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Estrella: Could you please state your name and what you do in the band.
Phil: I'm Phil and sing for the band.
Estrella: Could you give me a rundown on how all of your members met?
Phil: Well Peter and Shane both played in Fairweather and Nick our bass player, he toured with Fairweather a few times as a fill in, when needed. So they knew him through that and I was loosely friends with some of the other guys in Fairweather and didn't really know Peter, Shane, or Nick very well so through getting to know them, I slowly got to know the other guys, and Jay, the old singer of Fairweather was always talking to me about changing up the band and I was always busy and he was doing other projects. Finally things started happening when we became friends.
Estrella: How has tour been?
Phil: Tour's been good. This tour we're on right now has been really awesome cause we're out with Boys Night Out, Emanuel, and June and it feels like we're finally playing for a lot of kids who get what we're doing and it's definitely a rock and roll tour. I kind of look out in the crowd and see that kids are getting because they're like bobbing their heads and stuff, this tour has been amazing. We're really happy how it's been going. Before this it was kind of hit or miss, we've had some really cool tours and we've had a lot of fun, we toured with As Cities Burn, that was cool. We always have a really good time with them.
Estrella: If you were to describe your music to someone who's never heard it, how would you describe it?
Phil: I would say straight forward rock music. I know a lot of people say rock and that can mean anything but I think we truely play rock. Big choruses, heavy hitting drums, powerful guitar, I think we're trying to recreate how rock was in the 90s, when it was actually rock.
Estrella: Personal influences?
Phil: It's weird, I listen to so many different kinds of music that has like nothing to do with what we're playing. I listen to a lot of country and folk music which is kind of weird but this band's personal inspirations, I'd say Engine Down, Foo Fighters, Nirvana. We want to create something like that.
Estrella: Who are you currently listening to?
Phil: Currently listening to, I've been listening to the new Bjork album a lot, Volta, it's really amazing. I've been listening to the new Circa Survive record which is really good. Peirce the Veil. New Rocky Votolato, new Iron & Wine. I listen to whatever just came out that's new. The new Darkest Hour is absolutely incredible.
Estrella: Aren't they from DC?
Phil: Yeah definitely, those are our guys. Actually the guy who directed a few of their videos, he just directed ours. DH and us are good.
Estrella: Is your video for M-80 or is it another one?
Phil: No, we did a new video that hasn't come out yet called, "Olympia is a Motherfucker."
Estrella: When does it come out?
Phil: We're not sure yet, we're talking with some people right now about doing some stuff with it so it's done, it's in the can, we just have to wait and see what's going to happen with it.
Estrella: When it came to signing with Hope Division, how did that all come about?
Phil: Well we sent out our stuff to a couple different labels and kind of knowing that our ideal home would be Equal Vision and just cause of the past relationships with Fairweather and my old band. We knew that EVR does a lot of things with integrity. Everything you hear about EVR is pretty solid and they have a great roster and everything about their history, it's just a natural fit for us, so when they expressed interest it kind of shifted all of our dreams because we wanted to do Equal Vision. Yeah and it worked out great, it was cool.
Estrella: Is it Hope Division or Equal Vision, you're on?
Phil: It's basically, Hope Division is just an imprint where it's just the same staff and same people involved, everything's the same but Dan Sanchez, who was our A&R rep - the guy who signed us to Hope Division, it's his imprint, so he makes the final decision on everything. We've worked with Dan in the past a lot and Dan was the person who I knew there and we just really liked working with Dan, it's like the idea of being a smaller label rather than a big roster. We just like the idea of maybe sticking out more and be one of those few bands on an imprint rather than being apart of another roster. Same record deal, same thing. The lawyer from Hope Division was actually less busy and we wanted to get the contract stuff out of the way. We were just going to sign to Equal Vision but Dan said, "Hey the Hope Division lawyer is not busy this week, do you want to just do that?" And we asked what the difference was and he said, "Nothing really," so we ended up just signing with Hope Division, which is cool. It's neat to be on something new, that's like a new thing, it's exciting.
Estrella: So you played South By Southwest this year. How was that?
Phil: It was amazing. Definitely some of the biggest shows we've ever played. Being on the Alternative Press showcase was completely rad playing with Circa Survive. It was totally crazy. Music people just take over that town for the whole weekend and it's total insanity, people are getting crazy and drinking and band people everywhere. It was totally fun. It was an incredibly stressful experience, parking was a nightmare, loading in and out was a nightmare.
Estrella: How does it feel knowing that not even a year ago you were AP's "Featured Unsigned Band" and now you're one of the top 100 bands of 2007?
Phil: It's really cool. It's definitely really awesome to be recognized in that way. AP has definitely helped us get our name out there. We're definitely honored that they would even consider us and that group of bands, we still have a long way to go but it certainly is pretty awesome to be recognized for our record and as a band.
Estrella: What do you think you would be doing if you weren't in a band?
Phil: I wrestle with that all the time actually. I graduated from college in 2002 with a Marketing degree. I've always wanted to work in the music industry, so especially now that I have been exposed to it for a while now. I definitely have an interest in booking and interested in management and with labels and how they run. I certainly think that if I wasn't in a band right now, I'd probably be working for a label or trying to learn more about how the business side of things work and try to do something there.
Estrella: You'd relocate.
Phil: Yeah, I'd probably relocate. I definitely love living here but then again I don't know, the idea of living in LA or New York City is totally intense. Like I love playing those places, but I also like having my sanity. I like being able to go to the mountains like a few hours away.
Estrella: Have you gained any crazy tour stories on the road and any you're willing to share?
Phil: We were in Toledo, Ohio and this was our first tour ever as Olympia and we were going to Michigan to support Chiodos on some other shows and on the way out there. We played a high school and no one was there, but the guy cleaning the floors. (Check out their video for "Olympia is a Motherfucker")
Estrella: Sketchiest town you've played in?
Phil: Sketchiest town? That's easy! Victorville, CA - It's this small town in the desert of California and it's in the middle of nowhere and you basically don't play there unless, like it's in between Arizona and California, basically it's the only town. It's sort of like you almost have to stop there and then we just played this really weird show and very strange people didn't know how to react to us and we didn't know how to react to them. Very odd town.
Estrella: Favorite town?
Phil: Chicago is totally awesome. New York City is fun. We have a friend in Brooklyn that we get to crash with. It's awesome when you don't have to stress where are we going to stay? Do we have to get a hotel right out of the city? Like when you have a friend there it's just so much easier, so we were just there today so that's why I'm talking about it. It's totally nice to not think about where you're going to have to stay. So Chicago is probably our favorite city so far. But there's definitely a lot of runners up!
Estrella: Best Halloween costume ever worn.
Phil: Last year I went as Myspace, which was pretty awesome. I had my profile printed off on a big paper and I had a polaroid camera and I was taking pictures of the people at the parties that I was at, and then put the pictures on my top 8. It was a pretty big hit apparently, that was probably my best costume. I've never topped it.
Estrella: Favorite cereal?
Phil: Fruity Pebbles. That's like kid's cereal but it's for adult's cereals. Life is good too.
Estrella: If you were stranded on a desert island, what are 3 things you'd take with you?
Phil: I-Pod, probably a beach umbrella - that would be pretty awesome, and probably an acoustic guitar.
Estrella: What can we expect from you in the future?
Phil: Well we're going to be touring non-stop, as long as humanally possible. So expect us to be on tour every day for the next year. We're not really thinking about a second record yet but it's kind of in the back of our heads, like we haven't started writing yet but we definitely got a lot more time to work on this record to keep working on it. But the video thing's going to come out in the fall, so we're going to have our video out. Try to do some things in the fall as far as tours go.
Estrella: Any bands that you'd like to plug in the interview?
Phil: I would like to plug As Cities Burn, a lot of people aren't sure what they're going to sound like now since their lineup changed and they might have changed their sound a little bit but I've heard their new stuff and it's absolutely incredible, they're going to do awesome things. The Dear Hunter is a totally amazing band from Boston, it's Casey from TREOS' new band and it's absolutely mind blowing and beautiful music. We toured with them and it was amazing. The third band is a band called The Riot Before they're from Richmond (VA), they're in the same vein as Against Me! or Smoke or Fire, like kind of like that with pop sensibilities. They write awesome songs and they're political and heartfelt, I think they're going to be the next big band in that kind of scene and they're from Richmond and they're awesome.
Estrella: Any closing statements?
Phil: Come out to a show and buy a t-shirt. You can't download a t-shirt, that's my wisdom!
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