Five Iron Frenzy Interview

www.thejesusunderground.com

	I had the opportunity to chat with Keith and Jeff from Five Iron Frenzy following their show at the Cog Factory in Omaha, NE on October 11th, 2000. If you have never seen them live before, you should check them out! Read on to learn about scrabble, Jeff the Girl's fascination with Ralph Macchio, and the future of Five Iron Frenzy!
	TJU: Why don’t you tell us a little bit about the tour you’ve been on. Keith: After our summer tour, we took 5 weeks off, during which I actually booked the tour we’re on now. In the past, we did a lot of tours that were booked by our record label. Before we were signed I booked our shows so it is kind of a return to the kind of shows we played before we were signed, primarily smaller to medium size clubs with bands that may or may not have the same religious convictions we do.
	TJU: Do you think these shows that aren’t necessarily “Christian” shows open some opportunities for you? Keith: I hope so. Like I said, these are kind of the shows we used to play before we were signed, then when we would play a club, the majority of the people at the club weren’t Christian, and had no idea that we were a Christian band. Now that people know us a little better, the majority of people who came to this show were Christians I think, but there were still more non-Christians here than if we played a church or something like that, so our hope is that we get in front of people who don’t have the same religious ideals that we have, and through however God lays it on our hearts that evening, because it changes from night to night, but through however God wants us to do it, to show people... Him. That’s our goal, to show people God.

		TJU: I hear that you’ve been having a fairly competitive scrabble tournament while on tour. Keith: We have been having an awesome scrabble tournament. It actually started on the summer tour. During our time off I went to an arcade that my friend manages and I played “Whak-O-Mole” and I won this ugly rainbow colored ring and that’s what we’ve been using as the scrabble trophy. I had the scrabble trophy and defended it successfully 4 or 5 times and then Reese (Lead singer of FIF) won it just before we came on this tour. At the beginning of this tour we were playing some shows with some friends of ours in the band The W’s and Valentine Hellman, their tenor sax player won the scrabble ring from us and he successfully defended against us as well, so currently our title is gone to The W’s. Its a sad, sad thing, sort of like the Olympics.

	TJU: Are you going to get it back? Keith: Oh yes, in a couple weeks we play in San Francisco which is where Val lives and we will bring it back to the Five Iron!
	TJU: Do you get much time off while you’re on the road? Keith: This tour we have a lot more free time than past tours because I booked it. One of the things our record label does a lot is book us pretty hard I think, they book us a lot of shows, we don’t get many days off, but the good thing about it is they book us shows which generally speaking pay a lot better than the shows I book, which is nice. There’s good and bad points. One thing we have been doing on this tour is a lot of disc golf, which if you are unfamiliar with the sport of disc golf, go to www.pdga.com. TJU: What would you consider the current mission statement of the band? Keith: We actually have a mission statement, from when we started the band. It says that our mission is to serve God in all that we do, and serve the people we come in contact with and to write good songs and share them well. That’s our mission and it hasn’t changed. Sometimes the way we go about doing that changes, like for example on this tour we are playing more clubs and playing with bands that aren’t necessarily Christian, and that’s the way we are doing it on this tour, but it changes from tour to tour and from night to night, but ultimately that’s our mission. TJU: What do you see in the future for the band? Keith: That’s something we are talking a lot about right now, we don't know exactly what’s going on. In December we go to Europe to play some shows over there, we'll come back and take most of the Spring off which we did last year as well and people go back to school. We'll play a few big weekend shows then we'll do a Spring Break tour and we're talking tentatively about summer 2001 and another record, but its all really tentative. We're kind of in a “figure out what to do next” kind of place.

	I also had a chance to speak with Jeff (the girl) who plays saxophone in the band. TJU: How did you get the nickname Jeff? Jeff: When I was 12, I was in a play, and my name was Jeff in the play, and I was a tom-boy, and it just stuck.
	TJU: What’s it like being the only girl in the band? Jeff: It can be inconvenient as far as changing or showering, stuff like that, you just have to wait it out. But my band is really cool, they don’t treat me special, like that, I have to do the same amount of work and stuff, its pretty cool. Its really not a big deal. TJU: What else do you want to talk about? Jeff: I wanna talk about this club, The Cog Factory. I think its so awesome, I thinks its rad that its in a neighborhood like this. Good place for the kids. I’m happy to have played here. I’d like to play here more.

		Other Comments by Jeff: I use to envision Ralph Macchio driving a motorcycle along side my Mom’s car while driving down the road and he would wave at me and do little tricks in hopes of making me laugh and sometimes now when we drive I imagine that. You know what else I imagine? You know those cartoons, where there’s a bush, and then the bush stands up and walks, and then sits back down again. I dream and wish to see that everyday. Like if someone could do that as a prank while we are on the road, I’d be so happy. I would just die laughing of happiness.

	Keith’s favorite parts of the movie Meet the Parents: - “the champagne cork into the urn, followed by the cat defecation.” - “the part at the way end, the CIA kung fu thing.”