(March 21, 2008) Philly's own premier "hip-rock" band All Crazy is an appealing crossover mixture of rock and hip-hop that is gaining momentum and pulling in a large audience with their charismatic performances along the east coast. PCM's Kristyn recently had the opportunity to hang out with the guys for bit and check out a live show. Read all about it below...

Kristyn: To start off, how did you come about adopting your nicknames?

Big Soup: My nickname was given to me a birth, it was from my grandfather.

Skinny: Everyone calls me Skinny because I am actually huge and I'm in the gym 24 hours a day, so I am actually a really skinny person. I am skinny, fat man, that is what I am. (laughs)

Wild Bill: And I am Wild Bill, that is the name they gave me in the fraternity. For various and multiple reasons, I'll leave that to your imagination.

Lymz: They call me Lymz, my boy Homer came up with it probably like five years ago, he just started calling me Lymz. I don't really know why but it stuck ever since.

Kristyn: Can you guys tell me a little history behind the band? How did you guys come together and start playing?

Wild Bill: Yeah, we kind of met in the studio. Jeff and I met Soup and Marquis, who is our drummer, pretty randomly and we started jamming, you want to take over Soup.

Soup: Pretty much we met randomly, Bill, Jeff, and Adam.

Wild Bill: Jeff and I used to play together for year in a different band.

Lymz: I was down in North Carolina. Bill and I had a band together that broke up my junior year of college, so we were kind of looking.

Kristyn: What university were you at?

Big Soup: I went to Temple, but I'm a drop-out.

All Crazy guys: (laugh)

Kristyn: What was your major?

Big Soup: I was undeclared

Kristyn: Oh, I wanted to go there for grad school.

Wild Bill: He gave it a good semester.

Kristyn: Well, I can definitely tell by listening to you guys that you bring a lot of rock and hip-hop influences together to create your sounds. Who would you say are some of your main musical influences?

Lymz: Basically I just started listening to the Chili Peppers and Stone Temple Pilots.

Kristyn: Did you hear about the STP reunion?

Lymz: Yeah, I did

Kristyn: I think Weiland already had some sort breakdown again

Lymz: Yeah, he did and their bass player is worried about him. Heard they may be on Ozzfest this year.

Kristyn: Wow, they seem a little mellow for the Ozzfest circuit.

Soup: I listen to all kinds of music, too many to name.

Skinny: I listened to a lot of Dave Matthews, and I kind of learned how to play a little bit by and improvise by playing along with that stuff. Then I got real into blues stuff.

Wild Bill: Springsteen!

Kristyn: The Boss.

Wild Bill: The Boss! He is my biggest influence, you know his whole stage persona, his sound, his voice. His persona is kind of what I follow, that is what I am inspired by.

Kristyn: So, is music a full-time profession for you guys? I see that you do a lot of touring up and down the East Coast. Any other jobs?

Wild Bill: We have day jobs that we do sort of do, but the band is definitely our full-time endeavor.

Lymz: It is not just a hobby for us.

Wild Bill: Lymz works for some creepy dude on the Internet.

All Crazy guys: (laugh)

Skinny: Soup runs a barber shop and myself and Bill work with juvenile delinquents

Kristyn: Oh, okay.

Skinny: and the band!

Soup: Our drummer Marquis works at a mental institution.

Kristyn: Wow, you guys are really all across the spectrum.

All Crazy guys: (laugh)

Kristyn: So, working with juvenile delinquents. Do they know about the band? Sometimes it can be an inspiration.

Wild Bill: Oh, they know about the band.

Skinny: They were there for the recording of our album

Wild Bill: Hours of enjoyment

Kristyn: Sometimes it helps to get them involved in arts and things like that.

Lymz: We also did a bunch of performances for them in past and such.

Kristyn: That is great! Where do you all see the future of music heading and where do you see "All Crazy" in that picture?

Wild Bill: Hopefully, we are it! Hopefully our sound is new, I think it is a little bit too new for some people right now, but I think within the next couple months or year it will grow. I mean, we are not a traditional, like when we people see us, they are like, "Oh, it's another rap-rock band" and that is really not what we are at all. We are definitely our own thing.

Skinny: Yeah, musical genres are really starting to blend a lot and you hear all kinds of different influences. We are equipped with our instruments with our performers for just about anything.

Wild Bill: We can go straight hip-hop to straight rock n' roll, oldies…whatever.

Skinny: I think that we are kind of well suited for the change that is coming, as everything blends and we are ready to take on any change necessary!

Lymz: I think another positive aspect about is we are actually a band and we are like family.
Soup: Another thing that I noticed that we have over a lot of people is that we are all friends, it is definitely as Lymz said a family.

Kristyn: That is good, I was reading up about how you guys consider each other and the fans like family. That is very important to maintaining a loyal fan base. How do you guys feel about music categorizations, do you feel that you have a category, I know you have the quote about "hip-rock", who coined that term?

Wild Bill: I don't even know how that came about

All Crazy guys: (laugh)

Kristyn: My co-worker just loved the term and thought it was an adorable quote.

Wild Bill: I mean, it is hip-rock, and no one has really dubbed themselves in that category. We are sort of starting a new genre.

Lymz: Because it is a lot easier to say hip-rock than to say we are a crazy mix of guitar solo's and rock music and hip-hop etc.. so it is just two words and a lot easier!

Wild Bill: Yeah, hip-rock!

Kristyn: How do you feel about MySpace as a way to connect with fans?

Big Soup: I love MySpace.

Kristyn: Do you guys maintain your own page?

Wild Bill: Soup spends a lot of time on MySpace. (laughs)

Soup: I love it, spend a ton of time on there.

Wild Bill: Myspace is a great tool for us because it reaches us out to people all over the country and internationally, and we are working with a production company now in L.A. and they are pushing us all over. Also, Facebook is another tool that we have been using a lot.

Kristyn: I still can't use that one, I always seem to get confused. I am MySpace all the way.

Wild Bill: That is why we hired people to do it for us. (laughs)

Lymz: Another cool thing about it is that we have a lot of fans in different cities that have become our friends, so when we go to Conneticut and other places we get a lot of love.

Wild Bill: All Crazy family baby!

Lymz: All Crazy family and it keeps everyone in touch.

Kristyn: If you could share the stage with any one band who would that be?

Lymz: I am going to say it's Springsteen.

Wild Bill: Nah, Nah I can't! I would be like too intimidated, it would ruin my whole flow (laughter) I don't know. What do you guys think? That is a really good question.

Big Soup: I say the Chili Peppers. I like them.

Wild Bill: Chili Peppers would be cool.

Big Soup: They are pretty animated and they have a lot of energy, and I like that

Wild Bill: I am going to go with that; that is good Soup, I like that.

Lymz: I like it, I'll stick with that, I can't really think of anyone else nowadays.

Big Soup: I think with Springsteen it would be too major

(Group Agrees)

Wild Bill: And this is our drummer walking up right now

Kristyn: Hi, drummer.

Wild Bill: Why don't you introduce yourself.

Marquis: I am Marquis and I am the drummer.

Wild Bill: A.k.a Dimes

Kristyn: Well, Dimes we are right in the middle of the interview, but you can hop in now.

All Crazy guys: (laugh)

Kristyn: It is all good! I think my next question is have you had any crazy fan experiences?

Wild Bill: Fan? Uh, yeah definitely. (laughs)

Lymz: Last week there was a fight that broke out right in the middle of our set. I remember playing and my head was down and when I looked up there was a whirlwind of about twenty people.

Wild Bill: Thirty-five I would say.

Lymz: They were just throwing across the room, I mean table and chair were flying.

Kristyn: Gosh, where was this?

Group: Right here! It was last week and we were still playing.

Wild Bill: It was definitely a hazard.

Dimes: We kept playing though.

Lymz: I felt like I was in a movie.

Kristyn: No one told me I was heading for a mosh pit tonight!

Wild Bill: It was a mosh pit on steroids!

Skinny: Yeah, this was not controlled in anyway, chaos broke out!

Wild Bill: And I do not think they were equipped with the bouncers.

Big Soup: They were definitely not ready for it.

Wild Bill: It went on for about 10 or 15 minutes.

Skinny: I am think of the time when we were in Conneticut, and there was a huge blizzard, I met up with this girl and I was interested in perhaps talking with her some more later that night, so she gave me her number and I could not drive at this point in time because it has been a full night of show. So I had Wild Bill drive me out to her house and she was giving us directions on the phone and it started to blizzard in the middle of the drive. Then she dropped her phone in the toilet bowl in the middle of directions, so we got stranded in the middle of Conneticut.

Wild Bill: We were stranded and Adam was about to get strangled.

Skinny: Yeah, it wasn't good, so then we turned and drove through the middle of a blizzard to get back and got lost.

Wild Bill: I think it took us about twelve hours to finally get home, my front head-light went out and there was this big tractor trailer in front of us who started fish tailing out.

Skinny: All because she dropped her phone in the toilet.

Kristyn: Wow, that is quite a story. So, are there any local bands that you guys are into?

Wild Bill: "Just Like Me" the band we are playing with tonight and I think that is it.

All Crazy guys: (laugh)

Wild Bill: I am going to leave it at that!

Big Soup: I would say Dephonic, we play a lot of shows with them, we make a lot of money with them, financially I would rather do a show with Dephonic than most bands.

Kristyn: Have you heard Blue Sinatra?

Wild Bill: I have heard of them, but I have not heard them

Lymz: Yeah, they play in West Chester a lot, are they a reggae band?

Kristyn: I would classify them as more of a jazz fusion, they have a truly great sound. They really won me over, they are fantastic musicians.

Wild Bill: I will have to check them out.

Kristyn: I know they play at Grape Street quite a bit.

Wild Bill: Grape Street is done.

Group: It is closed down

Kristyn; Oh, my when did this happen?

Skinny: It got bought out, one more in the Philly music scene that is just gone.

Kristyn: Wow, the places really seem to be dwindling.

Group: Yeah, dwindling.

Kristyn: I know it was a pain in the ass to get to, but it was a great venue

Skinny: We were real cool with Grape Street, that was our home base for a couple of years and now they are just done.

Kristyn: Well, you guys certainly seem to be working hard and having a great time while doing it, so what would you say makes stand-out and be noticed in the industry?

Wild Bill: I think that we are willing to do a lot of things other bands aren't going to do or put the time into. Also we just launched our music video which is on YouTube.

Kristyn: Oh, yes, you have to tell me about that video, it is hysterical.

Wild Bill: That video is just, it just describes us to a tee. That video is what makes us stand-out from other bands because I don't really know any other bands that.

Skinny: Will get naked on stage.

All Crazy guys: (laugh)

Wild Bill: Pants flying everywhere.

All Crazy guys: (laugh)

Skinny: For some reason, people's clothes just seem to come off.

Wild Bill; I don't know why, have you seen the video?

Kristyn: Yes, how did you get her to do that?

Wild Bill: Get who?

Kristyn: The one girl dancing around in only red underwear.

All Crazy guys: (laugh) We are not even going to talk about that!

Skinny: I think another thing that sets us apart really is our fans because when you come to our shows, like we are a crazy mix of people, our fans are the craziest mix of black, white, all different backgrounds, and they just go, I mean if we go crazy on stage then they go crazy also, so we just kind of feed off one another. I have never seen another local band really have that kind of interaction with their fans. Like when we in New York last time, we had people dancing on tables and everyone takes their shirts off.

Wild Bill: Making ou...

Skinny: Singing all of the lyrics, just mayhem and I think that is something that sets us apart. It is cool to be able to walk into a room of people and illicit that kind of reaction. It is just crazy.

Kristyn: So, who filmed the video? Did you guys do it yourself?

Wild Bill: This guy named Larry Lankton, he directed it and he is a Temple alumni and good friend of the band. He is a little out there like us and he just came up with all the ideas. It involved a lot of booze and...

All Crazy guys: (laugh)

Skinny: That video was filmed over a three day party at our house, people just kept cycling through and getting their parts done.

Wild Bill: That video was supposed to be like a spoof on YouTube thing that is going on right now, we picked different characters and we use them in the video.

Kristyn: Well, you guys did a great job, it was hysterical! I was watching it at around 4am, and it woke me up.

All Crazy guys: (laugh)

Kristyn: Well, I have one final question for your guys. Can you tell our site readers one interesting fact or tid-bit about the band that they may not know already? Any funny habits or hobbies?

Dimes: Well, every show I drink Red Bull and Gatorade. I mix it in the bottle together and drink it.

Wild Bill: It energizes and hydrates you.

Dimes: I have another one and Wild Bill is probably going to be mad a me, but before every show Bill and I have to find a clean bathroom, because we have to go and take a smack before we go on stage

All Crazy Guys: (laugh)

Wild Bill: Oh, come on man, don't put me out there like that.

All Crazy guys: (laugh)

Wild Bill: Alright, fine, it's true.

Dimes: It is what it is.

All Crazy guys: (laugh)

Skinny: I guess with me, it is that I can't play a show in my shoes, I am always playing in my socks, sometimes I lose my pants while I am playing as well

Wild Bill: Hey, Lymz what is something you do before every show that fans would not know about?

Lymz: I don't know, I just jump up and down and stretch

All Crazy guys: (laugh)

Wild Bill: Wow, that's really exciting there.

Lymz: I don't really do anything out of the ordinary.

Kristyn: We want the juicy details here.

Wild Bill: Lymz has a personal massuse back stage and he won't let anyone see him for an hour and half before we play, except his personal massuse.

All Crazy guys: (laugh)

Skinny: And we are not allowed to get our hair cut until we get a record deal.

Kristyn: Are you shopping around right now?

Skinny: We are trying to pretty much make it so we are self-sufficient, just playing everyday and hopefully someone will come check us out.

Group: We want to thank you for coming out

Kristyn: It was great, no problem, thanks for taking the time to chat with us.

Wild Bill: Thanks for interviewing us outside, drinking beer, while the cops are driving by. That is All Crazy for ya.

All Crazy guys: (laugh)

Wild Bill: It is an interview so that makes it legal!

Kristyn: Yeah, where is my press pass! Thank you guys very much !

Group: Thanks for having us!

Be sure to check out All Crazy on MySpace and groove to some tracks! You can purchase their CD "Sex, Drugs, & Hip Rock by clicking here.