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Interview by Brian Brannon

Bakersfield may seem like a strange place to find skaterock, but it has grown like a weed among all the cowpaddies and shit kickers in that honky tonk town. The Active Ingrediants are a Bakersfield band to be reckoned with, playing fast and tight sounds in a pure skate-infused vein. They have some good stories to tell and know the locations of a lot of empty pools out there in the sticks. So without further ado, here's the lowdown on this crankin' band.

Tell me a little about the scene in Bakersfield, and what the cowboys think of y’all punk rockers.
Dennis: Well da scene is a lot different than it was 10 years ago, I liked it better then. As far as cowboys in Bakersfield, they try to be apart of the scene with the whole rockabilly thing.
Jeremy: haha yeah, actually all the cowboys started listening to blink, sum 41, and all the fag pop punk bands on drive thru records. Then they went to k-mart and bought studded belts. Now they think they’re punk.

What’s the skate scene like? I hear you got a lot of pools.
Dennis: I dig the skate scene in Bakersfield because I have a lot of friends that I still skate with after all these years. And yes Bakersfield has a lot of pools. My bros Ben and Ryan always find new pools to skate, and I find them too.

I want each of you to tell me their best Bakersfield skate story.
Javier: I got dared to take a nudey run at the public skate park. So I did it because some of my friends said I had no balls. I found out later that there was a bunch of fags hanging out at the park that got off on it, sick!
Dennis: I got into a fight at jerry’s pizza with some so-called punks. I beat three of them with my skate.
Jeremy: 3 knee surgeries.

I want each of you to tell me their best Bakersfield punk rock story.
Jeremy: We were playing a show at a club downtown called Bam Bam's. Some ex-con dude came into the club and started harassing all the chicks during our set. At the end of our set the dude came up to the stage and asked Dennis for a smoke. Dennis told the dude to beat it. The ex-con told Dennis he was going to kill him. Dennis said hold on; I think I have one in my guitar case. Dennis grab some mace out of his guitar case and maces the dude. One of my bros down on the dance floor grabbed the dude and put him in some kind of military hold and took him out side. Some of the chicks that the ex-con was trying to fondle earlier started kicking the hell out of the dude. They were jumping on his head and stuff, an ambulance had to come get him; it was rad. That’s what I call street justice.
Javier: Some jocks came to a show and were starting a bunch of trouble with the punks and skinheads. One of the skinheads went up to the jocks and kicked him square in the nuts. One of the dude’s balls dropped out of the guys pant leg, it was gnarly. The skinhead ended up getting arrested because of it and got 2 years in the pen. 
Dennis: Active Ingrediants used to drive by the trendy clubs and throw eggs and cups of piss at all the trendys.

How long has the band been around and how did you start.
Dennis: This January it will be 11 years. When we were in high school we used to skate Jeremy’s ramp. We listened to a lot of killer bands while we skated. Bands like Agression, Ill Repute, Minor Threat, J.F.A., Black Flag, Cro Mags, D.R.I., Agent Orange, Gang Green, you get the idea, anyways we thought it would be cool if we started a skate band so we did.

How long have you been a three-piece and what are some of the advantages?
Jeremy: We’ve been a three-piece since 1998. Dennis used to play second guitar and we had this guy Scott playing bass. Scott got married and quit the band. Dennis switched to bass guitar because we didn’t feel like finding a new member.
Dennis: I like it a lot better as a three-piece. There are only three of us, so there is less to argue about. Plus the music is a lot tighter and more straightforward.

I noticed you sing about God in some of your songs, how is that received? Jeremy: Yeah we have a few songs about God. They aren’t preachy though. I usually write about what’s going on in my life. A while back I was going through hard times, drugs, depression, and feelings of suicide. I had no direction with my life and I needed to get it together. I found my self in church one day and what the guy up front was talking about all made sense to me. I really cleaned up my life a lot because of it. I haven’t done any drugs in almost 2 years. All my depression and thoughts of suicide has also passed away. I’m way stoked on life and I feel I owe it all to God. So yeah, I have a few songs about my beliefs and some of what I’ve gone through in my life.
And to answer the second part of your question, people seem to receive it o.k. Our music is fast, energetic, and aggressive, we still have balls even though we keep our heads straight. And as I mentioned earlier, only a few songs are about God, and they’re not preachy.

Do you guys play with other Christian bands or just on your own?
Jeremy: We play with all kinds of bands and we play everywhere. Some times we play gigs with Christian bands sometimes we play with satanic bands. We play at a lot of bars, and we play at a lot of churches. My favorite shows are the ones we play at skate parks, the all age punk clubs are fun too.

What are some of the other things your songs talk about?
Jeremy: Some of them are about how the government is corrupt. We also have songs about drug addictions, death, skateboarding, being let down and betrayed, stuck up rich yuppies, corrupt preachers that are using God to make money, and songs about failing or falling down but getting back up and moving forward. We also have a few instrumental songs; instrumental punk songs are skate rock.

Any future plans?
Jeremy: Yeah. We are going to record a new full length C.D. in December. We play a ton of shows and plan to continue with that, and hopefully we will be touring the U.S. this next summer.

Anyone you would want to thank?
V.B.F. for the van, Mike at Skatefreek, Jake at Thorn Board Co, Beer City Skates, Rob at the Boiler Room, Kurtis from Lucky’s, Front Porch music for the killer deals, all the kids that go to our shows, everyone that skates, and of course God.