When asked if he had heard from anyone in No Doubt about the song, Barrett tells me, " I don't think they know about our version of the song."īarrett not only took a chance with the lyrical content of We're Not Happy-, writing songs about how much he hates the band, but he also took a bigger risk by manning the producer's chair this time around. "We go see them at local gigs and are happy for them. "We just like poking fun at No Doubt because they're the big band in town," Barrett tells me. Barrett solely did that for the some good old ribbing of the hometown heroes. "I finally finished it last year and decided it would go well on the new record."Īnother song that stands out on the new record is the band's cover of Morrissey's "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful", with Barrett sneaking in the line, "Especially if you're No Doubt, that makes it so much worse".īut, there is no animosity towards No Doubt. "I wrote 'Turn the Radio Off' halfway through Why Do We Rock So Hard? and never finished it," Barrett informs me.
This is something Reel Big Fish has done before, with their first introduction to radio, "Everything Sucks", the title of their self-released debut, but not a song found on that album. There is a lot to worry about."Īnother tie-in to their gold record, Turn the Radio Off is a song of the same name, which makes it's appearance for the first time on We're Not Happy. You're thirty, make a living playing music, and can't do anything else. You wonder if radio will ever play you again, or if you're ever going to have a hit bigger than the novelty song you had in the 90s. "Like your band is around for a long time and you wonder if you're going to get bigger.
"Sometimes you feel like that," he tells me. I ask Barrett if he feels like that is true, if "Sell Out" was the band's biggest accomplishment and everything else is downhill. The song soon starts and the first words out of Barrett's mouth is "fourteen minutes and fifty-nine seconds into our fifteen minutes of fame-". The song starts out with a montage of radio DJs announcing Reel Big Fish and their hit song "Sell Out", before playing the song. In true Reel Big Fish fashion, Barrett's tongue-in-cheek comedy is backed by self-doubt and seriousness, something Barrett says really rings home on "One Hit Wonderful". But is about us being old and jaded now." Cheer Up we made because we had to make it.
Then Why Do We Rock So Hard? was like, 'we've made it, we're rock stars'. "The first one was about being in a band and trying to make it.
"This is the third record in a trilogy," Barrett informs me. We're Not Happy 'til You're Not Happy features such song titles as "Don't Start A Band", "One Hit Wonderful", "Last Show", "Say Goodbye", and "Your Guts (I Hate 'Em)". So he went and wrote an album about how much he hated the band - and the music business in general. Then the band's manager, Vince Pileggi, who has been with the group from the beginning, suggested to Barrett that instead of quitting he channel that energy into a bunch of songs about how he hates his band and wants to quit. It is this unhappiness and seemingly hate that found Barrett in a rut during the recording and subsequent touring of the band's previous full-length, Cheer Up! So much so that at times he thought about giving up on the band and walking away. Sometimes you get down and aren't having fun and hate the people you're living with in a 40-foot long mobile home, or at least think you do because they're in your face." "It was more of the past few years," he continues, "or the whole history of the band. "It's not all fun and partying," says Reel Big Fish mastermind Aaron Barrett, discussing the pitfalls of being in a band, the dominant theme on the group's fifth full-length, We're Not Happy 'til You're Not Happy. Aaron Barrett discusses 15 minutes of fame, new record, and SKA's next generation