You guys obviously have a show coming up at Iota on April 24th, and I know you are looking to debut some new material, and sort of try it out live. You guys have had a really long time off since any new material has been released. Sway was re-released last year, but that material has mostly been around for awhile. What's up with all this time off between us getting to hear something new?

Well, it's a long story why it was so long, because it was picked up by Emperor Norton after we had self-released it ourselves. And Emperor Norton picked it up and re-released it with some new tracks, which was probably a big mistake. We basically have been working on new stuff for the past 6 months, after we got done touring. We hadn't really been able to concentrate on any new stuff since we had been on the road for such a long time. And that's basically what we're doing right now.

The new stuff you have been working on, since it has been awhile, does it tend to be a lot different, from songs off your previous releases? Or is it more of the same, since you have been working with that stuff for so long?

Well, a lot of the new stuff ? well ? first of all we've got tons and tons of demos. We've had to always go with what's newest, which doesn't sound too far off the stuff on Sway or Skydive , but it is different. I mean, in our own heads, we think we've progressed a lot.

So we'll see congos perhaps on this material?

No, you won't hear the congos , that's not happening anymore.

Going back, you mentioned Sway being re-released by Emperor Norton, and that you added a few extra tracks. You mentioned that probably being a mistake ? How Come?

Well, just because it, it kinda took the momentum, the breath out of what we were trying to do. A little bit. Because they were trying to push the new record, put some new songs on there, and trying to make it more a national release. Where as what we had put our ourselves, it was nearly the same thing. You hear it all the time, like when you bring it up, people say, ?what have you been doing?? because Sway was released 2 ½ years ago, but that was the original Sway . But I can tell, myself, I'm wanting to hear new material, and we have new material coming out. But no one else has heard it cause we don't have the means to put it out right now. I know it's there, we've been working on stuff everyday. We walk into the studio 5 days a week, and nobody can hear it, cause it's just not ready yet. So, I know I'm sick of it, I know everyone else is sick of Sway as well.
  Well, I'm definitely not sick of it, but it definitely leaves me wanting for some more stuff certainly.

It will be there, I'm thinking hopefully this fall, but I'm not crossing my fingers. I've heard a lot of things lately, and it's just not falling into place right now.

And will it be released on Emperor Norton also?

We're not sure.

OK, you guys go in the studio and obviously you listen to music everyday. What's really shifting and shaping your stuff right now? I doubt it's Britney Spears. "I heard this great Britney track guys, what can we do with this?"

There's nothing new really, that I'm listening to right now. I'm fed up in general cause there is nothing new that is coming out that I can really appreciate. Although I did just listen to Damien Rice, which isn't really new anymore. I don't know, I personally haven't found anything recently that has influenced me. If you think about it, radio is just horrible.

{Laughs} Well that's a given.

Yeah, I mean even XM radio is getting bad. Everything is ?The? bands, you know, ?The ?!? bands. It's like, lose ?the? moniker. It's getting old. And they all sound the same, its like when they come up I can't tell if it's The Strokes or The Strokes . It's the same thing over and over again. The garage thing has had its day as well. And there is nothing out there that I really appreciate. I always tend to go back to the old stuff, the older stuff I used to listen to, and try to go back to my CD collection. Stuff I haven't heard in a couple years. And that's the stuff that tends to influence me personally right now, and I think everyone else in the band as well. Just because music right now, the state of music, is horrible. Again, right now there's not one band I think I can appreciate.

And the older stuff you're listening to, the bands in particular?

You know I'm just breaking out a lot of? what did I bring out? For some reason The Cars' Candy-O . Soundgarden came out, Nine Inch Nails always comes out, The Beatles, Rolling Stones always come out. Stuff that I drilled to the ground a few years ago, put away for awhile on the shelf, and then I just bring it back.

So, I picked up Sway a few years ago myself, and I'm a big Sigur Ros fan, I like the Album Leaf, stuff like that. You know, atmospheric music, which I know you guys have been labeled before. And then I listen to a song like ?Northern Light,? which to me, especially in the beginning, could easily be a Sigor Ros song. And then you switch over to ?Sweet Marie? which is really sort of a ballad. It's interesting, listening to the album, and despite the fact that much of the stuff sounds similar to a certain extent, with the throaty vocals, very moody, very atmospheric, but yet they are all structured differently. You mentioned some of the songs you added to Sway may have taken some momentum away. In terms of the album itself, how did all this variety came together.

Well, everyone has their own style, and everyone has their own ideas when we come to practice, and we honor everybody's opinions as they come in, and if it works it works. One of the hardest things was getting the order of Sway . Cause when we did it, we did it ourselves, there was no outside opinions. It was basically the three of us sitting down ? all four of us sitting there, deciding how the order should be, what the length should be, and how it should be heard as a record. But we weren't thinking in general terms of songs or singles. We were thinking in terms of long playing, listening to it as a record, with your headphones on, from start to finish. And it seemed logical to us, the way we did it. And then, the Emperor Norton thing, they wanted to add a few tunes on there. And we took it as an opportunity because we never felt the record was complete to begin with. Either for lack of material, or material that just didn't fit. And at that point we had a lot of material that we wanted to add to it so we did. We shot ourselves in the foot when we did it, I think personally, but? It's just a matter of a lot of people coming together with different ideas.

In terms of writing new material, is it a group atmosphere?

Well it depends, if one person comes in with a really strong song, which has happened the last couple of weeks a couple times. One person will come in with a song, and it's that person's song, and it's a strong singer/songwriter type of deal, but we come in with something that hasn't been finished, and a lot of songs on our deck right now just haven't been worked on, and we all come in and sort of put in our own ideas and then it's? for instance some Friday when we were working on a song everything came together so brilliantly, some of these songs are phenomenal, you know? Cause everyone really comes in strong, really has a lot to say. Especially when someone hasn't heard it. I play the same song to myself, you know, 20 times at home, and it sounds different to somebody else. To me it sounds great, and I think its gonna sound fantastic. And I can bring it in, and they can say ? This sucks?. But usually they don't, usually they just add their opinion, and it usually works out brilliantly, and it makes the song even better, in terms of the arrangement.

You guys are definitely, from the DC perspective, seen as a local band done right. You're signed to a great label, well, released on a great label, toured the country various thousands of times in the past couple years. As a scene, you are somewhat ambassadors, if there were such a scene. I saw you quoted in an old interview, from a Boston paper I think, saying DC really doesn't have a scene anymore, there's no genre, there's no hardcore, there's no music of choice per se, just a lot of bands doing a lot of different things. I mean, for you, you live here, you go see shows here presumably, though you obviously are somewhat turned off recently with what's been out, but how do you currently view DC in terms of the music scene, in terms of the sounds you are hearing out and about?

It's hard to say because, again, its like, if you even look at the national level, music doesn't connect with me right now. There's still the old-school bands that are still around, the Dischord bands that are always gonna be there, and are well appreciated here, and are always gonna be around, but I haven't seen anything new; most of the bands that I know, that I've known here in the last four years, have broken up, just because nobody wanted to hear them because there is no music scene per se in DC, and they get frustrated. I understand why they breakup, because, if it were New York, Chicago or LA it'd be a different story I'm sure, cause people actually appreciate, but for some reason, here everyone just puts their noses in the air if it doesn't sound like, I don't know, if it doesn't sound like something that's? that hasn't been from the old school. And it's unfortunate, but that's still the way I feel.

I view it as very provincial, people have a hard time breaking out of what they want to hear here, and maybe it's just been a trickle down effect from, I don't know, who knows, ten years ago? And its been stagnant. I mean we're still, I mean, not that I think everybody should appreciate what we're doing in DC, but people still don't know about us, and we've been around for 7 or 8 years you know? You see it everywhere. There's no market for it. I know I sound like a business man at this point but, its true. There's nothing here. I don't know what the hell we're still doing here (laughs)?

So, you should have moved to NY a long time ago?

Something, or Chicago ?

A lot of the local bands are doing things, if you want to call it that, like Washington Social Club, The Carlsonics, Thee Snuff Project ---

There are a lot of new, like side projects, a lot of new bands, lot of my friends are in new bands that I'm really interested in what they're doing like The Carlsonics , Snuff Project's another one? there's the (Sounds) of Kaleidoscope , which, well was the original band.. a lot of bands that we share practice space with, like Tone , which is an instrumental band, and they've been around forever and still haven't gotten their due, but they're phenomenal, just great, but no one is going to hear them because there's a very, there is a lack of something, and that's just the way it works. I mean, I'm not complaining, I'm doing what I'm doing, and that's what everyone else is doing, and I think what you're doing is making things better. I think what we need to do more of, is fanzines, magazines, websites, promoters, one of the best music stores in DC just shut down recently, which is DCCD, which is a killer, cause where are you gonna go in DC if you really want music? You have to go to Tower and have to deal with all the signs when you walk in, the top twenty lists, the hotlist, and you have to search out what you really want. Or you wanna walk in to see the top 20 list at DCCD, which is everything you've wanted to hear, your favorite top 20.

I think there's enough apathy, and that's a word I use a lot in reference to DC, there's a lot of apathy in terms of music. There are obviously the people who want to hear the great stuff, the indie kids, the ?30-year old hipsters.? The people who actively search out good music wherever it may be from, but unfortunately there are a lot of people who, frankly, could care less. And it is that sort of attitude that put DCCD out of business. People like myself, have to resort to going to used record stores, just to find decent indie bands' CDs. Or go to Tower, like you said, and filter through the Janet Jackson s, and the various crappy top 25 lists that are shoved in your face. Or deal with the corporate rock, where all the big labels have a wall to have their own bands on. But like I said, I've seen some things, heard some things, and talked to some people who are trying, I think, to do something here, and that is a spark that maybe something will change. But it is exciting to hear that there are some local bands that you are interested in.

Yeah, there's a lot of them, and a lot of them are my friends. It is great to hear they are still out there, still caring, or still trying to care.

It's always curious to me, especially talking with bands at the same level as yourself, considered a touring band to a certain extent, been signed to a pretty good label, you guys tour a lot, are you still working 9-5 jobs during the week?

Yeah, we had to give up what we had before we started touring, like the major 9-5 jobs, but now we've had to back and pick up some 9-5s , not even 9-5s, more like 10-4s just to pick up some extra cash on the side. I'm fortunate, I do graphic design and have been working for myself for about nine years, so I don't have to really go out and try to do that, although the state of the economy is gonna force me to do that soon, cause my money is very tight right now, like everyone else's. So yeah, we still have 9-5ers.

At the Iota should be expect an hour of brand new music or are you gonna mix in some old stuff?

Probably hear an hour of all new music, and probably one or two old songs, and that's it . Yeah, they're all gonna be brand new. That was the point of booking the show in the first place. We weren't gonna book anything until next fall or next winter, but Lisa, our booking agent, asked us if we wanted to take the show, and we found it a great opportunity to actually showcase everything that's brand new. And unfortunately we have all this new stuff that's popped up in the last two weeks, and we're not gonna have an opportunity to practice it enough to really showcase what we're doing, as of like, yesterday. But, the new stuff that you'll hear will be only maybe two months, six months old, written, maybe some songs older than that. But no, nothing off Sway or Skydive , probably the only song will be Sway , cause we love playing it, it really comes off well.

And no big changes with the band, still the four of you?

Yeah, well actually Ritse isn't in the band anymore, the drummer. He's gone, we parted ways because it wasn't working for either of us. So we have a new drummer, Gregg, and we have another key? another new member of the band, he's a keyboardist, a utitlty guy, names Mike. He's basically added an extra layer that we needed for live performances and he also has been adding a lot of things in the studio as well.

So he basically plays a little Shortstop, a little synth, all sorts of stuff??

A little bit of everything. And he fixes a lot of things too, a great repair guy. And we have no money, so anything to be done, he can do it?

Well, its great to know there is a lot of new stuff, cause there are a lot of people anxious for the show, since its been awhile for you guys, and knowing its gonna be some new material, it'll be damn exciting for the fans. You mentioned before, the new stuff, different but still Phaser .

Yeah, I think we've lost a lot of the, well, we didn't lose a lot of it, I think what we're trying to do now, is more to the point. You mentioned before, atmospheric, the atmosphere is still there, but without being fuzzy and grey. Now it's a bit more clear, a clear night, and you can actually pick out and see what you're trying to write with, trying to say, in a song, rather than be engulfed in this haze. That's the best way I can describe it.

Can we still expect some of the grand openings that accompany some of your songs?

Well, it's Iota, it would be kinda tough to pull off? yeah, yeah, you should expect something like that, sure. The first song that we'll play, I think will set the tone for the whole set.