Pasha: About halfway through this "How to Ruin Everything Tour" you've got one show in Jersey with The Descendants, Alkaline Trio, Poison The Well, Bane and more... that's not a part of this tour is it?

Edward: it’s a surf and skate festival, I think every band on this tour’s playing it, but it’s not a part of the tour, it just worked along with it. One of the days we have off.
Teppei: Kind of like a mini-festival
Edward: Sorry, we just get to see the Descendants, that’s really cool!
 
Pasha: Could you explain your sound and stage performance to someone who's never heard or seen you play before?
Teppei: We just try to say it’s aggressive, and its heavy
Edward: Hopefully it’s energetic
Riley: Energy, out of the live show.
 
Pasha: Going out on tour and playing shows, do you feel you have an evenly distributed fan base or is it more concentrated in certain places. (Like California, since that's where you're from)
Edward: I definitely think its more concentrated in California, since that’s where we’ve played most often. Its weird how crowds react in other cities. Like on the east coast, of the US, we’ve only been there once, on the “Play for Peace take action” tour, we’ll see what happens when we come back. California's really cool, pretty much all the west coast’s fun, they sing along.
 
Pasha: Apart from this years touring, you've toured with bands like Alkaline Trio, Hot Water Music and Cave-In among others. Who was your favorite band to tour with?
Teppei: All those bands you mentioned were just on one tour, that was the “Play for peace take action” tour, everybody in all those bands were so cool.
Edward: I think it was a really good learning experience too, playing with bands that you love every night. All the bands on that tour were so good, every night. It just inspires you.
Teppei: We didn’t answer your question, but yeah, that one. This tour too possibly, it just got started though.
 
Pasha: If you could headline or support any two bands, who would they be and why?
Edward: I don’t think we’re in that position to headline yet.
Teppei: I’d support… realistically?
Pasha: Well non realistically too, it doesn’t matter, it’s up to you.
Edward: (laughs)
Teppei: Can we say MetallicA back in the 80’s?
Edward: There’s a lot of bands, we had a show in Detroit

(door opens.. Dustin walks in)

Edward: this is Dustin, our singer. Anyway, we were playing, and this band Rise Against were playing downstairs, and I was talking to them, to see how cool it would be to tour with them, and Strike Anywhere. I’d love to tour with Hot Water Music again.. Thursday, Recover.. we share musical aspects with a lot of bands, so.. I don’t know anything in specific.
 
Pasha: Of all your songs, which do you prefer playing live the most?
Dustin: Teppei does not like to play TnC, nobody likes to play it
Teppei: Mostly our new stuff, some of our old songs are fun to play, but new stuff mostly. Definitely everything off the new record.
Edward: For me, its like, certain parts of songs I like playing mostly, like I’ll be playing a song, and this pat will come up, I love it..
Riley: You can Para-phrase this, we’re not answering your questions really…
Pasha: It’s allright
All: (laughs)
 
Pasha: What pre-show rituals do you and your band mates perform? If any.
Riley: (raises hand) I take a shit
All: (laughs)
Pasha: Makes sense
Edward: nothing
Teppei: Nothing really, I just stretch make sure I don’t jack myself.
Dustin: I try to warm up my voice a little bit, drink water.
 
Pasha: You're on Sub City records, an offshot of Hopeless records donates 5% of all its retail sales to charity, would it be fair to say that you're all charitable people as well?
Dustin: Sure
Teppei: I guess
Dustin: we could have chosen anything, but we chose one that gave charities.
Teppei: The band and the label split the charity half and half so…
Dustin: Definitely something we’re proud of doing.
 
Pasha: In the liner notes of "Identity Crisis" you mention your funds directed towards, I cant even pronounce this..
Dustin: Crittenton?
Pasha: Yeah the "Crittenton Services for Children and Families", was that just a random fund, or is there a reason donations went to that foundation specifically?
Dustin: it was near our house, it was in our area, and we want to help out kids who are having a hard time, spread joy in our community.
 
Pasha: Does it matter to you at all that the label you on (Sub City/Hopeless) has less bands on it, compared to labels like EMI or Sony who have hundreds upon hundreds?
Teppei: I think its cool
Dustin: Labels with tons and tons of bands, you tend to get lost in the mix sometimes.
Teppei: We get more focus and attention on a smaller label.
 
Pasha: When you were in the studio recording "Illusion of Safety", did you feel it was an adequate follow up to "Identity Crisis"?
(everyone talking at once)
Edward: I don’t think we could ask for more. Working, ourselves, um.. it’s a much better sounding recording, I think, and we went into it, not really prepared, but we brought the best out of us that we could at that time.
 
Pasha: Any out of the norm experiences that happened during the recording process you'd like to talk about?
Dustin: Everything went as planned.. Brian thought I was losing my voice for a little while, it gets tired, then it comes back.. so he thought I was losing it for good, he was freaking out
Edward: We were there for a certain time, we barely finished it
Riley: we burned the last copy of the recording as the taxi pulled up to bring us to the airport.
 
Pasha: How's the response been for "Illusion of Safety" so far?
All: really good
 
Pasha: How have the critics and media been to you?
Teppei: Really freaking good, we’ve been getting all good reviews for the most part
Riley: Doing way better than we expected.. especially the press
 
Pasha: Are you a band who takes critiszm well?
Edward: I don’t, personally
Dustin: From media?
Pasha: From media, critics.
Dustin: not really, its someone else’s opinion to your band, them listening to your record, they review, they don’t have any more insight than you do. Taking constructive critiszm, yeah.
Edward: every bad review takes a little bit out of you
Riley: Take the good and the band, take tips from the bad ones, and be grateful for the good reviews.
Dustin: Can’t take ‘em too seriously.
Edward: its important to make the music you want to, don’t impress anyone but yourself.
 
Pasha: and since "Illusion of Safety" hit shelves, has it accomplished what you expected it to?
Edward: we didn’t have high expectations
Teppei: that’s the thing, we didn’t have high expectations at all
Dustin: we had hopes that it would do well
 
Pasha: What's the meaning of the record title "the illusion of safety"?
Dustin: in general, people think they’re invincible in many ways, we’ve seen that in recent events, its happened before 9-11 and stuff, but that was a sad way to see whats happening.
 
Pasha: When writing lyrics, is there anywhere in particular you dig up lyrics from? Journals, diaries, drug induced experiences?
Dustin: I don’t do any drugs, so.. I read a lot, I'm a perfectionist, so it takes me a super long time, I start with something small, work with it.
 
Pasha: Do you take any precautions in the writing process of your songs, knowing fans look up to you for guidance and support?

Dustin: in a way that’s probably there because, there’s definitely a place where can be really honest. Some bands are super depressing, dark .. no light at the end of the tunnel
 
Pasha: What would be your most meaningful song, on either of your 3 releases?
Dustin: I don’t know… something concise, with the right amount of words.. I don’t know
 
Pasha: Whats the transition been like, between First Impression to Identity Crisis to Illusion of Safety?
Edward: big growth pattern
Dustin: for us it’s been good, but some people judge bands by their releases and stuff.
Teppei: we came a long way from First Impression, improvement.
Dustin: Touring from someone’s house to huge places.
 
Pasha: What kind of stuff have you been listening to lately?
Dustin: if you ant detailed accounts, our website has the name of stuff we’re playing, lots of metal
Edward: been listening to this religious stuff, Frotus, they’re not together anymore
Riley: The shrine of Frotus..
Edward: they released an album in 2001.
Teppei: we listen to a really big variety of music, anything from Metal,
Dustin: I was watching a Phish DVD today
Teppei: Anything from Phish to.. Slayer!
 
Pasha: Anything that may have influenced your playing styles at all?
Edward: totally
Teppei: everything
Edward: everything you listen to will either consciously or unconsciously affect your writing style, your tastes.
 
Pasha: On tracks like "Phoenix Ignition" and "Under Par", on "Identity Crisis", a MetallicA vibe is felt; I'm guessing they've been an influence of yours for a while.
Teppei: yes, stuff we all grew up on so..
 
Pasha: People have placed your band along the levels of Shai Hulud, Poison the Well and Saves the day. How does it feel to be compared to those bands?
Dustin: awesome bands, every single one of those bands are amazing
(knock on door)
Teppei: Hello?
Security guy: oh you are doing an interview.. there’s someone upstairs, two people, say they’re here to do an interview.. do you know them or?
Teppei: is he on the list?
Security Guy: he says you guys forgot to put him on the list, did you forget anyone?
Teppei: Uh I don’t know.. talk to Ian, at the Merch.. he’ll handle it
Edward: Sorry.
 
Pasha: You guys are out of Orange County, California… How was the underground scene there from your point of view?
Edward: really good
Teppei: they’ve been really good to us
Dustin: I’m going to go help Ian at the merch table, see you soon.
Riley: threes a lot of good bands coming out of there, so its nice to come out of there too.
 
Pasha: Given the popularity of Orange County's punk scene, do you think it helped you get to where you are now?
Teppei: not really, we didn’t really fit in with any of the bands.. kind of, but not really
Edward: we’re not a scene specific band
Teppei: being labeled an Orange County band hasn’t really helped us much.
Edward: just being able to play on shows with different types of bands, bands like Midtown or Converge, some straight metal.
 
Pasha: Do you believe your styles, your sound, your playing has changed much from 1998 to now?
Teppei: Yes

Edward: We’re on a constant changing process.. more like a progression, we’re never going to write an album that sounds like the last one, I hope people don’t turn away from us if our next album doesn’t please them.

Teppei: we’re always trying to progress
Pasha: so progression would be a main factor?
Edward: yes, definitely
(knock on door again)
Guy: here’s your cd..
Riley: thanks
Edward: I don’t even think we were planning on playing a show.. we were literally a garage band
Teppei: we had no clue, we knew nobody on any labels
Edward: they’ll take someone, ex-of this band, and ex-of that band, put something together if people get tired of ‘em.. you know. We’re the band that plays at your school at lunch, with the guy in the chemistry class behind you.. I forgot what I was going to say
Pasha: its ok..
 
Pasha: You guys were featured on punkrocks.net, they had a whole article about the Napster issue going on… anything you'd like to express on that topic now?
Teppei: just Napster and stuff like that/
Edward: we all think it’s a really cool way to spread music, but an artist should be able to chose which songs can have on the net.
Riley: they’ll record on a pocket recorder, and it’ll sound like ass live. Something off a record is cool, a lot of live stuff and demo stuff is bad, pretty rough.. it defiantly helped US. We didn’t have the means for distribution.
 
Pasha: How do you feel about the music scene now a days?
Riley: mainstream?
Pasha: mainly mainstream, but you can work around it.
Edward: scenes can be really bad sometimes, but they can be really good, within scenes, people enjoy the scene more than they enjoy the music. They’ll like a band cuz its cool to like that band. Some scenes have people that totally love music. Sounds dumb because people love music, but threes always a small amount of people who mistake what the scene is supposed to be about
Riley: there’s a lot of good music out there.. punk, hardcore, metal. Nothing you’d see on MTv, or Much Music or hear on the radio, but its really good. Mainstream music always gets diluted, someone comes along and changes everything, then all the labels go out and sign a band that sound just like that, because that’s whats cool. That’s why mainstream music get into a rut, with the nu-metal stuff, and the pop stuff.
 
Pasha: Given everything works out for the best for Thrice, how would you like to be known in another 5 years?
Edward: it’d be cool if we could be a career band, like face to face or Tool or something. That would be my ultimate goal, because I love playing music, I cant ask for anything more
Riley: I would like to be known as.. different, sticking out, in a good way, or in a bad way, I just want to be noticed for not fitting into one mold.
Edward: at the same time, id be just as happy if we were playing anything, I hope we play music.. I hope nothing happens that would mess that up.
 
Pasha: Any words of encouragement or discouragement you'd like you give to people out there playing in their garages and to their friends?
Edward: don’t give up, keep writing, keep practicing. This may sound selfish but don’t play for anyone, play for yourself. Your music is yours. Write what you want to hear, not what…
(door opens, head pops in): Sorry
Edward: I don’t know, have fun with music

Riley: hope for the best, but don’t expect anything, a lot of people have a weird perception of what its like to be in a band, they think all you have to do is make a record, then tour you know.. once you get signed everything’s easy.. but its not like that, its really hard, it gets really different. Keep making the sacrifices it takes.. 

Pasha: Do you have any comments you'd like to finalize with? A final thought?
Riley: thank you to anybody who’s ever bought a cd, or came to a show, or sang along, or played a show, being enthusiastic and everything. If you haven’t checked us out, please do.. we’re on the net, www.thrice.net.
Teppei: Thank You for doing this,
Edward: thank you soo much, thanks.. great questions man.
Pasha: thanks guys.. thanks for the interview, and I hope the rest of the tour goes great.