Utter Trash--Camarosmith

Get Your Wheels

An interview with Ben Rew of Camarosmith

By Bob Ignizio

Camarosmith l to r: Chris Johnsen, Pat Brown, Jeff Matz, Donnie Paycheck, and Ben Rew

Picture taken from Camarosmith's website.

“Everyone has a calling. Sometimes it’s to be a literature teacher; sometimes it’s to be a rock guitar player. I was watching this video on AC/DC last night, and look at those guys. Do you think they had a choice,” asks Camarosmith vocalist Ben Rew? Ben and the rest of his band - drummer Donny Paycheck, guitarists Chris Johnsen and Pat Brown, and bass player Jeff Matz – didn’t have a choice, either. If you want proof, just listen to their self titled debut album. The thirteen tracks of loud and proud seventies style arena rock contained therein should be enough to dispel any doubts; these guys were born to rock. Or better yet, catch the band live. “We’re there to do a job. We get in there and kick the fuck out of the place,” says Ben.

My first taste of Camarosmith was when they played The Grog Shop here in Cleveland in May with labelmates Zeke (who share Camarosmith’s rhythm section). Not only did the band win me over with its high octane live show, but apparently a lot of other people as well. Ben says, “It was amazing. We were selling about 10-12 CDs a show. I think the Zeke crowd definitely crossed over. The whole tour was just off the hook. We ended it in San Francisco on a Monday night and it was packed. There’s this little kid of a friend of ours who’s five years old and idolizes our drummer Donny. He’s been playing drums since he was two. We had him introduce the bands, and the crowd just went wild. That kid is going to be a rock star. He can play every Zeke song and half the Camarosmith songs and he’s five.”

Camarosmith got together about a year and a half ago, and didn’t waste much time before heading into the studio. “We recorded our record after we were only 3 months old. I think we’d played maybe 10 shows or fifteen shows. A lot of times bands play their songs for a year and then record them and they get stale. I think it’s indicative of where we were at and I think the record does capture our live sound. I’m really happy with the job that [producer] Jack [Endino] did, and I think for a first record it’s a great record,” says Ben. “It’s something that I was told for so long that people don’t buy this, and people don’t like this. No matter how many times I hear that we get people to pack the shows and buy records and tell us that they love it. I think people are starved for bands that aren’t trying to fit the mold.”

Although Camarosmith shares an affinity for seventies hard rock with the “stoner rock” scene, Ben doesn’t really see his band as part of that movement. “I didn’t want to do stoner rock; I wanted to do something a bit more rock ‘n’ roll. Budgie, Mountain, Grand Funk Railroad, Wishbone Ash, whatever. I wanted to be able to express myself in a ton of different ways and this happened to be the right form.” Ben credits his older sister with introducing him to the kind of music he loves the most. “She was 6 years older than me and that’s what she listened to. My first music was Elvis and Aerosmith, Elton John and David Bowie. Truthfully the eighties and nineties sucked for me because I don’t know how to write anything other than this. When I try to write anything else it just comes out as contrived. I’m just so lucky that I found four guys that are really into this kind of stuff and I’m so amazed that people like it that I’m blown away every time we do a show,” says Ben.

In addition to handling the frontman duties for Camarosmith Ben also runs the band’s label, Dead Teenager Records, and runs an artist management company. Ben says, “I’ve been doing the management thing for a long time now. That’s always worked out pretty well. Right now the label has Zeke, Flamethrower, The Angry Amputees, and we have a Speedealer record coming. In 2004, Camarosmith might do a split with Zeke on the label. There’s also a possibility of the last ever Tad record from 1997 to be released. He’s an old client of my management company and one of my best friends in the world. We’re keeping our eyes open for established bands that want a real record label that’s going to get behind them and push the record for a year. People that tour a lot; we don’t want to develop bands. You find a lot of people that want you to release their record but as soon as it comes out they only want to do the minimum. We haven’t had that experience yet, but I’ve seen it happen at other labels.”

Even though Ben owns his own record label it doesn’t mean he wouldn’t consider having Camarosmith sign with someone bigger. The band has already written some material for their next release, and they’ve seen some interest from outside parties. However, Ben doesn’t see a change in label as likely or even all that beneficial. “I’ve seen more bad than good coming out of signing to majors,” says Ben. “The Briefs signed to Interscope and then got dropped. I think that happens a lot. There are certain labels out there that release cool stuff and have a really great budget. But we’re not really your typical Atlantic, Interscope or V2 kind of band. I don’t think any of those labels would want us. We’re not 20 years old wearing tight baseball T-shirts and talking about how much weed we smoke. If there are some takers out there, great. If not we’re gonna release it on our label again. This one’s doing awesome, so if the other labels don’t want to make money that’s cool with me.”

In closing, I asked Ben if he had anything he wanted to add that I hadn’t asked him about. He said, “I really respect musicians who come across as real people. I think a lot of kids today look at MTV or listen to the radio and there seems to be a formula to it. And you see all these Nu Metal bands and they’re just put together. It just seems so fake. Or you hear people that talk about how they never lost their edge when they shoot their 15 year old fans for downloading MP3s and they charge $45 a person to get into one of their shows. There are a lot of things that really bug me about where rock has gone. It makes me sit back and go, wow, I’m really glad I’m in the type of band I’m in, surrounded by the type of people I’m surrounded with. And that there’s other bands like The Supersuckers, Nashville Pussy, and Nebula and all these cats that are hard working bands. And Motorhead still. Fuck the world, we’ve got Motorhead. These guys are true to what they do so who cares about all these contrived bands like Papa Roach and Metallica and Slipknot. I don’t care if these people know I’m talking this shit because it’s how I feel. I’m entitled to my opinions and if they have a problem with it I’m 6’3”, 220 pounds, and I’m here in Seattle.”