Redd Kross: A Sapphire Celebration
Steve McDonald talks about the band’s epic new double album and their 45th anniversary
Forty-five years ago, 15-year old Jeff McDonald and his 11-year old brother Steve played their first show as Red Cross, with their older friends John Stielow and Greg Hetson on drums and guitar.
The band would soon change its name to Redd Kross and, over the years, go through a plethora of bandmates and record deals on both major and indie labels, along with appearances in motion pictures and television. They may have been contemporaries (and shared members) with the likes of Black Flag and Bad Religion, but somehow, Redd Kross never got their due as pioneers of the indie-rock world we know today.
To their credit, though, Redd Kross never went away; they’ve been steadily releasing albums and performing for decades to little fanfare or commercial success. In 2024, the McDonald brothers are making their sapphire anniversary matter, with a critically-lauded, self-titled double album, an award-winning film documentary, and a world tour.
VIDEO: Redd Kross “I’ll Take Your Word For It”
Perhaps if Redd Kross had stayed a hardcore band, their place in history might be different, but from the start, the McDonald brothers had something else in mind. They grew their hair to hippie length, ransacked thrift stores for trashy outfits, and cultivated an image of inspired goofiness that ran counter to the stern protocols of Hardcore.
Yes, they played fast, loud and snotty, but instead of metallic riffs and screaming vocals, Redd Kross trafficked in upbeat, catchy, Day-Glo American rock ‘n’ roll, mining the nation’s cut-out bins for the cream of power pop, Kasenetz-Katz bubblegum and garage rock. Kurt Cobain famously said they sounded too happy. Kurt Cobain missed the point.
But that was then, and this is now: Redd Kross, hailed by Pitchfork as “a signature blend of pristine melodic craft and garage-band insolence,” seamlessly fuses arena-rock bombast, dizzying psychedelia, big pop choruses and the McDonalds’ innate charisma. Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story, director Andrew Reich’s documentary now making the film festival rounds, suggests that Jeff and Steve McDonald might have been mining the past for inspiration but were, in fact, years ahead of their time. That, and the fact that the McDonalds never took themselves seriously enough to play the rock star game, might explain why they’ve been relegated to a footnote in the history of American rock ‘n’ roll, when in fact they number among its founding fathers.
Rock & Roll Globe spoke with Steve McDonald just prior to the start of Redd Kross’ 2024 tour, which is currently winding its way across the United States before setting off for England and Europe.
Congratulations on the new album. My understanding is that you didn’t originally intend for it to be a double album.
Yeah, we thought we were gonna do a tight, 12-song record. We went in with “Born Innocent,” which we had recorded earlier as the closing credits song for the documentary. But we had about 14 songs and we figured that we’d pare it down to 12 for the album, and then have a few in reserve for foreign territories. You know, they want a couple of extra songs to release the album in Japan or whatever. But then it just started going really well. And there were some other songs that we had put away, that we weren’t going to use, and they turned out to be some of the coolest songs on the record. Like “Good Time Propaganda Band” we had cut, and the song “Stuff” we had cut. And so, it was just going so well that we thought, let’s just do the double album that we’ve always talked about but never happened.
Was this album always designed to be part of the band’s 45th anniversary celebration?
No, not at all, none of that was thought out or planned. I mean, if anything, we had wanted to do something for the 40th anniversary and we had all these reissues planned, but I don’t have to tell you what went down in 2020. So none of that ever happened. We were thinking of that as our 40th anniversary based on when our first EP actually came out. But in reality, as a band, our first shows were in 1979, so technically this is 45 years as far as Jeff and I being Redd Kross.
I remember hearing about you guys here in New Jersey at the time. It’s kind of amazing but word in those days just kind of got out through fanzines and college radio, but we were all hearing about these crazy kids in L.A. called Red Cross.
A lot of that was my brother. He was like a junior Kim Fowley in terms of promotion and really played that up. Anytime he would talk to anybody about booking a show or whatever he would mention that he was 15 and ‘oh yeah, that’s our bass player, he’s 11.’
Were there any songs that you had written and abandoned that you decided to resurrect for this album?
Yeah, the song “Candy Coloured Catastrophe.” Jeff had actually made a demo for that years ago. And it’s crazy because it’s such a great song, but it actually missed being on two Redd Kross records, it’s over a decade old. But everything else was pretty much born in the last couple of years. Maybe a few of the tunes were demo’d during the pandemic but that’s it.
VIDEO: Redd Kross “Candy Coloured Catastrophe”
There have been lots of people in and out of Redd Kross over the years but recently you’ve been working with Dale Crover (of the Melvins.) What’s that been like?
Working with Dale and someone with that much experience has actually totally changed the band’s modus operandi. I’ve been working with Dale since 2016, I’ve been playing with the Melvins since then, and I’ve learned so much. They’re actual working musicians, as opposed to hobbyists or some vanity project, someone playing at being rock stars. They’re salt of the earth working musicians, and they’ve taught me so much about how to play music and have a regular work life doing it. And of course he’s such a great drummer, so it’s a big pleasure to work with him every night.
I was lucky enough to see Redd Kross and the Melvins both come through Maxwell’s in Hoboken.
Yeah, you could say we were in the same graduating class. I have very fond memories of playing Maxwell’s on New Year’s Eve, maybe 1987 or ’88. I was just talking to Tom Scharpling (host of The Best Show) and he has a great story about being underage and sneaking into Maxwell’s to see us.
I get along with my family, but I can’t imagine working with my brother for 45 years. And there are lots of famous stories about brothers in bands like the Kinks and Oasis actually coming to blows, on stage and off. What’s your relationship like Jeff been like all these years?
It’s a living, breathing being unto itself, our brotherhood. And I really wish I could say our relationship has always been perfect but of course that’s not how things happen. Our show is mostly about having fun, and any friction that might develop during the day has almost always evaporated by showtime. But I also think that friction is important, and here’s a lofty metaphor for you. It’s like plate tectonics. The planet is constantly shifting and changing, and if those plates didn’t shift and release that tension, the planet would die.
But that shifting complicates things. For instance, Jeff has always been the predominant songwriter in the band, but I’m writing a lot more now. And I’ve played maybe a thousand more shows than he has now because I’ve been touring with other bands and working as a professional musician for the last decade. But at the same time, we have a special dynamic that’s inherited through our siblingness. For me, that was tangibly valuable last Spring, I think it was, when we all watched the Beatles’ Get Back. And not to compare ourselves to Lennon and McCartney, but you could see in that footage that these two guys really valued each other’s opinions and knew that was special. That’s so rare, and I think, at least speaking for myself, that I’m really grateful for that relationship Jeff and I have. It’s not without some bruises and scrapes, and we all have egos. So it’s not always the easiest thing in the world. But we’re from California, so we’ve both been in therapy since we were teenagers, and maybe that’s helped.
VIDEO: Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story trailer
What can you tell me about the documentary?
My brother and I didn’t have anything to do with putting the documentary together, and we didn’t get final cut approval either. So it was pretty nerve-wracking. But I’ve seen the film a couple of times and it’s kind of surreal, experiencing that. Luckily, we trusted the right people and the filmmaker, Andrew Reich, had a really good handle on what he thought would be a compelling way to tell our story.
So that’s been great, especially seeing all these caring people saying really nice things. But there’s an angle to the film that says this is a great band that’s been underrated, but there’s a part of me that says, well, have we really proven ourselves? It’s nice you’re saying all these nice things, but I don’t know. So I think this record is in many ways a reaction to my seeing an early cut of the film and saying to myself that I want to make good on all these nice things people are saying. And not to denigrate our other records, because I do appreciate them, and if one of them is your favorite, I’m not going to argue with that. But at the same time, I still have this fire to prove myself, to show what I can do. So that’s the weird part about the documentary. It’s about our legacy, and that’s great, but I’m a lot more interested in what I’m going to do in the future.
Redd Kross is available now from In The Red Records. Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story is currently playing film festivals across the country. The band is currently touring the U.S. with dates in the U.K. and Europe to follow.
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