MEB: So let’s start this off with the obligatory “How’s the tour going” question. How has the turnout been?

Lights: It’s been crazy, and I can see it growing over the course of just the past few weeks. It’s kind of amazing to see happen, and really exciting! I think it’s got to do with the new record, more people latching onto it, or more people hearing it. They say you can only be a new artist once, but I think that when people keep hearing it and keep finding it, as long as you keep re-inventing yourself and making sure that you’re keeping yourself challenged and keeping your fans challenged, then more people are gonna find it. It’s been amazing, it’s really coming across well; especially the new stuff. The shows have been so much fun for us, and I think people come and have a good time, and they tell their friends about it.

What has been your favorite stop so far this tour? 

Oh, that’s hard. There’s been a couple great ones. New Orleans was really fun because we had never played there, it was a small one but it was sold out and it was gnarly and hot! We went out that night and it was crazy, we went to Bourbon Street. It was a fun night for all of us. And then nights like Orlando and (Washington) DC where there are so many people coming out, well your mind equals blown all the time.

Oh you pulled the plug! I’m so excited. (laughs)

Tell me about your creative process, without trying to get too prod-y. Is there a particular niche that you’ve found when developing what has become your sound? Or do things tend to take off with their own direction?

Each song has its own way that it comes together. The best thing that you can do as a writer, musician, and producer is go with that. Learn how to chameleon into all of the different ways you can possibly do it. I mean, especially with the new record where there are so many different collaborations involved with it, not everyone’s going to have the same writing style. Learning to adapt to suit different environments is really important. A song like “Cactus In The Valley” on Siberia was written just with me and my acoustic guitar, and then later re-worked to fit the rest of the record. A song like “Everybody Breaks a Glass,” I was sitting down with Brian and Graham of Holy Fuck jamming in his dining room, and then we took parts of that jam session and patched it together. Suddenly it started to form, we started playing melodies over it and it becomes this imperfect, raw, live electronic track that you start to lay a top-line over. Songs like “Flux & Flow” start with the beat, and then you just kinda build it from there. So whatever inspires it or whatever sparks it, that’s the way that it kinda dictates that it’s gonna go.

Is there a song in your catalogue that you feel might be mis-understood? Maybe it’s been interpreted the wrong way? 

I think the last song on the record, which is one of the most exciting songs I’ve released because it’s so different; it’s called “Day One.” It’s basically nine minutes of noise, but there’s order in the chaos, there’s purpose in the chaos as well. That is the last nine minutes of the first jam session I had with Holy Fuck. Now, this was a really special turning point in my career because it was the first time I had made music in a live setting and kept it that way. You know, you can write in a live setting but when you go to record it you start from the bottom up and make it perfect. This is real, raw, being recorded live off of the floor and you never make the same thing over again. It’s a track of its own, it can’t be replicated. That’s pretty special in the electronic world, where people can sometimes dismiss the genre as “soulless” or without life.

Because everything’s programmed, you know it’s like there’s not a lot of feeling to it? 

Yeah, there’s some elements that can be like that but this is a perfect example of a track that is completely live electronic. I thought it was really ironic for the genre, and really cool. When I put it on, it was like this is driving music, this is beautiful, this is background music. You know, life isn’t perfect, and our days aren’t perfect, so why does music have to be?

That’s probably why you named it “Day One” right?

It’s actually the name of the session, because it’s the first day we worked together. Their influence on the record helped get a really cool sound on a lot of the tracks.

Wow, that’s awesome.

In nature, The Listening and Siberia seem to show a metamorphosis in not only your sound but also your perspective on life. Tell me about what influenced the overall concept of the new record?

It’s hard to say. I didn’t go into it with this mind-frame of what I wanted to say. It was more-so the music I wanted to make, the sound, and the energy that the songs conveyed. I wanted to bring a grittiness and a heaviness to my work which was previously very soft and lush. I wanted to turn that on instead and show the underbelly. It was my manager’s suggestion to collaborate with Holy Fuck, and it ended up being amazing and the collaboration of the year. It was one of those steps in taking that direction. It just so happens that over time you get comfortable with yourself, you get better at what you do, you understand your sound more and your place in the world and in music more. So, I think that walking into the record with that mind-frame gives you that much more freedom, and that much more ability to make your mark on the record and say what you want to say. I think it’s a reflection of me being confident and me being happy, being able to delve into other worlds when I was writing lyrics, and just have fun. A song like “Fourth Dimension,” I remember sitting there and we had written a lot of the track and fixed it up a bit. I went and sat in my hotel room and just wrote lyrics. Before I knew it, it was 4 A.M. and I had a set of lyrics, and I was like where did these come from? You just go to another place, it’s like an out-of-body experience, like an adventure. It was just fun and a good experience, as opposed to The Listening which was amazing in its own way; it was a lot to get off of my chest. It was very personal and close to me, and very few people were involved in the project. So, it came from a different place.

Yeah, I’m an artist as well so I totally understand everything that you’re saying, it makes sense to me. It’s great whenever you hear someone who’s on that same page, you know?

Yeah!

I totally know that feeling, what they were going through right when they were writing that, it makes sense.

You’ve mentioned that you want your music to feel special like “apple pie,” which I find to be a very relatable thought. Expanding on that feeling, is there a particular mood you were trying to hit with Siberia? Maybe another fruit?….Pie?

(laughs). Man, the apple pie slogan I put on my first MySpace page in 2006! I think it’s still there isn’t it? I just remember the way I felt when my Grandma used to make apple pie and it was the best. It was this good kind of happy that was like this right now is awesome, and that’s all that matters. There could be a crazy night ahead of you, but right now you’re really enjoying the apple pie. That’s the way a song should be. You don’t wanna write something that’s gonna piss someone off, or make someone more frustrated or stressed. I’ve heard music like that and it just frustrates me so I just have to turn it off. I just wanna make stuff that takes you away for 3 1/2 minutes, you know?

Right!

Is there anyone who you want to collaborate with that you haven’t yet?

Um, who knows? There’s so many people out there. The best collaborations are the ones you least expect to be great, like the one with Holy Fuck and Shad. You know, some of the collaborations I’ve done I wouldn’t have thought two years ago would be great. You just don’t anticipate what’s really gonna work out. But yeah, there’s people I would love to work with. There’s a million! Like Kanye West, or 50 Cent! Let’s do something with 50 Cent!

Oh man. That’d be awesome, I’d kill to see that! (laughs)

I’ll be in his video game, isn’t it Crystal Skull or Glass Head or something?

I know what you’re talking about, but I can’t remember the name for the life of me. But that’d be really cool.

If you had to give me your best interpretation of what’s next for the music industry in terms of its future, what might that be?

I don’t know, it’s going in a weird direction in a really cool way. But, I think that rock and grunge is gonna come back. Rock has kinda disappeared from radio, you know? I think the same sort of thing happened in the ’90s. Everything was getting electronic, everything was getting really dance-y. Then, everyone was like I don’t wanna hear all this sounding so perfect so let’s get some grunge in here. Then all of the grunge bands came in like Nirvana, and then everyone was like “yeah! this is real again!”, you know? Not that I’m dismissing electronic at all, I just think that people are gonna find ways to make things sound like there’s human in them, there’s soul in them. There’s only as much soul as you put in, and I think that electronic music is no different. I mean, that’s what I tried to do on Siberia. People are getting a bit exhausted of hearing so much perfection and tuning and all of this stuff. It’s nice to hear some mistakes, hear some human in it.

Too much melodyne, too much auto-tune.

Yeah, that’s what we did on Siberia, there’s ugly parts, and there’s messy bits, and there’s grittiness. That’s what makes it special.

It adds character!

It adds character and you can hear that there’s people there, and that’s what makes it cool.

Give me your opinion on the ideology of the “larger than life” figure (the example being a famous musician). Basically, what I’m asking is in relevance to our society and the importance of this person’s work, or music: is it right for us to “worship” them and idealize their music and their persona? Does a person ever stop being just like us, and if so when does their music transcend their persona?

It’s something that I’ve always kind of thought about. You hear these stories about some of these huge rock stars who have lost touch with reality, you wonder how that happens, at what point that happens. I know I haven’t. I don’t know if it’s due to my family, or my connection with my fans. I’m always making sure I try to meet people when I can, or keeping myself on a ground level and having good friends around – your team around you! They’re important. If you have people around you who are telling you “yes” all of the time, you’re never going to know reality. Right? The world’s not like that. It only goes as far as you let yourself. If you’re the kind of person who’s insecure enough that you need someone to tell you that, then you’re probably going to lose touch with reality. That’s where it changes, when you think that you’re not susceptible to “real life.” I honestly don’t know when that point comes. It’s something I’ve thought about too. It’s like is there some kind of threshold you cross, suddenly you’ve sold “this” amount of records and you’re a different person? Then you hear about people who aren’t like that at all. So, I really don’t know. All I do know that I’ve never looked at an artist and worshiped them. When I really respect someone’s work I look beyond it and what it’s doing, and where it’s coming from. For me, when people are really into my music and are really moved by it, I hope they don’t think that I’m the one -

That you’re a different person?

I hope they don’t think that I’m the one who’s affecting them. I’m not. It’s who gave me my music, and I think that’s a force much greater than me. I hope people can look through me and see that, and not -

Put you on some sort of pedestal?

It’s not me, I’m just like a medium for it, you know? I believe it’s coming from somewhere else. I hope it’s all that big place in the sky that it comes from.

Yeah.

Tell me about the concept of the music video for “Banner.” Who came up with it?

“Banner” was the one that took me a little while to get the video for. Some of them come right away, and some of them don’t. It’s usually me who comes up with the main idea. I watched “The Book of Eli” and I was really excited by the concept of this lone wanderer who has something that everybody wants. People can sense that in him – he’s strong, he’s a fighter. It’s in this post-apocalyptic world where there is no purity, or values left. So the video is kinda like that. Essentially the concept for the video for “Banner” is longer than 3 1/2 minutes, so it’s hard to jam in there.

The song is about being in a world where everything can be burned down. I always look at it as, what’s valuable is what can’t be burned down. It’s like your friendships and love, and relationships – things that if we lose everything, they are still there. That’s what “Banner” is all about. For the video I wanted to convey something like that – a world where there’s no white material left, that at it’s most basic there’s nothing pure left, yet somebody has something and everyone recognizes it. It can stop conflict and it can bring people together. I thought that was a really neat little concept. We found a really wicked spot out of L.A. in this desert, it was actually very, very cold, freezing that day. It was this old compound for disturbed children that had been abandoned since the ’60s. We used that spot, it was kinda eerie and really cool. It ended up being really great.

So taking a look back at where you’ve come from, you’ve gone so far. You avoided the sophomore slump with such a game changer like Siberia. From where you’re at now, what do you anticipate for the future?

We want to stay on this trajectory that we’re on. Nothing is blowing up, but nothing is going down. It’s a slow build; you put in hard work and make decisions for the right reasons. I don’t ever take endorsements or those kinds of things if they don’t stand alongside the integrity of the music. Everything is about that. You don’t try to sell anything other than what you believe in, which is the songs, the live show and bringing people to the show. Seeing it really happen like the way that we always hoped it would, myself and my manager, we kinda built it from 2006. It’s like this slow, steady build; I hope that it continues on this road so that in 5-10 years my fans are still with me, and they’re growing with me and I’m growing with them. Nothing is left and forgotten; we can make each other proud, you know?

Right. I think that’s exactly what anybody would want.

Yeah! It takes tact though. A lot of people are swayed by getting lots of money to do an ad, or those kinds of things. Those things are great, but you have to really be like, what am I getting out of this in the long run? Is this helping the music, you know? That can cut out some success in the short term, but yeah.

That’s what you need to keep doing!

Any last words for all of your fans out there who are listening to or reading this?

Definitely come to a show, they’re fun!

I can agree with that.

We have a good time, and my band’s amazing. I have a four-piece band, and these guys all make the parts their own. You’re going to get something even different from the record, and the light show is amazing! Jeremy our lighting guy is part of the band, so yeah. Come to a show!

Thank you very much for sitting down with me and having this interview! 

Of course!

This so-called mini-EP consists of three songs, but do not let the length dissuade you from giving it a go. These three songs are not only enough to turn your frowns upside down, or wake you up on the right side of the bed in the morning, or even to get a dance party started on the weekends, but it is also just enough to leave you excited to hear what the band will produce next.

Of the three songs, there are a few repeated themes: the catchy, suave, attitude-filled melodies, the subtle but mood-setting guitar work, and the dominant synth – the things that define the band in Rebel Hill. Opening track “Faces” has an acoustic rhythm guitar paired with poppy drums and slight synth usage to give it an Honorary Title feel. This is just a warm-up to the dancy-ness that ensues in the following two songs. The second song, “Pipes,” has a more sultry feel and is focused primarily on vocals until the Hot Hot Heat-esque build-up a little over halfway through. Finally, the title track is the catchiest and danciest of them all. Everything from the drums to the synth to the vocals will loop in your head for days.

Vinyl Thief is a very promising electro-pop band that has created an EP (mini-EP) that does exactly what it should – leave you begging for more. Rebel Hill is among perfect timing in the music industry these days – and it’s free for all to download – so excuses are eliminated.

Second track “All I Know” begins with a Motion City Soundtrack feel, thanks to the synth work. The drum work throughout the EP is always good, but this song is particularly noticeable. With the smooth transitions and dance-y beats, “All I Know” is the catchiest song of the set.  ”New York, New York” is the pop-punk song of the album. This song has the poppy value of an All Time Low song, with the chorus sounding similar to “Coffee Shop Soundtrack,” an ATL oldie.

The lyrical content, while simple and having been done before (but honestly, what hasn’t?), is relatable on the surface and on a deeper level, presenting the listener with two options: listen to the song and enjoy it for the simplicity of the upbeat chipper sound, or enjoy the song for the lyrics that are at times a little down – or, if you are a philosopher, there is that third option of both. Sad lyrics with pop music tends to allow that dismal feeling one would achieve from listening to a band like Coldplay to be avoided.

With vocals comparable to those in Summer Obsession (see the title track, “Finders Keepers”), and catchiness like that of +44, Fourth Quarter Comeback is the Alternative power-pop band to listen to.

But, since first impressions are almost always wrong, I kept listening. Not that hearing something upbeat like BTR would be a bad thing, anyway. And Aaron Carter? Come on, you know you were a fan at some point. With The Ready Set’s past albums, specifically I’m Alive, I’m Dreaming, there seems to be more of an alternative pop feel; a sound that perhaps was not completely accepted on popular radio stations, or the (for lack of better terminology) “mainstream” (I know, I know – it’s a soiled word) music scene. In the Feel Good Now EP, however, slight changes are made that make it more commercial.

Third track “Back to Back” is a perfect example. This song just sounds like it belongs on the radio- catchy chorus, key changes and hand claps. But while this EP is more radio-friendly, it is still TRS-signature. For example: the lyrics. Like I said before, cutesy lyrics are what Jordan Witzigreuter is all about, and this stays constant throughout everything in this new release. The keyboard usage is also still remains a dominance of the songs.

The Feel Good Now EP is Jesse McCartney with a smaller ego, Aaron Carter with a less flashy lifestyle/reality television flop, and Big Time Rush without dance moves or a falsely-advertised extravagant lifestyle. But most importantly, it is still the same ole Ready Set you’re used to hearing.

In “Raconte-moi une Histoire,” the sixth track from the record, a young boy tells a wonderfully descriptive story about a magical frog. According to the story, the frog, if found and touched, will change your world forever, turn blue into red, your mommy into your daddy, make everything look like a giant cupcake, and make you keep laughing and laughing. This particular story may be describing some sort of frog, but it could easily be describing the album title. The main sentiment found throughout M83’s two-disc magnum opus is that feeling of youth, and the memories that come with being a child. In short, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is a celebration of youth and childhood.

From the very start it becomes clear that this album is huge. I’m not just talking about its length, but its sound, and its grandiose way of doing things. The introduction to the record carefully builds up as Zola Jesus chimes in to provide a hair-raising performance, all before exploding into a tremendous explosion of sounds. Loud enough to fill a stadium, first single “Midnight City” contains a gigantic chorus, which is perfectly mixed with some softspoken verses. The track’s versatility and its prediction of sounds to come make it an ideal single, and the perfect way to start the record.

The first part of the album continues to impress with gigantic choruses and soothing interludes. Tracks like “Reunion” show how much more prominent the percussion is as opposed to previous albums. Gonzalez’s ability to carefully build up a song before it climaxes into a cacophony of sounds is portrayed in “Where the Boats Go.” It should also be noted that this record is highly accessible, with certain tracks, such as “Claudia Lewis,” being bouncy, fun and catchy from the very first listen.

One of the most fascinating aspects of this album is that Gonzalez is able to keep a similar feeling throughout the album, but still keep his listeners entertained. By simply adding a couple of touches and tweaks to every song, they each become their own entity. Examples: the choir in “New Map,” the nostalgic ’80s feel of “Ok Pal,” and the pummeling drums of “Year One, One UFO.”

The album closes on a lighter note, with a couple of bouncy tracks that are quite easy to digest. It seems like after the whole ordeal, M83 gives you a bit of a rest. Before ending, however, we get an outro, which closes things in the magnificent manner that Gonzalez intended.

Anyone who has heard any of the work previously done by M83 knows that it is upbeat and big. However, with Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, the band has gone above and beyond, making an album that’s more upbeat and bigger than any of their previous work. Hell, this is more upbeat and bigger than most albums this year. With winter right around the corner, we have the choice to sulk around in the cold, or we can take the initiative to make it warmer than the previous one. Celebrating your youth seems like a good way to do this, and no other album this year celebrates your youth like Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.

MindEqualsBlown: Your new album, The Listening, is your full length debut, and it’s been pretty well received. How does it feel to finally have released it?

LIGHTS: Awesome, for starters! It feels like it’s been a while in the works. It’s kind of a collection of the best stuff I came up with over the past few years, and it’s all really honest and heartfelt, and I’m actually really proud of it. Everything from the music, to the artwork surrounding it, to the comic that’s spawned from it, to the videos and everything, it’s just something that I’m so proud of, so actually seeing it out there and doing a tour on it, it feels almost effortless because it’s something that I’m so stoked on. It’s really, really cool. I feel legitimate! (laughs)

MEB: According to your MySpace page, you said that you don’t want to make people feel “sexy” happy, but “apple pie” happy. What influenced you to have that sort of style, rather than something like Britney Spears or Lada GaGa?

L: Well it’s just more of who I am, you know? I’ve always been kind of a hermit, I guess. Growing up I was a homeschooled kid so I just had a lot of fun making music in my room and drawing comics and being kind of a geek. That sort of semi-covered up, dancy kind of stuff – it’s not bad – it’s just not my thing, it’s not who I am. So it just came natural that I would be a representation of who I am as a person; it’s like that undeniable, heartwarming happy that you get when you have awesome apple pie. It’s the best feeling ever, and when I first started making this music, I’d not only write to bring myself out of dark places or change my mood around, but I also created sounds and really lush and ambient intergalactic environments around the songs that make me feel happy. There certainly are different kinds of happy, and this is a certain kind!

MEB: I noticed that a lot of your music videos are very artsy and galactic looking, did you come up with those concepts?

L: Yes, definitely. It all started with the “Drive My Soul” video. I would close my eyes and listen to “Drive My Soul” and all I could picture in my head was me creating and designing a spaceship in order to get to this purple planet with this astronaut waiting for me. There was just no other way to have it! Everything I write – audio – there’s always some visual component that goes with it, and that was the one that went with this, and I just needed to find someone to bring it to life, and that’s how it’s happened ever since. I have all these ideas and crazy concepts and it’s just a matter of finding other people to work with that will make it that much more of a reality.

MEB: You’re on tour right now, so how’s that going?

L: It’s awesome. I’m actually back in Toronto for a couple of days to work on some stuff for the Canadian tour which comes up in November, but then we actually go back out tomorrow to kick the tour back off. We took a break in the middle which is kind of weird, but we are back out tomorrow in Buffalo and I’m really excited, it’s been amazing. We’ve done about a week and a half of shows and it’s the first tour I have done in the States on a record, actually the first tour I’ve done on a record. It’s really cool seeing people come out and actually knowing all the songs as opposed to just knowing a few, because previously I’ve played new songs, but they weren’t really out there for people to know, so now people can actually sing along to the new stuff and it’s awesome.

MEB: You just announced a new city with Owl City next year. Are you excited for that?

L: It’s going to be awesome! It was kind of a long time coming. Owl City is awesome and reminds me of myself in many ways, so it seemed only fitting. We are going to play a lot of places I’ve never actually played in America, like in Alabama and stuff, so it’s gonna be fun!

MEB: You were on Warped Tour this year. Was it your first time on Warped?

L: I mean I used to go to Warped Tour all the time, as a listener. Last year we actually did the tour in Cleveland, just one-off, to get a little taste of it, but this is the first full on Warped Tour I’ve ever done, well we did a month of it, so it was interesting. It was actually a total blast, it was a party all the time. You get to see great music all the time and meet new people every day and win over multitudes daily, which is a challenge, but it was absolutely fun and I learned a lot.

MEB: Do you have any specific memorable Warped experiences that happened?

L: For starters, the weather. You get such extremities. You get days that its pouring rain – I remember one day in Montreal, it was just pouring rain, and Adam, my other keyboarder on stage, the water was pouring in his keyboards and his keyboards fizzled out mid-set, and half the stuff wasn’t working on stage and people were just drenched, but it was awesome. Listening to crazy, lush music and being soaking wet – there’s something that much more melodramatic about it. There was also Florida, where it was so incredibly hot, and I got off stage in Orlando, and pretty much threw up, it was so hot. But still, it was absolutely a blast.

MEB: You have been pretty much all over the US and Canada touring. What’s your favorite city so far and why?

L: There’s a few, for different reasons. It’s always cool coming back to Toronto because you know that you have a foundation there and there’s people that are going to come because I have been working out of Toronto for longer than anywhere. But there’s those hidden places that you wouldn’t think would be awesome, but they are. Like Texas – the music lovers down there are crazy. There’s tons of people that know my songs that I never would have even guessed knew them down there. And I always have a good time in Seattle or Portland, I love the West Coast. Same with Vancouver. Also, weirdly, in Denver, I love playing there. Also Boston (laughs).

MEB: Do you have any guilty pleasure bands?

L: I definitely would have to say I’m a huge t.A.T.u. fan, remember those two girls from Russia? I love t.A.T.u. and I’m not really ashamed of that either. I am an open t.A.T.u. fan (laughs). Other than that I mean there’s all the usual boy bands that are actually really easy to listen to because the songs are great. Also, one of my big pleasures is Cradle of Filth, they’re an awesome band. I don’t think it’s a guilty pleasure but it’s kind of unexpected I guess.

MEB: What about if you could pick three bands, living or dead, that you could play a show with?

L: One of them would be ABBA, for sure. That would be a nuts show! I would love to collaborate with Supertramp. I don’t know how many of them are still around or not, but I love Supertramp, they’ve influenced my writing for so long. And I think it’d be stellar to collab with Justin.

MEB: I know you play World of Warcraft, tell us a little about your character.

L: Well I have a couple level 80s. The one I have been playing a lot lately is my Draenei, definitely. I’m having so much fun honestly. I’ve been doing a lot of raiding actually. She likes raiding with friends and she enjoys nice walks on the shores of Stranglethorn Veil at sunset. She goes for achievements a lot, I’m always working on the achievements. Right now I’m about to get the title for Hallow’s End. I’m not huge on PvP, but if I’m in a battleground or something, I’ll definitely make it happen. I’m mostly going for the experience.

MEB: How do you find time to do all that, with touring and stuff?

L: It’s definitely hard when you’re on the road. But when you’re backstage for example, and there’s internet in the venue, and the opening band’s on and you are just sitting back there thinking about going on stage, you get a little butterflies, no matter how many times you’ve done it. It’s nice to get your head out of the world and go into World of Warcraft for like an hour and run Trial of the Crusaders or something.

MEB: Do you ever play with fans?

L: I do, actually. I actually posted my character and server on my MySpace, which I have since taken down and transferred over to the server I am in now, which people are starting to find out about as well. Whenever I am in game or just doing dailies or something and I’m not too busy, people will whisper me and we will have full on conversations which is awesome. I’ve actually gotten together with people in-game for screenshots.

MEB: That’s all the questions I have, is there anything else you would like to add?

L: Well, on my website, iamlights.com, you can actually check out a semi-animated cartoon that I’ve released. It’s basically a comic book with music in the background and I am doing voiceovers, and they are two minute episodes. It’s called Audio Quest: A Captain LIGHTS Adventure, and they are playing on MTV in the States in the morning, and then weekly on MTV it goes on their website.

Earlier today, I had the pleasure of speaking with Grant Harris of Breathe Electric over the phone. Below is a transcript of our conversation.

MindEqualsBlown: Just to give you a background on MindEqualsBlown, we are an up and coming music website. We do album reviews and interviews. Thank you for taking the time to do this.

Grant Harris: Yeah, of course man.

MEB: So you’re on tour right now?

GH: That’s correct.

MEB: And how is that going?

GH: The shows have been going really good so far, we’re having a lot of fun and really getting to know the other bands and having fun with them.

MEB: Any upcoming tour plans?

GH: Yeah, we have tour plans for October into November, which are not posted yet. Then we meet up with the Brokencyde tour in Seattle for the entire west coast.

MEB: Is your new EP available in stores, or just online?

GH: It’s in like 25 or 30 different Hot Topics regionally around the Midwest, and it’s on iTunes and Smartpunk.

MEB: So your EP came out last month, do you have any news on an upcoming full length?

GH: I’m actually heading out to the studio in LA at the end of this month, and we will be out there for two weeks. We are hoping to get at least five songs done, and I’m not sure what we are going to do yet as far as whether we are releasing another EP or putting that towards the full length, so I guess we will see.

MEB: Are you in the process of speaking to any labels?

GH: It’s always an interesting thing, I can’t really say too much about it, but, you know, we are definitely looking for something that will be the right fit.

MEB: You were on Warped Tour this year, correct?

GH: That’s right, we just did two days.

MEB: Was it your first time doing Warped?

GH: Yeah, it was actually my first time ever going to Warped, I’ve never been to Warped at all. It was like the best two days of my life.

MEB: Do you have any funny Warped stories?

GH: It’s funny, we didn’t really have that many funny stories because we were only on it two days, but I guess it’s funny because we were so overwhelmed getting there because it’s such a ridiculous production, you know? But it was a lot of fun.

MEB: Now I am going to ask you some random personal questions. What do you do during your free time on tour?

GH: Drive, mostly. Like this tour we have had a lot of drives – long drives. But if we’re fairly close to the venue the next day and we don’t have to load in for a while, we will just see what’s in the area, like music stores and malls and stuff like that and pass out fliers and meet kids and all that kind of stuff.

MEB: What bands would you say have influenced you the most?

GH: I’ve gotten influences from all over the place, but one of my favorite artists, well actually my favorite artist of all time, is Ben Folds. Everything he does I follow.

MEB: Were you home in Chicago during Lollapalooza this year? Because I know Ben Folds was there.

GH: No we were actually playing Warped Tour the first day Lollapalooza was going on, and I ended up not going. I went last year though.

MEB: Did you watch the VMAs last night or hear about what happened between Kanye and Taylor Swift?

GH: Yes, I did.

MEB: Do you have any insight on that?

GH: (laughs) You know, I guess Kanye is gonna be Kanye no matter what. So I mean Taylor Swift definitely deserved the award, there’s no doubt about that. So it’s kinda whatever, he’s gonna do what he’s gonna do.

MEB: That’s all I have, is there anything else that you would like to add?

GH: Just to anyone reading this, please check out the MySpace, check out the music on iTunes and stuff, and check out our tour dates because we’ve got a lot coming up.

MEB: Well thanks for your time, Grant.

GH: Thanks so much.