Did you guys have an off day today? Shaun Morgan: No, actually we played today, it's called Laser Fest in Des Moines, weird people out here in Iowa Well, you got to play for the hicks SM: (laughing) Yeah, I hadn't figured that out yet (laughing) (laughing) Did you see when you were driving in the tumbleweed? SM: Yeah, I'm sure I saw a couple of kangaroos out in the field (laughing) (laughing) So, is there a good crowd today though? SM: Hum....yeah....they're more into the heavy shit ya know cause no one knows who we are except for one song, they were really eating up Rob Zombie and Cory from Slipknot, his new band did well. The girls here are real easy to convince to show their boobs Well, ya know, they don't get too many musicians out there SM: We didn't even have to fuckin say anything, it was just like...bam... I was like, I fuckin lost, it was ridiculous (laughing) (laughing) We had two girls wrestling each other with their tops off in the crowd, that's when I realized we're in hicksville Yes. At least you guys had some entertainment on stage (laughing) Yeah The first question I have for you is Nick in your band as a touring musician or have you guys gained him as an actual member? SM: The guitarist or the drummer? The guitarist SM: Yeah, the guitarist is just used as a touring guide Was he a friend of yours or where did you find him? SM: Hm...we were kind of strong-armed into making a decision that we needed a guitarist, so we auditioned while we were still living in LA, yeah we went through fifteen guitarist and we chose Nick. Do you think in the future you'll have him as an actual member or are you guys happy with just the three piece? SM: Hm....we as a band are happy as a three piece, the kid makes like a real cool guitarist and everything but it's like I'm biased toward that for the fact that I played in a three piece band for three years, then I got told that I need another guitarist but he's cool, personally we'll get to the point where he'll join the band. So this is almost like a try out for him? SM: Yeah, he gets to play Ozzfest and we've already driven to thirty states and I think the furthest he every went, he lives in Burbank and the furthest he went was Santa Rosa or something so the kid gets to see the great American white hope. Were you born and raised in South Africa? SM: Yeah So, was there a huge culture shock when you can to the States? SM: Hm....not really, we grew up watching American shows and the music since the early nineties. We feel we're part of the culture because we're pretty westernized in that sense, we listen to the same bands, we just feel like the lost state of American that nobody knew there was. Basically, what I've figured out, after being through the South and the Midwest and shit, it's exactly the same as we have in the Midwest of our country. All right All these fuckin inbreeders and shit (laughing) They all wear like stupid clothing and shit and it's exactly the same except Americans are ya know a whole bunch bigger (laughing) (laughing) OK It's exactly the same as home otherwise (laughing) All right, when did you guys actually move to the States? SM: We came over on the seventh of January, so we've been here about, I think, it's eight months now. Ah...so you guys are still pretty new to it? SM: Yeah, yeah Did you fly right to LA? SM: No, the original plan was we were going to be living in Manhattan, which was so stupid because it's so expensive there, it's like yeah we're a band earning no money, let's live in Manhattan Right SM: We stayed there for about a month and a half and we did all the preproductions on the album and then we flew out to LA to do the album, basically when we finished there, we did the album, it took three months, we got to go home for a week, end of April, early May then we came back. So, we've been in LA until the tour which started a month ago or a month and a half ago, we lived in LA but now we live on our little RV thing You guys are in an RV? SM: Yeah, cause ya know, it's like baby van thing, we're like the only band at Ozzfest in an RV (laughing) that sucks Ohhhh well soon enough (laughing) Only kidding. We got six of us in the RV which is just how many it sleeps for now but we're getting another tech and hopefully a driver too, so we're going to have to get something bigger, it all depends on the record company. Well I am sure that they are going to help you out because I was telling Bobby last night, your song, your single on Boston radio gets played every hour on the hour. (laughing) Cool And ya know what, I'm kind of sick of it already (laughing) (laughing) I mean I love the rest of the album, but that song I have to skip every time I come to it because I'm sick of it. (laughing) Radio's real good at killing some things (laughing) Yep. You were saying when your playing on Ozzfest not too many people know you guys but they know the single? SM: I was kind of intimidated to play the single the first couple of days of Ozzfest because everyone else is like gragragra (saying this in a screaming voice) and we're like hey we actually sing, how about that (laughing) so I was a little worried about it so we didn't play for a couple of days, then we played it the other day and it went down, so we're going to be changing the whole set tomorrow, I got to the point hey fuck it man, we're going to play what we play and if people don't like it, then whatever. It's like we're playing all the heavy stuff on the album, it's all good but it doesn't make us any different from anyone else. When we played the single today, it went down well, people liked it, so that was cool. Awesome OK. I know through the album you have put down in lyrics in your music a lot of experiences that you went through? SM: Yeah How hard was that to actually put down those words and have to sing this to millions of people? SM: It's real hard when people don't take the fuckin time to notice what I'm trying to say or they don't understand, they're listening to how heavy the guitars are or whatever. Ya know when we were in the studio doing those songs and getting the lyrics down, I was too worried about what people would think about them but then I just got to a point where well ya know what I'm doing this for me anyway so....it's cool for me.....I need to get that shit out of my system cause it helps me get rid of it, ya know. So, it's almost like a therapy for you? SM: Yeah, I mean, it's definitely therapeutic because I don't make up anything because that would make me feel like I'm singing someone else's song. There is a story behind every song, I could go and tell you about them but that's not, I don't feel comfortable doing that kind of thing. OK. Is there just one song though that is so emotional that it's hard for you to do or are you happy doing all of them at a live setting? SM: Hm....it all depends from day to day, depending on what kind of mood you wake up in, FINE AGAIN is always a hard one to play cause it's like, as much as it is a positive kind of song where it came from wasn't that positive. The angry songs are easy to play because that's getting that shit out of your system. It's the more chilled out stuff on our album that's kind of hard to do. Well, I have to tell you that I love BROKEN SM: Oh cool And I like FUCK IT too! SM: (laughing) I think those are everyone in the band's favorite songs Really? No, I could listen to those last two songs over and over and over again, I just love them. SM: (laughing) That's cool I know that you keep up with all the message board on the website SM: Yeah and there a lot of kids that write to you with stories and stuff, were you hoping when you wrote the record that you would get that response from kids? SM: I wasn't hoping for a response like that, I was just hoping I would be doing that and giving kids as much as the song gives me, hoped to be given that to someone else, ya know. My whole thing is, I'm doing this so I can leave something behind and not become another number or another statistic that disappears because that was what I was told I would always be. So, it's like cool, when I read those stories I don't really know how to respond to those kids because it's like man, first of all sometimes I think they might be bullshitting me but other times if it is legitimate and they're being honest with me, it's like what can I say that's going to make, I could sit there and say thank you, thank you, thank you for a whole page but it's like I don't know what to say to them or how, cause it catches me off guard every time, as much as that's my ambition and that's why I'm doing this, it's like on the other hand, it totally freaks me out when someone does that. So are there a lot of kids writing wanting your response, wanting your advise? SM: Ya know, if someone is saying dude thanks for saving my life, I'm compelled to write something back, so I get caught in this struggle, like should I write back, because if I don't write back they might think I don't give a shit. I mean, people are like that especially when, I mean, I write everyone so if I see something, when I get time to write back the people I can and as many questions and then if I don't write to these kids that are saying man you just saved me from blowing my head off so then I sit there going how am I going to say thank you without sounding like I don't give a shit and without sounding like too grateful or whatever, so I get into this whole struggle about it. So it stresses you out then? SM: Yeah, it stresses me out, it's like I'm glad I'm doing that but (laughing) dude, you don't have to tell me in such detail. (laughing) OK. How long have you been on Ozzfest now? SM: Today being the eighth, we done probably six shows on Ozzfest. Do you enjoy, I mean, is this like your first big like festival show? SM: Yeah, at home if we have a festival, it's a three day thing and you stay in one place and people come from all over the country to the festival. Here it's like, it's weird to be you finish the show, everybody packs up, the whole place breaks down and moves on to the next place. But you wake up everyday like oh shit, we're in the same place Right, your like a traveling circus SM: I mean, I'm totally having fun, I don't mind traveling. This is hard sometimes when you might go three days in a row when you haven't had time for shower. I mean, I've got a whole bag of dirty clothes that I haven't had time to wash yet Right, right SM: You gotta put that shit back on and walk through people and it's like pee-u... they stay away from ya (laughing) How is it playing so early in the morning? SM: Hm....that was interesting Yeah SM: Usually at ten o'clock in the morning, I'm still sleeping so the first place we played, I think it was a quarter to ten, we just got up and did it and it was like another show, ya know, it was cool to play it. I never really played any daytime shows until Ozzfest. At home we never played a daytime show, we might of played one in the three years we played there, so it's kind of difficult to adjust because you don't have the cool lights and you can't see what's going on with the pedals on the stage because the sun's blinding you, but yeah it's a trip. Every day we play later and every day the later we play, the drunker the crowd is so the more they go YaaaaaYaaaaa (the hissing sound of a large crowd)) (laughing) Were you on tour when the whole Drowning Pool thing went down, when Dave passed away? SM: Yeah, we had gone out with him the day before Really? What was your reaction to it? SM: When I was told, I couldn't believe it cause he was such a good person, his main thing at the festival was to have all the bands hang out and screw the bullshit of our band's heavier than yours, we're cooler than you, we sold so many, fuck it, we're all in the same industry, we all do the same thing, we should be hanging out and supporting each other and now that he's gone, as much as he was a friend, he was trying to pioneer a different kind of industry and now that he's gone man you can tell the whole thing sucks! It's like no one's hanging out with anyone else, except like the next couple of days everyone was like hey how you doing? But when DROWNING POOL got up on that stage, they fuckin changed the festival and they made it happen. It really is a great great loss for everyone, he had the biggest biggest heart you could ever imagine. So, you haven't seen any other bands coming to watch your set or anything? SM: Well, I mean, I think today we had the guys from The Used come and watch us play, I think our guitarist is a big fan and he's been watching themo them so they came and watched us today. We go watch other bands but generally it's so hot out there, you can't survive, if you stand out in the sun, your gonna be dying because kids have been dropping down from heat exhaustion all over the place. The ambulances are always busy dragging kids out of there. We had one day that it was raining and it was cool and I was out there the whole day cause I could deal with it. Generally, I go watch the band that I really really want to see, that I really appreciate their music, the rest of the time, it's like well, I've seen these guys before. Are you waiting until Ozzfest is done to maybe reunite with another band to like bond with them? SM: As far as I know, we're probably going to be doing another club tour, I don't know if anything has been confirmed yet, it's gonna be cool because it's one of our favorite bands that we will be playing with if it goes down. That kind of atmosphere seems to more conducive to bands getting along and bonding back stage, just the two of you every city and ya know and there's no one else to speak to, so you may as well speak to each other, I don't know. Are you guys doing anything special for your record release party or are you guys just going to be on Ozzfest? SM: Hm...that's Tuesday, so we'll probably play Ozzfest, we've got a show Wednesday which is like six hundred miles from the Tuesday's, so we'll be packing up and get on the RV and so because we don't have a driver, we've got the tech, he's loading our gear, he's setting up our stuff, we play and then he breaks it all down and then he drives, so unfortunatly we have to get out of there as soon as possible, we only have one guy driving, ya know. So, you guys will have a small party for yourselves and say hey the record's out? SM: The five of us or the six of us will sit on the RV and have a beer (laughing) (laughing) All right. In your video, who came up with the sign people? SM: It was the video director, Paul Shedder, it was his idea. He sent me the treatment and I was yeah that's cool, man and what he had done was he came up with a whole bunch of signs and then he picked random people and said they much choose one that they most relate to, so it was kind of cool to see what people came up with. The whole idea, he said it was the Scarlet Letter idea but the coolest thing about it is, I think in a way it's pushing the boundaries of what is MTV friendly because people don't like to think, they're like every fuckin Avril lavigne, aggggg....sorry...that shit fuckin hurts me man (laughing) Yeah, it's like MTV is all Brittany and Avril. I mean, the coolest part about our video is if you look at those things and what those people are holding up and what they have to say, it's going to make you think even if it's only one of those signs ya know. You know they have a whole web page now dedicated to sign people Yeah, peoplewithsigns.com, yeah SM: I think that's pretty cool It's cool because of the interactivity of it, people can go out there and put up their own sign and do their own thing. There's some interesting things that have come out which is cool. Have people come to your shows with signs? SM: (laughing) No, Not yet? SM: We had one girl at a Florida show who came out with a sign because she remembered us as Saron Gras, she had one just in our home language saying enjoy Ozzfest That's cool SM: Yeah, it was cool Is there anything you would like to add about your music or the band that no one has asked you that you would like to express right now? SM: Hm..... No actually, your questions have been a lot better than, actually your the best so far because everyone always does the same.....I swear to God they hand out this form that everyone's got the same questions to ask. (laughing) SM: Basically, the only thing that I really want is for people to go to the website OK. We will definitely link your site and hopefully you'll get to Boston soon. Yeah, I think we're going to be in Boston soon, I don't know honestly, I've got a piece of paper up on the wall that tells me what to do and when to do it (laughing) (laughing) and the rest of the time, I'm completely on auto pilot, as soon as you get a day off and you realize how tired you are, oh man, let's just go play another show or something. Right....I hope you guys do well and good luck with your release on Tuesday SM: Thank you very much Your welcome and tell Bobby I said what's up SM: I will Have a fun rest of the evening (laughing) SM: (laughing) Thank you very much