BBQ (AKA Mark Sultan, AKA Creepy, AKA Bridge Mixture, plus a ton more) was interviewed on September 1, 2004 at Davey's Uptown in Kansas City. My first exposure to Mr. Mark Sultan was through the highly enfluential and sadly defunct band the Spaceshits, who managed to squeeze out to albums on Sympathy before their demise. Next up Mark played drums in Les Sexareenos, who as the Spaceshits before them, called it a day after only two albums. Which leads us to BBQ, Mark's one man band, now with two LPs under his belt he & King Khan have released the party album of the year "The King Khan & BBQ Show" out now on Goner Records. For more information visit www.marksultan.com

Interview by Mike Fungus, Photos by Mr. Chips

             

Fungus Boy: Who is Kib Husk?
BBQ: He is me, he is I, that’s me. I don’t know what else to tell you but I use a lot of fake names for tax purposes apparently, no. I just---I’m a fuckin’ liar, that’s all it is.
FB: In the Spaceshits you went by the name Creepy right?
BBQ: Yeah.
FB: And even the second album your picture on the back has your whole face blacked out.
BBQ: I was hidden for a while there, because I was an experimental doctor for a bit in Brazil and I was doing like sex changes and things got out of hand and people wanted to sue me, “Ooh whatever, you asked for it”.
FB: In Les Sexareenos you had a bucket over your head (on the album).
BBQ: In the Spaceshits I had a full mask like one of the those like Scream or some shit like that and I was like drinking through it and after a while, I guess I was consuming chemicals through the mask, and trying to sing, it was really bad. In the Sexareenos I had a lamp shade on my head because we were a party band. So I had the lamp shade with the notes on it and that didn’t work, it was terrible.
FB: I think most people know you from the Spaceshits…
BBQ: Some of the people, yeah.
FB: Tell me little bit about how that band got started and ultimately came to an end.
BBQ: Uh, we started out, I didn’t know how to sing, these dudes---I had a band before that where I was just playing drums. This punk band, like somebody broke their neck at a show, somebody broke their arm at another show, it was like super violent shows, fireworks going off and stuff. And I was kind of in the back ground just playing going (makes a strange facial expression). And these dudes in the Spaceshits they’re a bit younger than I, like three years younger or something like that, most of them, one was my age, any way so they came to the show and were like, “Oh my God I saw dude break his neck. Yeah, wow, fuckin’ amazing!”, and I was like “yeah, cool”, (they were) like “We’re starting a band, you want to sing?”, I was like “Yeah, lets do it”. Then I started singing and we started playing and I guess within like, I think it was two or three months of conception we put out something right away or some shit. I’m all about speed, not drugs I don’t that it’s bad, I’m all about “yeah let’s do it!”, I don’t know if that makes any sense, just fast. We got together, so we played and put out stuff and we went to Europe in 1999 and our bass player, this dude Blacksnake, announces like “I’m in love, I’m stayin’ here”, and he plowed through apparently five girls to get to his true love, in the same town, they’re all friends. No, but he married a girl, she’s the best, I love her, they’ve got two kids.
FB: So that kind of ultimately brought the demise of the Spaceshits because Blacksnake stayed in Europe?
BBQ: Oh, no, the ultimate decision came when we switched lead guitarists and this dude we were with he was the lead guitarist and he was kind of a baby and shit, a nice guy but he couldn’t hack the business. We’re all about sleeping on floors and sleeping in toilets, whatever, I don’t know what we were doing at the time. And he didn’t like it very much so we were just like “Ahh, it’s over”, there’s not point trying to….
FB: Did you feel at that point that the band had lived out it’s full life?
BBQ: Yeah, it was over, it was finished so whatever. Nobody was upset it was more like well it has to stop.
FB: Winter Dance Party, were you guys Buddy Holly fans or what was the concept behind that?
BBQ: Uh, the guitarist Oily Chi, the rhythm dude, was a---he’s a graphic artist, now he is specifically but at the time he was about doing art and stuff, it wasn’t so much Buddy Holly it’s just like a tribute to Rock ‘N Roll, the cover, whatever that means. So he designed this thing and yeah, that was it. We were in Montreal at the time, in Canada, we were tryin’ like just---I mean I wish people would have seen the first shows, they were fifteen minutes long tops. When we first started for instance Blacksnake’s mom came to a show once, the first show and uh, I can’t remember he was bleeding everywhere I think like he smashed something. And he was like “YEAH”, in his mom’s face, we smashed a pie in her face and she’s like this Indian woman, this hardcore Indian woman like from India, and she’s got pie all over her and she’s like (imitating Indian accent) “Great show guys”. (laughter) We were like kids, we were just stupid, it was fun.
FB: I have heard a lot of people, maybe even you or other members of the Spaceshits had said that you didn’t feel the second album was as good. I love the second album it has such great energy.

             
BBQ: Well OK like the first record was really all about, I was---I’m trying to get my ages straight, those dudes were sixteen or seventeen and I was twenty maybe, I don’t remember, but we got to the studio and it was like in Brooklyn, we’d never really ventured--I had kind of gone to New York before but those guys like (had never been out or Canada) and they were feeding us mounds of cocaine, literally. And it was all just doing coke and just like not eating properly and drinking tons, so it was like slammed out really fast. The energy, that was our, it was like really fast but then it changed, like that album that you speak of Misbehavin’, there’s two other albums between the two albums that never came out.
FB: Didn’t you record a different version of Misbehavin’ for Rip Off that never came out?
BBQ: It’s not a different version, no, no, it’s like maybe four songs from that record and then a ton of other songs. And we recorded also a whole record with Kearney Barton, the dude that did the Sonics and all that shit, so we recorded--they are two different records altogether and if you would hear those two records it kind of makes sense, the transition or whatever. The second record was more like we were in Montreal and we didn’t have a lot of money, we got some money off the label but we were like abusing stuff. And then so like we did the second record because we didn’t have a lot of money and it was in Montreal and it seemed very easy to---I didn’t have a problem with that second record, but it is different because you don’t hear what happens between the two records. So it seems like a different thing….
FB: So if everything got released there would be four Spaceshits albums?
BBQ: Five, there is one before Winter Dance Party. It was recorded on an Indian reserve in 1996, it’s faster than Winter Dance Party.
FB: I had heard that initially that you wanted to release the bootleg that came out, Radioshits Rock & Roll, that you were going to release that too?
BBQ: No, what happened with that---that’s a bootleg pure and simple. No offense to Italy but Italy is kind of notorious for that kind of business, I didn’t know about it, I was like this stupid kid, we sent out tapes trying to solicit maybe doing a single and this dude got the tape and just “Well I’m just gonna put it out”. So he put it out and I was like, “I’m gonna fuckin’ kill you”, and he was like, “I have a black belt” I’m like what are you Webster, I don’t give a fuck.
FB: How did you feel about the quality of the release? Were you upset?
BBQ: I don’t mind I think it’s cool. I think now looking (back), at the time I was upset only because he sent us like five copies, if he would have sent like---I think he pressed like three hundred or five hundred, if he would have gave us ten percent I wouldn’t mind. I don’t mind that shit, I’m not about money, I don’t give a fuck about that shit, I just like having fun. But it was more like a slap in the face like here’s like five copies, one for each of you. It really didn’t bother me, the quality is bad but it’s like that’s a live show from the radio show. I don’t know I like it, it’s all right, whatever.
FB: At what point after the Spaceshits break up did Les Sexareenos start up?
BBQ: Uhm, we started right after, let’s see two of the Spaceshits, me and Danny who was in the Spaceshits, he was the drummer, we got back from Europe and we were like “Oh, let’s make a band”. I started playing drums and he started playing bass and we got two other people, we started playing music. In Montreal it’s like if you have a band you start recording and doing stuff right away.
FB: Wasn’t it around the same time that some of the other guys formed the Del-Gators and did a similar type thing?
BBQ: No, the Del-Gators happened a bit after the fact, after the Sexareenos. It’s similar for sure and it’s not a knock on those guys at all, it’s like what we were into at the time. I mean for instance like punk or hardcore I was going to those shows when I was thirteen, I was fully into hardcore and punk and stuff but I went through the phase of actually trying like “Yeah”, and the bands that I had before the Spaceshits were like hardcore and punk. I guess it all came together with like the Del-Gators and Spaceshits was just coinciding the sounds that we were into or whatever. They started maybe a year after the Sexareenos, something like that, shared members, Montreal is very incestuous so.
FB: I know around the same time the Daylight Lovers had an album come out and the Deadly Snakes stuff and Long Gone John hopped on that band wagon and helped out quite a bit.
BBQ: We made sure the Spaceshits to like---Blacksnake the bassist for the Spaceshits was like, he had seen the Deadly Snakes first show in Toronto and he was like “You guys gotta see them!”, he was going all crazy and then we saw them and we tried to help those dudes out and get them on Sympathy. At the time Sympathy was OK to deal with and shit, and the Daylight Lovers same thing, we wanted to like keep our friends doing stuff.
FB: I know for me at the time hearing you guys and the Deadly Snakes I went out and got the Sultan comp that you put out and then heard the other band like Scat Rag Boosters and Daylight Lover and definitely opened my eyes to a lot of that stuff.
BBQ: That wasn’t just me, that was like Roy from the Sexareenos also. It wasn’t a matter of like---the thing with that label was just like those are bands that we really like from the area, we had really good distribution at one point then we left somebody else in charge once and the distribution got foiled.
FB: Do you think there is every a chance, I don’t know if the guys from the Chicago Blackout have asked, but do you think there is ever a chance for a one off Spaceshits reunion show?
BBQ: I don’t think so and not because it’s like we hate each other or whatever, it’s just that no one is really into reunions. I mean I see all these reunion bands and go OK whatever, none us are very old but it’s like still embarrassing somehow, no offense to these bands. I mean we still have our heart in that music and everything else but I don’t want to see that. I would not want to see us do it.
FB: Has that ever come up?
BBQ: Well yeah.

FB: I figured the guys who put on the Blackout would press for that.
BBQ: They never pressed, but I heard like--in Europe when we went with the Spaceshits--like now it’s “Oh, the Spaceshits!”, I don’t know why, I guess we had fun shows.
FB: It could also be that the Spaceshits were one of those bands that after the fact, after they had broken up people finally are interested in the music.
BBQ: At the time I was telling the rest of the band that, ’cause tours are really rough, I mean no offense to this show in particular, it’s a weekday and blabbety blah blah, and my performance was terrible, I’m having trouble with the drums. I’m not trying to make excuses but lets just say that sometimes you’re on tour and there’s rough shit that happens, and when you’re a bunch of kids sometimes it gets you down. I remember though, with the Spaceshits I was like, “Don’t worry man, like five years from now, don’t worry”. I knew it was kind of maybe important in times, not important in any way but I thought maybe people would pick up on it, and it happened, people picked up on it later and that’s more important. And I remember, this is a boring story for your tape recorder, but I remember we were doing that that bootleg that you heard, it was for that radio station, somehow this dude calls up the radio station, which isn’t even on the air at this point, and it was a producer from Los Angeles right, knows were there or whatever. And I found out later, I confirmed it all, and I remember he was like, “I want you to come to Los Angeles, and I want you to live here and I’m gonna like make you….”, and we’re just like (If I remember correctly he made a gesture as if he was flipping off the phone). Like nobody cares, like we never cared, and I still don’t give a fuck about that shit, he can suck my dick man. I don’t know the Spaceshits was kind of funny because I think like not a lot of people knew about it at the time, I guess maybe it was a label or---Crypt, we were supposed to do something with Crypt at one point and Rip Off and blah, blah, blah. Now people are like, “Oh, Spaceshits, oh hot are they”, for us that was just like growing up.
FB: I think you’ve said before that if you could find the right label you would put out a lot of that unreleased stuff?
 

BBQ: I would do it personally but I still have to ask everybody, you know. Because I have a lot of it but like for instance the stuff that we recorded with Greg Lowery I don’t have it, he won’t give it up.
FB: I even asked him about that back in May.
BBQ: I think he’s uncomfortable with the recording.
FB: I saw on your website on the forum that there was another Les Sexareenos album coming out, a singles comp?
BBQ: Yeah, I think it’s like twenty eight songs, I mastered it a year ago this month. I did it all and I left it in charge with the other Sexareenos dudes, not the girl, Annabelle, and I think last month they sent it out.
FB: Is it coming out on Sympathy?
BBQ: Apparently Sympathy, we had a---contractually speaking we had to do another record.
FB: What was the long talked about Death-A-Reenos, was that going to be another album?
BBQ: Yeah, that was our favorite punk and hardcore songs.
FB: Was it ever recorded?
BBQ: No, we were just like fuckin’ around with like a bunch of songs, and it was fuckin’ great. If you can image that, it was pretty crazy by the way. But it never happened, we just broke up.

FB: So at what point did you decide to do the one man band and become BBQ?
BBQ: Well, I kinda had to, like when the Sexareenos started fizzling out I was like, “I’ve got tons of songs”, so after what you know or hear I have like a million songs. It’s like I have nothing better to do with my time, I don’t work, I don’t want to work ever man, fuck that. I’d rather live in a box in a ditch, no joke, than work. I don’t mind the actual physical act of working, but I worked at the Canada Post, this was my last job, and my boss was a mongoloid. He was a mongoloid, no joke, (imitates boss) “You’re not doing it right…”, like I can’t do it man, it drives me insane, right I can’t do it. So I was just righting all these songs and shit and I have bands in Europe and whatever else, I was just like that oh, I just want to do it. I mean I regret not having a band of course, this isn’t what I want to do to, lets be honest, this one man thing is just a pain in the ass, pure and simple pain in my fucking ass. Like tonight I have all these problems but you don’t know that, you just think, “Oh, this sucks”, I’m one guy, I’m not an octopus so if something fucks up I’m like, “Fuck”.
FB: Did you record all of the stuff on the first LP yourself, or did you have some of your friends help out?
BBQ: No no, that’s me. It’s live to a---some of it’s four track and some of it’s a two track, so that’s why if you hear the record and you hear tonight there’s a difference, first off I’m using other people’s equipment which is hard sometimes, secondly the last three shows I’ve had the worst problems with bass drum shit. No no, I’m not a liar, that’s live, the next record is….
FB: I heard that you hooked up with Bomp, when can we expect that out? (It’s out now)
BBQ: Yeah, I have no idea, I don’t care anymore. Like after this I’m finished with this (tour), the album’s gonna come out. I have an album with Blacksnake I think---I was talking to the dudes in Memphis, I’m pretty sure I think is on Goner, and I’m recording with Jack Oblivian next week for I don’t know what, we’re just fucking around. And I have bands in Europe and shit, whatever. This is kind of like fun if fun was covered in shit, but really I have other stuff I want to do. I have all these songs I can’t play by myself, even these songs, fuck man I wish I had a band, it’s depressing. It’s just a means to an end.
FB: What can we expect in the next six months to a year?
BBQ: The BBQ record, which actually is a really good record, if you like the Spaceshits and the Sexareenos it’s somewhere in there. The Sexareenos record hopefully, I have no idea, I just left it, I’m an idiot. Uh, me and Blacksnake record on, I think a record on Goner, maybe just a seven inch, we’re pretty sure it’s a record, uh I’m recording with Blacksnake and Dickie Peterson from Blue Cheer for no reason, we’re just like, “Oh, we’re gonna do a record”, so that’s next month, I’m recording that. I’m recording stuff with Jack Oblivian and I think Jeff Meyer and maybe some other Detroit dudes next week. And Spaceshits stuff I mean I don’t care about the label, lets get this straight so it’s not like (in crazy voice) “Oh, I’m waiting for some money”, I don’t give a fuck, but there’s a bunch of stuff I’d like to get out there just because as my own historical kind of, for me it’s important. I really when I was young---I remember those days, it was great, but if it comes out it comes out, if it doesn’t whatever. But if you like say---the first record that never came out was Winter Dance Party and a few other songs faster, there’s two between Winter Dance Party and Misbehavin’, one’s with Greg Lowery that’s---I don’t really remember it, I think I was drunk or something like that, but I think it was good, I don‘t know. And the one with Kearney Barton, which is different somehow, which is also, I think it was good, and then yeah, I don’t know if that ever comes out, I don’t know