Faster Pussycat just got off the road from this summer’s America Rocks tour. Playing to enthusiastic crowds every night with Lillian Axe, Pretty Boy Floyd, Bulletboys and Jack Russell’s Great White, the road is home away from home for Faster Pussycat frontman Taime Downe. Leaving behind a trail of good times and sleazy rock ‘n roll, Taime catches us up on Faster Pussycat’s new record, touring and life in LA.

It always looks like you guys have a great time on the road. I know you’ve been working on a new album but tours keep coming up. I’d say that’s a perfect reason for not having the record finished.

I know, man. Every time I get home I have to remember where we left off. I love touring more than I like sitting around writing a record. Writing a record is fun and cool but you’re just sitting around in a room with a drunk bass player! It’s more fun to be on the road with a bunch of fucking crazy people from all over the country. It’s good to get out of the house. Touring puts a damper on finishing the record. We’ve been working on it for a couple of years but we keep going on the road every few months. As long as we can keep going on the road I’m going to do it. Markets rise and fall so you wanna get out there when people want to pay to see you play. Some of the songs are pretty close to being done so hopefully we’ll get something out before Christmas. If not it will come out right after the holidays. We may put out a few songs for download. We were gonna play a new tune on this tour but we decided to wait and learn some older tracks we haven’t played in 20 years. We still haven’t really learned how to play those yet!

I’ve noticed lately, for a huge number of reasons, people are really looking for ways to go out and have fun. You guys are known for that – you always have a great time and you don’t take shit too seriously.

We’re out to have a good time. That’s why we do it and that’s really the only fucking reason. We love to party. We love to rock out, meet people and see our friends. We’ve been doing this a long fucking time and we have friends all over the place. We get to see our friends we only get to see once or maybe twice a year. It closes that gap if you meet somebody cool and only get to see ‘em every five years. It makes that friendship stronger and there’s nothing better than having cool friends.

You’re one of the guys that’s still in LA with the killer weather, hot chicks, and the Kings. When you moved from Seattle to LA all those years ago, did you think your career would have taken off like it did?

I dreamed about it. I wanted to be a rock ‘n roller and have a blast. I didn’t think I’d go 25 years but I’m still going. I’m not complaining about shit, ya know? Especially now that the Kings finally won a Stanley Cup! That’s just icing on the cake. That was a long fucking wait. I’ve been a fan since ’87 or ’88. I went to my first Kings game when we were recording the first record. That’s my only LA team. All my other teams are from Seattle. That’s where I grew up so I’m loyal to them.

You saw so much happen on the Strip when you moved to LA. Do you think a kid today can get any hint of the same vibe and atmosphere you experienced back then?

You didn’t really think about it at the time. I remember they were talking about the Strip back in the day with Zeppelin and the Stones and how crazy it was then. The mid-80s was another thing. It’s not the same now. There’s a lot more ordinances now and times have changed but it’s still rockin’. It’s still fun. You’ve got the Whisky, the Roxy, the Rainbow, the Key Club, the Viper Room. You don’t have Tower Records, the record stores are gone. You don’t have flyers all over the fucking street. It was crazy and I’m glad I was able to share it but it was just a period of time. If you weren’t there you didn’t get it. If you were there you soaked it all in.

What about new bands coming up? Labels aren’t really the ultimate answer anymore. Are bands better off doing things on their own?

Labels don’t have the power they used to have. There are so many outlets to hear new music that I’m not able to listen to it all when people turn me on to new shit. There are more ways to get music out now without having to be tied down to a label and have them take all your dough.

You can set up a studio in a spare bedroom now and have it sound killer.

Killer. We did The Power And The Glory Hole pretty much in my studio. We did the drums at Gilby’s house. All the vocals and guitars were done at my house and they turned out better than any of our records sonically. You don’t have to spend a half-million dollars and go into a giant studio to record an album these days. You can get into those big studios now pretty cheap. They can’t charge what they used to.

Taime, thanks for checking in, man. What would you like to say to wrap things up?

I appreciate everybody coming out to see us. I hope everybody had a great time. Thanks for letting me do my shit for the past 25 years!