Scott BresslerTo view an exclusive online slideshow of the concert, please click here.
Student Life sat down with WILD headliner Reel Big Fish on Friday afternoon in the green room. Front man Aaron Barret and trumpeter John Christianson took most of the questions, but the rest of the musicians chimed in occasionally. The Reel Big Fish became popular in the early 90s, but has continued touring and releasing albums.
Student Life: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us.
Aaron Barrett: Why don’t you sit down. It’ll make us feel more comfortable and you’ll probably get closer to real answers.
SL: How often do you guys play for college campuses like this?
AB: Recently always. We believe that the children are the future, if you teach them well. You need to show them all the beauty they possess inside.
SL: So what are you teaching?
AB: How should I know!? That’s the school’s job. Our job is to teach them it’s the school’s job.
John Christianson: Every year we do college season. It started out as just five or six, but now it’s a lot-it’s more than I have fingers.
SL: This band has been around for a while now and you’re still touring. How do you keep your music fresh?
JC: We rotate new members. Members are like tires. Seriously though, we just keep playing and having fun. The music is really timeless. It’s so relevant to life in college. So many of the things in Reel Big Fish’s music happened to me in college.
AB: I think it’s “The Beer Song.” And the Baseketball movie. That’s why people still know who we are.
SL: What can you tell me about your performance at WILD? You’re going to be out there with Cut Chemist and OK Go.
JC: That’s another fun thing about college shows. There’s always a real great collection of artists there.
SL: You guys clearly have a pretty good rapport with each other. How does that affect your stage presence?
JC: At a Reel Big Fish show, the fans are totally involved. We are totally talking to the audience and involving the audience. We’re not just turning our back on the audience and being above the music. We’re trying to get everyone involved.
SL: What are some of your influences?
JC: We all like different bands. Ask anyone and they’ll give you a long list of bands that have nothing to do with each other. And we all like comedy.
Ryland Steen: That’s the cool thing about this band. Someone will just say, “Hey, check this out,” and turn you on to some new type of music. In one room people will be listening to hip-hop and in another it will be old-school ska. It’s really neat.
SL: You have mentioned humor a few times. What is your sense of humor?
RS: We get a weird joy out of the awkward silence. It’s like a shot in the arm. Once we get that first bit of silence we just try to prolong it and see how long we can go for.
AB: We take ourselves to the edge of personality suicide and stand there for as long as we can. We wait to see if we can do something that would possibly make sense to people and have them laugh. And if they don’t, we fall off the cliff and die. But that’s a really great feeling, keeping people confused for a good 10 minutes and then in the end they laugh.