The Lame Old Snakepit of the Late 00's

Ben Snakepit may very well be one of my best friends in the world. I've seen him at countless parties in the last six years, I've seen him on top of the world when he joined one of our favourite bands, J Church and I've seen him at his most vulnerable when his romances haven't been at their best of times and when they ultimately end. I mean sure, I had only really spoken to him for the first time a couple of weeks ago to do this interview and had only become aware of his work as a comic book artist when I picked up his books last year. But these two books chronicle every day in six years of Ben's life in a crudely drawn three-panel comic, so it's hard not to feel like you know the guy. Since the next collection, Snakepit 2007 isn't out 'til August, I thought I'd drop Ben a line and see how my old friend is doing.

You have another collection of Snakepit comics released in August, what can people who have seen them develop over the past six years expect if they haven't kept up to date regularly?

Well, for one thing I've definitely started partying less. In 2007 I got a solid job, a solid girlfriend that I moved in with, and a dog. The wild, pants-shitting Snakepit of the early 00's has given way to the lame old Snakepit of the late 00's.

Even in a small city like Hong Kong, with a job on TV I have strange experiences of people coming up to me and acting like they know me on a first name basis. With people being able to summarise six years of your life by reading two books of three panel comics, do you often get total strangers coming up to you under the impression that they're old friends of yours?

Yes, but it doesn't bother me that much, especially if they've got a joint they want to share with me! The only time it ever gets to be annoying is when people ask about my personal life, but I guess that's what I get for publishing it.

Doing a warts n' all account of your life and the people in it, have you gotten into trouble from some of the things you write about other people in your comics?

Oh yes, yes indeed. I've ruined friendships, there are people who hate me and will never speak to me again. Lately I've been trying to still tell the truth, but maybe be a little more tactful about it.

Hypothetically, if there's ever a time where you might settle down and take things easy, not party and rock out so much, would you consider stopping Snakepit if the material wouldn't have the same dynamic anymore?

Ha ha, never! I have in fact settled down and the comics may not be as much puke and hangovers, but I think I still manage to keep it interesting. I've been drawing a lot more weird experimental stuff, like the party monsters everyone is so fond of. Back in 2001 I decided to make this a lifelong project, and as long as I can keep finding publishers, I'm gonna keep doing these comics for the rest of my life.

What other artwork are you involved with at the moment or do you plan on pursuing? I'd be all up on that No Idea shirt you did a while back if it was in black!

I still do a regular column in Razorcake every issue, I do a lot of t-shirts and record covers for bands. I just did a 7" cover for a band from New Mexico called Shang-A-Lang, I drew the back cover of the newest Japanther 12", I've done t-shirts for Tiltwheel, The Ergs, Let's Pretend Records, No Idea Records, Razorcake Magazine and some other stuff I can't remember right now.

What comics are you into personally? Past or present are there any other comic book artists, or even characters that inspire you to stick to doing them yourself?

Charles Schultz is absolutely my all-time favorite, I'm also a big fan of Jim's Journal by Scott Dikkers (which is where I got the idea for Snakepit), I always love comics by Charles Burns, Johnny Ryan, and Janelle Hessig. I'm really not a big comics guy, to tell you the truth.

Aside from your comics you're also an accomplished musician having played in J Church, been a touring drummer with The Soviettes etc. What's the MO behind the band you're doing now Party Garbage? Any new releases in the works? What's the status of Bloodbath and Beyond, which by the way has to be the best band name ever!

Ha ha thanks, we stole that name from the name of the gun store on the Simpsons. Bloodbath is a hard band to do because our members are spread out so far. Mike lives in Portland, Davey lives in San Diego, Paddy in Minneapolis and I'm in Austin. We get together when we can, but it's not that often. Party Garbage is just a lot of fun, we can't play that good but it's not really about playing good. We're about to tour the UK in May, and I'm really excited about that. We've got two 7"s out and hopefully a 12" by the fall.

Sticking with your music, how do you feel about your time in J Church, one of my all-time favourite bands? I felt the last releases after Lance relocated to Austin had some of the best material he'd ever done. Had the band been planning to do more around the time Lance passed away?

The last time I talked to Lance he told me he had a bunch of new songs he was excited about learning, we were planning to play the Fest 6 in Gainesville, Lance died a week before the show. Getting to play in J Church and be friends with Lance was maybe the awesomest thing I've ever done in my life, and I still miss him every day.

I was surprised to find out that you had written the lyrics to the song '210' on Society is a Carnivorous Flower and I thought you did a rad job singing the Misfits cover on the Japanese release J Church did. Are you involved in any projects as a singer and songwriter? Is this something you would be into doing? What kind of music would you be into doing in your ideal band?

I like singing but I've never been the lead singer for a serious band, I can't really write songs to save my life (the one on society I wrote back in 1997, I had always wanted it to be properly recorded, but I wasn't very happy with the way it turned out on the album. It's a shitty song, anyway), I feel like my place in a band is better as a rhythm player. I'm not a very good drummer but I love to do it, and I can play the bass & guitar pretty well, but I'm terrible at writing songs or playing solos.

Are you in a financial position to draw dogs dressed as pimps on the days you get paid?

Lately, yes. My rent is really cheap and I'm making a good wage at my job, so I'm doing pretty good.

Ben Snakepit – 'My Life in a Jugular Vein'

Back in the dark ages in the pre-internet days there was a time when the DIY community took the media into its own hands. Reviews, interviews, rants and raves were collected in zines – crudely xeroxed cut and paste pieces of literature that also spawned what would become blogging. These were heartfelt, recollections and scrawled down thoughts and poems that were way more in touch with the reality of being a teenager and youth culture than 'Party of Five' or 'My So-called Life'. In a sense, despite turning the big 3-0, Ben Snakepit captures the same spirit in the comics he draws to summarise each and every day of nearly the last decade of his life. In his second collection condensing the last three years we see our hero move to and from Canada, tour the world with J Church, hang out with the Sainte Catherines, meet Mike Watt, get caught in the throes of whirlwind romances and we're there to watch helplessly as he gets his heart broken. There's also more pants-shitting, Adderall tripping and days of doing absolutely nothing to keep the old school fans happy. Also keeping with tradition there's a song allocated to each day and this collection comes with a mix cd of some of those songs for the maximum Snakepit life experience.