Driven Far Off

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Racing Kites Interview August 30th, 2006

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Racing Kites

– Please state your name and position in the band and give us a little history on yourself.

I’m Alex, I sing for Racing Kites. I’ve been making music for several years now as a hobby. It recently became a career.

– How long has Racing Kites been around for, and how did you guys come about getting signed?

With current members and in full swing, we’ve been a band for about 6 months. Dan, Rick and I started about a year ago. We got signed after we put up a few demos on our myspace page. Hands Against The Sky was recorded without a bass player. The demo version of course.

– You guys are about to release your new EP, can you tell us about it?

Absolutely stoked on this. Its been a long journey but were extremely happy with the outcome. Certain things had to be overlooked but it came out nicely. The six songs that are on our EP are the first six songs we’ve ever written as a band. Of course now we have new ideas and demos but the songs off the EP are who we are and we are becoming. With all of us coming from different musical backgrounds it gives the listener more variety. Some songs are straight up pop, some rock. We hope everyone likes it as much as we do.

– Where did you guys record the songs and do you have a favorite?

We recorded them in Paramus, NJ with Jayson DeZuzio. Its hard to pick a favorite because I feel a diversity in the record. But if I had to choose one it would be Dreamers & Believers.

– Are you guys planning on going on tour in support of your new EP?

Yes! We can’t wait to get back out on the road! Even though our last tour was a disaster, were excited! In October were embarking on a Absolutepunk.net tour and after that were still in talks. So, who knows but we plan to tour heavily in its support.

– If you could go out on tour with anybody who would it be?

For me…Switchfoot, Over It, and Relient K. I love those bands, they are a big influence.

– What do you guys like to do in your free-time and are you guys still in school?

We love hanging out, friendship really fuels this band. We all dropped school to do this and were trying to make the best of it. When hard times approached us such as the van breaking down, sleeping inside the van in a Wal Mart parking lot in 100 degree weather with no AC we pulled it together as friends.
Alex Racing Kites: We look up to each other and we learn a lot that way.

– Thats a good thing to have in a band.

Indeed! It really hit us during tour, when you’re stuck in a van withfour other people, they are your family.

– Do you have a favorite movie or tv show?

Okay, I speak for everyone in the band when I say Anchorman. Meet us at a show and you will see, we always talk Anchorman quotes, we can’t help it.

– “It’s really hot, milk was a bad choice”

Hahaha, that’s actually the one we quote we used this past summer on tour when we baked in our Van with no ac.

– lol ya thats a great movie.

Agreed!

– A very quote friendly movie, and I would have to say one of Will Farrell’s best.

You and I are on the same page, although his quick role in Wedding Crashers was phenominal!

– Haha that to, I wasn’t very impressed with Talladega Nights though.

That movie was pretty funny to me but it was no Anchorman haha.

– What could we find in your CD player or on your iPod right now?

Over It-Step Outside Yourself, they really suprised me with this record. Its outstanding, its a whole new band. Very happy for them.

– It is a change for them and it turned out good.

I think the change suits them well, they have really matured as a band something everyone hopes to do as a musician. The other day I felt a little old school so I put in Switchfoot-new way to be human.

– Are you anticipating anything other releases this year?

I’m really looking forward to the new This Providence, Copeland, Switchfoot, and Relient K.

– Relient K played a new song at Cornerstone this summer and it sounded amazing.

I can’t wait! Matty T and the rest of those dudes are such great people! Also, I’m not sure if the new starting line is coming out soon but I’m really excited to hear that.

– It’ll be great to see how those guys have matured as well.

Yes, I know its for the better, they played a few new songs last time I saw them and they sounded really good.

– What are your thoughts on technology as far as kids downloading music?

I believe that it has its ups and downs. Downloading music hurts the music industry and the artist. However it can also benefit the artist. If kids love the music they usually buy the cd anyway or come to your show and buy merch. I always buy cds because I like to have the artwork . I don’t download.

– I find the actual CD to be a better investment at this point as well. But the future will hold different ways to do everything.

Oh yeah, sooner or later something new will creep in. Technology is always changing. But you’re right, when you buy a cd I think you get better quality.

– How have you guys benefitted from being online with places like MySpace and PureVolume.

A LOT! Those websites especially myspace opened up a whole new door for us and our friends. Not only can you let people hear your songs but you can interact with them as well. We love to make new friends. We make it a point to respond to mail and comments

– Well thats about all I have, would you like to say anything else to the visitors of our website?

Thank you for taking the time to read this and support this website, its very useful! Thanks Bryce, this was fun. Check our EP out ‘We Hold It All Together’ in stores September 26th! And say what’s up to us on our myspace.com/racingkites.

Christopher Gutierrez Industry Interview (2)

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Christopher Gutierrez

This interview has been a long time coming. When I say a long time, I mean months and months. However, due to Chris being the awesome dude he is, we didn’t give up. After several delete button mistakes, file scavenger hunts, and waiting, here’s the follow up interview with Christopher Gutierrez.

Trevor: 1. How’s all your book business going right now? Are people still responding to it well?

Chris: “Business”? If by “business” you mean packing up books in my basement apartment, well then I suppose its doing well enough to be sold out of the first printing.
Surprisingly, its been met with wonderful reviews. Every day i get emails everywhere from France to Brazil to Australia telling me how much they loved the book. I managed to fool everyone.

Trevor: 2. Why the idea to do a spoken word cd? What all will be included on the disc?

Chris: Well, when I began doing the voice posts, some of the lurkers seemed to like hearing my whiny voice. Someone along the line put the idea in my head that I should take my favorite posts, read them and make it into a cd. So, because I need something to keep me busy until the next book out, I got together with my friend Eric and we went to his place of work and stole studio time.

Trevor: 3. What new stories are you excited about for your new book?

Chris: I have 14 planned for the second book. The same amount as the first but with the new stories I want them to be more in depth and twice as long. Its hard for me to go back and read the first book without thinking, “Man, i wasted some good stories in here, I could have told them so much better.” I refuse to make the same mistake with the second book.
As of today I have 6 stories written, the two that I’m most happy with are my accounts of running my first marathon and the second being the terrifying experience of running with the bulls in pamplona, spain…but as far as humor goes, the one about a failed attempt at a 3-some will definitely ensure I wont be able to let my mother read this next book as well.

Trevor: 4. How did your college reading go?

Chris: The people that invited me out to Adams State College in Colorado couldnt have been more amazing. From the moment they picked me up at the airport, to the night of the reading, to lunch and dinner…I couldnt have asked for a better reception. Pssh, and dont forget the fact that they managed to coax the school into spending money to fly out some loud mouthed douche bag and pay him to stand behind a podium and talk about beating off and the exploits of his raging ego. awesomeness all around.

Trevor: 5. You’ve been at the center of several internet drama scenarios. How do you deal with/respond to all the speculation and rumors that start?

Chris: The positive thing about all of the attention is you grow thick skin really fast and you learn how to take criticism well. You can call me every name in the book and insult every facet of my life, I dont mind. its actually entertaining to see the interesting ways people will come at you and try to get get under your skin. Everything from calling my ex girlfriend a whore to saying my mother should have aborted me. Anyomous kids pontificating behind a keyboard will do just about anything to get a rise out of you. I find it amusing.
The only thing that actually bothered me a bit was the way that I got “accused” for doing things I never did, referring to the leaking of the pictures that I was constantly accused and convicted of. I addressed it in a couple lines once and said that while it would have been awesome revenge had I done it but sadly I wasnt responsible, yet countless gossip sites and radio stations continued to place the blame on me, because as they put it, “Who would have motive?” I understand why they would think as much but goddamn, I’m a poor motherfucker, dont you think I would have sold that shit outright if I had em? For the record, I never “hacked” anyones shit and I never “leaked” any pictures. I’ve been offered ridiculous compensation to discuss in depth the drama, secrets and my relationship but I have and will continue to turn them down.

Trevor: 6. What are some instant messages that automatically qualify as a “block” on your buddy list?
Chris: “Why are you on my buddy list?”
“Who are you?”
“Hey Chris, you were our only friend.”

I’ve mentioned this multiple times yet I still maintain a healthy block list of over 2000 people with a minimum of 20 additions per day. Be nice and respectful and if I have time, I’ll respond. Keep it quick and don’t be a pest. That’s all I ask.

Trevor: 7. How did the “Ask Hey Chris” hoodie come about?

Chris: I took an extended vacation after Colorado to hang with some friends in LA. While I was out there I rolled up to the Neighborhoodies store and got an idea to take a line I wrote a while back and make a hoodie out of it. Jokingly, I posted some pictures of me wearing it and a handful of lurkers asked where I had gotten it. It’s supply and demand. Lurkers wanted it, and with the help of some awesome kids over at oaththreadline.com we supplied it.

Trevor: 8. When will you be taking over “Sex Talk With Sue” on Oxygen?

Chris: Honestly, I would love to discuss more sexual topics but I also know that a large amount of the lurkers are either underage or inexperienced so a lot of the humor goes over their heads. Who knows, I have a lot of perverted shit rolling around in my head. Maybe ill come out with a “how to correctly masturbate into your roommates sock” post after this.

Trevor: 9. More publications are beginning to interview you. How do you react to the requests? Did you ever think you’d get to be this well-known?

Chris: I always preface each interview with, “You know im not in a band and im just some douchebag, right?”
Not my fault if someone wants to waste their time talking to a perverted egomaniac.
Honestly, I never saw the attention coming.

Trevor: 10. I know I said I would never ask you a Fall Out Boy question, but how do you respond to things like, “Oh, he’s only riding on their coat tails?” because in my opinion, that’s pretty much bullshit.

Chris: Well, it is and it isnt.
I was handed something, whether I wanted it or not. Someone wrote a song about me and I got attention from it. Ridiculous or not, it was there. So what do you do with it? Seriously, when people comment with “you’re just exploiting it” I say, “yeah, to an extent I am.” I wouldnt say I was irresponsible with it, but fuck, what would you do? You didnt ask for the attention but all of a sudden thousands of people are listening to you, so what do you do? So yes, I do use it but I try and use it in the most useful way I see fit. I try and make kids think. I dont want people to necessarily agree with me and I’m not saying I’m the most intelligent mother fucker out there, I simply want to see the exchange of ideas put back into this community. It discourages me when I hear kids say, “I’m just here for the music, I dont want to hear about politics or preaching,” as if ideas are poison. It’s sad to see kids who should be filled with youthful energy pacified by the dumbing down of “punk rock”. People will have their opinions and I will have mine. As long as theyre still reading what I have to say, I know I’m still effecting them in some way. So I win. Haha.

Trevor: 11. Do you ever wish you could take it all back and go back to not having so much attention?

Chris: Nope. Not at all. I’ve always been like this, even before livejournals.

Trevor: 12. If you could make a soundtrack to map out a typical day in your life, what would the track listing be?

Chris: Wow, excellent question.
Wake to The Rocket Summer.
Shower to the Misfits, because I have been for the past 16 years.
Walk to work to ‘Search and Destroy’ by Iggy and the Stooges.
On the train to My Chemical Romance, because it makes me feel even more of an outcast amongst the suits.
Run to Modern Life is War, Throwdown, Judge or Kid Dynamite.
Relax to Red Sparowes.
Watch the DMX reality show.
Have sex to Danzig and She Wants Revenge.
Wind down to Billy Joel and Simon and Garfunkle.

Trevor: 13. What bands should everybody be listening to already, and what bands should they look out for in the future?

Chris: Well, if you’re not listening to Black Flag, Halifax, American Nightmare, Rise Against, Van Halen, Tupac, Lifetime, The Cure, Naked Raygun, Modern Life Is War or the Academy then you basically have the worst taste in music.
You need to be looking out for Ruiner, The Kooks and 2*sweet.

Trevor: 14. Do you have anything else planned for the future as far as your internet celebrity goes?

Chris: “Internet celebrity”…I dont think its possible to ever say those two words without a hint of sarcasm or condescention.
Well, I have the spoken word cd recorded and finished, I’m looking to have a release date at the end of August and the second book out by Christmas. I will also be putting out some shirts this summer through the oaththreadline clothing company and by fall having a new stock of the hoodies back for sale.
Other than that, I plan on doing a lot more speakings this year and continuing to run my mouth and tell my adventures via livejournal.

Chris’ Livejournal

The Fall Of Troy Interview – June 24th, 2006

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The Fall of Troy

Andrew: That is like the smallest fucking recorder I have ever seen. Itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s cool.

– Haha, yeah. State your name and position in the band.

Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m Andrew, and I play drums in Fall of Troy.

– Give a brief history of the band and the origin of the name.

We just flipped through a history book and picked, like we had a name before that and thatâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s how we did that. So, letâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s do it again.

– What have been your best and worst moments of this tour?

Just like any show, where kids are having a good time. But like the worst, our trailer axle broke, people had some personal problems (not related to the band) that effected our motivation as far as playing shows. This has probably been the most stressful Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ve ever been on.

Good thing itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s almost over.

I mean, it sucks though because I love everyone on the tour, like everything that has happened has been, not related to music or anybody in the bandsâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ relationships. So itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s just really frustrating. But itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ll be alright, weâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ll fucking play some new songs or something.

– What elements do you try to bring to each show to set you apart from the rest of the bands?

Just try to fucking, like a bunch of people paid a bunch of money to come see you, you should probably show them that you are at least trying to work and give them a good show. I just try to play as hard as I can, fucking rock out and let kids get into it.

– If you could pick one show that made you feel accomplished of everything you have done, which would it be and why?

Um, playing Bamboozle was really cool. 7 or 8 thousand people there and that was like, insane. Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ve never played for anymore than 1500 so that was weird. I mean, it blows my mind that Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m fucking in Virginia and there are people here that know who we are. Itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s weird.

Is this the first time you guys have played in Virginia?

Nah, weâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ve played at the Peppermint.

Yeah, with Spitfire right?

Yeah, I think we played with some local bands. I canâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t remember, I think it was on the Number Twelve tour. I like Virginia, itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s fun man.

– When starting this band, what were your goals and how have they changed?

I mean, we were just having fun and challenging ourselves. Like the music we played before this wasnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t very challenging, it was very poppy. Just play music with people we like, hopefully other people will like it too.

(Tim Ward from Fall of Troy opens the driverâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s door of the van)

Tim: I wish I was tough like Russians. Russians are fucking tough.
Andrew: Haha, this has happened with like every interview.
Tim: I want some goddamn boy Russian friends and I want a Russian girlfriend.
Andrew: Dude, remember that guy we met from Russia?
Tim: Yeah, man.
Andrew: We met him in New York and he was like â┚¬Ã…”(speaks with a Russian accent) Hi, Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m from Russia, Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m moving here for the summer.â┚¬? Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m like â┚¬Ã…”Dude, thatâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s awesome.â┚¬? Then heâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s like â┚¬Ã…” Russia likes you guys, why havenâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t you come there?â┚¬?
Tim: His name was Uri or Alexia or Vladimir.
Andrew: Anyways, Russia was our inspiration, haha.
Tim: Russia is intense. I just read about that shit man. People get drunk off of cologne.
Andrew: You just drunk off of like 2 or 3 packs of Blue Ribbon.

– What hardships did you encounter when starting the band and how did you get through them?

Um I mean, just like at first just getting shows. We didnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t even think about playing a show for like 3 or 4 months.

I read somewhere that you guys were 17 years old when the band started.

Yeah, I was 16 and so was Tim and Thomas. We used to have another guitar player and he was 17. It was just like â┚¬Ã…”Hey, how are we going to get our gear from so and soâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s house to practice.â┚¬? As it moves on, we obviously want to put on a good show and try to make stuff work with us, like personally because itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s tough. We were friends before this actually, we tried to make it into a business, so I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t know. Shit has gotten mixed up, but itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s cool.

– Are there any plans to go into the studio and recording the next record?

Weâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢re going to be writing for like the next two months, as soon as this tour is done. We have like four songs right now, weâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ll hopefully be recording in September or October, to be out like January. I know people want to hear it.

– How would you compare and contrast how the band sounded in the beginning and how it sounds now?

I think we got tougher. I mean, the melody is still there and stuff. I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t know, I think weâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ve just become more of ourselves.

– In your opinion, which song on the last record best defines the band the most?

Um, probably off the last record, â┚¬Ã…” The Holy Tapeâ┚¬? or maybe â┚¬Ã…”Macaulay McCulkinâ┚¬?. One of those, weâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢re just fucking weirdos.

– If you had to quit this band and join another one, which one would it be and why?

Um, thatâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s tough. Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢d love to be in He Is Legend, thatâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ll be fun, they have good songs. I really donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t know, I mean if we are talking about anybody anywhere, Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ll probably say The Beatles. The songs arenâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t too hard but theyâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢re still fun to play. They had a lot of success but that kind of ruins, I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t know, success isnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t really everything, itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s kind of weird.

– If you could overhear people talking about the band, what do you think you would hear?

I hope I would hear, â┚¬Ã…”Man that was fucking crazyâ┚¬? or â┚¬Ã…”I didnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t expect that.â┚¬? I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t know, Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m sure people would, thereâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s haters and thereâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s lovers. Everyone is going to have their own opinion, kids probably say that every song has a guitar solo, but whatever, you can also say that you like that.

– In your opinion, what is the biggest current issue people are overlooking?

With everything?

Yeah, just in general.

I wish people would be more aware of what our country is doing and like putting us, regardless of what you think when the U.S. does something, it reflects on everybody else. I mean, no oneâ┚¬Ã‚¦I mean, I wish people would stay up to date with current events more, and itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s kind of stupid for me to say that because Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m on tour and itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s really hard, like I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t see the news everyday. I mean, get over retarded stuff like gay marriages and fucking try figuring out whatâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s really important.

Exactly, people are worrying about that when there is so much crap going on in every city.

Yeah dude, people are getting tortured, there are people that in this alley tonight that needed help and people are arguing about two guys getting married; fucking get over it.

Yeah, they arenâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t hurting anyone, so that’s not an issue.

Yeah, itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s notâ┚¬Ã‚¦Ãƒ¢Ã¢”š¬Ã‚¦haha this could be a long night. Itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s all good.

– If you could choose a writer, dead or alive to write the lyrics for the next record, who would you choose and why?

Um, alive I would pick this guy, Mark Danielewski, he wrote this book called â┚¬Ã…”House of Leavesâ┚¬?, itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s just terrifying. Itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s cool, we have some song titles from it. Dead, Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ll probably pick this dude named Richard (couldnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t make out the last name). He wrote really simple but he had great ideas. Yeah, either one of those.

– If you could choose one quote to be written on your tombstone, what would it be and why?

Fucking, umâ┚¬Ã‚¦.I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t know, thatâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s a tough one. Right now in my life, if I died right now, it would be â┚¬Ã…”Play Harder, Play Faster.â┚¬?

– What are the best and worst aspects about being in a band?

The best is just traveling and meeting people and doing shit like this. Like a variety stuff on life, when youâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢re touring you get to see something different everyday. But the worst part, I mean, I live in a van and I have for the last year. Itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s ok, I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t really mind it.

Yeah, you get by.

Yeah, fucking like, whenever I get bummed out, Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m like â┚¬Ã…”No one I know is doing this, how can I beâ┚¬Ã‚¦

Yeah, people are just at home doing nothing while youâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢re touring.

Yeah, exactly. Like everyone I know from high school is either in one place, like going to college or at home. No one I know is doing this so itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s special and itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s something that I wanted so, I have to put up with some bullshit and realize that itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s actually cool.

– Anything else you want the readers to know.

Weâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢re not breaking up, the album will be out soon.

Yeah, I read about that on your myspace about people thinking the band is going to break up.

Yeah, I mean I can totally understand, like this tour has been a messed. Weâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ve canceled a bunch of shows and I know kids are pissed off, it sucks but just bare with us weâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ll come back. Like Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m sure youâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ve had days where you didnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t go to school. 99 percent of people miss days from their life and it sucks but you get over it. Just stick with us, weâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢re not dead.

The Format Interview August 9th, 2006

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The Format

Mike: Let’s start off by introducing yourselves and saying what you do in The Format.

Nate: I’m Nate, and I write songs.

Sam: I’m Sam, and I play instruments and write songs.

Mike: Earlier today you went into Providence’s WBRU studio for an interview and an acoustic performance. How you do think that went?

Nate: My voice was pretty shot. But I thought it was cool. I think they wantedâ┚¬Ã‚¦ do you go to Brown [University]?

Mike: No, I’m not smart.

Nate: I don’t know, I think they wanted to hear “The First Single” pretty bad, but it wasn’t happening.

Mike: What did you guys end up playing?

Sam: We played “Snails,” and “The Compromise,” and then I messed up “Tune Out.” It was pretty cool. And we played “On Your Porch.”

Mike: Nice, that’s one of my favorites. Is it true that you’ve had little to no radio play?

Nate: I think so. We might have had college radio play.

Sam: Yeah we had a little college radio for the first album…

Nate: I don’t read the radio reports now, for this record, just because I felt like we’re doing very well right now. My expectations have been exceeded already, so I mean… and it happened without ever having radio in the first place.

Mike: I think you’re on the Hollister soundtrack so I guess it doesn’t really matter if you’re on the radio or not anyways… How does your fan base continue to grow at such a rapid pace if you’re not on MTV?

Nate: I think just because we’re on tour a lot. We’re touring constantly and I think word of mouth is starting to catch on, and hopefully people really like Dog Problems.

Mike: I think they will.

Nate: I hope so. I mean it’s rough, like when we’re playing these shows I know that they want to here the Interventions songs more, but I also know that we just released a record three weeks ago so I don’t expect every crowd to know the songs by heart, like they would…

Mike: Yeah and the album has a little different feel to it, so it might take a little longer to catch on…

Nate: I think subconsciously we were probably hoping for that, in the songwriting. I don’t know, all of my favorite records, the ones that I didn’t necessarily think were too awesome at first, for example: A Ghost Is Born, the Wilco record; I didn’t like it at first. I was so mad that it didn’t sound like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. And eventually I just realized that it’s a better record, it’s just not the same. It’s just not the same record, and I’m just so glad that they didn’t make the same record, because I would’ve never been introduced to these amazing songs.

Mike: Speaking of MTV, was that you playing one of those My Super Sweet 16 parties?

Nate: (Laughs) Sam was that you?

Sam: No. I didn’t really sing anything but I think I was there. Um, yeah… we were there. It was something that we kind of did, and would never do anything like that again.

Nate: No, now we just have to answer questions about it all the time.

Mike: (Laughs) How did you get pulled into it?

Nate: It was just one of those things where it was like, “Hey, someone wants you to play their Super Sweet 16, it’s on MTV, you only live once.” “Okay! They only live once, alright!”

Mike: (Laughs) “Let’s do it?”

Nate: Yup.

Mike: Okay, so now I’ll give you a chance to redeem yourselves. You released Dog Problems all on your own, without the help of a major record label, and it debuted at 77 on Billboard’s Top 200. How much work went into this album?

Nate: A lot. I mean, it was three years worth of… well, two years worth of just constant fighting with the record label, so that was one thing. The second was just what the songs were about, and just the relationship. So, obviously getting all of that off my chest over that span of time, that took a lot. And just going into the studio and making a record that’s pretty heavily orchestrated, or isn’t as easy to get the first time around, because we did so many things. It was a lot of hard work, and I’m ready to do it again.

Mike: And we can’t wait! What would you like to say to Atlantic [Records] right now?

Nate: Um… (Long pause).

Sam: Nothing, really. It doesn’t really matter. You know, we had our time with them, and it’s over, and I don’t think anyone really cares.

Nate: Yeah, I’m so over it. Like, it’s funny. I don’t even know… I’d like to tell them, “Good luck pushing the back catalog of Otis Redding.”

Mike: You guys are pretty well-known for being big DIY people. Who does all of the album artwork, merch designs, etc?

Sam: I do. Yeah I just started doing it because when we first started the band we kind of opened a little store on the website, so I started making stuff, and then I just sort of got stuck into it. And eventually, I just kept doing it, and doing it…

Mike: Well everyone I know really likes the artwork. Did you take any art classes in high school for it?

Sam: No, I kind of started doing stuff because I worked at a concert venue, so I had to make posters, and I sort of learned how to use Photoshop. It’s more of like, something I do now. It’s not really a hobby or anything.

Mike: You probably didn’t do the website… Who did that?

Sam: Our manager found these great guys who make tons of websites for like, really big bands like Madonna, The Flaming Lips… a bunch of other bands that I can’t even think of. But basically they’re big-time website guys and they agreed to make us this website for really cheap, and totally hooked us up because we never really had a budget for that. We never really had a real website.

Mike: It’s really cool how you can navigate around using a dog and stuff.

Sam: Yeah it was inspired by this thing that we found online, this guy that made like, a flash greeting card… we kind of took that and added some stuff to it. It turned out really awesome.

Mike: So after being on Elektra and Atlantic for two releases, you decided to establish your own label named The Vanity Label. Have any bands sent you press kits yet, and are there any that stand out?

Nate: We’ve gotten nothing, and I don’t think we’re ready to even start really working on The Vanity Label, other than with The Format right now. I’d love to do it in the future when we have some time off. And unfortunately at the same time we haven’t heard anything that really interests us.

Mike: The entire Dog Problems CD was made available digitally via The Nettwork Music Store, which led to the sale of over 2,000 digital copies prior to the album’s official release. Do you think this helped you or hurt you?

Nate: It was a blessing in disguise. I was freaking out the first day. I wrote this big, long article, pretty much, on what it took to write the record and why people shouldn’t steal it. And it ended up being great because it is such a different album, and I wanted our diehard fans to get it before anyone else and understand how it worked, so that come July 11th nobody would be shocked completely. And by that time too the press had jumped on it, and so it was really great to be able to do it ahead of time.

Sam: Plus it helped us for touring and stuff because we went on tour right after, and kids were more familiar with the songs than they would have been by the time we got to their city.

Mike: One of my friends recently told me they loved your new album because it reminded them of The Beatles. Has this release been compared to The Beatles before and how does it feel to draw such a comparison to one of your major influences?

Nate: Yeah, we’ve gotten like the Sgt. Pepper’s thing a few times, which I think… anytime you’re going to do pop music and add horns or orchestration people always go that route, and Sam and I are just so overly “pop” it just seems to fit well. But at the same time there have been a million people compared to The Beatles so like, I want to hear someone dig a little deeper.

Sam: It is more rewarding to be compared to The Goo Goo Dolls though, because we were on our last one.

Mike: (Laughs) What are your future tour plans like?

Nate: As of right now it’s… finish this tour out. It ends the beginning of September. And then we get a week off, and then we go to England for two weeks with The All-American Rejects, and then we come home with the Rejects until Christmas.

Mike: We interviewed a few bands at Warped Tour and like two of them said they were going on tour with the Rejects.

Nate: That’s what everybody’s saying.

Sam: Yeah I guess there are like a hundred bands on that tour, but as far as I know, it’s The Starting Line, and then I guess Gym Class Heroes.

Mike: We didn’t even interview those two bands, so…

Nate: Who were the bands?

Mike: I think Motion City Soundtrack is going on one tour with them, and I can’t remember the other one (Gym Class Heroes, who did play Warped Tour).

Sam: Maybe they’re splitting it up or something, I don’t know. We haven’t seen like any dates or anything.

Nate: I don’t know, we were just told we were on the whole tour. The Rejects are taking us everywhere. And we’re just along for the ride I guess, but apparently a lot of people are. They could be splitting it up and there could be different people on it, but as far as I know we’re on the whole thing.

Sam: Yeah I think we are.

Nate: But someone else told me that too. Like, “I’ve talked to other people that said they were going on tour with The All-American Rejects.” I guess we’re all just going to have to fight it out.

Matt Wertz Interview June 5th, 2006

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Matt Wertz

This is the interview I did with Matt Wertz in Seattle on June 5, 2006. Later that evening, I was fortunate enough to see Dave Barnes and Matt Wertz play a capacity crowd at the Crocodile Cafe in one the most memorable concert experiences of my life. Do yourself a favor and check out Matt and Dave’s music, as well as the organization they are involved in:

The Mocha Club

Thanks to Emily & Nettwerk Management!

I am in bold type and Matt is in the normal type.
Introduce yourself in whatever way you please.

my name is Matt…Wertz. I’m originally from Kansas City, MO but I’ve been living in Nashville, TN for about the past for years and it’s really where I consider home, now. It’s where my friends are and I really don’t have any plans on leaving. Half the year my home is in my van and that’s where I’m at home right now. In my van. Seattle, WA. Are you in Seattle?

I am, and I will be at the show tonight!

Awesome, I was checking out the website (drivenfaroff.com) and the other bands on the site are really like Indie-rock and that sort of thing, how did you hear about my music?

Actually, I went to school down in Los Angeles and a friend of mine who’s from Missouri, his name is Addison, he brought my attention to Dave Barnes. I got Dave’s CD from Dryve Management, and then when I checked out Dave’s myspace I saw a link to your page. Not long after I got connected with Nettwerk management and received your CD Twenty-Three Places and the Today & Tomorrow EP.

Well, it’s a great site and it’s killer music on it, it’s quality, so I was just wondering how I fit into it all.

What is your current label situation? Are you still considered independent?

I’m independent and what I’ve decided to do is start a label that will house my records. I’d love to expand that in the future but it’s going to be put out through my management company, Nettwerk.

Same thing as The Format?

Yes, and they have distribution through Sony so Nettwerk will act as my label without me having to sign anything over. They’re staffing my label, is how it works. They have a lot of vision and I like that, they are not content with status quo. It’s really fun to be working with people where anything is a possibility and I love it!

What did the sneakers you designed look like?

(Matt laughs) They actually look a lot like variations of Nike from the early 90’s. When I was doing that I was in middle school and I had a fascination with all the shoes that I couldn’t afford to buy. I would get these brochures and catalogs and would draw them, it’s pitiful actually, I’m kind of letting you into a very vulnerable place in my life right now. Then we kind of came up with some ideas for some laceless shoes with velcro straps which I have ended up seeing on other shoes. I’ll just go ahead and take credit. We were the first to come up with the Nike air pocket that goes all the way around on the shoe…that wasn’t Nike’s idea, that was mine.

You sold it to Nike, right?

…and they stole it from me. I’m sure they’ve had the idea forever and were just trying to figure out how to make it work but I’ve got drawings of that stuff.

well, my opinion is that you should post those on myspace for everyone to see.
That’d be hysterical and awesome. Good idea.

In your journal, er blog, er…You talked about your experience at the Moore Theatre here in Seattle, what’s it like playing a venue of that size and now coming back two months later on your own and being at the much smaller crocodile cafe?

Ya know, we’ll find out tonight. I don’t really know, the Moore was just awesome. I am kind of anxious to see if that show helped at all with earning fans. I’m curious to see if anyone stuck after that show. It is kind of a bitter-sweet thing playing in those big places when they’re sold out and you’re playing before someone else. You get spoiled a little bit getting to play those rooms and just saying ‘Gosh, I don’t know when I’ll get to play this room again.’ It may be years before I’m back here.’ It quickly puts you back in reality when you play a club again, you just think, ‘OK, this is where I’m at.’ It’s cool though, I know the fans that will be there tonight are going to be my fans and we’ll just throw a little party!

The Nashville singer-songwriter scene is huge, it seems like that place is infested with talent, what makes an artist stand out from any of the others?

I think what makes an artist like me stand out, I think I know the limits of my abilities. I think I have a pretty good grasp on reality. With that, I also have a strong work ethic. Definitely, my friends have strong work ethics too, I feel like my friends in that scene are all successful and we all have pretty bright futures. In Nashville, in general, a lot of the really talented people just kind of sit around and expect things to happen for them because they know how good they are. They just figure, ‘I shouldn’t have to work cause I’m really good.’

I never really expected anyone to do anything for me. I felt like if it was going to happen I had to do it myself. Musically, I think I write really accessible songs. I think people can really relate to what I am talking about. Not only what I’m talking about but I think the music is pretty contagious. It kind of gets in your head. Even if you don’t like my particular style of music, I don’t know that you can deny that it’s catchy. I’ve always been a fan of catchy music and pop music in general.

You guys all help each other out, whether it be through myspace or touring together, it’s almost like you’re a team, what is that like?

I think that’s a very good observation. I’m thankful that that comes across. We really pull for each other and we’re all friends. That’s the thing that I love about the community there. It kills ‘competition.’ When you befriend someone you feel like you’re not in competition anymore. I feel like in my group of friends we’re all kind of doing the same thing. It’s just like in any other job. When you care about someone though as a friend you really support and like what they’re doing. I love that I’ve been able to do that, support other people.

You have had Dave Barnes as a friend, producer, and tour-mate for a long time, what’s that relationship like?
Our relationship is really (lots of background noise) I’m in Starbucks right now, if you can’t tell.

Really? Starbucks in Seattle, surprising.

I’m at the one in downtown Seattle, do you know where I am?
(laughs)

Our friendship is one that has really gone through the fire. We learned through doing it how to be friends, we just got shoved out there like, ‘figure out how to do this thing.’ Early on, it was hard. It was hard to see Dave be successful. It was hard for me to be excited about it when he played a great show. I hated that I couldn’t be excited about it. I think anyone who is honest with themselves can say that when something great happens to your friend there’s a still little bit of the feeling that ‘I wished that happened to me.’

It still happens sometimes, like when Barnes put out his new record, I was jealous because the record is amazing and he was getting great press and it was hard for me. It’s good because iron sharpens iron and we’ve made each other better. Not only better musicians but better people through learning how to be friends to one another.

I recently reviewed your Today & Tomorrow EP- tell me a little more of you talked about in the liner notes of the cd.
We were thinking that it was going to be a while before the record was going to come out. It had been awhile since my previous record and there were some songs that I wanted to record. I didn’t know if there would be a place on the full-length record for some of these songs.

We limited the vocal takes to three per song, so we had to find what worked in those three takes. It was really cool, it was a liberating thing to do that. We only had one day to do the record so we just went in and attacked it. We had this guy named Byron House to play the upright bass and he’s the best upright bass player in Nashville. My friend Josh Robinson played drums, he’s a really creative, solid drummer. Ben Shive was playing the Wurlitzer and he’s just a phenomenally talented piano player. It was just cool to have it stripped down and have some limitations on instruments.

I was really pleased with how it turned out and it holds a really nice place in my discography.

What’s the story on this new record? when can we hear some of it?

The story on the new record is that it is done. It’s done being recorded, we’re still trying to figure out what we are going to do with the mixing of it. We’re going to try somebody out and see if we want them to do the whole record or not.

There are ten songs and it’s called Everything In Between; it’s a lot of relationship songs. Also, there are a lot of really fun songs. I’m really proud of it and I think it will be worth the wait. It’s scheduled to come out Sept 12 or 19.

Anything else you’d like to add?

No, just to say thank you for your interest in the stuff and I hope you enjoy the show tonight!

Thank you for taking the time out of your schedule for the interview and take care!

The Acacia Strain Interview

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The Acacia Strain
This interview with The Acacia Strain was originally done at their show at Alley Katz. Due to my recorder running out of batteries in the middle of the interview, I wasn’t able to get the answers from the interview. Therefore I sent the same questions via e-mail to lead vocalist Vincent. These are those answers.

– State your name and position the band.

My name is Vincent Bennett, I am the lead vocalist.

– Give a brief history of the band and the origin of the name.

We got together just for fun, and it turned into a serious thing. Prosthetic picked us up and surprised us all. We have changed members from time to time but all member changes have been for the best. The acacia strain is a disease spread by insects that breed in the acacia tree in Africa.

– What are some pros and cons of this tour?

We arenâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t on tour right now, but there are pros and cans to every tour. It feels good to get out and play in front of an audience who may have never seen us before, or play in front of kids who have been waiting to see us forever. It just feels good to get up on stage and play in front of a crowd of people who care. We get to see the country, get to meet new people, and get to experience things that most people our ages canâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t even think of. But everyone once in a while, the road can take its toll on you. Sometimes we get sick, and touring with a cold or the flu is the worst feeling ever. Every once in a while we get homesick, and talking on the phone isnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t the same as talking to someone in person

-What is the best and worst city you have played? Why?

There are so many good cities; Anywhere in So. Cal is amazing, Boise, Idaho is surprisingly fun, Kansas City, Fredrickburg, VA, and we canâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t forget our hometown of Chicopee, MA. Everyone experiences bad shows in shitty towns, but I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t want to talk trash just because we had a bad time this one show. Itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s not fair.

– In your opinion, what makes you walk away from a show feeling accomplished?

When people will come up to me and tell me they had a blast. When I look out into the crowd and everyone is having fun, I know we are doing our jobs as musicians. Itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s all about having a good time!

– What can the fans expect from your upcoming record?

Ha ha, most people have already heard it via download, but the people who havenâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t stolen it from us can expect one of the heaviest records they have ever heard. It isnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t just breakdowns, there is thought put into every song on the record.

– How is your new record different and similar to your previous records?

This record is still heavy, but itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s more thought out. We worked really hard on all of the technical aspects of all the music. We worked on transitions and tried to make it a little more metal.

-Which one of your songs stands out the most to you and why?

I like â┚¬Ã…”Demolishor.â┚¬? I had a blast writing the lyrics and I love singing them live. I loved recording that song more than any of the other ones because of the lyrics. A lot of the songs on the record I wrote under pressure, and this was no exception. I canâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t wait until kids know the song so we can play it live.

– How would you sum up the band to someone that hasnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t heard anything about it?

We are heavy. We try and stray away from bullshit. We get a lot of criticism saying that we are nothing new or whatever, but we arenâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t trying to re-invent the wheel. We want to play good, heavy music that people can groove to and have fun with live.

– Which main theme can fans find in the bandâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s lyrics?

I sing a lot about deviant sexual behavior, and I leave it kind of open ended so that people can attach their own meanings to any song they want.

– In your opinion, what has been the biggest achievement in the bandâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s history?

Just getting signed and getting a booking agent as amazing as the Kenmore agency behind us is a huge achievement for us. We never thought in a million years that we would be touring the country playing in front of people who WANTED to see us. That itself is a huge accomplishment for me.

– What has been the biggest disappointment in the bandâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s history?

All the member changes were kind of disappointing, but in the long run they are all for the better.

– How has the band changed and matured since the first day it was started?

We have all gotten used to each other musically. We have had our ups and downs but we all feel very close to each other. When Dan L. joined the band, he was like 15 so he has definitely matured more than anyone, but we have all grown up a whole lot. We have also all gotten used to life on the road. Our first tour was like 3 years ago and it was only 10 days, it felt like forever. Now we leave for months at a time and it barely phases us.

– What is the importance of setting your own opinion and having meaning to life?

An opinion is what separates us as human beings. People who donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t have their own opinions and do whatever they are told might as well be dead. That is the focus of the new album â┚¬Ã‹Å“The Dead Walk.â┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ It doesnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t matter if your opinion matches with someone elseâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s, you donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t have to be the most original person in the world, but as long as the opinion is YOURS â┚¬Ã¢â‚¬Å“ thatâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s all that matters.

– Which trend and aspect of the â┚¬Ã…”sceneâ┚¬? annoys you the most? Why?

Most trends annoy me period, because it involves people not thinking for themselves. I hate girl pants on guys, I hate girl haircuts on guys (follicle feminitis) and I hate makeup on guys, and I hate when 90 pound kids act like they are hard asses. Sleeping around has also become a trend. Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ve noticed that a lot of girls come to shows just because thatâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s where the cock is. So many people have shared partners itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s disgusting.

– Which record in your CD collection would people not expect you to have?

I own Hilary Duffâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s â┚¬Ã‹Å“Metamorphosis,â┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ which I am damn proud of. Anyone who wants to make fun of me; listen to the disk first and tell me you wonâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t be tapping your toes.

– Has there ever been any moments when you doubt being in the band?

Every once in a while we get a shitty tour and no one comes to the shows. We all get on each others nerves and hate each other. Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ve almost quit the band like 8 times, but the feeling always goes away. This is the best time I have ever had and Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢d never let it go.

– If this band didnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t work out, would you have continued to try to start another one or do something else?

I probably would try doing another band. I know enough people who play instruments that would love to start a band, and Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m currently working on about 5 different side projects so keep your eyes open! I have a college degree, I might consider going back to get another one. I want to be a college television production professor â┚¬Ã¢â‚¬Å“ or even a grade school teacher.

– What effect do you hope your music has on the fans?

I just want kids to read the lyrics and understand what the songs are about. Also I love when people come up with their own meanings. I want people to stop fucking each other. And I want kids to come to our shows and have the time of their fucking lives, let loose and do whatever they want.

– If you could have any historical figure play a part in the band, who would you choose and why?

The Boston Strangler for two reasons: 1. Then when people ask if we are from Boston we could say yes, and 2. He could take care of some hookers for us.

– Is there anything else you want the readers to know?
BUY THE RECORD. DOWNLOADS ARE FOR SUCKERS!

Spitfire Interview May 5th 2006

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Spitfire

I had the honor to sit with Matt Beck from Spitfire and conduct an interview on Underoath’s tour bus on May 05, 2006.

– State your name and position in the band.

My name is Matt Beck and I play guitar in the band Spitfire.

– Give a brief history of the band and the origin of the name.

Origin on the name; we were in high school starting out when we were 15 years old. Somehow we were getting ready to play our first show, actually it was a party with this band and we needed a name for the flyer for this party. So Chris said names we had mentioned, what do you think of that. He had called me and was like “We have to do it now. That’s it, we’re called Spitfire.” What else did you say?

– Give a brief history of the band.

Yeah, we had been doing this through high school and college, then we played in different bands. I played in Mae, Jon and Dan were in Scarlet, and we kind of just lived all over the place at the time. So we weren’t really able to be functional at the time at all. We’re back together now and it’s me and Chris who originally played, our original bass player, Jimmy Reeves, he moved to New York for a job up there. So we got Dan from Scarlet to play. And Ian, he was in some awesome bands from Virginia Beach, he was in the band, End of the Universe. That’s pretty much it.

– After four years of the band not being active, what made you decide to bring it back?

We were all back in town and we weren’t in bands, we had to have a band so we were like “Dude, let’s do Spitfire again.” So we just started writing songs. We just working on our record and we’re like “Let’s just put it out”. We didn’t have a label, our last EP was with Goodfellow. And we just decided, if anything, let’s do a good recording and put it out on whatever label. So we’re with Goodfellow and it’s amazing. We’re doing really well. We’re on this tour with Underoath, Poisen The Well, and As Cities Burn and we feel so privileged.

(Underoath’s tour manager, Russ, opens the door to the tour bus.)
Matt: What’s up G?
Russ: What’s up, what’s up. Doing an interview or something?
Matt: Yeah.
Russ: Oh my bad.

That guy has the most amazing tattoo of world knows what on his leg.

-What are some things you are looking forward to the most about this tour?

Just playing every single night and meeting new kids, that’s how you and I met. It’s a 100% fun the whole time.

– How did you feel when playing your first show and how have the shows improved over the years?

Well we have three guitars now, our other guitar player, Scottie Henry, he’s recording for the new Norma Jean record so obviously he can’t play these shows. When we have three guitars going, it sounds really good. It’s just fun for us to all be together and hanging out. But we’ve grown together a bit and switching to three guitar players.

– What has been the most memorable show throughout the years and why?

One that I’ll never forget, this is so scary. We played a show with As Cities Burn.

– Yeah, is this the one with the broken glass?

Yeah, it was our first show back. It was the Dead Poetic show. Cody from As Cities Burn was heckling Jon through the glass in front of the stage facing Atlantic Avenue in Virginia Beach. And Jon just went up to the window and kind of just hit it like that. It was untempered glass and so it came out in this big shard and it totally hit Cody right in the face. It cut his face and he had to go out in an ambulance. He was in shock, he was in and out of consciousness. Last night was one of the best shows we’ve had. The way everything was so good. The crowed was so good and good response. So just a fun night. Every night is a fun night just hanging out.

– What are your feelings with the final result of the record?

We love it. We did it with our friend Andreas Magnusson and it came out great. He’s so easy to work with and just gets really good sound. He obviously is one of the top guys to record right now unless you want to pay $100,000. But he’s just very very gifted so it flowed really well.

– In your opinion what does the title “Self-Help” mean?

We’ve all gone through different problems by learning life with hard knots and all that kind of stuff and getting it down, in a life kind of way and unhealthy behaviors at times and what not. Jon, our singer, it’s almost like he did the Scarlet record, he did the lyrics for that and the lyrics are completely opposite, the flipside to that. I didn’t write the lyrics, that was Jon. That’s my understand, I don’t know if that’s exactly what it’s saying. We just love Jon’s lyrics.

(Spencer from Underoath enters the tour bus, Matt places the recorder in his face.)
Matt: Say something.
Spencer: Hey buddy! What’s that from? Freaking South Park, hey buddy!
Matt: Haha, hey buddy.

– If you were to choose one song that clearly defines the band, which one would it be and why?

Um, I would say “Dear John” and “Meat Market”. Those are my two favorites.

– What are some common themes seen throughout the lyrics on the record?

I did not write these lyrics, but I feel them and gather them for my own interruption of them. Just like, obsession and wanting to…

(Door opens once again and Grant from Underoath steps on the bus.)
Grant: Whoa whoa, sorry.
Matt: You’re cool dude.

Just learning to, you have to get passed things and grow. I turn 27 on this tour, so it’s like, I want to do this band, I want to have a nice life but I have to just work hard, you know what I mean? I don’t know, kind of personal. You can scratch that part out.

– What are some rumors you have heard regarding the band (or band members)?

Um, what are some you’ve heard, let me ask you that.

– I talked to Dan about this when we met up at my job.

Print this one question. I’d love to see that.

– Apparently, I heard Jon does coke.

No he does not, haha. Nobody does coke in the band.

– I heard he’s gay, I’ve heard that.

He’s not gay, he has a very beautiful girlfriend, haha.

– I don’t really know, I’ve just heard that Jon is apparently a psycho.

No, he’s not a psycho, but we are all man. Don’t you feel like that sometimes?

– Definitely.

I definitely do.

– If a movie was going to be made about the band, which events would you make sure would appear in the film?

The high school days were the best, now these are becoming the best. So it’s like, I don’t know, the sequel of like In the Summer.

– In your opinion, what is the biggest problem regarding society and how can we improve it?

I believe the way that we coexist with our fellow man. I mean that with like, the same with laws and just freedom, you know what I mean?

– How everyone is kind of like, looking out for themselves. And how everyone is kind of like, if it has nothing to do with themselves, then they don’t really care about them.

There’s some other countries that seem like they would be great to live in and you wonder why.

Yeah, I went to Europe last summer and I could tell that the atmosphere and the people were completely different.

Yeah, but just that, you have it from within you, you know what I mean, to get along. You know, it’s just people and having leadership over people for what kind of reasons. I don’t know, it’s just about that. You can’t change the world but you can change the way the world is to you.

– If you could choose one quote to be written on your tombstone, what would it be?

Um, “Faithful servant”.

– What makes you feel that being in this band is what you are meant to do in this period of your life?

It’s the one thing that, just like everybody, you look forward to doing it, you know what I mean? And hanging out with you. And being able to go out and kind of live what you love to do. Instead of just seeing bands, you can go out and play and just meet cool people. And being able to hang out with different fans, stuff like that.

– If you could choose a writer, dead or alive to write the lyrics for the next record, who would you choose?

Jim Morrison, or actually Jim Morrison/Kurt Cobain. But someone with a good vibe. Actually, our singer, we don’t need anybody else.

– Anything else you want the readers to know?

We’re playing a lot of shows, we’re going to be playing a lot so try to find us.

Alright, sounds good.

Thanks a lot man.

Underoath Interview May 4th 2006

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Underoath

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Chris Dudley of Underoath on May 4th, 2006 on the third floor of Alley Katz, in Richmond, VA.

– State your name and position in the band.

My name is Chris and I play keyboards and do electronic things for Underoath.

– Give a brief history of the band and the meaning behind on the name.

Um, the history wouldn’t be very brief. We started, you know, a long time ago, we were all just in high school and hanging out. To pretty much make a long story short, you know, a bunch of high school kids wanted to get together and start a metal band. 6 or 7 years later, here we are. And Underoath actually came from someone who has never actually been on an Underoath record. This guy named Luke Morton, he was one of the guys, you know, started in the band. Just like a friend from high school and stuff. He got it from somewhere in the Bible, but I really have no idea where, honestly, I haven’t talked to him in years.

– How does it feel to be back on tour again since your break?

Amazing, so good. Last night was pretty rough because like, we just flew back from Europe. We’re trying to get over jetlag, getting used to being on tour, and playing a show at the same time. So at the end of the night we were all, like we crashed really hard. Today we feel really good.

– What is the one thing from home you are going to miss the most?

My wife and my dogs. But if it’s only one then my wife. That’s pretty much the only thing that…

You can bring everything else but you can’t really bring her, well you can but..

You can, but it just doesn’t really work out like that. But missing her is pretty much the only thing that makes me miss home. Like everything else, if she wasn’t there, I could be on tour 12 months a year and I wouldn’t care, you know.

– What aspect of being on tour makes it worthwhile to be away from home?

All of it, every bit of it. I don’t see there being any real downside to being on tour. That’s kind of the way I see it.

– How was your experience in Sweden & how do you think the videos came out?

The experience in Sweden was honestly one of the best things I’ve ever done. Just seeing the way life is there, the way people are is so different than the way it is in America. It was amazing, like I, I think it was one of my most memorable things we’ve done since I’ve been in the band. The videos, we haven’t actually seen any sort of an edit of them yet. But even from what we saw on the playback while we were shooting it, I think it’s going to turn out awesome. We’re really excited.

– In your opinion, what is one show that has stood out throughout the
years? Why?

One show…probably for me, it’s really hard to narrow it down.

So many shows…

Yeah, so many shows but one show that was really memorable was, a few months ago we played with Jimmy Eat World in Tallahassee. It was a free show at a college campus, it was just us and them. Jimmy Eat World has been one of my favorite bands, well, pretty much my favorite band for a really long time. They requested us to be on the show, so like it was pretty surreal playing and them getting up right after us.

Playing with one of the bands you idolize.

Yeah, exactly. And having them thank us for playing and we’re just like “Dude, no way dude, thanks for asking us.” That was one show that was really memorable for me.

– What is the most out of the ordinary thing you have seen at one of your
shows?

Wow, a lot of stuff.

If you could pick one, the craziest thing you have seen at show.

We played a show in Atlanta once, the Warped Tour in Atlanta two years ago. They had us like on this really small stage and it was a wood barricade, it wasn’t metal, so the kids broke the barricade down and they all started coming up on stage and it was awesome. We were just playing and everyone was having fun. Then the security showed up and they were telling us to stop playing but there was really no reason to stop playing, just cause kids were on the stage, we didn’t really care. And then the police showed up and they were threatening to arrest us for inciting a riot and we almost got kicked off the tour and it was crazy. I mean, nothing really happened it was just like…

How people handled it.

Yeah but even the kids, everyone was just having fun but the security guys were freaking out. It was just this whole big mess, but it ended up being fine. Yeah, that was a pretty crazy day.

– What made you decide to stay with Tooth and Nail and not sign with any
major record label?

Um, a lot of things, pretty much the jest of it being the way that most major labels do business is not really right for us. I don’t think a lot of major record labels get what we do and what bands like in our “scene” do. Like they, I actually got asked this question the other day and I said, like major records can get Madonna and get how 50 Cent can sell however many records he sells but they don’t understand a heavy band that sells hundreds, two, three, four hundred thousand records and that’s like all that they want to do. With “They’re Only Chasing Safety”, our goal for that record for the year was 50,000 and we never thought we were even going to sell that. But you can’t do that being on a major record label if you don’t sell half a million records, you’re a failure. And a lot of times even if you do sell half a million records they’re like “Why is it doing so bad?” And the people that work at Tooth and Nail are, they’re awesome.

I’ve heard a lot of really great things about them.

Yeah, yeah. They’re great people and they’re friends before they’re label people, which is pretty much unheard of from what I know. We’ve never been on another label, but that’s the way it is for us and yeah, just good dudes. There is no reason for us to go anywhere.

– How would you compare and contrast the new record with the rest?

Wow, um.

Yeah, they are really different from each other.

Yeah, I guess in that way I can say it’s as much as a change as we have ever had from record to record, I can say that. I don’t know how much of our stuff you’re familiar with but every record we’ve put out is way different than the one before it and in that way it’s the same. It’s way different than the last record. It’s nothing like super intentional, that’s what came out when we went to write and that’s the way its always has been for us. To compare and contrast, I could sit here for an hour and talk about stuff. In a nutshell, it’s a lot different. It’s a lot heavier, it’s a lot, more technical. It’s way better written than anything we’ve ever done. Has more energy than anything we’ve ever done, by far. Just more fun.

– What is the meaning behind the title of the record?

Um, honestly I wouldn’t be the right one to ask that because Spencer, he deals with all the vocal stuff. But in a nutshell, it’s like defining that line for yourself because you are wanting to become the man or the woman that you want to be and the man or the woman God wants you to be and the man or the woman other people want you to be. But you can’t like fall off one way or the other, you just have to find that line and that way to live your life and for some people it takes their whole lives. In a nutshell, it’s about that.

– What are your feelings with the record being leaked through the internet?

It sucks. Yeah, it’s not as bad because it wasn’t the finished product at all, its missing parts, its not mixed, its not mastered, its very not done. Actually I was just talking to a friend of mine about this the other day and he was like, he compared it to somebody but not finishing their sentences. You don’t want to hear a sentence that is only half done or watch a movie before it’s done being edited because you don’t get what is going on. It sucks but the reaction that we’ve gotten from it, is awesome. You know, even though its not a finished product, people are saying that they love it. So that’s cool and I hope that they’ll actually go and get the real record.

I’m going to be honest, I got it from the owner of the magazine, he sent it over.

Oh, the finished thing?

I’m not sure but he got it somehow and he told me not to send it to anyone and I haven’t. I mean, I listened to it and it was amazing.

Yeah, that probably wasn’t done. That’s probably what got taken from the studio.

Yeah, when I first found out that so many people were getting it, I was upset. I know you guys worked so hard on it and just waiting for June 20th and it just sucks. But honestly, every person that I know that has it, has said amazing things about it.

Yeah but the thing that sucks is its not so much we’re waiting for June 20th for it to come out, but it sucks because it’s not ready. We’ve been writing it for 2 and a half years and putting just everything we have to it and it just got taken when its not done, when its not what we’ve been working towards for the last past 2 and half years.

Yeah, its not as it’s greatest.

Yeah, yeah. It’s not like no one is going to hear the finished product but for the past 2, 2 and half years, we’ve been working towards what’s going to be on the CD, like the artwork, the way that it sounds and everything. What people are hearing is like a premature thing of that. We just want to be like ” No, no! That’s not it, don’t listen to it, wait till we give it to you done.”

– When you first entered the band, what expectations and goals did you have set out? How have they changed throughout the years?

It’s changed a lot in that when I first joined, the only thing we wanted to was, which is still true, we just wanted to write music and play it, you know? If we could play a show every now and then, that was cool. That hasn’t changed so much but we still just love doing this, we love writing music, we love, you know playing and we’re a Christian band so that’s the main thing for us. We just wanted to glorify God through our music and that’s all we cared about and but now it’s like, all this stuff that we honestly we don’t want to deal with, like with tour contracts and radio clauses and merch sales and contracts with record labels and tour expenses and all this stuff. And like honestly, we just try to stay out of it as much as possible because it doesn’t really interest us, we don’t really care about all that stuff, we’re just like “We want to go on the road and we want to play, you know?” It’s cool cause we’re now to the point where we can just hire people to deal with all that stuff so we don’t really have to. It’s stuff that we really don’t care about. But when we first started, we never thought that any of this would happen. I know you hear people say like “We never thought this would happen” but like, we never even aspired to do anything close to what we’re doing now because it’s like, “That’s never going to happen, so we won’t think about that. But dude, if we could play a show at Will’s Pub down the street, that would be awesome.” You know, in all honesty, all this stuff is such a blessing. God has really done a whole a lot within the last past few years and it’s really cool.

– What is the biggest misconception fans make regarding the band?

Um, that we’re cooler than we are. I think people tend to like, people have this thing of like “Oh they’re in Underoath,” and they think we’re really cool, but we’re totally not. It’s really weird to me when someone comes up and they’re like freaking out and asking for autographs and all this stuff. Well you know, 2 or 3 years ago if you would of met me walking down the street, you really wouldn’t have cared. Nothing has changed since then except we’ve put out records and gone on tour. Yeah but that’s probably the biggest misconception, that we’re something a lot cooler and better than we are.

– In your opinion, what has been the greatest accomplishment?

Oh, wow. That’s a big one. Right now I would probably have to say finishing this record. But there’s been so much stuff that has happened and that is happening at the moment. I’ll say the record right now is probably the biggest thing.

– Who or what, outside of the music industry, has influenced you the most?

– Everything has. You know, obviously God is the reason we do it, we’re an Christian band and stuff. But you get inspired by everyday things, just meeting random people on tour, you know, just living life and being a dude. That influences you. Obviously you get inspired by music and other people’s music. More so, we get inspired by living life and just being a dude.

– What are some things that make you upset more than anything else (inside
and outside the music industry)?

Oh wow. I try not to focus on too much on what makes me upset. Wow, that’s a big question. I think , I don’t know if this is my answer, it’s just something that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. But I think ungratefulness as a whole in people, especially in this country is a big thing for me. Like seeing things that I’ve seen and meeting people that I’ve met, like I think that people are extremely ungrateful for having the things that they have. People, especially in America and society, they find things that they can complain about that are just ridiculous. You know as cliché and stupid as it sounds, there are people overseas that just dying and have things going on in their lives and the dude down the street is complaining because he has a flat tire on his Lexus. That’s something to me that upsets me a lot, people not realizing how well they have it. Even if you are someone in America that is living at the poverty line, you are still living better than 60% of the people on the planet. You know, I don’t know if that’s again, my answer, but it is, but it’s just something that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately.

– If you were forced to change the name of the band, what would you change
it to? Why?

Meatbeard. I’m doing a solo project right now and that, not a solo project, a side project, sorry. I’m doing a side project right now and that is one of the names we were thinking about being and I just thought it was really funny. So Meatbeard.

– If there was book being written about Underoath, how would it begin,
what would be the climax, and how would it end?

It would begin…wow, that’s a big question too. (thinks for a while) I have no idea because the beginning of it could be in any number of places. The climax of it, I don’t even know if its happened yet, and I don’t know what the end of it would be. So pretty much I have no idea. But when the band is done and we’re broke up, then I can tell you.

– Is there anything else you want the readers to know?

Come and hang out at our shows. If you want to, you can buy our record, it comes out June 20th. And if you don’t, you don’t have to, you can download it. But then if you like it, you can buy it. And if you don’t, then you won’t waste your $15 bucks.

I missed a question, is it cool if I ask it?

Yeah, yeah. No problem man.

– In your opinion, what is the biggest issue and problem facing the
current state of society? You kind of already touched up on this.

I would say that’s probably it. I was also talking to our guitar player the other day about just big things in general and we got on the topic of the planet and pollution and things like that. Al Gore actually just put out a movie, sounds kind of funny to say, but I don’t remember the name of it but I saw a couple clips of it. It’s really interesting talking about how for the past 20 years or 30 years, you know, scientists all over the world have been screaming and being like, the planet is dying, global warning, pollution, etc. And it seems like everyone has kind of like, not paid attention.

Like no one really cares about it.

Yeah, like it doesn’t, “I’m not dying when I walk outside so I’m not going to worry about it.” I think that that is a really big thing because our kids’ kids are going to be living in a world that..

Even if it doesn’t effect us, it’s going to effect them.

Yeah, it’s going to be our doing. It’s totally off the subject, well not really but actually on Warped Tour this year, all of the production buses and all of the semi trucks and everything are going to be running on bio-diesel fuel. So like every vehicle that is in Warped Tour is not going to create a bit of pollution which is pretty cool. It takes things like that, like people taking steps to be able to change the way things are.

If someone does it then someone else is going to and then someone else.

Yeah, you can’t wait for someone else to do it, someone else isn’t always going to do it.

If someone says they aren’t going to do it because someone else is, then someone might say the same thing and it will never get done.

Yeah, yeah. And that’s why scientist have been talking about global warming for the past 20 years and now it’s still happening but still nothing is happening. I sound really cheesy and green and like a tree hugger but whatever.

Moneen Interview April 9th 2006

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Moneen
DFO: Hello, state your name, position in the band, and name of the band.

Kenny: My name is Kenny bridges, also known as k plus, also known as, crazy k the human protractor, I play guitar and sign for moneen.

DFO: How long as moneen been together?

Kenny: I keep wanting to say six years, because I think thatâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s what it is. But I sometimes wonder its longer than that, and if it is longer than that I realized were not that young anymore, but I wont tell anyone that because people just probably think we are.

DFO: From your first c.d, smaller chairs from the 1900â┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s how do you think you have advanced?

Kenny: See this is why we like you, because you know. Most people are just like, so from your first c.d, are we really happy, no thereâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s one before that, oh yeah theory, no thereâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s one before that.

DFO: How has your music changed from the first c.d?

Kenny: Ha-ha itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s actually good now. I thought the e.p was really good, (smaller Chairs) because that was supposed to be a demo, but it turned out really good, so we actually made it a c.d, and it kick started the band. Theory was really good also it was really ambitious record, for us to do as our first full length. We had ten days to do and I listen to the songs today and some of them really blow me away, I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t even know how at that moment we came up with the songs we did. And then really happy was also really good, but imp not as like, I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t listen to that record and it doesnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t blow me away as much as theory does for the time when we did it, really happy was about us taking a step up in doing the kind of music we wanted to do, and there wasnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t any set goal, there was a whole bunch of songs and we put out that record and they represent what we were doing at that time. But now if we take those steps and then come to where we are right now with the new record everything we did in the past all makes sense up to this point now, because it kind of feels like everything weâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ve been doing all lead up to this next record. Because I really think this next record is way better than anything we have ever done before because we got to do everything we tried to do but, we executed it a lot better. And then did a lot of more things that we always wanted to do, but were always afraid to try. So as moneens song writing goes, itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s a million times better. Not that anything we have done is bad, but we are a lot more proud of this. Cause the really happy record is good, but there is going to be at least four songs that we will never play again.

DFO: Which songs?

Kenny: Weâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ll always play are we really happy, start angry, the last song I ever want to sing, we will never stop playing that one, we really donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t get to play that one in the states very much because we do supporting sets all the time, but when we headline we always play it. Whenever there is a chance when people what us to play more songs we always play that one (the last song I ever want to sing). Itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s a really special song. There are some timeless songs as far as moneen goes but there are a bunch of songs we will never play again.

DFO: Ok moving on.

Kenny: Whatâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s that, I talk way too much, alright fine.

DFO: Since you think chairs is better than are we really happy why donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t you play more songs off of it?

Kenny: Because no one knows them, and I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t really think its better, I just look back at it and itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s very creative, and I canâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t believe we were doing some of the things we were doing. There were some pretty ass shitty songs on it, as far as I listen to it and go, what are we doing, but we will play a lot of stuff off of it in Canada but just in the states no one knows it. So it would almost be like playing songs off of that record would almost be like playing new songs, so if we were going to do that we would rather play new songs. Like tonight (Chicago, metro), tonight was the longest set weâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ve got to play on this whole tour, not like time wise but amount of songs. We only played 5 songs.

DFO: You played 5 in St. Pete and North Carolina.

Kenny: Four? Wow that sucks. We were playing 5 song sets and six song sets were the max, but somehow tonight we played seven, but we were like two minutes over but I said to kumy, saves the days tour manager. Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m so sorry we went a couple minutes over today. And he does like no donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t be sorry this is what itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s about, that was great tonight. Tonight was the best night on the whole tour.

DFO: Good!

Kenny: And I would have, honestly, no offence, to Chicago, but I would have never guessed that Chicago would have been such a high point on the tour for us. Like Rochester was really good because itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s close to Canada. Detroit was really good because it is close to Canada. But Chicago itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s not close to Canada, not at all. It was really good tonight. We started play are we really happy and I was like who are those people right there freaking out. Who is that guy over there singing? It was crazy. It wasnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t like everyone was singing along, but for us in the states it was really good tonight, I was really impressed.

DFO: A few years ago Haris told me there is a secret song that you guys only play in Canada is that true?

Kenny: What kind of lies are they feeding you?

DFO: They said there was a special song they only play in Canada, and all the Canadian people know it.

Kenny: You know what; you know what it probably would have been? This was a while back right. Was that even before really happy came out?

DFO: I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t know, it was with senses fail.

Kenny: Oh ok no it wasnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t. Dudes heâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s just lying to your face, I have no idea what he was talking about. Haris? He was completely, ohhh, no he was lying, I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t know what it was at all. He was probably hitting on you or something. I was saying maybe it was one of the cover songs or something. But no itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s wasnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t even that he was just lying to your face.

DFO: Thereâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s a lyric for it on the back of smaller chairs, and itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s a song you only play in Canada.

Kenny: It may be the last song on smaller chairs, but its not secret its Cleary marked on the c.d as being a song on the cd

DFO: but you only play it in Canada?

Kenny: We donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t even play it there anymore; Haris is great, last time he was at the metro with the get up kids, because he was teaching for them. He brought their guitar on stage to give to matt to switch them he drops the guitar drops off the guitar strap, falls the ground, makes this huge noise, the whole audience laughs at him, I wish I could have seen that Haris, and it was the first show of the tour. And he drops a guitar in the middle of the stage, and the whole audience laughs at him.

DFO: So since you tour a lot do you think you have come together as a band and improved in your music?

Kenny: I think that the pure hatred we have for each other from being in this small van constantly, hours on end brought out our ability to fake liking each other. So without that, if we werenâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t able to fake it so well we would probably fight each other constantly. I like the Hippy but those other guys, they always try to make out with me all the time, they are always like, but we really like the lead singer, you guys are in the band, I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t care man can I totally be your friend. And they are always asking to bum money off of me. And I just say I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t have any money, and I ask to barrow money from Hippy. And then the other guys are like what Hippy has money. And Hippiesâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ like no I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t have any money. Then we put Hippy out on the corner, with a little sign that says homeless please feed me. So he gets money so I can barrow it off of him to give to the other guys. So we can play arcade games. Erik is really good at street fighter two and beats me all the time. We play double dragon but itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s so short so it goes by real quick, but if you find a machine that you can just keep pressing the buttons, you know the like tick tick tick where the quarters hit it, and I just donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t understand why a dime wouldnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t work. We finish double dragon and we fight each other in the end, and both fall off the cliff, so none of us got the girl. Why there is a cliff in an alley street fight scene doesnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t make any sense to me. Its just like the end of the world is right there, itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s obviously where the end of the world is. If we didnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t tour together we wouldnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t have all of these experiences.

DFO: How do you think the music has improved?

Kenny: Oh it hasnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t

DFO: (laughs) ok

Kenny: But Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m damn good at jumping.

DFO: You are, but you didnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t do the jump today.

Kenny: What jump?

DFO: At the end of start angry.

Kenny: I have an end of song jump?

DFO: Where you climb up on something.

Kenny: Ohhh there was nothing to jump off of today. I should have just made it happen though. Can I be honest? There hasnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t been as much crazy jumping things on this tour because I busted my shoulder up real bad at the beginning. Actually I think after I saw you, it was really soon after that actually. What show where you at?

DFO: St. Pete.

Kenny: It was a couple shows after that. Haris and I were trying to jump and kick the ceiling in one of the back stage rooms, we did it fine. So were like letâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s see if we can jump and dropkick the ceiling with both feet and we set up these pillows on the ground, so he did it. Heâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s a lot taller than me, so it wasnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t as hard, he did it hit it and turned and landed on the pillows. Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m like a lot shorter than him so I had to try real hard. There will be somethingâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s that I do that I know deep down that I canâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t do so you donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t try as hard as you could. I tried with 110 percent, bodies in the air flying hit one foot, swing the other foot up to get it, just missed, but with all the force I am totally upside down, and I landed right next to the pillows. I landed on my shoulder, and I hear a crunch and a crack. And i’m laying on the ground and everyoneâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s laughing, iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m like what does it sound like when you dislocate your should and everyoneâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s like what? Haris even after I say it, he grabs me, starts shaking me. Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m like dude, at first I think I was just in shock because it didnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t hurt that bad it just felt real weird. I get up, and you know when you get up and you shake it off, but this is different, but iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m trying to pretend that nothings wrong. All the other bands are all around. And we had to play in 5 minutes. My shoulder seized up I was playing like gimpy man for the whole show like couldnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t move, it hurt so much, I had to punch myself to get myself going to get me through it. I couldnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t move my arm for like a week after that. It went completely green, I think I caused some serious damage, its better now, but I canâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t use it properly. It still really hurts, so i’ve had to adapt my game a little bit, so there are certain Kenny moves that I would normally do that I just canâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t do, and I forget sometimes and do them anyways, and thereâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s so much pain, but I have to pretend everythingâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s fine. But really, ill be smiling Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m having so much fun but there will be one tear coming down. So I canâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t really do the stupid things I would normally do. Like I have this one move that I like a lot, ill roll on the ground and do this army shoulder roll thing, with my guitar, I like that one a lot its really stupid, like most things I do are for the sheer pleasure of me laughing at myself, because I know how ridiculous it is. Hereâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s another story. The other day, for the first time I passed out while we were playing, because I started screaming this really high note, it was really funny to that I was hitting this extremely high note that I just kept doing it for a real long time, and it was right at the end of the song, we were playing passing of America last, so it was right at the end. It was like full voice really loud (shows me how high it was) as loud as I could for so long, that I started going dizzy, next thing I know Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m on the ground with Hippy looking at me, everything silent, though, I just look up at Hippy and iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m like oh where am I, I look over iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m on the ground still have my guitar, I see my pedals, and think are we still playing a show? I look over see the audience all staring at me, and then when all the sound comes back and I hear my guitar feeding back as iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m laying on the ground, so randomly without knowing what iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m doing I start turning on every pedal I have, so now everything is going crazy and the guys are still playing the song because they thought I was just being weird rolling on the ground or something, but Hippy and the guys are watching me fall to the ground and like fall, hit and roll over and just lay there. And I just remember trying to get up but I couldnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t because I was laughing so hard that I couldnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t so the whole audience is watching me falling over. So I finally get up, and all the guys thought we were going to play one more song, but iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m just like, alight thanks so much circa survive is up next. And I stumbled off the stage and I was just laughing for so long. Hippy said what the hell is going on and I told him, you know that high pitched note I was singing I blacked out and had a dream about hanging out at the merch table. It was so weird but I just remember waking up thinking where am I? and then not realizing how long I was out not even know why iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m on stage right now. It was crazy. All because I thought it was funny to hold this really high pitched note for a really long time. Ill never do that again.

DFO: What would you say your favorite tour was that you have been on and why?

Kenny: We have been really lucky that we have been able to do some really good tours. I think you have seen us on all of them.

DFO: Uhh I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t know.

Kenny: But I would say my favorite tours was the tour with saves the day and taking back Sunday, just because that was like a dream tour, and we were with the best people we could be with. Save the day guys are so nice and so down to earth, same with the taking back Sunday guys. Those guys will never change, they could be as big as U2 and they would never change those guys are such good down to earth dudes, and the shows were all real crazy, it was such a good learning experience to because saves the day was like (guys outside talking) so good every night and they are so good at what they do it was a big learning experience for us. If we are going to be on this tour every night to a bunch of people who have no idea who we are no one know who we were then at all. We thought we had to play much better, and we canâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t just be jumping around like stupid hyperactive losers. We like to play well. So we learned a lot, and we continue to just keep on learning. I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t think we will ever be where I hope we will get to, you know iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m not a great singer at all but iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m just to learn to maintain and sing my parts the way I want to sing them, without dying all the time, because I get sick all the time. There was this stomach flu going around the tour for a while that pretty much got to everyone on this whole tour. I have the sickness of it afterwards of your body still broke down and still having to play shows. I am just really run down now, but I have learned (people outside talking) Canadian jokes I tell you. We just basically learned to be as good as we can be without destroying our lives in the process.

DFO: How did you get on the saves the day tour, since you have already been on one?

Kenny: Thatâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s the crazy thing we donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t know exactly, and we are afraid to ask incase they realize oh wait, you guys were on that tour, we just got along real well with the saves the day guys and we were really happy they asked us on again.

DFO: Is there any tour that you guys felt like you didnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t fit into?

Kenny: We have never been booed, there hasnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t been any tours that we have fit in on, we just make the best of everything. YO (to peter) do you think there are any tours that we donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t fit in on?

Peter (drummer of moneen): This one. No I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t think so.

Kenny: I remember when we jumped on that vagrant tour we did the last week when no motiv had to drop off of it. And I remember all the bands saying that no motiv got booed every night.

Peter: I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t think we fit on the Vagrant Europe tour musically.

DFO: Who played on that tour?

Kenny: It was still good Emmanuel played and from autumn to ashes, and senses fail.

Peter: maybeâ┚¬Ã‚¦ I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t think we fit in musically on that tour.

Kenny: I never felt that we didnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t fit it.

DFO: You toured with from autumn to ashes?

Peter: They are like roar

Kenny: And we are like lalala

DFO: What would your dream tour to—

Kenny: Muse

DFO: Ok muse.

Kenny: To play with muse everyday, thatâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s my dream tour, I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t even know if thatâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s your question.

DFO: Not including museâ┚¬Ã¢â‚¬

Kenny: What!

DFO: Who would your dream tour to be to watch?

Kenny: Ohh, muse

DFO: Like three bands.

Kenny: Jimmy eat world, opening up for muse, with radio head headlining. Why canâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t I pick muse! I like that band a lot.

DFO: What a question you hate getting asked on an interview?

Kenny: Well I am very happy that our next album title isnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t a question. Because then people canâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t ask us anymore. Are you really happy with who you are right now?

DFO: How did you get the title for the new c.d?

Kenny: Its hard to explain but it really makes sense when you hear the record.

DFO: How are doing without Lisa on this tour?

Kenny: Real unorganized and I walk around like a mess.

DFO: Sheâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s the backbone of the tour.

Kenny: Yeah, sheâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s the backbone of my life; I walk around like a mindless moron.

DFO: Are there going to be any tours after the album comes out?

Kenny: Yes. We finish this tour, and then we are going to be on warped tour, before that we go over to Europe, with alexisonfire. And then we are doing our own headlining tour after warped tour, because we donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t want to play half hour sets anymore.

DFO: How did you get to do a split with alexisonfire?

Kenny: We have just been friends with them for so long thatâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s we have always made jokes about covering each others songs, and we are so different. We didnâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t actually think it was going to happen, but we both had time in our schedule so we just did it. That was really fun, there were no rules and we could do whatever we wanted. That was probably the most fun we have ever had recording. A different kind of fun that we have from the full length, but it was real fun, and it turned out good I think. I really like the version of Sharks in Danger song we did, accidents was just funny because our whole goal was to form a small voice choir so thereâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s over 100 voices at the end of that song, its amazing. Sharks in Danger I think is a really good version.

DFO: (random side conversation about poker)

Kenny: At one point I was going to go to some crazy underground place in Santa Cruz. There was this weird little poker shop and the people inside werenâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t as scary as the people outside so I kind of thought if I do, do well I am going to get mugged leaving this place. But I am not at all poker man. We started playing with Saves the Day now. Except I donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t like taking other peoples money but sometimes I do.

DFO: I play poker at work with pretzels.

Kenny: Forget that crap then other people donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t play with the same intensity, I can play a free game or a money game, and ill play exactly the same, I just want to win, other people donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t take it seriously if its not for money and go all in, its stupid. I wanted to punch Lisa in the face when I played poker with her one time.

DFO: Why?

Kenny: Because it got down to us and the other two guys played like morons, and gave her all their chips, so she had a huge chip lead on me. So she would play like a stupid bitch and anytime that I would have a bitch, she would bet everything and I was getting smacked around like a little loser, I hated her so much for ruining my poker game.

DFO: Any last words

Kenny: I like macaroni and cheese.

Tim: Easy Mac or regular?

Kenny: Regular.

DFO: alright that was Kenny from moneen. www.moneen.com

Hit The Lights Interview March 25th 2006

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Hit The Lights

I drove down to Atlanta with my friend Nolan and we got to sit down and chat with Hit the Lights for a little while. These dudes are super nice, fun to hang out with, have an amazing album, and an even more amazing live set. Listen to them and show them love.

Trevor: Can I get you guys to state your names and what you do in the band?

Colin: Alright, I’m Colin and I sing.

Nick: I’m Nick. I play guitar and I sing a little bit.

Nate: I’m Nate and I play drums.

Dave Stand-In: I’m Dave and I play bass.
Long story. Send me a PM if you wanna know about it.

(Laughter)

Omar: I’m Omar and I play guitar.

Trevor: You guys formed in 2003. How did you all get together?

Colin: Well..

Nick: Basically, Colin and Omar were in a band called The Goodbye Session. They played around the area, and I had a band called The Summer Departure. We used to play a lot together and we hung out with The Goodbye Session kids nonstop. Eventually, both bands broke up and Colin, Omar, and Dave formed Hit the Lights with our old drummer. They wanted to be a five piece, so they asked me in, and I said fuck no.

(Laughter)

Omar: And then we said, “Please, please, please!” and bought him very many fruit baskets. Then he said yes.

(Laughter)

Nick: I wasn’t doing anything, so I thought, “Why not?” Then later on, we basically lost our drummer and we’re really good friends with Hawthorne Heights. Nate was drum techin’ for them at the time. So they were like, “Hey, we got a dude.” We said, “No.”

(Laughter)

Nate: I sent fruit baskets.

(Laughter)

Nick: Yeah, he sent us lots of fruit baskets.

(Laughter)

Nick: And eventually, we said yes. So that’s it. That’s Hit the Lights in a nutshell.

(Laughter)

Nate: (With peanut in mouth) Oh, a nutshell.

(Laughter)

Trevor: How did you guys decide on your sound? What are some of your influences?

Dave Stand-In: MXPX.

Omar: Yeah, there we go. Thanks Dave.

Colin: Pretty much what you hear, what we sound like, it’s pretty much obvious. I mean, we love Saves the Day, New Found Glory, Blink 182. Any pop-punk bands, we’re a sucker for.

Trevor: Dude, I’m exactly the same way. I did a rough draft of the review for the album last night, and I can definitely tell the New Found Glory influences.

Colin: Yeah, we’re not going to lie about it or beat around the bush.

Omar: We’re not going to be like, “Yeah, this album was heavily influenced by Bjork.”

(Laughter)

Omar: Which, it’s obvious, you know.

Nate: (Sarcastically) We like The Smiths a lot.

Omar: Yeah, we like The Smiths a lot. Charles Mingus affected me in ways that…haha no, no. It’s really there. We’re influenced by the attitude and the feelings of albums like “You Can’t Slow Down,” “Through Being Cool,” and the Blink records and stuff like that. There’s a really exciting vibe, and that’s the stuff we grew up listening to.

Trevor: It’s just stuff that’s fun to listen to.

Omar: It’s stuff that’s fun for us to play, too! It just comes naturally to us. It’s all fun!

Trevor: I’m glad you guys have no shame in admitting that.

Nick: Oh no, not at all.

Colin: Definitely not.

Omar: We do what we like and we like what we do!

(Laughter)

Trevor: How’s the scene in Ohio?

Omar: I don’t know. How is the scene in Ohio?

Nick: It’s not bad.

Omar: It’s getting better in our hometown. A lot of cool bands are coming from around there that are starting to get signed to cool labels and stuff like that. I don’t know. For me, there’s a couple of local bands that never really went anywhere, that I saw. They made me want to play music. For the most part, there isn’t very many bands like us coming out of Ohio.

Trevor: How did you hook up with Triple Crown?

Nick: When we put out that EP, we got a lot of attention from a lot of labels. We talked to a lot of people, and it was really hard to decide on who to go to. They’re all good people. It just seemed like, the way we wanted to go about it, with Triple Crown, they were a reputable label. We respected all the bands on it. I think we didn’t really want to ride the coattails of anyone. We wanted to do it our own way.

Omar: Yeah, we wanted them to give us our own shot. Triple Crown was definitely the label that we could see making sure that that could happen.

Nick: It was really hard, though. You know, you’re in a band your whole life and you want to get signed. Then, when things start happening, you’re like, “This sucks!”

Colin: Yeah, you can’t go to sleep.

Omar: Or you’re like, “I want to go back to school!”

Nick: The thing with Triple Crown for us was: there were no other bands like us, we loved all the bands on that label, and we had a chance to make a name for ourselves.

Omar: Also, the people there are really passionate about what they do, and we grew up listening to a lot of the records that came out on there.

Nate: And they sent us lots of fruit baskets.

(Laughter)

Omar: LOTS of fruit baskets. (Laughing) There’s an on-going theme of fruit baskets.

Trevor: What’s the songwriting process like?

Omar: That’s a whacky one.

Colin: It’s pretty much Nick and Omar coming in with a main idea, sort of. Then we all do our part. It’s really weird. Like, we haven’t really gotten a chance to write with Nate a lot, because he’s kind of a new member. Before him, even with Ryan, I would help out with drum parts, so it’s really mixed around.

Omar: But it works.

Colin: I don’t know how, but it works.

Nick: It’s really equal. I definitely think everyone has an equal say in every song.

Colin: I think we all know what we want, you know what I’m saying? I think we all kind of have the same sound in mind; We know what we like, so it’s really easy that way, too.

Trevor: Do you think there’s an overall theme to the album?

Nick: The new album, I think, may sound a little cocky, but I think we wanted it in a fun way. We wanted to tell people that this is what we do, and you’re allowed to like it. There are so many trash talkers out there now that are into the “artsy stuff.” We just want to let people know that it’s cool to like pop-punk still. I think a lot of our songs are just fun songs and we have fun themes, that way kids aren’t afraid to sing along.

Omar: That, and we don’t take ourselves seriously. We’re not good at this. A song like “Bodybag”…I don’t want people to think we’re macho meathead dudes or that we listen to hardcore and stuff like that. Those themes and things. Who hasn’t been pissed off at somebody enough that they didn’t want to bash their fucking teeth in, you know?

Nick: When you’re saying something in a fun way, it just makes it that much funnier.

Trevor: Have you guys decided on a single yet?

Omar: No, not really. (Laughing) Do you have any suggestions?

Trevor: Do you want me to be honest with you?

Omar: No. (Laughing)

Trevor: Every single song on that album could be a single.

Omar: Sick.

Trevor: I’ve been spinning the album so much since I got my review copy. It’s so catchy.

Omar: Awesome, awesome. (Looking over at Nolan) Do you have anything to say?

Nolan: Well, I sort of want to answer questions.

(Laughter)

Nolan: I’m ready.

Trevor: (Throwing peanuts at Nolan) How are the peanuts?

Omar: The peanuts are delicious!

Nolan: Any type of nuts work for me.

(Laughter)

Trevor: So I guess you guys aren’t doing a video yet. How did you become involved in the Purevolume tour?

Omar: Our booking agent is involved with all the bands on this tour, and he administered his magic and genius on the Purevolume people to sponsor this tour. We’ve been involved with Purevolume, though, since there were like three bands. They’ve really been an important part to kids who know who we are.

Colin: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said, “Purevolume slash Hit the Lights.” It’s ridiculous.

Trevor: Are there any crazy stories from this tour, so far? You can go ahead and tell the peanut one again, if you want to.

Omar: No, no, no, no!

(Laughter)

Omar: It’s too early man, too early! Baaaad people! I don’t know man. We could talk about the tupperware incident.

Colin: Yeah.

Omar: We’re dirty boys.

Colin: Okay, don’t judge me, first of all.

(Laughter)

Omar: This is not for the squeamish.

Colin: So we were in California, 45 minutes outside of LA. I don’t know where we were exactly. We went to Denny’s after the show and were just eating. I get this meal I never got before. I don’t know what it was called. It was all kinds of stuff. We get back on the road, going back to LA, and it just hits me. Like, the worst..my stomach was just rumbling.

(Laughter)

Colin: Either I’m gonna go in my pants, or I’m gonna go in this tupperware bowl.

(Laughter)

Colin: So I completely take off my pants, ’cause I didn’t want to get anything on my jeans. So I get in like the well part by the van, because that’s where we throw all the trash. So I get in there and I squat. All of the sudden, you can tell on my face, we video taped it, too!

(Laughter)

Colin: So you can tell on my face. It like changes. It’s like my face brightens up. And it smells HORRIBLE. It looks like butterscotch pudding, no lie.

Omar: He fills this tupperware, and the worst part is, there’s still like, cookies and shit, and..poopy.

(Laughter)

Colin: Nick is driving and he’s crying.

Omar: He was gagging and I was riding shotgun.

Nick: I was driving with the window down, and I was dry heaving. The van was like, swerving on the road and stuff.

(Laughter)

Omar: I think the most disgusting part isn’t the fact that he did it, but when you watch the video, is how much amusment there is. Everybody’s laughing.

Colin: It was big and disgusting. So I set it down, and I have to go again. I had to wipe with like, napkins and stuff. It was just so dirty.

Nick: HTLscat.com

(Laughter)

Omar: PooponHittheLights.com

Colin: I don’t think I even showered that night. It was really bad.

Omar: Yeah, that was one thing.

Nick: We got fireworks from a fireworks store. We’ve kind of got this thing like, when you have long drives, you just get bored. When something funny happens, it gets you by for the next two hours. So we’ve been taking random bottles and lighting bottle rockets and putting them in.

Omar: Then trying to see how fast you can close it.

Nick: Yeah.

Colin: Nick’s usually the one who’s doing it and it’s hilarious, because one time, he was in the second bench and I was in the third. I was just kind of watching him, and he sets it in there, and he drops the lid. He picks it up and he drops it again, so he just throws it. Everyone ducks and screams like little girls.

Nate: It blows up and there’s smoke all in the van.

Omar: We were all giggling and ten minutes go by, then we’re like, “Well, let’s do it again!”

(Laughter)

Omar: It’s mainly us just keeping ourselves entertained. We’re not smart kids. We don’t read! We don’t have hobbies.

Trevor: If you guys could set up a dream tour, who all would be on the bill?

Omar: Oh, that’s easy. Can I take this? I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings and forget anybody..

Dave Stand-In: You can put them all on there, buddy! It’s the dream tour!

Omar: Dream fest! It’s more like a fest. I’d say it’d be all of our friends bands. Madison, Race the Sun, Just Surrender, Time and Distance, Scenes From a Movie, Every Bridge Burned, The Weakend. Saves the Day.

Colin: Usher would definitely be headlining.

Omar: The best times that we’ve had have been with friends’ bands that we’ve went out with. They may not have been the greatest tours, but they’re crazy fucking times that we’re never going to forget.

Trevor: What’s your opinion on downloading?

Omar: We love it.

Nate: Awesome.

Omar: Yeah, definitely.

Nate: If the album is good enough, kids are going to buy it anyway.

Omar: If kids want to support you, they’ll buy the record.

Colin: We support buying records, too.

Omar: Yeah, I mean, if you wanna buy the record, buy the record. I guess for me, because I’ve been broke for so long, I haven’t been able to buy CDs for a while, so it helps out a kid like me get into new music that I couldn’t get into before. Also, for a band like us, we really don’t see any money from our CD sales, so a kid downloading our record makes them want to see us live. It gives us a reason to be away from home for so long. Is that good?

Trevor: Yep.

(Laughter)

Trevor: That’s about all I’ve got. Do you guys want to add anything else? Like random crap?

Nick: Go Bucks.

Colin: Yeah, go Buckeyes.

Omar: Shout out to my dude Shifty in Cell Block C. Holdin’ it down!

(Laughter)

Colin: I feel really bad for JJ Reddick.

Nick: Oh that’s terrible.

Omar: That’s sad. He cried.

Dave Stand-In: Fruit baskets are great!

Nick: Peanuts are greater.

Omar: Definitely, peanuts are greater.

Nate: If you pre-order our record, you get a fruitbasket.

Trevor: Oh yeah, how many kittens have you guys killed so far?

Omar: Oh dude!

Colin: Next question. Next question.

Omar: We’ve just been wasting them. I’ve got no soul. I’ll chuck the shit out of a kitten.

Hit the Lights do not advocate the killing of kittens. No kittens have been harmed in the pre-order campaign of the album.

Hit the Lights