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PL: State something interesting about yourself.
JL: Well, I can't think of anything interesting about me. I'm not a very interesting person. I'm a big cat lover. I have three cats. They're kind of my pride and joy. A lot of guys are dog people, but I'm a cat person over a dog person.
PL: What do you want people to know about your new album?
JL: Its definitely the most interesting album to me that we've made so far, so I definitely want people to listen to it. Its one of those albums thats important to listen to from beginning to end. Its not a concept album, per se, but its definitely got an underlined theme, and I think it all kind of backs each other up and its all kind of supports each other, so I think people should check it out as a whole instead of thinking of it as 12 separate songs.
PL: What goes through your mind when you're playing a new song live?
JL: The main thing-it feels good to us because its so refreshing to play a new song, but sometimes people tend to stiffin up because its something they're not familiar with. Its important for me to make it as intense and approachable as possible so people can really get into and not get that lull in the set, just standing there and looking at you. Its been good on this tour. We're playing new songs and people are still going crazy.
PL: Whats the worst part about releasing a new album?
JL: Artwork. Artwork is the worst because its really difficult to all agree on something, and you've got four minds involved on making a cover and having everything else to do with it. Its a nightmare. And then you get into it and everyone's all stoked on it, and then the label doesn't like it. There's so many people that are involved that its hard to make everybody happy and into the same thing. It sucks.
PL: I was just about to ask if the label has anything to do with it.
JL: They don't. They didn't say yay or nay. They don't say that this can't be the cover or anything like that, but they weren't crazy about it when we first showed it to them, but we loved it, and I think it grew on them too. I think they ended up liking it after all. But, we finally agreed and they didn't think it was that great.
PL: Do you listen to a band right before or after you see them live?
JL: Definitely not, actually. Thats funny. I get it. I understand why people do it, but I never listen to a band before I go to their concert. I always think its kind of funny hearing someone blaring a band that they are about to it. I don't know why its funny to me; it just kind of is. Some people do it to get pumped, but I'm just about to hear them play, so why would I want to listen to them in my car. I get both sides of it, but personally, no.
PL: Are you able to keep track of current music and bands while on tour?
JL: Yeah, definitely. Music is easier than television and movies. We'll get a day off and want to see a movie, but we don't recognize any of the movies. We get out of the loop with movies because we barely watch tv while on tour, but music is pretty easy because we have the internet, and thats the way to find out about a lot of bands these days. We always have different magazines on the road to read, like Rolling Stone and AP, so we kind of keep up with that.
PL: How do you think the economy right now is going to effect your band?
JL: Its gonna effect the band a lot. Its kind of scary because we're in a situation right now where its kind of difficult to tour, and its kind of scary to see where things are going to go. Things are either gonna have to level out or go back down. Gas is the biggest thing. We can't operate without fuel, and thats the biggest expense of being in a touring band. Its pretty crazy. When you break it all down and you see that gas is eating a huge portion of your money, and you're paying for your merch, so basically half of that is what you're actually making. Then everything else gets chopped. You've got an agent fee of 10% and a lawyer's fee of 10% and a manager's fee of 15%, so whats left? Its getting harder, but we'll have to see what happens. We'll have to see if things get to a better point, or maybe things change form. If we can get a better resource for fuel, than it won't be a big issue anymore. Its not gonna happen anytime soon, but we'll see. The summer is the worst time for gas, which is crazy cause we're gonna be out all summer on Warped Tour. For two months, we're gonna be eating out of our pockets pounding fuel.
PL: Are you gonna be getting a bus?
JL: Yeah, so its gonna be worse.
PL: Are you sharing the bus?
JL: We're getting a mini bus, basically, which only has six bunks instead of twelve. We only have six people, and honestly, I'd rather not share with another band if we can avoid it. We've done it in the past and it hasn't worked well.
PL: Do you have to pay for your own gas?
JL: Oh yeah. That all comes out of the band. Usually major labels pay for the gas, but we're not fortunate enough for that.
PL: Whats a little known fact about Los Angeles?
JL: One thing about LA is that there's no really good public transportation at all. That forces everybody to have cars, and thats why the roads are always so jam packed. In that sense, its kind of a Catch 22 because there's not enough room to make a public transportation system because everything is already built around itself. If you tie up the freeway to construct new things, you'll make it all worse for however long that takes, and we can't have subways because we have earthquakes. We have one subway thats very short, but thats something we have to shy away from because of the earthquakes. I don't think anything's gonna change any time soon because there's always more and more cars on the road as years go by.
PL: Maybe there won't be if gas keeps going up.
JL: Things might change form in Los Angeles. Less and less people might be able to afford having a car. You don't really think about it because most people have already lived through this huge escalation of prices that you don't think of how much its costsing you to run to the market. I remember a time when gas was $.99. Living through that, you don't notice that you're spending more and more money every time you fill up the tank. Especially being in a band. Our van used to cost $60 to fill up the tank every time. A couple years ago, once it started to escalate, we were paying $80 to fill up the tank, and now we're lucky if we can fill up for $100. When you're only getting 260 miles to the gallon to a tank of gas, you're eating up a lot of gas.
PL: Name one album, besides your own, that you think all people should have in your collection.
JL: Workers Playtime by Billy Bragg. One of my favorite albums of all time. Its got so many great songs. I'm gonna go see him on my birthday. He's playing in Los Angeles on June 10, so I'm pretty excited.
PL: Without music, you would be...
JL: I think I'd be a pretty boring person, because I can't live without it. Even if I didn't play music anymore, I'd have to be a part of it in some way.