In Defense of Ska Ep 39: Max Collins (Eve 6, Chevy Mustang)

In Defense of Ska

Up until last year, alt-rock group Eve 6 was best known for their hit 1998 single, “Inside Out,” or as some people refer to it, “the heart in a blender song.” But times have changed. Now Eve 6, specifically lead singer Max Collins, is best known for taking over Twitter. It started last December when he tweeted that he was a virgin when he wrote “Inside Out.” Since then, he hasn’t stopped tweeting a chaotic mix of weird jokes, hot takes, embarrassing rock n roll stories, and leftist political rants. It’s everything a band’s Twitter account shouldn’t be. But it’s also the very thing that makes Twitter a little bit more tolerable in 2021.

And in Max’s Eve 6 tweetstorms, oftentimes ska pops up. But it has been unclear to what extent he was a fan of the genre. That is until October 7th, when he and ska band We Are The Union surprise-released a collaborative cover of Operation Ivy’s “Sound System.” It’s a brilliant version of the ska-punk classic that doesn’t veer from the joyous spirit of the original. In fact, it highlights just how good the song is. And clearly, everyone is having a lot of fun playing the song.

We were fortunate enough to get an exclusive interview with Max a few months before the song was released. We asked him to predict how the song will be received. We also learned about his very real ska roots, what he thinks about #SkaTwitter, which Gorilla Biscuits song he plans to cover at Fest this year, and he dug pretty deep into his perspective on life, including a recent proclamation that he is a Christian Anarchist. And at the end of the interview, Max told us that we have been his favorite podcast he’s ever done. Take that other podcasts!

If you’d like to support us and listen to early access, ad-free episodes with bonus content, check out our Patreon!

If you like our theme song, go download the EP Lives by Slow Gherkin. They wrote the opening and closing songs for our podcast. You can get both tunes from their Lives EP. Also, check out Dan P and the Bricks two LPs. They provided the mid-roll ad transition music.

Support the In Defense host Aaron Carnes by purchasing a copy of his book, In Defense of Ska. The 2nd, expanded edition of In Defense of Ska will release in Oct 2024.

Co-host Adam Davis has a band called Omnigone. Their latest record, Against The Rest released on March 31, 2023.

The In Defense of Ska editor Chris Reeves runs a record label called Ska Punk International. They have new releases coming out all the time.

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