N: I know your records been out for awhile now but I want to ask you some questions about it… are you pleased with the finished product?
J: I am and I’m not… I think it could have been better, under the circumstances that is was the best that we could do, you know, financially with the money we were given and the time that we had, because we were all working full time and Vinny was in high school still, I think it came out really really well, but I would have liked to be able to put more time into it.

N: How does the writing process go?
J: I do a lot of the writing at home and its usually Ill come up with a song or a melody in my head and ill write the guitar and lyrics to it and then Ill bring it to the band. Either its part of a song or a full song and we’ll kinda play it and arrange it and decide how it’s gonna sound. Or otherwise Vin brings a song or we write a song together and Ill take it after its recorder and Ill put lyrics to it. Those are the two main ways it happens.

N: You guys have some really amazing vocal harmonies. Is that something you really concentrate on or does that just come natural?
J: Well I do concentrate on it but it is something that comes really natural to me. I kinda grew up being able to sing, my whole family can do it and I was in choir and I went to a church where we always sang every Sunday so it’s kind of something that came natural to me and I’m able to harmonize something and that’s how it turned out on the record.

N: What’s your favorite Brandnew song?
J: I think Soco Amoretto Lime, the last song on the album is one of my favorites, but I think Jude Law, that song really… that’s really the song that summarizes the way we sound I think. That’s kind of our anthem right now.

N: Is that your favorite song to play live?
J: Yea, it’s definitely one of them. I have a blast. I like playing all of the songs live but that’s definitely one of my favorites. Mix Tapes another one too.

N: When are you guys planning on going back into the studio?
J: Probably January. Right now we are going to be touring with The Movielife for the rest of the year and were gonna go right through December and were gonna try to get into the studio in January or February, and hopefully the record will be out by April.

N: Is it gonna be at a much bigger scale?
J: Is gonna be at a larger scale but its still gonna be with Triple Crown Records so were not changing any of that, but were gonna have more money to throw into it and more time and I think we have matured a lot as far as musicians and writers so its definitely gonna be a different process and a different finished product but its still the same band.

N: Do you have anything written or are you going in with a clean slate?
J: Yea it’s funny when we were upstairs at the show today and we all had acoustic guitars and were just kinda playing for each other all the stuff we had written, and we actually have a pretty good handful of songs. I don’t know how many of those will make the cut or how much they will change before the record comes out but I’m excited about what its going to sound like.

N: What are your thoughts on downloadable music?
J: I think it’s great. It’s totally cool. Imp a huge music fan and my family is also and all my friends are. I grew up just listening to music non-stop and I think its one of the best things that has happened to music, especially the underground scene. It really gives people access to hear bands. I understand where people are coming from as far as saying that it takes money from musicians, but when you get right down to it musicians don’t make that much money from record sales.

N: It’s about getting kids out to the shows right?
J: Yea that’s the bottom line. I always tell kids like if they don’t have money and they come up to the table and they don’t have money to buy the CD I tell them to go download the whole thing. As long as you’re coming to the show and are enjoying the music that’s all that I care about. I don’t care about how many CD’s we sell or anything and its kind of ridiculous when people get all into that.

N: Do you think that the internet has caused bands to get lost in the shuffle?
J: Yea… there’s way more information and anyone can get notices as long as they make a noise for themselves. And I think that’s cool… but yea its definitely been like a surge of these bands that have a similar sound and I’m not necessarily gonna include ourselves or exclude ourselves that list of bands but yea… your absolutely right. There has been this flood of bands and it’s hard to choose what you’re going to listen to.

N: Have you been receiving any major label attention?
J: Yea… from like the first year of being a band we were talking to Warner Brothers. And now we’ve talked to everyone there is to talk to basically. And there are some really good prospects out there and there are some really ridiculous labels out there also and I’m glad we’ve waited as long as we’ve waited and I’m glad we’ve found Triple Crown because its really given us a way to understand the way the industry works and hopefully that will allow us to make a good decision. But there’s been a lot of talk going on I suppose but nothings actually happened yet.

N: Is the whole stereotype of the “old guys in suits,” is that accurate?
J: In a lot of ways it’s not true and in a lot of ways it’s very true. I’ve met some great great people who work for major labels and that really gives me confidence of what’s going on. Someone could work for a major label and their goal is still to make the bands dream come true, which should be any labels… that should be the whole idea of it I guess. But again on the opposite side you meet these old gray haired people who are out of the loop completely and they try to act down and it’s not even close… but it’s funny though.

N: They try to assume what the kids like.
J: Yea… there people out there who are the exact stereotype of what you see in like movies and stuff and hear about and I guess that’s why those stereotypes are there.

N: If you weren’t in Brandnew or a band in general what do you think you’d be doing right now?
J: I’d probably be either teaching or cooking. I always wanted to be a teacher and I always wanted to be a chef. I’m also really interested in graphic arts stuff. I’m also really interested in photography. But I would have loved to be a chef and I would have loved to go to culinary arts school. When I left school, when I left college to do this stuff, I was on the road to being a teacher. So I might pursue one of those things.

N: Was that hard to do… to leave school?
J: No, I actually hit a point in college where I decided that I didn’t want to go anymore for a little while. And it’s just so happened that this came along. So I guess it was kind of fate.

N: What are you listening to right now?
J: The new Beck record. It’s called Sea Change. The new flaming lips record, it’s excellent. Bruce Springstein’s record called Nebraska. The new Exit record I don’t know if you’ve heard it? It’s unbelievable. Its like post-punk music with roots in like the police and like reggae and it sounds really good. I think its one of the best records out this year.
But the Beck record is hands down my favorite record of all time right now.

N: What are some bands that you know of that aren’t really getting recognized that you think we should know about?
J: I have to say The Exit. I already said it but… I mean they are getting recognized but they definitely aren’t getting recognized on the level that they should be getting recognized. I put the record as one of the best records that have come out this year. Also Recover, I’m sure everyone’s heard of them but they are gonna blow up. Their EP came out recently and it’s great. The Reunion Show from Long Island, they put a record out with Victory recently… and a band called Bayside, from Queens, New York, they are amazing. Those four bands everyone should check out.

N: Any final thoughts?
J: I just wanna thank all the bands we’ve played with, all our friends, our families. All of the kids who come out to the shows. It’s so amazing to be around so many great people. Every night we get to hang out with so many cool bands and people. All of the bands on this tour have been so nice and it’s great because this is what we do for a living and to be around such great people makes it even better. So thanks to everyone who’s supported us in any way… we really appreciate it.