PROBE

Poptart Monkeys
(continued)

By Alyce Wilson

ALYCE: ... Do you think you get more attention than the rest of the guys because of being the singer?

PAUL: In certain aspects I think I do, just because I'm the guy up front. I'm the guy they're watching, I'm the guy they listen to when I speak. You know, Rob's kind of like in his own class because he's back behind the kit, but there's four of us up front and basically it boils down to us. ...

ROB: The thing about the band is that when it comes to, as far as the female aspect, the like him (Paul) and James. James because he's this madman on stage and Paul cause he's the frontman. I think it's equal. If you had the group, I would say that the majority of the female following is ... Paul and James. We get to talk to whatever's left over ...

PAUL: Stop it. ... We have fun. I love meeting people every night and discussing things with them, answering questions. James, he's the go-to guy as far as talking to somebody. I am shy till you meet me, and then I'll talk your head off and you're like, "God, I wish I'd never met him."

ALYCE: [laughs] You can shut up now.

PAUL: Right.

ROB: Me and Paul, we're the quiet guys.

PAUL: I am quiet. You know, I'm different on the stage and then I'm quiet offstage because I feel funny talking to people I don't know. I have a hard time going up to people and saying, "Hey! You have a good time tonight? Is there something I can do for you?" I'm not tough like that. James is great at that. He is definitely the man in the band to keep people coming out. ...That's his little thing. He enjoys it, too. Like, he loves being the guy that is going to do whatever he can to further the band. The more people come to see the band, you know? So Rob's side is the business side. My job is getting everybody going every week.

ALYCE: Yeah. And you've been playing a lot of shows lately, too.

PAUL: We're keeping very busy, you know? We're actually... We're going to hit Alaska pretty soon next year and return to play Florida ... three or four times a year ... and the new album is doing great.... We just sold our first 2,000 copies.

ALYCE: Yeah, I heard you're on your second printing? Great. ... Are you hitting the radio stations?

ROB: What we're trying to do right now is figure out what radio stations would actually play them. If we determine, in Philly, or Pittsburgh ... that a radio station is more apt to play original music by unsigned artists, we're throwing some their way. But we're not wasting CDs on 10,000 radio stations that just go "Uhhhh......"

ALYCE: So did you ever envision, when you got started, that you'd end up doing it, like, full-time pretty much, I mean...

ROB: Absolutely.

PAUL: Not really.

ROB: I did.

PAUL: Rob put this band together, basically to get a record deal.

ROB: That's the only reason I put it together.

PAUL: And that's basically the reason I'm in it. I've known this guy most of my life, and I never thought we'd be playing together. You know, we would always pal around and stuff, but even when we formed the band, a record deal was really what was the goal. ...

ALYCE: Are you willing to do anything it would take to do that? I mean, what if [record company executives] came up to you and they were, like, "Lose this guy."

ROB: We'll probably do what it takes. ... I mean, if they came to me and said, "I'm gonna give you a $250,000 bonus. All you gotta do is get rid of one guitar player." I'd be, "Hey, you're my buddy, but hey, see ya." No, I don't know. That's one of those situations you would never be able to be honest about until it actually happened.

PAUL: Labels still do that do you. They might like your singer, they might like just your guitar players and want to can the other guys and put them with another singer and a bass player. You know, it does happen.

ROB: The thing of it is ... we all interact very well together. And we all pretty much do the songwriting. Not like one guy writes it and shows it to the rest of the band. So when a record label comes along and sees a band that, like, one guy writes all the music for -- doesn't like the drummer, doesn't like your bass player -- I mean, as far as he knows, you can get rid of that guy, since he has nothing to do with anything besides basically keeping the beat. With us, everybody has their job. Everybody has ... their little bit that they do as far as the songwriting goes. So, if you would take away one of the five guys, you really could sever the creativity that is there. So, I really don't think they'll be doing that with us. ... The reason we put on the show that we put on is cause we are having fun, because we're in fact five guys that actually like each other. We fight like everybody else, but I think when it comes down to onstage, I think we really genuinely have a good time onstage. I can't imagine walking onstage and not seeing the four guys I'm looking at now.

PAUL: Yeah, I'll go along with that. It is, like you said, it's tough. We've done our fair share of arguments. Like a couple would, a relationship or a family or something like that. ... We're gonna have problems, and we work it out and we have a blast, and we have one goal, and we feel that we've found each other ...

ALYCE: ... You guys all write songs together, too. That's one thing we were all talking about. What's your typical contribution to that songwriting process?

PAUL: Bill and Chris are the two guitar players in the band and they come up with an awful lot of stuff. ... When we write a song, Bill usually calls us up and comes to practice with an idea. "Guys, I got this. You gotta hear it." He puts it down on tape for us. And we'll work with it, and I'll take it home and put lyrics to it. Sometimes the guys already have lyrics, and I'll finish it. ... You know, it's really how I feel. And it could be whatever mood I'm in that day, whatever's going on in my life, or the band's life ...

ALYCE: What sorts of things do you tend to lean towards for lyrics? ...

PAUL: ... I have a tendency to write about a lot of boy-girl stuff. Whether you're having a hard time together, or having a great time together. And I don't know why -- maybe it's just things I've been through and dealt with -- but I kind of like it. I like writing about being together, you know? Whether you hate her guts or you want to be with her all the time. So that's always fun for me. You know, I'm not very political. ...

ALYCE: You're just into the ... the human stuff.

PAUL: Yeah. Natural, normal stuff. ... I kind of want to get away from the way I write, to be honest with you. I can't just stand, sometimes, writing about the same thing over and over. But it's just, it's what's inside me and that's what comes out. I don't think my writing would get better lyrically until I keep at it. Until I break out of certain things. ... The whole first album we did was all about stuff I've been through, lyrically. The second album has branched out: things that we think about, certain views we have on different things that are going on. A lot about inner turmoil, feeling like there's just, like, nowhere to go. And your life is the same-old, same-old. That's what "No Way Out" is kinda about, the first song on the album. That's the song that kind of goes out to everybody. Cause it's just, you live your life doing the same thing over and over again. When does it end? When is my ship going to come in?

ALYCE: Are you writing more lyrics like that now that Sept. 11th has happened?

PAUL: No. Honestly, no. ... We actually kind of talked about this a little bit ... We wanted to stay away from it ... There's nothing we can really do musically or lyrically that's going to change what happened. ... What we did do was raise quite a bit of money ... in some shows after the attack. We did a benefit thing with like three or four other bands, and we passed the hat around at some other shows and we came up with, I think, a little bit over three thousand dollars. We sent that to the Twin Towers Relief Fund. Cause we wanted to do something, but as far as writing stuff ... nah.

ALYCE: ... I just think music has a potential to be a great force for healing. Or more like, it can be also a way of getting out your feelings. And so, it doesn't have to be directly related to that. Somebody will read into it. Have you ever been in a bar, and something terrible just happened to you, maybe your dog was just killed or somebody just broke up with you? Every song you hear on the radio seems to apply to what just happened.

PAUL: Yeah. Because that's what's actually in your brain. So anything you hear or see is going to remind you of that situation, or that person you were with.

ALYCE: So maybe you're not even aware of it, but maybe there's something in your music that's kind of helping people right now.

PAUL: We're open to that. We do actually get e-mails and phone calls on the phone line and people come up to us at shows: "Oh, that song reminds me of my girlfriend or boyfriend." Or, "Oh, that song reminds me of what happened to me last year when my house burnt down." Or, "That song reminds me of my grandfather when he took me to the park when I was five." We do get stuff like that, you know? And it's cool, and people love you for it so they keep coming out to see you, and that makes you feel good, cause you hit a nerve and you didn't even know it. That's what's cool. Because you're just writing from your heart and your instincts and whatever's going on and it can relate to somebody else's situation. ... And, I mean, you might be writing about your relationship with your girlfriend, but the lyrics -- even the music -- might remind somebody else of the dog that just died ... that they've had for 17 years. You know what I mean? It's pretty cool.

ALYCE: I think that, when I listen to your lyrics, what strikes me about them is that you don't go for the easy line or the overdone expression.

PAUL: Right. Same-old, same-old.

ALYCE: But it feels very truthful, and like you said, it's very much like what somebody would say.

PAUL: Right. All our songs do mean something. They come from something. Whether it's something that somebody wrote by themselves or whether we get together on stuff ... I think it's important to think about anything that hits you, and it's not just my girlfriend. It could be about your stamp collection that you had since you were five, I don't care. It's how it makes you feel. It's gotta be something that makes you really smile, you know? You collect leaves when you're a little kid or something ... and you love it. Hey, you wrote a song about it and it makes you feel good, sing it. Let everybody know how much you loved the leaves when you were five, you know?

ALYCE: If you can make it sound like it felt to collect leaves, you can make other people as happy as it made you.

PAUL: Right, exactly. We all know that, right? ...

ALYCE: And I think, too, when you listen to the blues, people will say, "The blues are sad." But I think those are people that don't really know the blues, because they don't understand that it's about getting it out and turning it into something positive. When you turn it into something beautiful, like music...

PAUL: ... you're crying out, but in a good way.

ALYCE: Exactly. Right.

PAUL: Right.

ALYCE: Community.

PAUL: Yes, exactly.

By now, the bar had filled up with people and the other band members had drifted away to make last minute preparations - and probably to find those darn strings. I stayed for the show, which was heavily weighted towards cover songs to get the audience dancing. On both covers and originals, the band's set was tight, and their performance so professional it was easy to believe they were serious. And that they were having fun, too. Which is, after all, what's it all about.

(this interview was edited for space)

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