You’ve been around for awhile but just released your debut single. How did you get started and why did it take so long to get a record out?

Box of Records isn’t our debut single, just the first one that got distributed further than High Street (the main drag in Columbus, used to be sweet. Now pretty sour). We got started on a whim I had one day in 1997 that the world was ready for a “cute hairy patt band” (http://www. myspace. com/hairypattband) . I was right, that band was the White Stripes - not the original lineup of the Guinea Worms with me singing and playing guitar and Jenny Mullin on drums. It took so long for something to come out cause I didn’t want to mass produce something that would end up as refuse. Which happened to my friend Jake (http://jakesaint. com/), he made this awesome comic book but had so many unsold that when it came time to move he just threw boxes of it away. And my first band clay (http://www. fina-music. com/catalog/index. html?id=1032010) did a 7” that sat in Tom Shannon’s (from The Cheater Slicks) basement for years and now it stinks. Like cats.

What inspired you to start a band?

Hmmm, well we named the band at our first practice, a friend had just come back from Africa with this amazing story of something called a Guinea Worm that took days to wrap around a pencil as it exited a body. You know there was a ‘90s British band called Guinea Worm. I’ve got their record. It is a 12” interview disc on one side and the complete discography on the other. Sounds like a Touch and Go thing.

What were the influences to start with, musically and has it changed over time?

Well, at the time we started I wanted us to sound like a country Fall. Then I heard the Country Teasers and knew they’d already nailed it. Now I would say our biggest influences are bands on Guided Missile Records especially Yummy Fur, Male Nurse, Country Teasers (http://en.wikipedia.orgwikiGuided_Missile_Records) and QFM-96 (http://www.qfm96.com), the classic rock station in town. I think Danny, Gary and I all had Q cards in 1984. The Q card was some marketing scam from QFM-96 that got us discounts at Buzzard’s Nest records and nothing else I can remember. I wish I still had mine. I probably used it to buy Van Halen’s 1984 for $5.49

How’s the reception for Box of records been? Are you playing more, more people at shows etc?

The reception has been great. Box of Records was one of those songs that takes 15 minutes to write and as soon as I finished the demo I sent it to CDR and said “check it out. its my lust for life”The most fun I’ve ever had playing Box of Records was our show with the Cheater Slicks at Don Pedro’s in NYC. The stage was very poorly lit, the only light in the room was this lamp in the shape of a horse’s head that we brought with us, the PA was totally rigged up but people were still digging us. I thought it would be cool to wear leather pants the whole trip, just like Jim Morrison but I didn’t realize how sweat soaked they’d get. The Lizard King must have smelled. Anyway, it was when we kick back into the chorus at the end I got this joyful absurdist exuberance. and after that I thought Guinea Worms yes, yes yes, we could do this forever.

You seem to fit in nicely with the Columbus Discount roster. What’s your feelings of that “scene”. Is this new for Columbus or has it been going on for a while?

It is a great scene, CDR saved Columbus as far as I’m concerned. There has been a cool rock scene here for a while though for sure, it just was not happening at all in the 21st century until CDR got into it. I don’t know what it is like for 20 something year old Columbus kids now but when I was one, seeing Jim Shepard, Mike Rep, Ron House and Jerry Wick just hanging around was very cool to me. Those guys are rock stars! Would the 20 something year old Will Foster think the 37 year old Will Foster a rock star? probably not, he’s too boring in person.

What have you got coming up - tours, new records?

Well Lost and Found b/w Jeans and Heels on Savage records should be out soon, then we’ve got a tune on a Worlds Lousy with Ideas comp. It is called “soiled sender”, in the 1940s a solid sender was someone who really had it together, someone who knew what they were talking about. A soiled sender is just full of shit. Right now Guinea Worms are working on our CDR singles club records. I think the a side is done, called “I KNOW WHERE WILL FOSTER LIVES” and the b side will be “C.H.U.D.” We’ll play out of town whenever there is chance. Our favorite city to play has got to be Detroit. That town is such a cool mix of the high and the low. I guess they’ve got peacocks living in the trees there but I’ve never seen one. I’ve also never eaten at Telway but will for sure next time.

-Will Foster9/8/08