An Interview with Curtis, Mark and Cat of LA Rock Band,

that took place in The Rainbow Bar & Grille, Hollywood, CA, on Tuesday, 10th November 2010.

Interviewed by Glenn Milligan.

(Left to Right - Mark, Me, Curtis & Cat)

Glenn: What would you say your major influences are?

Cat: Well it's pretty obvious that AC/DC's an influence. Motorhead is probably right up there and the Ramones,

Mark: Led Zeppelin

Cat: Led Zeppelin yeah.

Mark: Kiss

Cat: Kiss

Mark: Aerosmith.

Cat: Yeah Aerosmith - a little bit of Bluesy stuff.

Glenn: How did you guys meet?

Cat: Well I guess Andy and I met at Guitar Centre - we both work there and we hang out and we jam and stuff. Make a lot of noise in the guitar part. I guess he hooked up with Curtis some time and they Andy called me and invited me over to lay down some bass tracks on some recordings he was working on and I was like, "Sure", and it just kinda gelled together and everything fit. We found Mark and everything just came together. We've been together for four years.

Glenn: And I guess you all get on really well - the chemistry is right and you hang out socially as well?

Cat: Yeah we do. We're like any other band. It's like a marriage. Yeah - we throw kittens out the window every once in a while and fight.

Glenn: Because TV's are too expensive.

Cat: Yeah much too expensive. But we all get along really great and we travel well together.

Mark: That's a good thing - can you imagine being in a van or an aeroplane with somebody - you have to have that tolerance level. Damn he just farted again on the aeroplane.

Cat: He farts constantly.

Mark: I used to but I cut my diet down

(Everyone laughs)

Cat: You get to find out who snores, who farts..

Mark: That's true yeah. We actually have two early birds in the band and 2 that are night owls. We figured that really quick and these guys stay up until 5 or 6 in the morning. I am up at 5 or 6 in the morning.

Cat: These guys are early birds but I don't know how they fit into being in a rock band but whatever.

Mark: It's called 'Od School Work Ethic'.

Curtis: We sleep in shifts too. When we're on the road we sleep in shifts. Mark & I will usually get up early and go around and bop around the city in whatever town we happen to be in. Then we'll come back and the shift takes over.

Glenn: The night shift?

Curtis: The night shift takes over.

Cat: Me and Andy are the night shift and go on and do the fun stuff while these guys take care of business in the morning.

Glenn: Yeah. We must apologise for the night shift.

Cat: Yeah - let the day shift do the ground work and we'll go out and have the fun.

Glenn: Now the Toilet Story (that was mentioned earlier).

Mark: Last night I had a dream - For some reason in my dream I had to go to the bathroom for a poo okay. But the toilets weren't regular toilets - they were at a 45 degree angle and I looked at this, and you know, like what am I gonna do - there were 2 people sitting there. I needed to take a dump in that toilet - do you straddle? do you turn around? What do you do?

And I went up to lift up the lift and and to say there was a lot of dookie on the inside lid - it was pretty bad. Well if you follow anything in the dream interpretations - it means money - sh*t means money. Today I went into my regular lottery store because I play lottery and I check my tickets and I win $104 dollars. So our dinner and drinks are on me tonight. (Laughs).

Cat: Well that story didn't sound too sh*tty.

Mark: Haha - that's right. I sanitised so it didnt sound too bad.

Glenn: Well sh*t floats and so does money.

Mark: That's right you know. I'd say it was a good dream. I woke up and kinda blew it off and then I went to check my tickets and sure enough. I'll take that hundred bucks!

Glenn: And the sh*t was blown all over the place.

Mark: Well the sh*t was done by other people and already there.

Glenn: How do you follow that or follow through on that I should say?

Mark: Yeah - good question.

Cat: You gotta make sure the paperworks done.

Mark: There you go. Yeah the paperwork.

Cat: The order ain't complete til the paperwork is finished.

Glenn: We'll get some sound effects going later.

Mark: Yeah - we'll clear the bar.

Cat: He's got to be one of the most flatulent m*therf*ck*rs I've ever met in my life. I mean, he can eat a piece of celery. (does a fart sound)

Mark: Oh yeah - a hundred and twenty farts in 8 hours!!

June: Who counted them?

(Left to right Mark, June, Curtis & Cat)

Mark: My friend Antonio, we were working - the customer decided to come back home and all she smelt was...

Curtis: Is this really what you wanna talk about?

Mark: I mean, you gotta know what's going on - I mean the drummer's got gas! So he counted every single one of 'em.

Glenn: It's like Spinal Tap when the last drummer blew up.

Mark: He just kinda blew up and you gotta let it go - you can't hold it too much! We better go onto the next question, Curtis is becoming embarrassed.

Glenn: What were your best gigs and where were they?

Cat: They're sh*tty.

Glenn: You've played in some toilets?

Curtis: That was a place at, believe it or not called 'The Gig' on Melrose in Hollywood - it doesn't exist anymore. It was a toilet but it was a good place. It was a good happening scene over there - there's not a lot of places but there are places. We've played The Roxy, The Viper Room, The Whisky, Club Vodka, The Key Club, The Knitting Factory, The Cat Club, The Gig, The Joint, where else? We;ve played virtually every club you could ever play at in LA without a doubt. LA Crowds, you know, they're cool.

Glenn: Do you have a certain amount of people you have that come to your gigs?

Curtis: Yeah, you know last time we played Key Club there was about 300.

Glenn: Just for you guys?

Curtis: Well we'd like to think so but we like to get outta town and do shows. I mean we just came back from New York and it was off the chain - it was definately off the chain. New York Crowds are a lot differnent than LA crowds and for us just coming out there, I was like going, "Wow". The clubs are small. Most of 'em are intmate but they just get packed with people and they are very energetic. They're not just staring at you, they are moving and shaking to the music.

Glenn: It was like that for Rhinobucket last night at The Viper Room.

Curtis: Yeah The Viper Room's a pretty good venue. We played there when one of their bands play when they call up once oer twice every month. The sound system is really good there. It's nice becauise you don't have to move any gear in backline. The crowds are generally pretty good there.

Glenn: Where did the name Snew come from?

Mark: Ahhh - that's a Curtis question.

Curtis: We have no idea. It fell out of the sky. I don't know how to give you an honest answer - I wanna give you an honest answer. It really fell fell the sky totally by accident. Usually I don't spill my guys on it but I am going to now on how we got the name. No I'm not it's a secret.

Glenn: What other names did you have coming around in the air and why did you throw them out?

Curtis: None. That was it. When that name came about it was like 'Name Of The Band'.

Mark: Yeah.

Cat: We wanted Kiss or something but they were already taken.

(Mark laughs)

Glenn: Well it'd sell more tickets until the people found out it was a bunch of guys form LA - yeah makes sense. What's your thoughts of LA from a social point of view for you guys as I am from Sheffield and think it's just buzzing, but I guess it's different for you as you live here?

Mark: I went to Spain recently. Interesting crowd - the rocking people are different but New York - that was really where we had a good time. You live here and like people say, "Oh, you've just won a trip to Hollywood, California". It's like, God why would I wanna go there it's an armpit. But you know it's like on the other hand, we go to New York and people go, "God, why would they wanna come here?". But really I just think it boils down to getting some fresh blood, meeting new people - that's they key because you know the freeway systems.

You go somewhere and we're in the process of writing a new song called 'Snew York' right now. It's about our experiences beyond the subway and the hustle and bustle of everything. So I think it's great that when you get out there you get a different perspective and it re-energises and re-invigorates your thing. So you're like trudging along, "Well I know this part of LA, I know this restaurant or this place". It's like going out with your blinders on and you don't know what's gonna happen you know, so it's perfect. We can't wait to get to Europe - haha - England and all those places is where we wanna go.

Glenn: You not been to the UK?

Mark: Not yet, not yet.

Curtis: I'd love to get back to the UK. I love London. London is such a cool city. It's great. We're dying to get out. We get requests all the time from all over Europe. Europe and Canada, Asia, I mean, especially Europe. UK and Germany are like two of our biggest and Spain. In terms of like, When are you coming out here? I wanna make it happen. We need to find a European booking agent. We don't have a clue how to put this thing together. We gotta make it happen. Hopefully 2011 will be the year we get over to Europe.

Mark: We got passports. Everything's ready to go and getting over and playing a crowd like that.. We have a friend that's in a band, he's from France and they open and they do 10,000 people and it's amazing that you got all these people so enthused about music. So we gotta get to Europe. We're ready.

Cat: My bags are packed and ready to go. My bag is always packed and sitting by the door. I'm ready to go at a moments notice - Let's Go!

Glenn: Or is that just the fear of your landlord throwing you out or something?

Mark: Hahahaha - Landlord - there ya go!

Cat: I am a landlord.

Mark: Oh man.

Glenn: I dropped myself in it there didn't I? - oh no worries.

Mark: HA HA HA HA.

Cat: I can always throw myelf out.

Mark: There you go - you're fired!

Glenn: What songs are you most proud of so far that you've written?

Cat: All of 'em - every one of our songs.

Mark: Yeah.

Cat: We all write everything together. It's all like really a true team effort camaraderie. I mean, we work together well as a team and it shows in our music. So every single one of our songs we are proud of.

Mark: I'd have to say that if I were gonna pick out anything it would have to be 'Snew You' because it just stands for everything that we're about. Not musically so much but it's like that's who we are. So you know, we put all our energy and who we are into one song and it represents us better than anything we could possibly ever do. So I'd say yeah - 'Snew You' just because it's the message but musically I can't pick a favourite.

Glenn: Because they are all your babies - your children?

Mark: Yeah. Yeah I mean the thing about this band, we won't put anything on a record that we won't feel is like as good as anything else. We've tossed out plenty of ideas... like it's good but is it up to the rest of what we've done? No. It had to go so...

Cat: We're pretty hard on ourselves. I mean we have a bar set and a certain level of professional creativity and if we don't like it we won't do it. It's like, 'We Do What We Want'. If it's not good we are not gonna do it because we don't wanna do it.

Mark: I gotta add something in on this too - it's kinda funny to see people's reactions because a lot of people have like their own favourites. A song you would think like, 'Oh everyone loves this song', everyones got their own favourites you know?

Glenn: Yeah.

Mark: It could be 'Powerpack' - like guys are saying, "That's a great song", but then they like other songs. They like 'Shinebox' or stuff like that you know? It's pretty amazing to see the different taste that people have in our music which is great. I think we really try to write the best album that we can do and it's not just 1 good song - they're all great songs to listen to - and you can't just go, which ones do I pick? which one's my favourite - that's the way we kind of look at it.

Glenn: Do you all come from this area or do you come from other parts and just drawn to LA?

Mark: Well the three of us are (from LA). Andy's from Luxemburg. Andy's got a cold so he couldn't make it tonight but he speaks 4 languages.It helps the band out too because..

Cat: It keeps us out of trouble and jail.

Mark: Yeah - you go to Europe and we'll be able to like communicate with other people even though we may not be able to speak the language. Thank goodness he can speak 4 languages.

Cat: He'll keep us getting laid and outta jail.

Mark: Yeah. Hahahahaha.

Cat: What you say? Oh really cool - I'll be back at the hotel tomorrow.

Mark laughs again.

Glenn: How did you get involved in the 'Benefit for the Junior Blind of America'?

Mark: Curtis and I did that show. It ended up.. a friend of ours - a mutual friend is a guitar player. His girlfriend is big on benefits. She's got some pretty high profile clients and people like that and I think it's very important when you are blessed with whatever you might be in your life to always give back to the community or to someone who may not have the same things that you may have or whatever.

So we did the show and it was amazing because everybody has all these amazing crazy different schedules and we literally had, what was it? six people up there, people on stage, I've forgot. We were like freaked, "Are we gonna be able to do all these songs and remember them?". We got up there and thank goodness the night went really well. A couple of fluffs here and there but hey, it's live rock 'n' roll and I think that's the way it's supposed to be. It's not supposed to be all polished and perfect - it's supposed to be just a wall of guts and energy sticking out.

The crowd loved it and I think it's important, you know, when you're supporting people like that. I went through a similar situation, I had somebody, my grandmother who was heavy macular degeneration. She lost her sight but still stayed at home - 10 to 12 years and she did on her own with no help. She had people coming to bring her food or whatever but she knew where everything was at in that house and she was that older school generation.

She was, "I'm not going to a home and I don't need your help, I'm doing this on my own". It's great to see that kind of indelible spirit in somebody because I knew that she was very frustrated but I think they're making some great advances and I'm really hoping that a lot of these things that we see out there today will find, you know, science will help us out and we'll get cures for all these problems that are ailing our communities in our worlds.

Glenn: Yeah when it happens to someone in your family, it means a lot more doesn't it?

Mark: Yeah. When you've actaully seen it or you have to deal with it a lot of people don't realise. It's like, "Oh that'll never happen to me" or you get put in these situations in life and you really realise that what is gonna build your character as a person and how that affects you. It may not directly affect you but it will be something down the road that you can draw from and go, "You know what, I understand that person's experience so you try to help others and I think that's the most important thing.

Glenn: Would you like to play a venue like Download at Donington in the UK?

Mark: That would be aweseome. That would probably be a very pinnacle - is to play like Donington or some of these other festivals that I hear about and I see. Wow I just wanna get up there and do the same thing. I mean that would be the nervous moment getting up in fron tof that many people. A few thousand people is cool but when you're up in front of that many people and that many eyeballs are staring at you, you know, that would be like...

Glenn: Yeah this is the festival that AC/DC have headlined this year.

Mark: That's what I've been preparing my whole life for - standing in front of 20,000 people. We can be ready in 5 hours to go to Europe. We are ready to go so call us, e-mail us. We are itchn'.

Cat: We got that itch that never goes away.

Mark: That'll be crabs.

Glenn: What bands do you listen to beforehand or what do you do to get worked up for a show?

Curtis: Oh man, the minute I know I've got a show.. I mean, that's what I live for. It's my favourite thing in life and being on stage. There's nothing else like it so I'm prepared the minute I know I've got a gig. But what do I do - I sing a little bit. I put on some of my favourite metal tunes and sing along - Judas Priest or Kiss or whatever, you know - just really high energy stuff to kinda get me i amped up and put me on stage. I am always ready. I would never turn down a gig for anything in life. It is my favourite thing to do so yeah - just sing along to some of my favourite metal tunes is all I need to do, you know, about an hour before a show - there ya go.

Glenn: What about you guys (to Cat and Mark), what gets you vibed up and ready for a show?

Cat: Hot chicks.

Mark: You know what, I think that the best part of it is just the excitement. You kinda prep everything and then you get to that moment and you know you got 5 minutes to go on. That's gotta be like the epiphany moment of like, 'OK now we gotta go up there and bring our A game' and boy we better bring it because you know what, generally with the rock audiences you get one shot you know and they can generally be forgiving too you know. There is those nights when you're not gonna be 100% - you definitely gotta bring it as much as you can.

But I think what really gets me off is when the audience is into it because a lot of times you are playing the drums and you can't really see past that because you've got all the lights glaring down, so you might even see just a few faces or barely up in front and you can't see everything else and I always ask the guys, I'm all, "How was the audience response?", and as long as I hear the applause at the end of the song and I always make sure 110% and just play my *ss off and the whole band is the same way. It's a whole unit thing. I gotta tell you, playing a show is basically better than sex if it's a great show. If it's an off the charge type of show, I walk away from the show and go, "Ahh, it just felt great".

Glenn: And it lasted longer.

Mark: And it lasted longer.

Cat: You don't get any dramatic texts or b*llsh*t the next morning.

Mark: No.

Cat: And you know you're not gonna get crabs.

(We all laugh).

Mark: He stole my line - damn. Curtis is going, "Oh My God".

Glenn: How the hell do you keep your voice in trim as it's so full on? (To Curtis)

Curtis: I've been doing this forever so whatever it is, whatever that thing is inside me that... I release it and that's what comes out. I can't say that I've got any special techniques that I use. I just let it out. I think that... if you want my opinion about it, it's just through watching other musicians and singers and all that - the ones that have no consciousness or self-consciousness about what they are doing are the ones we all love the most. I saw that early on when you are watching some of your favourite singers and guitar players and drummers anything.. that grab the audience - the ones that I've always responded to. Once you can tell they've got no concept of anything but what they're doing in that moment, they are just releasing it and that things just sort of resonated with me early on when I was a kid daydreaming about,'What would it be like to be in a band?', and when I got the chance to sing, I just like... let it out.

Glenn: Do you just view it that that is your job?

Curtis: Yeah.

Glenn: It's like you can't say you are gonna be a performer, it's either in you or its not.

Curtis: Right. So I really don't know how to answer you - I just let loose.

Cat: And he does - he lets loose.

Glenn: I thought that was Mark's job?

Mark: Yeah that's my job.

Glenn: What would you say some of your best road stories have been so far?

Cat: I can't tell you about 'em.

Mark: Actually I do have a good one.

Cat: The crabs?

Mark: No. No and it wasn't the dump you took at the nasty truck stop.

Cat: That was a good one.

Mark: Yeah. I gotta say the best one was..

Cat: That was a triple scooper.

Mark: Haha.

Cat: A triple scooper pooper.

Mark: Terrible. So I gotta say the best one I think was at night and we were going through Nebraska...

Cat: Oh yeah. You gotta tell him that one.

Mark: ...And Curtis was driving and a cop pulls us over. Now you know the truck is in good shape - everythings cool but the U-Haul, the back tail-lights weren't working. So she's really nice you know, "The reason I pulled you over and everything". So she's like, "Well look, you can't be driving with these lights. Someone could crash into you or whatever. The next 5 miles there's a truck stop up there. So we ended up going to the truck stop.

We met a really cool guy - I don't remember his name - he played in a band and there was actually a mechanic there too. He checked the wiring - he couldn't get it to work so we freaked out. You know we gotta keep pushing on. So we went into the big service area there and I got the idea. I'm gonna take two flashlights. I pulled a McGuyver - I don't know if you guys know who McGuyver is - he's the guy who always comes up with the last minute fix right?

I grabbed the two flash lights, some duct tape and they had the red lens caps and I just looked at the size and I sized it up and goes,"That looks like it'll fit, put those on the flash lights". It's got 2 big packages of D batteries and duct taped it on there, duct taped it onto the back of the truck and off down the road we went and you know, we didn't get pulled again but we got pictures of that so I gotta say it's pretty cool. Most guys'd be like, "What are we gonna do, we gonna gonna wait till morning?", No, no no - Snew soldiers on, Snew soldiers on all the time. Alway gotta.

Glenn: I thought you were gonna say you all got laid with a female copper or something.

Mark: Oh she was hot - don't get me wrong - she was actually a great looking chick and Curtis will tell ya.

Curtis: Oh she was hot. Yeah Mark was like freaking out. He was, "Oh my god, it's a copper" and I was like, "Let me handle things". So I got into the cop car with her and I kind of, I messed with her a little bit - let's leave it at that. Yeah she was great. She followed us to the next stop and everything was cool.

Cat: Curtis was driving and so we figured since he got pulled over, we'd let him go 1st.

(We all laugh)

Glenn: Get that vision out my head.

Cat: We got 7/11 too.

Mark: Ha - 7/11.

Glenn: What would you say your favourite supports have been as a support band or as a headliner when supports have supported you?

Curtis: We did a show with 'Little Ceasar' about a month ago and that was a pretty good show.

Cat: Yeah.

Mark: They're a great band by the way. Early 90's when they were here in LA, you know I went and saw them a ton of times - bands lie Love/Hate, L.A. Guns, Guns 'N' Roses for instance - All bands that were on the scene at the time. With Little Caesar, they were meant to be the next big thing. They weren't. The record label kinda screwed 'em. Seventeen years later they started playing again and they played a kick-*ss show and I was just so glad to see that band.

Cat: That was a great show.

Mark: That was a great show.

Cat: That was a really good show that sticks in my mind anyway.

Mark: Yeah. And we'd love to open for whoever as I said, it's like if it's in the same genre and the audience is diggin' it that's all we care about. We just wanna get up there and play for the fans and I think that's really what says it all.

Glenn: Yeah.

Mark: Yeah.

Glenn: What would yo say the favourite videos are that you have made?

Mark: Well our favourite video has gotta be 'Feedback And Distortion' - it's got our fans and friends at porters just playing air guitar and yeah - we barely make an appearance in that video. Like little ghostly images at most - it's like all our friends and fans and it's just awesome. Well 1st we were like... we played the song a few times before we recorded it and it wound up on the album. It just had that sort of air guitar vibe.

We got your air guitar and people were doing it at the show. So I thought, 'We'll have to do this for the video', so I asked around and we were kinda wondering, 'Is this gonna be kind of ok - you know people playing air guitar. We got all these videos coming in of people who were just dying to do it and it was just so cool. People were just like letting loose amd going crazy and it was just like the funniest thing I've ever seen for a video for a song and it's for our song. I love it. That's gotta be my favourite.

Glenn: How did the video come about for '(She's a Real) Gunslinger' as I was watching that?

Mark: Ahh - we got to know the girls over at Camela Turn's Place and err yeah - If you've seen that or 'Got Love' or 'Drop The Guns'; 'Head Trauma' - Giselle from Camela Turns - she did that. That was just her but the Gunslinger one with the girl with the cake.

Cat: Yeah - that's a good one. We have an uncensored version of that one.

Glenn: Which one of you guys made the cake then?

Cat: Oh well we all made her cake - oh scuse me.

Mark: Hahaha. I whipped her..

Cat: We share.

Mark: There ya go.

Cat: That was her.

Mark: She baked that cake and it was all her idea from her head and we said, "Go for it babe'.

Cat: We freaked out. It was good.

Mark: Yeah.

Cat: It was good.

Glenn: What would you say an ideal night in or an ideal night out is for 'Snew'?

Cat: Playing a big show. New York was a great night out for us. The Las Vegas shows were a great night out for us. I mean anytime that 'Snew' is out - it's a great night.

Glenn: What about when you're not out, do you just like chill out, play music and stuff and watch videos?

Cat: We're all working working professional musicians. Like tonight we're going to a jam and stuff. There's a lot of jam sessions that we go to just to keep our tools sharpened up. We all like to be in the scene and play. Keep our chops down.

Glenn: Yeah. What would you say the most rock thing you've done, how did it go and how did you pull it off - for example like what Led Zeppelin did with throwing tv's out of hotel windows etc?

Cat: You can't get away with that sh*t anymore.

Mark: Hahaha - they'd lock you up.

Cat: We'd love to but sh*t. You know what it'd cost you now. I mean those tv's and all that other stuff plus you'd be arrested.

Mark: You can't be a rocker anymore the way those guys could.

Cat: If you go back in time and live the life back in the 70's that would be one reason to have a time machine.

Glenn: I hate the way that they've changed the name of the Riot House to Chateau Maumont or whatever..

Cat: God if we could be just back.. I mean here we are at The Rainbow where all of those guys used to hang out. I mean there's lots of notorious stories about what happened in this town back in those days. A lot of them started right here at The Rainbow. But hey, I mean you got a lot of guys that still hang out like Lemmy. I don't know if we can have as much fun as they did back then. We can still have fun on stage so I wish I had more of an exciting intern. Just go out there and use your imagination.

Glenn: What songs have you got ready for the new album?

Curtis: Ahh well we got half the album written at this point and we're still polishing up a lot of new ideas. I don't knowif I wanna give anything away at this point. But it'll be more... more Snew. I mean we're not planning to drastically take a left turn on you or anything. Just more of the same and hopefully a little bit new and improved Snew. Well I don't know about new and improved new but Snew - I don't know - can we improve upon ourselves.

Mark: I think we can.

Curtis: Yeah. Oh we'll see, we'll see. Just more Snew madness. The 1st album we did, we approached it, we wanted something really raw almost kinda garage bandy. The 2nd album was a lot more polished. This album we're not gonna tell ya what we're gonna do. We'll find out.

Glenn: We'll find out when we get to listen to it.

Curtis: Yeah - we'll find out. I mean a lot of things do happen in the studio. You go in with ideas but when your there. You know like with the last album working with Ed Cherney and our long-time Producer Bobby. Getting those 2 guys in the room together helped us look at it in a slightly different perspective and take the album not away from who we are but kinda add a vibe that didn't exist on the 1st one. We're hoping to do the same thing for the 3rd one so it's not a duplicate of the last 2. It's us but in a slightly new light i guess so I don't know what's gonna happen.

Glenn: Does it take you long to get things together for the writing process or do you write when you feel like it?

Curtis: Well you know, you can't force inspiration. It happens when it happens. That's kinda like that way for every song that's ever written. Pure serendipity - we just like fall into it or sometimes we'll come up with a riff and we'll call each other on the phone play it over the phone and go like, "What do you think about this?" or "What do you think about this" and then we'll get into the studio and it falls together. The pieces just fall together - the pieces just fall together exactly where they should be.

Glenn: I mean you can't say how long it takes to put and album together.

Curtis: Well it takes a lot of time to put an album together. A lot of work. We just don't throw things together. It takes a lot and then an album from start to finish it takes quite a while to do. But I mean, the writing process takes time and then the recording naturally takes time and mixing seems to take almost as long as the recording and the writing because we want things to be, you know, up to...

Mark: Great standards.

Curtis: Yeah great standards, thank you very much.

Glenn: It's amazing to think that I got sent the 2nd album 'We Do What We Want' from one of the PR firms in the UK and here we all are talking away in The Rainbow, LA.

Curtis: Being independent is something that we are actually really proud of. We haven't really been bounded or determined to sign to with a label. With the industry with how it is right now, it's kind of.. well sort of confusing out there. Nobody knows what the hell they are doing, the labels are kinda like most of 'em have gone away, gobbled up by the big ones. You got maybe like what, 3 companies that own everything. I don't like that man and it's not really what Snew is about. That giant corporate, conglomeration thing gobbling everything up.

We kinda said, "We're gonna do this, like the album, 'W do what we want'. It's kind of the scene of this whole band. We're kind of actually really proud of the fact that we're able to doing this without any label of any kind. Now I mean a lot of bands are independent but they have some sort of psuedo record label, it may be a national record label or it maybe just a made up name to make it look like they are on a label. Look at our album and on the spine it just says, 'Snewyou.com' . We don't even wanna give the impression that we are on a label and that's purely by choice.

Glenn: And you are in control?

Curtis: The fans are the backbone and the people in our organisation are a family but we also treat it like a business and we approach every album with the same intention that a major label would intend for us to do. So we pick out the best studios and we work with top people. So we want the product to be exactly the same as it would be if we were with Warner Brothers or whoever. We've got integrity on that hand and we like being totally independent. Whether or not we'll be able to do that forever, I don't know. Maybe things will change and we find some people that'll give us the kind of support that we give ourselves. At that point maybe we will go with somebody but until then we are really, really happy just doing it ourselves.

Glenn: Yeah.

Curtis: Yeah.

Glenn: Have you ever had plans to bring out a DVD or a book about what's new with Snew or something?

Curtis: A book. I haven't even thought about a book.

Cat: We are actually featured on one of Bobby Owsinski's recording books so you can see us in some literature but yeah, as far as videos and books - that's be great.A kind of book - well we's have to be care of what we print. We're not really done writing the pages of the book yet. We're still kind of at the table of contents.

Glenn: Yeah.

Cat: Getting ready to opening up to the 1st chapter.

Curtis: DVD's thought - that's a good idea. We've been asked before if you guys could put out a DVD. When we collect enough videos that we feel would make up a really great DVD we'll do it.

Glenn: Yep. Awsome. Look forward to it.

Curtis: I mean we've got a lot of videos - you've seen all our youtube stuff but I think what we should do is really document a live show really well and maybe get some great behind the scenes stuff. We've got a lot video from the album when we were in the studio recording 'We Do What We Want' - a lot of footage from that. Yeah - I don't know - you got me thinking now.

Glenn: Well you can ask the fans what they want.

Curtis: Yeah - well if there's a demand, we'll give it to 'em.

Glenn: What would you like to leave as a legacy as a band?

Mark: A smell (back to the farting again)

Curtis: As part of the legacy?

Glenn: Yeah.

Curtis: Just a bunch of people that liked to rock, have a great time. The message is on the album 'We Do What We Want' - that's the way that we want everybody to be. There's too much bother about political correctness, lean to the left, lean to the right, toe the party line, living up to certain expectations. 'We Do What We Want' because that's when things get done when people forget about when people forget what they're supposed to do and do the thing that they want to do.

Glenn: Yep. Thanks guys - that's a good one to end it on.

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