Motor 76 are five thick guys, one of them plays hockey, another is a butcher. The singer has a tattoo of a panda on his back and the guitarist has a Swedish name and a 14-inch tongue. These guys stink of meat and beer. I met them at a Rancid show in the mid 90’s and we’ve been friends ever since. Really sweet people making honest rock and roll and on their own terms. I caught up with Chris Gray, Lars Nagel and Bryan Stuart at a Piccadilly on Buford Highway in Atlanta. Bryan had a Guinness in his hand. Lars was swinging a tennis racket. Chris wore golf shorts with a piece of toast in his back pocket. We decided to head over to The Brewhouse in Little 5 Points to take things to another level.

Dry Ink: Where in the hell have you been?

Bryan: Playing here and there, writing songs, putting out a record, getting drunk.

Lars: We just played at The Midnight Room. It’s in the suburbs and straight out of a David Lynch film. Most of the audience was amputees.

Chris: It’s really called The Last Great Watering Hole.

DI: When did you guys get together?

Chris: 2001.

DI: What is the current line up?

Bryan: I play lead guitar. Chris sings. Lars is on rhythm. John Barnes (formerly of The Helgas and Barbarosa) plays drums and Ken Demske (formerly with The Plastics and currently with Rock City Dropouts) plays bass. We’ve been this line up for a year and half now. Chris, Lars and I have been playing together for over 10 years in various bands.

DI: I see you guys got some new t-shirts. I like them.

Lars: Thanks, we brought one for you. Our friend Ashi Doss made them. You can contact her at ashi@mindartapparel.com. She loves rock and roll, she is good looking and her prices are cheap. If you are in a band you need to contact her.

DI: How many records have you put out so far?

Lars: We’ve put out three records and have another on the way. We are really big in the suburbs and we do well in Ireland.

Bryan: We also do well in strip clubs.

Chris: Yea, go to The Pink Pony and ask the DJ to play Bad Girl from our last album All the Highs.

Bryan: They play it at Tattletales too.

DI: What is the title of the new record?

Bryan: Plastic Classic.

DI: Will there be a CD release show?

Bryan: Yes, June 12th in Kinsale, Ireland. Then we play Cork and then onto London where we’ll have another release party.

Lars: We’re playing Ireland and England and possibly Scotland. We’re playing some shows with an Irish band from Cork called My Evil Ex who is great.

DI: You’ve been over there before?

Chris: Yes, we played with the same band over there last year.

Bryan: The guy who helps us with shows over there is an American who moved to Ireland some years ago. Great guy, used to play softball with The Ramones. His name is Tim Smith and his company is Lucky One Productions. He’s also working with My Evil Ex.

DI: What does Motor 76 drink? You are heading to some serious drinking countries.

Bryan: Motor 76 will drink anything, but prefer beer and Jack Daniels.

DI: I think they will have beer there.

Lars: We’re just going to play some shows and have a good time. The people over there seem to enjoy rock more.

Chris: Exactly, the last trip was insane.

DI: Where do you see yourselves in five years?

Bryan: The same place, writing songs in a garage and playing for whoever will listen to them.

Chris: We’re always going to play music. We don’t waste time. We write songs and record them. We hope people enjoy the product. We drink beer and we play them live from time to time.

Lars: That’s it. We play honest rock and roll and love it. We played in front of twenty amputees the other night in the suburbs. We played in front of fifty people at Lenny’s. We’ll play in front of a hundred in Ireland.

DI: Any parting words?

Lars: Yes, we are not part of a trend or a fashion show. It’s about the tunes and a body of work baby!

Chris: We write songs for beer drinkers and women.

DI: Men, thank you for your time. Let us continue the drinking part of this interview.

And drinking we did. We drank Guinness, Miller High Life and Jameson. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon but I was hurtin’ on Monday morning. To the Motor 76 boys, once again, thank you for your time and break a leg overseas.

Tom Cheshire is the publisher of Dry Ink Magazine. Write to him at tom@dryinkmag.com