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Show: AP Tour 2011, presented by Alternative Press Magazine
Date: April 16, 2011
Venue: TLA, Philadelphia, PA
Bands: Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows, Black Veil Brides, I See Stars,
Versaemerge, Conditions
Reviewer: Lynn Malpass
Photographer: all photography ©Lynn Malpass

Sites:
theaptour.ning.com
www.bvbarmy.com
www.thisisdrugs.com
iseestarsmusic.com
versaemergemusic.com
www.conditionsofficial.com

(In progress)

Without even having a single song released yet, D.R.U.G.S. (Destroy, Rebuild, Until God Comes) are already turning heads and getting fans hooked. Using the same viral tactic as My Chemical Romance recently has – leaving just enough hints and soundbytes as to what’s going on to drive us all crazy – anticipation is high to see what tomorrow, “11.11″, brings for the brand new collaboration featuring Craig Owens (formerly of Chiodos), Matt Good (From First To Last), Nick Martin (formerly of Underminded), Aaron Stern (formerly of Matchbook Romance) and Adam Russell (Story of the Year) and their fans. Being a huge FFTL fan myself, and enjoying Owens’ work, I personally can’t wait. The fact that they just announced their first short tour as well (with Eyes Set to Kill and New Medicine), which goes on pre-sale today, only adds to the hype. But my bet is, it’s going to be well-deserved hype. I could be wrong, but I really think this album is going to blow everyone’s minds and expose the under-recognized talent and true passion these guys have for what they do. That they’ve been working on the new record for months with infamous producer John Feldman, who’s just as excited as they are, and have the backing of Decaydence Records, which has a strong record of signing successful bands, doesn’t hurt either.

Review/photos: Lynn Malpass

After taking almost a year off to rest, regroup and write a new record (to be released by Rise Records, with whom the band has recently signed), From First to Last are hitting the road once more to get the kinks out in preparation for a March album release. I had a chance to catch the band as they came east a couple of weeks ago, their first time out since last year and what turned out to be a whirlwind year for the band. I was very pleased with what I saw and heard.

Though their lineup has changed again – keyboardist Chris Lent having departed to take care of drumming duties in the band I Set My Friends On Fire and 3rd guitarist Blake Steiner of the band Mia Medusa having been added – the band seems every bit as impressive to me as they did last year when I caught them in September, supporting their self-titled Suretone release. It had been my first time seeing the band and they really blew me away at the time, so I approached these shows with a bit of question, wondering what, exactly, I was going to see and hear. I was not disappointed, not in the slightest.

I caught three shows. The Chameleon in Lancaster, PA, Hangar 84 in Vineland, NJ and then, after some talk and a bit of hanging out with these guys – who are the friendliest, nicest bunch I think I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting at a show – I was convinced to check out the show at Webster Hall in New York City as well. All three shows rocked. Supported by The Color of Violence (FFTL members Travis Richter and Derek Bloom’s side project), Therefore I Am and Greeley Estates, there was no lack of energy in any of the sets, though I have to say that their performance in Vineland was the best. The crowd was the best of the three nights as well, and even demanded an encore, which the band did oblige by returning to the stage for one last tune.

The show opener, The Color of Violence (on Epitaph Records), is the result of too much creativity and not enough outlet for it, the brainchild of FFTL guitarist Travis Richter and drummer Derek Bloom. Though it’s just the two of them, they tour with the assistance of FFTL’s bassist Matt Manning, and drummer Jon Syverson of the band Daughters (Initially the band toured with two drummers – Chris Lent added – but Lent has been on tour with his own band). They call themselves ‘experimental’, and I guess that’s really the best word for it, but as Bloom said once on his twitter (presumably after playing to a slightly confused audience), “…please do not come to a Color of Violence show expecting to see a band play. its an art project. its for fun, u know?” For fun or not, CoV is gaining a following, and while their style is too harsh for my personal tastes, their cover of The Pixies “Rock Music” is possibly one of the best covers I’ve heard in a long time.

Beginning their set with favorite “The Latest Plague,” off their Heroine record, FFTL played like always, no evidence of any time off. They ran through the ‘classics’, including “Note to Self, “The Crows are Coming for Us” and “The One Armed Boxer vs. the Flying Guillotine,” and a couple of new songs from the upcoming album which sounded rich and well-rehearsed. I was surprised that only one song off the self-titled album was played, “Deliverance,” however, so I hope we see a few more during future tours. “Worlds Away,” while maybe not in this band’s true ‘style’, is still a massive song, so I hope they continue to play it. In the meantime though, at least the sets are still being closed with the one song that this band is probably known best for, “Ride the Wings of Pestilence,” one of the best attestments to the fact that some newer metal bands still know what real metal is all about. So, though I think these shows left us all drooling for more – perhaps a ploy – they were excellent all the same, leaving me anxious to see From First to Last yet again.

From First to Last are currently finishing details on their upcoming record at home, then hit the road once more at the end of November with Aleseana, Asking Alexandria, The Word Alive and Memphis May Fire. Check them out on MySpace at www.myspace.com/fftl. Check out The Color of Violence a twww.myspace.com/thecolorofviolence .

by Lynn Malpass (originally posted to www.noizefront.net, October 2007)

Last month, after seeing Driver Side Impact perform at the Trocadero, in Philadelphia, opening for Bayside on the Victory Tour 2007, I had a chance to talk to both Branden Langhals and Teddy Feighan about the band, how life on the road’s been for them, and about the trials and tribulations of having a band on the ground floor and starting that slow, tough climb to the top. It was an interesting time, to say the least, and one thing I found out is that the guys in this band definitely have the drive that it takes to make it. They’ve already been through some tough times, but it doesn’t seem to get them down, because they’re in this for the long haul.

Lynn: So… how’s the tour going so far?

Branden Langhals: Yeah, yeah! Tour’s going really well. We’re playing with bands that we either know, or we like a lot. Like, we like every band’s music, our whole band is listening to every band on this tour’s record, like, a lot, to the point where we really know it. So, I mean, it’s like… this is cool. We’re just having fun. And just we’re pumped because this is something huge that we can do where like… no one knows who we are at. All. Because we haven’t been touring. So it’s kind of like a guarantee that people will finally figure it out, you know?

Lynn: Yeah, that’s kind of what I was thinking. I knew you guys were kind-of like… new-ish. But I didn’t realize just how new the band was until I tried finding some information about you all. It was… well, there’s nothing there!

Branden: It’s crazy. Yeah. I mean, we’ve been signed for a year, but we haven’t done… we’ve done one tour. And so with this being our second tour, we’re actually doing pretty decent considering like… no one knows who we are. So… we’re pretty pumped about it.

Lynn: So as far as touring is concerned right now, what is life like for the five of you?

Branden: Well, we find a place to sleep every night, but usually we either know someone or… we’re lucky on this tour because Victory Aaron -he’s a street-teamer for Victory – he gets a hotel every night, and he told me before tour, “if you guys ever can’t find a place to stay, just come stay in my hotel with me,” and so we always have a place to go, but so far, you know, we’re only three days in, but it’s like… finding a place to sleep, waking up between like, 9 and 11 and just driving to the show. And we’re doing some acoustic in-stores now though, too…

Lynn: Yeah.

Branden: So we’re pretty busy, and it’s really weird because, for instance, my girlfriend was actually like… really mad at me today because I was busy since 1:00 till like… still. You know what I mean? So I’m like, constantly doing something. Even if I’m hanging out, it’s like, I’m hanging out because you’re hanging out and meeting people and stuff like that, so it’s not really like I can be on the phone and dedicate time to just be by myself. But we’ve been really busy and I think we all feel like we’re getting a lot done because we’re sticking with a schedule, we’re sticking with the tour itinerary and we’re just making it happen as best we can.

Lynn: And you guys seem really upbeat about the whole thing.

Branden: We are like… we’re all so pumped about it. But that’s how we are with everything. You can catch us at a show with like… four kids, and we’re the same people. I’m dead serious. We’re just always like… we try to have fun, no matter what. And like… let kids have fun, no matter what. And that’s… just how we are.

Lynn: That’s really cool. So how did you guys all get together?

Branden: Teddy and Jack decided to start a band, and they had a drummer that they recruited from Norwalk, Ohio. And then they threw out that drummer and recruited me. And then we played as a band with another guitarist that they were friends with for like… a year and a half. The guitarist left, they kicked out the drummer, we got a new drummer, a new guitarist, being Mikey. We did that like… forever, and got signed with that lineup. Then Zack quit the band like… a week and a half ago. Our new drummer, today was his fourth show ever with the band… care. He was really elite into the music scene, into these really obscure bands, so he didn’t care about…

Lynn: What’s the new drummer’s name?

Branden: His name is Dave. And his last name is like… crazy, I dunno. [laughing]

Lynn: And Dave’s a new member of the band? Or he’s a touring drummer for you guys?

Branden: He’s probably, definitely a new member of the band. We set it up so that we’d all make the decision after the Bayside tour, but he’s been awesome so far. So I mean, just to be the first to say it, he’s probably going to be a permanent deal.

Lynn: Oh, well good. I hope it works out. So what music are you guys into? You were telling me before, you’re really into Saves the Day.

Branden: Personally, Saves the Day is one of my favorite bands…

Lynn: I know you’re really into Bayside…

Branden: Bayside’s awesome, umm… Thursday…

Lynn: I guess I was just wondering music motivates the band?

Branden: I give the same answer every time, and I feel bad for this, but it all depends on what each member has been into, and to be honest, each member is into different things. Like Mikey, he’s been into like metal and hardcore bands with names like Caligula and like… Dead Yellow Elvis and stuff like that. He’s been in bands that are just like… the hardcore, the breakdowns, the metal, the squeals, all that kind of stuff. So that’s where we’re really getting that background from. Jack’s been into pop punk his whole life, I’ve been into Saves the Day, stuff like Arcade Fire, Alkaline Trio, really that whole following, and then like… Teddy kind of the same thing as me, pretty much. So I mean, it all kind of just blended in, all those bands together kind of combined our whole feel for what we’re doing but at the same time we just… love stuff that’s like… experimental. The big thing we’re trying to do is to be a band that sticks. We’re not a band who’s trying to be a trend. We’re not trying to stick to some certain trend. We’re trying to, like, there’s so many different things that we’ve done that we’re like ’uh, we can’t do that, it sounds like a U2 song’. Because obviously, that band’s been around forever, but we’re trying to make it so that we can do this for the rest of our lives and make a career out of it.

Lynn: Right, well, actually, I wanted to ask you about that. The fact that… I know that sometimes Victory has been criticised for signing a lot of bands that sound the same, and it’s all that… really popular sound right now. And the few articles that I’ve managed to read about you guys, a couple of people really loved you, and a couple of people lumped you guys in with that whole sound.

Branden: Yeah.

Lynn: Now, I listened to it, and I think you guys are different than the rest, and that you are trying to do something different so… what…

Branden: Personally, I think the people who would agree with the fact that we’re summed into the ‘lump sum’ of being like everyone else, they’re listening for like… they hear a high-pitched vocal for two seconds, and they’re like… “new song, click! New band,” like it’s a dime a dozen. Bands are a dime a dozen, it’s true, and to stick out, it’s really hard if someone doesn’t give you the time to listen to your full record, they’re not understand what you’re doing. And even if you do listen to our full record, you might not get it because Sal Villanueva, awesome producer, awesome person, produced Taking Back Sunday and produced Thursday, tried to make another pop record out of us, kind of like Taking Back Sunday, which isn’t exactly what we wanted, but it’s something we were still kind-of striving for. But like, he really did kind-of strip us of our experimental and, like, ambient aspect that we really have, and it’s like… what we’re all about. So when we do our next record, we’re just going to do whatever we want to do, and that’s going to be like… not mainstream and not poppy, none of that stuff.

Lynn: So you’re saying that you guys are actually a little bit disappointed…

Branden: To the turnout of our record? Yeah. But it’s only because like, there were a lot of things like… all of our guitar effects were supposed to be
totally different. Like, there was actually a sheet that was all of our guitar fact, and that sheet got totally thrown away. This is Teddy, by the way, the guy you were looking for before.

Lynn: Hey!

Teddy Feighan: Hi!

Branden: So he can join the interview if you want.

Lynn: Yeah! Sure!

Branden: But uh… it was no one’s fault? It wasn’t like, a bad thing? But it was just that there were different visions for what was supposed to be created for the band and for us, I think we wanted something that we could really pride ourselves on, on being really different and… I dunno. Different’s a really hard word to explain. Music’s music, we all use the same kind of instruments as every other band…

Lynn: Yeah, but I get it. You want to be memorable.

Branden: Exactly. We want to be memorable. We want people to look at us and be like “that band did, you know, X thing,” and that’s what
made us…

Lynn: You want people to be able to listen to it and pick out that there’s something about it… There’s something about that, that just really grabs me, yeah, I totally understand that. But, like… at what point in the recording process did you guys begin to realize that maybe it wasn’t sounding like you wanted it to, or was that not until the end?

Branden: We didn’t. It wasn’t until a few months after having the record done that we were kind-of like… Oh, but we still love it, like, don’t get the impression that we don’t…

Teddy: Yeah, we didn’t realize it at the time.

Branden: We like…love our CD. But…

Teddy: That’s why we were like… putting all this work into it and we were all like “cool, cool…” and taking his advice…

Branden: We trusted him because we were awestruck by him, because he is who he is, who he’s worked with, and we like… really, really trusted him on this.

Lynn: Ah, okay.

Teddy: But then afterward we were like “you know what,” and there was a lot of stuff I would have done differently, you know what I mean? But…

Branden: No, yeah, we still love our CD.

Lynn: And this one is your second CD, is that right?

Teddy: First album.

Branden: First ever.

Lynn: Oh, okay… what did you have out before?

Branden: Well, we have an EP, but that was literally like, something that our management, in combination with a producer they knew, did with us to get us signed. So that was the whole point. It was just a demo, basically… so I really don’t count the demo as being a record. Although, we’re selling them now, because we have a thousand of them left, and we figure… they’ll be a limited edition and some lucky kid can maybe sell it on eBay in eight years.

Lynn: Yeah! OK, how did you come up with the name Driver Side Impact?

Branden: Teddy! Why don’t you pick that one up?

Teddy: I was in a band before, in my freshman year of high school, and we were thinking about band names, and somebody’s friend was like, “how about you call it Braced for Impact,” and I thought that was… I dunno, but it totally jarred my memory and I was like “no, wait, Driver Side Impact,” and I thought that sounded…

Branden: It’s kind of funny. I don’t know if you feel this way? I’m just gonna… we’re gonna have this discussion on paper now, but, I feel like, right now, if we were to name the band? It would never be this.

Teddy: Yeah, it was Austin.

Branden: Austin, our old keyboardist, actually… what we did was, each of us basically got, on our own, like… pen and paper, write down whatever you want to do for the album name. And we took whatever, like, everyone kind of came to the studio one day and we were like “Alright, what do you want to name it?” Everyone brought all their names too the pool, and we were just like… well, Austin actually had like… three really good ones. And I think we just really dug The Very Air We Breathe because since before that name, people used to tell us that our record was like a breath of fresh air. It was like, something that wasn’t totally typical for this whole emo post-hardcore scene because we’re doing something at least a little bit different and whether or not people agree with that about the full-length, I think they should to listen to our EP and they can understand that at least from our roots, they would agree with that. The Very Air We Breath, was just like, alright, cool, that makes perfect sense. The Very Air We Breathe. Plus, to me, it was like a tightness thing, you know, the fans breathe the same air that we do? And it’s like, we’re doing the same thing that they want to do. Like… I know it sound cheesy. Everybody’s laughing at me…

Branden: No, no I’m not!

Branden: But like… for real. I’ve always thought of it in terms of how I used to be that kid in the crowd, who was watching a band and thinking how that would be so sweet. And… we all breathe the same air. And all of a sudden, it happened for us, too. Like… we earned it. We worked really hard, but it can happen for anybody. I don’t know.

Lynn: I’ve seen you guys called experimental, and I’ve seen the word progressive used as well. Do you find a difference in experimental or progressive?

Branden: You know, I’m not much of a music guru, and that’s the truth. I took music theory in college and I was in marching band in high school. Other than that, and playing drums for nine years, and trying to sing in a band, I’m not trying to claim that I know more about music, so a lot of like… “elite” music people rip us apart for being wrong with using the term “experimental”, but in terms of what I think of, we literally do sit in our practice room and experiment with weird guitar sounds. And to me, I don’t know what else could be experimenting, I mean, in terms of science, that’s an experiment, you’re trying something. And we mess with weird stuff and try to make some cool little sounds out of some stuff and…
we experiment.

Lynn: Great.

Branden: And we’re ambient, because we do like… pretty little stuff. And that’s ambient to me.

Lynn: The MySpace. MySpace has been having a huge influence in music. How much of an influence would you say your MySpace is making for the band?

Branden: You know what’s weird? I’ve seen bands like… Teddy, give me an example of a band that’s got huge MySpace numbers, who’s huge because of it.

Teddy: Devil Wears Prada

Branden: Like the Devil Wears Prada. That’s a band who – and I’m not trying to bash them. Great dudes, probably, but – I feel like because of MySpace, that’s why they became a band. Not why they became a band, but why they got big as a band. For us it was busting our balls and sweating in a Pontiac Aztec every Saturday or Friday night, trying to figure out if we had enough tickets sold for all of our shows because we busted our balls trying to make sure we had the right amount of stuff going out for every promoter for every show. And the only reason we ever got recognition from management was because we did that. Every single time, we sold as many tickets as they’d ask us to, we did everything they said we should, and we tried our hardest to be on time. And we probably weren’t all the time, but like… MySpace in general, our numbers aren’t huge. We don’t get a ton of plays a day. We still average under a thousand, which is like… nothing. Like, that’s so bad. But we don’t… there’s bands that are equal level that are getting 35,000-60,000 thousand plays a day.

Teddy: I think that, actually, MySpace is like… invaluable.

Lynn: I agree with that. I completely agree with that.

Branden: I agree with that, too.

Teddy: And I think that’s pretty fucked up, too, because it doesn’t really…

Branden: I agree with it too, because MySpace is such a good promotional and marketing tool. MySpace… but to show the other aspect of what I just said, MySpace is literally what got us signed. Our manager sent a completely informal email to Tony Brummel and said ”hey, this is another one of Don’s bands, Driver Side Impact, this is their MySpace link, check them out”. Three hours later, the response to that was “we’re all going to Chicago next week.” It’s amazing, but at the same time I’m not saying that I agree with it. Agree with bands getting big off it.

Teddy: Also, I think it kind of takes away from the whole experience in finding new music where… you had to get the album from a friend or you had to go see a band and now, with MySpace, it’s like “Oh, check my band out. Oh, your numbers are low,” or whatever.

Branden: Yeah. People make a really big prejudice based on what your plays look like, or what your pictures look like, which is something that’s really weird about it. So as much as I think it can be a promotional tool, it can also shoot you in the foot really quick.

Lynn: That’s interesting. I, personally, have found so much new music through MySpace. Up until now I’ve been a strict LiveJournaler, and when I first started with MySpace, and this was just a personal page, I hated it. Then I put up another page, for my photography. Now I love it. I’m on MySpace so much, because it really is a great promotional tool.

Branden: It’s a promotional tool. Now it’s marketing, the business aspect.

Lynn: Exactly. Exactly. And I’m really finding so many ways to use it.

Branden: Totally different.

Lynn: What do you guys think of the downloading issue, and… have you ever given away songs for free to attract attention to the band?

Teddy: I’m all for it. I would put our entire album online for free.

Branden: Yeah, I would, too. All of us would. We told people that the week our album came out, “Look, buy our record! Buy our record, and if you can’t afford it, have a friend buy it, burn it from a friend, just listen to our music. And come to our shows and hang out and be our friends. Like, anything. And… we did at one point in time, though, yeah. It was nothing we’ve done on Victory though, that we’ve given away for free, but we’ve let people download our EP. At Victory were to be like, “yeah, it’s cool, you can let people download a song,” we’d be like “fuck yeah, let’s do it.” But… we actually just aren’t allowed to…

Lynn: Yeah, I figured as much, now that you’re signed.

Branden: If we’re giving away something that’s a business, and sold and paid for by someone that isn’t us, for free, that isn’t really right.

Teddy: Record sales are kind of skewed. They’re really hard to gauge.

Branden: Yeah, it’s true. It’s true. So it’s like saying, if you’ve sold 3000 records, you’ve really sold about 9000.

Lynn: Or there’s 9000 out there, at least.

Branden: Well, yeah, figuratively saying, 9000 kids have your record, and are listening to it.

Lynn: Saying that you were able to give the album away, you would want to do that, to attract more people, to get them to the shows?

Branden: Yeah, I mean, we would be totally down with that.

Lynn: Are you going to make the money at the shows, if more people come to them?

Branden: Absolutely. The plain truth is we’re probably not going to make any money off our record, or our… anything. The only thing we make money of off are our t-shirts and our, like… selling stuff at the shows is the only way we can make any money. To this day, I’m still living off a five-dollar a day per Diem. And like… when you’re on the road long enough that your paychecks from working at Starbucks at home runs out…

Lynn: Five dollars a day?

Branden: I literally live off of five dollars for a whole day.

Lynn: Wow.

Branden: And that’s because this whole industry is set up to the point where it’s like… how else are you going to make your money if you aren’t selling enough t-shirts and playing in front of tons of people? And like… every band plays tons of shows in front of twenty kids.

Lynn: This was a pretty good crowd tonight.

Branden: Oh, this was amazing. It was awesome. This whole tour is like… awesome. Well, like last night, it was 2000 kids. It was sold out. I mean, I can’t complain about this tour, but this is one of many. It’s harsh. We spent, yesterday, in New York City, $120 just to park, we spent $103 paying the venue our percentage of merch that we sold, and that’s more than we make for the show, playing it. We make $100 for the show. And owed $103 to the venue for that. So there’s no way to really win in this situation because there’s no one giving you money… other than yourself. Apparel. You know what I mean? We’re a clothing company.

Lynn: That has to be so frustrating and so ridiculous. You’re just getting famous, but you’re not famous enough.

Branden: Exactly.

Lynn: To, you know, put your whole heart and soul into it like this…

Branden: Yeah, we bust our balls.

Lynn: Wow. Yeah. That’s hard. And you guys have had your gear stolen, not just once, but twice?

Branden: In one week.

Lynn: In one week.

Branden: We had our van robbed right in front of Victory. We had a GPS, three iPods and a MacBook Pro. And then literally one week from that in Sacramento, California, our trailer was broken into, $11,000.00 worth of equipment stolen.

Lynn: So the first time they didn’t steal all your equipment?

Branden: No, they didn’t touch the trailer. They just broke into the actual van. Because we were dumb and left our shit out in the open.

Lynn: So, how… a small band like you guys, just starting out, $11,000.00 worth of stuff. How do you recover from something like this?

Branden: Umm… out of pocket. Help from parents. Depleting the band’s bank account. Everything. And we’re still suffering from that. This was last summer, and we’re still like… dying from it. We haven’t been able to pay back our merch contract yet, and we’ve probably got like… fifteen t-shirts, total, right now, left in our merch right now and you’re supposed to sell way more than that. And we can’t even sell those because we don’t have the right sizes right now. So we’re hurting even more right now on this tour, in front of sold-out crowds, because we don’t have the right amount of merchandise to give to these kids, so we’re kind of… we’re kind of fucked right now, for lack of a better word, because we really don’t know what else we’re gonna do. Anthony from Bayside said he’s going to help us out with getting merch made, and I’m not sure when that’ll happen, but, yeah. Literally, getting robbed like that, and recuperating, we spent like eight hours in a Guitar Center. We were late for the show, and we played right before the headliner, because that’s when we got there. We had to go around and buy new equipment and get ready for the show, and like half of it was on credit card and other stuff. And it was so expensive, recovering from that.

Lynn: And then you guys aren’t making anything right now…

Branden: Yeah. Everything that… it’s so weird because that stuff, it’s a really big issue and every time I think about it it kills me, but at the same time I don’t think about it enough to the point where I’m unhappy. I have so much fun, like… when I was just out there handing CDs to kids and dancing around and being stupid, just having a good time hanging out with the fans, and I know it sounds so cheesy but… I’m ready to go to tomorrow night’s show, and the next show, and the next show.

Lynn: Well, yeah. There’s got to be something to motivate you to do that so…

Branden: If we didn’t, okay, not literally, [laughing] but if we didn’t get off on playing on stage, we wouldn’t be doing this.

Lynn: Yeah. So what are you guys doing after this tour? Any plans yet?

Branden: I don’t know yet. I’d prefer to be home, because by then it’s December 9th or something, and the holidays come up soon. I think January we’re talking about, we have some other small tours, a headlined, but I don’t think we’re ready to headline so… yeah. We’re not big into headlining yet. But we just got a new booking agent, and January we’re doing some stuff with Mayday Parade, definitely going to be doing more stuff, so we’ll see. I’m sure we’ll do more stuff in December, but it’ll be more regional, like, home kind of stuff, where the kids know us. It was good tonight, because the kids liked us a lot, but it’s weird because they didn’t know who we were, and they don’t get into you and dance around because they don’t know what’s going to happen, and they’re not comfortable yet. But at the end of the night they were very appreciative, which was cool, so hopefully when we ever come back to Philadelphia people will actually know who we are.

Lynn: What band is it your dream to tour with?

Branden: Honestly, if I were to tour with Saves the Day, I mean, I know I keep talking about this band…

Lynn: Is there somebody, collectively, that the whole band would love to tour with?

Branden: OK, I guess… I can speak for Teddy and I, because we’re the business dudes in the band. If we toured with Saves the Day, we’d be like… freaking out. Every day. But I know… even Mikey would probably fall into that category. Jack, you know… OK, it would be like, Blink 182, if they ever reunited and we all got to tour with them. That would be crazy. I mean, it’s like, we grew up in that same era. We’re not old enough where we’d want to try and tour with like… Led Zeppelin, which people might knock us for but yeah. I graduated in 2004. I listened to New Found Glory and Blink 182, and I used to like Linkin Park way back in the day, you know what I mean? I’m not trying to sound cool or anything. But it would be Saves the Day, Blink 182, Thrice, Coheed and Cambria, Taking Back Sunday, Thursday. Any of those bands.

Lynn: Cool.

Branden: Because those are literally the bands that even just to play with them, it means a lot.

Lynn: Everybody’s got to have that dream, you know, in their head. To tour with someone, no matter who it is, even if it’s…

BL: If you could get Thursday, Taking Back Sunday, maybe Glassjaw, and Thrice on the same tour…

Lynn: And you guys!

Branden: I wouldn’t be able to play every night, because I’d just be like… wondering what the other bands are doing backstage. I’d be late for sound check, because I’d be freaking out.

Lynn: That’s funny!

Branden: Well that’s how this tour is for us right now. We love Bayside.

Lynn: It’s really great that you guys are all having so much fun doing this.

Branden: We’ve been waiting for this… forever. Everyone at home has been like, “You guys are going out with Bayside!?” We’re kind of a big deal at home now, people know who you are and ask “You’re going out with Bayside. Are you excited?” And of course it’s like ”yeah, totally!” It feels like we’re watching a movie, really, to know that we’re standing on the side-stage because we’re on the same tour with Bayside. It really hasn’t sunk in yet but… day three!

Lynn: Yeah, that must be a great feeling, I’m sure.

Branden: Yeah, it really is.

Lynn: Well great. I hope it continues to go well, and you guys have a great rest of the tour. Thanks for letting me do this, and come talk to you about this stuff!

Branden: Hey, yeah. No problem. Thanks a lot.

http://www.myspace.com/driversideimpact

by Lynn Malpass (originally posted at www.noizefront.net, October 2007)

Last month at the end of my review of Shannon Crawford and his band Monster in the Machine I mentioned having also done an interview with Shannon, which would publish this month. After the band’s performance at the World Cafe Live in Philadelphia, Shannon was kind enough to meet with me to talk about his new CD and his musical efforts, although at first it was beginning to seem as though fate didn’t want us to do this interview. Between the fact that there really was no quiet, private spot at the venue where we could talk, since it’s more like a restaurant than a concert venue. We first tried outside, but it was pouring rain, and everyone was huddled under the overhang of the building’s entrance and this one umbrella that stood over a sidewalk ashtray. When that didn’t work, we tried in the breezeway between the main door and the inside door, but the echo in there was terrible, and all we heard was Rock four playing in the room next to us. You get the idea. After a while it did become funny though, and we did, thankfully, find someplace where we could talk in relative peace and actually hear each other.

[After asking the same question, and changing our location three times... We start, trying to do the interview outside. Traffic, as well as rain, is making it just about impossible at this point, but we try anyway].

Lynn: I’d never even heard of the band, or your music, but Amanda [Cagan, their publicist], she’s the one that alerted me to it, and after I gave a listen, I was like, “Oh my God. This is really good!”. It’s just… The etherealness of it, the feel of it. So you… Were in a band called Cellophane before. And I did read in the band’s bio that you’d experienced some label problems? What was that, something like ten years ago?

Shannon: Not so much label problems that were any different than anyone else. Every new bad, unless they’re lucky enough to blow up, or unless the timing is just right, we just had the typical “new band vs the label” situation, there was nothing really different to what normally happens.

Lynn: OK. It seemed from what I had read that, maybe you guys were young, and you needed the guidance and you didn’t get it… That kind of thing…

Shannon: Yeah.

Lynn: So, now you’re doing this on an indie label and… what kinds of things are different? Doing it on your own.

Shannon: I actually like it a lot more because I know exactly what’s going on. I know exactly who’s involved. I’m in direct contact with maybe 5, 6 different people, all doing different things, and I get an account of what’s happening as it’s happening. I’m kind of a control freak – you know, I produced my whole record, I wrote the whole thing by myself. You’ve got to be somewhat of a control freak to do that. Or, I wouldn’t say “control freak,” but more a “perfectionist?”

Lynn: Yeah.

Shannon: It’s just good… One thing is…

[Now there's all kinds of noise from people loading and unloading things from a truck right in front of the venue, along with traffic sounds and the rain...]

Shannon: … It’s my friend Munky’s [James Shaffer's] personal money. It’s not some, big anonymous label that’s just open pocket. It’s his money and we’ve got to be careful with it. We can’t just be crazy, spend like crazy.

Lynn: Right. But he obviously has enough faith in you, and the band to know that you guys are doing something really good with this, and can get enough people to listen. Where did you come up with the name? Because, I’ll say that personally, when I heard the name, this wasn’t at all what I thought of, the picture I had, of what this music is really like. I was thinking like… really heavy metal…

Shannon: Yeah, it does have a kind of heavy-metal sound to it, but really, it’s a political statement. The machine being the powers of the world, the governments of the world that are in power, and the human race is the monster in that machine, the ones that keep it going, by believing the lies, the lie of… The illusion of owning your own home, or the illusion of winning wars against these sort of “epic” US enemies. Like… The “war on drugs,” or “war on terrorists”; it’s just a marketing scheme, and… We’re the monsters that keep that machine going. Yeah, so, basically, the Monster in the Machine is the human race.

[And the noise level continued to get even louder...]

Shannon: It’s more political, I guess.

Lynn: It’s really appropriate for this day and age, right now.

Shannon: Yeah, Absolutely.

Lynn: That’s really interesting for me, because two nights ago I saw Bad Religion, to review and photograph them, so, yeah, you know what their songs are like… it’s the same thing…

Shannon: Oh, yeah. I was a really big fan in high school.

Lynn: And you know, they’re going strong with that same message.

[Now the truck is backing up, and there's that awful 'beeeeeep-beeeeeep' sound. Shannon and I just looked at each other and kind of laughed at this point but tried to carry on].

Shannon: Yeah.

Lynn: Tell me a little about working with Josh Freese. He’s worked with so many great bands.

[Then to add to the noise, a random person walking down the street approaches us and asks Shannon for a cigarette, so he politely explains that he just put out his last, apologizes, and we again chuckle over all of this before attempting to start again].

Shannon: Well, Josh Freese, he did a lot of Puddle of Mudd stuff, and my own bass player from Cellophane, he’s in Puddle of Mudd, so he had a direct contact with him. And he heard some of the stuff and he loved it, and said “yeah, I’ll do it”. ‘Cause the thing is, he does so many things, and he gets asked to do so many things, he kind of does what he likes. He has the option. He doesn’t “have to” take anything, so… it was great. He was a total pro, he came in and did the whole record in, literally, two days. Came in, did four or five songs, next day did four or five songs, listened to it once, went out and played it, basically in one take.

Lynn: Yeah, it must be nice to have the choice to pick and choose which projects you want to work on, as well as to be one of those projects that gets picked.

Shannon: Yeah.

Lynn: This is really great, I mean, the whole album just sounds so good, I’m sure that he made the right decision in this case. So what do you foresee
looking ahead for this now?

Shannon: Hopefully better tours, just… bigger tours, and to eventually have a whole crew to help us load the gear, so I don’t have to stress about the little things and I can just worry about going on and just playing.

Lynn: How “big” is comfortable for you? How big do you want this to get?

Shannon: [smiling] As big as… as big as it can be. I’m comfortable with it getting as big as it wants to get. I’m not afraid of success.

Lynn: Well yeah, that’s good, definitely. I ask because you know, there are some bands that just… don’t want to get that big. OK. The first time I heard anything by Monster in the Machine, I was listening to songs on the MySpace, and the first thing that appealed to me was the “sound”; the first thing that I heard coming out of that was ELO. And… you just don’t hear that today, anymore.

[Our interview is once more interrupted by people gathering and being kind of obnoxiously loud, so we move again. And again. And yet again... until we finally wind up back in the same spot, but after the other people had left. It's beginning to be really funny at this point].

Lynn: [Trying AGAIN!] Right. So! We were talking about influences, and sounds and… ELO… Depeche Mode and Bowie and…

Shannon: Yeah, when people ask, “What’s your music like,” I usually say ‘early Bowie, with late Beatles, and 80′s overtones. There’s… It’s not like I wanted to directly go out and rip off bands, but it’s just… music that I’ve heard, and that I love, that moves me, and as a result of that… what comes out of me is a result of those bands that I love, basically. It’s not like I listen to a band an am like, “yeah, I want to sound like that.” That would be crazy. That would be plagiarism.

[Incidentally, it was really difficult for both of us to keep our train of thought, and listening back to this tape, we went round and round SO many times, trying to get through the list of questions!]

Lynn: Yeah, exactly. Have you ever heard of the old band Christian Death, by any chance?

Shannon: I’ve heard of them. I haven’t heard them.

Lynn: Yeah, actually, I know of them, but I’ve only heard two or three of their songs, but what’s interesting, why I bring it up, too, is that… my friend that’s with me tonight, he loves them. And one night we were listening to your songs and I played Savior, and he looked at me and said “Who is that?! Is that Christian Death?” And I told him no, it wasn’t, that it was Monster in the Machine, and… it’s just one of those things where… I guess it felt like… this black and eyeliner and goth sound, something that immediately caught both of our ears, because we like that kind of music, too.

Shannon: A lot of the goth kids are really liking Savior. That’s what I hear.

Lynn: Yeah, I love it!

Shannon: I love the whole goth “vibe,” you know… my complexion’s a little too pink, and my hair’s a little too blond to pull it off but… yeah. I love it.

Lynn: Yeah, you need a little eyeliner.

Shannon: Hey, I might start doing that!

Lynn: Hey, you’d look good with a little eyeliner! [laughing]

Shannon: [laughing]

[And of course this noisy interview would not be complete without a taxi cab driving past, blaring its horn full blast... We attempted to just ignore that one].

Lynn: Yeah! What I particularly like the most about the 80′s undertones to your music is that you naturally have that, what is it… that ”120 Minutes” 80′s vibe, rather than it being that… what was it, the MTV Top 20, or something.

Shannon: Yeah, of course. Oh, that’s right! 120 Minutes! I mean, yeah. That’s the kind of 80′s music… I’m not gonna be doing like, Whitney Houston influences, that type stuff.

Lynn: Well, no, maybe not her, but what I mean was that there were bands out then that were… we have bands out today that have ”80′s undertones” sounds like something Billy Idol would have done, which is cool, but… you know…

Shannon: It’s been done. Yeah. Really…

Lynn: And I know, with the kids today, when you say “Hey, that sounds like… The Church,” and they’re like “who?”  It’s like.. Oh, no way! You have to go listen to that!

Shannon: Oh yeah! I loved The Church. They’re… that was definitely…

Lynn: This conversation is dating me!

Shannon: [laughing] This conversation is dating you?

Lynn: [laughing] Yeah. I know too much obscure 80′s stuff… OK, so… you said this was the second part of the tour that you’re on here…

[It starts pouring rain yet again, so we try one last time to find quiet, and end up, finally, in the tour van]

Shannon: OK, here. Let’s try… Alright, cool.

Lynn: Ah, ok. So. This is the second part of the tour, and I believe I read on your MySpace that you guys were getting a really good response. The CDs are selling. Are the… houses full? This [speaking of the World Cafe Live in particular] is kind of a neat setup [referring to the fact that the bands play in front of a restaurant-type set-up].

Shannon: Yeah. This is, basically, I love these guys, Rockfour, they love doing what they do, and they’re apparently huge in Tel Aviv. I spoke to this Israeli friend of mine, and they were like… blown away, it was such a big deal that I was opening for Rockfour, and… but they’re not very known in America, and so the audiences are going to be a little smaller. So, I’m kind-of… taking this as just our sort-of getting our stage legs going, and a little warm-up kind of situations, getting us ready for the Debbie Harry dates we’re going to be doing, and for Team Sleep.

Lynn: Oh great! Wow, that’s awesome. I’m definitely going to have to check that out, when you tour with them, and when you guys come back around.

Shannon: Yeah.

Lynn: Yeah. I think… yeah, this is definitely good to have, then, to help, what… solidify your sound, especially since you’re touring with different musicians that the ones who did the record with you, is that right?

Shannon: Yeah. Right. But… John Chase is in the band, and he played guitar in Cellophane. And then… Jay Cury, I’ve been in bands with before, and then Lats, the bass player, was in a band called Memento, and I’ve known Lats for… I didn’t just do some cattle-call audition thing. These are people that I’ve known for a long time, and trust because… it’s such an intimate thing to be in a band with someone that you don’t even know… if you don’t like them, it would be very difficult. I want to have fun. Life is too short. I don’t want to be miserable at any moment.

Lynn: Yeah… And it must be amazing… and difficult, too, to do this kind of thing, especially at the beginning, when you’re out there plugging it and plugging it and plugging it and saying ‘hey everyone, look at us, we’re really good,’ and then, you know, converting fans one at a time, and still have to deal with everything else on top of that, so I can see how you’d want that.

Shannon: Yeah.

Lynn: I understand that along with being a musician, you’re also an artist?

Shannon: Yeah, I’m a painter.

Lynn: What kind of painting do you do?

Shannon: I paint oil on canvas and oil on panel, and it’s sort of an abstract, figurative look. I love the abstract. I love pop art. But I also like to show that I have skill and I can paint the human form. So I apply that in the piece. Maybe later I might get into really abstract stuff, but I like to show that I’ve… developed a skill, and a style. Because I like to pain the human form, but I like them in abstract situations, or abstract… actually the physical form abstracted.

Lynn: Do you do anything else? Do you write? I mean, other than songs.

Shannon: No, umm… I started writing a story, a science-fiction, animated script for a film I was developing, and doing the art for called Orphean, and we’re actually speaking with a couple of production companies now to put that out. James [Shaeffer], were was going to produce it, and he put money into a three-minute trailer, and the people we hired to do it botched it. And it just looked terrible. So we just sort of…

Lynn: Oh no. That’s terrible.

Shannon: Yeah, they totally ruined it.

Lynn: What a disappointment. Maybe you’ll get to do it in the future, though.

Shannon: Yeah, just… one more thing to pay James back for… [laughing] My dear friend, my best friend. And that’s why, you know…

[At this point, one of the other band members opens the side door on the van, making this loud noise, and we both stop and just stare at him a moment, probably both thinking "WHAT NOW!?" before we just ignore him and continue on while he finds what he needs and then pulls the door shut again].

Shannon: … someone asked me, you know, “when are you going to go in and do the next record?” And I basically said… when I sell enough records to get my friend paid back. That’s another thing with an independent label, and this is very independent. One person’s pocket. And so the goal with this record is to get him reimbursed, so we have an opportunity to make a second record. I think, at this point, there will always be someone who’ll want to pick us up, but I want to stay…

[NOW it starts pouring out, making the inside of the van sound like a firing range. We both start laughing pretty good].

Shannon: Oh, and now we have rain! [laughing]

Lynn: [laughing more] Oh man. OK… moving on… I overheard part of a conversation somewhere, or maybe I read something, I can’t remember, but what was said was something in regard to the giants, the labels, and how they’re soon going to cancel each other out, and everything’s going to go indie. What do you think about that? Do you agree with that?

Shannon: Umm… I think…what’s happening… who knows? You know? How do we know that… the whole Napster thing wasn’t created by them so that they could cancel each other out and become one huge, giant label with no competition. Isn’t that the goal of the corporations? Not to have competition and just to own everything?

Lynn: It’s starting to happen, with the mergers that are happening…

Shannon: Maybe they planned the whole thing? Because… they’re not the ones losing the money, you know? It’s the artists. Now they have the 360-deals where they take half your publishing, and half your merch, and half your shows…

Lynn: Wow… really?

Shannon: Well, yeah, because they have their lifestyles that they need to maintain and their yachts and their three homes and their kids in private school and…they’re not going to give that up. So, if there are artists out there that are stupid enough, and willing enough to give these fuckheads all their shit, then, yeah, they’re going to keep… keep gnawing away at us. Just like predatory lenders giving people these…mortgages that are not fixed, it’s just a scam to make the poor, poorer. Like, for instance, I live in LA, and… I fucking hate it. I moved out, and I’m living on the road right now. I can’t live there anymore. I don’t want to drive a car anymore, I don’t… in face I was driving a vegetable oil car. I think that cars are the number one destroyers of the environment. So anyway, I’m looking at a place, I’m just curious for what things are selling for, a tiny, little place in Manhattan… for $600,000.00 And, you know, if I did some kind of publishing deal or something, got a big advance, sure, maybe I could pull that down but…they want to make sure you’re making four times the amount of the actual mortgage. So basically, only a millionaire – because that piece of property will go up, to a million dollars in five years, probably – but poor people aren’t “entitled” to have their property raise in value like that. You have to be rich in order to make that kind of money.

Lynn: It’s awful.

Shannon: And, another thing, if we’re talking about pet peeves, is the pharmaceutical companies and the FDA. The FDA is there to protect the pharmaceutical companies, when we can really heal ourselves with any natural remedy. Preventive medicine, you know, prevention. But they’re brain washing us with every other TV commercial being some pharmaceutical company. So I stopped watching pedestrian television because it makes me sick…

Lynn: I hardly watch TV anymore, either, and I don’t miss it.

Shannon: I mean, I’ll watch… I like my HBO, and stuff like that, that’s different…

Lynn: I rent movies when there’s something I want to see, too.

Shannon: Yeah. Dexter. I love Dexter, Entourage, Real Time with Bill Maher. Anyway, yeah… wow, I’m all over the place with this.

Lynn: Oh, hey, it’s cool. I really like the way you think, though!

Shannon: Oh, good.

Lynn: No, really. I agree with you… on all these points. As well as what we were originally talking about…

Shannon: Definitely put that in! How do we know that the labels didn’t create all this themselves? It’s sorta like how we create some bogus war just to, I mean, there are many possibilities. Just to secure a base in that region of the world to…? There’s a movie that, if anyone reads this I’d like you all to watch, it’s called “The Selling of Iraq,” and that will explain to you a lot about what a cash-and-carry war this is, through Haliburton, and how they’re doing what they’re doing. I can’t explain in detail, but I love that documentary because they’re interviewing just… real Americans from the south and the midwest that, probably in 2000 voted for Bush, but are now seeing what’s really going on because they went over there to work for Haliburton, which is… the demonic entity of this nation. And that is the reason of that war. So that Dick Cheyney’s old company – of which he was the CEO – they can all just kick back and… cash and carry, our whole government, and our whole country’s been led to believe…

Lynn: And it seems like the rest of us, the average person, we’re not strong enough even if we band together to do the right things that we need for change.

Shannon: Well, even Paris has been Americanized to some extent. I went with Korn three years ago, to [Le] Bercy[?], it’s a venue with this grass triangle, and the kids would crowd surf and they’d come over and the security guards would be laughing, and they’d… politely move them out of the way and send them back into the crowd. And I went there this summer, and security had become just… soldiers. Like, American asshole security guards and they’d pick up the kids and throw them and hurt them, and kick them out for…

Lynn: Like Fall Out Boy’s security guards! [laughing]

Shannon: [laughing] Yeaaaah, so… if I ever have a security guard like that I’ will… I’ll bring my microphone around like a gaucho and sock him in the head with it.

Lynn: They paid the money to come to the concert to have a good time, and already they frisk you, they take everything off you that you could possibly have on you. So the kids are bouncing around and pushing and shoving a little bit. That happened the other night, they threw three kids out because they were goofing off, but having fun…

Shannon: No… if I ever see a security guard pushing one of my fans around? I will go to jail that night. Because I’ll take my guitar and put the fucking guy in the hospital so… forewarning, security guards! [laughing]

Lynn: [laughing]

Shannon: I know. I’m goin’ all over the place.

Lynn: Nah, it’s cool, though. Because, like I said, I really agree with your point of view on this stuff.

Shannon: But I’m really a peaceful guy, you know? [laughing] I sound tough, but I truly am peaceful unless someone is directly acting like my enemy like… the Haliburtons and the pharmaceutical companies and the cash and carry government and stuff like that.

Lynn: This reminds me, ok, another Bad Religion reference, since I just saw them last night, but one of their songs is called “Let Them Eat War,” which is like… so relevant to this conversation.

Shannon: Yeah. Definitely.

Lynn: OK, so who are you listening to these days?

Shannon: Right now? I’m listening to… The Doors. I love, I’m a big Doors fan and growing up I was… I just started listening to them again because we opened for Riders on the Storm, which was really cool.

Lynn: Oh, that’s…

Shannon: Yeah, Ray Manzara and Robby Krieger. Yeah, in high school I liked The Doors. Although I love the Beatles and the Stones now, I was always sort of a Doors kid.

[Someone else comes into the van again, but we're on a roll, so we just carry on like nobody's even there this time...].

Shannon: A lot of 80s stuff, Jeff Buckly, nothing really new and cutting edge right now. You sort-of caught me off guard and that’s the only thing I can think of right offhand. I mean, I have my favorites…

Lynn: Like, when you guys hit the road, what CD is in there?

Shannon: Oh, they listen to… [Shannon held up some CD that he happened to find sitting on the van seat, I can't remember exactly what it was, but it was something like rap or pop or... some other kind of music that we both obviously found to be less than appealing]

Lynn: No, I mean…

Shannon: Actually, I just met up with them. I was in upstate NY, I was in Woodstock, and then I was in the city all week, ‘cus I’m kind of homeless right now and staying with my girlfriend up there, so they drove the van across country and I flew. But not because I’m some fancy-pants. I’m homeless. [laughing].

Lynn: [laughing] Hey, this is really great. I’m learning a lot about you, about the CD and the band… Maybe, can we close with a few, just… random things? Like… what’s your favorite movie?

Shannon: [displays a blank face as he is thinking] Well, let’s see…

Lynn: [laughing] OK, I didn’t think that would be the hardest question…

Shannon: I have so many of them! Blue Velvet, The Big Lebowski, Fight Club… oh God…

Lynn: Oh, okay. Cool!

Shannon: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Lynn: That’s another good one, yeah. My favorite movie is Jacob’s Ladder.

Shannon: Oh yeah, that’s another really great one.

Lynn: Yeah… that movie is so freaky. Do you have a favorite article of clothing that you wear, like… on tour, or to play in, or… whatever?

Shannon: [pointing to the t-shirt and jeans he's wearing, Shannon then puts on his best Brit rockstar accent] No… this’s the only outfit I’ve got! [laughing]

Lynn: [laughing]

Shannon: Well, you know… James had this clothing store and he got sort of, he became partners with the wrong person I guess. She [James' partner] did pick out some cool clothes. Too bad she had a coke problem and she blew the business, but I got this wonderful Duarte Jeans jacket. [ he shows off the gorgeous black leather Duarte jacket with an embroidered skull motif on the back that he had been wearing earlier]. And then I kinda splurged, I went to Diesel and got some pants that I like. I like the cut of some of the American Apparel pants, they’re cut tight and I like to wear those so… yeah, those work for me.

Lynn: Cool!

Shannon: I have my… [pulling on the front of his t-shirt] my ever t-shirts…

Lynn: Yeah! OK, cats or dogs?

Shannon: Umm… neither. I love animals in the wild, but I don’t like domesticated animals. They freak me out.

Lynn: Oh?

Shannon: I just… they kind of irritate me. So do children, but… [laughing]

Lynn: [laughing]

Shannon: [laughing more]. Seriously… I would donate anything I could, time, my body, money, to protect wildlife and nature but… I just… I cannot dig domesticated dogs and cats for some reason.

Lynn: Even the ones that don’t know any better, that they didn’t always used to be that way?

Shannon: And it’s not them. I just… they’re not for me. I just…

Lynn: Well that’s okay. That’s good… that you know that about yourself.

Shannon: Yeah, I mean, they’re not for me. Maybe in the future. Maybe eventually, if I settle down? I like to travel. I’m a free spirit and I don’t want to be tied down to anything, not an animal, not… I have an eight-year-old daughter, and that’s enough work as it is.

Lynn: Oh wow, really?

Shannon: Yeah, but the good news is, she can go to the bathroom on the toilet by herself. I don’t have to take her outside for a half hour
and stand there until she shits and then I can go back in… [laughing]

Lynn: [laughing] Right!

Shannon: [laughing more]

Lynn: Well yeah, this has been fun! I appreciate you spending the time with me. Before I go, is there anything else you want to say about your CD or the tour, or…

Shannon: Yeah… anyone who gets this CD, more than likely, will not be disappointed and in fact they’ll probably love it. I don’t want to sound like some sales guy but… I love this record, and I’m a really tough guy to please. It hasn’t gotten one bad review and I think just picking it up, it’s a way to sort-of get these big, corporate scam artists and… teach them a lesson and show them something. Like… fuck them for signing these… Brittney Spears one-hittters and these just… Brittney Spears having the number one downloaded song, that’s heartbreaking. That’s horrible. It’s shit. It’s soulless.

Lynn: And there are so many more artists out there that deserve the attention.

Shannon: Soulless. Yeah. Pick up something with a little bit of soul and maybe you might… see the world through a new pair of glasses, maybe you might see things differently and maybe you might start turning off the TV a little more, you might… dim the lights in your home, put some dimmers in and… light some candles… [laughing]

Lynn: The best thing though, is just… finding out about new music, and just… I haven’t actually heard the entire CD, I’ve heard most of it so far, but it really does just… grab you. And it’s different. And just listening to the couple of songs on the MySpace I mean, you can tell… this is something worth listening to. This band, this man is very talented, he’s very passionate about what he does, and it doesn’t sound like fifteen other bands that have record deals now…

Shannon: Oh yeah. Definitely. People need to pick it up and hear more of it. Hear what it’s like for someone to put out an entire, finished CD and not just one or two songs.

Lynn: Oh, definitely! Absolutely. Well Shannon, I really want to thank you again for spending the time with me to talk about your record and what’s been going on with the band. Best of luck with it. It’s really a great CD.

Shannon: Yeah, well, you’re welcome. Thanks, thanks. So… where is this going to be out?

Lynn: Noizefront. It’s a webzine that I do some pics and reviews for. I’ll send the links so you can see it all once it publishes.

Shannon: Awesome. Yeah, thanks!

http://www.myspace.com/monsterinthemachine