Congratulations supersleuth, you've found a BBW secret. We hide things like this all the time, so keep on looking. These are the questions edited out of the interview for the sake of brevity. Consider it the 'Black Eyes Interview' deleted scenes, if you will. Portions that made it into the actual interview are italicized to help you find the places where outtakes would have been. Dan: We did some demos, and then eventually we recorded the full-length. We didn't even know actually if it was definitely going to be on Dischord when we were recording the full-length with him. But we kind of thought it would be. Daniel: Well because at the meeting he said, "If we do this, it's going to be on Dischord." But then he was like, "Uh, I've got to check." So we weren't really sure but… Mike: The whole thing didn't get finalized until December I think. Dan: We started recording in November. How different were the demos? Daniel: They weren't that different. Jacob: Some of them. We went through a pretty heavy editing process on our songs after we met with Ian, we were like, "Alright, we're going to do this record and this is when we're going to do it." Then we just sat down and we were like, "Ok, these are the songs we want on the record." And then we just sat down with the songs and playing them a bunch and we were just like, "Ok this needs to change and this needs to change." So some of the songs are similar to demos, some are fairly different but overall they're all like … different, recognizably. Hugh: Definitely, at least three of the songs got written while we were sort of editing the other songs. Dan: One song got reworked in the studio. So are you guys happy with how the recording went? Everyone: Yeah, absolutely. What was the atmosphere like? Daniel: Totally relaxed, jokes and stuff. I mean, one of the things that's really awesome about recording at Inner Ear is that it's a really relaxed but very well-setup studio and Don is the most patient and the most calm person I've ever met. So it's like you go in there and he knows exactly what he's doing and he's chilling and he's got all the equipment. So you say, "I don't like this sound, how can we fix this?" and he's like "Um, do this," and it's like pressing a button or something. It's just the simplest thing, and it's relaxed you don't feel intimidated talking to him about what you want out of it. The actual studio itself is a very relaxed place, very comfortable with chairs and games. So you kind of go in there and it feels like just hanging out… Hugh: Sit there and eat all day? Daniel: Yeah, you can just sit there and eat all day and hang out and like, play music. It's awesome, they're both really, really, really nice. Ian has a lot of helpful ideas and Don is just insanely cool and you don't even notice that he's working but he's doing this great job. Jacob: They both offer a lot of great ideas but they both are willing to listen to any and all … If they think that something you thinks a good idea is a bad idea, they'll argue or talk to you about it. But they're very open to it being a collaborative thing, obviously, like we're playing music, but in terms of just the whole thing, like very open to any sort of mixing ideas or recording ideas. A lot of other recording experiences are just poisonous. They're so easy to work with as opposed to people who treat kids in bands like they don't know what they're talking about or don't know what they're doing or don't have good ideas. Mike: It definitely gives you an extra measure of confidence having them be so relaxed and then also, being so relaxed … as in any environment that's relaxed, you work better and you play better. And everything feels better. Not to be wide-eyed about it but it was pretty idyllic; it was awesome. Is it still just in his basement? Jacob: No, it's a real studio. Daniel: Ian helped him build it. Mike: There's some awesome pictures on the wall of it getting done. So no reference to the Talking Heads album? Everyone: No, no. Mike: Which is my favorite Talking Heads album and I have a tattoo about that last song on that record. Everyone groans: Here we go. That's my favorite Talking Heads song too, Naïve Melody. My friend gave it to me on clear vinyl, limited edition with the plastic colored things on it. It's pretty fucking cool. Mike: I've never seen that. I definitely bought the single, bought the record. I was actually going to write a whole feature for the site that I do, just on that song. Just a two or three page thing on that song. Mike: Oh really? Have you seen Stop Making Sense? Yeah, he does the dance with the … Mike: With the lamp, yeah. Awesome. Daniel: I mean, my favorite thing about shows is when we're playing and people come up and either are dancing or singing along or like come up and play our percussion, there's some sort of direct interaction. We're on tour obviously but we're playing some shows in DC too where we're just standing and playing, and it's fun to play but like it's hard to feel whether or not people are responding to it at all. Sometimes you feel people responding to it even when they're not jumping around, I think it's awesomest when there's visible communication, especially when people come and play our instruments with us. That's the best for me, because people are like playing with us and it becomes this collaborative creative process instead of just like 'here's our stuff' it becomes this communal event, which is so cool. And I feel lucky that it's happened a couple times with us. Are you ever worried somebody's going to steal anything? Daniel: Naw, once somebody took a symbol by accident. Dan: Somebody broke my fish. Hugh: Somebody stole a drumstick too but the less said about that the better. Mike: Shit happens, yeah, but ultimately it's worth it. Having an interaction there is fucking awesome. Dan: I think the best possible show is where we can merge the audience participation with really solid communication between us, like our looser parts. Many times, it doesn't work well, but sometimes it does gel and that's the best possible thing. Hugh: I mean, it's the best when there's really, really broad and full communication within the band and when we're really listening and playing with each other. Obviously we know a lot of our songs well enough that's its not like we have to be totally focused on certain things, but the idea that there's sort of a bunch of different kinds of communication going on, like between the five of us and between the people who are in the audience. It's really fun when the audience is like right here in front of your face like playing a living room somewhere or just on the floor somewhere, it's really, really close and it just seems like really conducive to all that happening. Daniel: Like we played in Philly and there's like a big stage. We played on the floor in front of the stage and people were like on all sides of us and that was just awesome, just being surrounded. People that get involved too is cool. So the tour is going well then? Mike: This is like the end, three more days, right? Jacob: Yeah, three shows after tonight. You guys should have come further south, cause this place kind of sucks. Jacob: We are in September. Just because of how this tour was setup, the drive today was about as long as we could have done, like from Louisiana. We are doing more Florida shows in September, October, I can't remember. Four or five with Q and not U. Mike: We're doing six weeks with Q and not U in the fall. Hugh: You guys from Gainesville? Yeah. Hugh: I had a good friend who was going to try to make it up here tonight but she had a class at 8am tomorrow, so… Yeah I have a class at 2. Daniel: Damn, school's still on? Hugh: Summer session. Yeah, summer session. Hugh: are you an undergrad or…? Yeah, I'm a History major. I'm doing an education minor. I gotta hobble my way over to one of the halls down the street and sit and listen to talk about Rousseau's philosophy of education. Hugh: So do you have the same thing, my friend, because the reason she can't come is because she can't miss her class tomorrow is because she already missed one and if she misses a second one she won't be able to take the exam. That's probably just her professor. I don't think any of my professor's care really. They take attendance and that's factored into the overall grade but there's no mandatory thing. Hugh: Yeah, when I took summer classes my professor, on of them, was just like, "Yeah, it'd be good if you guys come everyday but if there are a couple days it's really nice and you want to go to the beach, you know, I understand." I was like, "Well I'm gonna try to come to class and get my money's worth. Yeah, my professor's kind of funny. He was telling us how he was 10 and he wanted to run off to the woods and be a monk. Mike: Wow, that's a really intense fucking 10-year-old. Yeah we were like, "How did you even know what the fuck that was?" And he was like, "I don't know, I lived on Long Island," and then that was his explanation. Everyone: [laughter] Mike: What about those fucking Shelter guys, aren't those guys from Long Island? Hugh: That's not really the same sort of thing though. There is at least one monastery on Long Island. Maybe that's what he was doing, I don't know. I guess that's about it. Unless you have anything you particularly want to talk about. Daniel: What records are we listening to? Everyone: Oh man [laughter] Hugh: Sean Paul, um… If your band were a tree what kind of tree would you be? Don't answer that. Hugh: A mighty Oak, reaching into the sky with roots as firm as the Earth itself. Mike: I'm kind of sweaty. Daniel: Yeah, roots as firm as the Earth itself seem sort of … the Earth is like the Earth Hugh: The whole thing man, the whole fucking ball. Don't record any of this stuff. [laughter] I'm not putting any of this, I'll edit it out. Daniel: Um, we like to talk. Mike: Yeah man, ask us about Black Flag. Everyone: [groans] Nooo. Dan: I'll see you guys later. Mike: [laughter] How important is it for a band to address political issues in turbulent times like this? Jacob: I don't like to use the word 'deep' but some form of meaningful or just like … I don't know, we've had a bunch of inter-band talks about this on this tour and since this comes up sometimes in interviews, just because it's something we've been discussing I'm trying to think of the best way to put it. There's something beyond just … it's hard to put into words. When it's obvious that what's being said, whether it's political or religious or deeply personal… It's something that's very much like, not needs to be said, but very much like coming from somewhere deep within the people expressing it, and it's not this very frivolous thing. If it's political and it's something that comes from deep within, I think it's different then when it's political and it's something that's very surface or sloganeering. It's like that across the board with music, both musically and what bands are singing about. I think that's what we all find very important in music and music across the board, across genres that we like and just like what I think more should … I don't know about strive for, but definitely I wish more bands were like that. Mike: I think that the whole Love Cry thing, that Daniel talks about, applies here. Daniel: That might need some explanation. Mike: All I'm saying is that it's important whatever you do comes from … whatever comes from that you do it and you get it out and do it whatever you do. Daniel: The thing that he mentioned was in the past January, Jacob and Dan and I went up to Baltimore to see this guy Milford Graves play. He's this sort of free jazz … he's a drummer and he does this-although there's somebody else playing with him-it's pretty much a solo percussion set. And he played on Albert Ayler's record, Love Cry, and around this time I was having this sort of … not the biggest, but I was thinking a lot about complex expression and it's sort of like … punk rock versus jazz and poetry, it's fairly ambiguous. I was thinking about like what makes music meaningful and interesting and … like art I guess. I think seeing him and thinking about that idea of sort of music being a love cry, that's very powerful. I don't think that's the only thing, the only potential music has at all. I guess not like one thing or the other, it just struck me that what I saw him doing and what a lot of bands that I saw, just across the board bands or musician that really blew me away was like this expression of something very profound. There music was in some respects a love cry I guess. Hugh: A passionate expression of something, really. Jacob: Yeah, I mean his performance; he's playing drums it's not like he's singing about something but it so obviously just comes from a place that's not just like, "Well I play drums, sometimes." It's very much just like … him. Daniel: And that is sort of what I would like to do musically. There's no one way to do it or not to do it but I think it's just a really amazing idea that music can express something that like beyond music I guess. Mike: I had something to add to something beforehand. I agree with everything you were just talking about, yeah whatever, but I think it's also important that people be at least aware of what's going on in the world around them. Whether it's political or like, "I think the Red Sox are a rather important thing." [laughter] But the point being, and I know my friends here don't agree with me, the point being to make your world what your want to make your world and don't be oblivious to what's going on, don't just be a fucking idiot. That's what it boils down to. No seriously, we were listening to the second disk of the David Cross cd. Everyone: [groans] Mike: Our nonlinear interview style here. Hugh: He says some questionable things but we don't need to get into the David Cross cd here. Daniel: Any worthwhile statement, any well thought out political statement, like what you were saying whether or not the specifics remain, it's going to be relevant. People still quote like fucking St. Augustine or like whatever, you know. The point is that if you say something intelligent, it's intelligent. You can even talk about Ronald Reagan and Ronald Reagan is not in office anymore but it doesn't matter cause you still said something smart. And that does not date itself. Dan: Even if it's like a humorous approach like Dead Kennedys or something or like Frank Zappa. Mike: Or Black Flag. Dan: It transcends. Like Elvis Costello records where half the time I didn't even know he was singing songs about Margaret Thatcher, I just thought it was a fun song. Mike: [laughter] You don't like My Aim is True? Mike: I haven't heard it. It's a great album, he's back up by the band that later became Huey Louis and the News but it's like this country-inflected rock album. It's really strange. Dan: I've got it. I haven't heard it in a long time, it's got a reggae song too. [ page one ] [ page two ]