20 years on these punks are still bouncing

When high school boys Greg Attonito (vocals), Pete Steinkopf (guitar), Bryan Kienlen (bass) and Shal Khichi (drums) entered the stage at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Bernardsville, New Jersey, in 1989, little did they know that they would become one of the longest serving punk bands.
Apart from the replacement of Khichi by Michael McDermott in 2000, the band hasn't changed much over the past two decades. They are still spending most of their time touring the United States in an old truck fondly called The White Castle and are continually releasing new material.
Last year saw them celebrating their 20th band anniversary and the delivery of a special gift to their fans. Over the year, the band recorded one song every month, releasing them on digital singles and 7" EPs.
Kienlen acknowledges that the times a band would record an album and eagerly anticipate the release many months later are over.
"I guess it's permanently gone, even if you do it the old-fashioned way, the second you're done recording it ends up on the internet before you even started selling it, anyway," he says.
But rather than bemoaning the changes in the music industry, the band embraces them.
"All of those changes really put more power into the musicians' hands, so it's a good thing, taking power out of these big monopolistic corporations, major labels and all that," the punk rocker says.
Illegal music downloads won't cause him sleepless nights either.
"You can't worry too much about stuff you can't control, and so I don't.
"And I figure there are a lot of people who harbour a good will towards the band and want to support us, they do in one way or other, they come to our shows, or they buy a shirt or maybe they actually buy our music.
"It doesn't upset me because I'm guilty of having downloaded free music myself and all the way back to high school I discovered most of my favourite bands by somebody recording a mixed tape for me.
"Now it's called file sharing, but I think that it is something that rather helps the Bouncing Souls than hurts them because our music spreads across the world so easily and so quickly without us lifting a finger," he says.
The band members never based their lives around getting paid for their music or cared for being dependent on a major record label, setting up their own label Chunksaah Records in 1993.
"We've made a living out of touring. We get into the truck and get around the country and play and we get paid for that and people come and buy merchandise, and with that money we've been able to eat food and pay rent," Kienlen says.
This attitude saw them playing literally thousands of shows.
One obvious sign that the band earned many devoted fans along the way are photo galleries on MySpace and Facebook showing hundreds of fans wearing band-based tattoos.
Being around for so long, the band has also inspired many young musicians.
"It's gratifying to hear, it validates what I have done my whole life. It makes me feel like it hasn't all been for nothing," says Kienlen.
"We hear sometimes stories how our music has touched or changed or saved somebody's life. Pretty intense, that's way bigger than anyone of us in the band and way more important and it makes any conversation about money seem to be ridiculous."
More than 20 years on from their first gig in New Jersey, things haven't changed too much.
"It's still a bunch of people, it's still a release, loud fast music and the lyrics and the message, and the music still lights up a room, there's still a great pit and it's still a great feeling being at a Souls show. I still enjoy getting in that truck.
"We've grown up doing this, it is like second nature, our truck is our home away from home, we're just as comfortable there as we are anywhere in the world," Kienlen says.
With this attitude, another 20 years on the road may be on the cards for the four-piece band.
"We are pretty much 'just live in the moment' kind of people.
"We never had an answer to that question, even from the onset. But I can tell you that I can't see any reason to stop. I wouldn't expect us to go away anytime soon."