-Chris Kelly & Patrick Singerman
The US Music Vault Online: Where did you get the name 'The Flys'?
Josh Paskowitz (singer/rhymes for the Flys): Its basically like the owners of 'Black Flys' sunglasses company are our good friends and I use to work there. They make sunglasses, but all they really do is smoke pot and go to strip clubs. Put it this way, the guy who owns 'Black Flys,' he's like 28 years old, and he's got like 3 different venereal diseases from all the strippers he's ever had sex with, with no condom on a beach in Tahiti, and he's got a $50,000 low-rider that's made of pure gold.
USMV: So basically the Flys are a bunch of guys who's ambition is to get numerous venereal diseases from strippers and waste money on gold low-riders?
Josh: (laughter) No, but that's like the mind set of us. I'm married
now, so no more diseases for me.
USMV: Flys often are dirty and carry plague.
Josh: Oh God...
USMV: When was the last time you showered, and when did you last get sick on the road?
Josh: OK, I showered this morning, which is rare. I only did it cause I had a hotel room. Last time I got sick on the road, I got a fucking nuclear infection in my throat, and I was puking green snot for like a month, and it was so sick.
Peter Perdichizzi (guitarist for the Flys): I washed my head for like the first time today on the whole tour, because I prefer the like greasy build-up.
USMV: When did you guys form? Did you play in bands before?
Peter: Yeah, Adam, James and I have been writing songs together and playing in heavy-metal bands around L.A. and Hollywood for 10 years. I guess the Flys got started about 5 years ago. We made a first record, "25 Cents," on an independent label. We would hand it out on tour. Then our drummer sucked too bad so we got a new one, and Josh was sort of hanging out....and now he's the fucking lead.
USMV: Whats it like having a brother in the band?
Josh: Oh, it sucks...I'm just kidding. I mean, my brother is 6 years older than me, so in a lot of ways he'll just tell me to do shit, and I'll do it. Do you guys have older brothers?
USMV: I have an older sister.
Josh: Well, that can be worse cause they'll like tell you to dress up in a skirt and shit like that.
USMV: That didn't happen to me.
Josh: Oh, well that's my own tragedy.
Peter: And you enjoyed it.
Josh: Yep, I still carry on that tradition today....just kidding.
Josh: Anyways, Adam has gotten us to where we are, and I put my own spin on the songs....that's where the Flys come out of. Peter's adapting his guitar, Jim is playing some funk, and Nick is on some rock shit. It's all funky and weird, but somehow it works.
USMV: What made you form a band combining rap and rock?
Josh: Well mostly because I listen to all sorts of music like rap, and pop, and reggae and shit like dance-hall. I looked at guys like the Beastie Boys, Red-Hot Chili Peppers and Faith No More to a certain extent, and definitely Rage (Against the Machine), and bred the styles to become one freakish offspring.
USMV: So what do you think of the hard-core stuff that's out, like Korn?
Josh: I like it because it rocks. I don't like it because of its musical content, because if you listen to it, it has no real rhythm or melody. I mean, I have all the respect in the world for Korn, because I think they're where it's at when it comes to just being in people's faces, going crazy and being hype. As far as the stuff that they're coming out with goes, the rhythm section is just kind of whack. If you give me the rhythm section of Rage, those guys are fuckin' slamming the skins, but its all preferential. I love Korn, just not their music. I love Rage's music, but they're jerks. See what I'm saying? Its like a trade-off. Limp Bizkit, I hear, are really cool guys, but their music blows!
USMV: What do you think of this whole sampling revolution? Of people like Puff Daddy taking beats and pieces from other songs?
Josh: Well, I like the Fugees, and I like Wyclef. I mean, he'll make a song the way Puffy does it, I mean the exact same stupid way, but Puffy's song will suck, and Wyclef's song will rock!
Josh: I mean that's where its at. Rock, heavy metal, rap, reggae. That's what we're all about.
USMV: How did you guys get the setup for the 2 singers?
Josh: Just because we're ghetto. We're trying to juice it for all its worth.
USMV: So on 'Holiday Man,' did you make your own parts?
Josh: Well, Peter would lay his guitar track on, and then Adam would come on and put down vocals for songs like "Got You (Where I Want You)," and that would be it. But then I'd come in and say "Adam, we've gotta put a hard part in the bridge." So, 15 minutes before we recorded it, I was in a fight my girl, and it hurt, almost like someone was hitting me on the head with a bat...but more than that. So, I went in and recorded that part of the track at the spur of the moment. I don't know if anyone could do this, cause we're brothers.
USMV: What's happening on the cover of 'Holiday Man'?
Peter: That's our drummer Nick.....no strings attached, he's an avid skydiver. That's the way he gets off, by jumping out of planes.
USMV: Have you ever done it with him?
Josh: Hell's no.
USMV: Do you do anything else as extreme?
Josh: To me, extreme is like walking in Queens after 8 PM, not jumping out of an airplane. My brain protects me from jumping out of a plane by not letting me go in to the plane with a parachute on. I've been trying to stay alive for so long, that now my brain will not allow me to do stupid shit that will end my life. I've been stabbed and beat up, and now I've got an instinct to stay alive.
USMV: Did anybody else in the band try skydiving?
Josh: Jim, our bassist, tried it and he is really into it now. He is off the hook. He'll do or eat anything. He'll just sit there and shove his fingers in his butt-hole and then ask you to smell it cause it smells like play-doh or something.
USMV: Did you ever expect this fame?
Josh: Well you hope, but you never expect to hit. I mean, to look in the top five and see Hole, Offspring, Cake and there's you're name...it's weird.
USMV: How's touring with Janus Stark? Can you even name all of them?
(long pause)
Peter: Shop, Pinch, and Gizz.
USMV: Congratulations.
Look for "Holiday Man," by the Flys, in your local record store, or any top ten listing.