Dead Boy Productions

 

11/04/06
Dan-Zig

Dead Boy Productions with Shelby of The Chop Tops

 

The Chop Tops are a three-piece “Revved up Rockabilly” band from Santa Cruz, California.  The influences of great rock and roll and rhythm and blues of the fifties such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Fats Domino as well as punk rock bring the Chop Tops their unique sound.  The band consists of stand up drummer and singer, Sinner, upright bassist Hotrod, and Gretsch player Shelby.  Shelby was cool enough to answer some questions for us at DeadBoy.

How and when did the band start?

Sinner started The Chop Tops 11 years ago after his band Sinner & the V8’s disbanded. At one time there were six guys in the group! I joined the band in late ’98, early ’99 after leaving the Lloyd Tripp & the Zip Guns out of San Francisco. In mid 2001 we trimmed the group down to a trio, which made it a lot more powerful and easier to hear what we were playing onstage!

I noticed that your latest CD says that all guitar sounds were made with fingers. How important is this to the band and why include it in a statement like that?

I'm asked a lot what type of effects I use. I wrote this in response to these questions. I don’t use any of the fancy pedals guitar stores sell these days. I’m not saying they’re not good for coloring tones while recording, but when you try to duplicate what you’ve done in studio during a live show, it can become a complete mess. In my opinion, there’s nothing more boring than watching a guitarist stand in one place stomping on 20 pedals in order to achieve a sound he can more than likely do with his fingers and a Bigsby. To each his own. I’m the kind of guy who plugs straight into the amp, cranks it to 11 and hopes for the best while expecting the worst! (Laughs)

Sinner definitely has a different style of singing than most rockabilly bands with a punk influence. Do you feel that this sets you apart from other bands that may have a somewhat similar style to the Chop Tops?

Sinner is one of the greatest singers out there. He’s a man of a thousand voices. His singing voice can go from sweet sounding, and then at the drop of a hat, pissed off and in your face. Not many singers can do this and play drums standing up! I’m still to this day amazed by his ability and talent.

Your latest CD, Triple Deuces, was released on Split 7. How did you hook up with them?

Their A&R person by the name of Phat Elvis was a huge fan of our third CD “Evil Six” and he had the ‘powers that be’ come out and check us out live in Los Angeles one night and they were sold. They added one of our songs to one of their compilation CD’s, I believe it was “Return of the Hot Rod Zombies” and signed us thereafter. We had a few other labels trying to sign us, but Split 7 gave us complete control to make the music we wanted to make and not mold us into a copycat band. This was really important to us, to be ourselves.

Triple Deuces is actually the fourth Chop Tops CD with the third one being Evil Six. What are the other two and where can fans get them?

The first CD, which came out in early 1999, was entitled “Tales of Hot Rods, Hot Broads & Lucky Odds”. It was produced by Deke Dickerson and was released on our label Swillbilly with a very limited run. The second CD “Always Wild” was released in 2000 on the Rollin’ Rock Records label and was produced by Ronny Weiser. You’d be really hard pressed to find the first one, since it’s been out of print for years. The funny thing is I saw one selling on ebay a while ago and I believe it sold for $50! I don’t think I’ve ever paid $50 for a CD, but if you want something bad enough, I guess you’ll pay any price.

“Always Wild” is another one that’s hard to find, but we had a girl contact us by email a while back and said she found it in Holland and paid something like $28 for it. Look and ye shall find.

I really don’t think we’ll ever re-release “Tales of Hot Rods”. I guess if there’s a huge demand we may. As far as “Always Wild”, it’s really up to Rollin’ Rock Records. “Hey Ronny if you’re reading this please take note. People are looking for this CD!”

Lately you have been touring and playing a lot of shows with Three Bad Jacks and the Nekromantix. Both bands have their own big respective followings. Being able to play with these bands consistently have you seen an increase in the number of people who come to check you out and become fans of yours? (I have, but I wonder if you have)

Of course! We’d be fooling ourselves if we didn’t think playing with these bands didn’t help increase our fan base, but I also believe it cuts both ways. There are fans who have come out to see The Chop Tops and who didn’t know the other bands, but came out of a show as new fans. That’s the great thing about touring/playing shows together. In the end everybody wins. Bands who give fans more bang for their buck and add groups they know will kick ass and make the show more desirable to attend, are the smart ones. On the other hand, there are some bands out there who live in fear and feel they don’t want the competition, or to be upstaged, or whatever. These are the bands who’ll be playing to a half empty houses. It’s a rock ‘n’ roll show after all. Not a fucking football game!

How effective do you think MySpace is to your band?

Very effective! Before MySpace you had to do a lot more legwork in order to get your name out there or to let people know you were coming to play their town. Promotion is now a push of a button. Genius!

What are your thoughts on downloading music?

Interesting question. My take is this. The Rockabilly/Psychobilly scene isn’t really that huge, if you compare it to other genres. The Chop Tops along with other bands such as Nekromantix, DAG, and Three Bad Jacks, to name a few, do it for the love of the music and its fans. There isn’t millions of dollars to be made. In order to give the fans music which isn’t corrupted and watered down, every cent which is made goes right back into touring, promoting etc. The record company doesn’t pay for these things. The bands do. If fans start downloading music free from file sharing programs, it’ll surely kill the whole scene and the bands you love so much will no longer be around.

Do what you do. We’re not part of the Thought Police, watching your every move and telling you what to do, but realize with every action there are consequences. Food for thought.

Are there any great stories you would like to tell us about touring with Three Bad Jacks and the Nekromantix?

(Laughs) Too many for you to print! No seriously. We’ve known Elvis and Brett from Three Bad Jacks for years and they are two really great and down to earth guys. We met Kim and the Nekro’s two years ago and it was really a pleasure to tour with them last summer, so much so, they have asked us to tour with them again this summer. It should be an excellent tour! I wish I had some crazy stories to share, like trashed hotel rooms, drunken human sacrifices, drinking groupie blood, but it was pretty mellow. When you have 27 cities to hit in 30 days, there isn’t much time for that.

Any last words or thank you's?

Yes. Thank you Dan for contacting us to do this interview. You’re questions were a breath of fresh air, compared to other interviews we’ve done. Also, thank you to all fans out there! Without you, we would’ve surely given up long ago! See you again real soon!