I Must not have a voice.

[u_think_ur_punk]

Jaimie: Alright. I may have to cut some of these out, 'cause... a lot of 'em are for Jaret, 'cause he does all the interviews and does all the website stuff...
Chris: Nobody ever has anything to ask me.
Jaimie: You get 'em all. [Chris laughs]

Jaimie: So your CD came out last August. How's that going, how's it selling...?
Chris: Uh, it's going good. It was slow at first, 'cause it took a while for our single to get going here. In the States. But yeah, it's up over 200,000 now. A lot for us, we're happy.

Jaimie: The reason that we [Score!] got into Bowling For Soup was because your name [was] in the back of the Flickerstick album. Do you ever hang out with them, or...?
Chris: All the time! Yeah, they're buddies yeah.
Jaimie: Your song "Where To Begin" actually reminds me of Flickerstick a little bit.
Chris: A little bit, yeah.

Jaimie: "Emily" was a single in the UK. Was that gonna be a single here?
Chris: No, huh uh. It was done exclusively for the UK. In fact, our video and single came out over there way before it did over here. And so, while they're waiting for a video #2, we went ahead and did our video for England, exclusively. They wanted "Emily," so we did it, you know.
Jaimie: That's a good song, I like that song.
Chris: England kinda dictates what we do, because it's a lot bigger over there.

Jaimie: Do you read the album reviews, and stuff like that?
Chris: Um... I keep an eye on them. Mostly on, like, fan sites and stuff like that. As far as press goes, we really don't get a lot of press, as far as, like, print press. We get a lot of internet press. And you know, every once in a while I'll go on there in order to check out what people are saying about us. But, I mean, I really don't pay attention, 'cause our genre of music doesn't really get respect from critics, so they're not gonna like it. It's irony, you know. So really, I don't really pay attention to a lot of that. I pay attention to what the fans are saying.

Jaimie: Well to go to your genre a little bit, Jaret said in an interview that you are NOT a punk band. So your latest single is called "Punk Rock 101."
Chris: Right.
Jaimie: I found that amusing.
Chris: Well the deal about that is, we never set out... very few bands set out to be like 'Oh we're this kind of band' or, you know, we just set out to make rock 'n roll songs. And it's like, we let the chips fall where they may. But, we don't call ourselves anything but a rock 'n roll band.
Jaimie: Right, I don't really get that...
Chris: I mean, we're punk I guess in the sense that that's what people call us. But, you know, as far as... we're older guys, we saw punk come and go.
Jaimie: The original punk.
Chris: Not all punk is bad. You know, all we've got here is people who went to the mall and bought clothes.
Jaimie: Mall punk. That's, yeah...
Chris: Yeah, and I'm not bashing the bands but, you know, it's like, I don't know of any bands out there that grew up on the streets of New York, you know.
Jaimie: Yeah, there's a lifestyle to punk...
Chris: Playing music so they could buy heroin. [Jaimie laughs] You know, to me, it's like the whole 'punk' thing is just... just a label to file the records in the record store now. About it.
Jaimie: Good point, yeah.
Chris: To me 'punk,' guys who are punk, are guys like Johnny Cash who don't give a fuck. You know?
Jaimie: Yeah. It's an attitude, a lifestyle...
Chris: Yeah. Pretty much.

Jaimie: Alright, well how 'bout the writing process. How do you guys do that?
Chris: Um, Jaret writes most of our stuff, and, what he does, he'll write stuff at home, and we'll go to our rehearsal studio. He'll kinda show us the piece of the song. We'll all just kinda go in together, throw in our two cents, everybody throws their little parts in, and it's done.
Jaimie: But he does the lyrics and everything?
Chris: Yeah, usually yeah.

Jaimie: You just recorded some new songs; "Punk Rock 101," "Star Song," and "I Ran," the Flock of Seagulls cover. Are those gonna to be for an upcoming album, or have you...
Chris: Um... Well, what our label did, we were gonna do an EP, for England mainly, and uh, we did those songs and our label kinda ditched the EP. And so we were stuck with these songs, and our label was like, you know, well you can either put 'em on the next album, or we'll rerelease your album, with 'em on it. We didn't really want to, but it was like the only option. But, we rereleased our album with those songs on it. It's on the album now on sale.

Jaimie: And then you did a DVD single for "Punk Rock 101"?
Chris: Uh, right, yeah. It's got all the videos from Drunk Enough To Dance on it, the three videos, so... "Girl All The Bad Guys Want," "Emily," and the new "Punk Rock 101" video. And we're working on the DVD, but it's like...
Jaimie: Like a full-length?
Chris: Like concert stuff, and back... you know a lot of grab-ass type shit. You know.

Jaimie: [laughing] Alright. Ok, this is kind of a long one. Do you ever worry... the more popular the band gets, the busier you get, the different directions everybody is going in... Do you worry that it'll change the way you guys end up writing your songs?
Chris: Not really. We're pretty set in our ways, you know. If we ever change like that it'll be 'cause we all want to.
Jaimie: Yeah.
Chris: All of us are pretty old.

Jaimie: Congratulations on being on Warped.
Chris: Thank you.
Jaimie: Is this your first Warped?
Chris: It's our first Warped.
Jaimie: Mine too.
Chris: It's actually all of our first time to even go to Warped. We've never even been to Warped, before we played it. It's really cool, we're happy to be here.
Jaimie: How long have you been on it?
Chris: The whole tour.
Jaimie: Excellent.
Chris: Start to finish.

Jaimie: Could you give me like 'A Day in the Life of...' like, how does it work?
Chris: Well... well for us, 'cause we're not main stage or anything, our play time isn't even listed along with the other bands, 'cause we're on the Ernie Ball stage. So we get up, you know, elevenish, noonish, and head straight to our merch stand. And sit there and sign stuff, sell stuff, and tell people when we're playing, otherwise they won't know. And then we play. We do our press or whatever. Uh, go back to our merch- we're at our merch all day when we're not doing...
Jaimie: Yeah, we went by before and saw you guys there. What about after the show?
Chris: You know, when it's about eight o'clock usually, we hit the bus, and, you know, play Playstation, watch a movie, drink beer. Hang out, do our thing. Go to bed. Wake up, and do it all over again.
Jaimie: Now... do bands share buses?
Chris: Some do. We don't, but our bus is pretty cool. We have a tattoo artist with us. Uh, we have a videographer with us. And our girlfriends and wives join us at some point on tour.
Jaimie: Ok.
Chris: So we have a pretty cool bus.

Jaimie: What about after Warped. You guys are going back to Europe?
Chris: Yeah, we go to England for the Reading/Leeds Festivals, the KERRANG! awards, and then we come back here, take about five days off, and start a fall tour.

Jaimie: Excellent. What about bands that are playing at Warped... have any bands, new bands that you haven't heard before, caught your attention?
Chris: Totally. S.T.U.N. Poison The Well kicks ass. Avenged Sevenfold, uh... The Fags, Maxeen, they're really cool. It's been cool, a lot of cool bands.
Jaimie: Do you get to hang out a lot?
Chris: Yeah, everybody hangs out.
Jaimie: Yeah?
Chris: Yeah, the coolest part of the tour.
Jaimie: Like a big family.
Chris: Yeah, totally.

Jaimie: And you guys have been on the Ernie stage the whole time?
Chris: Yeah. That's how we got on the tour. We're Ernie Ball endorsed. And so, we really weren't asked to be on the tour, Ernie Ball got us on because we signed on to play their stage, so it kind of... helped them, you know, get people over there.
Jaimie: That's cool.
Chris: It's cool, you know?
Jaimie: A lot of bands, I know... go from the smaller stage to the big stage...
Chris: Right. See, we don't, we use their back line, so we can't really switch stages. [Jaimie laughs] Plus it's just cool for us because we have a consistent stage every day...
Jaimie: Right.
Chris: And, you know, we're doing it for Ernie Ball. Like I said, we're, uh... we have a full crowd over there every day. That beats playing a main stage and having nobody.
Jaimie: Yeah. They've been receptive...?
Chris: Yeah, it's been really good. I mean, the least we've had, probably at this point, is seven or eight hundred.
Jaimie: Wow, yeah.
Chris: We've even had as many as four thousand.
Jaimie: Definitely moving up in the world!
Chris: Yeah. It's good.

J-Man: Can I interject for one second?
Jaimie: Yeah.
J-Man: What kind of Ball do you use? What size.
Chris: I use elevens...
J-Man: Regular Slinky, or...?
Chris: I believe the elevens are the regulars.
J-Man: Partying with Fat Mike? Have you partied with Fat Mike yet?
Chris: I've talked to him a little bit, but I haven't really hung out. He's got his family on the road with him, so, he hasn't been hanging out a lot, like, late at night.

Jaimie: Alright, gonna bring up the Grammys.
Chris: Yeah!
Jaimie: Ok, everybody, including yourselves, was surprised with the Grammy nod. But after all... you guys have been a band for nine, ten years...
Chris: Yeah.
Jaimie: Did you just get sick of hearing "Who the hell is Bowling For Soup"? [laughs]
Chris: Um, yeah, a little bit. Yeah, I mean... but, you know, it's still good...
Jaimie: Yeah.
Chris: We didn't really care.
Jaimie: No press is bad press.
Chris: Right, yeah. The Grammy thing surprised the hell out of all of us. Yeah, the whole 'who the hell is Bowling For Soup' thing's fine with us.
Jaimie: 'Cause now everybody knows!
Chris: Yeah. Somewhat.

Jaimie: Everybody's heard Jaret's story about what he was doing when he heard about the nomination, but what were you doing?
Chris: Well, I was supposed to get up, earlier that morning to call up this radio station in San Antonio, 'cause we'd canceled the show that day. And uh, also Jaret was having a baby. Gary's birthday was the night before, so we were all at his party, out late. And so we were all kinda hammered that night. And so I got a call from Erik that morning, I thought he was was just trying to wake me up. 'Cause Erik will call and just make some outrageous stories to wake your ass up. So he told me we were nominated for a Grammy, I was like, "You know, fuck you," like that. [Jaimie laughs] And he just told me to check the website, and hung up on me.
Jaimie: Right.
Chris: So I checked the website out. I mean, I thought, even when I saw the website, I was like, you know, this is some joke some guy's playing, you know. It's like, I definitely thought it was a joke until I heard it myself, too. Our manager called me, I was like "God damn!" Pretty weird.
Jaimie: I was gonna bring up that Glassjaw's on this tour, they were nominated for their, uh, "Best Recording Package." So, that's kinda cool that two Grammy-nominated bands are at the Warped Tour. You wouldn't think of something like that.
Chris: Totally.

Jaimie: Alright. Joan Rivers. What's... the deal with Joan Rivers.
Chris: Well, when we were at the Grammys, we got there a little bit early. And so, they [E!] weren't on the air yet. So, I walked by Joan Rivers, she kinda scared me at first. I'm sorry, but it's like, it's very scary looking. I mean, it looks like a dead person. It looks really weird. And I never really thought she was that funny to begin with. And I didn't really wanna talk to her, so I just walked past her. And, right when I walked past her, that's when they had the opening shot. I guess she got mad, 'cause I got in her shot or whatever. She called me a 'fatso.' And so I just think, you know, somebody that fucking retarded, and that ugly, and fucking wacky lookin', callin' me fat. I... fuck her. [Jaimie laughs] I don't care. I hope she fuckin'... She's already embalmed!
Jaimie: Her face will fall off one of these days.
Chris: Yeah!

Jaimie: And then you guys got the "Worst Dressed" award from her, too, or whatever?
Chris: Yeah! Oh yeah.
Jaimie: Your tuxedos got as much publicity as the music. Do you guys ever do appearances in them anymore?
Chris: No, no.
Jaimie: They've been retired?
Chris: We don't wanna be known as a band that wears those tuxes. I hate them, first of all. I mean, we wore 'em 'cause that's what we wore on the album, you know? We didn't wear 'em 'cause we we're trying to seek attention. Otherwise I'da went in my underwear or something, you know?
Jaimie: [laughing] Gone naked.

Jaimie: Ok, you've got two songs on movie soundtracks? Uh, "Jimmy Neutron," that's the movie you did the theme song for?
Chris: Yeah.
Jaimie: Alright, and then "Crossroads"' "Greatest Day"... An excellent song. I haven't seen the movie, but... And then, the new Wes Craven...? A Wes Craven movie? ["Cursed"]
Chris: Yeah. We're actually in that movie. We play a scene where this girl's looking for her boyfriend, can't find him. Goes around looking, and ends up, finally goes down the pier and gets.... [Jaimie gives a wicked laugh] It's cool.
Jaimie: Was "Punk Rock 101" released in conjunction with anything?
Chris: Um, not really. It was, like I said, it was done for the EP and ended up that our label liked it more than they thought they would, you know. Said they wanted to use it as a single, so...
Jaimie: Ok. For some reason, when I first heard it, I thought it had something to do with a movie. And then, "Girl All The Bad Guys Want," that was used in a movie?
Chris: Uh, yeah it was in "The New Guy." Eddie Griffin, and uh... DJ Qualls, and Eliza Dushku.
Jaimie: Alright, very nice.
Chris:"Greatest Day" was also in a Mary Kate & Ashley movie.
Jaimie: Oh really.
Chris: Yeah.
Jaimie: [You've] got all the pop stars going.

Jaimie: And then, any TV shows? You did a song for "Drew Carey"?
Chris: Yeah, we did the theme for "Drew Carey," the intro theme? What was the name of the song...
J-Man: "Cleveland Rocks"?
Chris: Uh, no, it's the "5 O'Clock" something... ["5 O'Clock World"] Whatever, it's that one. There's other bands that did those different songs, so they kinda rotate 'em.
Jaimie: But it was used?
Chris: Yeah. It's still on! Yeah, they still use it.
Jaimie: Cool. Any other TV shows use your music that you know of?
Chris: Yeah, we've done a couple of, like, pilot songs, stuff like that. I don't really keep up with it that much, so.
Jaimie: Well I know, like, MTV on their "Real World" and stuff, they...
Chris: Stuff like that. ESPN's done a couple... things.

Jaimie: Do you have any favorite European memories?
Chris: Oh yeah. The UK has got a lot of memories. Like, there was one night in Liverpool that I got... drank like a whole bottle of whiskey. There was a lot of crazy shit that happened.
Jaimie: A lot of good stories start that way!
Chris: Threw a fridge off a balcony...
Jaimie: Oh, I read that!
Chris: Uh... tried to break a bottle open with my head. Got a candybar shoved up my ass.
Jaimie: [laughing hard] I read that too.
Chris: Uh, what else happened. Then I woke up in my own vomit and piss. Yeah. Good... good times.
Jaimie: That's... that's a good story. [laughs again]
Chris: It's a good one.
Jaimie: Alright...
Chris: Still with a candybar halfway up my ass. [Jaimie can't stop laughing] Pretty bad.
J-Man: What kind of candybar was it?
Chris: It was a Milky Way, a Milky Way. Which, over there, Milky Ways are Three Musketeers.
Jaimie and J-Man: Oh.
Chris: There's no caramel in Milky Way over there.
Jaimie: Huh. Man, what a way to wake up.
Chris: Oh yeah.
Jaimie: Did you remember from what happened the night before? Or were you like... [laughing] "Why is this candybar in my ass?"
Chris: ...I don't... I'm one of the drunks that, I'll remember everything. I don't really ever black out, really. I do stupid shit, but, I always remember it. You know, I don't really...
Jaimie: Probably not necessarily a good thing. [laughs again]
Chris: Yeah.
J-Man: So we're partying with you tonight, right? [laughs]
Jaimie: [laughs] Yeah! Definitely.
Chris: Well that's why, like I told you before... I haven't really, I've only been drunk like twice this whole tour, but, I've been, I've been stoned. I've been smokin' a lot, so. I get ripped every night smokin' pot. I haven't been drunk a lot.

Jaimie: You guys have toured a lot. What are some quintessential "band van" albums, for when you guys are touring?
Chris: Um, band van albums. Let's see... Fountains of Wayne. Um, Steve Miller Band's greatest hits.
Jaimie: Oh really?
Chris: A good one. Good sing-along stuff there. Um....
Jaimie: Do you ever bring wacky stuff, to keep yourself awake when you're driving? Polka albums...
Chris: Yeah, comedy albums. A lot of Eddie Murphy albums, George Carlin albums.
Jaimie: George Carlin, yeah.
Chris: But uh, yeah. Sing-along, just, a lot of good old sing-along stuff... I listen to Slayer when I drive. Yeah, Reign In Blood's a good driving album.

Jaimie: Alright, you've got a bus for this. But have you moved up to the bus, now? Or are you still in a van?
Chris: Uh, hopefully so, yeah. I mean, the only time we do a van these days is when we go out on a... if we're home and we're doing, like, a weekend, we'll swing through Texas, we'll do the van.
Jaimie: So you've retired "Whoop Ass" (their van)?
Chris: Uh, not yet! It's still hanging around, yeah.
Jaimie: Yeah, your van stories on the website are...
Chris: Oh yeah.
Jaimie: ...somethin' else.
Chris: We've had some wacky vans.
Jaimie: Yeah?
Chris: Well your van's your home. I mean, our van's been our home for years, so. We have a lot of weird things happen.

Jaimie: I know this is taking forever, I've got two more pages yet.
Chris: No, that's alright, I've got nothing else to do.
Jaimie: Um, ok ... explain the POP SUCKS 2002 situation. You guys were supposed to play with Disturbed and Korn and the Riddlin Kids, but...
Chris: Oh, ok, yeah. It's weird. I really don't know what happened there... it's like, it was actually management, I think it was Disturbed's management...
Jaimie: Ok.
Chris: ...who said that we were pop, us and Riddlin Kids are a pop band, thus we shouldn't be on the show. And so we went over and we played the Steamboat in Austin instead. And ended up having a good show!
Jaimie: Was that just one show, or was it a...
Chris: Yeah, it was just a... it was one show in Austin. And uh, and we ended up having a really good show at the Steamboat. It was the after party, and actually the Disturbed guys, a couple of those guys showed up at the show. And they like us, so it's so funny that their management's the reason why we got kicked off that show.
Jaimie: Yeah. That's stupid.

Jaimie: I haven't heard you guys play, I've never seen you guys play yet, but do you ever start, or end, your sets with "The Last Rock Show"?
Chris: This tour we've been starting our show with it.
Jaimie: Yeah. That's a good one to kick it off. I like that.

Jaimie: The bio says that when Jaret and Erik first started playing together, they played 80s metal covers...
Chris: Yeah, you know, that's kind of a farce.
Jaimie: Oh, ok. I wasn't sure.
Chris: That kind-of got taken out of context from something said, once. It ended up making it into our bio for some reason. The deal is when we first started this band, you know, we obviously started playing our own stuff. And uh, we're from Wichita Falls, Texas, which is a shithole town. There's not a lot of clubs to play there. And, you know, there's pool halls and shit like that. And so, we'd just sit there.. and it's fun, you sit there when you practice, and just work up covers. So, we have over a hundred covers. And we never would play anything modern or anything, like, anybody would expect us to play. You know, never, like, radio songs. But, like, we could do a whole set of 50s, a whole set of 60s, a whole set of 70s, a whole set of 80s-type music. A whole set of hair metal, a whole set of Elvis, [Jaimie laughs] a whole set of Buddy Holly, a whole set of Beatles.
Jaimie: Wow.
Chris: And so we'd just play bars, and just play, some instances four hours a night! And make tips, and make money. That's how we bought a PA, we bought a van. And, you know, we were able to just play constantly. And yeah, that got taken out 'cause Jaret and Erik also did an acoustic thing together. And they would do, like, you know Poison and stuff like that. So I guess that's where that kinda came from.
Jaimie: Yeah. Um, do you guys ever play any covers live?
Chris: Yeah! We still throw one in every show. You know. Usually we have time to throw one or two in.
Jaimie: You guys are only playing twenty-five minutes today?
Chris: Yeah.
Jaimie: Man!

Jaimie: Any favorite songs to play live?
Chris: Um...

[At this point, we're joined by BFS bassist Erik Chandler.]

Jaimie: [To Erik] You can come join us if you want!
Chris: Um, I guess, uh, I don't really have favorites, really. "Surf Colorado" maybe would be one of the favorites.
Erik: And underscore, "As Erik enters the interview..."
Jaimie: Yeah. Thank you!
Chris: Erik's here, I gotta quit talkin' about him...

Jaimie: Ummmm... ok, do you play mostly stuff, since you only have a twenty-five minute set, mostly stuff off the Drunk Enough To Dance album?
Erik: No...
Chris: Well, yeah, most of the stuff is, yeah.
Erik: It's, like, heavily weighted, yeah. But...
Chris: There's a couple songs off Let's Do It For Johnny!!.

Jaimie: [To Erik] Did you have any favorite songs to play live?
Erik: "Surf Colorado" is definitely my favorite.

Jaimie: Ok, you've toured and played with many many bands. Any that are most fun to play with, travel with, party with?
Chris: Simple Plan.
Erik: Simple Plan, definitely.
Chris: Yeah, 'cause they're buddies. It's just always cool to be with them.
Jaimie: I'm a big Sugarcult fan, so I was ...
Erik: Sugarcult is a lot of fun, we had fun with those guys.
Chris: Oh, a lot of fun, yeah.
Erik: A band from, ah, Texas that everyone should look out for, album coming out, actually it's, ah... out! It's out! Blue October.
Jaimie: Blue October?
Erik: Yeah, they're... officially party partners for Bowling For Soup. [Jaimie laughs]
Chris: We've got quite a few party partners.
Erik: We do.
Jaimie: Yeah, I bet.

Jaimie: [To Erik] I'm Jaimie, by the way.
Erik: Jaimie, good to meet you.
Jaimie: From Score!.

Jaimie: What do you do on your days off, from the Warped Tour, you have a couple days off.
Chris: On this tour, the days off've been drive days. With the exception of New Orleans. We had a day off in New Orleans to kinda screw around. Well actually, the other three guys in the band went back home, and I stayed. Went out to the casinos, lost money.
Jaimie: And then when you guys aren't on tour? Just chill out at home?
Chris: Yeah, pretty much.
Erik and Chris: Sit around...
Erik: ...in the underwear...
Chris: ...play Playstation...
Jaimie: Play Playstation, yeah. [laughs]
Chris: ...watch videos.

Jaimie: You guys don't play Wisconsin often. You need to rectify that.
Erik: Yeah. This is our, this is our first time in Milwaukee.
Chris: First time. We've been to Madison, to do a radio interview.
Jaimie: You guys gotta come up towards Green Bay.
Erik: That'd be great. Love to.

Jaimie: Alright, anything on your rider that you can't live without.
Erik: The alcohol.
Jaimie: The alcohol. [laughs]
Chris: Our rider's pretty simple. It's usually just beer, beer, vodka, beer...
Erik: A couple bottles of wine.
Chris: A couple bottles of wine, and a little, some deli stuff. And we'll do without that, as long...
Jaimie and Erik: As long as you [we] got the beer.
Chris: Gary's t-shirts.
Erik: Gary has to have t-shirts.
Jaimie: Really.
Chris: He's a sweater.
Erik: Like, Gary...
Jaimie: They supply you with t-shirts?
Erik: Yeah. Like, Gary... and it sounds... One thing: t-shirts and socks are a very important part of the rider. 'Cause there's nothing like a clean pair of socks...
Jaimie: Oh, amen to that!
Erik: And, Gary's t-shirts, that man sweats so much, like, at the end of shows, he...
Chris: ...peels off...
Jaimie: Why doesn't he just go shirtless?
Erik: ...he peels off his undershirt and just drops it in the trash.
Jaimie: Yeah. He doesn't want it back.
Erik: Well, he could throw it in his dirty clothes bag, so it could sit there and get mildewed...
Jaimie: Smell everything else up.

Jaimie: How did you guys hook up with Jive Records?
Chris: We had a single on Dallas radio, "The Bitch Song" single. And, uh, it was doing really good on there. So we went to Atlanta, to play the Atlantic music conference? And uh, our A&R guy heard of us, came to see us, about two months later we were on the label. They kinda signed us, kind of an experiment because they were buying up labels. They bought Volcano, picked up Tool, 311...
Jaimie: Uh huh.
Chris: And so they decided to sign on new bands, see what they could do.
Erik: They did lots of experimenting with us.
Chris: It was good and bad.
Jaimie: Have they been supportive of you?
Chris: Yes and no. [Jaimie laughs] It's a battle. A constant battle.
Erik: Just like with any label, you know.

Jaimie: Ok, you've made videos for "The Bitch Song," "Emily," "Girl All The Bad Guys Want," and "Punk Rock 101." Are there any older ones that you guys did, or...?
Erik: We did a couple on our own. One for a song off our first album, called "Thirteen." And uh...
Chris: "Cody."
Erik: A song called "Cody," that's on our second release, which was a split CD with a band from Texas, called The Bends. Rest in peace.
Jaimie: Will that end up on the DVD?
Chris: Possibly. I... neither one of the songs is, uh... really, we'd have to clear, you know, label stuff... a little bit.
Jaimie: Oh, yeah, I suppose.
Chris: And we're actually looking for a good version of the "Cody" video, on VHS.
Jaimie: I'm sure your fans, the old school fans probably have footage.

Jaimie: Who comes up with the concepts for the videos?
Erik: We all do, like, Chris wrote the original treatment for the "Bitch Song" video. Then, the...
Chris: Us and the directors.
Erik: Us and the directors for, uh, ah... goddammit, "Girl All The Bad Guys Want" [Jaimie laughs]. And then "Punk Rock 101" more weighted on us. "Punk Rock 101" was like... you know, several weeks of like, just, brainstorming, like, 'what can we do,' different things that we can do. And we gave our ideas to the directors and they picked which ideas would work the best.
Jaimie: I haven't seen that one yet. I tried watching it on my friend's computer but she had dial-up, and it wasn't going. But I was looking at the pictures, and it looked cool. Is it the same director?
Erik: Yeah.
Jaimie: For all of them?
Erik: Same director for the...
Chris: No, the "Emily" video was done by a Canadian director, Harv. But yeah, other than that, all the others have been Smith 'N Borin.

Jaimie: Have any of the artists you spoofed in the "Girl..." video.. anybody, limpbizkit or Staind, contacted...?
Chris: The Staind guys think it's funny. They actually said on CNN!
Jaimie: Really!
Chris: Yeah, CNN asked 'em about what they thought about it, and they thought it was funny. The limpbizkit guys, like... Fred Durst doesn't like it.
Jaimie: I don't think he has much of a sense of humor.
Chris: I really don't know what, uh, Wes Borland... I would think that he would think it was funny.
Jaimie: Yeah, probably, I wouldn't doubt it.
Chris: But Fred Durst doesn't like it one bit. Actually, at the Grammys, he wouldn't even look at us.
Jaimie: Really?
Chris: Yeah.
Erik: Nope!
Jaimie: I read that Godsmack...
Erik: Godsmack actually loved the, uh...
Jaimie: Well you didn't really spoof them.
Chris: Yeah, we didn't spoof them.
Erik: We didn't even say anything bad about them in the song.
Chris: They're in the song.
Erik: They're in the song. But, like, we sat next to those guys at the Grammys, and they were inviting us... uh, Sully just opened a bar in New York. He was like, "Man, after the show, that's where we're all going, you guys can go over, your name'll be at the door. Just tell 'em who you are, come in, your drinks are on me."
Jaimie: Cool, very cool.

Jaimie: Who designs your website?
Erik: Our label does that.
Chris: Yeah, one of our label guys. He's really new, but young and good.
Jaimie: A really nice website, the whole vending machine thing.
Chris: Yeah, it looks really cool.
Jaimie: I think you guys, we gave you a "Best Website" award...
Erik: Right on.
Jaimie: ...for our "best of the year" thing. Do you guys work on updating it at all?
Chris: Jaret was supposed to update it, but... this tour it's hard for everyone to get on.
Erik: Not being in hotels, kinda makes it difficult. You know, you can go to the production office and get online, but you got 400 people out here that... Everybody wants to get online, so.
Jaimie: I was gonna say, there's been no diary entries this summer.
Erik: They're coming! Yeah, they'll be up in a week or so.

Jaimie: Is this the first band, for you guys? Or only band?
Erik: No. Me, this is number... number four? Jaret's probably up around number nine.
Jaimie: Wow!
Erik: [to Chris] How many for you?
Chris: Probably five or six.

Jaimie: Ok, you guys get naked a lot, what's the deal with that? [laughs]
Chris: We haven't gotten...
Erik: That kinda ran its course. That all started, we used to, our rehearsal space, back when we lived in Wichita Falls, people used to come out and watch us rehearse and everything. And so it was our good idea of a joke to turn off the lights, and play the song in the dark!
Jaimie: And then turn the lights on and you're naked?
Erik: Yeah. [Jaimie laughs] And so, that's kinda where it all started. And then, doing it on stage, one day we were playing a show, the first show ever that the power went out, it was a festival. And, immediately, like the power goes out, all of us look at each other...
Jaimie: You're like Pavlov's dogs!
Erik: ...there goes the pants, you know. And so that's kinda how it all came about. We haven't been doing much of getting naked lately. That kinda ran its course.
Jaimie: Alright, good to know!

Jaimie: Ok, I stole this from one of our writers, but what were you doing the first time you heard a Bowling For Soup song on the radio?
Chris: I really don't remember.
Erik: I remember. I do. It was on our first album, and we knew that it was gonna be on at, like, 9:30.
Jaimie: Ok? [laughs]
Erik: So I had, you know, family and friends that were in the livingroom listening to the radio waiting for us to come on.
Jaimie: Do you guys all live in Dallas now?
Erik: We live in a city called Denton, about thirty-five minutes north of downtown Dallas.
Jaimie: You don't live in Wichita Falls?
Erik: No. We haven't been there for five or six years.

Jaimie: Have either of you gone to college? I know Jaret has, and I think that Gary has.
Chris: I have a degree in Social work and PhysEd.
Jaimie: Wow!
Erik: Gary and myself both went to school and both, respectively, dropped out of school for this.
Jaimie: To be rock stars.
Erik: Yeah.
Jaimie: Did you guys all grow up together?
Chris: Yeah.
Erik: Grew up near each other.
Jaimie: Nearby.
Erik: We've all known each other for about twelve years.
Jaimie: How did you guys hook up as a band?
Chris: I used to run a club in Wichita Falls. A small coffee house-type venue. Everybody in our band used to play there. Erik's mom used to help me run it. Gary was, like, thirteen. Twelve, thirteen years old. Used to come there and play. Yeah, we all just kinda got together there. Our bands kinda... when I closed that down, that was when all our bands kinda broke up at that time.
Jaimie: You knew each other by then?
Chris: Yeah.
Jaimie: Cool!
Erik: Chris and I actually were in a band that rehearsed across the hall from Jaret.
Jaimie: Really.
Erik: Yeah. And our old drummer Lance.
Jaimie: So you guys knew each other first?
Chris: Yeah, me and Erik have played together a long time. We played in two different bands before that. Like, one band played this really crazy kinda shit. It was like Faith No More-esque. And the other band we were in was called the Folkadots, and he played the acoustic guitar and I had an acoustic bass and we had a drummer. We did, like, Simon and Garfunkel kind of stuff.
Jaimie: Very nice! He's... [to Erik] the bass player, right?
Erik: Yes.
Jaimie: And you... we talked about the acoustic shows, you played with them, with Jaret? The acoustic shows?
Erik: Yeah. Jaret and I, that's the way that we originally were able to quit our jobs. Three nights a week, he and I would play these four-hour acoustic sets. And then, four nights a week we'd do Bowling For Soup shows. It's cool, it's a lot of fun! We're gonna do... I think we're lookin' at two more, or three more, in August after we get back from the UK. It's a good time. It's something to give to the kids. See, and we do about half and half our songs, and we do songs that we like to play. I get drunk and Jaret makes fun of me, that's, that's the whole...
Jaimie: So it's music and comedy!
Erik: Yeah, yeah. There's a lot more talking goin' on.

Jaimie: Have you seen "Bowling For Columbine"?
Erik: I have not.
Jaimie: Do you get a lot of bowling requests? People wanting you to play in bowling alleys and stuff?
Erik: Yes.
Chris: All the time.
Erik: People want us to go bowling...
Chris: We're crappy bowlers.
Erik: Give pointers and stuff. It's like, we suck at bowling so bad. [Jaimie laughs] It's like:
"Let's go bowling with Bowling For Soup!"
"Yeah!"
"Oh god we've gotta go bowling again!" We really are horrible.
Jaimie: Then you're like, thinkin' of a name change at that point!
Erik: But that's ok, 'cause bowling isn't about getting a high score. It's about drinkin' beer and shootin' the shit with your friends.
Jaimie: There ya go.

Jaimie: [to Chris] You're a baseball fan?
Chris: Oh, big time. A big sports nut.
Jaimie: Is it all Texas, like the Rangers and the Astros, or...?
Chris: Not really, no. I mean, I'm a Ranger fan, but I'm a Cubs fan, a big Cubs fan. I like the Mets.
Jaimie: [I'm a] Braves fan.
Chris: Oh yeah? I'm just a sports guy, first of all. I've got my teams, but...
Jaimie: Do you guys ever get to go to the World Series or anything?
Chris: No, but that's one good thing about traveling. Every once in a while you end up with a day off in a town... like I've been to a Braves game, and I've been to a Cubs game...
Erik: We got some great seats behind home plate at Wrigley Field.
Jaimie: Yeah. I've been behind home plate at Wrigley Field too. That place, just, has an aura, you know?
Erik: Oh yeah, it was... Chris cried during the national anthem.
Chris: I cried three times. [Erik laughs]
Jaimie: I bet! Yeah, that place is classic.

Jaimie: I guess that was it! My last question was... does a mullet really make a man?
Erik: No, no, actually, I think the man makes the mullet.
Jaimie: It's all about the attitude?
Erik: Exactly.