactly,

but that is a moment in which I feel like we're doing something that's

important here. This matters.

And it's not just the bands, but it's also the personal relationship that we

have. And that, you know, means everything to me.

I think they're honestly going to go down as not only one of the most revered

punk rock labels of the West Coast, because they're obviously associated

with the West Coast so much, but as one of the most revered punk rock labels

ever. I feel like Phat Records has never let me down. It's still that way where

you just buy it because it's on that label. It doesn't really have anything

to do with the band. I just say, well, oh, this is a Phat Records release.

I'm going to give it a shot.

I don't really think about how Phat Records has affected people's lives.

I really don't. I go to Phat Records now one day a week, and I love it there.

And I love having the label because I love putting out good punk rock.

I don't like to think about our legacy or anything like that.

I don't care.

I care about putting out good music and I really care about our reputation.

But I don't think about stuff like that.

Fabric, it's fun.

It's been such a great thing. It's just part of me. I don't think about it. I

think about what's going on now.

Waiting on them.

And you rise inside new rooms.

It's official.

You've gone.

You can live for no one else. Man, the guilt must be huge.

There's no meaning in failure. You succeed being mine. Yeah,

old friend.

See you there.

It was kind of safe to say that if it had that little Phat record on the back

and stuff it was going to be a good band.

Phat record is important.

It was kind of safe to say that if it had that little Phat record on the back

and stuff, it was going to be a good band.

Phat Records is important because they were the gateway into punk rock for any

kids who were looking to find it.

If I had one thing to say to everybody at Phat Records, it would just be, thank

you for existing.

I was the kid that turned...

all of my friends on to punk rock and i did that through fat records bands yeah

they've been doing it for you know what 25 30 years so um and you know people

still love it their lasting legacy and that record sound it's it's unique

they're kind of a record label that's showing the world you know punk's not

dead before the internet all you can do is really just kind of learn about a

label and buy everything that that label put out how long have they been doing it

now 25 years i don't know what their legacy would be i mean awesomeness they

just punk rock and good times and it's great music and it was compassionate and

truthful and just a lot of the true punk elitists will talk but dude i mean come

on yeah my favorite thing about fat records i think is uh

the people everything was more dramatic in the moment but you know as time goes

on you realize and gives a fuck about all that you know like she's not

listening to taylor swift she's not listening to i don't even know what

people listen to whatever the fuck keisha i don't even know whatever that

crap is that everybody else is listening to my daughter wants to hear mass

intruder my daughter's best friends they grew up together they're more like

sisters and i hang out with aaron all the time we have shared likes many

jameson We're big fans of the Jameson.

He came and saw me do comedy.

He came and saw me do comedy a while ago at the Laugh Factory. I got him in, all

of his friends.

I mean, they had like, I think people were coming in with whips and plastic

and there was a lot of squeakiness going on because so much leather on everybody.

And everyone loved the show. They're like, oh man, you're really funny.

You're really funny. And I asked Fat Mike, what did you think? He's all, I

didn't think you were funny, but everyone I brought liked it.

That's Fat Mike.

One of the members, I believe it was Eric Melvin, sent me a single and I was

very excited about it.

And when I heard it, I was very disappointed.

So I wrote them a letter back saying, I don't know, just keep me on the radar.

You know, I'm not too excited about this particular release.

I think the record sales probably reflected that.

He liked more Chatter Bart.

Hey, you're seeing Fat Mike's girlfriend in a porno.

Yes.

I'm Tim from Rise Against.

We tried to get signed to FAT before we signed to Capitol Records.

And we got a form letter back.

And it wasn't even like a hand-written thing or anything. And it was a form

record that had maybe like a dozen different things. And it was just a

checkmark that said, don't quit your day jobs.

I don't want these children to hear this story.

It was kind of one of those things where when the label put something out, you

just automatically at least gave it a chance, you know, most likely bought it,

but gave it a chance. When you knew that it was going to at least be within a

scope of something that me and my friends were going to be able to like

bang our heads to.

Oh, let me see.

Remembering, remembering fat records, a retrospective, a recollection.

How do we have a kid? I go, well, start like this, and then makes a kid, and

then you have this kid, and then you put clothes on the kid, and it's easy.

There used to be an employee there named Toby Jegg, who now runs Red Scare

Records out of Chicago, but I'm 100% positive he's the one who did this joke.

So on the Fat Records site, it says, to send demos, please send them to Asian

Man Records, Attention Mike.

That's been going on for like...

Eight years. So eight years of getting horrible demos.

So when it happened, it was kind of like a dream come true for us, and kind of

going towards no effects, and it was like, fucking A.

Yeah, man.

This probably wouldn't exist without Fat Record, because it helped put

independent punk rock music to a bigger level.

Which is probably more important than some of those bands like Green Day or

Rancid blowing up.

It really was when

Nirvana broke that everyone thought, shit, we could actually make money

playing punk rock.

And the thing that was crazy to all of us is we thought, finally, people...

know that punk rock is great. What took them so long from realizing that this is

the best kind of music? It's just the most melodic and the most rocking and

the most fun, played by the coolest people.

And yeah, it was our little secret, but then the world found out that punk rock

is awesome and it's still the best kind of music. Punk is great music played by

bad, drunk musicians who are on drugs.

That's punk.

I want to know that, I don't know, how come every time I interview for this

thing, I'm drunk?

You know, I'm not drunk all the time, but you always show up when I'm drunk.

The only time I really get in bands' faces about doing something, it's

usually because I'm trying to get them to fucking do drugs.

I mean, like Rise Against, no one in Rise Against has ever drank or done

drugs. So when I'm around them sometimes, I'm like...

Come on, you guys. You're in a huge rock band.

What are you going to tell your grandkids?

You going to tell them how you went out for pizza after the show and saw a

movie? You know, you have to fucking party a little because you're not going

to make any bad decisions if you don't party. And if you don't make any bad

decisions, you're not going to do anything fun.

Ow! Oh, I got stung. I'm getting stung.

Oh, shit.

With what?

A bee.