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Interview: Cory Hammer Conducted: October 23/03 By: Webmaster Dave (WD) What happened to theoffspring.net? (Cory) I had a hosting arrangement with musicfans.com. They did this with other popular fan sites of other bands and sold advertising space on all of them. It worked out great for everyone - for a while. Unfortunately musicfans.com ran out of money and shut down. The site continued until the host pulled the plug, most likely because the bill wasn't being paid. In the meantime, my life was changing. In 2001, I got married, bought a house, and became a father and suddenly there was an offspring that took higher priority than the band. I had more responsibilites and has less time to spend on the site. Since it would have been such a pain to try and get the site moved (again) to a new server, I just decided to forget it. Copyrights were also becoming big issues especially with MP3s and audio files, and I didn't want to deal with that either. So, I decided it was best to unplug from the Offspring internet world. (WD) How was it working for the Offspring? (Cory) Of course it was very cool. I lived on the other side of the country so I received direction by e-mail or phone and worked on it at home. It was very different because on my fan site I could do whatever I wanted, but when working on their site I had to do it how they wanted it. Sometimes I didn't agree with their design decisions but I tried to implement their requests. The big job was to redesign the entire site for the Americana release. They also had another company (Canned) work on the general interface. The problem is they were very sloppy and let a lot of things broken, which I had to go and fix. The highlight was getting flown to Orange County to meet the band! I went to the Nitro office and met the people there and met with Dexter in his office and we talked about the site and what we could do with it. This is where I came up with the idea of a tour journal and Dexter decided that Noodles should write it. Thus Noodles Tour Journal was born. I rode with Nitro people from the office to their show that night and hung out backstage. From the work I did on their site, I got my name in the Thanks section of Americana, and received a huge worldwide multi-platinum plaque with my name engraved on it (even though it was spelled wrong). (WD) Any plans on making a new Offspring page sometime in the future? (Cory) No. My life is too busy. We now have two toddlers running around getting in trouble. They have more energy than any punk rockers. (WD) How well do you know Dexter, and the band? (Cory) I met them a few times and talked to Dexter several times in email but thats all. Dexter wrote me a hand written letter in 95 shortly after my page was started and before the official site existed. He has also called my house, and another time left me a message on my voice mail. They are regular guys, Dexter makes every fan he meets feel important. Noodles is a cool and funny guy. Greg is very shy. Ron was also sort of quiet. (WD) Did you ever see them perform live? Backstage? (Cory) Yes and yes. I've seen them in Cleveland (2 times), Columbus, Pittsburgh, Houston (2 times), Austin, New York, LA, San Diego, and Woodstock. I saw them either backstage of talked to them at the aftershow in nearly all those places. (WD) Why did you leave offspring.com? (Cory) One day they just told me they didn't need me to work on the site anymore. I think they said they ArtistDirect was putting their online store together and they got website design thrown in for free. (WD) Do you miss working for the band? (Cory) Sure, it was a lot of fun while it lasted. (WD) What are your current projects? (Cory) I was laid off last year and while I was out of work and having trouble finding a new job I started my own web development company, Hammer Technology. Since then I have found a new job and still work on my own company in my spare time. I still maintain the Wixen Music (publisher for the Offspring and many others) website. My main focus is now on community websites. (WD) Have you ever visited this page prior to doing this interview? Any thoughts on the page? Ever heard of it before? (Cory)I think I had visited most of the fan sites at one time at least, like theoffspring.com and Delirium's Offspring page. I haven't explored the whole site but it reminds me a little of the sections I used to have. (WD) Do you ever see yourself working with Webmaster Dave on another project, relating to this site? (Cory) I don't really see myself getting involved in another fan site because I just would not have the time to commit to it. I am willing to donate my old content to people who would be interested in posting it. (WD) What happened to KFUK? (Cory) KFUK was developed with the official site for the Ixnay on the Hombre release. I maintained it and kept it going on the Americana site. The Sony people didn't like the idea much and since it ran on their server, they wanted it shut down. I adopted the orphan and hosted it on theoffspring.net and kept it going, for a while the official site linked to my site for KFUK. |