September 23, 2004
[interview by Alexa & Sara]

Estrella: Could you please state your name and what you do in the band.
Matt: I'm Matt, I play guitar.
Jonathan: My name's Jonathan, I play drums.
Nick: I'm Nick and I play guitar and sing.
Michael: I'm Michael and I play the opera of bass guitar.

Estrella: How did you like the tour and how does it feel, knowing that this is the last day of this tour?
Nick: I'm sad. This tour was two weeks only, not like a month and a half one. We started to become really good friends but now we have to part ways.
Jonathan: We always keep them coming back for more, so we can go on tour with them again next time around.

Estrella: How did Pat Magnarella find your band?
Nick: Magnarella. Very italian.
Michael: Alright, this is what happened.
Jonathan: We were invited to play a show called Mobfest in Chicago by a music agency called BMI and we were scouted there by our current A&R guy, who was the manager of The All-American Rejects, which partners with The Rejects whos partner is Pat Mangderella. And so they started chatting, we started chatting...
Michael: We played Mobfest in Chicago in 2003, the A&R to our label.

Estrella: How does it feel to be on a brand new label?
Matt: It's cool.
Nick: There's advantages and disadvantages. It's really good for us. Like there are certain things that they haven't been around the block and done yet, but at the same time they've been very good us and given us a lot of good intentions. We're really the only band on the label that has an album out, so they don't have a lot of other bands asking to take their energy out.

Estrella: What's it like to have brothers in the band?
Michael: No, we just team up and beat us up.
Jonathan: Yeah, we've been known to use violence.
Matt: It's kind of weird.
Jonathan: Who's opinion do you want on this?
Estrella: We'll go for everyone.
Nick: We're basically people that think a little bit too much alike and together we become like one stubborn guy.
Michael: So these guys will get frustrated at times because..
Nick: ..when half of the band thinks exactly the same thing in certain areas, there's no fighting over it
Michael: We're working on that though.
Jonathan: It's being remedied as we speak.

Estrella: How long did it take to record, Compromises?
Michael: About a year.
Jonathan: It officially it took 8 months, that's because it was so on and off. So officially took 8 months, but if we were to map out the hours, it probably would have been more like 3 weeks.
Matt: No, no.
Michael: No, it would have been like 4.
Nick: No, like 10 weeks.

Estrella: What's your favorite song off the album and your favorite one to play live too.
Nick: My favorite one off the album is, "Sorry" and my favorite one to play live is, "It's Happening."
Michael: So that's probably about the... I'm the brother, so about the same.
Jonathan: The best one to play live is, "It's Happening."
Matt: I don't really know. I'm trying to think, probably, "It's Happening", to play live. My favorite song off the album, I don't have one.
Jonathan: I don't have a favorite off the album.

Estrella: What were your expectations for when, "Compromises" was released?
Jonathan: We sat down and we're like, "What do we want this album to be?", basically we kind of wanted to make an album that showed potential. We're not there yet, but we just wanted to make an album that showed that we had the potential to make a good band. Are you asking as far as the label?
Estrella: Labels and audience.
Jonathan: It's not what we expected. We actually, the cool thing was, we recorded it on our own, we had it out for a year before any label picked it up, we just wanted to do distribution. We weren't asking to be like on MTV or the cover of Rolling Stone.
Michael: Where are we?
Nick: Baltimore. What, why?
Michael: Nothing.
Estrella: That could have been a dragqueen.
Nick: Basically, we didn't have any expectations.

Estrella: Who writes most of the music both lyrically and musically wise?
Nick: I come up with all the lyrics and then bring it to the band and we all decide on it. Like our last song, I wrote the first chorus and brought it to the band and they finished off. It always gets alot better after I bring it to the band. I always bring ideas and what direction I want to take it to and they help.
Jonathan: Basically what Nick said then all our ideas. So really, this band is going downhill really quick, as we speak.

Estrella: Do you have any crazy fan or tour stories?
Matt: STEVE-OOOOOO.
Michael: We saw Steve-O's balls from Jackass.
Nick: Stapled to his leg, the other day.
Jonathan: We caught Steve-O's live performance. Basically he drank his own urine, he made someone his urine. He got some people on stage to do the, "Punch Yourself In The Face" contest, the winner got punched in the nuts. That was kind of funny. This guy kept coming up to us for beer.
Michael: It was kinda sad though, kinda depressing.
Jonathan: There's more, we've been to India, that was pretty crazy. Been to Baltimore, that was really crazy.
Michael: Straight up dragqueens walking around, seeing Ducotti's and loving them.
Nick: There were some girls who randomly followed us from Portland to San Franciso. That was like a 15 hour drive. Drove all the way there, what happened, is they drove all the way there and they were so stoned, that when they finally got there they realized it wasn't their car they were driving, they were borrowing from their friend back home.

Estrella: Best halloween costume ever.
Jonathan: That we've worn?
Matt: I was Friar Tuck when I was like 18.
Jonathan: I was a Ninja Turtle.
Michael: I was a big red Crayola crayon.
Nick: I don't even know. I was Scorpion from Mortal Combat.
Jonathan: Oh, that's a good one. I was serious about mine, I was an aviator, with one of those sweet jackets with patches all over it and the funky collar and I painted my eye black, like I just got in a plane crash. Then I was a baseball player, got totally into it. Pulled up my socks way high.

Estrella: Do you have any advice for bands trying to make it big?
Nick: We kind of need it. Well the advice that I've always tried to live by was to be honest with yourself.
Jonathan: Nick was going to say to be honest with yourself and where your at.
Nick: There's alot of bands that write their music and think it's alot better than it really is.
Matt: Don't get cocky.
Jonathan: Don't be mean to anyone. Because buds with everyone. If you want to get big, we're talking like huge, Hawthorne Heights doesn't cut it.
Michael: Ohhh schnap, he heard that.
Jonathan: Hawthorne Heights is a joke.
[Jonathan shouts to members of Hawthorne Heights: "Go load your stuff. Go drink vinegar water. Dork!"]

Estrella: Any closing statements?
Nick: Don't do drugs.
Matt: No, I don't want to say it.
Michael: Go see Napoleon Dynamite because it's freakin' hilarious. It's the best.
Nick: Go see Jesus Christ Superstar or not. Go see the Counting Crows live.
Jonathan: That one's serious.
Nick: Don't ever harm a puppy because I like puppies very much. I would really really really not be happy if you hurt a puppy.