MRR: First of all, say who you are, what you do, and where you live.

Travis: Travis, alias T-Bird. I sing like a girl and play second guitar. I live in Austin, Texas.

Gavin: Gavin, G-Force. I live in Austin, and I play bass.

Dean: Dean, D-Day. I play guitar and scream like a maniac, and I live in San Antonio, Texas, home of heavy metal!

Anna: Anna, the A-Bomb. I play drums and live in Dallas.

MRR: What are you doing right now? Where are we?

Travis: We're in Japan, in the back of a van.

Dean: Traveling from Shizuoka to Tokyo.

MRR: It seems that you've done more touring in Japan than most American bands. I mean that you didn't just stay in Tokyo. Where all did you go?

Dean: Yeah, we're the first American garage band to play in Yokaichi! That was awesome, because that was the most like a punk rock show. We played in a rehearsal studio.

Travis: Kenji from Answer Records has really done a great job setting up our tour. He's not a big promoter, so he couldn't set up like five shows in Tokyo, which is I guess what most bands do, but it was better for us because we got to see more of Japan. We played five different shows in five different cities, and we got more of a vacation.

Dean: It was interesting to see that every city had a totally different scene, even though they were all into the rock.

Travis: And all the Japanese bands are so good! They're all like ten times better than most American garage bands.

MRR: What's going on in Austin right now with the garage music scene?

Travis: I don't know. I think there are a few garage bands, but I haven't seen 'em.

Dean: The Lord High Fixers never play. It seems like there's a bigger garage rock scene in Japan right now. More than Texas at least.

Travis: It's cool because they make all the good music without all the bad attitude.

MRR: Tell me about the new 7" on Answer Records. There are a few songs in Japanese.

Dean: Yeah, I sing some songs in Japanese. It's hilarious because everybody here thinks I'm Japanese and starts talking to me in Japanese, and I have to tell them that I'm not.

Travis: There's also a cover on that 7" called "Little Red Hot Rod," which is by the Hot Rodders, off their Big Hot Rod album.

Dean: You think that's a joke, but it's not!

MRR: Do you like the food in Japan?

Gavin: Most of it.

Dean: What was it that you didn't like?

Gavin: Rubber erasers.

Dean: The vegetable jelly was a little too much.

Gavin: The toilets take some getting used to as well.

MRR: That was my next question. How is shitting in Japan?

Gavin: Very difficult.

Dean: You build up a lot of leg muscles, let's just say.

MRR: I think you end up hunting for Western-style toilets.

Dean: Yeah, every time I see a Western-style toilet, I feel like I should go... or at least give it a shot.

MRR: The cultures are really different. Talking to other bands, they've said that they come here and people don't really get into the shows, and it's really segregated. Like the girls don't talk to the boys in the bands, and the boys don't talk to the girls in the bands. Did you guys see that at all?

Dean: No, not at all.

Anna: Everyone's been so friendly! We got lots of presents, people were always asking for autographs...

Dean: Yeah, people are so friendly here. We didn't bring any guitars or anything, but the other bands always lent us their equipment and were really nice about it.

Travis: Their very expensive equipment that we were nervous about breaking.

MRR: What bands are you really into now? Not necessarily bands that inspired The 1-4-5s, but what bands are you listening to right at this moment?

Anna: Panther! From Nagoya!

Dean: Panther kicks ass!

MRR: But you guys don't only listen to garage rock...

Travis: Well, the tapes I brought on this trip were: The Cure, Bis, Emily's Sassy Lime, The PeeChees, Henry's Dress, Rocketship, The 5,6,7,8's... that's what I've been listening to.

Dean: There goes our garage rock cred! Not that we had any to begin with.

Gavin: I'm listening to Desmond Decker "Rock Steady," traditional ska...

MRR: Well, since we're talking about garage rock credibility... I noticed that there are a lot of unusual themes in your new songs, like computers, or stuff that's really not traditional garage rock material...

Dean: Japanese luxury cars, for example.

MRR: Yeah, thank you. What's your take on that?

Travis: Well, there are so many old songs about the technical specs of cars, like how big the engine is, how fast it goes, and all that stuff. Now-a-days no one really talks about car specs anymore, but it seems like geeks are always talking up the technical specs of their computers, like how big and fast the hard drive is and everything. So I thought it would be funny to write a typical "car song" but update it for the '90s and sing about a really fast computer.

Dean: Besides, we're all computer geeks anyway. Well, more so than most bands, I'm sure.

Gavin: For those of you who don't know, the BeBox is a computer. One that's actually not made anymore, but it was kind of a weird computer that was supposed to be ahead of it's time.

Dean: Travis sent the song to Be, and what did they say?

Travis: I emailed the Be Corporation and told them that they could download our song as a sound file off our website.

Dean: Very punk rock!

MRR: Did they write back?

Travis: They did. They said, "Thank you for your interest in the Be Corporation. We're flattered that you like our computers." I was hoping they would sponsor our trip to Japan and we could be technology spies for them or something. Last summer we wanted Dodge to use "Dodge Caravan" for a commercial jingle and give us a van to tour in, but that never happened either.

MRR: So that song "BeBox Dual 603" is going to be on your new Estrus 10"?

Dean: Oh yeah.

Travis: Along with a cover of "Greased Lightning." We covered that song because we figured it was probably the most uncool "garage" song that you could possibly cover as a garage band.

MRR: That may be true!

Dean: Maybe Rodney Allan Greenblat will be next.

MRR: It's pretty interesting that you guys are even on Estrus to begin with. How did that come about?

Dean: Just 'cause Crider rocks.

Travis: I don't know, we've asked ourselves that question many times. I guess Dave Crider has a good sense of humor, and for some reason he's taken a liking to The 1-4-5s.

MRR: All of you are in other bands back in Austin, so why don't you just say a little about the other bands that you're in?

Gavin: Travis and I are in The Kiss Offs, and it's a lot of fun. There's a new 7" on Peek-A-Boo.

MRR: What about you, Dean and Anna?

Anna: Poopiehead! Pure rock!

Travis: What about those kids who were into the Teen Titans?

Dean: Oh yeah, Teen Titans were much more well-known in Japan than I ever imagined we'd be. People actually knew who we were, which was really bizarre. I think people really like the idea of teenage music here. The word "teen" appears in a lot of band names.

Travis: Even though there are no actual teenagers in the bands.

MRR: It seems like you guys are always having a "last show ever" and there are always rumors that you're broken up. Will America ever see The 1-4-5s again?

Travis: You never know. We always mean it when we say it's the last show ever, but then something happens...

Anna: Like Japan!

Dean: The next trip is England.

Travis: John Peel Show, here we come!