So Introduce yourselvesI'm Garrett and I play the bass
I'm John and I sing in the band
Can you give some background info on the band?
John; We started about a year and a half ago. There's 5 of us and we've been touring since January
Garrett; Everywhere
How did you guys balence high school along with being in the band? What did you think was the hardest part?
Garrett; Me and Pat, our drummer were the only ones that had to finish high school. My dad said I had to make at least C's to stay in the band. And I didn't actually accomplish that. I got one D and he was still cool with it.
Well that's good!
Garrett; Yea at least I passed
Did you guys have any day jobs before being in the band? If so what were they?
John; I had a couple jobs. I was a janitor haha, I was a lifeguard...
Garrett; You were a janitor? Hahahhaha
John; Yeaaaaa, and I entered papers at my mom's work. Just like scanning and entering stuff on computers. So I had 3 jobs, that's my work experience.
Garrett; I uhhhh
John; He's never had a job!
Garrett; No! I worked at a coffee place for 3 days then I quit.
What are your future touring plans? Is there a headling tour in the works?
John; Possibly. We're going to Europe right after this tour and then we're touring with a band called All Time Low, Mayday Parade and Every Avenue and that's in the fall. And we're looking for tours after that. So we're not really sure right now.
Now on to the focus of my interview, what's your opinion on downloading and filesharing of music?
Garrett; There's pluses and minues I guess. There's a lot more people that get to hear your music, they'll just go download it if you've never heard and hopefully they'll go buy it. To us, it's not really much of a big deal.
John; I mean for a band, a lot of the band's revenue, personally is not from CD's. It's a very, very small percentage if any comes from the actual sale of a CD. So I mean it's not really serious in that area. But in the sense of people being stoked on a CD and purchasing it and hopefully that goes into translating into going to a show and then buying t-shirts and whatever I think that might have declined a little bit. You can observe that and the stats of Warped Tour and stuff like that, the attendance is dropping dramatically. So I think, I don't know. I don't think it can be avoided. People will still download CD's illegally and get their hands on it for free.
A lot of people say that they would rather download albums and then support the band by going to shows and buying merch. What's your opinion on this?
John; It's cool for us, but I mean we're also associated with the people that make the money off of records too. Our record label, Fearless Records suffers from that and in turn, we're going to suffer too.
Taking into consideration the cost that go into making an album, do you think that records are overpriced?
John; I think the whole way an album is recorded or being produced is all changing really really rapidly. Our EP was done in like 4 days by a dude at his home and he had just like a small pro tools rig and that's how easy it is. Do you know what I mean? Million Dollar Soundboards and stuff that's all thrown out the window. You don't have to have really expensive stuff, you just have to have a pro tools rig an empty bedroom...
Garrett; A couple microphones
John; Yea a couple microphones. So overpriced? Maybe not
Garrett; Yea I agree
John; Because our producer, Matt Squire, we wouldn't have had a record that's nearly as great as we feel it is, if it wasn't produced by him.
What do you think of online services such as iTunes and Napster?
John; I think it's awesome. It's revolutionary transition from the way our parents used to listen to music than the way we do. And you can see the transition being made; just watching my dad who's got so many, so many, so many CD's and countless numbers of records and he now doesn't even buy CD's anymore. He just buys everything from iTunes. And instead of going and asking my mom "What would Dad like? What CD would he like?" I just give him an iTunes gift card and it's all good. I think it's really really awesome and I think that's just showing where music is headed.
Garrett; I'm actually buying a CD on iTunes right now on my computer!
So do you think that our generation can ever switch over completely to buying music digitally instead of going to record stores?
Garrett; Yea
John; Oh yea. I think it's definitely bound to happen. I don't know if it's our generation.
Garrett; It's going to happen at some point, but I still like having an actual CD.
John; That's my opinion too. I feel like it's more of a personal experience for me to actually have the artwork and you can pop into your CD player. But with things like MP3 players and such there's no need for CD's.
What do you think bands and labels should do to prevent albums from leaking early?
Garrett; There's nothing you can do.
John; Either way, a lot of people don't realize that albums a week and half to two weeks before the release date, they have to be sent out to press for reviews and stuff, so they're [the albums] bound to leak a week or so before they actually drop. Some leak a lot sooner ...
Garrett; People will just send it to their friends
John; Yea! And it just filters through somehow. But the only way you can really accomplish not having it leaked is not giving it to a single person. What we did was that, none of us in the band had it on our computers and we didn't have it at all [the physical copy]. And we said nobody can have it and so the label had it. So if it leaked, we knew that it was the label's fault. And it leaked a week before...
Garrett; It did...
John; Because it had to be reviewed; a lot of people had a copy of it.
Do you find leaked albums beneficial so that there's some sort of talk about the album before it actually hits stores?
John; I mean there's no difference between a week before your street date and the actual street date. So it's just if people want to listen to it, they can listen to it ...
Garrett; A week before!
John; Yea, haha a week before!
Garrett; What's a week going to do you know?
What do you think the biggest misconception people have about music piracy?
John; I don't know, what's the misconception?
Such as, "Oh, downloading is not going to hurt the band, they already have a lot of money..."
John; Well I can tell you right now we don't make any money being a band. We haven't made any money. And you don't start making money until you're like Good Charlotte and Boys Like Girls. I think the biggest misconception about people in a band is that ...
Garret; They're rich
John; Yea like they're rich and that it's really easy to do this. And I'm not complaining cause I'm not in school and we make enough to make it to the next city and sleep in hotels, but I'm not trying to convince anybody to download our CD cause I'll tell you, download it if you want, but I think everybody behind us would perfer if you bought it. In the end, if you like the music, listen to it and hopefully come to a show.
Cause then you'll make money off the show!
John; Haha, yea exactly!
Is there anything else you would like to say about file sharing?
Garrett; Download movies!
John; Haha yea, download movies, actors make to much anyway
Is there anything you would like to say to your fans in general?
John; Come see us on tour, come meet us in person
Garrett; Yea, go get the record
John; And then you'll feel really guilty about downloading CD's! Hahahahaha