Rising from the ashes with Cryptkeeper Five

So who are lurking behind the name The Cryptkeeper Five?

- D.T. on drums, Jimmy on guitar, Scotty on guitar,
Blue on sax, Nicky on keys, Jack on bass and me,
Johnny on Vox

What is the story behind your name Crypkeeper Five?

- We were young, we weren't really thinking
about it and it fucking rocks...
It didn't occur to me that there was a band
called the Crypt Kicker Five
in the monster mash, long until we were playing...
it must have been unconcious, no it was definately unconcious...
we wanted something kooky-horrorish and
something retro like The Dave Clark Five
and The Jackson Five...
so we settled with The Cryptkeeper Five...
Joey Ramone told us never to change it,
and i don't think we ever will...

Your band was formed over 5 years ago, what made you form this band?

- Me, Jimmy and D.T. started it when our
last band broke up in 1997...
we were too young to just stop playing and
had too much to prove, still do...

On your website you state "We are punk rockers but were not punk, we´re not
rockabillys but we wear grease in our hair" labeling sucks but
how would you describe yourself to someone who hasn´t heard of you yet?

- We always get asked this and we always say rock & roll...
People don't understand that either...
We classified ourselves as Punk/Rock/Alternative on myspace and
we've gotten flack for that too...
i think it's best to let yourself make your own mind up...

Following the previous question, what are the top 3 influences in general?

- hehe... Punk Rock, Rock & Roll and Punk...
I can't name just 3 bands that influence us...
I love The Ramones, The E-Street Band, Rocket from the Crypt,
The Green Goblyn Project, The Misfits, Elvis Costello,
Elvis Presley influence me,
but for the band there are too many bands to name...

On october 27th you released two new albums as a package, are you happy how the
albums came together and why did you decide to release them at the same time?

- I think i am happy with them...
Both albums are by far the best thing we've recorded yet,
i know i could have worked on em for at least another maddening year...
It was time to stop working on it tho...
We decided to make it a double disc cause we were contactually bound
to a record label that didn't do dick for the band and
finally our contract ran out October...
We just constantly recorded throughout the term and
it was impossible to release everything as one disc...
we actually had 44 songs, 4 discs worth of music...
So we broke em up into 2 albums 28 songs
and srapped the rest...

Let´s talk about songwriting in general, what is the recipe for a basic
Cryptkeeper Five song?

- Snakes, puppy-dogs tails and big fat snails...
the writting process is always changing...
for a short time we all wrote seperately...
i wrote a lot...
but we are starting to colaberate more
and i like it alot more now...

Little about touring, many bands have said that the worst part of touring
is sitting long times on a bus and just waiting, do you agree with this?

- No, sitting a long time in a van is the worst part...
8 guys in a van is a lot worse that 5 in a bus...
cry me a river, you have a fucking bus...
we have a van w/4 seats for 8 guys...

Ok, You have just released two great albums, now touring, after this,
what is next with your band?

- We are writting again...
We'll be touring a lot this year,
i would love to do the whole country,
but we'll see... We'll be recording a split w/ Blitzkid this year
and a few more splits...
We got a lot on the horizon...

Since it´s the eve of new year, what have you promised to do better next year?

- A lot of internal things that we need to do to get the machine running smoother
for both us and our receord label Bony Orbit...
I think we did things pretty good this year tho, so we'll see...

I hear my song calling, last breaths are yours!

- Thanks for thinking about the CK5, thanks for the interview...
We really appreciate the support...
Thanks for reading this if you are...
Go check us out at www.cryptkeeperfive.com or
myspace.com/cryptkeeperfive... Thanks

All text contained herein; © 2006-2007 Talesfromtheshadows. All Rights Reserved.