Talk It Out with Jodi Leib

The Lion, The Witch and... 

The Warlocks

Corey Lee Garnet, JC Rees and Jason Anchondo of The Warlocks
 upstairs at Star Shoes in Hollywood.

Bobby Hecksher, lead singer and lyricist of The Warlocks...photos by Jodi Leib

Talk It Out with Jodi Leib
August 2003
Photos by Jodi Leib
Special Thanks to: Sterling Mire and Betsy Palmer
Location: Star Shoes, Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA

Jodi:  :  I’m here at Star Shoes in Hollywood breaking the ice with Corey, J.C. and Jason from The Warlocks. How did you get your name The Warlocks?
Jason: It’s not some crazy Witchcraft thing, that’s just whatever. The name was just there. It stuck. If you look at our personalities and the way we dress and act, it fits the picture.
Jodi: If someone has never heard your music, how would you describe it?
Jason: Like a gun ready to go off. It’ll start quiet and end up loud.
Corey: It ain’t quiet and loud and then quiet again! It’s Rock-n-Roll. It’s white noise for days, bright lights, chimes, swirls, waves crashing, and sonic feedback.
Jodi: It sounds so Zen.
Jason: I’ll go with that.
Jodi: Will you go with that?
J.C. and Jason: We’ll go with that.
Jodi: What are you creating with your music?
Corey: We’re all playing music to avoid the monotony of everyday life. I think we all have the tendency to go mad if we’re not being active musically and creatively. It’s a way to pass our lives away doing something we feel is worthy.
Jodi: That’s cool. When I was at Michigan, someone said to me, “Why are you going to Film school?” and I was like, “I just want to have fun the rest of college.” It seemed to be such a simple, playful answer and maybe a copout to the rest of the world, but it has spun an entire career in entertainment and I had no idea what would happen. I did it for fun but it came out to be something that could affect the whole world. So, I think having fun is really a cool goal. How did you know that you were creative, that you were talented?
J.C.: Oh, I’m not talented. I’m faking it all the way. I think it’s the chemistry of this band.  All of us are rather unorthodox players and that works well with all seven members of the band. Nobody ever told me I was creative or talented, but I don’t need to hear that. I have to agree with Corey. I’m having fun. It doesn’t get much better than that. That’s all I need.
Jodi:  So it’s pure bliss?
Corey: Always move forward. If you don’t like something, don’t do it.
Jodi: What’s that great children’s story about the warlocks? The Witch and The Warlocks or something?
Jason: No, that’s The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
Jodi:  You’re right!
Corey: The Wardrobes would be a good name for a band.
J.C. and Jason: The Wardrobes. Yeah.
Jodi: When I heard The Warlocks, I instantly, immediately thought of that book.
Corey: That’s all you, babe.
Jodi: Is that all me?
Jason: We never heard that one before.
Jodi: You know, they escape and they go into this fantasy land.
Jason and Corey: Narnia.
Jodi: That’s where they go?
Jason: Yeah.
Jodi: In the world of imagination, that’s really a place.
Corey: Yeah. I spend as much time in that realm as possible, believe me.
Jason: You know what’s weird man? The weird thing about that book is that my friend growing up went to Christian school and they teach about those books and about J.R. Tolken books.  They were real hard-core Born Again Christians or whatever.  C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolken were like best friends and they both wrote stories about each other, and they would collaborate on stuff.
J.C.: I like a bit of Sci-Fi.  I like to read Biographies.
Jodi: Other people are cool, I agree.  So, yeah, that’s radical.  Huh.  Awesome.
J.C.: Awesome. They say that a lot in Detroit.
Jodi: That’s where I’m from!
Corey: Do you know a tall girl named Rachel. She’s from Detroit. She’s comin’ tonight.
Jodi: Yeah, I know her. So, who are we missing from the band?
J.C.: A lot of em’. There’s seven of us. Six guys, one girl.
Jodi: Do you all get along peacefully?
Jason: What we do is try and stay out of each other’s way so we don't kill each other.
Corey: We’re a happy family.
J.C.: We know when to respect each other’s wishes.  We know if someone needs alone time.
Corey: It’s like we’re married to six other people. Some of us are more evil. Some of us are, some of us aren’t.
Jason: It’s dealing with six different personalities besides your own, so you have to balance it out.
Jodi: Do you believe in evil?
J.C.: Sure.
Corey: Pure evil, yeah.
Jodi: What is evil, and how do you recognize it?
J.C.: How do you have good without evil?
Corey: Anybody that is selfish is evil. Selfishness can manifest itself in a very grand scale and if it gets out of control and hierarchy and thinking you’re better than the average Joe.
Jason: All that stuff.
Corey: You don’t have to kill anybody to be evil.
Jodi: I think violence is evil.
Jason: That’s physical form of evil. I think hitting a girl is evil.  Anybody who inflicts pain on somebody they think is considered “meek” or smaller than them is evil.
Jodi: Do you think war is evil?
J.C.: Yeah, of course, but sometimes it’s kind of necessary, for things like protecting yourself.  If someone’s coming here and being like, “Get the fuck out of here,” you have to defend yourself.
Corey: It’s had to know what the world would be if the world could exist without war, without slaughter. Of course it seems like an inherently evil thing. Somebody in Iraq who is drafted into the military, some of them, I’m sure, want to die for what they believe is right. I’m sure a percentage of them just doesn't know any different. It’s just what they have to do. Anyways, point being, if we didn’t have world wars, who knows? We could be over populated. Who knows what would happen if we were prematurely ejected out of this game? It might get out of hand.
Jodi: It would be a big orgy! 
J.C.: I’d like to think so.
Jason: That would rock!
Jodi: If there were no war, everybody would love each other.
J.C.: That would be cool.  The fact of the matter is that war is all human nature.  It's always going to be there.  When people say, "hey we're going to fight to end this."  How can you fight to end someone's beliefs?
Jodi:  Why would you want to?
Jason:  You can change an individual's mind by showing them a better way or a different way.  Look at half these people in the Midwest who think that Bush is the greatest president in the world, but they don't see anything else because they're so secluded inside where they live.  They don't go anywhere.  They don't go outside of this country to see other things that are going on in the world.  Shit, that's just how it goes.
Jodi:  How would you open peoples' minds to creating the possibility of love in the world and creating acceptance?
J.C.: You're in the wrong hands, darling.
Corey:  We're completely apathetic. We're smart, but we're apathetic.
Jason.: All we do is just play music and play for ourselves and if other people around us like it, then hey, that's cool.  Other than that we don't have no message, we don't have anything but just a reason to play music.  And that's all we focus on, doing what we love to do.  If it ends up being like we don't love it anymore, then we won't do it and we'll move on to something different.
Jodi: But what is the music saying?
Corey:  Nothing.
J.C. It's not saying anything.
Jason:  Honestly, we can't speak for our singer.  He writes the lyrics.  He pretty much writes about things that happen around his life, around him, people he knew.
Corey:  Bring it back to the book and  Narnia.  I think that's where he's coming from, this surrealistic dream world.  It's fiction.  We're not singing about current events.  
Jodi:  I like that.  It's fantasy.  Your music is fantasy.  Alright, well, thanks you guys.  I enjoyed that.  

www.TheWarlocks.com

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Talk It Out with Jodi Leib's The Warlocks Interview was taped in August 2003.  Talk It Out (c) Jodi Leib, 2003. Reprint by Permission at talkitout@jodileib.com.