'Everyone Hates Ska' - Reel Big Fish

Ska punk veterans Reel Big Fish have admitted their genre is “hated” within the industry.

In a recent interview with The Drum Media, trombone player Dan Regan said their style of music has always met with some harsh critics, adding to their stance as an underground band.

''We're sort of like a 'marajuana band' – a gateway drug if you will to ska and punk music. So of course we don't keep all these fans – some of them go off and listen to terrible music after us (laughs). This has been happening to us since the early '90s – and of course you don't keep all the fans that you attract at one point in time. But what's great about these ebbs and flows as it were, is that they build and build because at least some of these casual fans in each wave become lifers.

“But after saying all that I still think we're an underground band at heart,” continues Regan. “What I mean is that we're part of a long tradition of punk rock and ska that music critics hate, that parents hate, that all these people hate, but we don't care. We've never gone out to try and 'crack the charts' – I mean these days there's not even much point in doing so. For us, it's about the integrity of the music and making sure that the kids who support us are getting our support right back.”

Regan also said that their care-free attitude doesn't hinder their respect to the roots of the genre that has made them famous.

“Ska and punk rock both have an absolute joy to them – both to play and to listen to, but both are also very subversive at their heart,” he explains. “Both styles are steeped in the politics of class, and in the case of ska the politics of race. I was too young to hear the original Jamaican ska music when I was growing up but I did get to hear Madness and The Specials. What really appealed to me was the ethics of the movement – racial equality, an uncompromising sound and, of course, a real working class ethos.

"It was a perfect fit for the early punk movement, which embraced ska in England, just as we did a decade later in Southern California. Ska bands, punk bands and bands that mixed the two built the Southern Californian scene – and it was a struggle. So, just because we have fun and goof around doesn't mean we've forgotten our roots and the ethos behind the music we play.”

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