interview: warp 11

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It’s 11pm at Moods Bar in Old-Town Sacramento. The formica-topped cocktail tables are still vibrating from the last echos of the blistering southern rock of opening act Billy Goats Gruff. The crowd is appreciative but restless–they know that the main event is about to begin.

With Starfleet shirts and vinyl pants, Warp 11 takes the stage.

They launch into “Warpcore (On The Dance Floor)” and quickly have the crowd’s fists pumping and the chipped concrete walls throbbing to the chant of “Warp! Warp! Warp!”

Fusing equal parts Star Trek, sex appeal and rock-n-roll into an unlikely package, Warp 11 has quickly become a Sacramento favorite, and are quickly gaining a cult following around the world.

They recently played GenCon and are featured prominently in the upcoming movie, Trekkies 2.

Recently, Badmouth sat down with lead singer and bass player Captain Karl Miller and background vocalist and resident sexpot Yeoman Kiki Stockhammer to talk about rock-n-roll in the 23rd century, green-skinned dancing girls and meeting William Shatner.

Karl and Kiki tear it up.

BadMouth: Why Star Trek?

Karl Miller: Because nothing really rhymes with �Chewbacca.�

Kiki Stockhammer: Because Logan�s Run was taken.

Karl Miller: We used to have a list of patented answers to �Why Star Trek?�

The Drummer and I have been in bands together since we were 16. We had a new band like every month. One of the bands we did for a while was a Star Trek band.

Much later, I did this Internet TV show about Star Trek. Kind of a cable-access thing that people could watch all over the world.

I was like, �Oh Jesus, I have to come up with content to fill a half an hour once a week.� One of the obvious things to do was to get a band, because I�ve been in bands since I was sixteen�forever. So basically, I called up my old drummer and said, �Hey do you know any good guitarists these days?�

We are good enough musicians now that when we write a shitty song, we know it�s shitty.

We got together. We were just going to meet one day and talk about it�if we wanted to do it, and we ended up writing four songs. In those days it was a lot more punk. Easy. Didn�t care if it was good or bad.

BadMouth: So you�re a Star Trek band. But you�re a good Star Trek band. I mean, the music�s not a joke�

Karl Miller: We are good enough musicians now that when we write a shitty song, we know it�s shitty. And we usually just don�t play it anymore. Which is a useful skill to have, you know?

BadMouth: Does the Star Trek thing ever feel limiting? Do you ever say, �Man, I have this great song about President Bush, but��

Chief Engineer and Lead Guitar Brian Moore

Kiki Stockhammer: Actually, aren�t intergalactic politics far more interesting?

Karl Miller: I�ve thought about it a couple times, but Star Trek is so huge and the storylines encompass so much social commentary. They covered such political and socio-economic stories, that really, if there ever was anything that we wanted to cover, there�s probably an angle in Star Trek that we could do it in.

Not all of our songs are funny. The vast majority are. But of the stuff we�ve been writing lately�there�s a few of them that are just really dark. The fact that they�re so dark just makes them funnier, because you�re not expecting a really serious song out of the band. All of a sudden we�re signing this �Lose Your Identity� Borg song, and it just works on all levels.

Kiki Stockhammer: I think also we�re kind of�without even realizing it�we�re kind of giving a tribute to Roddenberry, in the sense that our fans are hugely diverse. Multicultural. Multiracial. Geeks. Nerds. Preppy people�

Karl Miller: (interrupts) Drunks. Alcoholics�

Kiki Stockhammer: (laughs) Drunks. Alcoholics. It�s vast. When we go do a show, we�re never quite sure who�s going to show up. It�s always fun to turn people around and get them excited about this. It�s all about the music and the energy.

Karl Miller: It all about having a good time and laughing. I think that we have an advantage over a lot of bands. You know, when people go out to see a band, they just want to be entertained. That�s all they want. There going out to have a good time. And we get to do it on two levels. One: the lyrics are really funny, especially if you know Star Trek�and even if you don�t know very much about Star Trek, you�ll still get a lot of the jokes because they are so blatant.

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Suck My Spock, is inherently funny. So on one level, they get that. And then the music is also enjoyable. It�s like a double-whammy. I think that�s why our shows�we always seem to get a really good crowd.

BadMouth: I came early to the show and sat down at a table with a guy in full Starfleet regalia. I assumed he was the guitar player or something, but he was just there to catch the show.

Karl Miller: Sometimes they put on their uniforms and sometimes they don�t.

A lot of our fans don�t like Star Trek. They don�t watch Star Trek. And some of them are quite adamant about it.

Kiki Stockhammer: They don�t care.

Karl Miller: They say, �I don�t like Star Trek. I think Star Trek sucks. I don�t like anything about it, but I really like what you guys do. I always have fun.� So they put up with it.

Warp 11 rocking out

Kiki Stockhammer: They have to make a point of telling you. I think it�s because we have so much fun. We kind of set the precedent by not taking ourselves too seriously and just going for it, every gig, no matter where we are, ya know?

BadMouth: So not all the fans are Trekkies. How about the band?

Karl Miller: It was just one of those things, for me anyway, when I was in 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th grade, every single night at 5 o�clock on channel 40, before cable, Star Trek was on. It was in syndication. It was on every night.

My mom made me come home for dinner at five�we never ate until six, but I had to be home at five. I watched every night and I liked it. It was a good show. Every night I watched Star Trek and I really had no idea how much I knew about it, how much had really sunk in�the real obscure stuff�until we sat down and started writing songs. All of a sudden we were like, �Wow, man! We reaaly know waaay more than we really should.�

BadMouth: Once the band got rolling, do you find yourself going back and watching the show for ideas?

Karl Miller: Actually, No. I think that since we�ve been doing the band, we�ve probably sat down as a band and watched like four episodes on purpose to say, �I�m going to watch this for ideas� or something.

We just kind of write what we know, and we just luckily know a lot.

Kiki sings

Kiki Stockhammer: We have our guitarist, who is constantly trying to sneak in Star Wars lyrics.

Karl Miller: He doesn�t really like Star Trek that much. He likes Star Wars. He always tries to write these Star Wars songs, and I�m very adamant: Part of the joke and part of the fun is: All we do is Star Trek. We�re just going to keep shoving it down your throats as long as you�ll keep eating it.

Kiki Stockhammer: Look at what�s cool about Star Trek. I mean the Borg is one cool thing. How cool is that? There�s so many different races, there�s so many different things you can sing about. �Rage Against The Federation� is such a cool new song. And it�s the whole perspective�in a rageful way�of the redshirts. That�s political.

Karl Miller: Especially nowadays with all our troops going over there and getting killed. That whole joke of�you see Spock, Kirk, Bones and Ensign Gomez beam down to the planet, you just know Ensign Gomez is dead, the poor guy.

BadMouth: Star Trek was always a political show. They had a political message in almost every episode.

Kiki Stockhammer: Oh and they had hot chicks! Hot, hot chicks. The outfits just kill you dead.

BadMouth: Well the original series had those. Then the new stuff moved away from that until Seven of Nine brought it back.

Kiki Stockhammer: I�m talking more about the original series.

BadMouth:This seems like a good time to point out the man-skirts in the first season of the Next Generation.

Karl Miller: They quickly went away. I�ve always wanted to get a dress Federation uniform with the skirt and wear it to weddings, funerals and stuff like that�and when we win our Emmy or Oscar, you know.

BadMouth: You look at the Star Trek universe: Spock plays the harp. Ryker plays the trombone. Data, the violin.

Karl Miller: Picard played the flute.

BadMouth: Even the Klingons, who were bad-asses, listened to opera. Where�s the rock-n-roll in the future?

Kiki Stockhammer: It�s gotta be Bones. Bones has gotta be a percussionist.

Karl Miller: I wrote a whole dissertation once. It�s on our Web site. It�s like five paragraphs of �Where is the rock-n-roll of the 23rd century?� And just kind of bitchin� about it. Ed. Note: The dissertation is available here. It’s the second or third Captain’s Log.)

Kiki Stockhammer: I think they left the crappy rock-n-roll part for when William Shatner tried to sing �Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.�

Oh and they had hot chicks! Hot, hot chicks!

BadMouth: There have been five Star Trek television shows. Which one is the best?

Karl Miller: (quickly) The Orignial.

Kiki Stockhammer: I agree. Hands down.

Karl Miller: I just think there was something pure about it back then. I think that a lot of the storylines that they were doing�some of them were so blatant, but they were so powerful for the time. The one I always remember�it�s so corny, but so true�the black and white faces one. It was so down your throat. Especially in that era, with segregation going on. Just to do that episode. �What do you mean we look the same? Are you blind? The left side of my face is white and the left side of his face is black.� I just thought the stories back then were so powerful.

Jeff’s drumming hits warp 10

Plus they just had that whole Kirk, Spock, McCoy trio that�s just so great as far as characters. McCoy being the humanity. Spock just being the pure logic, and Kirk just trying to get laid.

BadMouth: And succeeding.

Kiki Stockhammer: Oh yeah!

We met William Shatner. We played at GenCon. We knew that he was seeing our CD. People kept bringing it up to him to get him to sign it. So we decided, we better go up and say something to him.

Karl Miller: We kinda heard that he read some of the lyrics like �Everything I Do, I Do With William Shatner,� which if you weren�t paying attention, could look like we were making fun of him.

�Everything I do, I do with William Shatner.
Losing all my hair while my belly�s growing fat-ner.�

We�re not really talking about him. We�re talking about us. But Shatner�s a little touchy about the whole Kirk thing, so�

Warp 11

Kiki Stockhammer: �so it was great, so we walked up to him. He was sick as a dog. His eyes were watering. He had a horrible fever. He was barely there. His publicist was just moving people through.

Karl Miller: He wouldn�t even look at you. They have the guy sitting next to Shatner who pushes the picture in front of Shatner. Shatner signs the picture and pushes it away. Lines another one up. Signs it and pushes it away. About every third picture he would look up and grimace and that was it. That�s all you get with Shatner.

Kiki Stockhammer: So we went up to him and I said, �This is really from the heart. We love you.�

He was like, �Love?�

And I was like, �Yeah, love.�

He took a minute, and the publicist said �Move on!�

And he said, �No, no. They can stay.�

Karl Miller: So Shatner starts talking to us for a while. To the point where they�re totally trying to get us out of there. The line�s backing up. You�re not really supposed to talk to Mr. Shatner.

Kiki Stockhammer: He then looks down at the CD and says, �I suppose this is you?� I said, �Yeah, it is. I�m giving tribute to all the hot chicks from the �60s�all the chicks that you got it on with.� He looked at me and said, �Whoever said that I got it on with those chicks?� Then I just kinda looked at him and I said, �Well, you did, didn�t you?� And he just started laughing. It was great. It was one of our better moments.

Brian sings

Karl Miller: I had him sign the CD. I have it at home.

Kiki Stockhammer: On mine, he chose to sign below my breasts. Everyone else�s it was right across them. I thought it was a sign of respect.

BadMouth: Was GenCon your first convention or have you done that sort of thing before?

Karl Miller: Yeah. It was our first one. We�ve gone to conventions before. Star Trek conventions are weird for us. I don�t think they like us at Star Trek conventions. I think that we�re a little to modern.

Kiki Stockhammer: Pushing it.

Karl Miller: Pushing it. It�s taking something that someone loves�almost an iconic thing�like to some people Spock is like Jesus Christ.

Chief Medical Officer and Drums Jeff Hewitt

Kiki Stockhammer: Don�t say that! We�re going to get in trouble like John Lennon did.

Karl Miller: (ranting) We�re bigger than Jesus Christ right now. And we�re better than The Beatles. (laughs)

So a lot of these people at conventions, they�re just offended at what we do.

Kiki Stockhammer: And some aren�t. Like we had the Andorean chick.. Some of the real hard-core, super-Trekkies are there.

Karl Miller: I think our biggest segment of people that dig the band are not the sort of people who go to conventions�not to say that a lot of them don�t. But I think the vast majority of them are just people who like to drink and laugh and party. When we play college bars, we do great.

It�s always the same. I love playing new college towns, where we�ve never played before. We�ll come in there, and we�re wearing our uniforms. People are already partying there anyways. They don�t care who�s playing. They look at us going �Star Trek band? What the hell is going on?� Then they go, �Well we gotta see this.�

We�re bigger than Jesus Christ right now. And we�re better than The Beatles.

They don�t think it�s going to be what it is. When they think Star Trek band, they think nerds and Trekkies and we�re going to wear our Vulcan ears. But the band is all: Sex. Drugs. And Star Trek.

BadMouth: In that order?

Karl Miller: Well, drugs�I link drinking and drugs�probably drugs second and Star Trek first.

Kiki Stockhammer: No, no. SEX!

Karl Miller: Star Trek drugs?

Kiki Stockhammer: Yeah!

BadMouth: You guys are going to be in Trekkies 2?

Captain Karl and his space bass

Kiki Stockhammer: The premiere is next Tuesday (April 20). There�s a film festival in Newport Beach. They�re going to have a huge showing of it. And they�ve invited us to come down and play right after the big screening of it.

Karl Miller: Yeah. They�re going to fly us in from Vegas because we�re doing the NAB Conference, then we�re going to play at the Hard Rock Caf� down there, then the next morning get up at an ungodly hour and fly back to Vegas to finish NAB.

BadMouth: Have you met any other Star Trek celebrities?

Kiki Stockhammer: I met James Doohan way back a long time ago.

Karl Miller: We met Worf, Michael Dorn, and we gave him a �Suck My Spock� CD. And he held it and said �Warp Two� because apparently Klingons just use Roman numerals.

BadMouth: Ah Klingon humor, a rich tableaux.

What�s the Warp 11 sound?

Karl Miller: I think the thing that ties us down the most is that we have no distinct sound. Green Day always sounds like Green Day, which is great.

Kiki Stockhammer: AC/DC always sounds like AC/DC.

A fairly gratuitous cleavage shot of Kiki

Karl Miller: A lot of bands get stuck in that, because their fans come to expect it. If they try to do something different, it never works. Pat Benetar did that jazz album and no one ever heard it.

Because we�re almost a parody band, we can play any style of music and it is instantly accepted. In fact, I think if we played one style of music, people would get pissed off. We can do country, jazz, funk, metal�

Kiki Stockhammer: �hip-hop, rock-n-roll, good pure rock-n-roll�

Karl Miller: �and we do! The thing that defines us musically is that we�re indefinable.

BadMouth: So you guys are working on a new album right now?

Karl Miller: The album�s pretty much done. We�re going to go into the studio in May and record it. Over at the Pus Cavern, where Cake recorded their albums? Maybe you�ve heard of them? We recorded both our CDs there.

BadMouth: What are your goals for the band?

Kiki Stockhammer: To be the biggest, baddest, Star Trek band ever�

Karl Miller: �ever to come out of East Sacramento.

Kiki Stockhammer: Why are you talking smack?

Karl Miller: We�ve been accused of being a slick marketing machine�which we are. We all come from technology companies, and we do a lot of advertising.

Kiki Stockhammer: We�re smart.

Karl Miller: We know what we�re doing. We�re just going to push it and ride it. I don�t know how big we�ll get. I�m not in it like, �I have to be a rock star.� I�m just in it to have fun. I like playing music. I like playing funny songs. I like the whole Star Trek thing because I look good in my uniform.

Kiki Stockhammer: That�s why I do it. I like doing it because I can get away looking like I�m half Barberella and half green-skinned Orion slave girl. What band today can you do that in? My aspect of the band is to bring back that glam-rock.

Karl Miller: As long as people keep coming to see us, we�re going to keep playing. I�m sure we�ll hit a certain cult status, if anything. And I�m looking forward to going on my �cult status� tour.

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Links

The Offical Web Site of Warp 11

Songs From Red Alert Red Alert – MP3 Everything I do, I do with William Shatner – MP3 7 of Mine – MP3 Q – MP3 And That’s Why I’m in a Star Trek Band – MP3 Buy the album

Songs From Suck My Spock Crusher – MP3 Wormhole – MP3 Spock Me, Shock Me – MP3 Buy the album

Tags: music, star trek, warp 11