Interview: Opiate for the Masses's Jim Kaufman

I’ve never done an interview before. I’ll be honest, I was freaked out by thought of some stranger calling me so that I could ask him questions. But, fears are made to be faced. I got ready, made my list of questions, set out my pen and my notepaper, made sure the battery on my phone was charged and then I played (and lost) a series games of solitaire to stop from staring at the clock. I played solitaire for forty-five minutes. I checked my email, just to make sure I didn’t have the date and the time wrong. I wasn’t. “Okay,” I thought. “Its time for coffee.” I love coffee. Coffee makes me happy.

Two hours later I look at my ringing phone expecting to see my sister’s number on the caller ID. There are a number of coffee shops in town that I could be skulking about in. Its not. As a matter of fact, it’s a number I don’t recognize. This is not a surprise because its Jim Kaufman from Opiate for the Masses calling and we’ve never talked before. “May I speak to Katharine?” He politely asked. He then apologized for calling late. Its not a big deal. Now that I’m caffeinated I don’t particularly care.

The first thing I ask is about the Arizona music scene that Opiate for the Masses has come from. “We came from a great scene,” Jim tells me. “Its kinda like family.” He says that Ron Underwood, Opiate for the Masses singer, and he were in separate bands, “kinda like rival bands.” They’d play each other in battles of the bands and either 5 on 1, Underwood’s former band, or Projex, his former band would win. They’d go back forth, so they decided to stop doing that and team up to work together.

Kaufman then tells me that they try to make their shows like a party, and just give it all they’ve got whenever they’re on stage. The smallest crowd they’ve ever played for was three people. But, Kaufman informs me, “We rock out just as hard.” Having seen them live, I have to be honest, they do a nice job of this. They rocked. All except for Ron Underwood’s hideous, hideous pants. At the end of the interview, Kaufman will ask me to do him a favor and mention the pants in my write up. And, seeing as these pants have become a running joke amongst my friends ( Gah! I don’t even want to think about the pants!” has become a way to change the subject) I am happy to oblige. Click on the link, scroll down, there are pictures. Jim tells me that Ron can be reached through their website and that if you don’t like the pants, either you should email Ron and let him know. I’m not the only one who thinks the pants are hideous, Jim Kaufman agrees with me.

Article Author: Katharine Donelson

Katharine Donelson is a student of Linguistics, Communication and Welsh. She currently lives with her formerly feral cat and spends her time learning Welsh vocabulary, listening to music, watching films, photographing the local scenery and maintaining her blog The Film Noir Experience. …

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