July 16, 2004

(S’n’O)

1. Tell me a little history of the band. So how did the band get together? What’s the relationship with the Mob Town Hooligans?

(Ayres/CCS)
I started this band (Charm City Saints) as a side project when I was still with the Mobtown Hooligans. Things were starting to get fucked up with the Hooligans, and I enjoyed playing. I wanted to make sure I still had an outlet, so I started the Charm City Saints. About a month and a half later the Hooligans played our last show and I asked Dave and Piper Mike (Hooligans Bass player and Piper) if they were interested in doing the Saints with me. I had been talking with Damon, who I was in Next Step Up with back in the early ’90’s with. He wasn’t really playing anymore but wanted to do something again. SEJ is a great guitarist, but he was going to try out for just singing, I kinda talked him into doing both, and I think it paid off.. He is a really strong frontman… This was maybe Nov of “03, but sometime in Dec/Jan Dave started to get sketchy, not showing up for practice, not calling anyone.. ect ect.. So we figured it would be better for everyone if we just parted ways with him.. lucky for us, my buddy Jim’s band Samadhi was going through some problems of their own… Jim was the very first bass player the Mobtown Hooligans had, I asked if he wanted to fill in, he said he would do it full time… that kinda brings up to the present…

(S’n’O)

2. Based on watching your video I would classify the Charm City Saints as punk rock with bagpipes, how far from the truth am I?

(Ayres/CCS)
If you mean we don’t sound like the Pogues, or Flogging Molly or like everyone else that is “Irish punk” …. then your right… which I will take as a big compliment! We’re punks, skins and old hardcore kids, thats what we know, thats what we play, straight up punk rock… every now and then we break into some shanties and traditional sounding stuff but for the most part it’s just raw rock and roll… even when I was with the Hooligans, we all agreed to try to not to have that typical “pogues” sound that everyone seems to be shooting for these days… people are digging it, it’s not what everyone expects but we have been getting alot of nice things said about us… I think the biggest compliment we got was when we played the Disasters show.. some kid came up to me and said “You guys remind me of The Real McKenzies”. Bands like them or old DKM when Mike was still with the band, Far From Finished, or even the Street Dogs is kinda what we are going for… not saying we are trying to be them, they each do their own thing, and we do ours… You can hear underlying themes of rocksteady, ska, oi, punk & hardcore in our stuff but it doesn’t sound a thing like any one of them, but a big cluster fuck of them all..

(S’n’O)

3. Who are your influences? Idols?

(Ayres/CCS)
Everyone comes from different variations of punk…. some of the bands who influenced up through out the years have been bands like the Ramones, Sheer Terror, Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, Slapshot, Social Distortion, Section 5, Vicious Rumours, Cockney Rejects, Sham 69, Cron Gen, Peter & the Test Tube Babies,The Clash, G.B.H., HalfLife, Naked Raygun, U.K. Subs, Real McKenzies, Old Dropkick’s w/Mike, Wolfetones, Pogues, Generation X, Forgotten Rebel’s, New York Dolls, The Who, Ziggy Stardust, New Model Army, Strung Out, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Jawbreaker, The Pouges, AC/DC, Arch Enemy, The Swinging Utters, Lag Wagon, Public Enemy, The Mad Caddies, 4 Skins, The Business, Agnostic Front, The Specials, NWA, Killing Time, Rancid, Soilwork, Children Of Bodom, God For Bid, Rush, Misfits, Samhain, Iron Maiden, Screeching Weasel…. just to name a few…. Idols… i don’t belive in that shite…

(S’n’O)

4. I’m hearing rumors of a CCS demo, hows that coming along? What are the plans/dreams for the band?

(Ayres/CCS)
Recording…. it would be nice… we are a bunch of poor working class slobs… we hope to get enough coin together to record an EP soon. We are looking at Oct. as the earliest….but who knows.. maybe someone will advance us some coin to record sooner.. As far as future plans go… we just enjoy playing, we are past the childhood dreams of rock stardom, Damon and I had that with Next Step Up. NSU was signed… we toured Europe and Japan, but we really are not looking to do that with the Saints… we like to write and play, if it takes us further than it takes us further.. but we have no expectations of anything more… if it happens, then we’ll deal with it then…

(S’n’O)

5. Being from Baltimore, hows the scene down there? Any opinion on Mayor O’Malley and his band?

(Ayres/CCS)
Baltimore/D.C. has a great punk scene right now, some bands to look out for are: Big Daddy Chrome, DUI, The Screws, The Slumlords, Wake Up Cold, Fighting Chance, The Gamma Rays, Die Cheerleader Die, Full Minute of Mercury, Bring It On, Fierce Allegiance, Babies with Rabies, VPR, Scheduled Beating, Samhadi, Together We Fall, Misery Index., & Stout. In Baltimore we have 2 major clubs The Sidebar Tavern and The Ottobar which have shows pretty much every day of the week. As for Mayor O’Malley and O’Malley’s March.. i think they are great. They have alot of talent in that band. The fiddle player Jim is one of the top players worldwide. They have gotten alot better in the past year or so, i think that came with the addition of Jim and Sean. Plus what other city can throw a few Guinness back with their mayor on a regular basis! And on a final note, i want to thank everyone who supports us, all the streetteam guys that bust their asses promoting the band, definitely to you and the other lads at Shite -n- Onions…