TORONTO - It's been a long 10+ years for California punk rock act Pennywise. It's been a long steady climb out of the trenches of the California punk rock/hardcore scene, through many obstacles and other traumatic experiences (the death of founding member Jason Matthew Thirsk), but through thick and thin the band has managed to stick hard and heavy to their ideals.

A popular band for the most part, Pennywise have yet to lose their edge and street wise appeal. They haven't sold out, they've just got more fans. Their latest effort, the hard movin' platter called Straight Ahead is a true testimony that musicians CAN have fun making music. Guitarist Fletcher Dragge explains.

"This record is a natural progression for us. Each time out, with each record, we try to reinvent ourselves and keep it Pennywise. We don't want each record to sound the same, but at the same time we want to keep it Pennywise and not change what we do too much. It's a lot of fun to do this but we always keep in mind that we have our fans to please and we want to keep them into what we do. We always try to give them a bit more to chew on with each Pennywise record."

Dragge, along with singer Jim Lindburg, bassist Byron McMakin and drummer Randy Bradbury, feel that this record is an important one. "Our last record Full Circle was a real heavy record for us," he says, "We had a lot of shit going on with our lives at that time. It's been a few years since Jason died and I think what we're trying to do is put it all in the past and try to get a new beginning to come along."

"Facing Jason's death was a very difficult thing for us to overcome, I mean we are still left with what happened. But you know what? Pennywise has always tried to let people know through our lyrics about all the hardships in life and getting through them. We've been able to let people know that there is a way to resolve problems. And when Jason died, we basically were faced to look back at what we were preaching to help ourselves get through such a horrible ordeal. We didn't know what to do. Should we give up or continue? We decided to continue on with what we set out to do and practice what we preach. That's all we could do and what seemed most logical at the same time. Why give up on this? Jason would've wanted us to continue on with the message that we had started."

Getting away from past hardships, Dragge reflects on the current state of today's punk scene. "Is there really a punk scene going on right now?" he quips. "For me punk rock has always been about being an individual or in a small group of people and having something to rebel against. Now when you have nine million people believing in one thing and it becomes a trend. I don't think it's punk rock anymore. It's become a trendy thing and I think the only real way to be punk is be yourself, do what you want and not conform to what others say. It's kind of hard to be punk rock when your favorite band is selling 9 million records. To me, it's more of an attitude than a scene."

Reflecting about the new disc, he offers these comments: "I think this record is mainly about perseverance. I think the sound quality of this record is great too. This probably is our best record. I mean it's our first record where we had to once again had to basically start over and get things going again. I mean it was a tough thing for us especially after taking years rising to the top of the rank to just end up losing a founding member. I think we've stuck to our guns for the whole time we've been doing this. We make punk rock records that both we and our fans like. We don't write love songs to sell records. We let other bands do that. "

He finishes, "Staying punk rock is all that we ever wanted. We never asked to sell "X" amount of records or be this big. Fans just grew along with us and that's all we ever wanted when we started up this band. It's a big deal to do this, not many people have the opportunity to do this for a living, and we made sure that we stuck true to what we had set out to do from day one. No need to change or make things the ways others want it to be. This is our music and we make it the way we want it. Be yourself and get through life. It's quite simple. Straight Ahead is a record that shows people that we are doing what we love. What more could you want?"