We have real grass root influences: blues, folk, real rock 'n roll. We all love the Grateful Dead. That is probably our biggest influence. Other influences of the band include the Doors, Pink Floyd and Sublime.

When we played at the Rave last time, it was one of our best shows. The audience was really into it.

When we play live, we kind of feed off the audience, and it grows from there. If they're dancing, we're dancing. If they're having fun, we're having fun. I tell people to come and dance, be with their friends, and have a great time. You can even shout things if you're happy.

We recorded that EP with an aspiring sound engineer and played a lot of graduation parties. Surprisingly, we grew the most after I left for Marquette (in fall 2004). We've learned how to play our instruments really well in the past year.

A lot of our songs tell stories. We like to reflect on what's happening in the suburbs. We do a lot of character songs; we take our friends and turn them into characters. We celebrate their idiosyncrasies.

We did most things in one take. We never play a song the same way. We're trying to take our music in a more complex direction without taking ourselves too seriously and not having fun.