Strictly Platonic Interview

By M.J. Kang:

Click for more pics and music from this band.

Strictly Platonic

MJ: Thanks for coming out on the coldest day in New York in two years. You're not wearing many layers.

RP: Just a hoodie, my jacket and a t-shirt.

MJ: No long johns?

RP: No.

MJ: Can you tell me who are Strictly Platonic?

RP: It's me, Romeo Platonic, our drummer, BettyRacecar, Imogen Explosion, our guitarist, Johnny Firehouse, our bassist, and Moise Ramone, who's our back up singer/enforcer.

MJ: You're kind of punk, kind of Goth, but different. How did your sound come about?

RP: When we first started our band over a year ago, our main goal was to stay as a punk band and be consistent and try to stay true to the roots as well as we can, but as we grew as musicians, you know, the more we practiced, the more we played shows, we started really developing the sound that, I mean you can't really, I mean, I don't think there's anything that's really punk or Goth. It's just us writing our music the way we like it and people seem to enjoy it. I mean we want the sound that we developed so it's pretty cool.

MJ: Do you guys all write the lyrics?

RP: Most of the songs I've written. There's one song that's called, Lick The Bird, that we all wrote on the train. Its a funny story because I went to a Halloween store right up the block from here and I bought this stuffed crow that I took to practice and we decided to right a political song, our only political song and it's called, "Lick The Bird". Its a pretty good song and its has more instrumental and it has only one line of lyrics to it, which is about some kind of reproductive body part of a bird.

MJ: Do birds only have that one body part?

RP: I don't know. I think, you see, I may be over doing it because I think it's not birds. I think it's reptiles. A lizard. Some kind of lizard.

MJ: Amphibians?

RP: Yeah, I'm not really exactly sure. And there's this other song called, "Spell it Backwards". A really important song to our band that Betty Racecar, our drummer, she wrote and it. It's an amazing song that I think is one of our best songs. It's our slowest song that we have. Its a really good song.

MJ: What's it about?

RP: Its about Betty Racecar, I don't know exactly because she wrote the song, but to me, it's just, you know, somebody that's lost a love and it's pretty much a song about anger and hate. How in the end love will leave someone hurt. It's pretty much what the song is about. Trying to forget our broken past, type of thing. Try to move on.

MJ: How did the band form? Did you know each other before?

RP: I work at The Strand Bookstore and have been working there for many years and one day, you know, Betty Racecar, we've been friends for many years, more than five years and she brought up the idea, "You know, Romeo, let's start a band." And I was like, "Yeah, let's do that." I met John working at The Strand. I invited him to play in our band. He started playing guitar at first and then he moved to bass and then Imogen, who also used to work at The Strand became the guitarist and that's how we became Strictly Platonic.

MJ: And how did you become the singer?

RP: Because I suck at guitar. But that was pretty much it. And I like to scream. I find performing on stage very therapeutic for me. The chance was there so I grabbed it. It's worked out. Everybodys happy. This band is actually the first band I've ever been in.

MJ: Oh, really?

RP: It is. So it's been a real learning experience.

MJ: But you have a huge following.

RP: Yeah, well, the reason why we have a huge following is that, I think I know what it is, is because we appeal to these ah, you know lonely people and they want to know that there's other people around that feel the same - emotionally torn and confused.. They like being among like minded individuals. I don't know if that makes sense to you.

MJ: It does.

RP: Our lyrics are very dark and at least with my songs, it's very, you know, I've put a lot of myself into the songs. You know, I've had a rough childhood. You know, I grew up without my father and I write about that. I don't write by saying growing up without a father is bad. I write it in the way where people can take what they want from my songs because I want it to mean something to them, even though it might not be exactly what it means to me. The great thing has been we have a lot of faithful fans, people that have come and we've seen some of the same faces that are very committed to our band so we really appreciate that. If it wasn't for our fans ...I wouldn't be here talking to you right now.

MJ: Have you seen yourselves on YouTube?

RP: We did. It was taken by one of our good friends, Andy, who is sorta our photographer.

MJ: There are a couple of other videos. Did you know that?

RP: Really?

MJ: Yeah. I think there are two or three others.

RP: On Youtube?

MJ: Yeah.

RP: Oh no, I haven't seen those. Awesome. What did you think?

RP: What did I think?

MJ: Yeah. I really like your lyrics.

RP: Awesome.

MJ: I really do because they're deep. That's why I appreciated it. Like when you were talking about your song "Childrenplay" its a very poetic song, its touching without it being overt.

RP: Awesome. Thank you for that. Yeah, ah, no, I will definitely look up the whole thing with YouTube. I didn't know we're out there. It's good to know.

MJ: Do you ever think about going on American Idol or other shows like that? American Idol has become more open minded now that they're entering their sixth season.

RP: Yeah. I like American Idol. It's a funny show. Ah, I like all these singers that don't know they can't sing. People just embarrass themselves on national TV., I think is pretty funny, but I, myself, I don't have the courage to, you know, try to sing. I'm straight forward, I don't know how to sing. I do what I do in my band which is I do my best. I try to sing sometimes, but I'm not really a singer. I'm not going to give myself the illusion that I'm a singer. I'm still learning. This is my first band and, maybe one day, maybe not American Idol but another one of those shows.

MJ: Like Rock Star Supernova?

RP: You know, that was the one show I was really considering to audition for, but, again, I don't have the courage. I'm so used to being around this band and being around the Goths and the disturbed people who are really nice and sweet and I feel really safe around them. One day, you never know. Maybe one day.

MJ: Tell me how your band broke up.

RP: We knew before that we were going to break up. Four months ago, before January 5th, Imogen Explosion, our guitarist, she was hiding it from us because this band was pretty much the only thing that was keeping her here in New York and she didn't want us to break up and at one time we had contemplated auditioning other guitarist. When she told us and we thought it was a joke. We understand now why she had to leave. We support her. She's our sister and she's all we know, so replacing her within the band, was like....out of the question.

MJ: Do you think she might come back?

RP: I hope so.

MJ: She's traveling right?

RP: She's road tripping to California with a friend and from there, they're going, I'm not really sure where they're going, but I'm pretty sure she just wants to travel and see where things take her. You know, she needs to experience this and kind of get it out of her system so she won't have any regrets in the years to come. She know that we were very supportive of her, and we hope that she comes back because we miss her and we want to keep playing her music.

MJ: So you guys aren't really going to play without her?

RP: No, we were thinking about having a reunion show when she comes to New York so there's still a possibility a few times a year which will keep our fans happy, but you never know. If that doesn't happen then maybe twenty years from now, we'll come together to play.

MJ: Tell me about your debut at CBGB.

RP: Ah man, when we first starting practicing, when we first got together, we practiced for close to three months before we tried to play in public and Betty Racecar, she knows a lot of people and she got that one for us and we didn't have to audition. So we had our first show and we also had our second show there and the owner of CBGB was actually at our second show, sitting at the bar. So that was pretty exciting. We had a lot of our friends and family there.

MJ: Did he talk to you afterwards?

RP: No, we didn't even know that he was there. When we were finished playing our second show, we had a driver, you know who was driving our equipment back and forth from place to place and she sort of pointed out, hey you know that the owner of CBGB was there and we were like, "Yeah, that was him." I saw him walking around the bar, but I didn't know that was him.

MJ: What do you think about CBGB being closed?

RP: Oh me, I don't want to bore you with this, but CBGB, well at least back in the 80's, I mean when real estate was really low and St. Mark's wasn't as popular as it is now, he could of had every opportunity to have bought the building and I just don't understand why? especially now that he's making millions of the merchandise alone. It was a good investment. CBGB's was an institution. Blondie played there, The Ramones played there, so many great bands played there and to see it not around...what's going on? You know what I mean. It's sad. I know that in New York there is going to be other places sort of tailored to what CBGB' was doing.

MJ: Were you influenced by Blondie or The Romones?

RP: I wouldn't say influenced, but I enjoy listening to some of The Romone's songs. They're a great band. I like Blondie. I like Pat Benetar.

MJ: What about Suzie and The Banchees?

RP: No, I'm not really familiar. I'm pretty sure I've heard of them, but I don't really remember it.

MJ: The Cure?

RP: I love The Cure. Clash. There are several bands, I should say singers that have influenced me to become a singer, for example Davey Havok of AFI. They're one of my favorite bands of all time. I like the way he sings. I like the way David Bowie sings. Freddy Mercury. I mean if you try to become a singer like Freddy Mercury...good luck. You can only wish to be get close to how amazing his voice was. As a band, we're all from different nationalities and we all grew up listening to different types of music....so our influence range.

MJ: Do you think you guys are going to have your album out, "Too Drunk To Cut?"

RP: "Too Drunk To Cut" wasn't the original name of the album. It was going to be called "The Fish Tank EP" because one of our songs is called, "Fish Tank," which is actually one of the first songs our band played together, but ah, you know, as we thought about it, we thought we had to give it a really good name so "Too Drunk To Cut" was it.

MJ: Why are your fans called The Fallen Ones?

RP: I was reading a book by Donald Westlake and he referred to a demon as a fallen one and every since then I thought that's a great name.

MJ: Do you read a lot of books?

RP: I try to read a lot of books. I want to say that I'm a smart guy and I'm well read, but I'm not and I want to read a lot of great books like The Odyssey, which I've never read- but I just want to do this within my lifetime, but I have so much stuff going on in my life right now, my job at The Strand which I work full time, I also have a girlfriend at home I have to spend time with and you know, I got to keep her happy. It's hard, but she comes to all of our shows and she supports us a lot. We all have girlfriends and boyfriends and having their support is really great.

MJ: Do you have any other music projects?

RP: I started a new band called The Montague's, from Romeo Montague of Romeo and Juliet, so we're sort of doing the same theme as this band. We want to be punk and stay raw, but knowing me, I'm going to write very melodic lyrics. I want to be more melodic with this band because with this band we have two great singers who are also amazing guitar and bass players. The choruses are a bit more melodic. It's going to be different from Strictly Platonic. It's going to be great. I'm excited.

MJ: Is there any particular label that you guys are interested in being signed to?

RP: Well, the thing with this band is that we're sort of a verbal contract with a label.

MJ: Can you tell me what label it is?

RP: Imogens label. If we had to sign on to a label, my choice would be Fat Wreckords because you sign contracts per album, you're not obligated to record 4 albums. I just like their music, really good progressive punk bands, rock bands like Anti-Flax. They're a good band, but really any label that picked us up, we would jump on it. It would help us with producing our album so we don't have to endure the costs and get our fans CDs to make them happy. Any label that picks us up, we're interested. We're interested!

MJ: Do you think the punk scene is dead in New York?

RP: I mean, punk's been dying for a long time. It's not dying now, but I don't think CBGB or The Continental, which were really prime spots, I don't think their being closed is really contributing to it. I used to go to see shows and I never used to see many punks there, maybe one person at a show and everybody else was just fans of the bands. Punk's sort of a philosophy. It's your anger. The way things are now, everybody's got to be pop and these record labels who are interested in only selling music to teenagers, its teenagers who are buying. All the punks are old now. And me, I'm not punk. I've always been Goth and I embrace the Goth culture because I like the dark esthetics. I find myself being attracted to darker things and scarier toys.

MJ: What scarier toys?

RP: Like instead of G.I. Joe, I would want to get a pet tarantula, a stuffed tarantula because I could never have one.

MJ: Do you have one now?

RP: My girlfriend wouldn't allow it, but I have a fish. King Louie III, that's it's name and we've had him over a year now which is pretty sweet because they don't live that long. It's a beta. I think because I've always been attracted to the dark side, it's sort of amazing that I'm in this band that's not punk and not Goth, but we can sort of swing between the two. Again, if it weren't for our fans, I wouldn't be here talking to you. We owe our fans a lot. I love all of our fans.

MJ: When you're on stage, you have so much energy and in person, you're sort of mellow and it is the energy of your fans that brings out that energy?

RP: When we go on stage, sort of like this energy that changes you. You know they came to see you and I just become this different person. I love it. When I'm on stage, I jump around. I get on top of people. I just really give it a lot of emotion ,and like I said, my music is very therapeutic and when I'm performing, it's like my fans are the psychiatrist, like I'm in a session and it's good to get things off my chest.

MJ: Some musicians, when they're writing it tends to be dark because that's when they feel compelled to write. Are you like that?

RP: I'm not the kind of person to handle things too easily. It's hard for me to deal with my problems and when that happens, I get in this state where I'm secluded from my friends and I have my notebook and I'll start writing. That's really when my dark lyrics come out like "ChildrenPlay." I wrote it one day when my father passed away on Christmas Eve and that Christmas, the apartment where I used to live, I saw this one kid riding his bike up the block, it was snowing, but this kid was riding his bike and I was like, wow, you know, it juts brought back memories and "ChildrenPlay" was about losing my father and my self-hatred. I just hated myself really bad at that time. Even though he was my stepfather, he raised me from when I was five years old. He raised me from a boy to a man and that's my father. A lot of my lyrics are mostly about how I feel and my moods towards the world. They're not political or out there to send a message. I write in such a selfless way where they can go take it and give it their own meaning. That's a great way of writing and I love writing that way. That's pretty much how I feel when I'm in my dark side.

MJ: Do you know your birth father?

RP: My birth father abandoned me, my mother, and my brother when I was four. What I heard was that he just pick up and sort of left one day and we never heard of him ever since. I have one picture of him. It was my second birthday and my brother was maybe a few months old and I have that one picture of him holding me over the birthday cake, blowing out the candle and it hurts me when I see it every time and even though I'm glad I've turned out the way I did, I still feel that...I'm always like, what if I turned out different, what if my life would have been better if he stuck around. Those things have come into my mind. It's hard to think about that. I try not too.

MJ: It probably would have turned out worst.

RP: Yeah.

MJ: He probably did you a favor.

RP: Yeah. I'm really happy with my band, they're my second family. I mean, you know, they're my brothers and my sisters and we've been through ups and downs and we're just like everybody else. We play our music for fun and live our normal lives. We're not like these bands that are signed that are pampered by all these record labels, that don't go out there and hang out with their fans, on that one on one way like we are. The things is, with our band, even if we get signed to a label, we want to keep that aspect with the fans. Even if it's to invite a few fans back stage before the show to take pictures or sign autographs, something. We love our fans and our music and it's a shame we've taken it away from them by breaking up. That's why we're really working hard on releasing our album. We want to keep our fans interested and happy.

MJ: Is there one memory of a show that stands out from the others?

RP: I have to say every show was a great show and every show had its memories.

MJ: What was it about all the shows?

RP: Being loved by the audience. Them appreciating you, that was the greatest thing. I was at my highest right there knowing that they really do appreciate us. Having that feeling thrown at us was like, "thank you." That's why every show was special.

MJ: After we had finished the interview, Romeo asked me if I wanted to speak to the other members of the band via cell phone. Here are excerpts of my short interviews with Betty Racecar and Johnny Firehouse.

My interview with BettyRacecar:

MJ: You're a female drummer when there's not a lot of female drummers right now. How do you feel about that?

BETTY: It sucks. I think there should be more female drummers.

MJ: Is there something you think you could do to change that?

BETTY: Just have more female drummers.

MJ: What do you think about the punk scene in New York?

BETTY: I think it sucks.

MJ: What about it sucks?

BETTY: I'm not really sure because I'm not from here.

MJ: Where are you from?

BETTY: Oklahoma.

MJ: Did you know that Oklahoma City is one of the cheapest cities to live in right now?

BETTY: Oh yeah, you can get a lot of places there.

My interview with Johnny:

MJ: What do you think about the punk scene in New York?

JF: I think people will always get together and get in a band and stuff like that and make music, that's always going to happen. It'll never be as big as it used to be, but it'll always be there because people need to come together to play.

MJ:

*In closing I would like to remark on my meeting with, Romeo Platonic, who kept me up all night, trying to decipher him. He opens up and really wanted the world to know about how he felt. He had some tears on his face when talking about the passing of his father. Romeo, really understands what despair and abuse of the mind is all about.

Strictly Platonic is a very strong band, with emotional lyrics and mesmerizing music to back it up.