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Estrella: State your name and what you do in the band?
Jeff: My name's Jeff, and I play guitar and do back up vocals in the band.
Estrella: So, you guys are on tour with Senses Fail, Moneen, and The Beautiful Mistake, how do you guys all get along?
Jeff: This is the first night of the tour. We played a headlining show last night in Philly and tonight is the first night of this. And we toured with, Senses Fail, before it's always awesome. And Moneen, we know moneen, they are from like right around the corner from us in Canada, so, it should be good.
Estrella: Who are your musical influences?
Jeff: I don’t know like, Lifetime, Green Day, Nirvana, Guns & Roses, Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, I don’t know.
Estrella: What inspired you to start a band?
Jeff: I guess just listening to lots of, you know punk rock, grunge, shit like that, I just started playing guitar, and after playing for a few years I was just wanted to start actually writing my own music and stuff.
Estrella: Is there anything that your listening to that nobody's really ever heard of, but you think should really get their name out there?
Jeff: I don’t think I'm that cool that I know music that no one else does. I guess bands like where we’re from, bands like the Full Blast, are like really really good and have a cd coming out.
Estrella: Who in the band is the biggest drinker/partier?
Jeff: The biggest partier, I’d have to say our bass player, Dave. See, he’s our biggest partier then like our biggest alchoholic is our guitar player, Rob, he's just a piss tank. But our biggest partier is our bass player.
Estrella: What do you guys do on your free time?
Jeff: On tour or off tour?
Estrella: I guess, on tour
Jeff: We don’t have much free time. We hang out and watch t.v., not do anything. Like, we’re either driving or playing a show, so our free time we’ll drink or just hang out. Sleep.
Estrella: [points to the skateboard] Skateboard?
Jeff: Someone does… I don’t know where they think they are gonna do that. Yeah, on our free time if we do have any we just try to relax and not do much of anything.
Estrella: Do you guys ever write in the van?
Jeff: Write music?
Estrella: Yea, or is it hard?
Jeff: I think Conner writes lyrics maybe in the van, but we try to bring the acoustic guitar and it just like gets broken, so I don’t usually write on the road, I just wait till I'm home.
Estrella: So, who all writes the lyrics?
Jeff: Conner writes the majority of them, I like help out a little bit, but I usually will just write a bunch of shit and then send it to him, and when we are actually writing a song he’ll take what I’ve written and then like melt it with his own stuff.
Estrella: I guess, when I listen to your band, to me it's a lot about like heart break and frustration and that’s what I get from it, would you say that Conner or you are maybe the romantics of the band?
Jeff: I don’t know it's, you know. I wouldn’t say that. We’re heh, I don’t know. Lots of lyrics aren’t really that literal, not really based upon actual relationships, we’re just telling stories at times. And at other times, not about heart breaking or anything, like that it's just, even if it's we might be, it's not based upon any relationship or anything like that. It might just be like, if we are feeling shitty or getting rid of demons if that’s what we have to write about. That’s what we have to write about. It comes out you know, about a relationship or you know if there's something violent you know it's just like how we are feeling. It's just how its expressed.
Estrella: How would you describe your music to someone who’s never heard it before?
Jeff: Melodic, punk-rock, that has some heavier stuff in it,some screaming and some lighter stuff as well. Just a good mix of all different kinds of punk rock.
Estrella: Who would you say is the messiest member out of all of you?
Jeff: The messiest member, as far as being like a slob, I'd say our drummer, Ben. He's the one that’ll go in the van to get changed after the show and like a week later, we’ll find like ten pairs of underwear and t-shirts just all over the place. Pretty gross. So you know, I'd say he’s the biggest slob.
Estrella: How hard is it to keep a steady relationship on tour?
Jeff: I've never tried, other people have and they are continuing to so it works, I guess. Keep in contact, internet, phone, whatnot so... Actually, I see that's hard, but I think it works, I guess.
Estrella: Who is your craziest merch guy?
Jeff: Probably, the guy we have right now. He’s an idiot. His name's Cody, he’s done merch for us before, like last time we were here. He was with Coheed and Cambria, he was here with us he didn’t do merch though, he just came to get drunk the whole time, that was his job. Now, he’s actually working, doing merch. But he’s a funny guy.
Estrella: What's your favorite Adam Sandler movie?
Jeff: Billy Madison
Estrella: What do you think you would be doing if you weren't in this band?
Jeff: Realistically, what would I be doing? I'd be, well the job I quit to be in this band. I was a dispatcher in a trucking company. Like, dealing with truck drivers all day and telling them where to go. So, I'd probably still be there doing that just because I’m lazy and wouldn’t do what I actually want to do. What I wanted to do in high school was be an English professor but I didn’t finish high school. Ideally, if I wasn’t doing this I'd want to be at a university for English and stuff. But, I don’t know if that could happen.
Estrella: What would we be able to expect from you guys in the future?
Jeff: That’s a good question, we started writing stuff now. Like, we’ve been so busy touring. I have lots of stuff written for the new record. We haven’t really gotten together as a band to start putting stuff together yet. But, I don’t know musically, it's gonna be just impossible to say. I don’t want, I don’t know, just wait for the record to come out to hear what it sounds like, before I say what it's going to sound like, I don’t know.
Estrella: Do you have any crazy tour stories?
Jeff: They all kinda run together after a while. But, they all have something to do with drinking or getting sick or doing something stupid or doing drugs. They all basically have to do with the same thing I can't really think of anything specifically.
Estrella: If your band split up, do you think that you'd still be playing the same style of music?
Jeff: No, definitely not. I would, it’d be a lot more easy going. A lot more chilled out.
Estrella: If you were stranded on an island, what 3 things would you take with you?
Jeff: I'd take my acoustic guitar, I'd take 200 pounds of marijuana and a lighter.
Estrella: What advice do you have for bands that are trying to make it and be respected as musicians?
Jeff: Do take anyone's shit and work hard and tour a lot.
Estrella: Any closing statements?
Jeff: Check out our cd and we are going to be on tour so come see us play.
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