Legends of punk, funk, ska, and really, a sound all their own, Fishbone will invade the Vans Warped Tour this weekend in Long Beach before heading back on the road as part of Less Than Jake’s Summer Circus 2025.
The Los Angeles band responsible for “Party at Ground Zero” dropped a new album last month, “Stockholm Syndrome,” and it is everything we needed from founding members Angelo Moore and Christopher Dowd, who are rounded out by Tracey “Spacey T” Singleton, Hassan Hurd, John “JS” Williams II, and James Jones.
Recovering from a wicked cold – a gift from the last leg of the tour – and gearing up to head out again, Chris Dowd stopped long enough to chat about the band’s first album in over two decades, “Stockholm Syndrome,” and the future of Fishbone.
Traci: Hey Chris! How are you feeling?
Chris: I got a gnarly cold, and I’m just telling you now, you don’t want any part of this shit!
Traci: Aw man, I am sorry! I’ll make this as painless as possible. (laughing)
Chris: You can make it painful.
Traci: I’m going to start with my friendship with Kid Rock.
Chris: I’m sorry to hear that.
Traci: (laughing) But for real, I grew up in Los Angeles County, and Fishbone has always been there in my life. But when I went to actually research for this talk, I kept finding it stated that you guys formed in 1979 and met as middle schoolers?
Chris: Yeah.
Traci: That’s a long time! A lifetime.
Chris: It sounds like a very long time, but when they put that there, I wish they would asterisk it and say that’s when we met. Not like, “And they were fully formed, and they were playing at the Starwood, opening for Black Flag.”
Traci: How old were you the first time one of your songs got on the radio?
Chris: Well, 1984. So I was 18.
Traci: Was it on KROQ?
Chris: KROQ, yeah. Well, here’s the thing. There’s a station in Los Angeles, and it’s too bad that radio isn’t as influential as it once was. Because you could get played on the radio in LA because that’s where everybody was getting their new music from or going to Tower Records, or Wherehouse, or Sam Goody, or the five or six actual chains of record companies. We were listening to KXLU, and KXLU in LA was like… If KROQ was professional basketball, then KXLU was like G League. Those were people that were going to be the next big DJ. And some of them were even to the point where they didn’t even want to go to KROQ. They wanted to go straight in and do whatever because they had built that following on the radio or their shows had built those following that I remember at a certain point, KXLU was competing with KROQ, big time. And so KXLU is probably the first radio station in Los Angeles that played us.
Traci: Do you remember that first time you heard it?
Chris: Yeah, driving in the car with everybody in the band because we like, were coming from a gig. What we had done is we had this friend, Frank Gibson, and they had a band called Planet 10, and they were like if LA had a UB40. And so we would do shows together, and one of the guys in the band was a recording engineer. We wanted to demo out stuff before we actually went into a studio because we had been enough times into a recording studio to realize the expense and wanted it to be tight and just go in there and nail it. So what we did was we made a really good eight-track recording of “Party at Ground Zero.” He mixed it and got it put on cassettes, and we were taking that around, and they were already playing “Party at Ground Zero” on KXLU here.
Chris added: And we became friends with Eddie X and Jed the Fish, and Poorman. They started playing the eight track of “Party at Ground Zero,” and people started freaking out. Then labels started to show up, and we eventually got signed, and it made sense because at the same time, Chili Peppers had gotten signed in EMI. They did that first Red Hot Chili Peppers record with Andy Gill from Gang of Four, and everybody was well on their way. So we were like, “We’ve got to get signed.” I was 18 when we signed that deal. All this happened in a flash. And by the time it was all said and done, we had done the EP, and it was less than a year later. I think the first record came out, and we graduated from high school in ‘83, ‘84. By the time ‘85 rolled around, we already had a record out. “Party at Ground Zero” was clearly the track because nobody was going to play “Lying Ass Bitch” on the radio at that juncture.
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Traci: (laughing) I want to hear “Racist Piece of Shit” on the radio!
Chris: Come on. Yeah, come on. (chuckling) So yeah, all that stuff happened.
Traci: I’ve asked other bands, “Where were you the first time you heard your song on the radio,” and it didn’t occur to me until just now – that probably doesn’t happen to bands so much anymore.
Chris: It doesn’t happen. I feel bad for other people who didn’t get to have that experience because there’s nothing that makes you feel so walking on air as the first time you hear yourself on a major radio station. It’s just a cool accomplishment. “I did that. Holy shit.”
Traci: On the new album, “Stockholm Syndrome,” yes there is “Racist Piece of Shit.” I really love “Last Call in America.”
Chris: Thank you.
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Traci: It’s got such a good funk groove vibe on it. And then, when you listen to the words, it just… makes you speechless. “Why Do We Keep Dying?” I was in tears. Even though I’m bopping my head to it, at the same time, it made me teary. All your songs are, “It’s a good time,” but then also think pieces. “Secret Police,” the drums are so awesome, and then you’re like, “Damn.”
Chris: I know. I played them for some friends of mine, and I played them “Secret Police.” My friend Warren goes, “Subtle.”
Traci: Well, the time for being subtle is over.
Chris: Right, the subtle shit is like, you left the building, bro.
Traci: But “Love is Love.” You have hope in there too.
Chris: Yeah. I think you have to leave a full length on a hopeful note. I realized thinking about it all, sure, a “Racist Piece of Shit,” I’m calling a spade a spade, no pun intended. It because it’s like somebody has to tell these motherfuckers about themselves, whether they want to hear it or not. But the rest, and I think “Secret Police” is just… I don’t know. It’s angry, but it’s also angry and sits in a lot of disbelief. Is this really happening? Is this really where we are? Can this be what it is? And that’s the thing about any society that is as large as this one. To be a great society, to be an exceptional society, you have to have the capacity to face the truth about yourself.
Traci: You are going to be busy traveling with these songs. You’ve got Warped Tour in Long Beach, and then the Less Than Jake Summer Circus for a few months.
Chris: I think we’re going back to England and do a month in England as well.
Traci: Now that you’ve been doing this a while, is it easier to go from touring to home, or is it jarring to do that?
Chris: I don’t know anything else. I’m just on autopilot.
Traci: If you come home and someone says, “Take out the trash,” do you go, “No, I’m a rock star?”
Chris: No, I think I did when I was younger.
Traci: I read that you have enough stuff for a triple album or was that just whimsical chat?
Chris: Well, my my goal is for us to put out a triple album, yes.
Traci: You’ve got the material?
Chris: I’ve been obsessed with, well, what would be our “Tommy?” Because the story of Fishbone, to me, in a lot of ways, is a story of America. It’s just these things that are not supposed to fit together. That’s what we deal with the country. Sure, we have our differences. Sure, we’re not all the same, but together, we can build these amazing things, or we can have these amazing conversations. That was the whole point of coming from all these different backgrounds, the possibility. I feel like I want to tell that story, and we could tell that story from our perspective.
Chris went on: Before I came back to the band, I was working with this musician, and I didn’t want to make any music that sounded reminiscent of Fishbone. He was a really smart guy, and he was like, “You know what you guys are, right? You know what your story is?” You ever heard this saying, “The pioneers get the arrows and the settlers get the land?” He’s like, “It’s not always easy being the pioneer of something because sometimes people that pioneer something are unsung.” Fans come up and say, “Oh, you guys should have been bigger.” And for a really long time, I carried that around like, “Yeah, we should have been.” And then I realized, “No, I’m where I’m supposed to be.” And I don’t accept this other narrative of would it, could it, should it.
Traci: Plus, what can you do? What is worrying about the regrets going to fix?
Chris: It doesn’t change anything. It’s not really the best use of your time that you have. So that’s where I am with all that stuff. So that being said, yeah, it’s a triple record in my future. In the current iteration of the band, I don’t think I’ve ever felt as free as a writer to explore. And this iteration, we listen to each other and want each other to achieve whatever our individual or personal goals are as well as our collective. I don’t think you could ask for anything better than that. This record is just scratching the surface. I’ve always wanted to have my opportunity.
Chris explained: When Stevie produced his first record, “Music of My Mind,” all the way up until “Hotter Than July,” I think that’s one of the greatest runs as a writer or as an artist in history. “Music of My Mind,” “Innervisions,” “Fulfillingness’ First Finale,” “Talking Book,” “Songs in the Key of Life,” “The Secret Life of Plants,” “Hotter in July.” It’s like, “Hey, where’s the fat, Stevie?” You know what I mean? I always wanted to have the opportunity to do that. I think between myself and Angelo, that is absolutely doable. The other dudes in the band now, they’re right. I just want to encourage everyone to express themselves and have the opportunity to have a voice and respect that. That’s where I’m coming from.
Traci: I know you’re not healthy, healthy, but I’m glad you’re feeling a bit better.
Chris: Thanks.
Traci: And I’m glad you understood when I opened with Kid Rock that I was not serious.
Chris: Yeah. There are so many factors that happen before we even get to this conversation. When you start quoting lyrics lyrics, I think we’re on the same team. Yeah, definitely.
Pick up Fishbone’s “Stockholm Syndrome” and then we will see you this weekend at the Vans Warped Tour in Long Beach.
The guys will stay in the area for Less Than Jake’s Summer Circus with Bite Me Bambi, Suicide Machines, and Catbite in San Diego July 29th and 30th at The Observatory North Park, and August 1st at Riverside Municipal Auditorium in Riverside, then they will conquer the remainder of the US.
