Less Than Jake's drummer Vinnie postpones education for 'rad' road life

Sounds of warming-up ska riffs littered the air Monday night pre-'Sco show when Arts editor Lauren Viera met up with Less Than Jake drummer/songwriter, Vinnie. While potty-mouthed Blink-182 may have put a dent in an otherwise keen night for happy skankin-to-the-beat, Vinnie proved that in the end, the size of your horn counts more than anything else.

Lauren Viera: Seeing as this is going to go in our college paper, do you want to talk about college?

Vinnie: Sure. I went to college at the University of Florida, and I need two more classes to have my masters degree. It's a major in special education, and a minor in gifted. I don't see it happening any time soon, but I need two more classes. We've been on the road for, like, a year and three months with two weeks' break in between tours.

LV: How can you do that?

V: You know, I ask myself that once in awhile, but I can't describe to you the feeling that you get when you're playing music, from a hundred to 1,000 people in front of you, and they're psyched to see you, and they're singing your songs...can't beat that. And all those negatives that go with being away from home and being away from the loved ones that you have at home, that makes it all better. It makes it all much better, and a hell of a lot easier. Touring is crazy, but I love to tour. You know what I mean? I've seen the United States eleven times so far.

LV: Have you ever been to Oberlin before?

V: I've never been to Oberlin before.

LV: What do you think of it?

V: Have you ever seen Scream before?

LV: Yeah.

V: It reminds me a lot of that movie. It's a town where a horror movie would be filmed at. It's very '50s-looking, like when you're coming into town, but it's got that whole horror movie vibe, cause there's like the college campus right there, and then the bigger houses - the two story houses that are older. That's my first impression. You know what I mean? I'm sure there's like rad nuances that every town has that you don't pick up on til you live there, but for the most part, college towns look like college towns. That's just the way it is. I mean, where I'm from is a college town, and there's rad nuances there, too.

LV: So you'd never heard anything about Oberlin before you came here?

V: Every time we go to Ohio, it's either Cleveland or Columbus, and nothing in between. Never heard of Oberlin. Ever. I was kind of going, "Why are we playing here?" This is pretty much out in the middle of nowhere; there's nothing going on big city-wise.

LV: Why do you think you are here?

V: I have no idea. I truly don't. Our booking agent said that the person who books Oberlin college wanted us to play here, so we said "Sure." We haven't played here, so sure - we'll go.

LV: Do you think you'll ever go back to college?

V: Eventually, sure. Our lives will change. My mom is all stressed out, right. She's like, "You can't quit school; you're so close." But teaching will always be there. School systems will never shut down. There never will be a time when there will be no need for teachers. But there will be a time when there will be no need for Less Than Jake. So you have to take the priority. At that moment in time, music becomes a priority; the band becomes a priority instead of teaching. And I think that's equal. Teaching on one hand, and being in a band on the other - they both initiate some sort of positive change in people. With Less Than Jake, I play the drums, but I write the lyrics also for all the stuff. Everything in Less Than Jake touches on a sort of open-ended socially conscious aspect of questions for the most part. There's a couple that aren't - just more fun playful things - but teaching is sort of the same thing because all teaching is is passing on knowledge, but it's always open-ended because you never know the outcome for that particular semester or that particular year.

Someone asked me a few interviews back, "Would you ever exchange what you're doing now for anything else?" and I said "No," because, what could I possibly do more? What radder thing to do? It's just rad! You can see the country, but it's more even than that. It's meeting rad people every where you go, and having friends everywhere you go. If the band ended tomorrow, I'd have friends in, like, 150-200 cities. You can't beat that. Plus, it's an experience. And that's, by far, amazing in itself, besides playing; just the experience that comes with it is equally rad.