Joe Ragosta – Patent Pending Interview

Ahead of their trip to the UK with Bowling For Soup later this month, we had a chat with handsome Patent Pending front-man, Joe Ragosta.

Hello Joe! How are you?
Great! How are you?

We’re looking forward to the tour. How excited are you about your forthcoming UK tour?
Literally counting down the minutes! We’re always very excited to hang out and spend times with our buds in Bowling For Soup and The Dollyrots, throw in the fact that we get to live our dreams of playing the O2 Academy rooms in the UK and we are the five happiest boys in happy town!

What can we expect from your show?
We’re a little bit out of our minds. We genuinely enjoy doing what we do, so whenever we get a chance to play in front of people, we tend to go nuts with no real regard for ourselves or the instruments that we’re holding in our hands.

What is it like touring with Bowling For Soup?
It’s like one big massive awesome! [laughs] I know that doesn’t sound like a real answer, but that’s really just how it feels when we all get together… just awesome! Those guys know how to turn any good time into a great time. The two of us together is really some kind of tornado of fun.

They have a bit of a reputation for partying – are you guys big party animals?
Yes! No one can party as hard as BFS, but we are a distant second when it comes to having a great time.

Tell us something about you that will make you seem really rock ‘n’ roll?
This is actually a really tough one! I ate pizza in the shower today… seriously. Does that count?

And what about something that will make you guys seem really nerdy?
We have an unflinchingly rigid “no talking during Dexter” rule that we all follow to a T.

We love the One Big Happy album! How did it come about?
We love it too! Patent Pending, Bowling For Soup and The Dollyrots are long-time best buds. We’ve always covered each other’s songs on tour with one another. Earlier this year Jaret just called us up and was like, (read in Jaret’s high-pitch voice) “YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD BE FLIPPIN-SWEET?! IF WE PUT OUT A RECORD WITH ALL OF US ON IT TOGETHER!” How could we argue with that?!

Do you have a favourite track on there?
I’m currently obsessed with BFS’s “Let’s Go To The Pub!” The guitar riff has been stuck in my head for weeks!

What are your plans for the rest of the year?
Hopefully the tour goes so well in England that the British government adopts us as national mascots and we take up a permanent residency! If that doesn’t work out, we’ve got a cover album coming out, new music videos and we’re going to record a new record. Things are about to get crazy!

Describe Patent Pending in three words.
PIZZA-PARTY-MAYHEM!

And finally, ahead of your trip to the UK, we love to quiz BFS and their support bands on their British slang – Erik is our current victor, with a score of 4/5.

Do you know the meaning of the following… Guff.
Trouble. Example, “don’t give me any guff”.
Where we come from, to guff is to fart. Bird.
Girl.
Correct. What about dogging?
Slacking off or being a pain towards a person or situation?
Dogging is, as Jaret so wonderfully put it, when we Brits “do it in automobiles”.
Cock up.
Man up… step up.
A cock up is a mistake. And finally, dog’s bollocks.
Dog shit?… How’d I do?!
It means awesome! You got one right – but at least now you’ll have some fancy new words to use while you’re here.

For more info on tour dates, click here. To read out One Big Happy album review, click here.