Words: Jay Riggio
Photo: Erica

I’m a 29-year-old man. But if you were to spend an evening occupying my brain space, you’d be embarrassed by how childlike I see the world. Amongst an array of putrid details that make up the emotionally bankrupt person, there exists the shear fact that I routinely execute schoolboy crushes. From the Puerto Rican lady bagging my groceries to the Italian beauty spooning my Rocky Road cone, I fall in love with the frequency of taking a piss. Recently, I fell in love with a girl I had spotted on various skate site blogs. She possessed a silken complexion, an eye-arresting gaze and a smile that could light up a condemned meth lab. Her name was Active Erica and I had quickly become obsessed with her. I had never heard of the Casket Salesmen before. All I knew was that Active Erica was their manager and if I were to interview the band, I could get that much closer to the woman I love. Though I attempted to get some facts about Erica from Phil, a member of the band, he slickly evaded my inappropriate questioning by changing the subject. I may never meet Active Erica, but if I die tonight, I’ll know that I interrogated a man who has.

I'd never heard the Casket Salesmen cause Migdol never sent me the CD.
My guess was that you guys sounded like a cross between John Tesh and
Bel Biv Devoe. After listening to your myspace tracks, I learned that I was very wrong. How do you deal with failure and/or rejection?

The name Casket Salesmen does gives off that soft adult contempo feel, doesn't it? Seriously though, our sound is not so much along the lines of John Tesh. More along the lines of a truck falling on John Tesh. Whenever I'm wrong, I try and learn from the situation. I look at failure the same way. If you try something and fail, then, at very least, learn something from it.

Casket Salesmen's a pretty cool name for a band, but not as cool as
Pumpkin Terrordome or Satan's Wrinkled Penis. What were some other names considered before settling with yours?

Umbrella Tree was one of the other names we considered. We ended up using the name Umbrella Tree for one of our other projects, which is a bit more Reggae and Blues based.

I'm a huge fan of Michael Douglas. Which celebrity most inspires the music you create?

I just pretend I'm Paul Bunyan when it's time to record an album–and there's a whole lot of wood to chop.

I didn't realize it until recently, but you guys are both very handsome. How much pussy do you pull while on the road?

I definitely agree. 100%. We're damn smooth, too. It's rough; it's a battle every day. But you go out there and win it. But, honestly, we stay away from those Lot Lizards and She-Devils. You get the herpes that way. People, get tested. I'm clean!