Jeff Rosenstock (2017)

• Beastie Boys is my gut answer.

• My stance on "free/donation" house shows has changed a little bit because I quickly realized people have $5, they'd just rather spend it on beer which in most circumstances supports a big corporate beast instead of a small artist. That said, I'd never be down with turning someone away just 'cause they had no money so maybe WHO KNOWS NOTHING HAS CHANGED.

• I think our scene has been doing a great job at being a safe inclusive space over the last few years, but obviously it's hard to ignore that there are people who get groped/harrassed at every show and that fucking stinks. I'd love to see 2017 as the year where it doesn't happen at all, where people going to see punk bands respect each other's bodies. Punk has always been the only place I've really felt comfortable in my skin and it bums me out that at some of those formative shows I went to as a kid, there was likely someone having a way different experience.

• I wrote all those graphics out. I tried to stay out of it and just answer questions honestly. It was pretty insane seeing it when it was done, I was mostly very proud of Sara, Amy and Adam who worked their buns off on the movie.

• I thought the artwork for Famous Graves by Cheap Girls turned out real good.

i can't the nsa is listening

When we found out we were going to get a Pitchfork review, I was pretty shocked, especially since Ian seemed to really like it. I've put out and worked on a lot of records at this point and none had ever made it up there.

But, I think obviously, #1 record on USA Today is a pretty fucking insane thing to see happen.

I think eventually, we had a really hard time mixing it and then it got pushed to the backburner, sorry!!!

I think we're both dropping the ball, I put out one of the songs on WORRY.! HI CHRRRRIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSS

A good buddy of mine, Pete D'Angelo, runs Ernest Jenning Record Co. and split released Vacation with me. He also works at a licensing/publishing place (Bank Robber/Rough Trade), so all of his records get worked by them.

We were lucky that they were looking for "non-descript indie rock with no vocals" (that's not the ACTUAL quote, but it's close!)

once these hollywood fatcats get us a script.

Nope! Not a single one! Ha!

Thank you very much, I'm glad you like it! I came up with that logo at the 11th hour for a vinyl spindle adapter that was supposed to come with a 7" I was putting out. It's hard to say why it happened, but I am glad it represents the things it represents and that people liked it. We made stickers, and people asked for flags so we ended up making flags.

The first batch were a benefit for the PULSE Shooting Victims... I think like a lot of people who were not in Orlando and couldn't donate blood, I was just like "fuck, what can I do to help???" and I thought that would not only raise money (I think it ended up being around $3,000) but also spread a good positive message in a non-self-serious way. I feel like it's a rallying cry, but also it's light-hearted... thirteen pot leaves on a flag is gonna be kinda funny no matter what. Then people kept asking for them, so we kept making them, only this time TAKING THE MONEY FOR OURSELVES BECAUSE WE'RE EVIL!!! WE ARE THE CORPORATION!!!!

I think the biggest hurdle for me was trying to record albums that sounded as good as a real studio with like, one microphone and a laptop. I don't think I ever quite got there on my own, but I think constantly facing that challenge taught me a lot more than if I had not done it on my own.

Also, we kinda treated it like vacation when we had started touring... it wasn't meant to be a thing, so we worked day jobs and dipped into our own money to go on short tours. Once touring became regular, and it was harder to hold down jobs, we had to make little concessions like selling shirts and stuff like that... but that was only cause we were starting to look at it a little more full time.

first off - MY BAD! Thanks for understanding!!!

1. I dunno, I kinda consider Summer and I Look Like Shit more mixtapes than full records. Summer is especially weird, because a lot of those songs are covers, one is a demo and it was released one song every two weeks. I'm glad you like it though, I do too! Maybe the lack of attention will avoid future copyright law suits!

2. Ummmmm, I think "HELLLLHOOOOLE" is pretty funny and "Staring Out The Window At Your Old Apartment" is pretty long. Maybe I've done a lot of longer song titles and thought it'd be fun to challenge myself into being succinct.

3. My only advice is to just do it, try to be ok with and learn from your mistakes and don't worry about anyone else telling you that things are impossible.

4. Maybe not FIVE IN THE MORNING COME ON NOW. Honestly though, my wife and I both have a serious problem with staying up late talking and hanging out. So yeah, sometimes. Or put on a Built To Spill record and a basketball game.

5. It made sense at the time, but I forget a little bit. That song is about growing up, so I think since they wrote the "I GUESS THIS IS GROWWWWING PUPPPPP' song it's likely a reference to that!

6. You can do them playing normal bar chords, but the trick is the articulation with your fretting hand. A lot of the time I've done them with just the top three strings to make them real trebly.

7. No. It's like there's gonna be a very small amount of people on the earth if the sun explodes. FACT.

NUMBER 1 and I just steal all their ideas and have my own fuckin' cruise, DOYYYY.

SAUGA CITY BABY.

I answered this somewhere in this AMA... in short, yeah, it can be, but I'm eternally grateful to be able to make music and everyone's pretty nice, so I try to just remember what it's like what I meet someone whose music I like and do my best.

This year!

We were just talking about stuff. I think I'm saying "that should teach you a lesson..."

There are no plans at all for another Bomb record, but there's like eight old ones!!!

Dan P. plays with us like half the time. He's the best. Occasionally some of the folks in my band have other obligations and can't play shows and stuff, and that's totally cool!

I think Sara, Amy, Adam and everyone else involved did a great job. It was kinda crazy to watch my life flash by like that. There was a day where I actually had to write out a timeline of everything that happened in my life musically, for fact checking purposes. That was nuts.

GREAT QUESTION! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!

I met Sean when our bands got "signed" to Asian Man around the same time. I booked them a house show, they were late cause Sean had an allergic reaction to a cat, the show got moved 'cause too many people came, the new location was a punkhouse called "The Cat House" which obviously was full of cats, and Sean couldn't go inside. When I went to meet him I was very drunk on 40's of malt liquor. Someone (possibly Joe from Silent Barn) set them up a last minute show at a bar on Grand Street, that I can't remember the name of but I know lets you drink free on your birthday. I was pretty scared to show my face after kinda screwing up the show by not following the one rule I needed to when I moved it, but I went and met them and we became fast friends and the next show we played. Then we toured together and became besties.

Me and Sean are close, but I love all of the people in that band. They all came to my wedding straight from Europe. They are constantly inspiring to me.

I can't rank AJJ records because from "People..." on I believe they been batting 1,000 but I definitely have the most personal attachments to Can't Maintain and Christmas Island.

I think our one rule for Cover Yer Ears was no inside jokes for a few people, ha! SO NO!!! WE'RE BAD PEOPLE!!!!!!!

I loved that contest but it definitely got stressful at times. I wonder if we'll do it again this time around. I like to take an easy tour and make it hard.

I guess my only advice is try to use that negative energy towards something creative, then at least it's not a waste!

Hopefully we'll get to Western Canada this year, thanks for wanting us there!

1. I don't play any song with him, I just let him do his thing. If I get to pick one song, "Utilities"

2. PUP's parents.

3. I don't know what that means, so yes.

4. I'd love to do more with Laura Stevenson, I really like doing music stuff with her. Pipe dream: Against Me!

5. Antarctigo Vespucci

I like the cajun mix SO THAT ONE.

Yeah, we played two shows together in Sydney and Melbourne last year!!! It was sick.

Also, I LOVE AUSTRALIA AND MISS IT FUCCCCCKKKKKKKK IT'S COLD HERE

Merrymakers, but I started with King James and that is a very very very hard call.

• I'm sure there was, but I just can't remember it. I definitely started drinking because a handful of very bad things went down, haaaaaaaaaaaaa.

• Nope! I should.

• Ummmmmmmm... off the top of Motherboy?

Probably the biggest one I've had has been my social anxiety. In ASOB, my dear friend Dave did most of the show booking, talking to the promoters, making friends, that kind of stuff. That gave me ample time to warm up to a situation if I wanted to, or I was allowed to just not talk to anyone that day 'cause I didn't really have to.

When that band broke up, and Bomb started to be an actual thing that meant I would be the one booking the e-mails, I'd be talking to all the promoters, talking about money at the end of the night, all this stuff that I had a really hard time with. I also did a lot of solo tours, some of them in other countries, some of them had me spending weeks with total strangers, just in their vans and cars.

It took a lot the first time to force myself to be in those situations, but the alternative just seemed worse. I started reminding myself that there are things in my life that could turn out amazing if I could make that first step to talk to people. When that concept fails, I try really hard not to let it get to me. This all kinda forced me out of my shell, and I made most of my best friends through tour.

That said, I'm still not great with it. I still get anxious talking to people at shows and not at shows, I still put off replying to e-mails and texts... I wish I didn't but I do. But I try to catch myself if I know that I'm doing it, and push myself to go for it, 'cause I know that good stuff has happened the times that I have.

the card dealer in the line before that, the one who is grinnin'

Lyrically, it was heavily inspired by the Atmosphere song "Little Man" which is basically him writing a letter to his son, his dad and then himself. For me that song is talking about art, love and the future - and trying to tear it all down to build something better... that's what that sound explosion's all about!

I'm not sure if just asking "how many birds do you see?" is a theory.

GET OVER IT HE'S PROBABLY A LIVING NORMAL PERSON

Ummmmmmm....... hmmmmmmmm.......

I don't think I could really ask for more supportive fans... for example, I was starting to get really anxious about taking pictures when I'm walking around at shows and stuff, to the point where I wouldn't leave the green room or talk to anyone. So I tried just asking people "hey, is it okay if I say no? It makes me feel weird." And nobody gave me a hard time. Small things like that are very very nice. And I'm starting to get better at being around and talking to folks and stuff because of it. So yeah, nothing. 99% of the people at the shows kick ass.

I wish that I knew at every show what would be the best thing to do to make everyone enjoy the night as much as possible.

They're both from The UK Office. I think there are different ones because it was put out on vinyl long after it was recorded, I didn't have the original sample and thought it'd be a cool easter egg to have two different things.

Yeah but I gotta do an AMA rn!

1. I have no idea what my actual vocal range is, I think it's arguable that there's no notes that I sing particularly well, ha. I think it's all about working with what you got... the dudes in MOBO sing low as fuck all the damn time.

2. It was in my parents backyard with The Poseurs, The Swifties (i think!) and a Nirvana cover band my friends had called Top Sync Bottem Jerrold. I was around fourteen, we were very bad, our drummer quit mid-set, the rest of the show was good.

3. Hahaha... I think when you're drunk at a ska show for about a dozen people in South Carolina for the first time, yeah, all the opening bands are at least going to seem kinda bad. We're an opening band sometimes, so, ya know, I know we're terrible to some of the people in the crowd.

Our bands selected a bunch of openers on that last tour and off the top of my head my favorites were Shortly, Early Bird, Teenage Bigfoot, Shutup and Canker Blossom.

1. LET ME GIVE YOU MY REAL EMAIL ADDRESS ON REDDIT. HAAAAAAAAAA NOOOOOOOOOOO.

Thanks, thekatt08, we're gonna try to get over to Sweden this Spring... that area is kinda far from everything huh?

We're going to try to this spring, but fuck it's hard to get over there and I don't know anyone who books shows there!

Yeah, I just need to DO IT... I'll put it on my list for next week promise.

Don't give up until you make it sound the way you want. If you have limited gear, a lot of that can be in mixing, can be in mic distance, how you EQ it beforehand. Just don't settle for something if you don't think it sounds rad, 'cause YOU CAN DO IT!

Oh wow!!! That's wild, thank you!! I hope we get to come to Venezuela some day.

• I love everything about early Weezer. My favorite song is probably "Falling For You" off of Pinkerton.

• The weekend WORRY. came out was really special, from the release shows to the response it got. Also when I spoke to Mike Park on the phone and he said he'd like to put Get Warmer out on Asian Man Records, my favorite record label as a teen that inspired me to do stuff myself... both of those were moments where I was like "I can't believe what IS HAPPENING! IN! MY! LIFE! RIGHT! NOW!"

Going to Brazil as well, that was just such a lucky amazing thing to be able to do. And Australia. And everywhere else.

1) We will try. We've had a hard time getting into the country recently, but we love Toronto, and we love Canada, so we're gonna make it happen in 2017.

2) I never really liked playing "Stuff That I Like" live... it's easy to sing in the studio when you can punch stuff, but pretty hard to do well live. That song would always end up being a thing where everyone was excited at the beginning and by the end it was like "what song is this?"

3) I posted a bunch of 'em on Instagram!

I realllllly like it when we play the last half of the album into each other because it is SO INTENSE. Maybe "Bang On The Door" or "Pash Rash" are my favorite to play live.

AND YEAH WE'RE GONNA BE IN THE UK IN SPRING!!!

• My life has almost changed entirely except that I still make music.

• Beach Boys, Green Day, Elvis Costello

• Right now probably Melbourne Australia because it's cold here, it's a great city and I miss my buds on the other side of the world!

We were playing like, over an hour on our last tour. Our sets on The Menzingers tour are around 45 minutes I think? So hopefully you'll see less talking, but probably not ha. I don't ever know how the tour is gonna be different until we're on tour and find out how we play together in that situation. I'm stoked to tour with them though, they are rad guys.

I used an Oktava MK-319 to record the first three Bomb records, all the rest have a handful of mic's on them but my main go to has been a Rode NT-1A

the two with the sick hoodies

I don't know if there is mainstream rock anymore, and if there is I'm sure it's not a place where I would fit in. But I'm obviously pretty happy about the response to the record, especially how much it meant to people last year. Music gets me through so many dark times, and all I've ever really wanted was to make something that could do that for someone else.

And obviously, touring is a lot easier when more people like your band, because then you're not playing for three people in the middle of nowhere who all seem really irritated and just can't figure out why you're playing so loud and sweating so much.

Ummm there's lots and Tribe might be my fave but let's say Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, KRS-One, Nas, Dre, Del, Outkast, T.I., Das Racist, P.O.S., Kendrick, Lizzo, Killer Mike, Run The Jewels.

Also, jean shorts are very practical when you sweat a lot, that was you don't collect sweat in the bottom of your pant legs, it's disgusting.

Thanks!!! I don't think that's true! We played "Police on my Back" a lot on this last tour, we played "Fade Into You" by Mazzy Star on a tour with Dan Andriano and on a tour with MOBO, PUP and Tiny Moving Parts in 2015 we played a different cover every night that we learned that day! Look at this list! That's a lot! They were sometimes not good!!!

1. Harvey Danger - Flagpole Sitta
2. Nelly w/ Kelly Rowland - Dilemma
3. Alkaline Trio - Radio
4. System of a Down - BYOB
5. Elvis Presley - Can't Help Falling In Love
6. FIDLAR - Cheap Beer
7. Seal - Kiss From A Rose
8. Toto - Africa
9. Blink 182 - Dammit
10. The Weakerthans - Aside
11. Taylor Swift - Shake It Off
12. Against Me! - Walking Is Still Honest
13. Operation Ivy - Jaded
14. 4 Non Blondes - What's Up?
15. The Cardigans - Love Fool
16. Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone
17. Marcy Playground - Sex and Candy
18. A-Ha - Take On Me
19. Ke$ha - Die Young
20. Fall Out Boy - Sugar, We're Going Down
21. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come On, Eileen
22. The The - This is the Day
23. Josie and the Pussycats - Three Small Words
24. Elvis Costello - Radio Radio
25. Hall And Oates - Rich Girl
26. Abba - Dancing Queen
27. Remember the Arcadians
28. Bruce Springsteen - No Surrender
29. Tracy Chapman - Fast Car
30. Smash Mouth - All Star
31. Van Halen - Jump
32. Neutral Milk Hotel - Holland, 1945
33. PUP - Reservoir

• My favorite is probably Chris Farren's record and I'm not just saying that. Or Big Thief as far as non-Chris Farren records go.

• I bet I will be running around like a crazy person.

I love PUP. Everyone in that band is so incredibly kind and generous, I can't even take it.

Stefan really likes gross stuff and was enjoying watching me tug a fucked toenail I had that was hanging on by a string.

Zach is so so so funny and is a really good person to talk to about dark shit.

Steve is a good person to get stoned with and talk about weirdo music in a non-pretentious way.

I love watching Nestor play bass 'cause he's such a rock and roll monster, but he's also the dude who took me to a drug store to buy Canadian flu medicine when I was sick on tour. What a sweetie.

Thank you!! Glad you like it!! Yeah the first sticker just has an extra color for layout purposes... I didn't know there were other pride flags other than the rainbow one. When I was putting the PULSE ones together, my buddy Alex from Hiccup/TCSG/Mikey Erg recommended adding the trans colors I was stoked that they fit in perfectly!

Those are either movies I was watching at the time of making those records and something jumped out at me, or just quotes that I remembered like the Can't Hardly Wait one.

TOP 5 MOVIES ARE???

BOOGIE NIGHTS
GOODFELLAS
THREE OTHERS!
BACK TO THE FUTURE SOMEWHERE IN HERE?
I KINDA STILL THINK ETERNAL SUNSHINE?????

• I'll be at the inauguration protesting (http://www.disruptj20.org/) and I'll either be at the DC women's march or the NYC one, haven't decided just yet... I know the NYC one is smaller but I would love to stand alongside my city.

• It's hard to say, but I rarely ever sit down and just try to write a song from scratch. Sometimes I'll be sitting around noodling and something good will come out and I'll go from there. I read an interview with Neil Young where he said he has only one songwriting rule: if you come up with an idea, follow that idea until the song is done. I try to do that but also I'm lazy.

• I have no idea where the landscape of music is going but I'm holding my breath for a mega political 311 record plz.

I have no idea. While You're Alive maybe?

1. Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever
2. Some means of recording (I did computer + interface + credit card DDDDD-:), then one decent large condenser mic. I started with the Okatva MK-319, have been borrowing a Rode NT-1A from my friend Craig for about six years ha and it kicks ass, and I've always wanted to get an AKG-414. You can put any of those on anything and it'll sound good.

I had a pretty great year after We Cool?, I got married, things were looking real good. But it was hard to stay in a positive mindset with a lot of bad things that were happening in the country. Also with Brooklyn getting more and more expensive, it seemed likely that I was going to get priced out of my apartment at the time and have nowhere to go... like a month or two after I got married. That didn't end up happening this time, so I was lucky, but it's happened before.

The whole thing of WORRY. was trying to nurture love and human relationships at a time when so many people and things are trying to control us and drive people to hate each other without ever meeting each other.

I'd say 90's pop-punk, Elvis Costello, ELO, The Jam, Patsy Cline, Beastie Boys, Otis Redding and Beach Boys have all been pretty big ones for a while now.

And I was listening to "Armed Forces" by Elvis Costello but the record ended.

• I retired the iPod shows after Bomb played our last shows, I felt like I needed to force myself to try something else. Glad you liked 'em! I'd never say never, iPod shows are pretty easy to do!

• Oh man, I'd LOVE to do another Kudrow record. We're all real busy these days, but I bet it'll happen.

• I think it's great, it's crazy to think that for a few years there the main goal in the biz seemed to be to keep music away from the people, either through high prices for bad products, or LAWSUITS. It seems a lot more evened out now, and when Chance The Rapper can get nominated for Grammy's for putting out a free record, I am STOKED.

no-thought answer: Scared of Chaka Crossing With Switchblades

/u/chrisfarren does that do anything?

We made a shirt that had everyone's puppies on it, but made it look like a hardcore shirt. BUT MAYBE YOU ARE CRAZY?????ALSO the hardcore record didn't happen.

:-*

ok i'll look for the guy in a cavs t-shirt.

1. I mean it was Louie's which was by Baldwin High School, but I bet that one's not there anymore or at least has new owners. They had 2 slices and a soda for $3 holy shit. The pizza place in the shopping center by the high school had SUB PAR PIZZA WHEN I WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL. Three Brothers in RVC was good, they had vegetarian pepperoni and stuff but they moved somewhere and I haven't been yet. Blue Moon in RVC is good for fancy pizza.

EDIT: I gotta also mention I'm In A Hurry Pizza which was the pizza place around the block when I was a kid that place was the SHIT!

1. We played a show on national television where we were dressed as dogs and the audience was mostly free-roaming dogs so we had to turn our amps down a lot. https://youtu.be/h9jJHLYMWaQ

2. Ummmm I think I just start hearing the full arrangement right off the bat and then I demo it with drums, bass, guitar, all the stuff. I'm definitely more of a songwriter/arranger than guitar player. It has certainly gotten in the way of more collaborative songwriting, but I've joined and started a handful of bands over the years where I can give my input and everyone else gives just as much if not more input and I really like it. But I'm a total weirdo about my songs ha.

Me and P.O.S. have been talking about making a record together forever, so I guess him. I also think it'd be a dream to make a record with Jeff Lynne to see how he gets all those instruments to sit so well with each other.

1. We were there in 2015 with Modern Baseball, PUP and Tiny Moving Parts. We'd love to come back, e-mail our booking guy and book us a show I DARE YA. I love Virginia Beach, it's cheap and it's a beach. DUH!!!

2. Yeah, I play songs in the same key back to back all the time to give the illusion of a coherent set.

3. The song "June 21st" was originally for the ice cream musical I hope to write with Chris Gethard one day. Other than that, no, WORRY. was a complete fresh start.

I've definitely evened out with drinking, but I think when you're a touring musician you still drink more than most other people. I think I always wonder what it would be like to be a person who exists without any sort of chemical boost, but whenever I dry out it's not very fun haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Thank you very very very very much!!!!

All Blissed Out features a bunch of field recordings my friend Nick Carbonaro took while we were on tour together in Australia. The first one is drunk and running around at the beach at like 3 AM. The two that play at the same time are a bunch of us at the "tour wrap" party at the Smithies' Queensbury house eating pot brownies and then one where we're in a parking lot trying to see how late we could possibly show up at the airport and still make our flights.

I use ProTools and Reason, but there is a great open source program called Reaper which is free to use for 30 24-hour days, which is a ton of time. I did all the chiptune stuff in Reason using their "raw synth" sounds but honestly, if you look up chiptune tutorials you'll probably find way better answers! I am constantly looking up YouTube tutorials to learn how to mix and mic stuff better. Also, Tape-Op is a great magazine about recording that is completely free to subscribe to and also very inspiring!

We all managed to find jobs that were pretty lenient with letting us leave to go on tour. I mostly did temp graphic design stuff, John does event production, Mike worked at a deli, Tom recorded bands and Matt gave private lessons. The less financial stress you give the band, the better... that way you can just enjoy being in a band! When we eventually got to the point that we could tour and come home with rent money, that was a surprise and a mega bonus.

• A lot of those songs started to feel too long, so I was kind of lost for a while with them. I basically had like fourteen songs that didn't sound better when they were longer. My buddy, and occasional Death Rosenstock drummer, Tim Ruggeri suggested smashing them all together at a New Years Party and immediately it all kinda clicked in my head. Oddly enough, I found a note in my wallet from my honeymoon where I mapped a lot of it out as a potential concept record. So I kinda followed that when I got stuck. But yeah, I demoed the whole thing and tried to make it flow real good, and then laid face down on my bed for a few hours one day and rounded out the rest of the lyrics... I had parts and concepts, but hadn't written them all out.

• It feels more like evolving. I'm listening to more kinds of music and trying to interpret those influences in my own way. I also know that I've drifted away from a lot of the really chaotic stuff that was on early Bomb records, so I try to find clever ways to sneak that shit in.

• We were playing a Halloween show and we wanted to cover a band that cool indie rock kids would think were untouchable. Man, that was fun. I was wish did it more than one time.

Mario 3 probably right IT'S SO GOOD

The best thing about Minneapolis has gotta be the hip-hop scene, there's a lot of good independent rap coming from there. I just like the vibe of Minneapolis... there's a lot of good record stores and venues, a lot of good food and coffee shops, and people are generally nice. I wrote that song because I had built Minneapolis up in my head, as I was a super big fan of Dillinger Four, The Hold Steady and The Replacements, and the first time Bomb played there (the first time I had been there) I got like crazy drunk and ruined everything. And what are Bomb the Music Industry! songs about if not getting drunk and ruining everything.

• I think the album Get Warmer. It's basically all about moving to Georgia, so thinking back on those songs it makes me think about Athens, the pizza place I worked at, the bike shop, the coffee place, the warehouse Joel recorded us in, The Bakery where we recorded drums, and on and on and on. Athens, Georgia is a really magical city that holds a special place in my heart.

I learned a lot of that stuff when I was young, but I think the trick is just NOT TO GIVE UP! Have a little bit of discipline... if you're having a hard time doing something, play it a bunch of times slowly, then faster, until you kinda figure it out.

Also, you don't need to play the same way everyone else plays. Experiment with open tunings, weird noises and fucked up stuff!!

1. Christine was a friend of my friend John, who played bass in Bomb and plays in the new band. I met her at Warped Tour when ASOB was sneaking on every day in order to make our way back home from the west coast. We didn't talk much, but we got along and liked each other. Then I played a show at John's school, got really sick, ended up at a party feeling weird and sick and she came over and talked to me and we are still having that same conversation today THIS ISN'T A WARM SENTIMENT OR A JOKE WE ARE HAVING A VERY LONG CONVERSATION THAT JUST WON'T END.

2. Probably flying. Classic.

Getting an MBox changed my life... up until then I didn't know that I could make recordings with lots of tracks that sounded decent on my own. I always thought you had to save and save and save to go to a studio and then rush rush rush to get it perfect. Having a way to record and experiment infinitely on my own was clutch.

Thanks!!! But hey...

1. WHAT DO YA MEAN? THE WOOOO OOOOOHS ARE TIGHT! THAT'S WHAT'S UP. Ok, it's kinda pretty clearly Beach Boys rips, but when I was making Vacation I wanted to start to let out all the other music influences I was feeling, not just the punk-ish ones. So I decided to write some WOOOOOOO harmonies, and I always liked them as a texture. I think the ones in HELLLLHOOOOLE and June 21st are my fave.

2. My favorite designs are either that Bomb the Music Industry! Enough Already t-shirt and the WEED PRIDE 666 flag. And also all the stencils that we spraypainted with, those always looked cool.

1) Thanks! I don't know, I always like to be creating stuff, so I think when I get bored a lot of the time I'll just fuck around on the guitar, or work on an idea I hummed into my phone and try to make it good. I don't really have a process, I try to just go with the flow, I wouldn't ever really want to go into a studio having nothing and I've had bands where we've started and decided let's all write together, and I kinda freeze up on the spot. I just try not to think about it, write at my own pace, and when songs start fitting together with other songs, I start thinking of everything in terms of "what kind of album would that fit on, what would that album need to be good."

2) I'm not I'll turn it on now!

1. At the end of the day, it's not about money for me, it's about people being able to hear the music. I think if people hear the records and like them, they'll go to the show and support the band, and then maybe support the bands they're on tour with and it will snowball into a bigger thing. Or you can force people to pay $5 for a band they might not have ever heard of, thus making them go "nah, nevermind." I'd rather have a few thousand people hear a record than only seventy people, but seventy people who paid.

2. Ummmmm maybe! You know it costs like thousands of dollars to fly there though, right? I hope we're back soon though, I love Australia and in PARTICULAR LAUNNY IS BEAUTIFUL.