The year 2000 was a beautiful time to be a kid. Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 had just come out for the Playstation, Scary Movie was in the cinema, the sun shone every single god damn day, and a little hybrid scene known as ârap rockâ was crossing the Atlantic en route to becoming a global phenomenon. There was Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, Kid Rock and various other pioneers who became the spiritual arbiters of everything that could be or ever would be cool. Life was lit.Of all the single gems that marked the millennium year, there was arguably none more prolific than LA band OPMâs crossover hit âHeaven Is A Halfpipeâ. âIf I die before I wake / At least in heaven I can skateâ - those unforgettable words, still etched deeper into my brain than the notions of left and right. Back in 2000, my friends and I were dweeby, eight-year-old kids in rural south England. We didnât know how to skateboard, and we definitely didnât know what packing a bong meant. And yet, somehow we feigned some sort of intrinsic connection with the American skater plight.
The song didnât just teach us about scaling half-pipes: it was about standing up for what you believed in, in spite of the figurative âman upon your backâ. Thereâs even a reference to smoking dope with Jesus, Muhammad and Buddha! So that's: skating, sticking it to the man, secular spirituality, and novelty record-scratch sound effects. Was there anything this song didnât have? The aforementioned Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 even had an unlockable level called âSkate Heavenâ set in outer space, although whether it was directly influenced by OPM, or vice versa, is still up for debate in selective internet forums.âHeaven Is A Halfpipeâ got to number four in the UK Charts, sold 265,000 copies over here, and won them a Kerrang! Award. They performed it on Top of the Pops, and their debut album Menace to Sobriety was released on Atlantic Records - things seemed to be going great for the Los Angeles band. Of course, the skater phase passed out of mainstream culture soon enough, then out of the schoolyard, and so too did the interest in rap rock. Atlantic didnât want to release their second album anymore, and the band were forced to leave the contract. All the rap rock that remains now is the distant and fragmented digital echo of Rage Against the Machine bitterly beefing with Fred Durst on the internet. I, myself, have learned the hard way that knowing all the words to âLast Resortâ just doesnât cut it anymore in this careerist world of Tinder and trap.But this did not deter old reliable OPM. Since their initial fame, theyâve released several new albums and singles. They just dropped an EP in fact, which comes with the aptly problematic title: Minge Dynasty. And their latest single "#Millionaire Like Me" makes no bones about tackling those real hard-hitting 2k15 issues: âSheâs got the âlikesâ cos sheâs got the looks / but she should have stayed in school and read more booksâ - YEAH! But itâs doubtful it will ever reach the dizzy heights of âHeavenâ.
Recently back from the European âMinge Dynasty Tourâ - yep, there it is again - and with a re-issue of Menace to Sobriety scheduled for November, I spoke to frontman John Edney about life 15 years on from having a worldwide hit single.Noisey: Hi John. âHeaven Is A Halfpipeâ was released in 2000, but really soared in 2001. It soundtracked most young lives for at least a year. So thank you for that. I was nine years old and I loved it, a friend of mine was eight and he bought the album at the time. Were you expecting it to have such mass appeal, even with the under-10s?
John Edney: [Laughs] No, I mean obviously I had no idea. I did think that maybe the person who would be interested in the song would be myself, when I was like 13. When you were 13 years old did you dream of packing a bong with Jesus?
I think that was just more like a clever lyric idea, but thatâs definitely when I started smoking pot⊠yeah [laughs]. I had some funny dreams back then. Iâm sure! Do you still get high? Do you still skate?
I donât skate 'cos I broke two discs in my back, but I still surf a lot. I do jiu jitsu and martial arts because that helps build the muscles where the breaks are. And smoking pot nowadays just makes me really paranoid and depressed. When I was younger, it made me really positive and creative. I dunno, I just think when you get older it affects your brain differently - or maybe when I was younger I just dealt with it differently. I canât do it anymore. I wish I could, I prefer it over drinking. Those were the days. What would be the best and worst things that happened to you because of Menace to Sobriety?
The best thing is that weâve had a 15-year career and got to make music. I canât really think of anything bad - nothing tragic. Iâm sure thereâs lots of things I could complain about, but I donât like to focus on those things. Thereâs a mentality that we could have been dubbed a âone hit wonderâ or whatever. That we âhad success thenâ but we donât now. Like, we just did a RockSound piece, I donât know if you saw that? No, I didnât. Why?
Well, we did this really cool interview with them, then they took the piece and the way they spun it⊠Well⊠Itâs definitely like a British sort of spin on things. I remember Kerrang! did it to us back in the day too. They made millions of dollars off of us, we were a huge thing for them, and they blew us up, but in the end they tore us down. Get âem as big as you can and people can enjoy the drama of watching someone fall. Itâs fucked that they do that, and then at the same time people complain that bands donât play live or that the live music scene is dead but itâs like, the whole industry is dying and itâs because of this. I had that success and Iâm still successful - you canât take that away from me, you know what I mean? Iâm not less successful because my next record wasnât as big of a hit. Because you still have that hit in the first place?
Exactly! I did it. I already won so Iâm not a loser now. I own a house, I own a studio, Iâve had success. In any other industry, they donât do this. If you work for a bank and you close a 20 million deal, become president of the company, but you never land another 20 million deal, youâre still the president. Itâs really strange. There are people who come see us at a club and theyâre like âHow come youâre not playing Wembley, you guys are huge!â and itâs like [laughs] if it was up to us, we would be there.Hey, who wants to play Wembley anyway. By the way, I feel like I have to ask: what is your actual perception of the afterlife? Do you still think that heaven might be a half-pipe?
I think heaven is really about this life, not the afterlife. The fact that we donât know about the afterlife is what keeps people grounded to some extent. Itâs about finding your heaven on earth now. Enjoy it, especially while youâre young and you can still skate and have pipe.Continues belowSo you released an EP called Minge Dynasty recently.
Itâs just kind of funny 'cos in America right now political correctness has become so over the top - especially anything to do with, you know, sex or body parts and whatnot. Our language comes from the UK. England has much more history than America does and theyâre still much more liberal with the language, and Iâve always kind of admired that. I just came up with that title as kind of a joke, a play on words, because Americans donât even know what the word âmingeâ means. We donât use that word at all over here. Do you ever find it frustrating that youâre mainly remembered for just one song when you have all these other songs?
No. I mean, youâre lucky to have one little hit. To have one mega hit is super lucky. Itâs funny having such a big hit, because we had other songs that were small hits - âEl Capitanâ and âStashâ but they were sort of dwarfed by its success. âHeaven Is A Halfpipeâ was sort of the perfect storm - it was a good song, but also it was timely. You had skateboarding culture blowing up at the same time and I think maybe the song had a lot to do with propelling that. Do you think if you were to release that song today for the first time it would get the same reception?
No. No?
Well, no. Then, the CD era was ending and Napster was just starting, so there was this new generation of kids who would see a song on MTV or Kerrang! TV or whatever and they knew about this new technology where they could go and take the song for free. So everyone in the world owns that song, but only a small portion of them actually paid for it. Itâs different now with YouTube and Vevo, but we had things like Kerrang! that were this very concentrated area of exposure - and we donât have that now. Like, Jay Z could put out a record now and not everyone would know, but back then that wouldnât have happened. With âHeaven is a Halfpipeâ, we got the tail end of the way that the music industry operated back then. There are artists out there whoâll get a million âlikesâ on a song and think that propels you to some sort of rock star status or whatever, but those likes donât pay any money. Itâs great, your song got popular, but you didnât make any money so how are you gonna go back in the studio and do it again? It takes money to do this stuff - Facebook and Instagram likes donât make you money.Thanks for speaking with us John.You can follow Tara on Twitter.OPM will be reissuing Menace to Sobriety in November to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the record.
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John Edney: [Laughs] No, I mean obviously I had no idea. I did think that maybe the person who would be interested in the song would be myself, when I was like 13. When you were 13 years old did you dream of packing a bong with Jesus?
I think that was just more like a clever lyric idea, but thatâs definitely when I started smoking pot⊠yeah [laughs]. I had some funny dreams back then. Iâm sure! Do you still get high? Do you still skate?
I donât skate 'cos I broke two discs in my back, but I still surf a lot. I do jiu jitsu and martial arts because that helps build the muscles where the breaks are. And smoking pot nowadays just makes me really paranoid and depressed. When I was younger, it made me really positive and creative. I dunno, I just think when you get older it affects your brain differently - or maybe when I was younger I just dealt with it differently. I canât do it anymore. I wish I could, I prefer it over drinking. Those were the days. What would be the best and worst things that happened to you because of Menace to Sobriety?
The best thing is that weâve had a 15-year career and got to make music. I canât really think of anything bad - nothing tragic. Iâm sure thereâs lots of things I could complain about, but I donât like to focus on those things. Thereâs a mentality that we could have been dubbed a âone hit wonderâ or whatever. That we âhad success thenâ but we donât now. Like, we just did a RockSound piece, I donât know if you saw that? No, I didnât. Why?
Well, we did this really cool interview with them, then they took the piece and the way they spun it⊠Well⊠Itâs definitely like a British sort of spin on things. I remember Kerrang! did it to us back in the day too. They made millions of dollars off of us, we were a huge thing for them, and they blew us up, but in the end they tore us down. Get âem as big as you can and people can enjoy the drama of watching someone fall. Itâs fucked that they do that, and then at the same time people complain that bands donât play live or that the live music scene is dead but itâs like, the whole industry is dying and itâs because of this. I had that success and Iâm still successful - you canât take that away from me, you know what I mean? Iâm not less successful because my next record wasnât as big of a hit. Because you still have that hit in the first place?
Exactly! I did it. I already won so Iâm not a loser now. I own a house, I own a studio, Iâve had success. In any other industry, they donât do this. If you work for a bank and you close a 20 million deal, become president of the company, but you never land another 20 million deal, youâre still the president. Itâs really strange. There are people who come see us at a club and theyâre like âHow come youâre not playing Wembley, you guys are huge!â and itâs like [laughs] if it was up to us, we would be there.
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I think heaven is really about this life, not the afterlife. The fact that we donât know about the afterlife is what keeps people grounded to some extent. Itâs about finding your heaven on earth now. Enjoy it, especially while youâre young and you can still skate and have pipe.Continues belowSo you released an EP called Minge Dynasty recently.
Itâs just kind of funny 'cos in America right now political correctness has become so over the top - especially anything to do with, you know, sex or body parts and whatnot. Our language comes from the UK. England has much more history than America does and theyâre still much more liberal with the language, and Iâve always kind of admired that. I just came up with that title as kind of a joke, a play on words, because Americans donât even know what the word âmingeâ means. We donât use that word at all over here. Do you ever find it frustrating that youâre mainly remembered for just one song when you have all these other songs?
No. I mean, youâre lucky to have one little hit. To have one mega hit is super lucky. Itâs funny having such a big hit, because we had other songs that were small hits - âEl Capitanâ and âStashâ but they were sort of dwarfed by its success. âHeaven Is A Halfpipeâ was sort of the perfect storm - it was a good song, but also it was timely. You had skateboarding culture blowing up at the same time and I think maybe the song had a lot to do with propelling that. Do you think if you were to release that song today for the first time it would get the same reception?
No. No?
Well, no. Then, the CD era was ending and Napster was just starting, so there was this new generation of kids who would see a song on MTV or Kerrang! TV or whatever and they knew about this new technology where they could go and take the song for free. So everyone in the world owns that song, but only a small portion of them actually paid for it. Itâs different now with YouTube and Vevo, but we had things like Kerrang! that were this very concentrated area of exposure - and we donât have that now. Like, Jay Z could put out a record now and not everyone would know, but back then that wouldnât have happened. With âHeaven is a Halfpipeâ, we got the tail end of the way that the music industry operated back then. There are artists out there whoâll get a million âlikesâ on a song and think that propels you to some sort of rock star status or whatever, but those likes donât pay any money. Itâs great, your song got popular, but you didnât make any money so how are you gonna go back in the studio and do it again? It takes money to do this stuff - Facebook and Instagram likes donât make you money.Thanks for speaking with us John.You can follow Tara on Twitter.OPM will be reissuing Menace to Sobriety in November to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the record.