Lawrence.com

On Monday, James DeWees - aka Reggie and the Full Effect - celebrated his 30th birthday. The goofball Vagrant Records icon is basically living the same life he led when he was 19 years old and a member of seminal hardcore band Coalesce: touring constantly and making records. Now that the budgets are a little bigger, Reggie is pulling out all the stops for his first headlining tour in support of last's years "Songs Not to Get Married To" (opening bands Common Denominator and Fluxuation are actually Reggie alter-egos). DeWees phoned in from the backwoods of Georgia en route to a convoluted string of tour dates that visits The Granada on March 24.

lawrence.com: Has it been a vision of yours to do all three of these band personalities together?

Reggie: Yeah. It's funny because it's working out really well. It's weird because there's some kids that know all about the three bands and some kids that don't.

And the ones that don't?

They're like, 'What the fuck? How are these bands touring together?'"

Are there costumes involved?

Oh yeah, it's a full Reggie show with all the costume changes.

Would somebody who showed up with no knowledge be able to realize that it's you in the opening two bands?

Not really - there's so much makeup involved.

Do you have makeup designers with you?

No. My good friends at Kansas City Costume Supply always hook me up with really nice stuff. I've been doing it for years now, so I'm getting pretty good at it. I can put my face on in like two minutes. Taking it off is the hard part.

Describe these two opening bands.

One is from England and one is from Finland. These English one is dancey and the Finnish one is deathy. The English one has two members and the Finnish one has five.

Describe Common Denominator.

You don't speak English very well, so you're kind of singing about the words you learned at learning-English school : I think by the time we get to Lawrence the Fluxuation video will be out on Fuse.

Tell me about that video a little bit.

We shot it in like four hours in Los Angeles at the beach. It really fits what the music is - very "Gayties" I guess you'd say.

Album Mp3s

Songs Not to Get Married To

• "Take Me Home"

More

Did you come up with that?

Yeah, I just did.

So how are you recovering from that The Get Up Kids breakup?

Well, it wasn't really a breakup.

So how are you recovering from that amicable separation?

Really good. I had a party in New York and Rob and Ryan came up to it. Jim's band (Blackpool Lights) is playing the club we played last night and I left him a little present : Jim didn't like touring at all but now that he's in his own band he loves it.

Is Reggie fulfilling more so than when you had to balance with other things?

Album Mp3s

Under the Tray

• "Getting By With It's"
• "Apocalypse WOW!"
• "Drunk Girl at Get Up Kids show"

More

Oh yeah, it's kept me busy for the whole year. I love touring. It's my favorite thing to do. With Reggie, our live show has always been the thing that people talk about. So now that we have a lot more backing I can actually add more production to the live show. Hopefully one day I can do an arena thing where I'm just blowing people out of the water with how much goofy shit is going on at once.

What should people expect at The Granada?

A lot of blood. And a lot of nudity - not necessarily good nudity.

That's probably not going to do much for ticket sales.

Well, it's funny nudity.

So you live in New York now?

Yeah, I've lived in Brooklyn since August : I came here for more opportunities - TV stuff and all that. It's more of a career choice. It's a lot more expensive.

So you host Fuse shows pretty regularly?

Yeah, I do a lot of guest hosting for the "Daily Download" show. It's just an excuse to go stay in a hotel in Manhattan.

Where can people see these programs?

You can download them, I think.

So this is a new channel? And they actually show music?

Yeah, it's all indie bands and stuff like that. They have like 35 million viewers.

How is the experience of being a television host? A little nerve wracking?

No, it's fun. It's all improv. They give you a teleprompter, but that's cheesy.

Do you work with a teleprompter?

On the "Daily Downloads" show, because they do it live every day. I don't want to introduce Kanye West and call him Mike Jones or something like that.

Did you meet Kanye West?

Yeah, he was nice. All the really famous rappers are really short. Except for Snoop Dogg, they're all super tiny people. That's why they have these huge bodyguards.

Any thing else you want to get out to your fans around here?

I'm excited to come back to Lawrence for a day. It's been a long time. Is Burrito King still there?

Yep.

I love that place. I used to eat Burrito King every day of the week. I went though the drive thru one time and there was a Reggie sticker. I didn't put it there, though.

Are you working on a record or anything?

Yeah, I'm going to start working on a record in the middle of April. I'm doing it in New York, I think.

Did that last record ("Songs Not to Get Married To") solve all those personal problems you were having?

Yeah. I'm fine with it. After I said my peace I was kind of done. I'm not the kind of guy who likes to harp on anything for a really long time.