Q&A with 25 Suave's Mr. Velocity Hopkins

The first time I heard 25 Suaves was in a half-empty bar in Oakland, CA. The married Michigan duo (drummer DJ Party Girl and guitarist Mr. Velocity Hopkins?ne Peter Larson), flipped the switch on some classically influenced rock set to an epileptic panic pace, exemplifying the potential of fierce sonic insanity at its primitive best. Larson was sweating and screaming and flying all over the room, keeping the volume high and throwing the grinning but dumbfounded viewers an excellent rock 'n' roll party. Watching Larson was like bearing witness to the manic phase of a manic-depressive breakdown, set to a sped-up, cock-rock-on-crack soundtrack.

Larson, who started 25 Suaves while living in Japan in the late 90s, has been the owner of Bulb Records?which will put out the newest Suaves disc, 1938, in September? for a decade, releasing music from artists as disparate as Wolf Eyes, Quintron, the King Brothers, Ass Baboons of Venus and early Andrew W.K. I called Larson before his show hit the road for a late summer tour to talk about party music, redneck rock and AWK's high-fashion connections.

I read rock writer Mike McGuirk's description of 25 Suaves as playing "math rock the way AC/DC plays math rock." Would you elaborate on that description?

Well, I love AC/DC and I guess it's kind of a logical [description] given what we listen to. AC/DC were the best because all the songs they wrote were orchestrated to a T? But over all this order and structure, Bon Scott freaked out. There's this house of safety but there's also an element of danger laid over it. We like to maintain that solid base that everyone can freak out over.

Was there a point when you were younger that you split from the straight-ahead rock camp?

Yeah, I was raised on classic rock, and when I got older I got into punk and had my Amphetamine Reptile phase where everyone wanted to play in odd time signatures. I went out into that and no wave and came back to rock because it seemed to make the most sense. You can do all this experimental stuff like no wave or noise but you won't reach that many people. I started getting really bummed out about seeing the same 10 people that I didn't even find all that interesting at every show. I just wanted to make rock for a bunch of drunks and have a good time and give other people a good time. We went back into this straight-ahead rock thing and it's definitely been a good idea. At least you see people smiling instead of standing there with scowling faces comparing you to every new noise thing that's out that day. To hell with that. As much as I love experimental noise or music, after a while it just becomes depressing. I'd rather play for a bunch of rednecks who will come up afterwards and be like, "That was good," and buy you a beer and have a good time.

25 Suaves has been booked with a wide variety of acts, from the King Brothers and Neon Hunk to Canned Ham. What's the link between the bands you play with?

They're all freaks. In spirit, they're all doing the same kind of thing, although musically it's not the same. It's kind of like how I run my label. These bands I put out are all over the map but there's a common thread in the spirit that runs through it. Generally they're misfits and you can't imagine them doing anything else.

Besides the freak elements, what else do you look for in bands you work with?

I don't go looking for bands ever. I've never really needed to?[finding bands] just kind of happens. Generally these people are a little bit sharper than most. They're not your typical musicians at all. They didn't come out of the same framework that most musicians do. Usually they came out of things that didn't have to do with music at all. Like Andrew [W.K.] started out in fashion. That's why he went to New York?he was going to be a fashion designer. He went to do an internship with Comme des Garcons.

What do you aim to do with Bulb in the future?

Put out more records. Next year we're celebrating our 10-year anniversary, and so I'm putting out a book and DVD-set retrospective on the whole 10 years of the label. It's gonna have stuff written by a bunch of different people who have been involved with the label or have been on the periphery. Hopefully that will be out by April.

How has Andrew W.K. blowing up affected Bulb?

It's kind of amazing. It's definitely affected things, like selling a few more records, which is good, but as far as expanding a fan base, I haven't seen any effect there. People buying Andrew W.K. records right now won't be interested in [Bulb generally]. It's too weird and complicated for them or something.

I've noticed a cool trend in seeing freaky punk/rock acts really getting the audience involved in the show. Does the audience always factor into 25 Suaves shows?

I spent 13 years growing up in Mississippi. Down there, you go to these blues festivals and it's all about audience participation. There was just some dude up there with a guitar and he had the crowd do shout-outs and stuff. To me it seemed like that's how you do music. I'm not directly influenced by blues?I don't even listen to that much blues?but as far as it being like a folk event or something people are involved in, that just seemed to me like the way you did music. And now, after years and years of there being this big separation between audience and band, people are coming back to this folk community where the show is like an event where everybody is involved. It's like when you went to see 70s rock, Kiss were these fantasy figures, and it's not real, but somehow that makes it more exciting. This is the bridge between having a professional show with all these costumes and having this lowbrow folk thing where everyone is involved.

That bridge seems like something that Andrew W.K. especially is working on.

Yeah, he's building himself up as this fantasy figure, as this weird action-figure-like guy, but the stuff he says in the songs is like, "Everybody get together and be free?party hard," but at the same time, it's super lowbrow and it ends up being a bunch of people having a good time.

25 Suaves has a song called "Party Disease"?is that the same idea of bringing good times back to rock 'n' roll?

Sure, that's the same kinda thing. That song's old, that was [written] when Andrew and I were talking about this whole idea of having a band where the word "party" was in every song?how amazing that would be, and lo and behold he did it.

25 Suaves plays this Sat., Aug. 10, at the Local. 349 Kent Ave. (S. 5th St.), Williamsburg, 718-387-3399.