Black N Blue Bowl: Interview with Paul Bearer of Joe Coffee and Sheer Terror

I talked to Paul Bearer backstage at the BNB Bowl. Paul is best known for his work with Sheer Terror in the '80s and '90s, but the for the past few years he's fronted Joe Coffee. Paul had a lot of funny, heartfelt things to say. This guy rules. Check it out, easily the best interview of the day.

--On Sheer Terror:

PB: Sheer Terror is dead. We put it to rest four years ago, when we did the two shows at CBGBs. The money was good and it was good to be reunited with my old band members and whatnot. To put it to rest the right way. I did it to bury it right, and it's buried.

--On his band Joe Coffee:

PB: There was a detective in New York City who was involved in the whole Son of Sam thing named Joe Coffee. But I just call it Joe Coffee because I like coffee. It's an easy name to remember. The merchandising possibilities are endless [laughs]. I've been doing it seven years at least. We've got one EP, one album, we pressed up a thousand. Ice Cream Records is gonna rerelease it, hopefully by the time summer starts. It ain't hardcore. It's punk by nature. I mean, we're all from the hardcore scene and whatnot. I've been going to shows for 26 years or so. You don't always have to hold onto the same thing and keep doing it over and over. The clinical definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I can't do that. I'm insane enough, and I'm dealing with that in therapy once a week. But with Joe Coffee, it's more where my heart always was. It's rock n roll, it's punk. I want to bring more of a soul thing into it. Northern soul, with a horn section, eventually--I hope, I pray. But I'm still writing about growing up and trying to do your bit. All my friends are fucked up or criminals, and I would never turn my back on them, but I want everybody to do better. To put that into music. The girls are getting it more than the guys right now, which is cool. The guys are gonna' realize, 'hey, he's still one of us.'

I steal from old country and old r&b and soul songs. I'll be the first to admit it. I did that with Sheer Terror, but nobody realized it because they were too busy punching each other in the face in the pit. But with Joe Coffee, I don't want them so much punching each other in the pit. I want them to enjoy themselves. I'm not reinventing the wheel by any means, I just want people to enjoy themselves and have fun. And if I do strike a chord and they understand it, it's a bonus for me. I'm not gonna' give 'em Sheer Terror again and again, I'd feel like I'm cheating the audience. I'm a musician, I'm an artist, quote/endquote, I expand, I move on. If they like the songs, the music, that's all that really matters to me.

--On the song "Everything's Fine," by the Saints, which Sheer Terror covered:

PB: The Saints, one of the first, if not the first, punk bands out of Australia. That's from their third album called Prehistoric Sounds. They put out their first, (I'm) Stranded, their second album, Eternally Yours. The third album was more of a departure. They were punk, rock, r&b. I urge anyone to dive into the Saints, especially their first three albums. We did ["Everything's Fine"] live a couple times. Without the horns, it took away, but we played it because it's one of my favorite songs.

Chatting with Paul Bearer. Photos by David Hsu.

--On comparing bands like Blood For Blood to Sheer Terror:

PB: Y'know, the Blood For Blood thing, they bring that up a lot. Don't get me wrong, they were a good band for what they did. I know those guys. But I don't really see it. Maybe the honesty, or the anger. I'm not taking anything away from them. They cursed a helluva lot more than I did. I mean, "fuck" was every other word in their lyrics. I can see myself using "fuck" more in Joe Coffee, which is weird. As I get older, I'm cursing more. The desperation and whatnot, the hate. But I don't really see it.

The term hatecore, I cannot stand. I think it's fucking ridiculous. It's hardcore. And to just base your whole life on hate, hate, hate, hate. I mean, even the Nazis didn't do that. To not try or want to love, it's saddening. It's depressing. It didn't help me that my first record was called Just Can't Hate Enough. Didn't help. I love love, and I want to love love again, and I want to be in love with a woman who I love. I'm not a big fan of people, I don't like people as a whole, but the ones I do, I care for. For me to hate you means we had some sort of relationship and it went bad--whether it's friendship or business or whatever--and it turned to hate. I'm not priding myself on hating people because that's just redundant and ignorant and stupid. So, I mean, Blood For Blood--God bless 'em. Musically, I guess [it resembles Sheer Terror], but I don't listen to a lot of hardcore. As far as I'm concerned, the last great hardcore, heavy record that came out was Poison Idea's Feel The Darkness [released 1990]. Nothing can touch that album. Slayer can suck a dick compared to that album.

--On Joe Coffee potentially playing a Superbowl:

PB: A show's a show. If there's people, we'll play. We don't turn our noses up at anything. But we're not a hardcore band. The indie scene, or whatever you wanna' call it, they're like afraid of me. I don't even know these people. So we can't really get shows with them. We tried. We'll play with anyone! But with the Superbowl, we'd love to play. We'd stick out like a sore thumb. But you know what? That's not a bad thing.



----Well, that's everything from the Black N Blue Bowl. It was a fun day. I want to thank Dave Hsu for taking photos, and the Rockstar people for the beer tickets.