Groezrock added some new names. Line-up includes: Screeching Weasel, Cro-Mags, Madball, NOFX, The Menzingers, ... guess I'll be hanging around in Meerhout again to open the festival season :-)

 

 

Hi Cretins,

here we are with an interview of CJ Ramone on cows, Kim Kardashian, crowdsourcing and his brand new album ‘Reconquista’. Setting up the interview with our beloved bass player/singer involved phone calls, Facebook, Les’ (close friend of the Ramones and local teddy bear, ed.) superhuman powers, a lounge VIP tent, a press room, a photographer from On the Rocks (Danny, ed.), an iPhone with a fatal memory error containing the interview and a very friendly press lady from Rock Ternat’s organization to make it all work out. 1,2,3,4… Hey ho, let’s go!

Ramones.be: Hi!

CJ: Hi!

CJ and SniperRamones.be: So, your new album is called ‘Reconquista’. How did you come up with the title?

CJ: Actually, I was reading a history book and I came across that word. It really fit what I was trying to do. It stands for taking the name ‘CJ Ramone’ back and get myself back on track in music. It fit exactly for that purpose.

Ramones.be: On the album there’s a number of punk celebrities playing a part. How did that work out? Did you just take your rollerdex and said: hmm, I wanna play with these people… or how did that work out?

CJ: No, I wish I could say they were all in my rollerdex but it’s actually Steve Soto (The Adolescents, ed.) who co-produced the album that called in a bunch of his friends of Southern California. As soon as they heard it was a ‘Ramone’ project, they were all immediately happy to step in. That’s how we got Billy Zoom from X, Dennis Casey from Flogging Molly, Matt Katz from Blondie, … In short, a whole bunch of good players are on the record and it’s Steve Soto’s hard work to bring them together.