Rob: After releasing Leave A Whisper, you spent two years on the road. You took a few weeks off and started recording Us & Them. Now you’re back out on the road again. So, what do you miss most about home when you’re gone for that long?

Barry: You miss your family, I think, the most, but you’re either meant to be out here or you’re not. This is what we do, this is what we love, so yeah, you miss it, but I enjoy it.

Lisa: All of you reside in Florida, where it’s pretty much spring and summer all year ‘round. When you have to go on tour in the middle of winter and you have to travel to colder areas of the country where it’s pretty much freezing, how do you cope with the changes without getting physically worn out from it?

B: ::Laughs:: I got a big jacket over there. I mean, there’s nothing you can do about it, it is what is it, it sucks, it’s cold, I hate it.

L: Does it wear you out?

B: Yeah, you get sick. Every winter, you get sick. We pass around throughout all the buses, Seether and everybody, we’ve passed around so far on this short tour the flu strep throat, and a cold. You definitely get sick, but I dunno if that’s as much to do with the weather as it is not taking care of yourself. You drink way too much and do way too many bad things, you don’t get any sleep and you stay up too late, so it’s probably a little more of that. Just take your vitamins, fuck it.

R: How do you work through that, if you’re on stage, when you have the flu?

B: You just do it.

R: It doesn’t slow you down at all?

B: Oh, you feel like shit up there, but you got to. You gotta entertain the crowd. People paid a lot of money to come see a show and you’re not gonna cancel it just ‘cause you got a fever. I’ve gotten up there with a 103 [fever], sweating and about to throw up, and you just do it anyway. Part of the job. That’s one of the downsides to the job – you can’t call in sick to work.

R: In the January/February issue of Blender Magazine, you guys helped with an article entitled “How to Cook Up a Squirrel.”

B: ::Laughs:: Yeah, that was a joke. ::laughs::

R: Have you guys ever actually hunted and eaten squirrels?

B: I have eaten a squirrel, yes. So has Jasin, I believe. The other two have not. Growing up in Florida, people hunt and they do those types of things and, I’ll tell you what, squirrel’s actually not that good. And the way we tell you to cook it in the article is not actually the way you do it. They’re not that good, but it’s food. It’s a whole different culture down there; people eat anything in the South.

R: You guys play “Simple Man” every night in tribute to Dimebag. Are there any chances you may ever cover a Pantera song as well, in his memory?

B: I don’t know if it’d go over well with us. We never really thought about it. We don’t like to do covers that much. That one happened by accident, so we really just don’t wanna do ‘em, and we don’t know that we’d be good at it. Seether does a great job on it, so we’ll let them do it. ::laughs:: Seether’s very good at throwing in little pieces of parts of different songs.

R: Some of the material on Us & Them was inspired by your fans. Would you guys ever consider bringing people up from the crowd onto the stage to sing along? You have songs written for the fans, why not sing it with them?

B: We’ve brought fans on stage before. It really depends on the club. We’ve had a whole crowd on top of the stage before. It just really depends on the show and the vibe we’re getting on stage. We kinda go spur of the moment when we’re up there. We really just feed on what’s happening, and if we’re in the mood, we jump out in the audience and bring them on the stage, or we might not do anything at all, or might be climbing the catwalk. Who knows. It really just depends what you feel at the moment. And when you do that, it’s a liability for a lot of other things. You bring a whole crowd on stage then your shit starts getting destroyed, you end up pissing off the local club ‘cause their monitors get kicked in and things like that. So you have to be careful.

R: I was going to ask you if you ever worry about bringing fans up and they end up knocking stuff over.

B: Yeah, you gotta worry about that. I don’t care if they break something on my drum kit, it happens. I’ll replace it, but I’d hate for one of our classic guitars out there; the ’77 bass to go down, that would really suck. ::laughs:: You gotta be careful. Or someone stealing. Nothing I hate more than a thief.

R: Being that your music is so eclectic, and critics are always trying to categorize musicians, are you at all afraid of being pigeonholed and not recognized for your diversity?

B: No, they can all suck it. Our fans love us. People that wanna put a label on it, it’s Rock music, take it or leave it. If you like the song, then it is what it is. If you feel it’s an Alternative song, and you wanna say, “Oh that’s a great Alternative band,” or “That’s a great Metal band,” I really don’t give a shit. Just enjoy the music, have fun.

L: While there are tons of magazines out there on fashion, health, celebrity news, etc., good music magazines that cater to Rock and Metal are few and far between. What are your thoughts on the fact that your exposure is limited when it comes to available print media?

B: I think it really sucks. We’re not a vogue band, we’re not a cool, hip band. We’re just a Rock band out here doing it. And I think there’s a lot of those that just really don’t get the exposure they need and the bands that do get the exposure really aren’t that good for the most part. There are the ones…but some of them are like, what the fuck is this? They might have cool clothes and play a keyboard, I really don’t care. There’s not a lot out there for bands and I don’t really read a lot of it because it’s mostly trash. Most of what they talk about in magazine articles, I could care less about. They just don’t get down to it and talk about music and musicianship, and ask some fun questions. Nobody cares, 90% of the time, where the band’s from. They really don’t, or they’ve read it before. Or my age, nobody cares.

R: I actually wanted to ask you if you get tired of being asked the same questions.

B: You get sick of it, but you also understand. Sometimes they don’t have that information because maybe they’re either new at it or they just want to get into the interview and have content to write and they might not be musicians, so they ask the standards. They might not understand music, so they ask the standard questions, “Where are you from? How long have you been together? What have you done?” And that’s okay, I’ll answer ‘til the day I die, but it gets old sometimes.

R: How about if you’re doing a phone interview and you can tell the interviewer has no idea about your band?

B: Then you start making up answers.

R: Really?

B: Yeah. ::laughs:: Then you start fucking with them. If it’s a horrible interview, it’s a horrible interview, and then you have fun with it. Or you get the people that say, “Well is there anything more you would you like to say to us?” No, it’s your interview, I really don’t care. There’s dragons falling from the sky, I don’t know. What do you want? So, yeah, you just fuck with ‘em. Tell them about our sax player, Nosmo, and stuff like that.

R & L: It’s funny that you mention that because we usually close with…

B: Anything else you’d like to add?

R: ::Laughs:: Yeah.

B: Uh, no. It’s your interview, that’s all I’m saying. What can I say that I haven’t already said before, so then you think about it, and it’s like, I don’t have anything. You know your readers, or listeners or whatever, you know those people, you know what they wanna hear. I can’t give them anything else.

R: I know certain artists have extra projects they want to plug.

B: Yeah, there are some like, “Yeah, we’re sponsored by these shoes, make sure you put that on there.” Look at the website, be a fan, buy the album, spend money, come to a show.