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Image by: Gabby
Gabby and Nicole had the chance to hop on Jupiter Sunrise's bus for what would end up being Concert Hype's longest interview to date (around 75 minutes). We started the interview off and had to finish it up after the band's set due to a lack of time, and probably some extra talk about the amusement old people provide to us all.
For more pics from the show, check out the pictures section. And if you get the chance to see Jupiter Sunrise live, don't pass it up. They provide a concert experience unlike any we've ever experienced.
BEN: (In scary old man voice) Hello! We are Jupiter Sunrise. [Laughter] Should I make some funny noises so you’ll laugh later?
CONCERTHYPE: Go ahead. You should.
BEN: Booooooooooaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!
CH: Oh, God, that’s sweet. Awesome. [Laughter and Clapping]
BEN: Thanks. Ayayayayayaya!!!
AARON: Hey, you could do your Gollum impression.
BEN: I don’t really have a good Gollum impression. That’s Josh.
CH: Are you sure?
MARK: Josh is really good at it.
BEN: Let’s do the impression of Dave’s grandmother.
MARK: Yeah.
BEN: We stayed at New Orleans at our friend Dave’s house…
CHRIS: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!
BEN: That’s it exactly! [Laughter]
CHRIS: I’m getting there. I’m getting there.
BEN: It was horrible! We thought she was dying! We were lying next to her in this room and we heard…Aaaaah!
CHRIS: That just sounds weird right off the bat…We were lying next to her in this room… [Laughter]
BEN: Can you do it again?
CHRIS: Aaaaaaaaaaah!! [Laughter]
BEN: Well, no. On the floor.
CHRIS: It kind of hurts my throat.
AARON: We were in the room and then…We were sleeping in the living room. She came into the big kitchen, which is adjoining the living room and made that noise.
CH: For any particular reason?
AARON: Well, because she’s dying, you know. She’s an old lady. [Laughter]
CH: I guess that’s a good reason.
AARON: She just can’t really seem to talk, apparently.
BEN: And then when she talks she’s like, “I just want some tea.” (In tiny old lady voice) [Laughter]
AARON: It was worse than that, though! It was like “Iiiii heeeeeest aaa teeeeea.” We shouldn’t really make fun of her, but it was really funny. You’re not really going to be able to get these sound effects.
BEN: That’s true.
CHRIS: Well, if we tell that story, we also have to tell the story of his grandfather who basically said every five or ten minutes, “EVERYTHING’S DOT COM THESE DAYS! WHAT’S WITH DOT COM??” [Laughter] And we thought that was pretty cool.
CH: Old people rock.
AARON: You guys know any old people?
CHRIS: Old people and kids, really.
CH: Yeah, I have a great aunt who’s about 87. She gets paid big money to…
AARON: To be 87?
CH: To gamble.
CHRIS: She gets paid to gamble? How’s that work?
CH: They pay her to go. She’s like a semi-professional gambler.
BEN: Wow. That’s so cool.
AARON: Does she make them money, I guess?
CH: Yeah, she’ll just go into a slot machine and get 250 bucks just like that.
AARON: How does that work?! How can you gamble with slot machines and win?!
MARK: Does she have magnets in her brains?
CH: I don’t know, but she’s 87 and she still gets around.
MARK: She knows slots… She’s like a hustler. [Laughter] So, what do you got for us?
CH: Okay.
CHRIS: Let’s just do this whole interview about grandparents. [Laughter]
CH: What are your goals at each show? What do you want to accomplish?
CHRIS: Maximum rockitude. We’re definitely a big band about getting involved with the audience, no matter how big or small. We’re definitely an interaction kind of band. We want to get people involved, get people excited, and make people happy…have a good time. Everybody’s got problems and things they worry about. It’s definitely fun to come to a rock show and forget about those things and kind of come to a utopian kind of place where everybody’s pretty positive and happy with each other just to have a good time.
AARON: And even if you don’t know the people next to you, you feel a sort of camaraderie.
CHRIS: A family-type thing.
CH: Do you have any pre-show rituals to prepare yourselves?
CHRIS: Yes. No doubt about that. We usually drive about 5 or 6 hours. [Laughter] We try to flatten our butts as much as possible.
BEN: Did you say flatten our butts?! [Laughter] Yeah. We inflame our hemorrhoids.
CHRIS: That’s why we all have small, flat butts.
AARON: Hey! I don’t.
CHRIS: Except for Aaron with his big booty.
AARON: (Sexy like) Ow!
MARK: Mine’s not flat…it’s not big though.
CHRIS: Do we have any? We don’t really, I guess, have anything.
AARON: Not really. Every once in a while we do the ‘rocktangle.’
CH: The ‘rocktangle?’
AARON: You’ll have to describe this.
CHRIS: THE ‘ROCKTANGLE!’ [Laughter]
MARK: You add a person to it, and it’s a… ‘ROCKSTAR!!’ Here, check this out. Check this out, it’s a ‘rockstar.’ Holy crap, it’s a ‘rockstar!’ [Laughter]
CH: How are your Midwest shows different from your east or west coast shows?
AARON: Well, we haven’t been in the Midwest as much as the coasts.
BEN: More grain.
AARON: Yeah, there’s definitely more flat expanses and falling asleep while you’re driving, practically.
CHRIS: We’ve also noticed that the kids in the Midwest, as we’ve displayed many times, know how to actually mosh…at various tempos!
AARON: And headbang.
CHRIS: The coasts are a little weird like that.
AARON: I guess, it’s like Slipknot territory, you kind of learn about how to headbang.
CH: That’s all we’re known for! [Laughter] You’re from Iowa, you must like Slipknot. No, not so much.
BEN: I’m sorry.
MARK: It’s okay. We think it’s cool.
AARON: Yeah, I mean, actually, we played a really excellent example of a Midwest show last night where it was our first time in Lawerence, Kansas and everybody flipped out and really had a good time even though it was our first time and there were still a bunch of people already knew the words and we were very impressed.
BEN: Everybody’s really open out here. It’s nice. We really like coming here a lot.
AARON: Yeah, if you want to compare it to the shows that I’ve been going to in L.A. recently, the people are just like…you know, there’s a few people freaking out if they really know the band, but most of the people are just like “I’m a little too cool to do anything while this band’s playing. I’m going to appreciate it and stuff, but I’m just going to, like, stand in the back and have a cool haircut.”
CH: Yeah, we have less shows, I guess, so it’s more exciting. What is your fantasy tour? Like with what bands?
MARK: Oooh, man.
CHRIS: Didn’t we just put that together last night? We were just talking about it.
MARK: Well, our fantasy tour, we each probably have a different one.
AARON: Bon Jovi… [Laughter]
CHRIS: That would be us with Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera, and Justin Timberlake. [Laughter] Totally kidding.
MARK: That’s Lisa’s!
BEN: What is your fantasy tour?
CHRIS: Oh, jeez, I don’t know. Seriously, last night we were talking about a tour, which was great with at least three or four of our friends’ bands, like we played with Anything but Joey last night who are from Kansas, there, and then some other good friends of ours: Feeble Weiner and Melee. And that would be one of the funnest tours ever. I don’t know if you know those bands, but that would be just silly…silly fun. No doubt. I like silly fun.
CH: Silly fun is good.
MARK: I would play with Flaming Lips, and Beck and Cake and maybe Radiohead…
CHRIS: Didn’t they do that tour?
MARK: And maybe…
BEN: I think they almost did.
MARK: IT DOESN’T MATTER, IT’S MY FANTASY!! [Laughter] And the Beatles and Led Zepplin.
BEN: Okay, I think that tops it. The Flaming Lips and Andrew W.K. together would be pretty sweet. [Whistling and Laughter] That would be pretty awesome with Jupiter Sunrise. And maybe…Elvis Costello.
MARK: That’s perfect! That’s an awesome tour!
BEN: Not too bad, huh?
MARK: We would actually be a good bridge between The Flaming Lips and Andrew.
BEN: Yeah, I think it would be great. Let’s do it.
MARK: And Elvis. Hey, I hope they’re going to read this website. [Laughter]
CH: I’m sure they will. We’ll mention it.
AARON: Yeah, forward it to Andrew.
MARK: Yeah, hook that up for us. [Laughter]
CH: What has been your favorite tour thus far?
BEN: Favorite tour…
AARON: The whole thing, I guess, because it’s pretty much the same tour.
MARK: One big tour.
AARON: We don’t have places to live anymore, so affectively, we’re always on tour. We do take some breaks.
MARK: Our favorite runs have been with the band Melee, that was a great run. We loved those guys, we had a good time. We really haven’t done to many runs with other bands, honestly. I had a good time with Harris.
BEN: That was a great time, yeah.
CHRIS: I anticipate having a good time with Anything but Joey.
MARK: The few shows that have happened so far, it’s been amazing!
BEN: It’s opening shows that we’ve done, I mean. I threw in Andrew because we opened for him once and it was such an awesome time.
MARK: And we love him.
CH: He is awesome. Describe your first acoustic show you had in L.A. The very first show you had as a band.
MARK: Oh, wow.
BEN: At the Knitting Factory?
MARK: Somebody has done their research. [Laughter]
CH: We get that all the time! [Laughter]
CHRIS: The show that nobody was at? When we played? [Laughter]
MARK: That was actually just the three of us before Aaron joined the band.
CH: Yeah.
MARK: That was like…uncomfortable would be one word.
BEN: I remember actually, strangely, I was really at ease. I had a really good time.
CHRIS: I just remember it being over and going, “Whoa. I just met you guys 10 days ago.”
BEN: I know. It was surreal. I couldn’t believe I was actually playing at the Knitting Factory in L.A. with these guys six days after we got there. It was funny. It was just an acoustic guitar, so it was easy. You just go up there, plug in and start playing.
CHRIS: It was pure perfection.
MARK: Yeah, we were amazing. I’m pretty sure it was one of the best shows ever. [Laughter]
BEN: Pure rock and roll.
CHRIS: And nobody was there except for the other bands that were playing.
MARK: So, nobody can go against that. You’ll have to take our word for it. [Laughter]
CH: Do you still call fans to invite them to shows?
CHRIS: Absolutely.
MARK: Yes.
CHRIS: You didn’t get a call?
CH: No. [Laughter] Well, we don’t live here. We live far away. What does that say about you as a band?
MARK: Ohh…that’s a good question! Talk about us tooting our own horns…
AARON: You guys are good at this!
CHRIS: That we really want our friends and families to come see us play, basically, when you tour the country and only get to a place every 3 or 4 months.
MARK: The reason why we started it was because we would get to a town and then we would play a show and later on we would get 20 emails from kids who were like, “I didn’t even know you were having a show!”
AARON: So we were like, “Well, I guess we’d better call people too.”
MARK: It was just another way of getting the word out a little bit better. And it ended up being, really, a nice way of making good friends, too.
CH: What is your favorite song on your album…each of you? And why?
CHRIS: Well, I can just start right off and say ‘Heaven Endless.’ [Laughter] It’s the last song on the record and for me, it’s the funnest drumming song to play. And also, I think it’s how we grew from the original recorded version Mark had done on the original demo album, with Aaron and myself putting our parts on it, and Ben creating his parts and then our producer Marshall also putting keyboard stuff in there and some strings on it. It’s just a big, fat, awesome sounding production.
CH: A finale.
CHRIS: Yeah. And it’s just a fun song to play. Not in a ‘Casey’ kind of fun way, but it’s an awesome song.
MARK: I think my favorite is ‘Steal Me,’ but ‘Heaven Endless’ is pretty up there too. Those are my two favorites. If I could make the whole album sound like that…that’s my ultimate goal. That’s what I’d want.
BEN: I think I have two favorites, too. I like ‘Josie’s House’ a lot because it was one of Mark’s songs that was one of the reasons why I wanted to come out here and play with these guys. I always thought it was a great tune. It kind of encapsulated the spirit of this first demo he was making and everything. So, I always liked that song. But, I’m really happy with ‘Steal Me’ too.
AARON: As far as excellent song writing and performances go I think ‘Steal Me’ is sort of like, maybe not the obvious hit, but definitely one of my favorite songs. I like ‘Master Suzuki,’ a lot too, partly because we don’t play it very often and it’s got a cool bass line. [Laughter]
CHRIS: If you look at the record, it has twelve songs on it. We recorded 13 songs with the idea originally that we were only going to put out a 10 song record, but we couldn’t decide 2 other songs not to put on it. So, we definitely all…I like every song on there a lot. I think we’re all very happy with the whole record.
CH: The ‘Arthur Nix’ video is debuting soon. Are you going to be nervous about the way people will react to it or do you not really care?
CHRIS: No, we’re really psyched about people to see it.
AARON: Yeah, it’s kind of been out for a little while on the internet, actually, so it’s been tested.
MARK: We have more videos that we as a band actually did ourselves, so we’re actually more excited about those and they’ll be out over probably the next month or so.
CH: Is there a reason ‘Kaye’ is your second single?
MARK: No. [Laughter]
CH: Do you have a say in the matter, or is something that…
CHRIS: Oh, yeah. We’re definitely involved.
AARON: Well, it’s a good song.
MARK: I don’t know. That was really a tough choice to pick singles for the record because it felt like there really wasn’t a stand out single. If I had a choice I would make ‘Steal Me’ the single, but that’s only if this was 1972. [Laughter]
BEN: And we could get away with that. Those kinds of songs…
AARON: It’s just hard to make the slowest song on the record the single right away.
CH: True.
MARK: That’s the problem. It’s the best song on the record, but it’s also the ballad of the record. That’s so typical of great records, though.
AARON: It would be the third single.
MARK: It would be the third single in a typical rock and roll style release, but in our situation, we’re fortunate in where we are because people are really looking at whole records, they’re not really looking at singles. So, the term ‘single’ to us is somewhat meaningless right now.
CH: What do you think a re-release through Victory will do for your album?
MARK: It hopefully will get it in a lot more stores, Best Buy of course.
BEN: That’s the main idea.
MARK: That’s the only thing it’s really going to do for us because we can’t really tour for any of those bands anyway because not many of them are like, our style.
CHRIS: That’s at least the main thing.
CH: You were produced by Marshall Altman and recorded by Joe Zook. What was it like working with these guys?
CHRIS: Hey! Awesome.
AARON: Awesome! [Laughter]
MARK: Totally amazing.
BEN: They are totally inspirational guys.
MARK: These dudes are some of the best musicians and artists. They’re just some of the best people we’ve ever met, let alone work with them for such a long time. It was nothing but a pleasure start to finish. They’re funny. They’re easy to get along with. They’re down to earth. I think all of us had preconceived ideas of what L.A. people were going to be like to work with.
BEN: Especially recording-wise. They say you have a real nazi-producer, scary situation like, “DO IT AGAIN!” [Laughter]
MARK: But it wasn’t. It was awesome! All we did was play video games and just goof around for a few months.
BEN: Play guitar…
MARK: It was weird. I’m surprised it doesn’t sound like video game music. [Laughter]
CH: What would be your fantasy cover song done by Jupiter Sunrise?
CHRIS: We’ve had so much trouble picking a cover song. We do a lot of snippets of things that just come out easily.
MARK: What are some of the snippets that we’ve done? We know portions of almost every song. [Laughter] So, if someone shouts it out, we’ll play it. Recently we’ve done ‘Under Pressure’ by David Bowie and Queen.
CHRIS: That’s actually the first song we’ve learned completely, the whole band.
MARK: And also ‘Ice Ice Baby:’ the alternate version! [Laughter]
CHRIS: It’s kind of the same song.
MARK: It means the same thing. [Laughter] Sometimes we play some metal onstage like Slayer or Metallica, or we go old-school like ACDC or Led Zeppelin and we’ll riff out on that stuff.
CHRIS: ‘Billie Jean.’
MARK: ‘Billie Jean.’ We did some Michael Jackson. ‘Dancing Queen!’ We did ABBA one time. [Laughter]
CHRIS: I did that by myself.
MARK: Huh. I wonder why? [Laughter]
CHRIS: I learned a disco beat.
MARK: Whatever someone can shout at us, we’ll try to play it. We’ve played ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ our own version all the way through, once or twice.
BEN: That was so cool.
MARK: None of this is actually good though. [Laughter] A lot of Skynard. ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ and ‘Free Bird,’ although we don’t go for the obvious ones.
CHRIS: Speaking of awesome people, I’m going to go up watch Andy play. My good friend Andy is playing and…
BEN: Oh, yeah.
CHRIS: I’m going to go up. You guys can continue. He’s got a 25 minute set?
BEN: Didn’t he already start?
CHRIS: He started ten minutes ago. Then we’re on right after him for half an hour.
MARK: Alright. We’re on at 9:45, he said.
CHRIS: Alright, it’s 25 after. So, twenty minutes and we’re on?
MARK: Okay.
CHRIS: We’ll see you in there?
CH: Alright. What makes your music feel real to you and your listeners?
MARK: Because we wrote all that music because we liked it and we want to listen to it ourselves, know what I mean? We didn’t write it to put it out, we wrote it for ourselves and then the songs that are the best we ended up putting out.
BEN: Good answer.
CH: Do you relate to messages in everything in life? Do you dig for the messages or do you just take what’s handed to you?
BEN: In life itself? Like, looking for messages in life?
MARK: Like meaning in life?
CH: Yeah.
MARK: I’m a sucker for meaning. [Laughter]
BEN: Me too.
MARK: Holy cow, I think meaning is in everything. But, that gets me in trouble a lot.
BEN: I always think that street signs and stuff- this has happened to me all week- I’ve been thinking about something and then the first thing I look at following that thought…sometimes it seems like a reply from the environment. [Laughter] And I have a hard time ignoring that.
AARON: It’s like a Magic 8 Ball everywhere!
MARK: Yeah, seriously! I do the same thing!
BEN: I’m constantly looking for meaning in things, whether or not I really believe it or not. I know it’s either that or my subconscious talking to me. It’s a deep part of me responding to it.
MARK: I think that there’s something to it and I think that if you listen really carefully, there is meaning in almost everything. But, you have to be careful because if you’re constantly looking for meaning you are missing the moment and the point.
BEN: That’s really true.
CH: Deep thinking.
MARK: Don’t even get us started on that stuff. We go for hours. [Laughter]
CH: What do you want people to catch through the messages in your lyrics?
MARK: I don’t necessarily want them to catch anything from me. My only purpose in the songwriting, when I give it to other people…when I song-write for myself it’s just to purge, but when I publish the songs it’s so that other people can hopefully clarify something in their own life. But, it doesn’t matter to me what it is. It doesn’t have to be exactly what I was thinking. All I want to do is have a connection, and it doesn’t have to be the exact same circumstances or anything. And, clarity is the only thing. That’s why I write songs: to understand.
CH: Do you feel you have come farther, or as far as you anticipated after you started March of 2002?
MARK: I have to admit, I think all of us felt it would happen a little faster than this. From a logical standpoint, we’re only two-and-a-half years into the band and what we’ve done so far is bordering on miraculous. But, at the same time, we’re all super-impatient and we expect to be playing arenas tomorrow. [Laughter] So, there is kind of two ways of looking at that.
BEN: It seems like a couple of things have happened quickly, and some things didn’t.
AARON: Some things have been frustrating us that are sort of out of our control.
MARK: The stuff that’s frustrating to us is not how our fan base has grown or it’s not how people have reacted to the music, or how our band has grown. It’s the business stuff. There’s been some really lame, lame, crappy business things that have happened to us that have held us back.
BEN: It’s nothing that we haven’t heard happening to other bands.
MARK: Yeah, this all happens to other bands. But, this record is coming out now. We were done with it a year-and-a-half ago and it was mastered and recorded, and now it’s going to finally be in stores. So, that’s the kind of frustration. No band likes to be shelved for a year.
CH: True.
MARK: Those are the only things that have pissed us off.
CH: Do you believe fate brought you guys together? I mean, you met Aaron in a guitar store…
MARK: I have, I always think that. I totally do.
AARON: Yeah, it really…it seems kind of odd how all this stuff really worked out.
MARK: Regardless of whether if ‘faith’ is some kind of entity or a real force, or whether we were all so consciously aware at so many levels of what we wanted in life…we just tuned in on each other’s frequencies. One way or another, it seems like too many coincidences for this to have happened. It’s just the perfect run operation. I’ve never seen a band run so well. And it’s awesome. And I’ve worked with, like, 100’s of bands, not in them but worked with them in some way. And this one is, by far, the best situation I’ve ever seen.
CH: Ben, how is Jupiter Sunrise different from The Orange? What do you think made this work and that not?
MARK: You guys are so researched. These are great!
BEN: You guys are good. The Orange was my first band that I ever took out of the garage, so to speak. It was like, the four years or so that I played with those guys it was like going to band school. I learned a lot. I went from not knowing what a mailing list was, it’s relevance, to working with Mark. He used to help the band, and stuff like that, up in New York and stuff. I think the things that drove that band apart were personal synergy kinds of things, just working with these people for a long time. But, I don’t know, you know? It’s just kind of like, this band is comprised of people who were kind of the folks that were in charge, or sort of putting forth the ideas and motivations for previous projects. So, this is a band of all those guys, so it makes it a lot easier to activate things and ideas, a lot more than just finding musicians with talent.
CH: Going back, what would you all change relationship-wise between you guys?
MARK: I would be nicer. [Laughter]
AARON: Do you mean in The Orange, or…?
CH: No, I mean now, Jupiter Sunrise.
AARON: Oh.
MARK: Same answer! [Laughter] I’m the hardest one to deal with. I’m trying real hard.
BEN: He’s doing a good job.
MARK: I’m getting better, I’m meditating. Centering, meditation, I exercise regularly, and I take a multivitamin for men. [Laughter]
CH: Alright!
MARK: It makes my hormones all stable.
CH: Okay, Mark, does having classical guitar training make it easier or harder for you to play like a rockstar? [Laughter]
MARK: A lot easier because I don’t have to worry about, so much, how hard it is to play a riff. All I have to do is worry about how I look.
AARON: (Getting off the phone) [Andy’s] on his last song.
BEN: Oh, you guys we should probably go watch his last song. Do you want to finish the interview later, or…?
CH: Yeah, we have quite a few questions left. Can we catch you guys after your set?
MARK: Yeah.
CH: Sounds great.
***** JUPITER SUNRISE PLAY THE REVERB *****
CH: So, are all of you guys involved with PETA?
BEN: We’re all vegetarians. Chris is a vegan. Aaron’s mostly vegan and we tend to stop by PETA’s place when we can to hang out with those guys. I think they’re a great organization. Sometimes they go a little far, but at the same time, someone needs to do it.
CH: Do you think that’s helped you gain or lose fans, or don’t you care?
UNANIMOUSLY: I don’t care.
CH: You don’t really publicize it.
BEN: Exactly.
MARK: Yeah, we’re subtle about it.
BEN: We try to just, you know, we used to have information at our merch table. We had brochures on our table, but we never pushed it at anybody as long as people were curious. We have, we get an email or two every week or so where it’s like ‘Oh man, I was talking to you guys. I’ve been a vegetarian for two weeks since I’ve talked with you.’ It’s cool, you know? Even if they don’t stay that way or they just think about it a little bit, it’s great.
CH: Are you all politically active?
BEN: Well, that…I don’t know. We talk about this sometimes.
AARON: Are we what?
CH: Politically active.
MARK: We are. We try not to get into people’s faces. We all have totally different opinions on what should be done versus what shouldn’t be. I think we’re all pretty much on the same page, too.
BEN: Yeah. It’s one of those things where you’re not really sure if you want to, because the songs aren’t really…the songs are mostly, like, personal. They’re not like political songs. We’re not sure if we want to politicize the band. It seems like people from different backgrounds are attracted to the project and we don’t want to alienate anybody and make them feel that if they disagree with our political idea that they can’t be fans. But, at the same time, we do have some opinions in the election coming up, we’ll get into discussions with people after shows. We try not to make it a really overt aspect of the band.
AARON: We’re not Anti-Flag or anything.
BEN: Yeah, we’re definitely no Anti-Flag or Rage Against the Machine. [Laughter]
CH: Arthur Nix is featured on the Take Action CD.
BEN: Yeah.
CH: Would you do a song for an anti-Bush or anti-Iraq CD?
AARON: We’ve been talking about that.
BEN: Yeah, we’ve been talking about that. [Laughter]
CH: So, you are ‘that way’ instead of ‘the other way?’ [Laughter] I’m just curious because I’m very strongly that way!
MARK: We’re pretty anti-Bush.
CH: Good. [Laughter]
BEN: We’ve met a lot of people who are…not…who are pretty pro-Bush.
AARON: Chris is probably the most overtly politically active out of all of us and he’s always looking for someone to give him a good reason to vote for Bush.
BEN: He’s like, ‘One good reason!’
AARON: All I want is one good reason why I should like Bush or vote for Bush or make him think he’s not a bad guy.
BEN: Like, as far as the track record goes, and usually what we’ve found, it’s like, people feel like if they don’t vote for Bush that they’re voting against their faith, if they’re religious, you know?
CH: Yeah.
BEN: Where it’s not necessarily about his track record or what he’s done for people or what he’s doing to people. It’s negative. It’s more like…
AARON: It’s some kind of ideological…
BEN: Yeah, by not voting for Bush, you’re voting for abortion or you’re voting for…you’re not…you know what I mean?
CH: Yeah, you’re voting for not being a patriot.
BEN: Yeah, like an ideological thing as opposed to a concrete…
AARON: As opposed to a good idea.
BEN: Yeah. Right. I don’t know.
CH: What song would you use to put on there or would you write a new one?
AARON: Ben’s always wanted to do ‘Filibuster.’
BEN: I wrote ‘Filibuster’ actually last election and it’s always been something I’ve wanted to be affiliated with.
MARK: Well, hopefully we can get it recorded in time.
BEN: Yeah, we can make some kind of recording of it to get it placed somewhere where it’s relevant to the election.
CH: Have you guys received more respect for being adult-like in your lifestyle choices? Like, a lot of people look up to you guys…because you don’t…eat…meat. [Laughter] Because you do your own thing? [Laughter]
MARK: Well, I don’t know about that! You’d be surprised at…vegetarianism and veganism has been embraced by a very young community, it’s not an old thing to do.
AARON: Old people think it’s lame. Old people don’t understand it. [Laughter] They’re like, ‘Four food groups…that’s about all I k now!’ [Laughter]
CH: What is your reasoning for staying so pure? Does it have to do with your music or is it just a lifestyle choice?
MARK: What do you mean?
AARON: I don’t really know if I would call us ‘staying pure,’ working on that or anything. You know, it’s just a good idea.
BEN: This is an interesting question.
MARK: Yeah, these are great questions. [Laughter]
AARON: But, what exactly do you mean by ‘staying pure?’
BEN: Yeah, can you rephrase that, maybe?
CH: Just not being…when you guys finished your set you all didn’t head to the bar and do three Jagermeister shots. [Laughter] You hung out with your fans and did what you wanted to do.
MARK: So, in other words, you mean, we care for ourselves, we respect ourselves, our environment, and the people around us?
AARON: I don’t know. It’s still just a good idea.
MARK: I think that that kind of…if the music is an extension of our personalities, know what I mean? That concept, the idea of being kind to ourselves and kind to everyone around us and having love for everyone is something that all of us believe is just a way you should live. And that idea, that principle will seep into everything that we do, no matter what. A lot of things that we’re doing with this band, I don’t separate that into categories. I’m just like, just us as people, we like working together on stuff.
AARON: It’s not like we’re trying to be cool or anything. [Laughter] We’re just playing some songs, having a good time, and meeting some cool people doing it.
MARK: And living a good lifestyle: responsible but still living in the moment. A lot of people think that living in the moment is going crazy, like being a rockstar and going out and traveling and touring full time means you have to do everything to the edge of sanity. However, what you really have to do is you have to learn to do it to the middle of life, which is learn how to be centered. Learn how to live in that moment and not…being crazy and living on the edge and not respecting…
BEN: It’s actually more like avoiding something.
MARK: Yeah, it really is. It’s avoiding that idea. So, I think we’re living better and more fully than probably most people do because we keep it together. Responsibility is a freedom. It’s just as much a freedom as not having someone…you know, everybody thinks that freedom is not having someone breathing down your neck, but that’s not really an accurate definition of freedom. Freedom is not being a slave to…
BEN: Your own passions and your own, I don’t know, ideas to impose on people. [Laughter] 'Zen and the Art
of Motorcycle Maintenance.' So, you’re going to want to check that out.
CH: Mark, when did you know that playing music was all you needed to be happy?
MARK: I was about five years old. Probably about when I was able to think about anything besides playing with blocks. [Laughter] The first thought I ever had about ‘what do I want to do in life’ someone asked me when I was probably no older than five or six years old and I rattled off a few things like fireman and stuff, and musician was my number one. But, I would have also wanted to be a fireman at that time or a spaceship pilot, but being a musician is something I’ve wanted to be ever since I can remember. It’s been my only dream. Doing what I’m doing now is the first and only dream I’ve ever had in life and I’m pretty lucky to finally be able to do it. It took awhile.
CH: Has your ‘not trying to sell yourselves’ attitude attracted or pushed away fans?
MARK: Definitely, it takes the fear away from the fans minds, you know what I mean? I mean, I think the music is the only thing that really attracted anybody, but our DIY kinds of principles definitely give us a lot of respect from people. We’re not doing it for respect, we’re just doing it trying not to get F-ed! That’s the only reason. To be honest with you, we would sign to a big label if it was the right thing to do, and we might do that someday, but, you know…
AARON: It’s not the right thing to do right off the bat for any band, as far as I can tell.
MARK: Yeah, it really isn’t.
BEN: Most guys who do that don’t go on to have great careers. But, some of them do!
MARK: I would say that the DIY thing hasn’t necessarily attracted any fans as much as it’s just…
AARON: Confirmed some fans.
MARK: Yeah, confirmed some. The people who…you know, the music is really all that anybody cares about, but once they find out we’re not jerks, and that we’re doing this ourselves…you know, we make everything, all our merch. These guys design and make all our merchandise and we do all our own artwork. Even our newest music videos, which you’ll see soon, are all edited and shot by ourselves. (Pauses) It’s the way it should be.
CH: Would you prefer every band in the world to love you or real people to love you and why? [Laughter]
MARK: Good question. I understand what you mean.
CH: Not that band members aren’t real people…
AARON: In other words critical acclaim or popular acclaim?
CH: Right.
MARK: I, see, I don’t know. I don’t know how you guys feel but I personally…the critical acclaim is the ego boost and I think when everything’s said and done and I look back on this and I’m 80 years old I’m going to be much happier about the popular opinion than I am going to be about the critical acclaim.
AARON: As much critical acclaim as you get, it doesn’t bring people back to your shows, you know?
BEN: There’s two sides to the spectrum: there’s Creed on one end, [Laughter] sorry to name names but where, like, lots of people love Creed, but they’re not very good, you know critically, in the context of music…
CH: And they’re done.
BEN: Yeah, I know. I can say it now. I wouldn’t have then. But, then there are other bands that are really obscure that are very artistic but aren’t as accessible. So, Creed is really well crafted, accessible, kind of like they air the side of cheese maybe. But there are these other bands that are wonderfully artistic and peculiar but not very accessible. They won’t be reached by as many people.
MARK: So, we want to be both, in other words.
BEN: Yeah, my favorite bands tend to be in the middle somewhere.
MARK: There are bands out there that manage both critical acclaim and also popular support. They’re usually the ones who stick around the longest, they’re the most well-rounded. You can have both.
BEN: You kind of, like, through your career, as you mature as songwriters and craftsmen that you…
MARK: Radiohead’s a good example of that.
BEN: Radiohead’s a great example! Flaming Lips are a good example.
MARK: Flaming Lips are starting to get to be popular now. They’re starting to become big.
BEN: Yeah, critically acclaimed and they’re idiosyncratically interesting. But, you know, the biggest bands tend to be the ones right down the middle like Weezer and the Who.
MARK: Yeah, and the bands that stick into pop culture for a long time that aren’t gimmicky are usually in the beginning pretty critically acclaimed, you know, the U2s of the world.
BEN: U2.
MARK: You know, there’s always a point in their careers where they’re cool to people. The Police were like that too, but then they became popular, but they were good bands. They were just plain old good bands and critics had to agree with it, you know? We don’t want to be one of those bands that only critics like because we’re pretentious.
AARON: No weird animal suits.
MARK: Yeah, no. We’re not into music for the fashion of music. We’re in it because we want, we think our voices are clear enough that, and our vision is clear enough that everybody can at least understand it. If they don’t like it, they can sympathize with it and understand. We’re trying to, we don’t want everyone to love us, because that would just be weird. We want everyone to at least understand what we’re doing and see the sincerity in it. If that’s the case then the fans will be really loyal and there’ll be lots of them anyway, if it’s critically acclaimed or not.
CH: Well, where do you see yourselves in the future?
MARK: Probably doing more of the same.
BEN: Doing more of the same!
MARK: I think a lot of us are interested in film and other media, you know? And I think the band is going in the direction of being more than just music. I think we see it as a whole entity of a whole art project, multimedia. Ben here is an incredible graphic designer and all the sudden has been doing animation. [Laughter] Totally kicking my ass.
BEN: I’ve been doing some fun experiments lately.
MARK: So don’t be surprised if sooner or later the live shows turn into a lot more than just us rocking.
BEN: Those are some great questions, guys. Thanks!
MARK: Very thoughtful.
BEN: This was fun.
Interview By: Gabby and Nicole
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