Jon: My views don't really have anything to do with [Christianity]. It wasn't really anything like... Well, yeah it was. It was forced down our throats. Heh. But a lot of things... Like Christianity says it's okay to eat meat, and I don't agree with that. But that's me. I would never say that I'm better than anyone else because I'm vegan and that makes me more evolved than you. I think you should just do what you're comfortable with and do what you can.

Just simple things, like if Nike cut 1% of their global advertising budget they could pay every worker a decent minimum wage.

But you're doing that as well with your music. You're trying to raise awareness about things you feel are important. Trying to make people feel uncomfortable enough to notice what's going on...

Jon: I don't necessarily want to make people feel uncomfortable, I just want them to realize that stuff does go on. People don't give a fuck. You drink your Columbian coffee and eat your Cuban bananas and they think, "Yes, bananas are cheap because they're cheap." No one bothers to research it. They're cheap because American companies are fucking over all those other countries to death!

Rage Against the Machine do it, they try to make it all positive. And the Beastie Boys have done the same thing with the Tibetan Freedom Festivals [The Milarepa Fund]. And that's what we do with our website. I can say, "Okay, here's all the stuff." I can say, "Here's the link to Greenpeace. Just click on it!" There's a lot of things we do. There's a program where you can give old bass and guitar strings to children in Africa. We do stuff like that.

If Greenpeace became more ultra-militant, more like the ALF [Animal Liberation Front]... They're kind of like Earth First!, they don't fuck around. They'll blow something up if they don't think it's right. We've been letting them collect money at some of the UK shows. I dunno... I think you should just do things in a non-violent way. I used to go to anti-skinhead rallies and we used to kick the fuck out of people. I don't do any of that anymore. I really feel like you should lead by example, in non-violent ways. If you live in a world based on consumerism, you should let consumerism do the work for you. I've a Greenpeace Visa card; for every $100 spent $1 goes to Greenpeace. You just do what you can.

Years ago, didn't you used to show a lot of aggressive and violent film footage during your shows?

Jon: Yeah, a lot of really fucked up stuff. That was when we really did want to offend everyone. You know when you're young and you're crazy... But it was still political content I would want to show. I cut films together of these '50s nuclear, happy families, where everyone's tossing footballs around. And then cut together what it really was like in a slaughterhouse where they're cutting chickens heads off and they're electrocuting pigs. And we would keep cutting those images in faster and faster until it became something out of Scanners.

You did an extensive amount of touring behind www.pitchshifter.com. Did you ever feel like you were losing your sense of identity? It seems like with all the people who approach you and say, "Oh, you're Jon Clayden. I know all about you!"

What's the big secret to being able to work together as a band and still stay friends when you're confined together on tour?

Jon: Staying the fuck out of each others way! Ha! Laptops. We've all got laptops and computer time is like going into another world. I could be writing a new album and you could be playing Doom with someone via an internet connection. It takes you off to your own part of the world. That and learning not to hang out with each other. When you first start off in a band you have to do everything together. After awhile it becomes more like, "You go on ahead. I'll catch up." Mark [Clayden, bassist] is my brother and I've known Johnny since I was 13. So I've spent the majority of my life with them. Having that space is an important thing.

Last time we talked the band was on Geffen, and you seemed quite happy with the support you were getting from them. Since then they've been dissolved with the merger between Universal and Polygram and the band has ended up on MCA. Do you feel as comfortable there and are you getting the same support as you were with Geffen?

Jon: I feel more comfortable. Unbeknownst to us, the second we signed to Geffen the budgets got pulled from all the bands, because they knew the merger was impending. So our last album didn't get anywhere near as much support as it should have. Which is a shame. It just seems to be our luck. We keep writing these really good albums, but no one ever gets to hear 'em. I feel more comfortable with MCA. They've proved with big bands like Blink-182 that they understand how to work records. Which all sounds very cynical and commercial of me, but I see being in a band is having a voice. The bigger the voice, the bigger the audience that voice will get to.

I would of course like the new album to do well, because that's the only way we're going to reach more people. You can only do this for so long. I think, at maximum, there will only be this album and another Pitchshifter album, probably.

Jon: [laughs] Drugs in an alleyway; begging for money on the streets. You can only do this for so long and we're all growing older.

Is that the fear of not being able be relavent...to be creative as a musician?

Jon: I don't think I am a musician. I'm much more creative at writing. I need to finish this damn book I've been at! I was close to being done then I decided to completely re-write it.

What's the premise?

Jon: It's the first tour of America that we did. But you don't need to know anything about the band to be able to read it. It's like a Fante or a Bukowski thing. It's a story of being young and going to America and having many mad experiences because you're in a fucking punk rock band. I don't think I'm really going to finish it for a few years, and I'll probably publish it under another name. I like stuff like that...

"Everything Sucks (Again)," from the Un-UK EP. The song appears to be a two-way dialogue. Could you explain the lyrics behind it?

Jon Clayden's Bunker Music:

• Plug - Drum 'n' Bass for Papa.
• The Who - Live at Leeds.
• Dead Kennedys - Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death. I couldn't pick just one DK album so it would have to be the complilation.
• Subhumans - EP LP.
• Thelonius Monk - Alone in San Francisco. I would die without that record.
• DJ Shadow - Endtroducing.
• Sex Pistols - Kiss This.
• Hardcore Ambient Drum 'n' Bass: Volume 1. A nice mix of angry and quiet.

On the web:
Pitchshifter (Official website)

Inside Earpollution:
Pitchshifter Interview (July '98)
www.pitchshifter.com Album Review