An Interview with Jason Guy Smiley, Pineapple Punk King of Gainesville

Photo by Nicole Kibert

Gainesville, Florida is a weird fucking place. Despite being a sort of boring, sleepy, university town, it has managed to create and nurture one of the coolest, grimiest, most fun punk festivals in the country with Fest. If you've been to Fest over the last couple of years, you might have noticed an increase in the amount of drunken hooligans drinking from pineapples and getting shitfaced, or hell, you may have even stumbled upon entire parties dedicated to doing just that.

What you might not know is that the man responsible for this plague of pineapple-induced partying is a heavily bearded, folk-punk badass by the name of Jason Guy Smiley. Smiley (real name Jason Thompson) cut his teeth in a punk band called Midget Fan Club for a good 12 years before going solo and deciding to settle down in Gainesville and bring his booze-laden fruit way of life to the masses. I met Jason about 14 years ago when I was a stupid, idealistic, asshole 13 year old on a NOFX message board that Jason was a moderator for, and he taught me—​amongst other things—​not to be a completely total shithead. He also showed me some punk bands that weren't garbage, and gave me some pointers about my own punk band, which was garbage.

Since then, not only has he been drunkenly integrating himself into the Gainesville scene—​a scene that's been responsible for bands like anarcho-punx turned genre and gender-defying stadium rockers Against Me!, and gruff punk heroes Hot Water Music—​but over the past few years he's been drinking from fruit and singing emotionally-laced folk punk all across this fair country, as well as a stint down under in Australia.

He's played with bands like Gainesville third-wave ska royalty Less Than Jake, Lagwagon singer Joey Cape, and Scorpios member Brian Wahlstrom, and in his spare time he also runs the nerdy, vinyl-obsessed compendium of knowledge that is the Fat Wreck Wiki, an insanely comprehensive database of pretty much everything you'd ever want to know about Fat Wreck Chords, up to and including meticulous data on numbers of rare test pressings of records you've probably never even heard of.

We caught up with Jason before his onslaught of Fest shows to find out how the hell he finds time to do all of this and still get shitfaced out of a pineapple all the damn time.

Noisey: How the hell did this pineapple thing start?
Jason Guy Smiley: I wish I had a better story for you. I don't remember what gave me the idea. I do remember thinking to myself one night, "Oh, I was gonna google how to make a pineapple into a cup" and that's how I learned about the tool used to do that, but I can't really recall the genesis of this idea.

I had taken the pineapple corer with me to Punk Rock Bowling in 2013 and my friends and I had a ton of fun drinking out of them. So when Fest 12 rolled around, I took it a step further and brought 48 pineapples with me and threw this insane hotel party. That really kicked it off.

Do you honestly still even like drinking from pineapples?
I mean, it's fun. I know a lot of people have this sort of two-dimensional idea of me, like I'm at home drinking milk from a pineapple with my dinner. I don't do that, just for the record.

It's a great way to start a conversation, and when certain friends pass through town, we'll do it for the novelty and some fun pictures. They're heavy though, and a lot of times when I'm carrying one around and mingling with a crowd after a show I'll call it being "on the clock" because it can wear you out. So, yes, I do enjoy it, but I don't do it as often as people probably think I do.

Photo by Raphael Sperl

Do you think that people know you more for the drinking from fruit thing than your music? Do you care?
Some do for sure. But hey, this is a gift. I don't care if that's how people know me. The fact that people see pineapples and think of me at all is so weird and amazing. I do not resent it at face value or at any level deeper than that. I've had people on other continents send me messages in broken English telling me they saw a pineapple shirt and thought of me. That is so fucking cool.

So, how does one of these infamous pineapple parties usually go?
No two are ever really the same, but, you know, at Fest it's become wildly popular. [Fest organizer] Tony [Weinbender] will typically book me with a couple other acoustic acts—​people I can't believe I'm playing with like the Menzingers, Chris Cresswell, Off With Their Heads, and so on.

I'll show up at 9:30 in the morning to get to work and the line is already forming, so these are folks who are dedicated music fans and professional day drinkers. Good people. The doors kick open and before you know it, the bar filled with people sipping drinks out of these giant cups and singing along with the acts on stage.

It's also given me the opportunity to work with other types of artists and creators. Broke and Stoked are always excited to create a t-shirt design that ties into the party. This year Soothsayer Hot Sauce will have a limited edition "Pineapple Party" sauce. It's going to be a pineapple habanero rum sauce. It really is kind of this madness suspended in time for a few hours and I'm glad to be a part of it.

Photo by Alex Simotes

So what's the scene been like for you in Gainesville since you moved there? Have you found it welcoming?
Yeah, the scene here is rad. A lot of people probably don't realize how small Gainesville is if they've never been here. I've seen national touring acts play here, and unless they're popular with the University crowd, it can be a daunting tour stop. But the people who do come out are enthusiastic and always welcoming. Also, it can't be understated that there are a lot of really talented musicians here who go unnoticed by the scene at large for the most part.

Do you think that living there has made it easier for you to do music?
People respect that you're from Gainesville, at least more than a lot of other places I've lived. I'm not sure if it's the almost mythological musical history, or the FEST being here or what, but yeah, I've made friends with people who have been key in my success and a lot of those conversations start with "I live in Gainesville, Florida."

How many times are you playing Fest this year? It's a lot, right?
I am playing three official sets at Fest and one at Pre-Fest in Ybor City, as well as two unofficial sets, one the night before Pre-Fest starts and one in Gainesville the Thursday before Fest starts. So that week I'm playing six times.

So when did you decide to start doing a solo project?
When my old band, Midget Fan Club, finally ended in 2010, I started fooling around with the idea of "going solo" but didn't actually start playing shows and seriously writing songs until 2013.

Why didn't you just start another band? Why solo?
I had pushed through for 12 years with that band. The reason it disintegrated was due to things like people quitting without telling me, and people telling me "I can't work with that person" and I just became entirely disillusioned with trying to manage the needs of so many people. I know a lot of folks have the opposite experience when working with a band—​things just gel and they are all best friends—​but after a tumultuous final year, I literally just lost all interest in the idea of a band.

Do you feel like you got heavier into playing music again after you moved to Gainesville?Well, one night Tony [Weinbender] and I were out at a show and he finally turned to me and listed off a few local venues and told me I needed to play those places before Fest 13 and that I needed to start touring or "no one will ever know anything about you except that you drink from pineapples" and I took that advice to heart. I've been on the road as much as I can ever since. Who am I to ignore the advice of people who know what the fuck they're talking about?

Did you ever think you'd get to play a festival like Fest?
I don't know if saying I didn't think it would happen is the right way to phrase it. I don't think it ever crossed my mind that such a thing would be on the table for me at all. I didn't even consider it a possibility, let alone think it was and simply wouldn't happen. Since the first announcement that I was playing at Fest 13, my life has been flipped upside down in the coolest way.

What are your plans for the future? Are you going to try and bang out another record soon, or are you going to do some more touring?
I'm writing stuff for LP3 now, but I'm guessing that won't be out until late in 2017 at the soonest. I'll be doing a few dates after Fest in early-to-mid November between Gainesville and New York City. I am planning an East Coast/Midwest US tour for June 2017 with a friend from the UK, Jay Martin. I'm not too upset with the trajectory I'm on at this point, so I'm going to continue, business as usual.