the no-fi "magazine" interview with
CHRIS ASPITE
of the band 
interview conducted by Garrett Faber, 2007
He has been known as Hoof, Hoofbite, Hook, Beltbite, The Spracker, Pantsbite, and The Knife. He made appearances in the legendary CKY videos. He was a writer on the film HAGGARD. I personally did not know how to pronounce his last name until he told me. I would just call him "Chris" and hope the last name thing never came up. Now AS-PIT-AY has a brand new band fittingly titled VENOMOUS. I happened to see them live and they were amazing, I actually saw two chicks fist-fighting in a bathroom over one of the demos that were distributed through the audience. They rock. Chris rocks, read and be aware.
Garrett Faber: What have you been up to, how have the ladies treating you?
Chris Aspite: I've been well, thanks. Enjoying the sights and sounds of West Chester. And my girlfriend is very, very good to me.
GF: How the hell did you get the nickname Hoofbite?
CA: It came partly from a bastardization of my last name "Aspite" (pronounced As-pit-ay for the record). When I was a kid, my friends used to append the suffix "-pite" (pitay) on things to make up millions off nicknames for me, like "Kickflip-pite." Don't ask, we were about 13. So, fast forward to Bam, Brandon DiCamillo, Ed Templeton and I in a car one night. I found duct tape in the back seat and made a hoof some reason and Ed yelled out "Hoof-pite." I don't know why, but Bam put in a "b" and decided to project that moniker across the eons of time and space via the videos. Inside joke gone public, gone awry...
GF: Do you believe in Extra Sensory Perception??
CA: Reading your thoughts, presently. The answer is 42.
GF: As well as skateboarding, how long have you been playing music, what instruments can you play?
CA: I've been playing for five or six years. I play keyboard, guitar, I do some percussion stuff on the record. Nothing too intricate.
GF: How long have you been skateboarding because you were really damn good.
CA: Thanks. I've been off and on, I've gone through some pretty serious hiatuses. I've probably been skating for skating for seventeen years. But I would stop for like years at a time.
GF: What makes you start and stop, do you get worn out?
CA: No, I first stopped when I was sixteen, I just had other interests like all other sixteen year olds. That was probably for about four or five years. I had a pretty annoying back injury.
GF: That sucks, what happened?
CA: Just life, growin up. Skateboarding and being so active. I think I may of had a defect of the spine.
GF: That sucks! Like the Kurt Cobain thing where he had that pinched stomach thing and he was always getting stomach aches and always doin' heroin.
CA: That's really funny you mentioned that, you talked about the ESP thing earlier. I was walking home and I was thinking about that. I don't know too much about Kurt Cobain and NIRVANA.
GF: I read "Heavier Than Heaven" and that's all I know about Kurt. But my friend is totally insane about NIRVANA. If Kurt Cobain wasn't cremated I'm sure Joe would dig up his corpse and do naughty things with it. (Laughs) It might be a pinched nerve or something.
CA: Who knows, I mostly have it under control now. I was into yoga, it helps. I was into it for a while and it definitely helped.
GF: You know that game Street Fighter?
CA: (Laughs) Yup.
GF: You know how Dhalsim would do yoga fire and all that?
CA: Uh, no? (Laughs)
GF: He could breathe fire, and when we were younger, me and my cousin thought if we did yoga long enough we could breathe fire too.
CA: Yeah, isn't that part of it? (Laughs)
GF: We justified it by like, "if he can do it in the video game, and yoga is a real thing, then we can breathe fire too!" Unfortunetly, we never got it. I'm gonna ask Gene Simmons how he does it. (Laughs) Anyway, what happened to the STREETGANG thing, did you all have nicknames, yours was "The Knife". What does the name mean? Did you ever shank someone with a sharpened toothbrush?
CA: STREETGANG was a band my friend Gary Stutchell and I almost started, but never really pursued it was almost like a SPINAL TAP-ish thing. While The Knife came from Mike Maldonado, who said I had a tendency to cut people off mid-sentence. I've since matured and become a fantastic listener! So no, I have never been guilty of violence with any sharp objects.The nicknames were just something that those guys came up with on a daily basis, nothing I take too seriously. I would never go by any of those nicknames myself but I don't really have control over Bam's videos.
GF: Whats Maldonado been up to?
CA: He actually lives not too far from me in West Chester. He's skateboarding, killing it, he's always amazing. I've been skating with Mike since we were like 12, he's unbelievable.
GF: When it comes to VENOMOUS, do you do all the arrangements of the songs? Is there more teamwork in making the songs?
CA: The ones we have out so far are were kind of things that I had organized and worked on myself before the other guys were involved, but they definitely took them to a new level. There's room for improvement on things, we're more ofa unit. We're a tight thing, they're really good. They play all kinds of instruments and do all kinds of things, I learn from them all the time. My bandmates are really cool, we all live around the corner from one another. Mike Lynch plays drums, Colin McGetrick plays keyboards and guitar, and Tim Celfo plays bass and keyboards as well.
GF: What inspires you to write music? How do you feel about the whole battle between artistic vision and mass appeal?
CA: The inspiration can come from so many things you notice or encounter, sometimes from more oblique notions. It can arise from a need to establish a sense and understanding for your surroundings and circumstances. We were able to follow our own vision, but because of that you have to be prepared for things to take much longer. You might as well follow your vision, because in the end you have to be ok with what you've done. Of course, having both is the ultimate coup.
GF: What's it like performing on stage in front of all those people? Do you ever get pre-show jitters? I noticed you're very calm onstage.
CA: Thanks again. Playing live is amazing and sometimes it's over before you know it. And yes, I've been nervous, but I think that's part of the intensity and excitement that make it worthwhile. VENOMOUS is really the first band I've been in, and our second show ever was opening for CKY in front of a pretty large crowd. It was a bit overwhelming, but when you really enjoy it, you just have to get over the jitters, or use them to your advantage.
GF: PUBLIC ENEMY was your first concert, were you into the Hip-Hop scene back in the day?
CA: Completly but it was what I listened to, I didn't wear big jackets or try get into fights or anything. It was kind of part of skateboarding when I was a kid. I remember going to a Powell demo back in the day and they came out skating to PUBLIC ENEMY, and we were like "Oh my god! They like PUBLIC ENEMY!". I'm still into PUBLIC ENEMY, I heard they're touring again.
GF: Are you gonna check it out?
CA: I hope so!
GF: How do you feel about the skateboarding scene, are you still close to it?
CA: I definitely still skate, I don't skate all the time, there's this great indoor skatepark in West Chester.
GF: Boarderline.
CA: Yeah, I can go there whenever. I can skate seriously some days and just cruise around when I want to.
GF: Do you have any footage building up to put out another video part?
CA: No, my footage has been scattered around the country for years, I was never smart enough to collect it. I always thought I could somehow get a hold of it. My stuff has probably been erased by now, but I don't really film too much, I'm not against it. If i'm around I'll definitely film a trick, music has taken the front seat lately.
GF: Prince was talking about owning the masters copies of your music, otherwise all your hardwork is someone elses shit.
CA: Yeah, he had slave written on his face.
GF: Yeah, in the '90s when he changed his name.
CA: We're in the process of getting the masters finished at this point, and figuring out exactly what we're gonna do for release dates and things like that, and how we're gonna put it out. We haven't come to any conclusions at this point.
GF: How did VENOMOUS come about?
CA: We came together as a band after the other guys heard some of the demos I'd been working on and were into it. We've known each other for a while, things fell into place rather quickly and we started playing shows within a few weeks, I think.The name was actually a last minute kind of thing, but now I guess that's "it." No real love for snakes or spiders or anything, but it did seem rather direct at the time.
GF: If you could change the name of the band, what would you change it to? Hopefully not something scene like "Darkness In The Darkness."
CA: No way that's pretty bad! I can't think of anything specific, but we wanted a named that sounded like it was already established - nothing too flimsy or temporary, or obviously tied to a certain scene. But it's also rather tongue-and-cheek to us, because we're not that dark or viscous at all - kind of a Psych thing.
GF: What record label are you on now?
CA: We decided for this one, we're gonna do it all ourselves. We want to own it. I honestly don't know too much about the business. I just want to play and make music.
GF: Did you do all the design yourself? All the stuff on the myspace is really innovative and abstract.
CA: That's what I was going for, I went to school for writing and art, I always dabbled in visual arts from time to time. That stuff was just this computer program, I'd draw the pictures and edit them and get weird designs.
GF: Being a scriptwriter, do you have any fantastic ideas for any music videos you'll do in the future?
CA: I was actually talking about a possible video last night. The visions and esthetics change with the songs obviously, but I seem to have more location ideas and themes rather than strong storylines. I like the feeling of certain videos I've seen, not necessarily explicit plots. The visual aspect is always something in which I'm interested. I always drive around and see areas that would be cool, it's more of the idea of trying to catch the feeling of the song. West Chester is really cool, we've got lots of woods and natural stuff.
GF: When it comes to music videos, do you think it's more important to have the video be an extension of the song itself, or have the music video but it's own thing with the song as a backdrop?
CA: It doesn't always have to be a literal intepretation of the song, I like more surreal videos to begin with. Something that captures the feeling and the essense, the sounds even of the song, not nessecarily just the song. That's something I've always wanted to do, instead of just a scene by scene rundown of every verse.
GF: What were some music videos that you really liked? I thought the SYSTEM OF A DOWN video for "Question" was awesome.
CA: I actually like Anton Corbijn, he's done really awesome videos for so many artists. His videos for DEPECHE MODE were really cool. He meshed that futuristic feeling with natural emotions somehow, they had a cool vibe.
GF: Do you remember in Purple Rain when Prince was singing "Darling Nikki" and Apollonia started freaking out and he's like, "COME BACK NIKKI COME BACK"? Has anything like that happened to you yet? Did Prince write any songs about you?
CA: I can't remember the scene, but I was definitely into Prince. I had his stuff on tapes and lost almost everything. He's Prince, what can you say. Didn't he write everyone a song? I'm sure I was in his thoughts.
The End...
(Garrett Faber is a contributing writer to No-Fi "Magazine"
and has his own way of getting over the jitters!)
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