We had a chance to catch up with Badfish during their current tour, which made a Friday night stop at Austin's Fuel Room in Libertyville, IL. From there, the band would go on to play the House of Blues in Chicago and the Rave in Milwaukee. Just a tribute band? I think not.

Popular Underground Magazine (PUM): What got you started doing a Sublime Tribute band?
JOEL: I think it was just an idea, you know, without knowing anything about the whole tribute world. Sublime was huge with all my friends. I never saw them play, none of my friends saw them play. It was like, "lets do a show, lets do a sublime tribute show. It'll be fun, we'll be on stage playing sublime songs, who cares how many people are there, it'll be a good time."

PUM: Did you ever think it would get to a point where you're touring nationally?
JOEL: Definitely not. We knew nothing of tribute bands. We were all in original bands. It was just like, "lets do a show, the show went well; that's cool, we'll do it again!" The first year we didn't care. Every couple months, we would do a show in our local bar. It was actually a cool venue that had a lot of good bands. The shows were always pretty good, but now the shows are sold out. There's like 200 people not getting in and it's like "holy shit."

PUM: How long did you prepare for that first show?
JOEL: For me, I was like the ultimate procrastinator. Study the night before the test and cram in five minutes. We literally learned everything the week of the show. We booked the show and it was like, "oh shit."

PUM: Why Sublime?
JOEL: Again, for me, Sublime was the absolute mix of bands that I loved and music that I loved. I was very into ska-punk. To me, [Sublime] was ska-punk and reggae and I love reggae too, you know like Bob Marley. They were like the one band that mixed those styles, but it was cool. Bands tried to do that and it never really worked.

PUM: That's what I always try to tell people. Sublime was so far ahead of their time. They were doing things that bands now-a-days are capitalizing on.
JOEL: What it comes down to is the Sublime songs are just overall better, like the melodies and lyrics. A lot of those [other] bands had a song on the radio that was like a hit and they toured for a while off that hit, but the rest of their album wasn't strong enough. Sublime's music is getting passed on. There are 12 year olds going, "play smoke two joints!" And we're like, "get the fuck out?"

PUM: Sublime is one of those bands that if a song comes on, anywhere you are, people are going to know it, whether they're 12 or 26.
JOEL: It's almost like Bob Marley to me. Everyone knows Bob Marley.

PUM: I obviously never saw Sublime live, but always had an idea of what they would be like and I think you guys really captured it well. How did you prepare to get that feel?
JOEL: I think it's always kind of developing. You can listen to the songs, but it's the vibe. The vibe is so much fun, the crowd is so much fun that it's really more the interaction. The music and the crowd. Just the party that it is.

PUM: From all of the live recordings that I've seen of Sublime, they weren't really the tightest live band. I think you also emulated that well too.
JOEL: From what I've seen, I would say that our show is different from what Sublime is. From what I hear, it's almost like more jamming. We're playing the songs closer to the CDs. People know why they're here. It's like going to see a good movie, "I know what I'm going to get."

PUM: I see you're married. How does that work with being on tour?
JOEL: Well, I'm recently married. The guys have been real good with trying to work around my schedule. I've been trying to keep the tours shorter, but I think overall it's good for everybody. We're doing 17 date tours, which is short, but it's awesome.

PUM: What other tours have you done or who have you opened up for?
JOEL: We're always done headlining tours. We've never been an opener at all. "That's kind of cool, right?"

PUM: That totally floors me, especially from the standpoint of a tribute band.
JOEL: Understand that when we started this band, we were playing the worst case ever. It's like any band doing anything. Even though you're a tribute band, you still have to work your way up.

PUM: Earlier you were talking about being in other bands before this. What types of bands were they?
JOEL: I was in a ska-punk band. We went around and did tons of shows and stuff. We've been in all sorts of different bands. Pat's been in bands since he was really you. He played the sax tonight. He's a really good saxophone player. When he first came into the band, he was playing saxophone, but our lead singer quit like a year ago so Pat took over.

PUM: How was learning with a new vocalist>
JOEL: It was actually very simple. He's very tight and awesome. The old singer was really good too.

At this point some adoring Badfish / Sublime fans approached Joel to say hello, so we let them chat and went outside to talk to Scott while he was loading the van.

PUM: You know what's cool is that you guys do all your own shit as it relates to set up and pack up all on your own. This is your full time gig and you don't have roadies.
SCOTT: Yeah, because you need to pay them. That's just one of those things. We just do all this shit on our own and we don't have to pay someone to do it.

PUM: Do you guys have to pay royalties to do this?
SCOTT: To play live, no. Clubs pay a BMI fee for songwriting royalties for any cover bands that play so in that sense playing live is covered by all the clubs we play at. For our live CD, which has us playing Sublime songs live, we pay royalties for the songs.

PUM: Have you guys ever met any of the remaining guys from Sublime?
SCOTT: No. In February, we're playing the House of Blues - Vegas with the drummer from Sublime, [Floyd] Bud [Gaugh]. His new band Del Mar is playing with us there, which is really cool. We're fucking psyched.

PUM: Is that going to be weird for you?
SCOTT: I'm the drummer, it's going to be weird for me. I'm going to be nervous as a motherfucker. But, yeah, it'll be cool at the same time. Just the fact that he's cool and he was part of creating this and he's cool with us doing this and we're just keeping the music alive. He's down with it and we're going to play a show with them and it's going to be a blast.