Gone Magazine

A bunch of fucked up kids started a band. The most caustic, kamikaze, fucked up band you could ever imagine. Gather ‘round, children, to hear their tale of sleeping under coffee tables, huffing gasoline and fucking fat chicks. Reeeeeally fat chicks. Listen up kids, for I tell the truth.

(The following interview was conducted first with Josh Moss. The other Brooms chimed in at a later date. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.)

GONE: How do the Brooms work with Josh being out of town so much?

Moss: Pretty much the same but without me. The shows have been going pretty well I hear, and we play together whenever I am in town. I really wish I was around all the time, but I can’t get a good job here right now so I have to be gone for ten day stretches.

Chris: We are eagerly awaiting his return, but we’re doing our best, which isn’t much.

Zac: I miss him, you know? He brought us together.  Like the chode of the band.
Taven: I don’t think Josh should be allowed to answer that question. We’re straight.
Jason: It’s been working out pretty well as far as I can see!

GONE: What other projects are you all currently invested in?

Moss: For a long time I have been making my own recordings on a four track that I try to post on the web or give to anyone who is interested. I always record a couple songs a month at least. Some Brooms songs have started that way. The latest compilation of these recordings is called “My Killer Tape”. The hotels I stay in are great places to record, except I can’t really play drums in there at all.

Taven: Well, we’re all in Uncle Badtouch & His Naughty Nephews

Chris: Dude, I’m not in Uncle…

Taven: Yes you are.  We all are.

Chris: Who the fuck is that?

Jason: It’s…

Zac: It’s the band that you’re in, asshole.

Jason: It’s the band that T-bor sings for and that we’re all in.

Taven: Me and Jason are also in a band called Deep Cuts with our good friends Neil Campbell & Jake Armentrout…..and Moss’ solo shit sucks.

GONE: Which of you have been there from the start of the Brooms?
Moss: The Brooms have had a lot of changes in our short history. In june of 06 Greg Pollock and I got together to record with the help of our longtime recording collaborator Levi Casey “Zone” Schroen who ran the recording devices and played drums. That became the first Brooms record. My girlfriend at the time, Kaitlin, sang back-up on a couple tunes. Then we asked Taven, Zac, and Kaitlin to join so we could play live. I played keyboard at the time, Greg and Taven switched on guitar and bass, Zac played drums, and Kaitlin sang and played tambourine. We have never had a lead singer, and we would each sing songs. We played more covers then, most notably Randy Newman’s “Sail Away” and Carl Perkins “Honey Don’t”. We made a recording with this line-up called “On The Brightside”. Then I was gone for 6 months, now I have been back about six months, and we are back with another line-up. Jason “Razor ‘The Blade’ Hernandez” Knicely has taken over bass, Taven and I play electric guitar, Chris Bennett (our old friend the lead singer of Dirtpond) plays rythym guitar and Zac still plays drums. We still all sing, but the sweet harmonies of Taven and Chris have taken the lead. Greg and Kaitlin have gone seperate ways from the band, but, along with our recording specialist and sometimes drummer Casey, they are lifetime members of the band. in between all these changes we recorded our latest album “We’re All Busy People” a six song album available in its entirety on our Myspace.

GONE: Give us the real scoop: what do you think of the other guys in the Brooms, one by one?

-Taven “Horsecock” Wilson and i go way back to distant time when I hated him for reasons of jealously, passion and romance. Even in those days, when we were in Dirtpond, he felt like he would be playing with us someday, and he was right. I love the songs he writes even though he hates them. now we watch shitty horror movies together while drinking liqour and bitching about how we can’t get any shows until two in the morning.

-Zac “The Manhammer” “Teddy” Jones can play a 4/4 time country rock drum beat that will make you think he is the bastard love child of Kenny Buttrey and Ralph Molina. He just has to have his breakfast vodka first. He is a bum whisperer. When we are playing out of town he goes out for a walk and comes back smelling of urine and ripple. He is the only person subject to arrest for driving sober. He will piss in your basement and you will thank him because he is just that charming.

-Jason “Crucial Pete” Knicely is a new member of the band but a hardened veteran of being my friend. He is a well dressed gentleman and he doesn’t fight dirty. He might look like a Mexican but he doesn’t work as hard. Women are rough on Jason Knicely and we have a song about it. He has played bass in the late lamented Gone Dead Train/American Buffalo and the bubblegum pop group Lex Vegas, and now he plays bass for us.

-Chris Bennett’s voice is as smooth as Tupelo honey, honey baby, from the bee. His voice is as good as his guitar maintnence skills are bad. He has recently returned to us after years of seclusion spent at the Amsterdam Hilton eating birthday cake in bed. Either that or he was at work. The only occasion important enough for him to put on shoes is one of our shows.

I feel like we are very close as a band and I consider the Brooms to be my very best friends

THE BROOMS ON JOSH MOSS:

Jason: I’ve known Moss basically since I was about 12 years old.  I remember that he could play “Santa Monica” by Everclear pretty well back then.  If I’m not mistaken, I was the first person to acquire pot for him and subsequently smoke it.  He took one hit and immediately exhaled through his nose.  I lived with him during the formative Dirt Pond years and have enjoyed pretty much everything he’s spewed since.  He’s a good one. I think I’ll keep him.