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I wanted to ask you about
your mix album and DJ tour, and what made you decide to do that?
Well, we just had really great
remixes we were proud of and we had some remixes of our stuff that had
been done by various artists that we were happy with.
And we had started Djing a
little bit before that, and we started really getting into it, liking it and
the more we dug into that the more we discovered how much fun we had with it.
And so, somebody approached us about doing a mix compilation and we were able
to find the right tracks and find the um, right set of songs that worked for it.
And then touring on that, after that throughout December of last year, really
helped inspire us for this album. Going out on the road and Djing and getting
back into the clubs and just finding and searching out great music and
great breaks and dance music really helped cultivate some sort of thing inside of
us that really helped motivate us when we got back in the studio.
Right on, I did the flyer
for the show here but unfortunately I didn't get a chance to see it. But how
did the club tour go?
Yeah, we had a good time. It's
a lot easier going out with records when you're touring rather than
semis and gear so um yeah, it was a lot of fun. We were able to keep our name out
there and do some good sets around the country and support the album. And like I
said it really helped inspire us for the late winter of last year and then
the spring of this year when we really started to finish the record.
Right, really good record
too, I love the diversity of it. We're playing 'Weapons of Mass Distortion'
at our club night Factory here. It's a good song, it's perfect for the
dance floor. I think you have a lot of really good crossover hits with
this one. Like with 'Born Too Slow', it's very rock for you guys, how
has that been received by those who have heard it so far?
Well it's on something like 50
or so modern rock stations around the country. And we did the video, the
director of The Ring and the Pirates of the Caribbean, Gore
Verbinski did the video and it looks really cool.
Is that available anywhere
online or?
It will be. It will be on the
CD it will be an enhanced CD and hopefully it will be on MTV some by the end
of the year. On MTV or MTV2 and then of coarse all the other channels out
there will hopefully pick that up. But um, yeah, it's been well received, you
know it's a song that definitely still has the rhythm and base line and
structure of it is Crystal Method and the synth line is Crystal Method but we have the
Wes Borland, you know he came in and did some great guitars.
He's from Jacksonville
actually.
Oh yeah, that right, they all
are. Yeah, he's a really talented guy.
He's amazing.
So uh, and then getting John
Garcia to do vocals.
How did you guys meet up
with him and get that together?
Well we had, we were just
looking for something different and something that
would cut through and not have
a rap-rock sound, it has something a little more traditionally
soulful rock. And our A&R guy John Siddel said "You know Kias, right?"
And we're like, "Yeah, yeah,
yeah." And he's like, "Well the lead singer for Kias lives out here in
the desert somewhere and he would be great." And so we contacted him,
we played him the song, he said he was really into it so he came in
and he did it. So you know, somebody has an idea we just followed up
and he was really into the track and it just worked from there.
Right on, it's definitely a
good mix, I really enjoyed it. How did Wes fit into the mix, how did you
guys hookup on that?
Well we were looking for
someone to come in to do the guitar and we had met him on the 'Family Values"
tour and we had talked or hung out ever since. We were definitely familiar with
everything he had done and we were big fans of him
and so he lives at Silverlake
and so it was just, "What do you think, are you into coming in and working
with us and collaborating on some ideas?"
And he listened to the stuff
we had and immediately had some ideas and then came in and planned it.
Right on, very cool.
How do you guys work
together as far as putting the structure of the music together. Do you each have
set tasks that each of you do a certain type of thing or is it all just a
sort of melting pot collaboration between you two?
Yeah, it's pretty much a
melting pot but I would say that Ken is more the producer/engineer and I'm more
of the songwriter/player. But we both do a little bit of everything and we have
the same hours and usually Ken would come in a few hours earlier and listen
to what I had done the night before and then we would come in together and
work on it, and then I may stay few hours later and just work on ideas. About 70%
of the time we were there together and working towards making the song bigger
and better.
Fantastic. You guys are
hopefully planning a tour for this album?
Yeah, definitely. In the end
of March we'll be going out supporting the album and doing a headlining tour
and taking all the light and getting about 40 or 50 or 60 cities in and just um
go into the spring.
That will be fantastic.
What do you think is influencing your music these
days?
Um, well I think just a
combination, I have a lot of heavy metal in my background "Priest" and
"AC/DC" so I think that's why I want to hear some more of those heavy guitars and uh,
there's a lot of bands like the UK's, Freeland is a band that Adam Freeland has
put together and is really great, Elite Force is an artist out of the UK and
Koma And Bones, and then Hybrids new record is really great. We pretty much
listen to everything, a great rap record like "Styles of Beyond" is just as
inspirational as a White Stripes record. We like to listen to a lot of diverse
things that I think somehow manages to come out in our music.
Right on. Who's your
favorite musical artist of the day?
Well, I've always been into
New Order and they're coming out with a new album so I'm looking forward to
that. I've seen the White Stripes a few times and we were on our festival tour
with them in Australia at the beginning of 2002 and that was just amazing. So
and uh, you know a lot of our contemporaries like the Chemical Brothers and uh,
Underworld and all the other bands that I spoke of have been really
inspirational to us.
Yeah, do you guys ever miss
Vegas or want to move back? I know you guys are in L.A.
No, we get a chance to go
back. I get a chance to go back probably more than Ken does because I still have
family that lives there. But for the most part we're pretty happy in Southern
California, the weather's nice and we've got our roots there now so it's
definitely our home for the future.
Who would you most like to
collaborate with that you haven't yet?
I've always loved P.J. Harvey.
I think it would be amazing if we got the chance to do something with
her. Also I love Method Man's voice it's always been a favorite of ours. So Method
Man and P.J. Harvey on a track, that would be great.
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