-Introduce yourselves

Hi, I'm Christian and I play guitar

Hi I'm Maika. I sing and I play guitar

I'm Jay and I play bass guitar

And I'm Chris and I play the drums


-Can you give a little background information on the band?

Maika; Yea, we grew up together in Orlando, Florida. Me, Chris and Jay have been playing together for a long time; since we were like 13 and in middle school. And then Christian came into the picture about 3 years ago and you know and then we went serious with it [the band], started performing and now we're just doing our thing.

-So you guys have recently released an EP through iTunes under Hopeless Records, how has the response of fans been so far?

Christian; The response has been freaking awesome! It was a lot bigger than we expected. Everything has been going really well so far and it drops in stores August 5th so we're super excited about that.

- So the physical product will be in stores?

Everyone in the band; Yea.

Christian; Right now it's just digital and then it [the CD] will be out in stores everywhere else.

-Are there any plans to record a full length album in the future?

Maika; Early '09. We just want to get in the studio. There's no set plans because that's kinda of far away. We just want to get in the studio and then have a release sometimes through the early year.

-Also, what are the future touring plans?

Christian; So much! We're going everywhere.

Chris; Yes, right after this we're going back to our home state of Florida and we're going to play 4 dates with the band Cartel and then following up right after that we're going to the midwest to do 4 Warped Tour dates which we're really excited about.

Christian; Then we're going to be out in California, the midwest; we're basically going to the rest of the parts of the US with [a band named] Ivoryline and then we have some big stuff going on in the fall that we'll be announcing soon.

-Alright, now time for the main subject of my interview. What is your opinion on downloading and filesharing of music? Do you think it will help or hurt your career in music?

Chris; Hurt!

Christian; Ahh well, I don't know because for a band like us at a level that we're at, sometimes stuff like that [downloading], getting around is good in a way because it's a way to get our name out there. But there's a lot of ways that it does hurt a band like us that's trying to make it in the industry and it does kind of suck.

Maika; There's certain extents to it. To a certain extent we appreciate kids that want to go and get [download] our music, but we appreciate it more when they do buy it from us. Because in a way it's stealing, but you know it's not like we've never done it before because technology is out there, it's always growing and I don't think there's ever going to be a way to stop it for people downloading music for free. But you know, in a way, sometimes it helps, because you download music for free because maybe you have no money, and they would come out to shows and know all the words to our songs and it's great.

Christian; So it's definitely good and bad.

Chris; I think we understand why kids do it because it's so easy; it's just there. And kids are like "Why would I pay for music because I can get it for free?" But at the end of the day...

Christian; It also helps the career of the band when kids actually buy the music.

Chris; Yea. At the end of the day, you have to think. This is something we're trying to make a living off of. And that's when it [downloading] hurts us. But when kids are being into our band; that makes it worth it.

Christian and Chris; That's what's important to us.

-A lot of people say that they would rather download albums and then later support the bands by going to shows and buying merch. What's your opinion on this?

Chris; That's awesome!

Maika; That's awesome!

Jay; That's the like what the big happy medium is. If you're going to download music at least you know be willing to come out to the shows and also support us by buying merch and whatever. Just pay money to come see us.

Christan; Yea as long as kids are coming out to the shows, that's really what we care about

Chris; If kids are downloading merch for free, that's where it is yo!

Everyone; Hahahahahahahahahaha!

-So since you guys released an EP digitally, what do you think of services such as iTunes, Napster and Rhapsody?

Maika and Chris; It's amazing!

Jay; It's great!

Christian; It's a great tool!

Maika; I don't know why, but for a band like us it's [iTunes] been super helpful. The internet is so huge these days. That's the way we made our band to where it's at and the success on iTunes was great for us. I don't know about other online retailers but we're up there on iTunes' charts and it's really surprising.

-Do you think that our generation will ever switch over completely to buying music over the internet?

Chris; I think so.

Christian; I don't know if it will happen in our generation, but I think there might be a point. Because the thing with the internet, is that you know, it's right there, it's so fast instead of having to drive out to the record store and go buy it, you can sit at home and move your arm and buy it.

Chris; Hahahaha.

Maika; People are getting lazier and lazier. I think if we'll see another Hitler to come along for the internet, he'll be a dictator telling people to buy music over the internet.

-So saying that, do you think albums are overpriced?

Chris; No.

Christian; Well, I think it depends on where you go.

Maika; Yea.

Christian; Places like Best Buy are always good about pricing their records. Because I know with new releases they always have big sales on them which is really helpful. But um places like FYE ALWAYS overprice records. They overprice like crazy.

Chris; I think these days everyone's been going down on prices a lot because of how much it's hurting music sales. So everything's going down in price.

Jay; The economy's kind of crappy now.

Chris; But of course, you know there's always those CD's you see and it's 18.99 and people aren't going to pay for that when they can download it for 9.99 on iTunes.

-Now be honest, have you ever downloaded music before?

Everyone; Yes!

Maika; Same reason we explained about it. It's right there, it's so easy. But lately I haven't.

Christian; But actually lately I've been totally buying records.

Chris; Yea.

Christian; I've been actually going to the store to buy them. Because me, myself, I like CD's more than buying digitally. Because I just like having that real CD.

Maika; And I like reading the minor notes and everything [in the CD booklet].

Jay; I think it's a matter of, I've downloaded music before for free plenty of times, but if I really like the band and if I'm really into to it, I'll go buy the actual copy. I've done that so many times.

Chris; Oh yea same here!

Christian; Yea, I'm like that too.

-Is there anything else you would like to say about file sharing music?

Jay; If you like it buy it!

Christian; Yea! If you like it buy it!

Chris; Oh yea, if you're a true supporter.

Maika; If you're going to be a loyal fan, just buy the music. It's what's going to keep the band around; the sales from CD's.

Chris; How about this, if you download our CD, or our EP, and you really like it, then go buy it!

Everyone; Yea!

Christian; It's helping us out you know!

Chris; Download it to check it out, if you hate it, you hate it. But if you like it, buy it!

-Is there anything else you would like to say in general?

Christian; See us on the road! And buy our CD August 5th!

Maika; In stores!