The Anniversary's highly influential debut album, Designing A Nervous Breakdown turned 16 this year. We have commentary on the album from vocalists, Adrianne Verhoeven and Josh Berwanger. Enjoy the read and let us know your thoughts on Designing A Nervous Breakdown sixteen years later.

Editor's Note: The album came out in 2000; please ignore my original title of 15 years.

Adrianne's band Extra Classic will be supporting 3 of The Anniversary shows this September and will have a new 7" out. Josh has a new album called Exorcism Rock coming out November 4th on Doghouse Records.

How did you feel when the album came out?

Josh: I had been sending demo cassette tapes to every label you could think of, Merge, Lookout, Honest Don's, Matador, just to name a few. That was followed by a handful of letters saying things like "No thanks" or "Our line up is currently full at the moment". So when Vagrant signed us and by the time the album came out I was just excited, and as a group we were excited to get out and start touring and sharing what we had been working so hard on.

Adrianne: Really psyched, as it was our first full length album as a band. We worked hard on the songs and had a great producer, Dave Trumfio, who helped us find great sounds with synthesizers and created a really fun and special atmosphere in the studio .

Where do you think the album fits in the band's legacy?

Josh: It's the album that got us going, people really identified with it. Both our albums are so different it's really hard to sit and compare the two and I believe they both fit really well together for as different sounding as they are.

Adrianne: DANB is /was a solid debut album for us that really encompassed our first few years as a band and all of the hard work we had put in creating a unique sound.

How the band approach writing?

Josh: Justin or I would have a part or a song and then work on that together. Then depending on the song we would work individually with everyone or take it straight to band practice and the song would develop/change as Adrianne, Janko, Jim added their parts.

Adrianne: Josh and Justin came to Jim, Chris and I with main ideas and we created our parts around the songs while we jammed.

What inspired the lyrics?

Adrianne: I would lean on Josh to answer this, however there a few songs that tell stories of the time- experiences we had and we're going through, individually and collectively.

Josh: Parties we would have, burning Playboys in the backyard of Whiskeytown, Unicycling, books or poems we were reading, movies we would watch with the struggles and beauties of life thrown into all those things.

What were your hopes and expectations for Designing A Nervous Breakdown during the writing and recording process?

Adrianne: Creating an album that realized and actualized a definitive "sound" for us, which was accomplished.

Josh: It was our first time recording a full length record so I really never thought about hopes or expectations at the time. I mean we all knew the songs were good. It was a matter of being in that moment, and listening and learning from Trumfio on how to make a record, as well as experimenting with different sounds. We couldn't of worked with someone better than Trumfio on DANB, he was amazing as a producer and friend.

When you were in the studio, how was the morale of the band?

Adrianne: It was a hilarious, fun time. Dave Trumfio is a wonderful, talented, funny guy that we all looked up to and he had a killer band, The Pulsars. So, we loved being there at his studio and in Chicago...we stayed with friends from Lawrence and had an absolute blast. It was summer- super hot...when we had down time in the studio we played some video games.

Josh: Crazy times. I'm not sure all of us were even 21 yet so we weren't really going out. I think we went to a karaoke bar one time and Janko sang that Sugar Ray song "Every Morning" and then somehow a bet started where if Janko lost he had to get some Simpson character tattooed on him. And...he lost. And...he has a Simpson character tattooed on him.

When was the last time you listened to the record? Are there memories and emotions that come back?

Adrianne: I’ve been listening to it non stop rehearsing the songs. Yes, there are definite specific memories and tangible emotions wrapped up in the songs.

Josh: Up until we decided we were gonna play more shows I couldn't tell you the last time I listened to it. It had been a long time. I've been listening to the songs we are playing on this upcoming tour but haven't listened to the record in full.

What do you remember most about making the album?

Adrianne: That we had a blast and we're having a special experience

Josh: Finally feeling normal in life because I was doing what I had always wanted to do.

What sort of place was your life in when the album came out?

Adrianne: January 25, 2000- I was 20 and had just dropped out of college to go on tour- it was awesome! We all lived within a few blocks of each other in Lawrence (I think most of the guys in the band lived together on Kentucky street- I lived on Tennessee street). We were best friends, more like family; we saw each other daily, playing music and hanging out. I think we literally hit the road the day the album came out. We played in St. Louis and got a flat tire in the snow after the show.

Josh: Jim, Justin, Janko, me, Cobra (from Appleseed Cast), Rob (from Get Up Kids), and our pal Tom all lived in a 3 bedroom house called Whiskeytown in Lawrence, Kansas. Jim, Rob and I shared the living room which had a bed and two couches in it. We also always had these homeless people coming in and out asking us to give them rides places and help them steal groceries and liquor, so that was always fun. It was a wild time for sure. Always some shit going on.

Did you ever expect the album to have the influence it did?

Adrianne: Not sure if we thought in those terms then, but we're all delighted that it did mean something to people.

Josh: No. We honestly always just did what we wanted for better or for worse. Usually for worse.

Do you remember what you were listening to at the time?

Adrianne: At the time - Modest Mouse, Built to Spill, Flaming Lips, Beck, Pavement, Elliot Smith, Sebadoh, Get Up Kids...

Josh: Rolling Stones, Guns N' Roses, Mission of Burma, Ratt, Jets To Brazil, the Cars, Buddy Holly, Buzzcocks. We made a mix tape for our first tour and it was all over the place music wise. I remember the tape very well because we would insert different Freddy Krueger lines we would rip from VHS tapes in-between songs. So a Dramarama song would end and all the sudden you'd here "Bon-apetite...BITCH!" Then it would kick into Iron Fist by Motorhead, then a Smashing Pumpkins song, then "Welcome to Prime Time....BITCH!"

Is there anything about the album you'd change?

Adrianne: Not a thing!

Josh: I would of changed that bet we made with Janko. Instead of him getting a Simpsons character I would of bet him to get Taz smoking a blunt in a football helmet with a Eddie Van Halen guitar holding hands with an alien who is driving a monster truck. But really that would be it.