By Chuck Wurley
I first discovered the World/Inferno Friendship Society while living in a dingy one bedroom apartment in East Vancouver in 2005. It was late September and I was dreaming of Halloween and punk rock shows, as the mold kept growing in the hallway of my apartment building. I had heard a song that World/Inferno had participated in and I decided to learn more about them. Where better than their website? www.worldinferno.com I clicked on the history of the band section and well, next thing I knew it was Halloween, and life was grand! But seriously, if you read one thing this year, read the History of this band on their website, especially if you have any appreciation for all things ghoulish and the time of year known as fall. Now here is my interview with lead singer Jack Terricloth from the World/Inferno Friendship Society.
AU: How would you best describe World/Inferno to someone who has never heard them before?
Jack Terricloth: A morality play with the morality removed. Oh, and 10 boys and girls throttling an orchestral range of musical instruments while grinning in harmony. In evening wear. Sweating profusely. At a punk show. Drunk.
AU: Who are your major influences musically?
Terricloth: The composer Kurt Weill, the singer Paul Robeson, the inventor of America: Woody Guthrie, our dear Clash, Bill Monroe, you know: rebel songs with heart and intelligence.
AU: What are some major influences aside from music? I.e., specific literature, art, movies, etc.
Terricloth: Bertoldt Brecht, Art Speiglemann, the work of Mr. Peter Lorre, Mikael Bulgakov.
AU: What is your favorite time of year?
Terricloth: Halloween!
AU: And why is this your favorite time of year?
Terricloth: Free candy and a lack of parental supervision.
AU: You guys and gals have written songs about everything from being a cat, to New Jersey, to Leni Riefenstahl, to drinking, to art, to literature. Are there common themes amongst songs in this band?
Terricloth: The horrors of totalitarianism and repression, the expatriate experience, the miracle of jazz or punk or whatever subculture you stumble upon that makes you brave enough to yell, “Fuck Off”. Plus digitus impudicus: the ever present threat of the evil eye!
AU: Is it during the song “Tattoos Fade” that you usually bust into another song, by another artist? I believe when I saw you play a couple years ago, you broke into “Telling Them” by Social Distortion, is that right?
Terricloth: Yeah, they were the bravest thing around when I was coming up, not sure what they are up to now. I switch up the lyrics to amuse the rest of the band mostly, we have to do this thing every night. The musicians improvise, so do I.
AU: The band has been described before as punk cabaret music, is that a fair description?
Terricloth: Ah, sure, it fits. “Cabaret” infers interaction in a performance and we’re all punks and the audience are all punks so it fits. I think it came about as a reaction to the shoe gazing or backs to the audience emo bands. Inferno is a living experience, you are not watching a movie or television, you are living a moment, you might get hurt, you might have to move or you will get hurt. This is not a passive experience, this is your life, don’t just watch; get involved. It’s funny that a gang of fruits in suits and girls playing saxophones had to come along to remind punks that they had balls, but we did and you do.
AU: When did World/Inferno form? And where?
Terricloth: Brooklyn, New York. Sweetwater Tavern, 1997. Don’t look for it ’cause it’s not there, but that’s our “Abc No Rio”, “CBGBs” and (stupid hippies, god I hate them) “Gilman Street”. It was a grand time.
AU: How many members were there originally? How many are there now?
Terricloth: Can’t really answer that. Started with two, and I never know who is going to show up at rehearsal. Here are the people I saw last time:
-Lucky Strano on the six string
-Ms. Sandra Malak on the five.
-Mr. Raja Najib Azar on the 88’s.
-Franz Nicolay with an accordion.
-Ms. Semra Ercin on 2 timbale’s, a cymbal and 2 and a half octaves of orchestra bells (they started out at 30 keys but I don’t think they are all there anymore)
-Mr. Kevin Raczka on the drums.
-Mr. Peter Hess on the B♭sax.
-Mr. Kevin Corzett also on the tenor.
-Ms. Maura Corrigan tooting in the key of E♭.
-Mr. Ken Thomson also in E♭but with a horn of a much larger size.
My name is Jack, I mostly do interviews or something like them.
AU: What do you feel really put you on the map? Would it have been appearing on the “Fuck World Trade” album by “Leftover Crack”, lots of touring, appearing on a Fat Wreck Chords compilation or perhaps being signed to Chunksaah Records?
Terricloth: I read this one to the band at rehearsal, we were all very grateful that you wrote that.
AU: How is Chunksaah, are you guys happy there?
Terricloth: Love them, period.
AU: Where have you toured other than the United States?
Terricloth: Oh, Europe has always been our bread and butter, Germany in particular. We had a very exciting show in Istanbul, Turkey and I’m in the papers in the Middle East all the time. It’s a big world!
AU: When I saw you guys on tour 2 years ago, you played California, after I saw you in Seattle. How much hatred do you have for the state of California, and what is the story behind it?
Terricloth: Let’s take look at the governors these people have elected: Reagan, Nixon, Pete Wilson, Schwarzenegger? Let’s not even get into the bands the place produces.
AU: Having never heard more than one World/Inferno song, I got into the band from reading the “History” of the band on the website. Care to expand on this story? It is one of the most engrossing tales I have ever read…
Terricloth: Oh, I think it’s long enough as it stands.
AU: Exactly what happened between Stza from Leftover Crack, and Jack Terricloth? Is there any truth to the story of the stabbing?
Terricloth: It’s all fun and games until someone loses an appendix. Accidents do happen and we are all friends now. The worst thing about it was the addiction to morphine I was left with.
AU: What is going to become of the lovely Coney Island? Do you know? I did not get a chance to visit it while in NYC, and wish I had!
Terricloth: I think it’s got another season left in it, but it’s just not the same since Don Fury moved away.
AU: Any thoughts on the closing of CBGBs? I did get to visit it while in New York! What is your opinion on whether it was the birthplace of punk rock?
Terricloth: Punk gets reborn every time a kid turns 14, all Hilly did was collect the rent (and then keep it).
AU: Any plans to play in Canada? You really should!
Terricloth: It’s been hard to get into Canada, it seems we always have illegal immigrants in the group and you’re never sure just how far back the border guards are going to check into your records, I mean sure they say they are going to expunge if you are not convicted but… Just recently me and one of our two touring vehicles had an experience that made it look like a Canadian trip could well be in our future. It’s a long story but I want to share it with you. It has mainly to do with the way technology has affected punk rock touring. Do you remember touring before the advent of cell phones or Map Quest? You pretty much just drove to the worst part of town then followed the graffiti. Then we all got those nifty ambulatory telephoning devices and all you have to do is breeze about and call when you’re ten minutes out. The next big advance in touring technology has been these Global Positioning Systems which we had used in Europe before but had in The States for the first time just this past November on that big Against Me! tour we did. As I mentioned Inferno has 2 vehicles: the equipment Van-O-War and the passenger International Van Of Leisure. Now, the Against Me! tour was set up with a lot of overnight drives as The Against Me’s! had a sleeper bus. We didn’t so we ended up playing a lot of catch up on very little sleep. On the drive between Grand Rapids, Michigan and Buffalo, New York the Van-o-War opted to leave right after the show while The International Van of Leisure decided to get a hotel and leave early in the morning. So we get lost and arrive at The Terrible Eight at 3 or 4 in the morning and hit the road at 10 AM or something- turn on The GPS and grumble at each other and stare into space. It was late in the tour and everybody was out of drugs and tired of beer and lets face it openly hostile towards each other and the world in general but I had managed to curl up and get back in to some sort of stupor if not exactly sleep when I hear Semra, who is driving, shriek “Bridge to Canada?! Why are we going to Canada!?” So we screech to a halt but you can’t turn around on a bridge and soon we are at a guard post- which appears to be empty. “Maybe you don’t have stop”, I murmur wondering if Raja really lost that bag of drugs in the back seat. So Semra eases past the little toll booth and is soon chased down by an angry looking forest ranger type guy. “What the Hell are you doing?!” He yells “Don’t you know that’s called running the border?!” “No.” Semra answers honestly then cackles in that way she has. This takes the border guard aback. He quickly recovers with a witty, “You could go to jail!” Semra laughs again. There is an uncomfortable pause until someone manages to get out “We didn’t mean to go into Canada, we were just following the GPS.” The Border Guard is unmoved “Well, where are you going?” “Buffalo, of course, the GPS said this was the quickest way.” “It’s the quickest way alright,” The guard confirms “But not for you! Over to Immigration!”, and so the Van Of Leisure is led into quarantine and we are all told to get out our passports. Which is lucky for me because I don’t drive so I happen to carry my passport around and so the only one in the van with a criminal record is waved into your country without incident. Sandra also has her passport and with just the quickest of second glances at her dreads is on her way to the duty free. The rest of the van however, not planning on leaving the lower 48 on this trip are subject to greater scrutiny. “Purpose of visit? You didn’t know you were going through a sovereign country? You’re a band?” Cori gets by after about 15 minutes with only her driver’s license ‘cause really what country doesn’t need more blondes? At this point we figured we might still make sound check and indeed might even beat the Van-o-War as we were taking the quickest route after all, when the friendly folk at Canadian INS got to Semra. “Purpose of visit? Length of stay? Ha ha yes it is the quickest route and where were you born? Izmir, Turkey? Where’s that? In Turkey? Come with me please.” They did eventually let Semra go. We missed the show of course and the Van-o-War laughed and laughed at us but it did prove that at least most of us are tolerated if not welcome in the Great White North so maybe this is the year!
AU: Finally, do you have any advice for our readers?
Terricloth: “Yeah, sure. Try to be pleasant to each other, get out of the house in the evening, make time to read a good book now and then, depose your government when it suspends the free press, remember having fun is better for you than having money, oh and employ diplomatic means wherever possible to avoid violence.” Rule number one of the cosmos is that “unlikely things do happen”. Cheers, and thanks!
