Classic Pat (aka- Patrick McVay) is a punk rocker through and through. A member or creator of so many Ramonescore/pop-punk acts, it is hard to keep track of what he’s always up to. TGEFM grabbed ahold of him during his busy schedule for a round of Roll of the Dice. We rolled a FOUR.
1) How many musical acts are you involved in at the moment?
Currently I play guitar in The Putz, sing and play guitar in Parasite Diet, play bass in The Rip Taylors, play guitar and bass in Family Computer, play drums in Ghost Party, and as a one man band I do Classic Pat, The Coruscants, and Spacenoidz. I also have an album recorded with a band called The Practice Run with Chad from Covert Flops and Gabe Usery that we’re shopping around, and I have a few more new geeky projects that are in the works.
2) You just released an album under the name Spacenoidz that is a concept album inspired by and detailing events from the four-decade (plus) old anime series Mobile Suit Gundam. I know it is awesome, and not just because of the cover art (which I did), but what compelled you to tackle a subject that one normally wouldn’t associate with punk? I’m going to kind of double-dip here and also ask if you had any difficulty translating the anime into song, and if there were any left-overs on the cutting room floor?
I love writing music about stuff I’m a fan of. There are so many great ideas and situations to write about in sci-fi and anime and Gundam just felt natural to me. I tend to write albums as an album and not a collection of songs so there weren’t any leftovers from this one, but that in no way means there’s not a whole lot more Gundam related material on the way.
3) Seriously, though: How awesome is that cover art? Just kidding, that’s not the next question. They don’t count as questions if they are rhetorical. (laughter) How long have you been playing for, and what was your very first band?
That art IS amazing! Haha. I’ve been playing in one way or another since I was in the 6th grade, so quite a while. The first “band” I was in that actually played a couple times was in high school. We went by The James Dean, then changed it to Tion (pronounced SHUN) right before our first show, then shortly after changed it to the Lincoln Logs. We had a few originals and did a lot of covers.
4) What’s next for Classic Pat?
Next up for Classic Pat as Classic Pat is an album of originals inspired by The Queers that I recorded the music for last year. Working on finishing up vocals on that soon. I also have two albums of covers that I recorded last year that I’ll have ready to release very soon. And Corey from Parasite Diet and Family Computer and I have been separately working on a split album of mostly acoustic country covers that should be released in the next week or two. After that we’ll be diving into more Family Computer stuff. I’m always working on something.
You can check out most of Classic Pat’s assorted works via the (arguably incomplete) list of Bandcamp links: The Putz, Parasite Diet, The Rip Taylors, Family Computer, Ghost Party, Classic Pat, Spacenoidz
Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A Pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed.
the white drew carey (aka – Jeff Sorley) is the founder and head editor of TGEFM. He’s lived (outside of) Chicago, Madison WI, (ugh) Penn State, Lyon FR, Oxford UK, central New Jersey, and now within earshot of SFO in the Bay Area. When not scouring the web for more great bands and labels to post about, he also spends time drawing (mostly) silly sci-fi and anime stuff under the name Asplenia Studios.
