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Estrella: Could you please state your name and what you do in the
band?
Michael: Yes. My name is Michael Shepard and I play piano, guitar, and sing for Lovedrug.
Estrella: How has touring been so far?
Michael: So far, it's been going quite well actually. We've done a lot of recent touring in the
east and midwest and so far it's been going great. We haven't done alot in the last few weeks because we've been off for Christmas and New
Years, but we're about to start a six week run with Action Action and that should be quite well in the west coast. We're going out to the west coast.
But so far everything's been really well recieved.
Estrella: Who are some of your influences?
Michael: Some bands that I really enjoy and I appreciated the way they did things was
Queen, for one. I'm a big Modest Mouse fan. I'm a big fan of Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan.
Estrella: What are you currently listening to?
Michael: Nothing too new. Just those artist. I don't know, I have an IPod so I just put it on
random.
Estrella: You've been critiqued as sometimes a Christian band and how
do you feel about that?
Michael: How do I feel about being critiqued as that?
Estrella: Yeah, when I listen to some songs I think maybe they're a Christian
band and some friends will say, "No, they're not" and then I thought of how you sometimes play Christian festivals and I wanted to know but I mean
it doesn't matter if you are or not, I was just wondering.
Michael: Yeah, we have played a couple of the different Christian festivals. Our manager
has some connections with just those two particular festivals, one's Cornerstone and one's Purple Door and I mean, it's kind of a bizarre
environment but it's a really good place, where people from all over the country get together to listen to cool music, so it's actually a really cool
festival to play, so we enjoy playing it. We're not particularly a Christian band, by that I mean, we're not up there talking about one specific religion
or one point of view. Because everyone in the band, as individuals, has a pretty wide variety of different views on religion and spirituality and
accepting. I defintiely wouldn't categorize us as a Christian band but we play Christian festivals.
Estrella: Craziest fan story.
Michael: Well there was one guy, who incredibly into the last band I was in, it was called
Kerith Ravine, and he had memorized all the lyrics and all the guitar parts and what not and he had contacted us and wanted to move to our
hometown and help us work with this next band and at the time, we we're just like, "That's cool, okay." You know, so he actually moved out. After I
talked to him, he came out like two days later and was there knocking on our front door and ended up staying with us for like a week until he could
find a place to stay, it was a little crazy.
Estrella: Worst subject in high school?
Michael: Probably Calculus, not so much into that. More into Geometry and not so much
into the Algebra side.
Estrella: Best Halloween costume ever.
Michael: Never celebrated Halloween, actually. Never dressed up or anything. Sort of an
upbringing. My parents never celebrate Halloween, so I never got into it.
Estrella: Best Johnny Depp movie.
Michael: He's a good actor, I enjoy Johnny Depp. Let me think about that for a second. I'm
gonna go with "Crybaby" on that one.
Estrella: Are there any bands that you think people should be into, but
don't know about.
Michael: Good question. There's a band called the Working Title, that we play with quite a
bit, they're fantastic. I know that there's bands that I should be thinking of, but they're just not coming to my mind.
Estrella: How long did it take you to record, Pretend You're Alive?
Michael: We recorded that album about in about 3 weeks. 3 and a half to 4 weeks.
Estrella: Was your studio like sheltered off from the world?
Michael: It was pretty cut off from everything, it was out in the middle of Michigan on a farm.
Actually, an old barn that was turned into a a recording studio. It was pretty cool.
Estrella: Did you expect what you got from album sales and fans and
everything with the new album?
Michael: I wasn't quite certain on what to expect on when the album came out. I mean, I had
confidence in it. But I didn't know exactly what would happen. It's doing quite well, so I'm very pleased. We basically just sat down and I wanted to
write an album thhat I would enjoy listening to later, so that I could like listen to it years later and still enjoy. That's what we tried to do and I think we
pretty much accomplished that and beyond that, it turned out well.
Estrella: Any last comments?
Michael: Well, if you come to Baltimore, you should eat at the Papermoon and try the
Calamari.
Estrella: Thank you.
Michael: Thank you.
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