all in all glad something we did in my parents’ basement with just the two of us pouring our shit out (no pun intended LOL). There have been sooo many records that helped me through major shit, I can’t help but pick Born To Run as the main healer. Scott: Personally speaking, we wrote this record in a majorly rough time of my life. Getting out some of the shitty stuff definitely helped me with stuff and I hope that translates into the record. We have a kind of “write about the present, not the past” mentality and so everything you hear in the lyrics are things that were affecting as us as we wrote them. Bands like Bright Eyes, The Good Life, Voxtrot, Meneguar, and Teenage Cool Kids are bands that I usually turn to when I’m feeling down. American Radass (This Is Important) was released by Flannel Gurl records, what interested you in working with them and were there any other labels you had considered? John: We were communicating with a couple different people about the possibilities of releasing it on their label, but Flannel Gurl seemed like the home for this album, a label that could spend their time treating this like their baby and put it out as soon as possible, instead of throwing it on a calendar where even after it was complete it might sit for months and we’d have to wait even longer for it to be released. Also Jon and Kimmi are both amazing sweethearts that have done nothing but welcome us in with open arms and make us feel entirely comfortable and loved, we couldn’t thank them enough for helping us with all of this. You recorded bass on the record and have had Derek from The World Is... playing bass at some live shows, will anyone be filling in on bass on the upcoming tour you’re going on? John: Nope, it’ll be just the two of us. We tried asking Derrick to fill in as much as possible but I don’t know, he keeps talking about some band he’s in that just has a weird name and all they do is talk about hot dogs and housing structures. Scott: I wish Derrick could come, I miss him already. Would you ever consider bringing in a third member to play bass full-time or are you happy to remain a two-piece? What are the advantages/ disadvantages to being a two-piece? John: As easy as it seems to have someone just learn the bass parts, there is so much more to it.
We need someone who gets our aesthetic, who enhances our live shows, who we can trust entirely with everything. Scott and I do a lot of goofing off during the sets, in and out of songs, and we need someone who can hang with us on that and not get lost at all. Derrick has been so far the only person we can imagine playing bass for us and still bringing extra stuff to the table. Advantages of being a two-piece are that it’s easier to tour (less people you have to worry about eating and sleeping, smaller van needed) and we can each handle half of the work load of being in this band, so there isn’t one person who just plain isn’t working or one person who is working way harder than the other. Disadvantages are little things like it’s hard to get one of us to run straight to selling merch after our set cause we have to move all the gear, and when you’re walking into a truck stop as just a two-piece band, the locals don’t get “oh yeah, they’re just young dudes, probably in a band” instead they just see two tattooed shaggy haired dudes that dress similarly and then everyone gives us weird looks. Scott: John and I also just get along together so easily where if it’s just the two of us, it’s very easy to tour for long periods of time. It’s also more weird when we roll up to shows as just us, rather than in a big group of people. One of the cool things I read about you guys was the closeness you maintain while on tour. While other bands with more members may hide out under their headphones on the road, you two are usually interacting in someway or another while driving between shows. Besides playing in the band together, you also live together outside of the band, what makes it easy for you two to work and live together? John: We just “get” each other and are constantly on the same page. We know how we both work, we know if we need alone time, we know if we need to hang, we just luckily connect entirely. Scott: Being on tour in a van for 2-8 hours a day for days on end is way to become ridiculously close with someone. When you isolate yourself with headphones or something, you lose that intimacy of listening to R. Kelly for 4 hours straight with your best friend/s.
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