ERROR TYPE:11
Interview w/Artie Shepard
by Tom Minarchick

Error Type:11 formed after World's Fastest Car, also known as "Walter from Quicksand's other band," fell apart a few years ago. Since then Artie went on to form Error Type:11, who've released a 7", a full-length LP, a new EP on Crank! and a new album called "Amplified to Rock," which will be released on SOME records in October. Over the last couple of years of touring, Error Type:11 have developed a growing and dedicated fan base. I rescently spoke to Artie about the history of the band, their new album and his plans for total domination of the modern rock world.

RF - How did ET11 first get together?

Artie - I had quit World's Fastest Car and I was playing acoustic in coffee houses. Our guitar player's band, Clockwise, had just broken up, and he called me and said that they'd broken up. He ended up asking me if I wanted to try playing together, and I thought he was talented in Clockwise, so I said, "Yeah! What the hell?" We got together in my basement and played some songs I'd written, one of which was called "I Hope All Your Dreams Come True," which is on our first album. The guy I lived with, Eric, the drummer from Bad Trip, came downstairs and started playing. That's kinda how it happened. Then Scott, who was the bass player in Mind Over Matter, joined the band like a week later, but he's not in the band now.

RF - How long were you together before you recorded the first album?

A - Four months.

RF - I remember reading a quote from you about putting the songs from the 7" onto the album. You said something like, "I don't care if people don't think it's 'punk rock' to put those songs on the album, too."

A - Yeah, 1000 copies of a 7" isn't a lot. The songs aren't exactly fucking punk rock. They're songs that should be heard. You do vinyl for people who buy vinyl, which isn't that many people.

RF - The band is obviously connected to the hardcore scene because the members were in hardcore/hardcore-affiliated bands before, but your sound is nothing like hardcore. Do you this the association with being a hardcore-related band will determine who will or won't check your band out? A lot of the people in hardcore are into a certain style of music and aren't exactly open to the stuff you play, but at the same time a person into rock or whatever might not check you out because they think you're a hardcore band.

A - We just got off of two weeks with Grade and we're with Gameface for two more weeks. A lot of those kids that are into metal and shit aren't really digging us, you know? What can you do? I mean I would LOVE to be put on a big fucking rock tour because that would make sense for us. Playing HC shows is fun and cool, but it's all we really know. So that's why we do it, but we still don't belong.

I don't think it stigmatizes us to that many people because HC is actually really small. It's a little speck of dirt under the fingernail of the world, you know? It's just not that big. To us it's big because it's our world, but in reality, it really isn't that big. I don't think it holds us back, though. We're the type of band that would either be on a small indie or a big major. We wouldn't be on a big indie because we don't have an "indie rock" sound. We have a mainstream, major label sound, but I think it's cool to be like that and be on a small label and play to kids like this. Then maybe they can feel like "this is our Stone Temple Pilots" of the hardcore scene. The HC scene is our vehicle to play in front of people. If we didn't have that, we'd be another rock band from NYC. I don't know if we've reached the level yet where it's an issue about other people not checking us out because we're associated with HC. I also don't think we're popular enough in the HC scene for us to be stigmatized. I don't think people won't check us out because of that. I honestly don't think it's an issue.

RF - It seems to me that the fans you do have are very dedicated to your band. I subscribe to the Quicksand ONElist e-mail service and every day people write about how much they love your band. They tell everybody to go to the shows and support you guys and they talk about the shows the next day.

A - Yeah. That's fucking great. It's always been my dream to be someone's favorite band. Hopefully it will happen even more now, after our next record comes out. It seems that way to me, too. Like we'll play small shows, but they're extremely enthusiastic shows. If we're given the opportunity to play in front of a lot of people, opening for a bigger rock band, we're going to take advantage of it and then there will be a whole lot of enthusiastic people. It's just a matter of time and a lot of hard work. It's unfortunate that coming from the HC scene it's so much harder than if we had some multimillion-dollar contract and a big booking agent that would get us all these huge shows. Although it might suck, but who knows? I haven't done it yet.

RF - But at the same time, you are very fortunate to have such a loyal fan base. Even if it's not an arena rock-sized crowd.

A - Exactly. That's the whole point. You can't bite the hand that feeds you. Those kids are cool as shit and we meet awesome people. We meet dicks, too, and I let them know it when I'm on stage. It's a childish, immature reaction I have to things. When the band first started it was kinda my thing to be a dick, ya know? I'd get up on stage and say, "We're the greatest band in the world, and if you don't like us you're fucking stupid!" If I saw a band doing that while playing in front of 30 people, I would think it was fucking genious! A lot of kids don't get the sarcasm in it.

RF - They just think you're a cocky prick.

A - Which I am, you know. That's fine because I am cocky, but I'm not that fucking cocky. I do it as a joke. I do it with sarcasm for fun and for a laugh because it's funny to us. A lot of kids don't get it though. It doesn't translate, and they think I'm angry and I fucking hate them. How could I hate people who pay to see my band? It's really not right. I've kind of purposefully held back, and it's really hard for me to do, but there's always this one kid that stands right in front of you, especially when you're playing on the floor, with his arms crossed, staring into space. That is the hardest thing to fucking deal with. Sometimes I just fucking lose it. When we're jumping up and down on stage and our amps are falling off because the stage is rickety or the mic's gonna break my tooth, or the PA is so bad that I can't fucking hear anything, we'll play, but I'm not exactly gonna be Mr. fucking happy about it. I'm 26 and I've been doing this for 10 years and I'd like to at least be able to hear something. That's the reality we're in right now and every day has been a learning experience for me over the last two years. I've never sung and I was never a front man.

RF - I think your vocals are a lot better on the new EP than they were on the first record.

A - My voice got a lot better, and I learned to use it by going on tours a bunch of times. For the new record we had so many extra songs. That's why we did the Crank! EP. We said, "Let's do this EP, then the album." The idea behind it is that we write what we write and we put it out. We don't go, "We can't do this song because it's too this or too that." We write what we write. We put it out. I think all of it's good. We've grown as a band and as songwriters. We got a new bass player and he fit really well into the sound we're going for and it's been a lot of fun. As we've gotten closer as friends, we've gotten so much better, musically, and it's amazing. I'll come downstairs with an idea or a song structure and they're done writing in 10 minutes. I don't even think about it. It's easier than it should be, I think. I almost feel as if I should put more effort into it.

[The EP is] fucking definately a vast development, and the album is done also and it will be out October 1. It's even better, at least in our opinion. It sounds better. We've also been working with John Agnello, and the EP was the first thing we did with him, and then we just did the album. So we kind of know each other better. We had a lot more time and we just really spent it wisely. We did a lot of slick, rock-sounding shit, which is what we really wanted to do. We did it in this fucking sick studio. The Misfits do handclaps on the records, too. Phil and I sang on the new Misfits record. They were recording next door to us. It's a fucking cool record, it's a lot of fun with a lot of great vibes. We just keep going. i got a whole other record written. I'm like ready to go. As soon as we were done recording I started writing again and I know Phil's got a lot of shit. We'll be touring a lot in the next year. I'd like to put out a record per year. We've put out two albums and two EPs in two years.

RF - Well if you already have another record written, will you keep it down for awhile? Does that mean you'll limit your amount of material released, or will you just keep releasing stuff as you write it?

A - We even had an extra song that we didn't put on the album. I want to just keep putting out stuff. Hot Water Music kinda taught us that. They almost overdo it. Their opinion was, "If we're selling X amount of records and if you put out all of these other records, you're going to sell the same amount with every record." So that just makes it easier for you to stay on the road and keep making money. It makes sense. Also, they have so many people working for them because they put out stuff on so many labels. So their name is in every fanzine like 50 fucking times, between advertisements, reviews, interviews and pictures. It's really brilliant. We said, "We have these songs, so let's get people working for us on the East Coast and the West Coast." I think it works out. Crank! Is great and SOME is great. Hopefully everything will work together and we'll start getting bigger.

RF - What I like about HWM is that they release a lot of stuff that's all great, but it doesn't all sound like the same song. A lot of bands that put out a lot of stuff sound like they're doing the same song over and over, but not HWM. I think they are the most talented band in music, period.

A - That's because they're super creative guys. If you can get away with it, then do it. Like I said, I'll write any kind of song. It doesn't matter if it's acoustic, psychedelic, fucking rock or pop. We have a fucking commercial-sounding radio hit song on our new album with tamborine and everything on it.

RF - What kind of music do you listen to the most?

A - Prog rock is my favorite. Yes is my favorite band -- they have been since I was a little kid. Genesis was a huge influence on our album as far as the sound went. The other guys fucking hate it, though. I kinda chose vocal sounds and bass sounds off of Genesis records. The producer and I would think about it a lot, and then everybody would put their thing in and it would make a certain sound. I also like a lot of '60s pop music, British invation shit, and New American indie rock like Apples in Stereo, Olivia Tremor Control and Guided By Voices, who are another of my favorite bands.

RF - Chuck from HWM told me that one of the things he loves about SOME is that they are really focused on the bands they sign. They don't try to sign a ton of bands or do a distro with the label, they just focus on the bands they have.

A - SOME is the most artist-friendly label I've ever dealt with. It was originally Sammy's idea and he was playing in WFC at the time. We'd walk back from rehearsal and talk about it. He'd say, "I want to start this record label. I want to do things right and help out the bands and make records, and I will still be able to tour and have the label and not go bankrupt." They're just great and I can't say enough nice things about them. They want what's best for us and we want the best for them. We got offers from every label you can think of for the new record, and we turned them all down. What really sold me on staying with SOME was hearing the new Six Going on Seven album before it came out. That's my favorite record. The new Fireside record is what made me do the EP with Crank!.

RF - I really like how SOME puts out records that aren't genre-oriented. They just sign good bands and that's their only criterion for signing bands. They're not into making a ton of money off of merchandising like other labels. They just want to support good music. It doesn't matter if it's rock, it just has to be good.

A - Yeah, man! Every kid listens to Guns 'n' Roses. Into Another were an excuse for HC kids to like cheesy '80s metal. I just like to have fun. I want to be like the HC kids' Oasis. That would be my dream come true. I don't know if everyone will get it or not, but we'll try our best until a big conglomerate record label comes and gives us millions of dollars. In HC you have to pay a lot of attention. You get wrapped up in that little world and it gets kind of pathetic, but everyone grows out of it and gets into indie rock or starts looking like rockabilly guys. Next thing you know, they look like the fucking Beatles, and a minute later they're a raver. It's all kids trying to find themselves, and eventually they will.

RF - The lines between different genres of music are definitely starting to blur. Kids are into Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Rocket from the Crypt who are also into punk, HC, indie rock or whatever. I think that bigger indie labels are doing a lot of what the majors tried to do, and failed, by have they bands that are accessible to a variety of people. The only problem the majors had is that they signed shitty bands like Matchbox 20, Kid Rock and Sugar Ray to try and appeal to everybody for a long time. People are getting smarter, and they see what a bunch of shit that stuff is [ed. note: HA! I beg to differ. Check out their record sales!] and that they can go somewhere else to find good music. It's not all heavy and unaccessible just because it's so-called "underground."

A - In four or five years, all of those labels will get bought up again, but that's cool. Hopefully bands like us and Six Going on Seven, who are a little more difficult to grasp in this genre, will benefit from that. I can only hope we do. If we could sell 20,000 or 30,000 records, I'd be able to fucking live! It's so hard because you play these shows and the kids don't get it and blah, blah, blah, but you have to keep chugging along. I just hope we get the billion-dollar contract and we get on MTV. That's what the Elliot Smith thing taught me. He got a song on a soundtrack and he lucked out. If you don't put it out like that, no one's ever going to hear it. You never know who's going to hear your stuff. It could be the right person one day at the right time.

"Collecting Dust" on our new EP, that's how I felt about that song. We thought about not putting it on, but I went, "Dude, that song could be a fucking soundtrack song! The right person just needs to fucking hear it." If it's on a tape in my basement, no one's going to hear it and nothing's going to happen. So let's get it out there and make something happen. You kinda just have to throw shit out and hope that people are doing the right thing for you. You just have to choose the people correctly who work for you. It's all luck and fucking timing. So far our luck has fucking sucked, but we'll see if we can improve it with the next record.