It was sort of like a Homecoming for The Hanks. The Los Angeles band had been on an extensive tour that took them all over purple mountains and blues lakes, but they couldn’t resist the smog covered L.A. And in this day and age where everyone is connected it seemed like fans could reach out and keep up with the band wherever they may have gone. Four guys, riding around in a van with their entourage, who are really just their friends, made a name for themselves on the road.
Outside the Key Club, right before their ‘Welcome Back Show’ they talked with us about junk food, Russian emo fans, and self-promoting their newest album.
Smashed Chair: Welcome back to L.A. How long have you been on tour?
Josh: Two months.
Phil: Two and a half months and seven days.
SC: What’s the furthest you’ve been away from L.A.?
Unison: New Hampshire.
SC: What was the … I don’t want to say shittiest show…
Josh: What was the best show?
SC: What was the unbest show?
Josh: Unbest show?
Bryan: Unbest show?
Josh: There was one show where I played for Bryan on the side of the road when we had a flat tire.
Phil: That’s a lie, we’ve never had a flat tire!
SC: So you guys are all van, no tour bus, no rider?
Josh: We ask for a rider, but we never get one.
SC: So, you never get the all red Skittles in one bowl?
Phil: They give us one big bowl of Skittles and five different bowls, so we can separate our Skittles ourselves.
SC: You guys went from mall shows to playing The Key Club.
Shane: Like Tiffany.
Josh: I don’t think we’ve ever really played any shows at any malls. We’ve sold our CDs
at malls.
SC: Whoops. I was reading your iTunes reviews and people were like “This guy came up to me at the mall and tried to sell me an album.”
Bryan: Nah, we were just whoring ourselves off at the mall.
Josh: We went to the mall, because people just buy stuff there. That’s what people do.
SC: Speaking of selling your CDs and whoring yourselves out, would you sell your records at Starbucks?
Josh: That’s a really random question.
Shane: We’d sell them wherever we could.
SC: But you know what I mean, when you go to Starbucks, you have that kiosk that has CDs.
Shane: Yeah, I know what you’re talking about. The kiosk.
Phil: You mean, make our album available at Starbucks?
Bryan and Josh: Oh, heck yeah.
Shane: It all goes great – good music and a latte.
Phil: Yeah, I mean Elvis Costello and Radiohead all had there stuff there.
Shane: I wouldn’t even mind Coffee Bean.
Phil: Even if all the Ma and Pa coffee shops had kiosks.
Bryan: Wherever the people could get it.
Josh: As long as Starbucks doesn’t make us write a song about their new latte.
Josh breaks into singing
~Cinnamon Dulce, where would we be without you~
Josh: And we tell them we only do Frapuccino songs.
Phil: We could do a Frap rap.
Phil begins to beat box
Phil: Oh that mocha, it’s so good to me.
SC: My friend told me that Emo music is just getting to Russia. What would you say to the Russian folks who listen to your music?
Phil: I’m a little bit Russian. So, I’m cool with that.
Josh: You guys should be rushin’ out to the stores and buying our new album.
Everyone goes ooooh, at the same time.
Josh: That’s going to translate all wrong in Russia.
SC: You’re going to anger them – it’s going to be like the Beatles saying they were bigger than Jesus. What’s it like to be on the road and what are your favorite gas station snacks?
Phil: If it’s in Austin, it’s Rudy’s Bar-B-Q. Because that’s in the gas station.
Bryan: Is it really?
Phil: Yeah, gas station Bar-B-Q! That’s like the best bar-b-q… that you can get in the gas station.
Josh: I’m all about the Peanut M&Ms.
Bryan: Almond Joy!
Shane: I’d probably go with Almond Joy, too.
Josh: I also get a lot of Spicy V-8s.
Bryan: Blazing Buffalo Doritos.
Cars off of Sunset honk and break loudly
SC: I love this town!
Josh: We had been coming over… over the hill coming back, we had been on tour for two months and we were driving in from Phoenix and we were coming over a crest and you could see the whole city below us – all of its smoggy glory.
Bryan: Might we mention that it was West Covina that we were cruising.
Josh: It was exiciting!
Bryan: We were excited by the smog.
SC: You guys are doing everything as a band yourselves – promoting, touring, all the stuff. What’s that like?
Josh: It’s a normal amount of work, plus…
Phil: It’s extra work.
SC: Good thing I softballed that question to you… You guys were at Warped Tour for two stops last year, you going again this year?
Phil holds up three fingers with such fortitude
Phil: Three stops.
Josh: Don’t try to thirty three percent us.
Phil: Usually all the other ones come last minute, so maybe we’ll do it again. It would be nice. We did get catering this time, so it would be nice.
SC: If you guys could go back in time, steal all the good music from the eighties and bring it back here, would you?
Josh: No.
Bryan: Without their permission?
Josh: We already can steal their music from the 80s.
Shane: I like those guys from the 80s, I wouldn’t steal their music. They are a big influence.
SC: I guess where I’m trying to get at is burning CDs and giving them out to friends.
Josh: That question just morphed!
Phil: That’s a cool thing that they have our CD and their listening to it. Hopefully that inspires them to come out and see us. That’s our bread and butter, you know.
Josh: This new record we did, a large part of the funding came from the fans pre-ordering. So, it was kind of an experiment on our part to see if we could do the record independently. It was very encouraging to see all the support and let people know all the work it takes to be in a band. We had people donating $40 and $50 bucks.
SC: Who updates the MySpace, the Flickr and all of that?
Phil: All of us.
Bryan: We have a blog too.
Bryan runs to grab a camera/phone/camera device from the future
Josh: Yeah, we’re down with the new media.
SC: So, you guys aren’t doing the coke off the hookers on Twitter… yet?
Shane: I don’t think it would stay on.
Phil: Coca Cola… I think that would roll off.
Josh: I prefer Dr. Pepper. I do Sprite off of nuns. Actually, he’s taking your picture right now and then we’re going to update it on our Flickr.
SC: Say whaa?
Josh: It’s like when medias collide!
By Nathan Solis
