Anna, a member of the Motion City Soundtrack message board (and also the person who designed the first banner I use at the top of this site :), had the opportunity to interview Motion City Soundtrack's merch girl, Beth Raebel, during their stint on the Tournado Tour with the All-American Rejects. The interview took place on November 24, 2006 in Houston, TX. The questions asked were sent in by members of the Motion City Soundtrack board.
 (Anna & Beth) |
 (Beth's message to the MCS board) |
Anna Enriquez: I'm going to be interviewing Beth, the awesome merch girl of Motion City Soundtrack, for MotionCityMemories.com. How did you become Motion City Soundrack's merch girl?
Beth Raebel: Well four years ago, I worked for a local band that I'm friends with and they played a show with Motion City and that's how I met them. I hadn't heard of them before and I just stayed friends with them and hung out with them whenever they would come around. I worked two years on Warped and the second year, Motion City was on and at the end they ended up needing a merch person and I just kept pressuring them to hire me, basically bugging them all the time. Finally they took me and I have been working with them ever since.
Anna: What did you do as a job before you became Motion City Soundtrack's merch girl, in other words, what is your background?
Beth: I worked at a grocery store for five years in charge of all the cashiers and baggers and stuff. I worked at a radio station doing Green Bay Packers games, I wanted to go into radio for a long time and I decided I hated it so I didn't do that anymore. Then I went to college for four years and then I got the job at Warped Tour just through people I knew and it just led on from there.
Anna: If you weren't a merchie, what would you be doing?
Beth: I don't even know really (laughs), probably something that has to do with art because I do art when I'm not working. I don't really know what I would be doing with art. I probably would be miserable doing some job I didn't want to do.
Anna: Do you make enough to support yourself or do you do any other jobs on the side?
Beth: I make enough to pay for all my bills. I just started to start saving up for a house but I'm not very far in that (laughs) because I spent a lot of money but I make enough money with this job that I don't have to do anything else. It's good. I make more than the band does. So that's good for me.
Anna: What's the story behind the "I rule" tattoo? Which one is your favorite?
Beth: I got it two years ago with my friend Nicole. We were hanging out in Chicago and we're, pretty self-confident people and we went to go get it done. Actually, the story goes a little earlier than that. I was on tour with Taking Back Sunday and Fall Out Boy and I was hanging out with Joe from Fall Out Boy and were talking about wrist tattoos and he said he was going to get "I rule" on one wrist and "a lot" on the other and I thought it was an awesome idea so I did it. I don't know which one is my favorite one, probably my feet tattoos. Shawn Harris from The Matches draws a lot of them. He's done four of my tattoos and the one on my feet is stick figures of us because we're best friends and that's my favorite one.
Anna: Is it ever tiring to be on the road 300 days of the year?
Beth: Yes and no. It's a lot of fun but it's a lot of work too and it depends on the tours like this tour we have sellers and I don't do very much during the day except for count in and count out. There are tours like Warped where you work twelve hours a day and outside in the hot sun and it's kinda miserable. Overall I love it, it's so much fun.
Anna: What is your favorite Specials song?
Beth: I think "Too Much Too Young" is probably my favorite or "Tears In My Beer". They're all really good. I love them all, I love the Specials.
Anna: Do you keep a tally of the people who say that they've seen you on or know you from Myspace?
Beth: No. (laughs) It'd be too many. I get a lot of questions I'm sure I get a third as many as the band guys do but I get a plenty of ones that are just like, "Hi, how's it going?" I'll get a lot of questions and I'll answer them. I just don't accept friend requests because I have so many I have like 500 already and it's just hard to go through your friends when you have so many! I don't get why people have thousands of friends.
Anna: Yes! That confuses me.
Beth: Yeah, I don't know why you would want that many I don't know.
Anna: Do you sometimes want to punch the annoying, impatient/mean kids wanting t-shirts?
Beth: Well no, I don't wanna punch them. If people are being rude and pushy and trying to push their way infront of people that are already there, I'll ignore them for as long as I can and make them wait as long as possible. So it's kind of like I'll punish them silently. The only ones who I would really want to punch are the ones who steal merch. I've had to chase after people. You gotta be tough!
Anna: Why do you kick ass?
Beth: I think it's because I'm really happy with myself and I don't take things to seriously like most people do and I like to see the funny side of things, I'm mainly an optimist. I like to help people or like if I have friends that are down I'll try to make them smile or I don't know. I like to be happy I guess.
Anna: Where did "barf" originate from?
Beth: Well my friend Nicole, I went to college with her she lives in Chicago now, I don't really remember how I first got the nickname she started calling me it and I thought it was funny. It got sucked into the Motion City world though and the guys call me Barf now and it doesn't bother me at all and it just stuck. There's no specific reason for it.
Anna: What was your favorite hair color?
Beth: I liked teal a lot. Pink was pretty cool. I don't like black. That was probably one of the worst ones I've ever done. I've probably had every single color there could be. Probably teal, I would still have teal right now but it's so hard to keep up with and it washes out so fast and when you shower it gets over everything and its just so much work.
Anna: Finally, what's the most annoying and coolest thing about being on tour with guys only?
Beth: I think it's a lot of fun because I grew up with just two brothers so I'm used to mostly guys stuff. Not just like nerdy things like computers but like stuff that "boys like." It's fun I guess they feel like my brothers to me because I've been around them so much. It's pretty sweet because I get the whole girls bathroom to myself like before the show and all the guys all have to go into the guys bathroom but I get the only girls bathroom but sometimes the guys will have to go into the girls bathroom because that's just how it is. It's fun though, occasionally there will be another girl on tour and I'll be hanging out with them the most. It's weird because you get used to hanging out with the guys and do guy things and when there's a girl you're like "Oh, I can do girl things finally!" But I did find though that since I started working for them I started dressing more girly than I used to. I used to be like whatever. Now I love wearing dresses and skirts and I'll be surrounded by guys and I'll be like "Well...I'll be a girl!"
Anna: Any last words for the boardies?
Beth: Well...I don't know...I can't think of anything! (laughs)
Interview conducted by Anna Enriquez.
Thank you to Beth for making this interview happen!