In 1998, Deron Miller and Jess Margera, as the "neo-technical death metal" band, Foreign Objects, met Ginsburg while recording a CD at local Philly studio, where the producer/guitarist worked. They played a rough demo of what would become "Disengage the Simulator" from Volume 1, and Ginsburg was floored. "Fuck yeah, I'll work with you, because I was so sick of recording crappy punk bands and rap-rock. I knew that they had potential." Motivated by their disdain for the current state of music, the trio got to work, fleshing out some killer riffs and, in short order, Volume 1 was completed. Then things started to happen. Margera's brother, Bam, a pro skateboarder, had appeared in skateboard manufacturer Toy Machine's popular Jumping Off A Building video, which featured CKY's song, "Genesis12a." Interest in the band's apocalyptic, quirky, neo-progressive rock spiked with the video's popularity, and in 1999, Landspeed Wheels released Landspeed: cKy, a compilation of Bam's comic vignettes and skate segments, which featured CKY's music as the soundtrack. A flood of orders for Volume 1 (and Volume 2, a two-disc collection of outtakes and prank phone calls) ensued, and the band scrambled to keep up with the demand. They had become celebrities in skate circles, landing slots on the 1999 and 2000 Vans(tm) Warped Tour (only to be booted for protesting vendor prices) and acquiring momentum. CKY websites appeared on the Internet like a case of poison ivy, and attendance at shows swelled dramatically. In February, Ryan Bruni, strictly a live bassist, was unceremoniously booted from the band, forcing Ginsburg to assume bass duties for a summer Canadian tour (at least until July Warp 2000, when the band lured bassist Vern Zaborowski into the fold) and a third Bam/CKY film, CKY2K, was released. It was even more successful, attracting MTV, who approached Bam about doing a show for them. That show became the current cult sensation, Jackass, and suddenly, CKY had a video for "96 Quite Bitter Beings" (a.k.a. "The Shopping Cart Song") in rotation on MTV. "We've done things different already," says Ginsburg. "[But] we had a video on MTV with zero record deal. I don't know the last time that happened."

Naturally, with that kind of exposure, it was only a matter of time before CKY was picked up and, in April 2001, they signed with Island Records. First order of business: remaster and re-release Volume 1. The disc, having already sold 40,000 units on word-of-mouth with little promotion and distribution, throbs with the potential to change the face of rock. The band's synergy and Chad's production talents are manifest throughout, especially on "96 Quite Bitter Beings," the driving, anti-"Must See TV" disco-ditty "The Human Drive In Hi-Fi," the jazzy, atmospheric sorta-ballad "Sara's Mask," and the vitriolic Manson-esque dirge, "Rio Bravo."

"There's a couple little mix things I did with ["Rio Bravo"]," says Chad. "But generally, the bulk of the song is the first rough mix, and the first song we recorded together. When that hit, I knew it was fuckin' the shit, 'cause I just spent a lot of time on it¾we all did. I used that song to demo the studio to other bands that I recorded, like, 'dude¾check out what our studio sounds like!' And the studio sucked. It's just the record we made that sounded good."Indeed, it does. It's heavy, melodic, accessible, and above all, original. And there's not a chorus on the record. "Try to get a deal with no choruses, these days," laughs the outspoken Ginsburg, who reveals, though sing-a-long choruses are "for pussies," there will be one or two on CKY's upcoming third album, which the tireless band is already recording at Audio Resources in Honolulu. Ginsburg explains that he, Miller, Zaborowski, and Magera can't help but "always be thinking CKY and doing CKY, so here we are, doing CKY."

And by CKY, they don't mean simply the band. CKY has become a fan-driven movement, with the band as figurehead. "Somebody made a real mistake by putting us in this industry," warns Ginsburg. "We're definitely aware that the kids hate everything that's fuckin' on MTV. They hate it all. There may be some closet kids who are hiding those records but, as far as everything that's happening right now, it's all about to crumble. Everything's being retired. CKY will take over the name of rock and roll and piss on its face, I promise."

After playing phone tag and my speakerphone damn near exploding, I finally decided it would just be better to email Deron from CKY a list of questions, which he graciously replied to…

MS: So how long exactly have you guys been using the Camp Kill Yourself moniker?

DM: Two years, but it gets changed a lot, and who knows what the fuck we're called now.

What's the current line-up of the band, and whatever happened to Ryan?

Deron Miller, Chad Ginsburg and Jess Margera. We're currently trying to work with a new bass player named Vern, who will hopefully be ready for the Warped Tour. Ryan Bruni left the band after Jess attempted to fire him. He just wasn't growing with us. He had outside interested and we all pretty much agreed it would be better if he left.

Where did the name CKY originate from? To my understanding, you were called "Camp" at one point and time because it may have been too offensive for the listeners and that's interesting, especially coming from the guys who have no qualms about walking over Ferrarris and kicking footballs at cars.

Me and Jess were trying to think of names for a sick band because our previous name was OIL, and that sucked. So I wanted to combine my love of horror movies with my love of music, and I came up with that name…and we just thought it was sick. Our sponsor and label Volcom Entertainment thought it was a little much, and they thought that in the long run we can get more done with a less offensive approach. I totally agree with it, but at the same time I love to make heads turn, so C.K.Y. is sort of a compromise. No one was really happy with the name Camp…it's funny, with every pressing of our CD, there's a different name or a different cover…I'm sure people don't know what to think!

For those who may not be familiar with you or your music, can you describe the type of music you play, and what give you the inspiration for songs like "96 Quite Bitter Beings" and "I'm Gonna Fuck Your Day Up"?

Our music to some at the moment, may seem unclassifiable…we're just trying to be as creative and as original as we possibly can. We also like to fuck around…the whole thing is about having fun. I don't want to write love songs, so I try to come up with things with a little more personality that have to be, of course, sick sick sick…

What are your current most listened to CDs?

Pestilence "Spheres," Malevolent Creation "Retribution," Hate Eternal "Conquering the Throne," Malevolent Creation "Fine Art of Murder," Kiss "Unmasked" and Scorpions "In Trance."

You guys will be on the Warped Tour this year correct? You also did last year's. Do you guys have any interesting tour anecdotes from last year's trip, and do you have anything crazy lined up for this year's?

Yes, from July 9 - 28 we will be on the Volcom Stage. There are a lot of crazy stories from last year's Warped Tour. We brought some moron who we thought we could trust as a road manager. He tried so hard to pitch himself as the perfect guy for it, saying he could handle anything. Needless to say, he went completely mad, kidnapped our bass player, refused to sell our merchandise and almost destroyed the entire operation…he also lost all of our money, so he says. It was a tough tour…our first and we didn't know what to expect. The guys at Volcom are very good to us, and they go out of their way to make sure we're comfortable…it was a great experience and we went over very well…this year will be better.

Who are some of your favorite bands to play shows with?

The Line…they are very professional and responsible. They also are experienced and fun to be with, period. Unfortunately I can't really remember any other bands we've played with!

So does CKY the band feel overshadowed by CKY the video?

Sometimes, but I'm sure sometimes the video may be overshadowed by the music. It is what it is. We're just here to represent what we create. There are plenty of fans that don't know about the video

Can you give us a quick synopsis of the videos for those who might not know?

Bam had the idea and the connections, and we collaborated with him to have it as a tool to get the music out to people. We wanted to make a skate video with more than just skating. We thought it would go over well if we threw in some crazy shit, along with some good music. That's what it is…Bam kills himself filming this shit. Him and Brandon deserve all the credit when it comes to the skits…

So what's the worst prank that you've been the victim of so far?

Nothing. They never do that shit to me… that's what Jess and Ryan Dunn are for.

What kinds of things don't make the final edit of the video? I'm sure there's hours more of Brandon rambling and jumping from moving cars. Will we ever see anything to the likes of "CKY: Too Hot For TV"?

Too early to say, there are hours and hours of footage…the best of which does not make the video…it would be cool to get it all out there, but we still need to see what Brandon's position on the whole thing will be. I don't think he's too interested in staying involved with it for personal reasons.

What would be your favorite selection from either of the videos?

I love the shit and piss scene from CKY2K…from the first one I like the white trash bowling because it was fun to make.
(Note: CKY2K had Brandon smearing a piece of used toilet paper all over Ryan, and Ryan returned the favor by urinating all over Brandon's face…white trash bowling consisted of rednecks bowling in the forest gone completely awry…)

So what would you say to the countless amounts of teenagers trying to recreate the CKY legacy of jumping from cars and trying to hurt themselves?

Find your own thing…

So do you personally skate or snowboard?

No, I don't do either, no attention span for it.

What do you do in your spare time away from the band?

Hanging out with the friends, movies, shit like that…the girlfriend thing that we all get stuck with…writing…but I feel like I'm using my time wisely when I'm working on the band.

Any plans on leaving PA any time soon?

Yes, but nothing set in stone.

What's the worst CD you confess to owning, along the lines of Vanilla Ice or Abba?

Well, I own an Abba CD, but I don't think that's anything to be ashamed of…Peter Criss of Kiss did a solo album in 1994 that I'm really pissed off about…it definitely is the worst thing ever recorded…but as my all time worst, I'd have to say the soundtrack to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie…I don't know why I bought that. I also got stuck with a Boston CD from the Columbia House Record Club…

Any final shout outs you'd like to give?

Thanks to the band, Volcom, Bam, the Pac Agency and anyone that has cared, cares, and will care about what we throw out there…thanks!

11*11*00 Corona, CA – Showcase Theater

Jess:
I’d like to ask why Vern smells like an old man when he goes to sleep? When he’s walking around, he looks like a normal guy, and he pretty much smells like a normal guy, but as soon as he goes to sleep, he smells like an old man.

Vern: I secrete old man sweat.

Jess: How would you describe the old man smell?

Chad: it smells like a guy who drives a Granada with vinyl seats, painted with house paint, and way too much shit in the trunk.

Jess: Moth balls and pea soup. All right, so I’d go with twenty percent moth balls, ten percent pea soup, 40 percent Granada old man, and 30 percent Vicks vapor rub.

Chad: The guys who paint their cars with house paint are so f..ked up.

Jess: The smell is indefinable. You can’t really describe it--I’ve tried.

Chad: You smell way older when you’re sleeping. I think it’s all the alcohol that seeps out of you.

TWS: So who gets to sleep next to him?

Jess: Usually, I have to sleep next to him. We’re staying at Chad’s house right now, and I have to stay right next to him--my bed is like right there. I have to sleep next to "smelly old man" Vern. I was trying to watch The Shining the other day, and all I heard was a Vern snoring.

Chad: Have you talked about Vern’s haircut?

Jess: He’s got a Munster cut.

Vern: Well, we may as well talk about it now since I just got it.

Chad: He paid 65 dollars for this haircut. Look at the side. They told him to cut the STLB off, but they didn’t. He still has a STLB.

Vern: We were trying, but you guys were rushing me. If I looked like Moe then this would be all faded, and there would be a lump on the back.

Chad: He looks like Moe upside down.

Jess: Get this, Deron paid 100 dollars for his "Pony Boy" cut. He looks like Pony Boy from The Outsiders.

TWS: Where did all this go down?

Vern: I don’t even remember.

Jess: In Huntington Beach--right on the strip, next to the Inca Girls. It’s called salon something or other. Just because it’s a salon you pay like twice as much.

Vern: Me and Deron were just holding hands, and we just said, "Hey, you wanna go get a hair cut?"

Jess: Vern, I bet you thought it’d be like 30 dollars or something.

Vern: No, I knew how much it was going to be. I wasn’t going to get my hair colored until Deron egged me on.

Jess: Really, ’cause when you walked out of the salon, you looked totally defeated. Jeff, how defeated did Vern look when he left the salon?

Jeff (CKY’s manager): He looked like old Shaggy from Scoobie Doo. You know how he walks with his shoulders all slumped? And he’s kicking his feet out. That’s what he looked like.

Chad: What’s in there? Did you get a lube job? Feel his hair.

Vern: A lube job? No, it’s a product.

Jess: I walked in, and there was a coating or dye on his eyebrows. He looked like Max Headroom.

Vern: I looked plastic.

[Chad's trying to light Vern’s hair on fire and there is a scuffle.]

Jess: He’s got hair spray on. That’s going to catch fire just like Michael Jackson.

Jess: Film Deron racking up my phone bill.

Chad: Are you talking to Jess’ girlfriend? [laughter]

Jess: I can’t talk on the phone with you guys around. You guys are like "oooohohohhoohh."

Deron: You just don’t want us to hear you saying the gayest f..king shit in the world.

Jess: I do say some gay shit like, "Oh, hey pumpkin," the way you do when you’re on the phone with Chad? When he wants to talk to you, he’s like, "Yo, tell him this, tell him this."

Chad: He’s trying to divert the attention away from him on the phone with his girlfriend.

Jess: It’s pathetic and I admit it. OK, so we were talking about how Vern smells like an old man. What does Vern smell like? If you’re within a five-foot radius of him, you can smell it.

[We enter the 99 cents store.]

Deron: He smells like a 1987 station wagon with a stale vanilla deodorizer, and French fries stuck to the seats.

Jess: All this shit is only 99 cents?--let’s find something in here that isn’t 99 cents. There’s got to be something that is like four dollars and 99 cents. Let’s find whatever it is.

Chad: I was here today, I think--remember? I feel like I’m back home.

TWS: Tell me about the van burning in Kansas on the Volcom Heartland Tour.

Jess: Ohh, that sucked--oh my God.

TWS: Did you lose equipment?

Jess: No, actually we were in the other van. We saw it catch fire. Everybody said the whole thing was filled with smoke. Then the fire department got there in like a second and put it out.

[At this point we’re asked to leave the store by a manager. We claim we’re not filming, just recording an audio interview.]

Jess: Is everything in here 99 cents? [to manager]

Chad: I know you guys sell Chinese Bugles.

TWS: What aisle are the Chinese Bugles on?

Chad: I know where they are.

Jess: The little snacks, you know, the wannabe Fritos.

Manager: Aisle 2 and 3.

Jess: Wait, wait, wait, I didn’t tell you about the van burning. In the other lane there was some dude looking at the accident, and he got in an accident too. It was so rad. There were 2 accidents on either side of the road.

TWS: What’s your favorite skit in CKY2K?

Deron: The one where all the gay guys are in the hot springs--that’s my favorite. Did you see that part?

Jess: The hot volcanic lake where they’re all washing each other and being gay.

Chad: I want to show you the Chinese Bugles. Bugles … I don’t know if that’s Chinese, it could be Yiddish. You have no idea what that says--it could be poisonous. It says Bugles in English, but as if you can read that … this is Iranian. It says original flavor here, but what does that say?

Deron: [Picking up the shrimp chips.] These look like circus peanuts.

Jess: I’m buying these, and we’re all eating one. We’re all eating these. They look like Styrofoam or little packing peanuts.

TWS: Get all the fans to eat one of those tonight. There seems to be a little confusion about the CD’s. Can you clarify?

Jess: What happened was we did the first couple thousand with the Bud Dwyer image, (the guy shooting himself in the head)but it was too gnarly for Volcom. They pressed a thousand, but it was just too crazy. So then we … oh wait, I’m supposed to get Mark a Mountain Dew. [Jess goes in search of a soda] They don’t have Mountain Dew. They have Shasta. It is like wannabe Sprite. He’s just going to have to deal with this.

TWS: Back to the CD saga …

Jess: They didn’t like the name Camp Kill Yourself either, and they wanted to change it to Camp, but we weren’t into that, so we changed it to CKY. There’s two different covers. One is Camp with CKY as the album title. Then we switched the band to CKY, and the album is now called Camp Volume 1: the current CD on sale. All three CD’s have the same songs on them--just different covers.

TWS: Does one of the CD’s have crank calls at the end?

Jess: Yeah, but that’s gone now.

Deron: It was a limited edition thing. We did like 1200 of them, and they went pretty quickly.

TWS: Do you have a new album coming out soon?

Deron: Yeah, we started recording it in Hawaii, and it’ll probably be out by April 2001.

[At the check out stand]

Jess: Has anyone ever died from eating these? They seem lighter than shrimp. It looks like Styrofoam. I’m going to have an ass explosion on stage. Hey look, you cut yourself or something. Oh no, it’s just Santa hat fuzz.

[Management tries to get us to turn off the camera again, but we don’t.]

Chad: Someday, I’m going to join a gang and then I won’t even care. When that happens I’ll come in here with a camera and I won’t even care.

TWS: That could be a few years off.

Chad: Right now I’m not in a gang, but someday.

TWS: Woah. look at that.

Jess: Jordache deoderant. Do you remember Jordache jeans in the 80s and shit. When I was in middle school, you were the bomb if you had Jordache jeans and high top Pony’s or Velcro Reeboks.

[Leaving the 99 cents store everyone is jazzed on the Shrimp Chips.]

Jess: All right, we’re going to try the Shrimp chips. Here’s your Santa hat.

Chad: Shrimps are lighter than air.

Jess: "How much are books?" Deron used to work at a bookstore back in the day. There was an enormous sign that said ‘All Books $1’. I came in one day, and there were five old people who were asking "How much is this?."

Jess: They don’t taste like shrimp at all. They taste more like Styrofoam than shrimp.

Chad: If they tasted like shrimp they wouldn’t cost a dollar, and there wouldn’t be this many. They have a sticker that says ‘shrimp’ on them and that’s the closest thing to shrimp they are. Try this one.

[He picks up a pink chip and hands it to Jess].

Vern: It’s like the gayest shrimp chip that you could eat man. Jess: It’s pussy pink.

Vern: Does it taste fishy?

Jess: It doesn’t look like a shrimp. It looks like insulation. These are fuckin’ heinous. Aaauuughh. I got the after taste. [Spits chips out.]

Chad: If you leave them in your mouth long enough, you taste the shrimp, but it’s not the right texture. You would have had to have seen a shrimp recently to deal with that taste.

Jess: It tastes like Chinatown in Philly. You know how it smells all funky? What were the highlights of recording in Hawaii?

Chad: Sarah.

Jess: There was this girl Sarah that we stayed with and she was super nice.

Chad: Just the nicest girl on the planet.

Jess: She was hot, and Clint was cool too, but he was kind of bummed that we were there. What else--Hawaii was rad. We got to watch Jackass on this theater-size screen.

Chad: Your head was like so big.

Jess: I know, I had like a twenty foot tall head.

TWS: What skit were you doing that night?

Jess: I got slapped and we did jousting shit.

[Chad initiates the consumption of shrimp chips by the fans in front of the venue]

Chad: These girls think we’re a "skater band". [Laughter.] You better watch us, because we’re going to roll by quickly.

[Once inside the venue, I find Chad chopping off Vern’s STLB with a tiny pair of scissors.]

Chad: This is sick--you’ve got like … uuuhhhhh. This doesn’t feel good does it? Dutch Boy cut--you already had it.

TWS: How long have you had t-shirts for sale?

Deron: Since the WARP tour in July. We had these t-shirts for sale, but that was a couple years ago. Now they are collector’s items. We just designed a line of CKY clothes for Volcom that’s coming out in December.

TWS: Do you have any other sponsors?

Deron: Adio, Electric sunglasses, and Fender.

TWS: Is there an official CKY Web site?

Deron: No, not an official one yet. But I think it’s going to be campkillyourself.tv.

Jess: You know, I don’t even think were going to mess with that--it might be ckytheband.com.

Deron: There are two really good fan sites: cky.8k.com and cky2k.net, and there are two other ones that are OK.

TWS: Where will the fans be able to get that new line of Volcom CKY clothing?

Jess: From Volcom.com and through skate shops. All Volcom dealers will have it.

TWS: What are your plans for 2001?

Chad: Survive the next holocaust.

Deron: We’re putting out a new record in April, unless our old record gets a broader distribution, ’cause if we put out a new album and people are just picking up on the old album, that’s confusing. We’re doing the WARP tour again.

TWS: Jess, is Bam getting tons of videos from kids doing crazy pranks?

Jess: Well, most of them went to Tumyeto, but they suck, so we don’t talk to them anymore. Volcom is getting a lot now. There are a couple good ones. One kid took his bike and just ran it full speed into some huge water fountain. He soaked this old man just sitting in a park.

Chad: I got one where a kid from Ashbury, NJ was asking for directions with his mouth full of water. When he’d ask for directions he’d spit the water into people’s faces. One guy punched the kid through the car window.

TWS: What’s Bam’s involvement in Jackass?

Jess: He’s just in it. He licensed footage from the videos, and we filmed a whole bunch of new stuff.

TWS: Has the band been featured on Jackass?

Jess: Yeah, yeah--they’ve played three or four songs. We’re not that involved with it.

TWS: What are the perks of being on the Volcom label versus being on some regular record label?

Chad: We get to do what we want: we get free clothes, and we have a new family.

Jess: Volcom is way better than any other label because we don’t have some fat f..k that signed Milli Vanilli telling us what to do. Those guys would be like, "Dude, take this chorus out and put this in there." They don’t know what’s up. They’re old as f..k.

TWS: Any thanks?

Jess: Yeah. Thanks to you, skateboarding.com, Volcom. Jeff, Mark, Adio, Electric, and shrimp chips. Yeah, I said Jeff. This is our man here--he gets everything done. Jeff, Mark, and Ryan Immegart get everything done.