Actionreaction InterviewPhoto: Official Photo

Photo: Official Photo
Article By: Brock
Date: August 8th, 2006
A few weeks before the release of Actionreaction’s debut 3 is the Magic Number, Jason Gleason of Actionreaction talked to us at SaintRockNRoll. Emo fans may knew him from his previous project Further Seems Forever, but according to the vocalist, the new band holds a much more promising future.

1.Actionreaction, how did you come up with that name, and why the one word?

Jason: We pined over a name for almost a year after we had begun writing songs. Honestly, it was was of those things that was just said, and then it filled the room. It immeadiatly struck. It has now become not only a band name, but to us a mission statment, a writing style, and a nifty tool to deconstruct constructive deconstructions… And as far as it being one word and all we just felt the two words were symbiotic.

2.So your new cd, 3 is the Magic Number comes out August 22nd, are you guys going throw and cd realease parties? What is it usually like at an Actionreaction show?

Jason: we are going to be on tour when our album comes out, which is very cool, so I suppose for us they are all gonna be parties. Actionreaction shows are like a game somewhere in between kickball and chess. But played with instruments.

3.Why did you pick 3 is the Magic Number, is there a story behind it?

Jason: No stories man, just the facts!

4.So your part 2 tour is coming up with the forecast, excited?

Jason: I’m living my american dream, how could I not be excited? We’re touring with Koufax as well, I’ve enjoyed there music for quite sometime.
5.What’s your favorite city to play in and why?

Jason: I would say maybe Austin, Tx. I’ve made it somewhat of a ritual to get a tattoo every time i play there. I also love to play NYC.

6.So why did you pick a flower for the cover of 3 is the magic number? Does it mean something to you? Who came up with the idea?

Jason: its a painting by Bella, its been hanging in the house for years. I always saw it as an album cover.

7.Your Action Reaction – Tour CD EP featured a robot, a moose, and a monkey on the cover, is there a reason, is each one of them supposed to be you? If you could be any animal in the world, what would you choose to be?

Jason: Well it kind of turned out that way, a little dogmatically I guess. The painting was done by my sister. I just told her to paint anything but she could only listen to Actionreaction. We really had no idea what to expect. That’s what she gave us. We all thought it was pretty brilliant as she had symbolicaly pinpointed our personal charictaristics into three little animals. I am the deer, Sal is the monkey, and Bella is the robot… Respectivly. I guess if I could be any animal I’d probably choose to be a Polar bear, but the deer works just as well.

8.Have you ever considered making sock puppets of those creatures on the cd? Or just have fun with that theme in anyway in the future?

Jason: Unfortunatly, we have not. But I must say it is a marvelous idea. Sock puppets are very ActionReaction. Actually……..hmmmm… SockPuppets……sounds pretty lucrative.

9.On your myspace it says your music sounds like sex, so here’s the one million dollar question: Sex, Drugs, or Rock N Roll?

Jason:… all three and a little jazz.

10.What’s the difference of touring with a girl then a bunch of guys?

Jason: If there were more women in the world like Bella, world peace would be a reality.

11.All three of you were in different bands before Actionreaction, what do you think is different about your current band than those other ones?

Jason: Friendship, love and respect… And similarily broad musical tastes does help. Also we laugh a lot. So I hope we’ll be around for much longer.

12.Who are your main influences when making your music?

Jason: We’re pretty big music fans. Anything circa 1920s or later usually brings out the best in us. But were always down to try somthing new as well.

13.Is there a video in the works for any of your new songs? What’s something exciting coming up?

Jason: We just finished a video for our song “can you hear the sun?”. Its a little number about dreaming and saving your friends. And we produced and co-directed it ourselves. It was alot of fun and we thinks it shows.

14.What’s one totally funny/special/bizarre thing about Actionreaction that makes you different from all other bands?

Jason: We prefer Dunkin Donuts over Starbucks any day of the week. Both as a drink and a social climate.

Anti-Flag Interview!

Photo:
Article By: Princess Brock + C
Date: January 19th, 2007
While we were hanging around outside of The Pacific Coliseum on Friday afternoon, a white van pulled in, and out came Chris #2 with his hockey gears. Yep, that’s right, Anti-Flag is in Canada! Later in the afternoon, we got to talk with Justin (singer…and yes, he sings…a lot) and Pat (drummer) about everything from recording to touring and everyone from Saddam Hussein to Davey Havok.

1.How was your first show of the new year?

Justin: Of the new year…Yeah! It was the first show of the new year! It was great. We got to play at a place that we have never been, Victoria Island. It was fun.
You liked Victoria?
Justin: Yeah! And we were playing with a lot of great bands. We’re really big fans of Rise Against and Billy Talent, and Moneen was new to us. So it was really cool.

2.I heard that you guys were playing hockey in the morning?

Pat: I was NOT playing hockey.
Justin: #2 was playing hockey.
Oh right! We saw him with a hockey stick earlier today.
Pat: He hit me in the head with a carrot. (Laughs) He’s not allowed to play hockey in the backstage anymore.
Justin: He’s wasteful. He’s starving people.

3.So you guys are doing some meet and greets all across Canada to encourage people to donate blankets and jackets. That’s really nice of you. Whose idea was it?

Justin: Well…have you ever heard of a little guy named Jesus Christ? (Laughs) Just kidding.
Pat: It was actually Jesus S. Christ. He lives down the street from us.
Justin: and he actually came up to us and went, “Hey guys! Listen to this really good idea I had!”
Pat: He gets confused with Jesus H. Christ a lot.
I don’t think he would be very happy about your Jesus Christ song you wrote back in the day.
Justin: Oh have you heard that one?
Yeah.
Justin: Cool man. That’s a classic!
Pat: Jesus S. Christ liked that song. Jesus H. Christ didn’t. (Laughs)
Justin: But yeah…the idea is that we are trying to illustrate to people that they are able to take part in activism in their daily lives and that it doesn’t take an extraodinary act to be part of activism. It could be something as simple as turning in a blanket or a jacket to a local youth shelter or to a local homeless shelter.
Pat: Just that activism doesn’t have to be a 24 hour, or it doesn’t have to be going out and being in every protest. It could be something as simple as not buying something that was made in China in the sweatshops of Walmart, or as donating some coats. We want to encourage people to see activism as something they could do everyday, almost all the time. It doesn’t have to be an either-or. It’s not like you are either an activist or you go to Starbucks and are not an activist. There’s a lot of grey area in between the extremes.
Justin: In short, we are able to organize these meetings with people who are interested in Anti-Flag and meet us, and bring some jackets or blankets, and we turn them into local youth shelter.

4.Your meet and greet is only a couple of hours earlier than your set, has it been hectic getting there and back?

Justin: Not really, we’ve only done one so far, and yesterday’s was pretty close to the venue, so hopefully it’ll continue to be like that.
Today it’ll be pretty far.
Justin: Ohh…
Pat: Well…A little bit of craziness in our lives would just make it a little bit more interesting.

5.Being the second band on the bill, you only get to play half an hour, unfortunately. How do you choose what songs to play?

Justin: Usually we pick the songs by which ones we like to play the most, and also in combination with what we think people would like to hear. So…In the end though, we play music to have a good time, and also to make a statement and to get a message out to people. In live shows, it’s really difficult for people to hear what we’re saying while we’re playing so we always try to drop a message in between songs. We pick the songs that are most fun to play for us.
Do you change things up every night?
Pat: We’re not very good at that…
Justin: We’re afraid of change.
Pat: We’re afraid of change, yeah. (laughs) Change is bad…Sometimes we do, but for the most part, we do a set for a tour and do it for the whole tour.
Justin: Also, when we are trying to structure a set for half an hour, when we figure out something that works for half an hour, we usually just stay with it.

6.You guys are one of the more political bands that I like, and I’m interested in your opinions in some of the current issues. First, what’s your view on the execution of Saddam Hussein?

Justin: Well, I think it’s pretty simple. When you execute Saddam Hussein, you become Saddam Hussein. I mean Saddam Hussein thought that he was justified in killing all kinds of people, and if you talk to Saddam Hussein, he would give you his justifications and reasons why they were horrible people who deserve to be executed. Obviously, Saddam Hussein is not a good person, but for authorities to justify Saddam Hussein’s execution is just like Saddam Hussein justifying other executions. It’s an inhumane thing. There are very few countries left in the world that actually sponser an endorsement to death penalty. So that said, I think when people break the laws, people commit crimes against humanity, they have to answer for those crimes, but I don’t think that executing people is the answer. When you kill someone, the insanity and the pain that is caused by that execution is something that continues. You know, everybody has someone who cares about them. Even a mass murderer has a family, a mother, and a father. Even Saddam Hussein had someone who cared about him. Even when you execute Saddam Hussein, pain is passed on to someone else. I think that Saddam Hussein could have easily been locked up for the rest of his life. I don’t think execution is the way to deal with people who break the law.

7.What about Bush sending more troops to Iraq?

Pat: I think it’s the same thing as the execution. It’s just something that causes more suffering and more pain that doesn’t stop the suffering and pain. After September 11th and up until now, and before that, the American policy has just been always to put more violence into a situation. That doesn’t solve the problems. I think that to take the violence out of situations is a better way of solving problems.

8.And have you heard about the AOL “email tax”? (read article here)

Justin: No I haven’t heard about that, so I can’t comment on it. However, I will venture to say a statement about it: FUCK AOL. (laughs) Just anything that has to do with AOL, you can add that one on as our comment.

9.Do you think that we are living in a society where people are overly money driven or do you think it is only true for a seletive few people?

Pat: Do you have money for us?
I wish, but no.
Pat: Then you don’t matter. (laughs) Next.
Justin: (laughs) No, we’re joking.
Pat: Obviously, we have to be aware that money is an issue. Everybody has to have a certain base that they could have a house to live in, food in their stomaches, and clothes on their backs. Once those things are taken care of, the rest of the wealth we get or don’t get is for greed or for other things like that. So we have to be more aware of those things. So, is society going more in that direction? Probably. How can we stop it? By being conscious of it, by saying that do we need these products, do we need to buy these things to make our lives better? Maybe we do, maybe we don’t, but the first step is to be conscious of these things.
I think a lot of kids are aware of the problem, but there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to go about changing it. As political activists, do you guys have any suggestions?
Pat: I think that we all suffer from it because we are all marketed to. We all want to new iPod phone.
Justin: I want the new Panasonic RR-US395 mp3 recorder. (Hey Justin, don’t make fun of my recorder:])
Pat: It’s true, because everyday we are being told that we are not good enough unless we have these products, so that we have to work harder so that we could have more money to buy these products.
Justin: But I think as an activist, I think that one thing we could do is to ask ourselves “what else could make us happy?” When you are in the mall and you see something that we really like, you could ask yourself “Do I already have that? Do I really need it?” Like I’m somebody who is a sucker for cool shoes. I love cool shoes. Sometimes when I see a pair of shoes that I like, I have to slow myself down and ask “how many pairs can I wear?”
Pat: Hopefully only one. (laughs)
Justin: (laughs) So when I see something that’s really sucking me in, I ask myself “Do I really need that?” and quite often, the answer is no. So I think it all comes down to self control and finding ways to find fun in things.

10.It’s interesting that you guys are touring with Rise Against because you are both political but sort of different…

Justin: Yeah we’re better.
Pat: He’s joking.
Justin: No. We are, we’re better. (laughs)
I quote Rise Against- “For every action, there is a reaction. We have one planet, one chance.” Do you think we are losing that chance?
Pat: I think we HAVE lost that chance. I think that things are going on right now are…the effects we already created are, in the future, we can’t control them. But I think we could at least try to make it better for the future.
Justin: The impact the human race has already had on the planet is something that is already out of control and unstoppable. But we can limit that impact though. We can hopefully save the number of species. We can help to save the human race. It’s certainly something we still need to combat. Global climate change is something that we need to lobby our politicians to change the environmental policies, the carbon emissions that are allowed to be released. These are things we need to combat because we can limit the effects that the human race is having on the planet as a whole. If we don’t these take actions, if we don’t limit the human thumb print on the planet, there will be such a big global catastrophe that I think it will be out of the realms of anything we could imagine. We see the melting of the ice caps, and that there are a number of nations in the Pacifics that have the possibility of going under water and they will be gone. So there are so many lives that CAN be spared if we actually take action. In that respect, it’s important to stay involved and stay with current issues.

11.Alright, enough with the politics. You guys are touring with Billy Talent. So would you like to sing something by them?

Justin: Do I want to sing something? (sings “Line and Sinker”.) function EvalSound(soundobj) { var thissound=document.getElementById(soundobj); thissound.Play(); }

Justin: Love Billy Talent. They have awesome songs.12.If you could get Billy Talent to cover one of your songs tonight, which song would you choose? Pat: There’s actually talk of them playing one of our songs, “The Press Corpse.” But not tonight because we will have some learning and teaching to do. Justin: I think I would have them cover “I’m Having a Good Day.” (laughs) 13.If you could cover any of their songs, what song would you cover? Justin: I would cover the first song from the new record. I don’t know what it’s called. Devil in a Midnight Mass? Justin: That’s the one. It’s a badass jam. 14.If you could choose to tour with any of the band you haven’t toured with, who would you choose? Justin: The Clash. You guys haven’t headlined in Canada for quite a while. Why is that? Pat: It’s cold and the drives are long… Is that really the reason? Pat: (laughs) It is very difficult, especially out here because we are from the east coast, or somewhere closer to the east coast, so it’s very difficult for us to get out here because the cities are very far apart. Justin: And with the borders…Like when you are in Seattle and you want to go to Vancouver, but just dealing with the borders, it gets very difficult. Fuck the border. Are you guys planning to come here? Justin: Well…We are. To be honest with you, we haven’t got to Canada as much as we wanted to this year just because we had to go to Japan, Australia, and Europe, and New Zealand, and a number of other places. That being the case, we made it up to Canada with the Warped Tour and now we are back here with Billy Talent. Do you think kids here relate the same to your lyrics as kids in America? Justin: I think so. I think the kids understand them and get them. Pat: It’s just sort of amazing, as Justin said we get to travel around a lot. And it’s amazing how much the message we talk about resonate with people all over. I think it’s because that in every culture there are people in power who are using that power unjustly. I think our music speaks to that. 15.You guys released an album last year, but I’m just wondering if you started writing new materials on the road? Justin: A little bit. A little bit in the…uhh…what’s that thing that you put the songs into? Pat: Can. (laughs) Justin: (laughs) Yes. Can, thank you. You know, a little bit in that. Was the writing process different for your new CD? Justin:…Hmmm…No. Normally, everybody comes in with a couple of ideas. Everybody comes in with some different song stuctures. When we are in the middle of thinking and that somebody comes in with this cool idea, they’re like “Hey guys, I’ve got this idea…” and if we like it, then we’d start trying off different stuff on it. Normally, that’s how things go. How do you and #2 divide which songs you are going to sing? Justin: My songs are better. (laughs) So usually, I’d sing the good songs. Umm…how…to be honest, the songs that #2 sings are the songs he started, and the songs I sing are the song ideas that I started. Every once in a while though, like for example, on “I’m Dead,” it’s a song that I wrote, but in my head, I could hear that it would sound cool if #2 sang this line. We switch lines once in a while. We did that with “Emigre,” I think that’s track four on the new record. So sometimes it just comes down to the artistic expression and what you are hearing in your head and thinking that this voice would be better suited for this part of the song or for the song in general. 16.You released the song “War Sucks, Let’s Party.” Tell us about the filming of the video. It’s quite interesting. Justin: Well we were in London on May Day. And around May Day, there are all kinds of interesting political expressions, people celebrating workers’ rights. In fact, there’s a labor movement that actually led to working people having… Pat: 40 hour work, paid vacations, health care, and… Justin: Certain standards that we basically enjoy in the 21st century as working people. So being around all those celebrations was very exciting for us because we all came from working class backgrounds. We grew up in a city where people worked in steel mills, and the labor movement was very important for people in securing the rights. My grandfather actually got clubbed in the head by the iron steel police for standing up for workers’ rights. So it’s something that’s in our blood and in our roots. When we were in London, we met… Pat: George Galloway. Justin: Yeah, George Galloway, which was very exciting because he is somebody who speaks the truth to power and stands up for the people. So we met him and we did some interesting things with him. 17.Couple more questions for some comic relief. Does emo suck? Pat: Not as much as hardline and indie. (laughs) Emo’s getting really mainstream right now and the some of the bands are sort of fake. Do you think it’s worse now than it was when you wrote the song? Justin: That song was a joke…let’s just get that out of the way. (laughs) I mean…Indie sucks, hardline sucks, emo sucks, you suck, it’s a joke. Pat: It was written before anybody even knew emo bands. Justin: Yeah, like we wrote it 10 years ago and emo was brand new. It was just another subsection of punk rock. Now obviously emo is very mainstream. In the end, I think people have to play music that is a passion for them and that they genuinely care about. When an aritist is doing that, I think that you can feel it. You can feel that it’s very exciting. When an artist is making something up, or putting on a show that is unreal, I think that you can feel that too, and definitely you won’t be excited about it, regardless what kind of music it is. Sorry to take your funny question and make it serious. (laughs) I apologize. Pat: We could ruin anything. Justin: Give me another one, come on! 18.Alright. Did Davey kill the punk rock scene? Justin: YES! He did, and it was Davey Havok. He KILLED it…actually, it’s not about Davey Havok, but you know what, the way the song was written was actually quite funny. (laughs) There used to be this religious channel when we were kids and there was this show called Davey and Goliath and it was claymation. That was the Davey we were talking about. Well…Davey’s not punk anymore anyway. Justin: I don’t know…Davey was always an enigma and always does his own thing, and I think that’s what’s cool about him and why people like him. You played with Davey on the Warped Tour, Justin: Yeah, we spent a little bit of time with him, but they were not on the whole tour. Yeah, they played like five dates…Did he know that song? Justin: Probably. Pat: I mean he has probably gotten questions about it because we get questions about it all the time. Justin: I’m pretty sure he did, because he walked up to me on the last day of Warped Tour and punch me in the throat. Pat: (evil imitation of Davey) “I did not destroy the punk rock scene!” Really? Justin: (laughs) NO. That would be funny if he did. Justin: (laughs) He’s got a lot of muscles now. Davey’s been lifting a lot of weights. Pat: He has been! 19.Pat, I would like you to comment on this audio clip. function EvalSound(soundobj) { var thissound=document.getElementById(soundobj); thissound.Play(); } Pat: I love rock n’ roll. It’s somebody singing Joan Jett. Justin: One more time, one more time. Pat: So who is that? Who do you think it is? Pat: Is it me? I don’t know who it is. (laughs) It’s somebody singing “I Love Rock n’ Roll” by Joan Jett. Justin: Is it me? Yeah, It’s you. Justin: It’s me? (laughs) Can I do it again? (sings) Justin: That’s pretty good! Can we do it together? Let’s do it in stereo. It’s gonna be awesome! Photo: Article By: Cecilia Date: January 19th, 2007 While we were hanging around outside of The Pacific Coliseum on Friday afternoon, a white van pulled in, and out came Chris #2 with his hockey gears. Yep, that’s right, Anti-Flag is in Canada! Later in the afternoon, we got to talk with Justin (singer…and yes, he sings…a lot) and Pat (drummer) about everything from recording to touring and everyone from Saddam Hussein to Davey Havok. 1.How was your first show of the new year? Justin: Of the new year…Yeah! It was the first show of the new year! It was great. We got to play at a place that we have never been, Victoria Island. It was fun. You liked Victoria? Justin: Yeah! And we were playing with a lot of great bands. We’re really big fans of Rise Against and Billy Talent, and Moneen was new to us. So it was really cool. 2.I heard that you guys were playing hockey in the morning? Pat: I was NOT playing hockey. Justin: #2 was playing hockey. Oh right! We saw him with a hockey stick earlier today. Pat: He hit me in the head with a carrot. (Laughs) He’s not allowed to play hockey in the backstage anymore. Justin: He’s wasteful. He’s starving people. 3.So you guys are doing some meet and greets all across Canada to encourage people to donate blankets and jackets. That’s really nice of you. Whose idea was it? Justin: Well…have you ever heard of a little guy named Jesus Christ? (Laughs) Just kidding. Pat: It was actually Jesus S. Christ. He lives down the street from us. Justin: and he actually came up to us and went, “Hey guys! Listen to this really good idea I had!” Pat: He gets confused with Jesus H. Christ a lot. I don’t think he would be very happy about your Jesus Christ song you wrote back in the day. Justin: Oh have you heard that one? Yeah. Justin: Cool man. That’s a classic! Pat: Jesus S. Christ liked that song. Jesus H. Christ didn’t. (Laughs) Justin: But yeah…the idea is that we are trying to illustrate to people that they are able to take part in activism in their daily lives and that it doesn’t take an extraodinary act to be part of activism. It could be something as simple as turning in a blanket or a jacket to a local youth shelter or to a local homeless shelter. Pat: Just that activism doesn’t have to be a 24 hour, or it doesn’t have to be going out and being in every protest. It could be something as simple as not buying something that was made in China in the sweatshops of Walmart, or as donating some coats. We want to encourage people to see activism as something they could do everyday, almost all the time. It doesn’t have to be an either-or. It’s not like you are either an activist or you go to Starbucks and are not an activist. There’s a lot of grey area in between the extremes. Justin: In short, we are able to organize these meetings with people who are interested in Anti-Flag and meet us, and bring some jackets or blankets, and we turn them into local youth shelter. 4.Your meet and greet is only a couple of hours earlier than your set, has it been hectic getting there and back? Justin: Not really, we’ve only done one so far, and yesterday’s was pretty close to the venue, so hopefully it’ll continue to be like that. Today it’ll be pretty far. Justin: Ohh… Pat: Well…A little bit of craziness in our lives would just make it a little bit more interesting. 5.Being the second band on the bill, you only get to play half an hour, unfortunately. How do you choose what songs to play? Justin: Usually we pick the songs by which ones we like to play the most, and also in combination with what we think people would like to hear. So…In the end though, we play music to have a good time, and also to make a statement and to get a message out to people. In live shows, it’s really difficult for people to hear what we’re saying while we’re playing so we always try to drop a message in between songs. We pick the songs that are most fun to play for us. Do you change things up every night? Pat: We’re not very good at that… Justin: We’re afraid of change. Pat: We’re afraid of change, yeah. (laughs) Change is bad…Sometimes we do, but for the most part, we do a set for a tour and do it for the whole tour. Justin: Also, when we are trying to structure a set for half an hour, when we figure out something that works for half an hour, we usually just stay with it. 6.You guys are one of the more political bands that I like, and I’m interested in your opinions in some of the current issues. First, what’s your view on the execution of Saddam Hussein? Justin: Well, I think it’s pretty simple. When you execute Saddam Hussein, you become Saddam Hussein. I mean Saddam Hussein thought that he was justified in killing all kinds of people, and if you talk to Saddam Hussein, he would give you his justifications and reasons why they were horrible people who deserve to be executed. Obviously, Saddam Hussein is not a good person, but for authorities to justify Saddam Hussein’s execution is just like Saddam Hussein justifying other executions. It’s an inhumane thing. There are very few countries left in the world that actually sponser an endorsement to death penalty. So that said, I think when people break the laws, people commit crimes against humanity, they have to answer for those crimes, but I don’t think that executing people is the answer. When you kill someone, the insanity and the pain that is caused by that execution is something that continues. You know, everybody has someone who cares about them. Even a mass murderer has a family, a mother, and a father. Even Saddam Hussein had someone who cared about him. Even when you execute Saddam Hussein, pain is passed on to someone else. I think that Saddam Hussein could have easily been locked up for the rest of his life. I don’t think execution is the way to deal with people who break the law. 7.What about Bush sending more troops to Iraq? Pat: I think it’s the same thing as the execution. It’s just something that causes more suffering and more pain that doesn’t stop the suffering and pain. After September 11th and up until now, and before that, the American policy has just been always to put more violence into a situation. That doesn’t solve the problems. I think that to take the violence out of situations is a better way of solving problems. 8.And have you heard about the AOL “email tax”? (read article here) Justin: No I haven’t heard about that, so I can’t comment on it. However, I will venture to say a statement about it: FUCK AOL. (laughs) Just anything that has to do with AOL, you can add that one on as our comment. 9.Do you think that we are living in a society where people are overly money driven or do you think it is only true for a seletive few people? Pat: Do you have money for us? I wish, but no. Pat: Then you don’t matter. (laughs) Next. Justin: (laughs) No, we’re joking. Pat: Obviously, we have to be aware that money is an issue. Everybody has to have a certain base that they could have a house to live in, food in their stomaches, and clothes on their backs. Once those things are taken care of, the rest of the wealth we get or don’t get is for greed or for other things like that. So we have to be more aware of those things. So, is society going more in that direction? Probably. How can we stop it? By being conscious of it, by saying that do we need these products, do we need to buy these things to make our lives better? Maybe we do, maybe we don’t, but the first step is to be conscious of these things. I think a lot of kids are aware of the problem, but there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to go about changing it. As political activists, do you guys have any suggestions? Pat: I think that we all suffer from it because we are all marketed to. We all want to new iPod phone. Justin: I want the new Panasonic RR-US395 mp3 recorder. (Hey Justin, don’t make fun of my recorder:]) Pat: It’s true, because everyday we are being told that we are not good enough unless we have these products, so that we have to work harder so that we could have more money to buy these products. Justin: But I think as an activist, I think that one thing we could do is to ask ourselves “what else could make us happy?” When you are in the mall and you see something that we really like, you could ask yourself “Do I already have that? Do I really need it?” Like I’m somebody who is a sucker for cool shoes. I love cool shoes. Sometimes when I see a pair of shoes that I like, I have to slow myself down and ask “how many pairs can I wear?” Pat: Hopefully only one. (laughs) Justin: (laughs) So when I see something that’s really sucking me in, I ask myself “Do I really need that?” and quite often, the answer is no. So I think it all comes down to self control and finding ways to find fun in things. 10.It’s interesting that you guys are touring with Rise Against because you are both political but sort of different… Justin: Yeah we’re better. Pat: He’s joking. Justin: No. We are, we’re better. (laughs) I quote Rise Against- “For every action, there is a reaction. We have one planet, one chance.” Do you think we are losing that chance? Pat: I think we HAVE lost that chance. I think that things are going on right now are…the effects we already created are, in the future, we can’t control them. But I think we could at least try to make it better for the future. Justin: The impact the human race has already had on the planet is something that is already out of control and unstoppable. But we can limit that impact though. We can hopefully save the number of species. We can help to save the human race. It’s certainly something we still need to combat. Global climate change is something that we need to lobby our politicians to change the environmental policies, the carbon emissions that are allowed to be released. These are things we need to combat because we can limit the effects that the human race is having on the planet as a whole. If we don’t these take actions, if we don’t limit the human thumb print on the planet, there will be such a big global catastrophe that I think it will be out of the realms of anything we could imagine. We see the melting of the ice caps, and that there are a number of nations in the Pacifics that have the possibility of going under water and they will be gone. So there are so many lives that CAN be spared if we actually take action. In that respect, it’s important to stay involved and stay with current issues. 11.Alright, enough with the politics. You guys are touring with Billy Talent. So would you like to sing something by them? Justin: Do I want to sing something? (sings “Line and Sinker”.) function EvalSound(soundobj) { var thissound=document.getElementById(soundobj); thissound.Play(); } Justin: Love Billy Talent. They have awesome songs.12.If you could get Billy Talent to cover one of your songs tonight, which song would you choose? Pat: There’s actually talk of them playing one of our songs, “The Press Corpse.” But not tonight because we will have some learning and teaching to do. Justin: I think I would have them cover “I’m Having a Good Day.” (laughs) 13.If you could cover any of their songs, what song would you cover? Justin: I would cover the first song from the new record. I don’t know what it’s called. Devil in a Midnight Mass? Justin: That’s the one. It’s a badass jam. 14.If you could choose to tour with any of the band you haven’t toured with, who would you choose? Justin: The Clash. You guys haven’t headlined in Canada for quite a while. Why is that? Pat: It’s cold and the drives are long… Is that really the reason? Pat: (laughs) It is very difficult, especially out here because we are from the east coast, or somewhere closer to the east coast, so it’s very difficult for us to get out here because the cities are very far apart. Justin: And with the borders…Like when you are in Seattle and you want to go to Vancouver, but just dealing with the borders, it gets very difficult. Fuck the border. Are you guys planning to come here? Justin: Well…We are. To be honest with you, we haven’t got to Canada as much as we wanted to this year just because we had to go to Japan, Australia, and Europe, and New Zealand, and a number of other places. That being the case, we made it up to Canada with the Warped Tour and now we are back here with Billy Talent. Do you think kids here relate the same to your lyrics as kids in America? Justin: I think so. I think the kids understand them and get them. Pat: It’s just sort of amazing, as Justin said we get to travel around a lot. And it’s amazing how much the message we talk about resonate with people all over. I think it’s because that in every culture there are people in power who are using that power unjustly. I think our music speaks to that. 15.You guys released an album last year, but I’m just wondering if you started writing new materials on the road? Justin: A little bit. A little bit in the…uhh…what’s that thing that you put the songs into? Pat: Can. (laughs) Justin: (laughs) Yes. Can, thank you. You know, a little bit in that. Was the writing process different for your new CD? Justin:…Hmmm…No. Normally, everybody comes in with a couple of ideas. Everybody comes in with some different song stuctures. When we are in the middle of thinking and that somebody comes in with this cool idea, they’re like “Hey guys, I’ve got this idea…” and if we like it, then we’d start trying off different stuff on it. Normally, that’s how things go. How do you and #2 divide which songs you are going to sing? Justin: My songs are better. (laughs) So usually, I’d sing the good songs. Umm…how…to be honest, the songs that #2 sings are the songs he started, and the songs I sing are the song ideas that I started. Every once in a while though, like for example, on “I’m Dead,” it’s a song that I wrote, but in my head, I could hear that it would sound cool if #2 sang this line. We switch lines once in a while. We did that with “Emigre,” I think that’s track four on the new record. So sometimes it just comes down to the artistic expression and what you are hearing in your head and thinking that this voice would be better suited for this part of the song or for the song in general. 16.You released the song “War Sucks, Let’s Party.” Tell us about the filming of the video. It’s quite interesting. Justin: Well we were in London on May Day. And around May Day, there are all kinds of interesting political expressions, people celebrating workers’ rights. In fact, there’s a labor movement that actually led to working people having… Pat: 40 hour work, paid vacations, health care, and… Justin: Certain standards that we basically enjoy in the 21st century as working people. So being around all those celebrations was very exciting for us because we all came from working class backgrounds. We grew up in a city where people worked in steel mills, and the labor movement was very important for people in securing the rights. My grandfather actually got clubbed in the head by the iron steel police for standing up for workers’ rights. So it’s something that’s in our blood and in our roots. When we were in London, we met… Pat: George Galloway. Justin: Yeah, George Galloway, which was very exciting because he is somebody who speaks the truth to power and stands up for the people. So we met him and we did some interesting things with him. 17.Couple more questions for some comic relief. Does emo suck? Pat: Not as much as hardline and indie. (laughs) Emo’s getting really mainstream right now and the some of the bands are sort of fake. Do you think it’s worse now than it was when you wrote the song? Justin: That song was a joke…let’s just get that out of the way. (laughs) I mean…Indie sucks, hardline sucks, emo sucks, you suck, it’s a joke. Pat: It was written before anybody even knew emo bands. Justin: Yeah, like we wrote it 10 years ago and emo was brand new. It was just another subsection of punk rock. Now obviously emo is very mainstream. In the end, I think people have to play music that is a passion for them and that they genuinely care about. When an aritist is doing that, I think that you can feel it. You can feel that it’s very exciting. When an artist is making something up, or putting on a show that is unreal, I think that you can feel that too, and definitely you won’t be excited about it, regardless what kind of music it is. Sorry to take your funny question and make it serious. (laughs) I apologize. Pat: We could ruin anything. Justin: Give me another one, come on! 18.Alright. Did Davey kill the punk rock scene? Justin: YES! He did, and it was Davey Havok. He KILLED it…actually, it’s not about Davey Havok, but you know what, the way the song was written was actually quite funny. (laughs) There used to be this religious channel when we were kids and there was this show called Davey and Goliath and it was claymation. That was the Davey we were talking about. Well…Davey’s not punk anymore anyway. Justin: I don’t know…Davey was always an enigma and always does his own thing, and I think that’s what’s cool about him and why people like him. You played with Davey on the Warped Tour, Justin: Yeah, we spent a little bit of time with him, but they were not on the whole tour. Yeah, they played like five dates…Did he know that song? Justin: Probably. Pat: I mean he has probably gotten questions about it because we get questions about it all the time. Justin: I’m pretty sure he did, because he walked up to me on the last day of Warped Tour and punch me in the throat. Pat: (evil imitation of Davey) “I did not destroy the punk rock scene!” Really? Justin: (laughs) NO. That would be funny if he did. Justin: (laughs) He’s got a lot of muscles now. Davey’s been lifting a lot of weights. Pat: He has been! 19.Pat, I would like you to comment on this audio clip.  Pat: I love rock n’ roll. It’s somebody singing Joan Jett. Justin: One more time, one more time. Pat: So who is that? Who do you think it is? Pat: Is it me? I don’t know who it is. (laughs) It’s somebody singing “I Love Rock n’ Roll” by Joan Jett. Justin: Is it me? Yeah, It’s you. Justin: It’s me? (laughs) Can I do it again? (sings) Justin: That’s pretty good! Can we do it together? Let’s do it in stereo. It’s gonna be awesome! Justin: That WAS me! It’s a classic! Pat: When did you get him to do it? It was at the Warped Tour. Justin: That’s awesome! That is sweet. Justin: That WAS me! It’s a classic! Pat: When did you get him to do it? It was at the Warped Tour. Justin: That’s awesome! That is sweet.