HOW DOES IT FEEL HAVING YOUR CD "OH NO" LISTED AS TOP CD IN AMERICA, ON TOPS IN AMERICA.COM? It's a great honor. Thank you very much.

WHAT MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO TODAY? I'm really into the new Metric album. Mew, a Danish Band. The Buzzcocks.

WHO WERE YOU INFLUENCED BY GROWING UP? Growing up I was mostly listening to Pop radio, Cyndi Lauper, Prince. In High School I got into the punk Rock scene in DC. I listened to minor Threat and Rites Of Spring. Also the undercurrent of classic rock, such as the Stones.

HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THE PASSION YOU HAVE TO WRITE, RECORD AND PERFORM YOUR MUSIC? It's a hard thing to explain. In a matter of seconds you can communicate complex emotions that you can't with words or images. You could hear a drum beat that will make you pump your fist in the air. Or seconds of a particular melody that will make you want to lie down and cry. It's a very powerful emotional communication medium.

WHAT IS YOUR WRITING PROCESS? Usually I sort of take notes on lyrical ideas. I don't generally connect with music until I've written parts of songs. I write it a riff at a time, it begins with a basic idea. Once I have something put together musically, I try to put lyrics to it. I think of creative work as sort of a long series of really quick binary decisions. You follow your instincts as to what feels better. Generally along the line when you are doing that, something clicks and you decide what you want to start pursuing. Most of the time I'm just sitting around trying to write a song. 20 minutes later, we have it.

ARE YOU THE ONLY SONG WRITER IN THE BAND, OR DOES EVERYONE CONTRIBUTE? Whoever has a good song, it's not an ego thing, everybody writes and we sort of use the one's that we all like collectively as a group.

THERE WAS A TIME WHEN MUSIC LOVERS PURCHASED, SAT DOWN AND ACTUALLY LISTENED TO AN ENTIRE ALBUM FROM BEGINNING TO END. IT SEEMS WITH THE FRANTIC LIFESTYLE PACE OF TODAY'S LISTENERS (GRABBING A FEW SONGS, LISTENING ON THE GO, SHUFFLING TUNES OFF YOUR COMPUTER AS BACKGROUND MUSIC TO YOUR WORK DAY, ETC.) THAT NOT MANY, IF ANY, ACTUALLY SIT AND LISTEN TO AN ALBUM IN IT'S ENTIRETY. DOES THIS TROUBLE YOU? DOES IT INFLUENCE YOUR WRITING AND RECORDINGS? It bothers me only because I am nostalgic for the old ways, I wish people did listen to records more, I wish that the art-form still had that kind of place in the world. But Rock and roll is turning into niche music. It's turning into something for people who go chase it down and find it. Rock stations are dying all of the country. People are turning to video games and hip-hop and image-makers. Rock and roll doesn't have the presence it used to and as a person making it, you got to understand what you're getting into. It's something I love and I do listens to records from beginning to end. Unfortunately it's something I don't always have the time for. It feels like my life has sort of changed to the ways of today, you know, I do listen to my iPod and I do make playlists and shuffle. But the good side to it, it does change the way you think of song writing. Songs are somehow more self- contained. In a weird way it sort of harkens back to when songs were stand alone. Albums were merely sort of a collective for singles. If we didn't have to support the dinosaur of a record industry we are in, it would be interesting to have a system where people release songs more frequently instead of having to go on tour for two years at a time and stopping for 6 months to make an album. Record a song in a week, put it out that week. Go on tour for another week or two. It would be sort of nice to have that power in terms of what musicians get to do with they're time.

IN THE RECORDING PROCESS, HOW INFLUENTIAL IS THE PRODUCER TO YOUR FINISHED PRODUCT? On the new record I think Tore's presence helped a lot. He is very good sort of sound for us. We told him we wanted a very concise sound and tone to the whole record and something more cohesive, he did a good job at keeping us to our word on that. I have a tendency in the studio to get caught up in vortex's of detail chasing one idea so far that by the time I found it, it's completely morphed into something completely different, but he helped us keep a hold of that one idea. Keeping us out of collage land. With new music that comes out, we are always listening to music because we are musicians, but when making a new record, I try to be conscience of who's putting out what because of the sound. Making a record is a collaboration between the musicians and the producer, and great producer can't get a great record out of a shitty band. And vice versa. We listen a lot. Right now we are listening to see who's good for the next album, but actually, right now I'd really like to work with Tore (again) if we ever had the opportunity. I thought working with him was spectacular.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE STATE OF THE RECORD INDUSTRY TODAY? It's the Titanic and it's going down. It's sad. It's very hard to think of a model that will be for musicians in the future, but there is also a plus side in that a lot of us sort are entrenched out of corruption and that a lot of the Fat Cats at the top will soon be toppled. The shake up is sort of exciting from an insiders perspective. I think rock and roll while it has fewer listeners than it ever had, I think there is more interesting rock than there was five or ten years ago. There isn't a big corporate push to go to the New Metal and the post grudge bands. They don't have the money to do that any more, and as the industry kind of folds in on itself, it leaves space for the little bands and the independent bands, some of the more interesting thinkers have more elbow room.