RNW:  Okay, now, for people who I’m going to be presenting this interview to, I’m going to be saying okay, this is Goudie, they’re coming out with a new CD.  For someone who is being introduced to your music, what would you tell them they are in for if they are buying the CD or if they’re going to come see you in concert?  What formats do you think you are going to hit, or be the most at home in?

J.G.:  What do you mean, like alternative or something?

RNW:  Yeah, like do you think, okay, lets say the CD comes out and you are going to chart.  Where do you think that’s going to happen?  Alternative?  Mainstream Rock?

J.G.:  I don’t know.  I have to be honest, I don’t want to sound like an a**hole, but I don’t really listen to modern rock radio.  Sometimes I do and it depresses me. 

RNW:  But you could help revitalize that.  That shouldn’t be depressing.

J.G.:  Well, I hope that we can.  I mean that’s not to say that there isn’t great stuff out there, you know.  There’s songs sometimes that blow my mind and Eminem, even like, Kid Rock, I thought that "Cowboy" song was really awesome. 

RNW:  Yeah, I like that one too.

J.G.:  Yeah, but, its not like Sparklehorse gets played on the radio or My Bloody Valentine ever got played on the radio.  You’ll ever hear Elliot Smith get played on the radio or you’ll ever hear the new Eels record on the radio except on some triple A format, which instinctively plays only the most boring songs from the greatest bands (laughs).  So, its like, there’s not really a format that I can get into too much.  I find myself listening to a lot of classic rock.

Einar:  Yeah, we have a great disco station in Austin!

J.G.:  Oh yeah.  I obviously don’t think that it will fit in pop because I have a feeling that it might be too, um, I don’t feel like we are pandering enough.  You know what I’m saying?

RNW:  No, I wouldn’t say pop.  I would go more rock.

J.G.:  Um, I would say that it would probably come out on, I mean I could hear this stuff next to No Doubt, who I love.  They’re last two singles I think are really great.  I could hear this stuff next to Stone Temple Pilots, who I’ve always really loved.  I mean there’s a lot of bands on the radio that I really love but its sort of like, the state of things right now, you know?  You avoid like, the Limp Bizkits, whatever, of the radio, but at the same time you embrace some huge rock bands that do it, I think, with class like Stone Temple Pilots or even Metallica, you know what I mean?

RNW:  Speaking of Limp Bizkit, I caught that little love note that you were presenting there Johnny, at the showcase yesterday.  That little love note to Fred there?

J.G.:  Did you like that?

RNW:  I’m hoping that I got a good shot of that.

J.G.:  Did you?

RNW:  (laughs) I’m hoping I did!

J.G.:  Good.  Well, you know what?  I don’t know what that guy’s like personally, but I have to tell you that, the only thing that I can really say, is cause I don’t really, I know that "I did it all for your woopie," or whatever, the f***in "I want to break everything in my house today because I’m Stupid" song, but I don’t like him and I don’t like his - you know, I don’t even know if its my place to really say anything, but honestly I just feel like its fake and he’s sucking money out of 13 year old boys that should be home jerking off instead of trying to beat their head against their best friends at a Limp Bizkit concert.  You know, whatever turns em on.  Basically I was wearing that shirt and basically saying hey, its not my vibe. 

RNW:  Well, I hear ya on that.  Now, as far as the new CD coming out, "Baby Hello" is going to be the first single, right?

J.G.:  Yeah it is.

RNW:  Are you going to do a video?

J.G.:  Ah, you know what?  We hope so.  We haven’t gotten that far yet.  We’re still at the process of trying to like, figure out how we’re going to get this on the radio. 

RNW:  Okay.  So you hit the air waves and now its time to do something . . .

J.G.:  Then its time to hit cable.

RNW:  Cable, huh?

J.G.:  Yeah.  We’ve decided, for our "Behind the Music" we’ve already started filming it on our video camera. 

RNW:  Oh that’s cool, ya know.  You keep those clips because you never know.

J.G.:  Us crying and all f***ed up in a corner.

RNW:  Yeah, you never know what you can do with those.

J.G.:  Actually, you know what we’re going to do today?  We’re staying in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, across from the (Mann’s) Chinese Theatre.  We’re going to film the star studded gala of the premier of Mission Impossible, cause we have a view from our room of the red carpet.  So we’re going to film it on our video camera.

RNW:  Oh dude, I wish I was there with my camera, I just got a great telephoto lens (laughs).

J.G.:  Yeah, you should go there!  The saddest thing is Lars (Ulrich) is gonna go and I guess he didn’t think we were, like, nice enough to take or something.  Maybe he’s taking his wife.

RNW:  Oh, well, okay then!

J.G.:  He’s a nice man. 

RNW:  Anyway, as far as getting out and doing some touring . . . 

J.G.:  Yes!  We are in the process, our manager and record company and booking agent are all trying to see what’s available.  And, there are a lot of bands we would like to go out with, you know?  Stone Temple Pilots being one.  We’ve always enjoyed their music and they seem like cool guys.  I’ve heard about them being nice guys.  And, I don’t know.  We just need to get out there and get in front of some people cause no body knows who we are and I feel that its gonna be great once we get out on the road and we’re able to do this every day, every night and play to a bunch of people every night, which is what we wouldn’t normally get to do, I feel like our show will become so strong, so undeniable that when we go in to start our next record its going to be, you know, huge.

RNW:  Well, you know the road is the key to most of that.

J.G.:  Totally.  The road is the key.

RNW:  Speaking of the road, have you guys been through your hard knocks era prior to being signed to your current label?

J.G.:  Oh yeah.

Einar:  We’ve been going through hard knocks for about ten years.  In and out of lots of bands.

J.G.:  Oh yeah!

RNW:  You know, ten years seems to be the magic number.  Everybody I talk to . . .

J.G.:  Yeah, its like, if you can withstand that torture . . .

RNW:  Yeah, every overnight success I’ve ever interviewed has been ten years in the making.  That’s strange that you should say that.  So, have you guys been living in cars and on the street and all that?

J.G.:  Yeah Einar lived in a van in New York City before.

Einar:  Yeah, I lived in a van in New York for about four months.

RNW:  Oh dude, that’s the worst place to live in a van (laughs).  You could have been in California on the beach or something.  You had to go to New York to live in your van?

Einar:  No, well I spent about three months here (California), actually in the same van, about a year prior to the New York one.

RNW:  Okay then, that was probably a better time at least.

Einar:  It was much better cause the beach was a lot warmer.

RNW:  Yeah, no kidding.  And its not as rough either, I don’t think, as the streets of New York.

J.G.:  Ah, no.

RNW:  So playing around clubs and, how did it happen that you got signed?  What was the whole story behind that?

Einar:  Well, Dan McCarroll, our A&R guy, when he was actually trying to decide if he should take this job as an A&R guy, he was given a box of tapes from who ended up becoming our publisher, Kenny McPherson at Warner-Chapel.  And Dan went home and listened to a bunch of stuff and liked our demo.  So he talked to Lars, let him listen to it.  He liked it and he sent Dan and Tim Duffy, the President of TMC (The Music Company) down to Austin to check us out.  And we did, like a private sort of showcase for a bunch of really stiff people and then, we did a showcase for Tim and Dan and it went great and we just got along really well with them.  We spend the week with them and they brought, or went back to Lars and gave him the news and he came about a month later and that was pretty much it.  I mean there was the going through the lawyers for a little while but it was just, they liked us, they thought we were a good band.  They thought, you know, I guess they got it.  And they liked the way we played and that was it.  It was really great. 

RNW:  Cool, that’s got to be a rush.

Einar:  And Lars actually, or they did a good job of kind of making it an event.  The actual signing.  Making it sort of a memorable event.

RNW:  How so?

Einar:  They were in Houston.  Metallica was playing at the Woodlands Pavilion out there and they invited us to drive down and come to the show.  So we went down and saw the show and had passes and came back to the green room and Lars brought the rest of the guys back.  We met the rest of Metallica and then unbeknownst to us, all of the negotiations were through and Lars walked in and locked the door and kind of set us up, making us think that he was delivering some bad news, but ended up whipping out four contracts and throwing them down on the table backstage at the show and that’s when we signed away!

RNW:  Oh man, that’s so cool. 

Einar:  So he really made it, you know, special.

RNW:  That’s neat.  Normally, you know, you hear about these horrible hassles in lawyer’s offices and stuff.

Einar:  Yeah, and even if it goes smoothly, its still going to go back and forth for a couple of months, you know?  Revisions here and there.

J.G.:  That’s the difference between signing with a musician or signing with a suit.  Like he always knows what we’re going through. 

Einar:  Yeah, he knows exactly what’s going on with us, what’s in our heads, what we’re going through, and its like, yeah, exactly.

J.G.:  He’s always there.  He’s always available for anything, like any sort of question you ever have.  Even like, just the emotional stuff that you go through, you know what I mean?  Like, this isn’t easy all the time and in situations like, you were there last night right? 

RNW:  Yeah, I was there.

J.G.:  Well, in situations like that, you know, like, we played in Texas where if there’s ten people at our gig - well, not any more, I mean we’ve really gotten a great following there, but - you know before, if there’s like f***ing ten people there, and someone says you’re good, you know, you go home and you tell your girlfriend and other guys "Hey man, Steve, you know, who’s my best friend and if I pay him to sell shirts at the show just to have him there, said that it was a really good night tonight."  I think we’re getting better, you know what I mean?

RNW:  "I think we’re reachin them, huh?"  (laughs)

J.G.:  Then going to like, taking your guitar off and your manager grabs you and drags you down stairs and Quentin Tarantino is telling you he thinks you’re amazing and Reeves Gabrels is there who plays the guitar with Bowie and is saying "Come on over, lets jam."  I’m like f***! And Lars is like, "You know, I’m so proud of you guys."  And pictures being taken and all these people that you never thought you would know in your life are wanting to have their picture taken with you and its your time in the sun and, you know what I mean?  Just, like that sort of stuff.  I have to be honest, its very, very, its difficult to take and we’re the kind of people that, we sort of need our humility because God forbid we ever became, like massively egotistical.  How scary that would be.  Or like, outwardly egotistical, you know what I mean?  So its weird and the fact is you know, you wake up the next morning and you still have three dollars in your pocket left of your per diem for the week and, you know.

RNW:  But you’ve got a great view for the Mission Impossible premier, so who needs more than that?

J.G.:  That’s right.  We’ve got a great view of the Mission Impossible premier, we’ve got a loaded battery and a new tape.

RNW:  Yeah, so the three bucks is inconsequential. 

J.G.:  Of course!

RNW:  You know, as long as you’ve got stuff in the honor bar at the hotel and, you know, a good seat for that, you’re squared.

J.G.:  Yeah, we’ll be in good shape.  It’ll be good.  Now hopefully, we’ll be able to get back to our hotel, if the crowds aren’t too big.

RNW:  So just to kind of cap this off, now you’re on the road and there’s no where to go but up.  You’ve got all this laying out ahead of you.  What’s your ultimate destination here on this musical journey?  What kind of markers for success are you looking forward to? 

J.G.:  Well, upping the anti obviously, within the band creatively, for what we do next.   Um, obviously assuming that this tour and this record goes well, that we will be able to challenge each other and ourselves to rise to new levels.  Not to sound like a cheese ball, but seriously, like to have that and, world domination, and be the greatest band in the whole f***ing world.

RNW:  (laughs)  Well, it looks like you got a good start to that!

Einar & J.G.:  Thank you!

RNW:  Thank you, and good luck to you guys.

J.G.:  Thank you and thanks for coming last night. 

RNW:  Well, you know, I apologize for the flash bulbs in your eyes.  I don’t normally like to use a flash but it was very dark.

Einar:  That’s quite alright!

J.G.:  No, its quite alright!  I’m telling you, we’ve been dreamin about flashbulbs in our eyes since we were kids and being able to sit in a conference room at our record company and do interviews all day, this is definitely a huge treat and it isn’t hard to do. 

RNW:  Oh good.

J.G.:  Because like I said before, this is like, this record is a labor of our love and we understand that we’re lucky to be in this band and to have been signed by musicians who understand where we’re coming from and have given us the reigns to do whatever the f*** we want musically and that they really believe in it.  So, this is not hard to do and the pictures aren’t hard to do and even if it is the Viper Room, it isn’t hard to do, you know?  Its just not hard to do. 

RNW:  Well, I like your style and I wish you guys all the luck in the world. 

J.G. & Einar:  Thanks!  Thank you very much.
 

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