Somewhat synonymous with the skateboarding videos and crazy prank calls of Jackass, CKY resists being labeled and becoming any part of a “scene”. Their dedication and DIY attitude have helped them to prosper. The band stays true to their music and doesn’t need any radio play to prove themselves to anyone – The Alliance takes care of that. Chad Ginsberg, guitarist, took time from his day off to discuss the watering-down of rock music, over the top prices in pawn shops, and the fact that you just can’t use the bathroom on the tour bus.

Hey, Chad! How are you?
Fine. In the Pawn Shop – looking at some things for my guitar. It’s a day off and I needed to get away from the rest of the guys.

Well, let’s start of with what are some of your major influences?
Chad: Cute voices – like yours. No really…I’ve been having one of those days and it’s nice to hear a cute voice on the end of the line.

How would you describe CKY to a new fan?
The sound of CKY is one you’ve not heard if you have not heard CKY.

What’s the basis of the name Camp Kill Yourself? And why shorten it?
Originally it started as a pseudo-horror film title…our singer is really into slasher film. Thinking of a band title is one of the most pretentious things you can do besides forming one. Thinking of a name is not the easiest thing to do so when CKY came along we were like “yeah, great.” Then when we got with Bam he was doing a movie at the same time we were doing the first record and we combined the two and called it CKY.

What do you always take with you on tour?
It’s something that I forgot this time – I always take this mounted GG Allin flyer from one of his last shows…I’ve just been doing that for a long, long time. I put it in the back of the bus – which I claim as my own territory. Tour’s going good.

What is your favorite aspect of touring?
The people – travel. New places everyday. Kind of a mixture of the two. You get to meet all the people that have been listening to your music. There are a lot of benefits to the tour. I hate days off…I hate sitting at home. I hate pricing the same cameras, that I’m not going to buy, over and over again (he’s perusing the pawn shop’s array of digital cameras at this moment). Touring, the show part, is a great hour and a half. The rest of it is a lot of waiting around. You get to talk to people in that time. We make so many friends and you like to see familiar faces. Watching 13 year olds grow into 18 year olds.

What is your biggest regret?
Not using the bathroom in the hotel earlier last night. Having to walk through pawn shops without restrooms for me to use. I’m full of shit – pun intended. My other regret is telling you that I should have used the can earlier last night. I didn’t do it to make you feel uncomfortable.

What is your least favorite aspect of touring?
The shitting thing – I think every band knows this. You can’t shit on the bus. And being on the same bus as Deron Miller.

Where do you get your inspiration?
Um…where do we get it? CKY, we record and write our own music, so we produce and mix our own albums. So the inspiration is just our love for doing it I suppose. The Alliance. Even when we hate each other…we love each other enough to just hate each other today…

And why do you hate each other today?
We haven’t been out on the road for like a year and a half or more. It’s just getting back into the swing of things…

What was the hardest track to record on the album?
Umm…that album was not fucking easy at all by any means. Hardest track – there was no easy track…maybe…no…we’re trying to please ourselves and there’s no one who says “that’s good enough.” There’s no time limit so every song seems equally hard in my mind…but Id rather be doing that then digging ditches or making burritos. Hardest to mix was probably “As the Tables Turn.”

How do you think that you have evolved as a band?
I feel that we evolved in the sense that we have said every awful thing we possibly could to each other to the point that we’re still working together. If we’re able to overcome that...the music has become better…we got a new bass player. The live shows are really tight and thick sounding – more than they’ve ever been. It’s all growing…just curious if we’re mentally growing apart. I don’t want CKY to break up in any way.

What is your favorite venue to play?
Philadelphia – anywhere in Philly is really good. I like it because that’s where we’re from. It’s just a different vibe when we’re there. People travel from all over the place to come see us in Philadelphia. Electric Factory. I don’t like big shows…I can’t interact.

You lose something in big venues.
I want to sweat on the kids and I want them to sweat back on me. I need to see if they’re okay…I can’t see if they’re thirsty or getting crushed or not. We did Warped Tour for a few years. You have to be able to get off the stage and get out there.

What do you do in your spare time?
Never get any spare time. I guess I’m in spare time right now. I do this in my spare time (visit pawn shops). I’m actually pricing microphones. Definitely over-priced.

How do feel about the direction rock has taken – with hoards of sound-a-like bands?
It always happens when everybody decides that they’re buddies and get into a scene. We don’t have really any true friends in this industry so we don’t have a scene to be a part of. Once everybody decides that they’re cool they start to band together. And they start to sound the same. CKY has been labeled everything in the book – we could be jewelry rock, we could be camera rock…whatever the hell they want to call it. It’s fucking hysterical to me…I’m starting to enjoy the new ideas of how to label music. That’s probably why we don’t get radio play. They don’t have a format to put us in.

How do you achieve your unique sound?
We do it ourselves. Produce it ourselves. Mix it ourselves. Don’t let anybody tell us what to do. Ever. From the start. When they met me I was recording every band in the area…so just putting together the combination of doing it ourselves…you get what the band wants. It’s a hundred percent truth to what we can deliver. There’s nothing we regret from any album we release.
What can you tell me about the following excerpt from “Page 6”?
ROLLING Stone writer Jenny Eliscu has complained to Island/Def Jam chairman L.A. Reid that one of his label's bands, CKY, is waging a harassment campaign against her - including the wish that she "die soon" - because she panned their new album.
That’s so misunderstood – so blown out of proportion. With Jenny, the writer, she likes press. That’s why she’s part of it. You can look all over the Internet, you can look anywhere you want - try to find any proof that we’re campaigning. We’re not into campaigning. Her review, which I did have the misfortune of reading, was not an album review. It was a call-out to our fans -”wanna fight” and then she cried when she got what she asked for. The Alliance does what they’re gonna do. Don’t mess with a band with fans that actually care about them.
Do you have any last comments?
Yes, I do… you have a sweet voice and a kind manner to you. Thank you.