Me First And The Gimme Gimmes
Subscribe
X

Get the latest from Beat

Me First And The Gimme Gimmes

mefirstandthegimmegimmes.jpg

Though punk rock is generally considered a young man’s game, Melvin finds ways to balance touring life with home life. “Well, playing music is my first love. I mean, I love my wife dearly,” he clarifies, diplomatically, “But I loved music first. It’s constantly in conflict with my family life, but I find ways to make it work. I don’t drink and party as much. I still enjoy my beer, my shots, my wine – but not as much, because it makes it harder to be present if I’m calling home. Besides, between tours I can take my son to pre-school. It’s all these mums, and then there’s me,” he adds with a smirk, “So there are perks.”

As well as the covers and the matching Hawaiian shirts, The Gimme Gimmes are known as a good time band, to the extent that a fully functioning bar forms a prominent part of their stage set-up. They still have a good time, but things are a little less blurry. Melvin agrees. “Yeah, it’s not like the early days, when we were hammered, playing like shit, laughing it off and not even remembering it,” he says. “I figured, ‘I like playing music, and if I can’t even remember it, I’m probably not doing a very good job.’ What I love about playing music is expressing myself, but when you’ve had a bit too much, you end up fighting with your instrument – and it’s not a fight that you win.”

Of course, fighting with instruments hasn’t always been a metaphorical matter for Melvin – he famously wore a blow to the head from NOFX bandmate Fat Mike’s bass at a gig in Israel. “I didn’t even feel it”, Melvin says of the incident. “I only remember a flash of light. My grandfather came over from the Ukraine. He was a farmer, and I think I have a strong-boned genealogy – maybe we broke logs over our heads before we had axes. It was only a Danelectro bass, though: I don’t know if you can kill someone with a blow to the forehead, and I don’t really want to find out.”

The Gimme Gimmes aren’t so much a band as a loose collective, a social club centred around some of the key bands of the Fat Wreck scene. The five founding members – Spike Slawson (Swingin’ Utters), Joey Cape, Dave Raun (both Lagwagon), Fat Mike (NOFX) and Chris Shiflett (No Use For A Name) – are responsible for the recorded output, but the touring incarnation of the band is ever-evolving. “Well, the band can’t tour without Spike,” he explains. “After that, the other founding members figure out if they can tour. If Chris can’t tour, his brother Scott fills in. If Mike can’t tour, I play bass. They’re trying to do a European tour next year, but my wife and I are expecting our second child, so they might invite some European musicians this time. Basically, it’s a revolving door of people we know and like.”

When your stock in trade involves covering some of the hokiest songs ever written, it’s easy to imagine your head dropping at the thought of certain items in the setlist. Melvin, though, reveals himself to be surprisingly appreciative of cheese-pop. Of the current set, “I like Nobody Does It Better,” he says. “It’s such a beautiful song, and so fun to play. I love Isn’t She Lovely as well, and Linda Linda, off the Japanese EP, I really like that one, too. We’ll be doing a divas album next, so I’m looking forward to some Christina Aguilera.”

BY EDWARD SHARP-PAUL