Girls Against Boys were originally formed in Washington D.C. as a side project by producer Eli Janney and Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty. When Canty left Janney recruited former Soulside members Scott McCloud, Johnny Temple and Alexis Fleisig. Eventually the band moved to New York City. I caught up with Johnny Temple to do this interview. GVSB most recent release was 2002’s “You can’t fight what you can’t see” on Jade Tree records. JD

James: I haven’t seen the band play out that much in New York. Are you choosy about the venues you play?

Johnny: Well, there are a few reasons. One, we do a lot of traveling out of town. So we actually aren’t in town much. Another is, we’ve been careful. We don’t want to overplay our market in New York. We would rather have people anticipating people seeing us than have people bored after seeing us twenty times.

James: Sounds like a good plan. After all the time that’s elapsed between bands. Do you still get Soulside questions?

Johnny: We still get some Soulside questions. We don’t get overflowed by them.

James: I would imagine it getting tiring after a while. Does it bother you at all?

Johnny: I think it bugs members of the band sometimes. If we get inundated with them. It usually doesn’t bother me.

James: The band moved here from Washington D.C. To me D.C seems like night and day. Has it been hard surviving both as a band and as individuals?

Johnny: I think it took all of us a little while. I think a really important thing when you’re moving to New York City from anywhere is having a nice place to live. Having a nice apartment where you’re comfortable. We’ve all lived in pretty shitty neighborhoods both in D.C. and in New York City. In D.C. you can live in a very dangerous neighborhood but still be very comfortable. Where as in New York is more important to feel safe.

James: That is odd. Can you explain that?

As soon as you step on the street there are thousands of people there. So it’s more important than in D.C. to have a sense of being comfortable in your own home space. Because all the public space is so crowded. Whereas in D.C. you can walk out on the street and still feel that you are by yourself. As a band, New York is sort of tougher than D.C.. Because in D.C. you can practice in garages. Whereas in New York you have to rent rehearsal space. It’s also difficult for any of us to have a car while living in New York City. Living in D.C. you can own a van. You can just hop into a van anytime you have a show. Whereas in New York we have to rent a van. There’s just a lot of logistical chaos in New York that doesn’t exist D.C. but at the same time New York is so much more of a vibrant city. There’s so much more going on. It’s a lot more of an inspirational environment to be living in.

James: How much, if any support do you get from the bands and musicians in New York City?

Johnny: We get support from that bands that we know but we’re not part of any scene. D.C. is a much smaller city so there is much more of a cohesive thing that can be called a scene. Even in D.C. there are a lot of divisions. But in New York there are just so many bands and it is sort of doggy dog. We have bands that we’re very good friends with and we love to play with them. But I wouldn’t necessarily call it a scene.

We’re not in New York that much ourselves.

So. We’re not necessarily out there always contributing and supporting other people. Although we try to support other bands but a lot of that happens on the road.

James: Besides the band how do you support yourself?

Johnny: I do temp work. I work for a temp agency doing office work. Eli does studio engineering and producing. Scott does film work and Alexis does graphic design.

James: What was the key reason for the bands departure from D.C.?

Johnny: Just to get a change of pace. We had lived most of our lives in Washington D.C.. I don’t want to be in New York for the rest of my life. I don’t want to live in D.C. for the rest of my life. I like to change my environment.

Absorb new ones. I think everyone in the band would give you an individual reason. But for me, it was a change of

scenery. A change of culture.

James: When you came here was the idea of forming a band already planted in your minds.

Johnny: Yes, we had another band between Soulside and Girl’s Against Boy’s.

The three of us who were in Soulside were in a band called Little Baby.

Another Washingtonian named Mike Fellows who had also moved here. We did that for a little while before forming

Girls Against Boys.

Originally when we moved up it was to do Little Baby. Our singer Scott had already been living in New York City because he had been going to school here at NYU.

James: Do you feel that you get identified as a D.C. band because of your origins?

Johnny: Yeah, sometimes people really do think we’re a D.C. band.

James: That was the impression I got when I picked up your first album.

Johnny: For the first album we had only been in New York for a short time. As time goes by we will be more Identified as a New York band. I think it’s natural for people to assume  we’re from D.C.. Even if they know we live in New York.

They associate us with D.C.. That’s where we grew up and that’s where a lot of our roots lie.

James: Do you feel you’ve developed a following here?

Johnny: Yeah, it’s starting to come together. It feels pretty good. We’ve done a lot of touring and we’ve sold a lot of records. People are getting to know who we are. It makes our lives a lot easier and a lot more enjoyable.

James: Jesus Lizard is an insane band. What was it like touring with them?

Johnny: It was cool. They’re great guys. Other than trying to keep David’s (singer) finger out of Eli’s butt it was a very fun and enjoyable tour.

James: What the hell are you talking about?

Johnny: Well. Just what I said. I haven’t given too much description of the event. I don’t want to get too personal. I think David is as well balanced as the next guy.

James: Are you doing an extensive tour for the “Venus Luxury No. 1 Baby” album?

Johnny: We’re doing two full U.S. tours and one tour of Europe for the record.

James: How extensive have the other tours been?

Johnny: We had done one full U.S. tour and one full European tour.

James: After the first time I saw the band live I ran out and bought all your albums. After really listening to them all I was really impressed by the range of musical styles you cover. Does that make it harder for people to identify or label the band? And is that intentional?

Johnny: I don’t know. I know what you mean by people wanting to pigeonhole music. I guess in some ways our popularity can suffer because of it. As time goes by I think we’re solidifying.

I think at one point all of the diverse influences will be less apparent. I’m totally into playing different genres of music. I think with all the influences coming in it would be hard for us to write a Pop hit. Our music is a little less accessible to people than some of the more straightforward music. I think we’d like to write songs that are also more straightforward. but it’s just not what comes out when we play.  I’d like to think we could play something that’s easier to latch on to. Not all of our songs but some of them.

I like catchy pop songs but that’s just not what we are as a band. We’re more dark and brooding.

James: I definitely got that feeling from your music. What age group do you feel identity’s most with your sound?

Johnny: I don’t think I want to give demographics but maybe 17-24. I think a lot of younger kids like our music too but they don’t always know us. One of the great things about touring with Jawbox is we got to play for a lot of kids that were under that age bracket. They have a lot of young fans, which is cool. As with the Jesus Lizard we got a lot of older people. They seem to play to more of a bar crowd. I think we’re somewhere in between that.

James: I had heard that you’ve been getting a lot of calls from majors.

Johnny: They still call us but we’re not looking for a new label. I like talking to them and I am interested in what they have to say.

I think there are some very nice people who work for those company’s but on the business side of things it just comes down to the fact that we’re just not looking to sign to a new label now. So there is not a whole lot to be accomplished.

James: What is your favorite part of being in GVSB? Is it creating the songs or taking them out on the road and performing them?

Johnny: It will probably differ from member to member but for me it’s creating the songs.

James: For some reason I think I would have guessed that. For a lot of people it’s definitely the opposite. Who has the most creative force in the band?

Johnny: In terms of just the music, it’s a very collaborative process. We all write the music together. No one really gets more credit than anyone else. Scott writes all or most of the lyrics. Eli, who sings backup, writes all of the lyrics he sings. So, as far as the lyrics go, Scott has the most creative input. Scott’s lyrics also help to set the mood of the music. They help to draw the music out. It has a large impact on the music. It’s not the sort of setting where someone walks in and says here’s a new song I wrote and everybody else figures out their parts.

James: What kind of balance do you have between the importance of the music and the lyrics?

Johnny: We pay more attention as a band to the music. Scott spends a lot of time and works really hard on the lyrics and the vocals. But that’s more of an individual effort than a band effort.

When we are in the studio a lot of emphasis is placed on the vocals. Part of it is when we are rehearsing the songs it’s on a shitty sound system so you can’t even hear the vocals. So it’s hard to work on them. We do some work on the vocals but Scott puts much more effort into that.

(Interview  James Damion.  Was set to appear in the fourth issue of Unite)

Note: (All photos taken from the web.)