Courtesy Ska band Reel Big Fish wrote and recorded their new album, Monkeys for Nothin' and the Chimps for Free, in three weeks.

Though its brand of ska-punk has come and gone with regard to mainstream dominance, Reel Big Fish is still swimming along. The band has a new album out, Monkeys for Nothin' and the Chimps For Free, and is out on a nationwide tour in support of the new release.

That includes a date at Corpus Christi's Concrete Street Amphitheater on Saturday, July 28. Before the band rolls into Texas, trumpet player John Christianson talked to 210SA.

Your bio says the band was finally happy. Why now?
Being on a record label that didn't know how to support us or didn't care about the band was a really difficult endeavor for us. The record label kept getting bought out by larger corporations and changed names at least four times. Every time, we were getting shuffled lower and lower on the totem pole, and it made it difficult.

You squeezed a new record in between tours, and now you're out on tour. Does Reel Big Fish ever get off the road?
Fortunately, most of our spouses are really cool about it, and they know this is what we love to do. That's very nice because we tour about eight months out of the year.

A decade after Reel Big Fish helped usher in the ska era, what are your thoughts on the current state of mainstream music?
Right now, we're in the emo period where everyone is either hardcore or emo about their musical tastes. That's fine, but everyone wants to take themselves very seriously. ..... We don't take ourselves seriously. We take ourselves sincerely. We want to have everyone that comes to the show have a good time and forget about the things that people go through every day in their lives.

CLINT HALE | 210SA