Towson, MD

chris- How did you come to join the band??

Mark-well it’s a long story actually.    They came from Australia about 2 and a half to three years ago. 

Shimon-We made our first trip in March, the 25^th-26^th of March. 

chris- So, Are you from Australia as well??

mark-No, I’m not from Australia.  Actually I’m from L.A.  When they moved from Sidney to LA we met there. 

Chris- Did you have to audition? 

Mark- I walked in started playing and was part of the records.      Apparently I was right for the band or I wouldn’t be here.

shimon-We ran a real ordinary audition process.  We put up ads in the crisis, guitar centers, rehearsal studios, and did the ghetto thing.  We spent a couple of days auditioning dudes. We called back mark and another guy.  Mark was by far the best.

Mark-I proceeded to stalk them that’s why I eventually got the job

chris-What happened?  Chris (original drummer) didn’t make it across from Australia? 

shimon-Chris opted out before we left.

chris- I know you get asked this a lot but how did you get involved in the ‘Free Hugs’ video??

shimon- I made it as a get well card for Juann Man who is the Free Hugs guy.  He was a friend of mine back in the day when we were saving money to go over to the States.   I was holding a sandwich board for 2 for 1 shoe.  I was writing lyrics while doing so.  I met this free hugs guy, and I was videotaping him with my dads camera.    We kept in touch, while here in the States. 
One day I was talking to him and he was all broken up,  his grandmother passed away.  He was all messed up.  So, I made this video tape.  ‘All the Same’ had just been finished for the record.  I attached it to the video hooked up to myspace.com than put it on youtube.  And it just exploded.  It got a million hits in 4 days.

chris-Is that how you guys got with Virgin records?

shimon- That is how we finally signed to Virgin records.  We had pitched to them once before.  We had pitched to everyone twice before that.

chris- Have they been big supporters of you guys?

shimon- They have 2 other alternative bands to break with the last year and a half, which were ‘Red Jumpsuit Apparatus’, and ’30 Seconds to Mars’.  This had singles that broke the band. 
They had songs that were on the charts for over a year and they actually had to retire the song.  They didn’t retire it from being played, they just retired it from the charts, so that other bands would have an opportunity.  30 seconds to mars broke it with The Kill.  Than Red Jumpsuit broke it with ‘Face Down’

chris- I saw them  a few months ago at vans warped tour

shimon- 30 seconds or Red Jumpsuit?

chris- Red Jumpsuit. 

shimon- We met up with them back in Florida.   Which was pretty cool, they were in a process of breaking

chris- Do you prefer arenas or clubs?

shimon- What do you think Emma?

emma-   I think that everyone says that club shows are more intimate.  You can see their faces.  And its true because you see a wave where everyone starts.  You can only see first couple of rows than its all too far away.  I think that club shows are great.  At a festival the atmosphere is really great.

shimon-  I think there is a capacity.  After you hit that capacity it doesn’t matter how many people are there anymore.  For me I think it’s a couple of thousands.  Once you are at a point that you cant see the people in the back anymore.  Its not like the people don’t matter its just that’s the realm your in.  its no bigger.  You can’t get any bigger than that,

chris-How do you connect with them?

shimon-  theres a difference between connecting with people in a club like this  where you can see the people in the back.  You say ‘Lets put your fucking hands in the air or this or that’ and they don’t you can say put your fucking hands in the air I can see you.  When that point that occurs that there is certain energy in the room that you don’t have to worry about because all your reservations are gone.  And everyone wants to be a part of it.  That’s why you have to work differently depending on the audience

chris- How do you feel about Whales adopting a Free Hugs day? And the prime minister in France wanted to promote Free Hugs to attempt to counteract the AIDS issues their having there.

Shimon-yeah yeah I remember that

chris-they did some research to see whether to change the language of the board and felt that it didn’t translate to well so they kept it in English

Mark-fuck wow!

shimon-I should meet that guy.  It says that they were going to keep track of how many hugs are distributed.  That’s interesting.  I wonder how they would do that? 

Its so much bigger than any one person.

chris-How did you hook up with touring with Finger Eleven? 

shimon- Our agent, we told them that we want to be on tour until the record breaks and they had a spot on their tour and we were good to join them.

Chris-Have you guys had the opportunity to hang out with Finger Eleven as you’ve been on tour?

Shimon-yeah, I think every band likes their privacy sometimes.  We were somewhere and we were sitting chilling and the waitress came over with a trayful of shots. 
She said it was from the guys over there.  Unfortunately at the end of the day it’s a job and you want to make sure you are putting the best show you can.

mark-I have chatted with some of the guys in the band but the names aren’t quite sticking.  It’s been ‘how ya doing man, or dude’.  But I like to get to know the other band some, plus they have a better bus than us.

C-How did the band get started?

e- Actually we met in high school.  There was a music room where you would have to sign up to go to.    There would be and a lunch and a b lunch, and you could put your names down to go to a music room. 
We would be in the room a few times at the same time, we both showed up.  We talked about meeting there.  After that we learned that we pretty much similar music tastes. 
So we started jamming on stuff in common.  We were pretty much the only ones there that liked this local band Silver Chair.  Everyone was like to cool to hate them.  We kept playing the songs.  And we decided to put together a band. 
There was a couple of different guys that would drum with us.  Once we found the guy that was going to be with us for 2 years.  We did a couple of shows.  Then we ended winning a national radio competition.   After that we did a lot of shows and got a record deal.  It kinda happened quickly.

c-You guys have gotten a lot of big press, like Rolling Stone magazine has called you the most dynamic new band in the country.

s-oh wow that’s a good quote

c- From your Free Hugs video thing, you have appeared on Oprah, Jay Leno, that’s quite a jump in publicity.  What are your plans to follow up this?

s-All that stuff has kind of died down a little.  I don’t know if we can. 

The video for our next single My World was actually filmed before the free hugs clip was even conceptualized.  It’s a clip of the band playing the song. 

E- And we are just going to be a band, its what we were before, just because some video was made for a completely different reason became very successful doesn’t change anything about the band.  So I don’t know what it would take to change the band as a whole.  So we are just going to keep playing songs and doing our thing. 

S- We are a completely different band than what what we were a year ago, or 2 years ago.  And probably in a year or two that will change too.