Following on from last year’s Soundwave shenanigans, the upcoming Reel Big Fish and Less Than Jake co-headline tour is one of the year’s most anticipated. After already creaming the US with sell out shows, it’s our turn for a hit of the good stuff.
“We’re sort of cut from the same cloth,” says Fiorello. “Our crews get along great, it’s just a great vibe. The shows were awesome, the tour was just awesome, big venues… You know, it felt good.
“Literally one of the best things to come out of the tour was that Aaron Barrett [frontman of Reel Big Fish] showed me what he drinks every night. It’s called the ‘Frescarita.’ It’s Fresca, lime, and tequila. Kind of like a poor man’s margarita. He showed me how to make it and that’s officially my drink now.”
Known around these parts for their high octane performances, Less Than Jake have been in the jump-until-you-can’t-feel-your-face business since the early ‘90s. Studying at the University of Florida, famous for it’s college football team, a young Fiorello started the band with his friend and vocalist Chris DeMakes. So go Gators hey?
“No. No. For me, I already like too much shit in my life, so now I go, ‘Well, I can either like carrot cake or I can go for the Gators’,” Fiorello says. “I chose carrot cake.” DeMakes, on the other hand, is a sports nut: “Put that dude in front of a TV set and he’ll watch anything from volleyball to women’s softball, to college football. The dude’s fucking sports crazy, but it never really connected with me.”
While his friends were busy cheering on the Gators, Fiorello started moulding his sound and figuring out what he wanted his music to say. “There was this guy, Aaron Cometbus,” he says. “His real name was Aaron Elliott, he played for Crimpshrine and Billie Joe from Green Day’s side project called Pinhead Gunpowder. Here was a drummer that didn’t sing, but wrote lyrics, and wrote this sort of travel journal called Cometbus. I used to pore over the lyrics that he wrote, and how he drummed, and that’s the dude, he’s my main inspiration. A relatively unknown person to most, but he meant the world to me.”
When he’s not smacking the skins on the stages of the world, Fiorello keeps busy. “I like to stay creative,” he says, hinting towards his online store Paper + Plastick. Part independent record label, part comic book publisher and plastic toy company, Fiorello designs everything from freakish toy skulls, to wicked wax and vinyl art.
Always eager to please their fans, Less Than Jake’s tour setlists will be loaded with plenty of old favourites. “Personally speaking, I like Johnny Quest (Thinks We’re Sellouts), Great American Sharpshooter. I like Plastic Cup Politics. We’ve been playing The Rest Of My Life a lot. Those are the songs that night after night, without fail, hit that nerve in a cool way.”
On the road for the better part of this year, you could forgive Fiorello for wanting some time off to design scary toys, run his other record label (Fueled By Ramen), or spend time with his four-year-old daughter Liliana Rose. But despite his enormous number of commitments, he’s still passionate about the band and their legacy.
“After 23 years of being in the band, getting on stage and having a song move you, that’s pretty fucking awesome man.”
BY JOHN KENDALL
