Interview with Mike, Jeremy, Chris, and Andy

I’M SCARED TO ASK QUESTIONS NOW CAUSE YOUR GOING TO TURN THEM INTO CRAZINESS
(Andy) No No we are seasoned veterans at this.

HOW MANY HAVE YOU DONE?
(Andy) Like 80,000
(Jeremy) Should we introduce ourselves?

SURE IF YOU WOULD LIKE
I’m Jeremy I play guitar in THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA.
I’m Mike I do vocals and yell.
I’m Andy I play bass
I’m Chris and I play guitar

WHEN YOU GUYS STARTED OUT THE BAND WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST INFLUENCE MUSICIALLY ?
(Andy) Coldplay…..no no no
(Mike) It was probably Underoath
(Chris) But anyway I think Underoath and Still Remains was the biggest influence. But for Still Remains and the new album, what they sounded like is not a continuation of that, its something new and I’m sure there are people who would like that new thing but for us the kids that are expecting the same thing again it was not what we wanted
(Mike) Hey is that my shirt your wearing. You never gave it back to me.

SO SINCE YOU HAVE THAT THING ABOUT STILL REMAINS, YOUR THE FAN THAT WANTS THE SAME STUFF, DO YOU FEEL THAT YOUR FANS WANT THAT FROM YOU GUYS?
(Jeremy) I think our fans will be very pleased with our new stuff

WHY IS THAT?
(Jeremy) I don’t know. I mean I think we kept the same sound but made it better. It’s still our band but done better, more mature. Mike has a great analogy for it.
(Mike) If the old CD was a poop like a burrito coffee poop, like you have to wipe and you even have to take a shower or whatever, that would be the last CD. This CD is still crappy but its a poop where maybe its just one wipe, your done.
(Jeremy) You might not even have to wipe maybe just a drop comes out. Poop there it is.
(Mike) Oh come on that would make the CD a very weird CD. Its just a clean poop.
(Andy) We are not pooping gold it’s no platinum crap

NOW ARE YOU SURPRISED THE KIDS ENJOYED YOUR DEBUT ALBUM?
(ALL) Well yes.
(Jeremy) We never had any intention of blowing up the way we did.
(Chris) Look at the little bird…awww how cute (a little bird was walking around the parking lot)
(Jeremy) That was just the stupidest thing I heard all day!!! But yeah we never thought this would happen. We never said lets become this really popular band. We were just like let’s play at the skate park,

SO WHEN DO YOU THINK IT HAPPENED, ONCE YOU GOT SIGNED OR BEFORE?
(Mike) We promoted a lot on myspace.
(Chris) We always acted like we were bigger then we were and that worked cause people believed it and they think your bigger and they start treating you like your bigger and then one day your on Sounds Of The Underground.
(Mike) But we are still not big.
(Jeremy) We still haven’t achieved world domination literally and IN the music world.
(Andy) Once we go to Japan I will be happy
(Chris) We are going to Mexico

DONT DRINK THE WATER.
(Chris) YEA that is what everyone says

SO YOUR FROM OHIO. NOTHING TO DO IN OHIO I’VE BEEN THERE. IS THAT WHAT MADE YOU GUYS START A BAND?
(Jeremy) Yea there really is not. But we have the air force musuem
(Mike) Your not allowed to smoke in public places therefore Ohio rules. Plus Hawthorne Heights are from there.

YOU LIKE HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS?
(Chris) Yes, let me tell you one thing about this band. Hawthorne Heights rule and we all believe that in this band.
(Andy) We are not joking there was a time where it was cool to hate HH and Fallout Boy but now we just embrace it.

SO YOUR SAYING YOU LIKE FALLOUT BOY TOO?
(Mike) I’m not going to say I like them but I do like Hawthorne Heights
(Jeremy) Let’s just say one time in California our van broke down and overheated cause we were so into listening to Hawthorne Heights. We weren’t paying attention, we didn’t see the sign that said turn off your engine.

SO WHEN YOU GUYS WRITE SEEING THAT THERE IS A LOT OF DEPTH AND ELEMENTS GOING ON IN YOUR MUSIC.
(Chris) Well we were in school when writing this record
(Andy) That is not what she is saying. She is saying in the music there is a lot of stuff going on.
(Chris) I know I’m just throwing it out there for the record that we were in school and had to be in school then write at night

SO SCHOOL INFLUENCED THIS ALBUM?
(Chris) No it hindered the writing process
(Andy) Made it very difficult for us

SO YOU COULD OF PRODUCED MORE OUT OF YOUSELVES IF YOU WERE NOT IN SCHOOL?
(Andy) We probably could of done it faster. It might have not turned out as well cause there was some days we didn’t do anything. Anyway what was your original question?

IT WAS WHERE DO YOU GUYS START WHEN WRITING MUSIC IS IT A RIFF OR KEYBOARDS OR VOCAL MELODY?
(Jeremy) Usually Chris starts out with his parts and then we build that around me writing progressions. He will write stuff over that then James will write keys to that, Andy’s parts go with mine or Chris’ and Mike writes vocals while we are writing.

SO THIS IS HOW IT IS ALL THE TIME FOR THE MAIN PART?
(Chris) No, it never comes easy either. We always have to argue
(Jeremy) Basically we produce our stuff ourselves during the writing process. It’s not like we write a rough song and go in to a producer and have him turn it into something. We spend all that time grinding and making the song really polished.
(Chris) Bumping and grinding
(Jeremy) In a way we don’t stop until we are satisfied, so we keep working at it
(Mike) stop being so serious…..
(Jeremy) I’m sorry. It’s because the lights on that thing (the streetlights) keep distracting me and that is all I’m looking at..AAAAHHH
(Chris) Sometimes we will write a whole song and we think everyone loves it and then Dan will say I don’t like it,
(Mike) Or my back hurts, I need a Monster drink (in a whiney voice)
(Chris) Yeah

LYRICALLY VERY MATURE FOR YOUNG GENTS LIKE YOURSELVES. THERE IS DEPTH TO YOUR LYRICS . WHERE IS THE INSPIRTATION COME FROM?
(Mike) I copy n paste

COME ON SERIOUSLY. YOU HAVE SOME GOOD STUFF
(Chris) I know what your saying. we don’t get to hear the lyrics till the song is all done. So, Mike tell us about it where does it come from?
(Mike) It comes from, just thinking about things. I write about the world cause I look at the world and I will write something
(Jeremy) Can we have a Irish song then. But yeah he is inspiring like
(Mike) Like Edgar Allan Poe but not good
(Andy ) So yeah Mike likes to write

DO YOU WRITE POETRY OR DO YOU WRITE ON THE ROAD?
(Mike) Since we are not on the road much I haven’t written much on the road
(Jeremy) He is very much influenced by Juvenile.
(Andy) I want Jay Z though
(Jeremy) No its Juvenile
(Mike) What was I talking about?
(Andy) Your lyrical inspiration
(Mike) I write short stories and poetry

YOUR PROUDEST SONG MOMENT ON THE RECORD?
(Jeremy) It depends on who you ask though
(Mike) I think SALVATION
(Chris) The last song on the CD turned out sweet
(Mike) I wasn’t even there when we wrote it. It was straight in the studio
(Chris) Originally on the EP we had a outro that was all keyboards and we were like this is boring so we wrote a new song.
(Mike) It was basically a poop with two wipes
(Jeremy) The new record is a poop with one wipe. That’s all there is to it

WHAT MORE CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT THE NEW RECORD?
(Jeremy) Nothing..No I will tell you about it, the heavier parts on this album are heavier like the breakdowns are still really heavy but there is more depth to it. The catchier parts are catchier. There is more singing, more melodic parts even within the quote n quote metal parts there is more melody behind it. Its just written better I guess. Its less just slapping parts together.
(Chris) I think we have a better variety of songs too. Like on the last record each song was just a mixture of everything but this one you got the don’t dink and drance that’s the like the heavier song.
(Jeremy) yeah there is more depth to it

WHERE DO YOU GUYS COME UP WITH SONG TITLES?
(Jeremy) Stupidest things you can ever think of. Listen we have one called You Cant Spell Crap without C. Is there anything else to be said. That’s a play on You cant spell crap without rap. So rap rules so!!!!!

IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY GUEST APPEARANCE ON YOUR ALBUM WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHY?
(Chris) JESUS doing guest vocals that would be sick. But for real if Jesus did guest vocals that would be sweet

WHAT WOULD HE SAY?
(Chris) I don’t know but he probably would have a heavenly voice

DID YOU RECORD THIS IN OHIO?
(All) No, Indiana
(Jeremy) Let me give you a description of where we recorded our CD. MADDEDADEDA (him singing in a twangy singing accent) that’s the man sitting out on the porch. HONEY GET IN HERE. That is his wife walking around with half a t-shirt on. Let me just say.,..
(Mike) Leave it like that, that was good. It was basically watching an old man sitting on the porch in the morning and then at night he is still sitting there. I’m sure he loves his wife so you should just let it be.
(Chris) Let it be Let it be (he is singing)
(THE WHOLE BAND STARTS TO SING THE BEATLES SONG )

HOW IS THIS TOUR TREATING YOU?
(Jeremy) It actually is going pretty well. We get a pretty good crowd response everyday. Most of the bands are really rad
(Mike) I’ve only gotten into six fights

WHAT BAND DO YOU LIKE TO WATCH EVERY NIGHT?
(Jeremy) I love ETID, THIS IS HELL, GWAR
(Chris) I’ve only seen GWAR once. The freaking tour starts so early so by the time 11pm hits we are tired.
(Andy) Yeah like today we have to leave at like 3am cause tomorrow in NJ is special guest day
(Chris) Who is it playing?
(Andy) Testament and All That Remains

WHAT BAND DO YOU THINK IS A CROWD FAVORITE?
(Jeremy) Either EVERY TIME I DIE or GWAR.
(Chris) Out of the rotating bands
(Mike) Job For A Cowboy does well
(Chris) Yeah but Acacia Strain they don’t come out as everyone’s favorite but they win over a lot of kids cause they are just intense. And of course everyone loves all the bigger bands.
(Jeremy) Oh and this tour one more thing about this tour. This tour feeds us well. It’s like eating at home everyday
(Mike) Yeah lets finish up this interview so I can go and eat a hot dog.

YOUR MOST MEMORABLE TOUR?
(Mike) Probably the Gwen Stacy tour last summer. It was a pretty ghetto tour
(Jeremy) And our CD was not out, our van broke down a lot.
(Mike) We had member problems
(Jeremy) But we bonded with Gwen Stacy a lot and now they have become real close to us

WEIRDEST EXPERIENCE ON THE ROAD?
(Jeremy) Trey climbing in a sewer, getting keys out. I don’t know, a lot of weird stuff happens. Oh and Mike depants me to the nude the other day
(Andy) And Yeah Jeremy kicked him in the jaw today
(Jeremy) What?
(Andy) You kicked him in the face
(Jeremy) Oh yeah I accidentally kicked our tour manager in the face today
(Andy) It wasn’t an accident
(Jeremy) I was not aiming for his face. It was in a middle of a struggle

I WAS TOLD TO TELL YOU THAT HE SHOULD GET A RAISE?
(Jeremy) Sounds like him
(Chris) Maybe he needs to give us a raise. Tell him to go back to Smashmouth (hahahah)

WHAT KEEPS YOU SANE ON THE ROAD?
(Jeremy) Nothing the road makes you completely 100% insane. Lets sum it up like this you live in a van…THE END. There is no sanity in that
(Mike) Laptops , wireless Internet that is it
(Andy) hotels
(Jeremy) Seriously we are not sane, we are the most insane people. We don’t party but if we partied they would probably outlaw us for being a band. I mean we party but without drugs. We are seriously crazy. We pound on the van and chant randomly. Yesterday Mike (tour manager) was getting aggravated cause it was taking so long and lets create what happened.
(Chris) I’ll be Mike. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
(Jeremy) Then I went ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh
(Andy) ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
(Mike) where was I?
(Jeremy) You were asleep. But yeah we just do things like that.

VIDEOS FOR THE NEXT ALBUM
(Chris) Yeah, we are just figuring it out right now. We are going to do it when we get home from this tour. Still trying to figure out what it’s going to be like
(Jeremy) And it will probably only be shown in Times Square on the big screen. That’s what we’ve been promised. I don’t know if that is true but your going to have to go there or set up a live web cam to see it

AUGUST 21ST THE ALBUM IT DROPS
(All) Yes
(Chris) Yeah DROP IT. Push it to the limit…
(Andy) Yeah push it push it.

SO ARE YOU TOURING THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER
(Chris) We get off this tour on Aug 12, then we play our CD release show, then we play some other festival.. The Purple Door then we go to Mexico. Then we come home for a couple of weeks then go out with Chiodos.
(Mike) So the tours are transitioning into the fall
(Andy) December we might take a break. We might go to Europe. I mean there is talk about Europe but who knows. We are figuring it out cause all the European kids want to know and all I can say is we are coming.

ANY FAMOUS LAST WORDS. ANYTHING YOU WANT TO WRAP THIS UP WITH
(Chris) Wrap this. Push it to the limiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttt
(Mike) I would like to wrap this up with a little motivational speech by my friend Mr. Andy Trick
(Jeremy) Yeah Andy give them some life lessons
(Andy) If a Eagle crows jump in your car and hide because that is the way of the mammals.
(All) whoooaaaaaaaaaaa (with clapping by all band members)

by Stephanie Stevens

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