Trevor Bivens, Author at Driven Far Off

Action Action – An Army of Shapes Between Wars

January 30, 2006 By Trevor Bivens 1 Comment

Artist: Action Action
Album: An Army of Shapes Between Wars
Label: Victory
Purchase: Smart Punk
Release Date: January 24, 2006

Overall: 7.9
Lyrics: 7.7
Music: 9.0
Production: 8.8

I loved The Reunion Show. “The Motion” remains one of my favorite EPs to date. I loved Count the Stars. “Never Be Taken Alive” is the soundtrack to a summer for me. I was devasted when both bands broke up. Then again, I was ecstatic when I heard remains of these bands would be forming a new band. “Don’t Cut Your Fabric to This Year’s Fashion” had some good songs on it, but let me down. There was a lot of boring stuff on that album. I can’t say the same for “An Army…”

Holy synth-lines abound, Batman! This album’s packing heat in the form of keys and beats. The opening track, “Smoke and Mirrors” is heavy with synth and Mark’s voice fits the mood perfectly.

Let’s hop forward a couple of songs to “Sleep Paralysis.” This is an ubeat number telling “everyone to wake up.” Head his words. This song will have you dancing about. Not to mention the outtro to the song will have you scratching your head while it’s still bobbing up and down. If you took a recorder(like the ones you had to practice with in Jr. High for band) and screwed around with it in fruity loops, you’d have this sound.

The album’s first single, “The Game,” is reminiscent of retro-rock such as Rooney. For real. I’m not kidding. Aside from Mark’s voice, I could see this being on a Rooney disc. The big difference is; I like Rooney. I don’t like this song. There’s no synth here, and honestly, when it’s present, that’s this band at their finest.

“Paper Cliche” picks things back up. It sounds like Shiny Toy Guns minus female vocals. I dig this song pretty well and would add it to rotation at a club. It rocks out allowing you to thrash and groove at the same time.

“120 Ways to Kill You: An Illustrated Children’s Book” has a very “80s feel” to it. This song is one of my favorites on the album.

Unless you want to go to sleep, skip “What Temperature Does Air Freeze At?” This song tries to be artsy and fails. It’s pretty boring.

Aside from the last two tracks on the disc, the rest are synth-driven pop that will make you want to go listen to Joy Division. That’s where this band are at their finest. Stop making slow music, because frankly, we’re listening to you for the novelty that you’re a synth-pop band. We want dancy, upbeat stuff. Take out the few sleepy songs next time around, and I’ll be 100% happy.

If you liked the first album, definitely pick this one up, because it’s way better. If you didn’t like the first album, give this one a spin and see what you think.

Track Listing
1. Smoke and Mirrors
2. Chemical Frustration
3. A Tornado; An Owl
4. Sleep Paralysis
5. The Game
6. Paper Cliche
7. 120 Ways to Kill You: An Illustrated Children’s Book
8. What Temperature Does Air Freeze?
9. The Other 90% of the Iceberg
10. Analogue Logic
11. Don’t Shoot the Messenger(Not My Idea)
12. Attached to the Fifth Story
13. The Blanket Truth

Spitalfield Interview December 14th 2005

January 28, 2006 By Trevor Bivens Leave a Comment

I sat down with Mark from Spitalfield a long time ago..well..back in December. I’ve tried several times to get this interview up, but every time, something has gone wrong. Here it is, finally! Sorry it took so long, guys!!

Trevor: So how’s the tour going so far?(theAudition, Dropping Daylight, Plain White Ts)

Mark: The tour has been awesome, actually. Even the weeknights have been awesome. Every stop so far has been pretty good in some way. We’re really having fun with theAudition and the T’s. It’s some Chicago love. Dropping Daylight were on the tour until two nights ago and they were pretty cool, too. It’s a pretty good vibe going into the holidays. Everyone knows that when this tour is done, we have a little time off for Christmas and New Year’s. It’s a very optimistic tour.

Trevor: I’m sure that it helps being with friends so close to the holidays.

Mark: Oh, definitely. Yeah, things are good.

Trevor: You went overseas a couple of months ago. Do you have any stories from that? Any crazy things happen to you?

Mark: Well, it was our second time there. We did the UK last February with Fall Out Boy and we just went back with Hawthorne Heights, Silverstein, and Bayside. I mean, there’s a lot of crazy stories because you have two bands to a bus. They’re like double-decker busses. I mean, we’re all like, real tight friends. All the Victory bands; we’ve all toured together before. I mean, we had a lot of fun, no doubt about it. Individual crazy stories? Our bus driver’s name was Norm Crapper. That was actually his name and he rocked. We brought him out on stage one night in place of me. He’s a super huge guy and was wearing our “Snakebit” t-shirt with a red-rocker wig. He came out and was like, “Hello Birmingham!” and no one knew who he was. We had security come and take him off the stage, and then I came out instead. So it was pretty good.

Trevor: There was a drastic change in sound between your last album “Remember Right Now” and your new one “Stop Doing Bad Things.” Do you attribute that to anything?

Mark: Not really. We’re the same band, but it was just two years of being on the road and maturing, so we wanted a slightly different sounding record. We went with a different producer and the material itself was a little more rock-and-roll, a little more raw. That’s what we were going for. I don’t think I can blame it on anything except being on the road. The first record we wrote, we had toured before, but had never toured like this. It wasn’t until we spent the greater part of two years on the road that we started writing the way we’ve been writing.

Trevor: Since the album dropped, you guys have been on tour supporting it for pretty much the whole year. Is that paying off for you?

Mark: Yeah, overall I’d say so. The whole point of being on tour all the time is to be hitting markets again and again. We’ve been on a range of tours, ranging from headlining like right now to support spots. I mean, hopefully we can press on as the same band. We’re going to have some time off and start demoing for our next record before we go back out in February with Silverstein. We stay busy, but I’d say the hard work pays off. We’re definitely the tightest as we’ve ever been right now. Our fanbase is probably the highest it’s been.

Trevor: TJ left. He had some family troubles. Now how has that affected you guys live?

Mark: Of course at first, you know having someone else on stage is a different feeling. We’d been playing on stage with TJ for almost three years. I don’t know. It was different at first and it took a little getting used to, but we try to be professional and deal with what we have. Since then, I think we’ve really come together with “new TJ.” I think that we’re actually doing quite well. We’re definitely moving past the change.

Trevor: How does the touring affect you guys during the holidays, being away from home and everything?

Mark: It can be tough. We’ll be home for Christmas, which is good. We’ve never really had to miss Christmas before. This past Thanksgiving, we were also able to stop home and have a few days off. It’s tough because you see everyone and you want to be home for a little bit and see your friends and family. You don’t want to just say, “Hey, how’s it going?” You want to be able to hang out. You want to be able to be around and sleep in your own bed, go see movies, and sleep in. But we chose this lifestyle and we love it, so it’s okay.

Trevor: Do you guys have any new videos in the works?

Mark: Nothing really. We might want to do a live video next, but no planned videos for this record. We probably won’t be shooting another real video until our next record.

Trevor: Do you have a target date to start writing for your new album?

Mark: We’ve been writing. We’re going to do some demoing in January. Hopefully we’ll be in the studio by late Spring, and then over the Summer have samplers for it, and have it in stores late Fall. Hopefully next September or October.

Trevor: Are you guys going to try and play Warped Tour this year?

Mark: Always. We always want to play Warped Tour, but we’ve never done it. Fingers crossed, we’ll get something this year.

Trevor: Any other tours lined up for the new year?

Mark: The only thing we really have scheduled besides some college shows here and there, you know to keep busy during our time off because we want to focus on writing; The next tour we have lined up is Silverstein, us, Stretch Armstrong, and theAudition. That’s in late February.

Trevor: Great. Thank you for sitting down with me.

Mark: Oh, no problem man. Anytime.

Christopher Gutierrez – Industry Interview

January 22, 2006 By Trevor Bivens 2 Comments

As part of our decision to try and expand our content a bit, I’ve interviewed Christopher Gutierrez. He has a new book called “On the Upswing of Life, Love, and Regret.” Trust me, this one’s worth reading.

Trevor: For those who don’t know who you are, could you please tell us a little about yourself?

Chris: My name is Christopher Gutierrez, I recently self-published a book called, “On the Upswing of Life, Love and Regret”. Most people know me as the dude “Hey Chris” from the Falloutboy song ‘Grenade Jumper’.

Trevor: You got your own website this year, AskHeyChris.com. What inspired you to do so?

Chris: Years ago, FOB had a contest that I judged. My internet contact info was posted for thousands of 14 year old shut-ins to abuse. My instant messenger often froze my computer so I started my livejournal as a tongue-in-cheek response to their questions. I would paste the link in the IM window and ridiculousness ensued. Over the years I managed to fool thousands of people into thinking I know what I’m talking about. The website is merely an extension of the LJ.

Trevor:This past year, you completed the Chicago Marathon, crossing something off your list of life goals. What else is on that list?

Chris: Haha. Every year I add more goals to the list than I scratch off. Its my “list of stuff to do before I die”. There’s everything from learning how to play the piano to doing the running of the bulls to watching the entire Star Wars trilogy in one day. Learning how to do that breakdancing move the helicopter is definitely at the top.

Trevor:What was the process of getting your book into the form that we can see it in now?

Chris:First you have to have a rabid fan base of bored teenagers assault you with requests for a book. Then you come up with story ideas. Then you make your life sound as cool as you possibly can without lying. Then you sit back and marvel at all the time you just expended dredging up those emotions and you hope that its enough. Then you find 2 amazingly intelligent people who will work for damn near next to nothing named Adam, who is a honors english creative writing teacher and Sara, who is a copyright editor of text books proof read and edit your 3rd grade chicken scratch. Then you spend twice as long editing the stories as you did on writing them. Then you get an wonderful girl named Lindsey to take a bunch of sensitive artist pictures of you in a shady alley. Then you find an out of work graphic designer named John do the book layout for you because he feels sorry for your broke ass, you pay him in pizza and Thai food. Then you find a printer online who will print your self-absorbed little stories into a little book at a cost of thousands of dollars you don’t have. Then you convince a few people into believing in your crappy dream of publishing your own book and you borrow more money than you’ve ever had in your bank account at one time. Then you send out all the files to said printer and wait for your proof to be sent back to you. Then you approve the proof and pay an extra $400 for rush shipping so hundreds of grubby little lurkers can get their paws on it by christmas. Then because you can’t trust your neighbors in your apartment building you have 1000 books shipped to your work. Then when they arrive you frantically tear open a box, grab the book, hold it up in front of your face and let out the longest sigh ever.

Trevor:You’ve been informed by “Borders Books” that they will be carrying your book in their stores. Did you ever picture something like that happening?

Chris:I sent the book in to Borders on a whim. I figured the book would go straight into the trash, that was until I received a phone call at work from a representative telling me they actually liked my book about stupid boy pee pee antics. Currently i am whoring myself out to distributors, asking them to carry my book as Borders will not purchase books from individuals.

Trevor:You’re doing readings at schools now and are looking to do more. What all will these sessions be consisting of?

Chris:The readings at the schools will consist of me nervously standing in front of small groups of people desperately trying to entertain them with childhood tales of mayhem. I’ll read a couple of stories from the book, a couple from the upcoming book, and a handful of journal entries. Then I will stand back and pray that no one throws anything at my face.

Trevor:What are some of your favorite stories from the book?

Chris:Well April, 1983 was cathartic for me because as my fingers were moving and I was staring at the screen I could believe what I was writing. A lot of suppressed memories came out and at times was a bit difficult to get through. While Young, Poor and Snotty is my least favorite story I love reading it because it takes me back to amazing and desperate times fueled by sex and general anarchy. It’s written like shit and there is absolutely no continuity, but as I get older and those nights begin to fade, I’m just glad I managed to put it all down before its all lost to alzheimers.

Trevor:How did music affect the way you looked at life?

Chris:Music not only affected the way I looked at life, it changed, altered, and strengthened my views on damn near everything I was ever taught. from the Sex Pistols to the Dead Kennedys to Los Crudos to Propagandhi to Youth of Today, there are songs by these bands that I hold as pure gospel. I’ve learned more from some records than from entire religions. Although the music is merely the vessel for the message, the message of this philosophy is one of pure fucking heart and if you dont see that, then you dont fucking get it.

Trevor:If you could have any three defunct bands(dead or alive) tour together, who would it be?

Chris:Minor Threat. Black Flag. Van-Halen with David Lee Roth. But not together. I would lose my shit.

Trevor:What is your opinion on the state of the music industry today, such as the RIAA lawsuits?

Chris:Eh, thats tricky. I can only assume your question is directed at file sharing. From one stand point I understand how as a band you put so much blood, sweat and tears into creating music and something you love and you would hope to get paid for it and to not have people “steal” it. But it is “art” I suppose and how do you put a price tag on that? There are small bands who may get hurt from this, but as a positive, sharing files is just that, sharing, which is also promotion. Personally, I think fuck big bands. to me its ludicrous that people make millions from playing music, just as I see it ridiculous that sports players make millions, but thats another rant altogether. So when Metallica bitches about someone downloading ‘Battery’ I say fuck you, fuck you in your fucking mansion, driving your ferraris and living in the top 1% of people in this world. how dare you look at struggling college kids who actually LIKE and support your band and sue them? what these greedy bastards dont realize is that for every song someone steals, that stolen song is an advertisement for at least a handful more people and can potentially turn more people into fans.

Trevor:What do you have planned for the coming year as far as the website and a new book go?

Chris:The website is difficult for me to update as much as I would like. But as far as other projects; by the summer I would like to have my new book out. It will be similar to the first book as far as content and style only longer, beefier with better stories and written better. The release date is the beginning of warped tour. After that I will be putting out an audio book so you can hear my juvenile ass tell my childish stories. A 3rd book is already in the works and is completely different than anything else but keep that on the downlow.

AskHeyChris.com
Livejournal

theAudition Interview December 15th, 2005

December 26, 2005 By Trevor Bivens Leave a Comment

I sat down with Ryan, the drummer for theAudition, at the Masquerade in Atlanta, Georgia.
I can’t urge you enough to listen to this band. Their album is amazing, and they sound even better live.

Trevor: Alright. First off, why are you guys so damn catchy?

(Laughter)

Ryan: I have no idea. I don’t know. We put a lot of work into our vocals. Danny and I write the lyrics. Then we write the song with all the instruments and we work really hard on vocals until we’re happy with them. We like catchy songs. We write what we like. We like all kinds of different types of music. We like pop music. We like writing things you could sing along to, basically. That’s probably the best answer for that.

Trevor: What was the recording process like for “Controversy Loves Company?

Ryan: We started writing about November of last year, after we got signed to Victory. We wrote for about three months, then we went into the studio in April for a month. We tracked drums, then guitar, bass, and vocals. It was a long process but we recorded with John Naclerio who was our producer and he made us feel really comfortable. He did other bands like My Chemical Romance, Brand New, and Just Surrender. There’s a lot of pressure when you go to write your first CD, but John just made it really easy for us. We hung out and it was a lot of fun. A lot went into it, but it was easier than we thought it would be.

Trevor: Shance C. Drake did your video for “You’ve Made Us Concious.” Were you guys attracted to him? What made you want to work with him?

Ryan: Basically, we’d seen the videos he’d done: Hawthorne Heights, Fall Out Boy, Paramore. Seeing the work he’d done before, we thought he was great. He wanted to shoot our video and agreed with the concept of it. He helped us out a lot. He’s a cool dude. He’s really chill and a lot of fun.

Trevor: Were you guys pleased with the outcome of the video?

Ryan: Yeah, you know. You look at it and you say, “You could’ve done this.” or “You could’ve done that,” but at the time it’s a music video and you’re pleased with it.

Trevor: I’ve probably watched that video a million times.

Ryan: You like it?

Trevor: Yeah, it’s very well done. I think I first went to that website for the Paramore video.

Ryan: That video is awesome.

Trevor: Yeah, they’re good kids. I saw your video on there, though and was like, “Oh, I didn’t know they had a video for this song. That’s awesome.”

Ryan: Thank you man, we appreciate it.

Trevor: You guys have been on the road with Spitalfield for a couple of months now. How are the kids responding at shows? How often did you play out of Chicago before you got signed?

Ryan: Before we got signed, we did a lot of mid-west stuff. We never really went to the West Coast at all and we never went to the East Coast at all. We did Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, but we never went into Minnesota much. Getting out..we’ve been on a few tours now, and a bunch with Spitalfield. It’s really cool, because those guys are awesome. We’re sort of the same style of music, so it fits well, and the kids are getting into it, so that’s cool.

Trevor: Are you a Bob Nanna fan?

Ryan: I listen to Hey Mercedes. I liked Hey Mercedes back in the day when I was a little bit younger, but Bob’s a cool guy.

Trevor: You toured with City on Film, right?

Ryan: Yeah, yeah. It was us, them, Down to Earth Approach, Somerset, and Spitalfield. It was a good tour.

Trevor: For me that would be overwhelming. I don’t know. I’m a huge Braid fan.

Ryan: Yeah.

Trevor: He’s been doing it for a while now. Just the fact you guys were touring with him. I don’t know. I’d get like, starstruck or something.

Ryan: Yeah. It’s not like that because he’s such a normal dude to me.

Trevor: He’s from Chicago, so I’m sure that has something to do with it.

Ryan: Yeah, definitely. He’s from like, two towns away from me. He’s a really cool dude to tour with.

Trevor: Any weird tour stories? I read one about some kid breaking into a house..?

Ryan: Oh yeah. We were staying..where were we? We were on tour with Aiden, The Hurt Process, and the Junior Varsity back in July. We were in North Carolina, I think, and this kid invited us to his house afterwards. We walk into this house, this big mansion. This nice, huge house. For this eighteen year old kid to have, we’re all like, “This is kind of weird.” So we’re just hanging out, partying kind of, and we look at the pictures on the wall. His face wasn’t in any of the pictures.

(Laughter)

Ryan: So we figured he was squatting on the house, and like, broke in or something. Any other weird stories, though? I was just thinking about this today and now I can’t remember. A lot of weird stuff happens, though. I don’t know. I can’t think of any right now.

Trevor: What are you planning for the holidays?

Ryan: We play in St. Louis the 20th. Then we’ll be home the 21st in the morning and we have to practice all day the 21st. We have a show with our friends theAcademyIs…, The Hush Sound, and The Junior Varsity at “The Metro” in Chicago on the 22nd. Then we have a week or so off. We’re playing a show in Detroit then ending the year in Chicago on the 30th. So we have like two weeks off, then we start a tour off with June, Small Towns Burn a Little Slower, and Forgive Durden January 6th.

Trevor: Anything planned after that tour? Anything for the new year?

Ryan: Yeah, we’re going on tour with Mae, right after that. It’s more of a West Coast thing. We’re kind of booked up until March.

Trevor: Are you going to do Warped Tour any this year?

Ryan: I’m sure we’ll do some Warped Tour. It’d be awesome.

Trevor: Warped Tour is another one of those things where you’re probably going to get starstuck at some point.

Ryan: Oh for sure. All of those bands..some from ten years ago. Bands that are huge now. There’s going to be a ton of people. We’re looking forward to it and spreading our music through more kids.

theAudition
Victory Records

Gym Class Heroes Interview November 4th, 2005

November 5, 2005 By Trevor Bivens Leave a Comment

Last night, I got to chill out with Travis, Matt, and Disashi of Gym Class Heroes in their van, and let me tell you, these guys are awesome. Matt didn’t talk much, and Disashi mostly laughed, but they’re cool dudes. Travis is one of the straightest guys I’ve met, and if you ever get a chance to meet this amazing person, please do so and show him some love.

Trevor: So this is the end of the tour, right?

Travis: Yeah, tomorrow’s the last date.

Trevor: How’s it been so far?

Travis: Awesome. Really, really awesome. But now it’s kinda come to the point where we’re all like, “Alright, let’s wrap this up and go home.”

(Laughter)

Travis: It’s always like that. It could be the coolest tour ever but once it wraps down to the last two or three days it can get pretty grueling.

Matt: I kind of equate it to the last week of school, you know, before summer vacation. It’s kind of like that.

Trevor: I know the fans here are into music that’s a lot different from what you guys play, but have they been reacting really well to you guys?

Travis: Well I mean there’s never a crowd, and there won’t be for a while, that’s all our own. Like, I mean before, when we first started playing, there weren’t kids there to see us at all. Now you’ll see groups, and you’ll see the kids that like to merge and it’s really really cool. I think I’m more comfortable..well, I wouldn’t want to say more comfortable, but I wouldn’t..I don’t know how I would take it if there was a whole crowd there to see us. I mean, it’s cool, but it’s also cool to take kids that necessarily wouldn’t listen to us in any other situation and have them go home and say, “That was cool.”

Trevor: Is there a specific band on this tour that you guys have been watching and digging a lot?

Travis: He Is Legend. Those guys are blowing me away.

Trevor: They’re awesome live. I saw them back in June and it was a crazy show.

Travis: Those guys are amazing. One of my new favorite bands. They’re really, really, really, really great dudes, too.

Trevor: What have you guys been doing to keep you occupied? I mean, this has been a really long tour. Weren’t there two runs of it?

Travis: Yeah, Gatsby’s and then He Is Legend. We’ve been doing the same shit we do any other tour. We listen to music, I’ve been doing a lot of video editing and shit and um..

Matt: We just bought the new Tony Hawk. We’ve been playing that a lot.

Travis: Yeah, it’s really fun.

Trevor: Alright, your labelmates, Panic! At the Disco..they’re uh..they’re blowing up. Do you guys have an opinion on that? I asked October Fall about it and they were stoked about it, and I talked to Panic! and of course they were stoked. So what do you think of it?

Travis: I think it’s awesome man. Definitely. Especially like..anybody that you have a correlation with, you’re always excited for them to further..you know what I mean, to go further and I think it’s beautiful.

Trevor: Speaking of Panic!, do you think there’s a chance of a Decaydance Tour later?

Travis: Um..perhaps. I mean, shit is so crazy right now, I mean, we’re writing our new record and stuff, but I’m sure something like that or another Fueled By Ramen Tour will go down soon, in the next year or so.

Trevor: Yeah, and you guys were wanting to record this winter, right? Do you have any dates scheduled to start recording?

Travis: Actually, we start writing right after this tour. We’re gonna take like three days off and then start writing the record right away, so we’re shooting for this winter and it’ll definitely be out by next summer.

Trevor: Is that when you’d like for it to be out? This summer?

Travis: Yeah, definitely.

Trevor: Is there the chance of any more collaborations like “Naked Peek-A-Boo?”

Travis: Uh..I mean, there might be. I mean, there’s definitely a lot of artists we’ve toured with that we have in mind for our next album. It’s going to be really tasteful as opposed to just getting somebody on our record for namesake. You might even have to like..like..dig into it to find who’s actually on the record. It’s gonna be one of those deals.

Trevor: Alright, so you went to the UK. How was that?

Travis: Amazing! We played one show. Just one show. We just hung out, and it was incredible. I can’t wait to go back. It’d be really awesome.

Trevor: Okay, “The Papercut Chronicles”. I’ve noticed a lot of the album has serious topics, and then there’s humorous stuff in it. Did you try to balance it out, or did it just come out that way?

Travis: I think that it’s my life in a nutshell. My lifestyle, you know? I don’t think anybody in this band takes themselves too seriously. And I think that’s how I’ve delt with serious stuff. I throw a little humor on, or look at it in a humorous way. And I don’t know..laughing. Laughing is probably one of the coolest, healthiest forms of therapy, for me at least. So when it came time to post the album, I definitely wanted to touch things that were relevant and things going on in my life, but at the same time, have a little fun. I think that’s one of the cool things about Gym Class, is that, like I said, we don’t take ourselves too seriously and have a lot of fun with what we do. I think the next album will definitely have the same element. It’ll have a little humor to it. I like making…girls laugh.

(Laughter)

Trevor: I asked some people if they had any questions that they wanted me to ask you so these are a little bit off the wall.

Travis: Alright, alright. Cool.

Trevor: Um…how often do you get snakebit?

Travis: Oh man! I know exactly where that came from. Was that from Erika?

Trevor: I’m pretty sure. She was like, “Ask him that, he’ll crack up!”

Travis: That’s so funny. Oh man, I get snakebit way too much and the anti-venoms don’t even work anymore.

Trevor: Are any of you guys cereal guys? Do you like any specific ceral?

(Matt shakes his head and Disashi continues to chill in the back of the van.)

Travis: I love ceral. Shit, I love soggy, cinnamon Life.

(Laughter)

Trevor: Brittany really wants to know where you went to art school.

Travis: Munsen Williams in Proctor, in Utica New York. Don’t go there.

(Laughter)

Travis: Don’t support the demons.

Trevor: Are you guys going to be going through Miami any time soon?

Travis: Miami? Um..(Looks back at Matt)

Matt: Orlando.

Travis: Yeah, we’ll be in Orlando next week, or in a couple of weeks. But um..Miami may have to wait until the next album’s, done.

Matt: I don’t think we’ve ever played in Miami.

Travis: I don’t think we have, either.

Trevor: Speaking of Florida, with the hurricanes and everything, what do you think about that?

Travis: It sucks. It sucks and I feel fortunate that we live in New York and really don’t have to worry about crazy shit like that. I mean, we get ice storms and stuff, but I can’t imagine having to put up with fear the minute a storm comes, and you’re worried that your house is going to get washed away or something.

Trevor: A lot of crazy shit has happened over the past few weeks. You had Andy from the Junior Varsity’s girlfriend…

Travis: That was really tragic.

Trevor: And then Bayside…

Travis: It’s crazy, man. Like, my heart goes out to all those people who were involved or have any relation to those kids or to Beatz, you know. I mean, it’s really really tragic and it’s hard. Especially being on the road. Anything can happen out here. We’re constantly hearing stories, whether it’s someone getting killed, someone dying, vans or trailers getting jacked, I mean, it’s really crazy. Like, we’re out here trying to entertain people and have fun doing what we love to do, but there’s constantly, you’re constantly in the back of your mind thinking, “Damn anything can happen right now or tomorrow.” I mean, I was talking about bands getting robbed, it’s like the new black. I mean, trailers..and bands getting their equipment stolen. Like, the other night I was just..up, like seriously checking the window every five seconds, you know what I’m saying? The road is crazy man. There’s a lot of cool things that happen out here, but there’s also a lot of crazy things we have to deal with.

Trevor: How difficult was it to think of the basic structure of each song for “The Papercut Chronicles?”

Travis: Lyrically it was like, I would start out and the first line would determine how the rest of the song was gonna go. Like, the first two lines, and once that idea was in the air, I mean, if it’s a fictional story or whatever you want to do with it. Once there’s the idea, you just tumble with it, fall with it until you like it and then you mold it and play with it for a while.

Trevor: And this one’s from me. You still love Kelly Clarkson?

Travis: Shit yeah man, are you kidding me? (Unzips his jacket to reveal an “I <3 Kelly Clarkson” t-shirt)

Trevor: Haha, that’s freaking awesome.

(Laugher)

Trevor: Thanks for sitting down with me.

Travis: No problem man, no problem.

Gym Class Heroes
Fueled By Ramen
Decaydance Records

Panic! At The Disco Interview October 16th, 2005

October 20, 2005 By Trevor Bivens 1 Comment

I got super lucky and got to sit down with Panic! At the Disco at the Atlanta date of the Nintendo Fusion Tour. These guys were super cool considering it was a spur of the moment thing and I could hardly talk and was doing everything on the fly.

Trevor: Can I get you guys to state your names and what you do in the band? (I really hate asking this question, but when it’s a newer band, and the whole band, it makes things easier.)

Spencer: My name’s Spencer and I play drums.

Brent: Brent, I play bass.

Ryan: Ryan, I play guitar.

Brendon: Brendon, I sing.

Trevor: Alright. So your album just dropped and you’re Fueled By Ramen’s biggest first week. It was over 9,500 I think. When you found out, how did you feel about that?

Brendon: Good.

Brent: Really good. We were really excited, because we weren’t expecting that at all.

Ryan: Yeah..we were expecting..

Spencer: (Quietly) Nothing.

(Laughter)

Spencer: Haha, that was the most asshole thing ever. What did we feel, about it..wait what was the question?

(Laughter)

Spencer: I just had a whole scenario in my head of what would be funny.

Trevor: Let’s look at it this way. You guys haven’t been a band very long. You had like two demos posted, and you got signed, and then this album is flying off the shelves…when it’s on them.

Brent: Yeah.

Brendon: Yeah..there was a little problem.

Spencer: It’s great though. The first week was more than we thought and a lot more than Fueled By Ramen thought or anybody, so it was a lot better than anybody expected.

Brendon: So we’re shocked.

Ryan and Brent: Yeah.

Spencer: Yeah, we were really excited. I know it was an awesome way to start this tour.

Trevor: Was the “Take Cover” tour your first official tour?

Ryan: Yeah.

Spencer: It was our first only tour.

(Laughter)

Brendon: That was like our third show ever.

Trevor: That’s got to be insane. How were you feeling when you left for that tour?

Brendon: Pretty nervous.

Spencer: The thing is, our second show ever was on the way to that tour. We had to drive from Vegas to Baltimore so we played one time in Ohio.

Brendon: So even the first few shows of the “Take Cover Tour” there were some things going wrong, but I think by the time we got down to Florida we felt a little more comfortable. We were definitely very nervous on the way out, though.

Trevor: Did the crowds respond well to you during that tour?

Ryan: Yeah.

Brendon: Yeah, as good as you could hope for, you know..not having a CD out and opening. It was like…there were definitely some shows that were a lot better than others, but there wasn’t horrible shows as far as crowd reaction.

Trevor: You went straight from that tour to here, because Paramore took over for you guys, right?

Brent: Yeah.

Spencer: Yeah, they overlapped.

Trevor: Now, I know you guys probably got some pretty big crowds there, but this tour has sold out shows everywhere. With you opening here, are you feeling nervous at all?

Brendon: Actually less nervous. I feel like we all agree that it’d be like, a lot more unnerving to play in front of like..20 kids instead of 2,000 kids.

Ryan: There were a couple of shows like that on the Acceptance tour. I don’t know. It’s a lot harder to play in front of small crowds.

Trevor: Yeah, I can tell you guys should be playing to bigger crowds with the energy you guys have, so I can see it being weird with a small crowd.

Ryan: Yeah, it’s just hard when you’re up there and you’re into it or whatever and it seems like the less people are there, the worse it is.

Trevor: Let’s talk about the album a little bit. You have some weird structures and melodies..I don’t know..it’s different from stuff I’ve heard before. I really don’t know how to describe it. Where are you taking your inspirations from?

Ryan: Lots of different places, I guess. The stuff earlier on is a lot of dance-influenced, so dance music in general. The second half is more theatrical stuff..like movie soundtracks and musicals. I guess the melody stuff would be from bands like Third Eye Blind and Counting Crows, stuff like that.

Trevor: Have you picked a first single?

Brent: We want to go with..”I Write Sins, Not Tragedies.” It’s not 100 percent for sure, but it’s what we all want.

Trevor: I was thinking about that the other night. I was like, “They should really make a video for this song.” Because like, Fall Out Boy’s “Dance Dance” just came out and it’s sort of like a mini-movie. It’s like..a super small version of “Thriller.”

Spencer: I still haven’t seen it.

Trevor: You haven’t seen it yet?

Spencer: No.

Brendon: It’s good.

Trevor: Yeah, it’s very well done.

Spencer: I heard it was good, but then I also heard…nevermind.

(Laughter)

Spencer: (Laughing)That was gonna be really bad.

Trevor: Now, if you did do a video for “I write Sins, Not Tragedies,” would you have any concepts that you would want to run through the treatments with the director about?

Spencer: Well, I think..it’s the same thing, like with our album artwork and t-shirt designs. A lot of the time we’ll tell people an idea and they’ll give us back something. Then, we’re like, “Well, you have to change this, this, this, and this.” So it basically ends up being us doing it all ourselves, only using their like..skills to do it. So I think if we did a video, it would be close to 100 percent our idea.

Trevor: So just not the tech parts of it?

Spencer: Yeah, yeah. Like, obviously we couldn’t go out and know how to shoot a video ourselves, but we want to be a big part of the creative aspect of it.

Trevor: Do you know who did the marketing campaign? Like, the promotion with purevolume and myspace?

Brendon: That was..I think that was Fueled By Ramen’s idea actually.

Brent: John.

Brendon: Yeah, John Janick. Johnathan Joseph Janick Jr. He’s the man.

Trevor: Well, he did a very good job, because that had everyone talking. People were waiting entire weekends just to hear a new song.

All: Yeah.

Trevor: I definitely think it helped the album sales and everything. So do you have anything planned for after the Fusion Tour?

Ryan: We’re going to take some time off in December, maybe do the video, and then go on tour in the UK with theAcademy.

Trevor: Yeah, I’ve heard so much buzz about that tour.

Spencer: The one here or..?

Trevor:The one coming up with theAcademy.

Spencer: Well, see, we’re going to the UK with them in January and we’re doing another tour with them and Acceptance in the states.

Trevor: Oh, really?

Brendon: Yeah.

Trevor: Okay, I hadn’t heard of that one yet.

Spencer: Yeah..end of January.

Trevor: I’d just heard of the UK branch.

Ryan: Yeah, we’re all looking forward to going over there.

Trevor: I know a lot of kids over there have been going across the message boards and they’re looking forward to it.

Brendon: Right on.

Trevor: Thank you for taking the time to do this. I know it was very short notice. (Laughing) I’m sorry it wasn’t better prepared, I had a whole thing at home.

(Laughter)

Brendon: Haha, it’s totally cool.

Spencer: Thanks for interviewing us at all.

www.panicatthedisco.com
www.purevolume.com/panicatthedisco

October Fall Interview October 6th, 2005

October 5, 2005 By Trevor Bivens Leave a Comment

I had the pleasure of interviewing Pat and Clark from October Fall in Nashville behind The Muse. This interview had to be conducted in one of the weirdest places….we were next to “The World’s Largest Adult Bookstore.” Hmm. We also had some nice homeless fellows try to bum change from us, and we didn’t have any, but Pat was nice enough to offer Halls cough drops.

Trevor: Can you guys state your names and what you do for the band?

Pat: I’m Pat D’Andrea, I play guitar and sing and write the songs with Clark.

Clark: And I’m Clark Harrison. I play guitar and sing backgrounds…a lot.

Trevor: You guys formed in 2003 right?

Pat: Kind of.

Clark: Yeah, kind of

Pat: Well like, me and Clark have been writing music together since the sixth grade and we’ve been best friends for forever. It’s really weird. We can’t get rid of eachother. And um, basically, we went across the street one day and there was a drummer there and we kind of played with him and we met Boats, our piano player. He just happened to be sitting at this new drummer for-one-day’s house hanging out and waiting for a ride home.

Clark: Yeah, it was really weird.

Pat: So basically me and him started the band a while ago, and then Boats was the last surviving member. Everyone else was kind of replaced. So yeah, I guess 2003-ish

Clark: Haha sorry.

Pat: Yeah, we elaborate.

Trevor: So were you guys getting big crowds back then or small shows?

Clark: No.

Pat: No, it’s weird. We were playing acoustic for a while and like, the chicks are great.

Clark: Haha yeah.

(Laughter)

Pat: No, no, that was Almost Famous.

Clark: There was a group of like, 20 girls that would follow us around for a while, though.

Pat: Yeah, but then when we started playing a different sound, we started getting a pretty good following for a while. And not that it died of or anything, we just started changing our sound and maturing.

Trevor: So playing this tour, how big have the shows been? I mean, obviously you played a pretty small show tonight, but like, is it reminding you of when you started or…?

Pat: No, I guess now because we’re on such a different level musically since we recorded our record and everything. We just have so much fun on tour.

Clark: Yeah, I guess it’s kind of like we’re starting over.

Pat: It’s really a good thing because we want to be known as a different band. What’s weird is our first show was at The Fireside for like, fifty people in Chicago. Have you ever heard “Somewhere Down on Fullerton” by Allister?

Trevor: Yeah.

Pat: That song’s about there, but it was really weird. Like, we had a really good first show and ever since then, we just promoted the shit out of our shows.

Trevor: Oh man, I totally forgot about Allister being Chicago kids. Have you heard their new stuff?

Pat and Clark: Yeah, some of it.

Trevor: Oh, it’s good. Like, I don’t know..for a while I was kinda…

Pat: Skeptical?

Trevor: Yeah, well about Drive-Thru now. I wish it was my tenth grade year all over again, because that’s when Drive-Thru was really starting to pick up, then the whole Geffen thing happened. I don’t know, they’re working on getting things back to normal.

Pat: Yeah, they are. Richard and Stefanie are our friends. We actually hung out with them while we were in California recording our album. They’re really cool dudes and they know what they’re doing.

Trevor: Yeah, they’ve always seemed really down to earth.

Clark: Yeah, they’re really nice.

Trevor: Okay. Obvious question. You guys signed to Decaydance, which is Pete Wentz’s imprint.

Pat: Yep.

Trevor: How does it feel having a guy like Pete love you guys that much, that he will sign you and put his trust and faith in you?

Clark: It feels good!

Pat: It’s awesome. What’s cool about it is, it’s really weird. We’ve liked Fall Out Boy for a really long time and we used to go to their shows when they were around our hometown. I was definitely one of like, the three kids they were playing to at Wherehouse Music, like this little venue. It’s really cool that he got interested in us and stuff. Like, when we hang out with him we’re not like, “Oh it’s Pete from Fall Out Boy!” It’s Pete and he’s our dude.

Trevor: Yeah, well see, that’s like how I am at any show I go to. I saw them back in April at the Fueled By Ramen Tour, and I just saw Joe walking around. I was just like, “Hey man, what’s up?” and we talked and it was great. I don’t know. It’s just fun to see kids freak out around bands, though.

Pat: Haha, oh yeah, dude.

Trevor: Yeah, you guys are people, too.

Pat and Clark: Yeah, totally!

Trevor: Now, did you guys record this summer, or before?

Clark: We recorded in late July through the middle of September of 2005, so yeah, this summer.

Pat: Yeah, we went to San Diego. We worked with Mike Green, he did the Paramore record and the Over It record, which is what got us involved with him. We went out there and did like two or three weeks of pre-production and basically me and Clark worked on a lot of stuff with him.

Clark: Yeah, we’d go over songs and stuff.

Pat: We went out there with the frame of mind of making a really good rock record, like something that was not going to get thrown away in ten years. Something that can still be played in ten years.

Clark: Haha, yeah. Try to keep it as timeless as possible.

Pat: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Like…Billy Joel shit, you know?

Trevor: I like the Piano sound. It kind of reminds me of the Socratic stuff and Something Corporate and Jack’s Mannequin.

Pat: I love Jack’s Mannequin. I love Andrew McMahon. Let the record show that.

(I show Pat my Andrew-“I Will Fight” band)
Trevor: I will fight.

Pat: Dude that’s awesome!

Trevor: Yeah, as soon as they got that up, I was like, “I’ve got to get one of those.”

Pat: I have mine in my backpack.

Trevor: Really?

Pat: Yeah. He was a huge influence on me, but that’s not why we have a piano in the band. We just liked that guy and that kind of fell into our laps.

Trevor: What’s some of the content that you guys have written about on the new album?

Pat: Well, when I was writing lyrically, I was looking at from the perspective..we had actually a whole record.

Clark: We had a good nine..ten songs like solid that that was how they were exactly going to be on the record.

Pat: We were going out there and I was playing the songs every day trying to see if I really liked them and I kind of had a little bit of a problem with them. I was like, “You know what, this sounds like a lot of bands that are out there and I don’t want to do that. I was like, “Let’s test ourselves.” We have good structures in some aspects but when we got out there we’d try to do an all out rock band. I was doing lyrics, too, so when I was writing these songs, I didn’t want to be dwelling on the moment. I didn’t want to be like, “Oh, this girl cheated on me.” or “This girl did this and I’m really pissed about it.” so I was writing with more of a hopeful vibe. That’s what the song “Walking” is like. One of the lyrics is, “Just keep on wishing on the stars outside your window.” and it was more like an insightful look.

Clark: Yeah, and it has something to do with the name of the record.

Pat: Yeah, the name of the record is “Keep Dreaming Upside Down.”

Trevor: Do you have a release date for that yet? I know, the website said early 2006.

Pat: February-ish.

Trevor: Everybody’s releasing albums in February on Valentines day.

Pat: Yeah, I don’t think we’re going to do that.

Trevor: Please don’t.

Pat: If our record came out on Valentine’s day, I’d definitely be doing something else. Haha.

Trevor: Okay, your labelmates, Panic! at the Disco. What do you think of them selling their 9,500?

Clark: It’s incredible. It’s just like wow.

Pat: Yeah, that was actually Fueled By Ramen’s biggest first week ever.

Trevor: Yeah, that’s nuts.

Clark: It’s ridiculous.

Trevor: Their promotional campaign where they posted the clips on their myspace, and the full songs on purvolume, that had people talking. Are you guys going to try something similar?

Pat: I’m not sure yet. We’re talking with John, like..we run through John Janick a lot. He owns Fueled By Ramen. He is the man. Like, him and Pete have this great relationship going. John does a lot of the business stuff. We always say, “In John Janick we trust.” He should seriously be on the next dollar bill.

(Laughter)

Pat: So we’re trying to think of ways to release the new songs and stuff. We have like, four months to prep people for what’s going on.

Trevor: You guys have had “Hey Hey” up for a pretty good while now.

Clark: Yeah, it’s a little bit changed now. The album version is different from the demo.

Pat: But most songs are like that.

Trevor: What do you have planned after this tour?

Clark: I think we have a few plans.

Pat: Yeah, we’re kind of up in the air with stuff. We’re basically going to tour tour tour.

Clark: Yeah, we’re going to stay on the road.

Pat: There’s 365 days in the year. We want to be home five.

Clark: Those are holidays, and if we don’t have to be home on the holidays, that’s fine, too.

Trevor: Alright guys..thank you for doing this interview

Pat: Oh no, dude, thank you.

Trevor: Haha..in front of…

All: The World’s Largest Adult Bookstore
(Laughter)

Pat: Thanks so much.

October Fall
Decaydance Records
Fueled By Ramen

Paramore Interview July 29th, 2005

August 2, 2005 By Trevor Bivens 5 Comments

I got to sit down with Paramore for a little bit before they played an amazing in-store show at Grimey’s New and Preloved Music in Nashville, TN. They talk about Warped Tour and upcoming plans.

Note: When I interview a band, I don’t treat it like an interview, so there will be some banter in here that has nothing to do with the subject we were one. Please excuse the tangents.

——————–

Josh: Will that pick up?

Trevor: Yeah, it should. So um, state your names, what you do with the band.

Hayley: Hi, I’m Hayley. I sing.

Josh: I’m Josh, I play guitar.

Jason: I’m Jason, I play guitar.

John: I’m John, I play bass.

Zac: I’m Zac, I play drums.

Trevor: And so like, you guys are back home now. So how’s this feeling, after you guys have been signed and everything?

(Sounds of equipment rolling on the bridge overhead.)

(Laughter all around)

Hayley: It’s surreal. People are calling us, every day, telling us, “We saw your video on Fuse. Oh, you’re in this magazine. Oh we just found out that your CD’s sold out in stores.” It’s really- it’s really weird, ’cause we’re not seeing any of it when we’re out and all our friends are back home supporting us and you know, it’s cool.

Trevor: That’s great. So how’d you guys hook up with Fueled By Ramen? Like, I mean, ’cause you guys just came out of nowhere, appeared on a samplers, and everybody’s like, “Who’s this band? ‘Cause they’re really really good.”

Hayley: (Laughs) Um, we- we really didn’t play anywhere except for here in Nashville. You know, we were a local band, a garage band for a while. But John Janick, our management basically, you know after we had demos recorded and stuff, got a hold of it through our management. And um he decided he wanted to come see us play and just kinda get to know us, ’cause he was really interested in the songs we were writing and who we were. And uh, so he came and saw us play at Taste of Chaos which was just an acoustic thing and that just kind of stirred up more interest for him in our band. And then he came and saw us play again. We were in Orlando and we decided that we, you know, it was a good fit, and he introduced us to his label. We already knew, you know Fall Out Boy.

Trevor: Yeah.

Hayley: And all that stuff which was amazing. And he let us come by the office and we got to know everyone and we knew that was where we needed to be and we knew it was who would put out our record and would carry out the vision that we would like to be carried out.

Trevor: Well they seem to be a good job since everyone’s responding really well to it.

(Collective yeah)

Josh: It’s amazing.

Trevor: How are the other bands on the label? Like have you hooked up with them any? Talked to them at all?

Jason: Yeah, we played um, about three or four shows on the Fueled By Ramen and Friends Tour. And theAcademyIs… was there, and Fall Out Boy, and Gym Class Heroes and we made friends with them. They were just such cool guys.

Trevor: Yeah I met like, everybody when they were up here in Nashville and they were awesome.

Josh: Yeah, they’re all really nice.

Trevor: Yeah like, I remember, I tried to come up to see theAcademyIs… again with Mae. Like, two feet from the door, the show sold out.

(Collective oh yeah)

Zac: We were there.

Trevor: Were you?

Hayley: Yeah.

Jason: It was fun. One of the best shows I’ve ever seen theAcademyIs… play.

Trevor: Yeah I was walking around and like, Mike and Tom were out in the van and I was like, “Dude. That sucks.” Mike’s like, “Well here. I’ll serenade you.” and he’s playing his guitar and I’m like, “Thank you.”

(Collective laughs)

Trevor: Let’s see. Warped Tour. You guys are such a young band. And that’s gotta be incredible to be playing Warped Tour.

Jason: It is. It’s awesome. It’s great to find every day that we go and play at Warped Tour, we get there early in the morning and Fueled By Ramen’s already got our stuff pasted everywhere. We’ve got poster and flyers being handed out from the second the doors open. They’re really doing well for us on Warped Tour and it’s just an awesome experience for us to get to know all the fans- to get to know all the people that are hearing about our band through word of mouth and stuff. It’s incredible.

Trevor: So are the fans on Warped Tour responding pretty well to it and everything?

Jason and Zac: Yeah.

Jason: Yeah, we have a great turn out. Pretty much every day and we play on a really small stage. The Shure Stage and it’s always- the location’s not always really close to the main stage where everybody is, but surprisingly we have a lot of people show up and it’s awesome.

Zac: Yeah, people would just be like walking by and they’d like be on their way to My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy and they’ll just stop and watch us, even if they’re missing their show. It’s just great for us, ’cause like, I wouldn’t stop. (Laughs) I’d just keep going.

(Laughs)

Jason: We also work really hard to get people, to make connections with the fans and give them free stuff and you know, just say hi to them.

Josh: You have ants on your feet.

Trevor: Do I?

Josh: Yeah, like lots of them.

(Hayley proceeds to destroy the ants and save my feet.)

Trevor: Weird.

Josh: There’s still one on your foot.

Trevor: Where?

Josh: Right there.

Hayley: Get him before he bites you.

(Laughs)

Trevor: Okay.

(Collective laughs)

Trevor: Where were we?

(Collective laughs)

Trevor: I totally lost my train of thought. (Laughs) The ants.

Hayley: (Laughs) The ants.

Trevor: Yeah um so like, the fans have been responding well. Have you guys been watching any certain bands when you get a chance? Like who have you been checking out?

Zac: Oh yeah. I watched Emery the other day. They are one of the funniest bands. Like, their whole deal is every time they play, they wear something different. Like the first time I saw them, they were wearing Hawaiian shirts, then the next day basketball jerseys.

Jason: We also, like every chance we get, we check out My American Heart. They’ve become really good friends of ours.

Trevor: Yeah, they’re kind of like you guys. They’ve like, exploded like all of the sudden so they’re getting all of this attention and you guys, probably like kind of have a little connection there.

Zac: They’re such cool guys, too. Like every day we announce eachother’s shows like, “Go see My American Heart at 3:15.” or “Go see Paramore.”

Hayley and Jason: Yeah.

Trevor: Awesome. Are there any new released that have come out that you guys have been listening to a lot?

Josh: Dredg. Their new CD is incredible.

Trevor: Yeah, a friend of mine went and saw them with Circa Survive and said it was like, the most amazing show he’d ever seen.

Josh: I bet. I mean, the drummer plays piano. That has to be the best.

Jason: I like the Gorillaz new album.

Josh: Yeah, it’s pretty good, but it’s weird.

Hayley: We got Death Cab for Cutie’s new album. It’s called Plans. It’s awesome. It’s a lot more mature, I think.

Trevor: You guys are getting ready to go back on Warped Tour in a couple of days, so what’s after Warped Tour.

John: Uh, well, we have like a few things lined up to where our managers are trying to find out what’s the best tour for us to be on. We’re working on a few different bands, which when you’re in any band, it’s always like, last minute to try and figure out what tour you’re gonna go on next. Especially when you’re an opening band and stuff. So they have a few different bands. Rufio is one of them they talked about. Um, All American Rejects.

Hayley: Emery.

John: Emery was also another one. Simple Plan. So there’s a bunch of different options.

Trevor: If you guys got on tour with any of those, you’d get so much exposure. ‘Cause like, Cartel is playing with Simple Plan in Atlanta on August 17th and they’re such a good band, and that’s gonna be so great for them.

Hayley: Yeah, that’s gonna be awesome.

Zac: Yeah, we know a dude from- I don’t think he’s in their band anymore.

Hayley: No, he’s not.

Zac: His name is Adam, we used to talk to him. He actually was the person to tell us about Warped Tour, to tell us how to do it. How to get a good merch spot or whatever.

Jason: It’s nice to have someone help out like that.

Trevor: It’s always good to have someone that just tells you advice and everything.

Jason: Yeah. It’s not as hard as they said it would be though. Copeland told us that it would be really hard because they said they were on for like three days and they couldn’t do it anymore. It’s hard but it’s so much fun.

John: Yeah.

Trevor: Copeland’s such a great band, but I don’t know how the Warped Crowd would..

Everyone: Yeah.

Jason: That’s what they thought as well.

Trevor: I mean, like yeah, they’re good though.

Hayley: Yeah, they’re awesome.

Trevor: They played around in Cleveland a couple of shows at a place at Lee University called The House, it’s like a small little building. Copeland played that one night…got shut down by the cops.

Hayley: Wow.

Trevor: Copeland got shut down. How does that happen?

Jason: Yeah, that’s weird.

Trevor: So what would you guys think about playing with All American Rejects?

Jason: I think it would be awesome.

Everyone: That would be amazing.

Trevor: I would defnitely go to see that show.

Jason: I think that would be a good match for our band.

Hayley: Yeah.

Jason: We have the same type pop elements, and the rock side.

Trevor: Have you heard their new album?

Everyone: Yeah.

Jason: They’re on Warped Tour right now. I watched them play the other day, they’re so good.

Trevor: Is there anything else you guys want to say?

Zac: Yeah, thanks for doing this.

Trevor: Yeah, no problem.

Hayley: Thanks to everyone that’s heard the album, that’s buying it now. We’ve had a lot of great support from people. Thank you.

Trevor: Like I told Jason. I was at Best Buy, right when the doors opened. I blasted the album on the interstate.

Hayley: That’s awesome.

Everyone: Thanks.