What's up everyone this week I got the got a treat. I have to give Kyle Thanks for getting me the chance to interview these guys. Have Fun I first heard about them on a blogpost and I was hook. and still listen to there tunes. Spazz & Infest worship. Hailing from Machesney Park, Illinois. Here is the interview with Have Fun.
State your name and what band do you play in:
David/Drums in Have Fun
Paul/Guitar/Grunts in Have Fun
Brian/Bass/Howls in Have Fun
A fan of Have Fun when I got into the band.. How you guys doing??
D: Not bad. Trying to eat less pizza.
B: Life is cool sometimes. Glad you like the noise we made.
P: I’m okay. I miss seeing people.
How did you guys get into punk??
D: I’m the youngest person in the band so I started with Nu Metal/Pop punk in the late 90s which just naturally progressed into Fat Wreck punk and some introductory hardcore like Hatebreed and then I just wanted heavier and heavier stuff. I’ve always been friends with people that are older than me so it was easy to get into new stuff.
B: I don’t specifically remember but it was the mid 90s, I was 14/15, Fat Wreck Chords and Epitaph were a top of their game and I just dove in. Once the internet came around I would just download anything I could find so I didn’t have the natural progression or older punk that a lot of people had.
P: I was a prepubescent metal head, so the classic Metallica to Misfits jump. Then when I was 14 I got seated next to a kid in history class that made me a tape with Disrupt, Destroy!, Hellnation, and Dropdead. I got exposed to less grindy punk rock after that.
How did you guys get the name Have Fun??
D: All I remember is that I came up with a handful of really horrible names before the band fully formed and I’m glad we went with Have Fun.
P: Fun has always been a focus in our group of friends, The same kid that made the mixtape and I were at basement show and there were some kids actively not having a good time and he was just like "Fuck, why are you here? Have Fun." So it's also a command.
How did the band start??
P: David got in touch with me, I'm not sure how he even knew about me as we had a pretty large age gap and I was living in a different city at the time. I think he was like 15 or 16 and I was 26.
The thing is, if someone who plays drums shows up out of the blue saying I want to play fastcore you're a fucking idiot if you don't take them up on it.
There was this kid Josh that played guitar for one show, he tried paying to get into that show and then disappeared.
So then I started paying guitar.
D: I was in a few straight up punk bands in high school and when they ended I wanted to start a fast hardcore band. I wrote and recorded a couple songs and had Paul record vocals on them. I met him through a mutual friend through shows and other bands. The rest is history as they say.
B: I joined sometime after the first show. My previous band had just ended and we were all friends so they invited me to play with them.
Who mom is that arguing with there kid ???saying you have fun that track also gets me it reminds me and my mom... lol
Have Fun was Influenced by Infest, Go!... was there any other influences I know you guys had A song called C.R.E.A.M. I know that a Wu Tang Clan referred were you guys influence by Hip Hop too??
D: When we first started the band it was definitely
infest/Spazz/Crossed Out worship. Later on other things creeped in like Anthem Eighty Eight and a lot more noise elements. I know we all love hip hop but it was never a conscience influence.
P: Well we for sure borrowed(and by that I mean stole) some riffs from Spazz & W.H.N. Influences for me Ottawa, Suppression, and Ulcer were what I was trying to emulate.
I dunno if hip hop was much of an influence, we are fans of the genre for sure.
B: We definitely ripped some Spazz riffs. The whole self titled 7” is pretty much Crossed Out worship. I was heavy into them at that time.
How did you guys get the split with Deep Shit??? Kyle explained a little about it but wanted to know from your guys point of view..
D: I can’t remember exactly but I know Paul met them up in Madison and passed their tape around to us. We played some shows with them and became fast friends.
P: I met Matt by being a loudmouth drunk complaining about not being able to meet people in Madison. He was very gracious and invited us over to his place for a BBQ. I think they asked us to play a couple shows after that. I remember seeing them at a house show before that and being so amped on what they were doing.
What was the best show you guys played or tour???
D: Every show in Peoria, IL and every show with Curb are some of the best memories I have in my life. I also remember our last show in Madison, WI being particularly wild. Also, the time we played someone’s birthday at a bar in Berwyn, IL.
P: Every show in Peoria was fucking killer,the song says it all, that whole crew are great people. The one we played with latex nuns/mother speed/ANS and Cross Exam was a blast. The In Disgust show in Chicago was fun. Meeting the Curb dudes when they were in a band called Have a Blast.
B: We played so many super weird shows because we never turned anything down. If we could play we played it. Every show that we played with either Curb or Deep Shit always stand out.
What was the last show you guys play like and how did it the band come to an end??
D: A full day of beautiful festivities at our good friends house. I remember Paul wearing red short shorts and us convincing Curb to headline because they were better than us.
P: It came to an end because I was moving to Seattle. We did our last show at a friends house. We for sure did Defiance covers, at one point we started recording all of No Future No Hope. There was definitely a slip-n-slide. I was wearing shorts that were way too short.
B: Last show was at a friends house we did shows in occasionally. I think I lived there at that point too. We got all of our friends bands that we could and had a big cookout. Just a really good way to end things. We ended because Paul was moving across the country. David and I started another band with our friend Rob right towards the end so we transitioned bands really easily.
Are you guys working on anything new projects???? Will there be A Have Fun reunion???
P: I'm currently collecting material for a lathe cut scavenger hunt across the United States. I'm not opposed to a reunion, we are far from each other so that kind of makes it hard. I don't know where we would do it, no really liked us in our town.
D: I make movies under the name Other Trash. You can follow my Instagram @Brobocop77 for any info on that. Brian and I live together so we’re always talking about doing another heavy project but nothing has materialized recently. We have been in a bunch of bands between Have Fun and now and I’m sure that’s all available online somewhere.
I used to be very adamantly against reunion shows but the older I get the more I don’t care and I’d totally do it if it were the right situation. As long as it’s fun (nahaha). Like Paul said, no one really gave a fuck in our hometown so I don’t know where it would be. Maybe Madison or some places we never got to when were active like California or somewhere else with lots of friends.
B.: I haven’t been playing anything lately. David and I did a band called Trophy Husband about 2 years ago, but haven’t done anything recently.
A reunion isn’t likely because Paul doesn’t live near us anymore but I would never say no. We were only a band for 2 years and it’s insane to me that people still remember us, but being in a band with my best friends is something I will always love
Any shoutout you guys want to give???
P: CJ, Neil, Sami, R.I.P Nate Powers, Dustin, Brandon, Gabe, Brenda, Austin, Chris, Grant, Doug fucking Sorg, Fecal Fred.
D: Shout out to anyone who booked us, partied with us, ran in a circle to us, or jammed the records. I love that people are still digging the tunes. Thanks!
