Interview with Scamps

Joining the roundup of artists that played the packed Chesterfield, MO venue is three-piece rock band, Scamps! Scrunchie sat down with Christian, Jude, and Brendan at Earth Surf Skate Park for a Q&A before doors opened.

Go to gas station order?

Christian: Two spicy chicken taquitos from QT. And then I get a coke slushy. 

Jude: QT pizza, because it’s way better. The pizzas are fire. Blue raspberry and orange slushy combination. Honey twisted barbecue. 

Brendon: I don’t really feel like I have a set snack, maybe like goldfish. Arizona green tea. 

First impressions when you joined the band?

Christian: I met Brendan in fifth grade, I thought he was just the nicest guy. He was super, super nice. That was the main quality about him that I liked. Jude, I kind of got to know him at Bass Pro shops. We were both buying fishing gear. We were talking, Brendan and I talked about starting a band, he was just like, “Jude’s a cool guy, let’s do it with him.” And none of us knew how to play instruments, except for Brendan playing piano, and he doesn’t even play piano anymore. I would say my first impression of Jude was “Cool guy.”

Jude: Brendan, I just used to massage him in the back of class. And he was pretty funny, he was a friendly little guy. Christian was a fucking shit disturber, he was always getting in trouble. He was super funny. 

Brendan: I thought Christian was that sarcastic, funny kid who wasn’t very nice, actually. But I thought he was funny. And Jude was just that kid who rubbed my shoulders all the time for some reason. 

How does it feel to be playing a live show after the pandemic?

Christian: It’s awesome, I don’t think we’ve ever played a show this big. Other than one. We played a drive-in show when Covid hit, everyone had to park their cars. So we didn’t feel the energy from the audience, but this time we’re gonna feel all the energy. It’s gonna be awesome. I’m so excited. 

What was the process of putting this together like?

Christian: Oh my god, it’s been a hassle. Really fucking stressful, not gonna lie. It started in the practice space for Bleach. Jackson, Brendon and I all met up and were like, talking about throwing something in their practice space. Then tickets sold out, so we moved to here. Seems like it was pretty easy to get this place, but that was Jackson, so I don’t know. We got food trucks, we’ve been emailing tons of food trucks. We had to do Venmo ticket sales, we had to make a huge fucking list of everyone who got their tickets via Venmo. We’re gonna do physical tickets next time, to make it easier. We didn’t expect it to be this big, so that’s stressful. 

Jude: I was out of town all last week. 

Christian: We only practiced like, once. 

Jude: It’s crazy. But it’ll be good. 

How do you think you’ve grown as artists during the pandemic? 

Christian: I’ve gotten much better at producing, because I’ve been spending a lot of time fucking around on my computer. In terms of sound. Like audio engineering. I would say our main thing is that our sound quality has gotten really crisp. 

Brendan: I feel like I used to spend a lot of time playing guitar a bunch, but now we spend a lot more time collaborating. Like collaborative songwriting, we’ve all gotten better yet. 

Jude: Before the pandemic, I was constantly going out and stuff. And then when the pandemic hit, I spent a lot more time at home, constantly practicing bass and practicing all these other instruments. I think that was cool. 

The Midwest is often under appreciated, so shout out some of your favorite bands and venues?

Christian: I like Ryan Melnick, he’s a really good artist from St. Louis. American Football, really good. We like Kanye, Kanye’s from the midwest. 

What are your upcoming plans?

Christian: Oh, we got plans. We’re gonna try and record as many songs as we can this summer. And we do plan to go to college, we’re going to college all different places, but we’re going to be releasing music in college because we have all these songs stacked up and recorded, and when we come back to summer, we’re gonna keep playing, and playing as much as we can. 

Favorite serial killer?

Christian: I don’t want to be controversial. 

Brendan: I watched that Ted Bundy documentary on Netflix and that actually freaked me out, because everyone talked about how normal he was, and then when he got the death penalty, he was just like, “Yeah, I did it.”

Christian: I guess you can respect how methodical they are. 

Jude: Jeffrey Dahmer’s crazy.

Christian: But I don’t think he’d be normal if you talked to him.

Jude: I don’t know, dude, there was an interview while he was in prison, it’s on Youtube, it’s so weird. He acts completely normal. 

Christian: Charles Manson. Interesting. 

Brendan: Does he count as a serial killer? He hypnotized people into killing. Brainwashed them. 

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