PZO: As a band, what are your best qualities?
Shane: We put everything into the music and we rehearse really hard for the show and it’s all about that. So I think our best quality is our determination to have a good time with our audience on stage and put on a good show and really go for it. It’s all about people leaving their troubles at the door and having fun at the show. I think that’s our best quality. We are just a good old fashioned rock and roll band that puts on a good show for people to have a good time.

PZO: What’s a common compliment people give you as a band and individually?
Louis: You guys are awesome.
<laughter>
Isaac: We get that on our Facebook all the time. I think everyone in the band is really individual, but I think that we’re really good together.
Shane: People always say they like the energy of the show and I think it’s intoxicating and that’s a nice compliment because we put in a lot of effort into it and to get people to have a good time and that’s always a nice compliment.
PZO: Individually?
Shane: The accent always goes down well, but where I come from it’s not that special at all.

PZO: What’s the last good deed you did?
Christopher: We put on a great rock show last night in Indio. It was really special. When we go out most people don’t know who we are, but we really translate what we’re trying to do. Like Shane was saying, everyone was having a really good time. It was beautiful scenery and besides that it was a really, really good show and really connected with the audience. We spent about two and a half hours afterwards taking pictures and selling our merchandise and hanging out with every single person that wanted to hang out with us. Then we take it to the next day and talk to them on a social media site—on twitter people always say stuff. I think that’s a good deed because we reach out to our audiences and that’s something we would have dreamed about if we were listening to all these bands when we were thirteen and talking to them over the internet and just connected to them while they were on the road. So, I think that’s a really good thing and we helped a lady across the street.
<laughter>
PZO: Here?
Christopher: Yeah.
Isaac: We took photos and signed autographs for two and a half hours last night at the Riverside Fair.
PZO: That’s dedication.
Isaac: I didn’t even—I had to take a pee break at the end.
<laughter>
Shane: My legs still ache a bit, actually.

PZO: What event in your life had the greatest impact on you?
Shane: For me, it was probably—right now sitting on a tour bus on a nationwide tour about to play a sold out show at The Roxy. Probably, running into Christopher five years ago in a coffee shop in Austin and just kind of hitting it off. Right now, the most significant thing really, it all started from there. That for me…it’s all emotional.
PZO: We will give you a moment.
<laughter>
Shane: Welling up.
Isaac: Being in this band is my idea, my dream, so meeting the manager. I was working at a restaurant before, waiting at his table and getting a part of the band that way. That was probably my defining moment, that’s what brought me here.
Portland: Mine was probably moving to Austin because that’s when everything kind of came together. Me and him had played in a band before, so all the avenues kind of came together.

PZO: What’s the best lesson you’ve ever learned?
Shane: Remember the one. It’s all about the one. Yeah, wise words.

PZO: What’s something you’ve always wanted to do, but haven’t done yet?
Louis: We definitely have Madison Square Garden on our list.
Shane: Yeah, that one always comes up. It’s like the Holy Grail to play Madison Square Garden.
Louis: Or just down the street at the Hollywood Bowl. That would be good. |
Shane: Sell a million records; something monumental like that.
Portland: Grammy’s.
Louis: All the milestones.
Shane: We work 23 hours a day and we think and dream about the one hour on stage and it’s all about the music really.
Isaac: It would be cool to do some films as well. I think the band could get our acting on.
PZO: You should do your own and post them on YouTube. Fans love that stuff. It doesn’t even have to be interesting.
Shane: Oh, we’re fine then. We’ve got loads of that.
<laughter>

PZO: Given the opportunity, who would you kidnap for a day and what would you do?
Christopher: Let’s kidnap Lady Gaga. That would be fun.
Isaac: What would we do?
Christopher: I don’t know. Hang out, bring her coffee.
<laughter>
Shane: Jam. It’d be fun. I don’t know. I’m not really the kidnapping kind.
Portland: Mine would be Damon Albarn, the lead singer of Blur.
PZO: What would you do?
Portland: Just hang out and talk. Find out what makes him tick, I don’t know.
Shane: Maybe Keith Richards. That would be good. I bet he’s got some good stories. I’ve read his book and I’d like to jam with him. He’s great.

PZO: What’s the worst advice you’ve ever been given?
Isaac: That you can’t do it.
Shane: Yeah, I’ve never listened to bad advice or negative opinions. There’s no time to worry about the negative stuff. Life is but a fleeting moment, so just concentrate on the positives and ignore all the haters, all the negativity, all the bad advice and just make your own way through life. You don’t have any time for people like that.

PZO: What was the last meaningful thing you did?
Portland: Back to last night. It was a blast.
Shane: It was great. You kind of feel, when you’re meeting people, you’re kind of giving them a little bit of a window into a rock and roll band and not everybody does that. Not everybody has as much time for the fans, but we remember what it was like to be standing in front of the stage watching bands we loved. It is meaningful, maybe not as meaningful to us as it is to someone that’s there for the show and they get to have a good time at the show and meet the band and give them a pick or something. Then they write us and say how great it was. It’s meaningful to them and that’s what it’s all about.

PZO: Tell us one random thing about yourselves that most people don’t know.
Shane: Both Christopher and I are left-handed, but we both play the guitar right-handed. Not many people know that.
Christopher: That’s why I play a left-handed guitar. Jimi Hendrix was right-handed, most people don’t know that.
<silence>
PZO: Nobody else wants to say anything personal.
<laughter>
Louis: I like to keep whatever I got left.
Christopher: I drive a 1963 Thunderbird, seagreen.
PZO: You got a picture?
Christopher: Yeah.
PZO: You’ll have to show us.
Christopher:<laughs> Oh yeah.

PZO: What do you have in your pockets right now?
<everyone shuffles through their pockets>
Christopher: Picks.
Louis: Nothing.
Shane: Yeah, picks.
Louis: Got my pass.
<Portland and Isaac hold up their passes too>
Shane: That’s all you need really.

PZO: What’s one thing you would not do for any amount of money?
Shane: Promote war, or fight in a war or hurt another person, anything like that. Definitely would not have anything to do with that, or promote it, or support it, or condone or anything like that really. We are lovers, not haters.
Isaac: That’s a fact.

PZO: What’s your best childhood memory?
Isaac: Waking up and there’s like two feet of snow outside and I know I don’t have to go to school.  I get to go sledding.
<laughter>
Louis: I saw Aerosmith a couple times. It was probably some of the greatest moments of my life. If you combined them all together, then it’s a really special, special thing.
Christopher: Riding in a limo with Sammy Hagar to a Van Halen concert, third grade playing Nintendo. That was fun.

PZO If you could pass a law, what would it be?
Shane: I would pass a law that said everybody would get medical help whether they could afford it or not. I would make that a law, that if you were a doctor or something you had to help them. That would be a pretty good law, I think. A bit far-fetched, but one can dream, I suppose.

PZO: What’s one life experience you would like to relive?
Shane: To bring it back to the show, every night on stage, it’s kind of a high you know it’s unlike any other experience you can have. You’re performing and you let it all out and we’re lucky we get to relive it all the time. Right now, it would be playing last night over again. I’d love to relive that and we have a few hours until the show tonight and we get to do it again. You don’t always get to remember it all; you’re just kind of in it when you’re doing it. When you get off, you kind of want to go on and do it again, but you’ve had your time and you have to wait until the next day. You never get tired of reliving it over and over again.

PZO: Is there a song in music history that you wish you had written?
Shane: <laughs> A lot.
Isaac: “I Can’t Make You Love Me”
Shane: “Strawberry Fields Forever,” anything by The Beatles really, apart from “Octopus’s Garden”, I’m not a fan of “Octopus’s Garden”.
Isaac: The only one Ringo wrote.
Shane: He didn’t write it.
Isaac: What..?
Shane: He sung it. I think all four of them wrote it, but I’m not sure.
Isaac: I don’t know…
Shane: I know.
<laughter>
PZO_Camera_Friend: He was there, he knows.

PZO: What’s one question you’re tired of being asked in an interview?
Louis: The ones I really don’t like, I just don’t like it when people ask if Chris and I are fraternal or identical and then we tell them what we are, fraternal. Then they will refuse to accept that and say, “No, you’re identical.” Sorry person, but I think I would know best.
<laughter>

PZO: What would be your pitch to get people to listen to your music?
Shane: I’d say the songs are stories that they connect with and it’s from real life and we write about stuff that we know, which is love and the lack of love and the human condition. There’s something in there that they can connect to and relate with, but it’s also a type of thing where you have a good time. We’re playing rock and roll music that not a lot of other people are playing the same as we do it. I don’t think their stories are as honest as ours or as open as they are to connect with. I think it’s a little bit refreshing compared with other stuff because we are real. We are a real band and we play honest rock and roll. So anyone that likes that kind of thing, that likes guitars and good music and honest stories and maybe throw in a little bit of poetry in there, should give it a whirl.

PZO: What song of yours are you most proud of?
Louis: I’m really proud of the record. It was a joy to be a part of and it’s just solid back and forth. It’s hard to really tone in, personally for me, just because as a whole, the whole experience from the start of it to when we finally finished it was pretty awesome.
Shane: There’s a track on the album called “Dominoes.” I’m really proud of that one. I think I got in touch with something that’s really real and honest about that one. It came out really well. I’m really proud about that, but really it’s the whole album. We recorded it in Los Angeles. It was a big deal for us that we were signed to a big label, with a big producer and there was a lot on the line. We are really, really happy that we managed to do a record that we are proud of, that’s honest still and it’s finally coming out too. It’s called Never Look Back.
Louis: March 20th.
Shane: March 20th.