The Pneumonians Interview

GB: Hey Pneumonias! Ok let's start from the basics...Tell our readers a brief bio of the band.
Johnny Pneumonia: Well the Pneumonias started in the very end of 2003 after the split of my former bands The Tommy Guns and The Things from Uranus... I just wanted to do a new Punk Rock band and this time I wanted to sing. Since then we changed drummer, and Rudy and I changed places in the band, in the beginning I was playin' guitar and he was playin' bass, and when we changed our drummer in september 2005, I decided I wanted to play bass, and Rudy took the guitar duties, which wasn't a bad idea since he can play guitar better than me, and he can even do some (short!) solos! So now the line up is Rudy/guitar, Billy/drums, and me, Johnny/bass + vox. Then there's a fourth guy that sometimes comes and plays with us as the second guitarist, Tony, who's also playing in a great surf combo called the Bikini Men. He also was in The Swindlers, which put a single out on Rip Off records in the mid 90s. We all play in other bands besides the Pneumonias, Billy is in a Surf band called the Kung Fu Monkeys, Rudy is in a new Garage band that hasn't got a name yet, he and I also play together in a Punk Rock band called The Janitors, and I also play the guitar in a Garage/60s Punk band called the Mean Things + I play drums in a new Punk Rock band called the 80s Furies! As you can see, we just love playing Rock & Roll!!

GB: How many releases you've got 'till today? You find it hard to found a record label?
Johnny Pneumonia: We have 2 singles out on High Refuse/Reject Records from Holland, and we have a split single with the Four Slicks (great Hot Rod Punk band from Paris featuring Jon Von from the Rip Offs and Mark from the No Talents) out on our own Frantic City record label. A new single will be out soon, it will be the next record out on Frantic City Records! Founding a record label is not that hard, but the main point is money!! You can't do nothing without a fair amount of money, and we're not rich you know!

GB: France in the past had many good rock n roll bands, from Little Bob Story to Dogs and Splash 4 to name a few...! How are the things today? There are many or any good rock n roll bands there?
Johnny Pneumonia: True, there has been a fair amount of pretty good bands comin' out of France since the '60s, starting with Jacques Dutronc, whose early songs are definitely worth it if you like '60s garage, then we had a few good 77 punk bands like the Guilty Razors, Olivensteins or the Dogs, and then more recently we had bands like the TV Killers, No Talents, Splash Four, Gasolheads, Jerky Turkey, mainly Garage/Punk stuff. Nowadays there's a new scene goin' on, with bands like the Four Slicks, Creteens, Defenestrors or Brain Eaters keepin' that Garage/Punk alive, then you also have good 77 Punk with the Anteenagers MC, Zoomen, Heartbeeps, Flying Over or The Aggravation who just put out their first LP, also some Cold Wave stuff like Frustration which sounds like Crisis or Warsaw, then Garage or Surf bands like the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean, Les Dragueurs, Les Terribles or Les Cavaliers... The scene is in a very good shape at the moment, there are many good bands indeed! The problem is there are less and less cool Rock & Roll clubs and it's becoming a problem...



GB: I read your Frantic City zine that you sent me and i found it fantastic (by the way, tell when you are ready for the second issue...)! What made you create a zine about real great but forgotten punk heroes of the past? Have you been in the past involved with other zines? What's your opinion about them and what are your faves?
Johnny Pneumonia: I put out my first fanzine in 2000, it was really shitty but it was my first experience in the world of fanzine making, and I guess almost everyone has to do his own first shitty issue..! I've done something like 16 or 17 fanzines to this day, all written in French except for the 2 issues of Frantic City fanzine. Frantic City fanzine is specialised in late '70s Punk and Power Pop, with only interviews with original members from late '70s bands, everything's written in English, so I can spread all over the world! Frantic City #0 came out in November 2006, with interviews from the Kids, Radiators from Space, Newtown Neurotics, Rubber City Rebels, Carpettes and more, #00 came out in February 2007 with interviews from the Avengers, Lurkers, Gears, Fast Cars, Penetrators and more, and #000 is in progress, I allready have interviews from the Joneses or the Nipple Erectors... I hope this'll come out in May! You can get your own copies for only 3 euros post paid so get in touch!
My previous zines talked about the contemporary scene, this time I chose to write about late '70s Punk Rock/Power Pop exclusively because I'm a huge fan of that type of music, and many of these bands are still playing today. You know I'm only 23, so I've missed the Ramones, but I won't miss all the others! The idea came when I approached the Kids and organised 2 gigs for them in France. The Kids are one of my definite favourite bands, and it was so great to be able to talk to them that I just wanted to try and meet other people from some of my other favourite bands!
I also write in other French zines, like Rock Hardi or Dig It!, which are pretty old zines puttin' out a much higher number of each issue than I do... I mainly read Dig It! & Target Magazine, both French, then I like City Trash from Holland & High Heels Slut from Belgium among others. To me fanzines are indispensible when it comes to undergoung music... I mean, what I listen too is not the kind of music you can hear on the radio, not the kind of bands you can read about in big magazines, so I need to get the infos somewhere else, through fanzines for example! And it's fun to make a fanzine and to read one, it's not as formal as big magazines, the guys can joke around or write silly articles that you couldn't find in big magazines... I just like it!

GB: Frantic City records has in mind to release only 7" singles? Tell us more about the label and the future releases...
Johnny Pneumonia: Well yes I'd like to do a 7 inches only record label, that's right... But maybe if someday I have the opportunity to put out an LP by some band I really do like, well, I'll have to think about it! I have no real definite plans, but I love vinyl and I love 7 inches so... Next record out on Frantic City will be the new Pneumonias single, I allready told you! Then I don't know, keep checking the website!

GB: Ok, this question is very boring, but i really like to tell me your favorite bands ever...
Johnny Pneumonia: My favourite bands are the Ramones, Kids, Teenage Head, Boys, Generation X, Zeros, Lurkers, Sonics, Seeds, Count V, Gravedigger V, Makers, Rip Offs, Loli and the Chones, TV Killers, Teengenerate, Guitar Wolf... There are many of them!

GB: What kind of equipment (guitars, amps, drums, etc...) the Pneumonias use for their gigs n' their recordings?
Johnny Pneumonia: Well it's not really important for us, as long as we can play loud! Still, Rudy plays on an old Guild guitar and he plays on Marshall amps, I play on a late '60s/early '70s Univox bass, a Mosrite copy from Japan, then on drums I don't really know, but Billy sometimes uses my own drum kit which is an Orange drum kit, Orange is a French '60s brand. And Tony, the second guitar player, he plays on a Fender Mustang with a Fender amp, something like a Twin Reverb.

GB: If i remember correctly, you are about to release a full album soon. Advertise yourself...
Johnny Pneumonia: No, we're about to release a new single, but, well, we do have enough material to put out an album, so start your own record label and put it out!!

GB: What do you know about Greek rock n roll? Is there any band from my country that you dig?
Johnny Pneumonia: I know and like a few Garage bands from Greece, mainly the Walking Screams, Sound Explosion and Frantic V. They all put out great records. Well you've got to know that with the Mean Things, my Garage band, we're gonna put out a 12 track CD album on Lost In Tyme Records, a record label run by Periklis from Lost In Tyme Fanzine and John from The Sound Explosion! So you know we love Greece!!

GB: Add anything you wanna...Thanx for the interview guys!
Johnny Pneumonia: Well, if anyone wants to hear a song from our new single, you can go to our myspace page : myspace.com/thepneumonias, and if you want more infos about the bands or the fanzine, just check out our website : http://franticcity.free.fr. Now, thanks for the interview, good on ya mate, and, well, we hope maybe some day we'll come to Greece with one of our bands to show you how we do it in France!! See you then!

Interview by Mihaliz for GB issue #09_2007