Track Of The Day: Pornstar Airlines
From the mile high club, to porn star interviews. From battles against cancer to an unexpected headline show. From losing a complete line-up to brawls with other bands. Welcome to the world of Pornstar Airlines, who provide us with a suitably crazy Track Of The Day. Check out all the latest Tracks Of The Day at www.classicrock.com/tag/track-of-the-day
Words: Sleazegrinder
Pornstar Airlines has been bubbling away in the LA rock underground for the past decade. Shameless sleaze beasts and notorious party wreckers, the band has always taken a ‘Kick ass first, ask questions later’ sort of approach to rock ‘n’ roll, and to life. Musically, they mash up ’80s glam metal and Swedish action rock. Culturally, they bridge that all important gap between sleazy rock ‘n’ roll and hardcore pornography. For the past two years, Pornstar Airlines’ founder and frontman Paskkal Bardot has been interviewing adult film stars – hundreds of them – and posting them on the band’s Myspace page (see address below). Not only has this noble effort filled the front row of Pornstar Airlines gigs with half-dressed erotic superstars, but as Paskkal will soon explain, it might also have saved his life.
Clearly, given your band’s name and your affiliation with actual porn stars, Pornstar Airlines must have an interesting backstory.
We formed the band in Los Angeles in 1999. As far as how we got the name, I actually had sex with a flight-attendant, on a plane, while I was on my way to a vacation. I told my buddy, and he told me he had sex with a stewardess as well, on the same airline and on the same month, but with a different woman. And he mentioned he saw a porn model aboard. I just said, ‘Wow, what a porno airline!’. A few days later, a friend of mine showed me some new songs from his band. One of ‘em was actually called Porn Rock Airlines. I played with the words for a few hours and told the guys in the band our new name was Pornstar Airlines. No one disagreed.
We played a lot, but the band broke up, due to various problems – power struggles, musical differences, clothing styles, immigration, kids, you name it – but I kept the name. We got back together in 2007, but new problems cropped up. Cancer got me, and I couldn’t do Pornstar Airlines as much as I wanted to. There wasn’t a whole lot happening with us this year as a result, so the other guys left the band to follow their own paths. It’s been a long year, and I wasn’t sure whether the band would go on. But I’m fine now, healthy again, and ready to go. Of course, that means I’m all alone now, and Pornstar Airlines is once again looking for a new line-up. Dude, this is the first time I make this official, it s not even announced on our site. If someone is interested in trying out for the band, email me! (paskkal@gmx.net)
As far as the porn stars go, adult models have been officially involved since early in 2008. I thought that we had to do something unique, so I decided to start doing naughty interviews with models and posting them on our Myspace page. So, I asked all the porn models I knew if they’d help me to do this. They liked the idea, did the interviews, and the rest is history. There are 100ish so far. I tell you, I felt like a horse being driven to the slaughter, but I just wanted to participate in one last race, you know? A lot of good energy came with the success of the fast-growing site, and I know I have to thank all the models who helped to make this whole thing happen. It gave me a lot of strength to carry on, and I know that it helped me manage to recover.
That’s the most poignant porn-related story I’ve ever heard. Congrats on your recovery. So…any gigs from hell to share?
Not really, but I do remember one bizarre gig. One night, I went to a club to see some band. About an hour later, the rest of Pornstar Airlines showed up. One the guys in the band, Jani, said, ‘Dude, we just tried and played Backyard Babies´ Minus Celsius for fun in the rehearsal room. Do you know that song, and do you like it?’. I said, ‘Well, yeah, it’s ok’. Later on, he spoke to the club owner while the headlining band was playing.
Then he came back to me and said, ‘We could play this song after those guys. No one likes them, and I think they won’t play their whole set’. I told him that I really didn’t know the song, and he said, ‘So vamp it, improvise, like you always do when we do a new song. Sing in Kisuaheli like always’. I call it ‘Kisuaheli’ when I just vocalize some words that sound like a mix of Italian and English to be able to join in to a jam-session.
‘But I don t really know the melody and everything’, I told him, ‘Just the chorus. I should listen to it at least one or twice. And we can t do this here, can we?. Then, some other guy said, ‘I’ve got it on my cell phone. We can sit in the car while they are still playing and you can learn it!’.
So we sat in the car. I listened to it three times, and went back in just the moment the other guys left the stage. The drummer said, ‘Ok, it’s now or never’. We went onstage, did that song, and even the headlining band was in the front row celebrating us and cheering. After that, the boss told us it was the best set of the evening. The next day my girlfriend called me up. She was mad at me. She said, ‘Why didn’t you tell me that you played a headline show yesterday?’.
Ha, headline show. Well, sort of.
What’s there been more of in the band, puke or blood?
Blood, definitely. There hasn’t been a lot of puking, but there’s been a lot of brawls. A lot of people hate us, especially other rock bands. It’s just envy. I mean, the reason most rockers go onstage in the first place is to attract girls. Obviously, as you can see on our site, we bring in a lot of hot chicks. So we get provoked all the time. But we wanted it that way, really. We’ve never been the boys next door. We’ve always wanted to polarize people, just like Turbonegro, Motley Crue, or Kiss did. It’s like that Backyard Babies song, Making Enemies is Good: ‘I’ve got a brand new hate for you’. They were right.
Joan Jett or Lita Ford?
Well, both women have a few songs that I like. Lita a few more than Joan. I don’t really like girls playing guitar, though. I have a long nails fetish. I like female drummers, though.
I don’t know if that answers the question.
Lita. She shouldn’t sing, though. I wouldn’t want to have sex with either of them, by the way. Not even 20 years ago.
Ouch! What was your last celebrity encounter?
Ron Jeremy. We spent a lot of time together last month. I did an interview with him for our site. He told a lot of jokes, and he spoke about tortoises. And a little bit about sex. I like Ron a lot. The last female celebrity I met and spend some time was Sandra Shine, the only model who was a Penthouse Pet twice. I like her a lot. The hottest women in the world are the most friendly ones, believe me. The semi-hot pieces are always a little cocky and stuck up.
How about favourite bands? Any obscure picks to tell people about?
A lot of good bands don’t like us, so I can t recommend any of them. And there are a some who like us, but aren’t good enough to recommend. (Laughs) But I do like Pretty Boy Floyd and Gemini Five.
So, what’s coming up for you guys?
I’m working on putting a new line-up together. It s hard to find people that’ll stick with you through the hard times. A lot of rockers just wanna drink and fuck, and they see rehearsing and making music as a necessary evil to be a rock star. But we’ll be releasing a ballad called Freakish Blue Eyes soon. A video to it showing beautiful women with blue eyes will be out soon, too.
Awesome. Let’s hope they’re topless.
And now, on to the rock. Here. Courtesy the band, is Jokin’ And Smokin’.
Pornstar_Airlines_-_Jokin_and_Smokin.mp3
If you like what you hear, book a flight on Pornstar Airlines!
