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RX BANDITS
members present:
Matt Embree
Steve Choi
conducted on: December 2001
by: Nevra Azerkan
extras:
official website
shout-out to PZO





 
 

PZO: Who comes up with the ideas for the album covers?
Matt: [Talking about the album "Progress"] Umm..we all collectively came up with it. We were all sitting around recording the album and our friend James was chilling with us and he just took this picture.

PZO: When you're in the studio, how much control do you get over the finished product? How open are you to other people's input?
Matt: Like how the record label was involved with it?
PZO: Yeah.
Matt: For this album the record label influenced us worth shit. It was all of our music, you know what I mean? It's just what we wrote. We had a producer, Chris Fudurich and he was a really good producer. He had a lot of input on the way the things ended up sounding because the producer is the one that mics everything and gets the actual sounds. As far as the actual sound and quality of it he had a lot to do with, but as far as the music writing aspect it was all us.

PZO: How do you feel about music-swapping over the internet? Do you feel you benefit from it?
Matt: Yes, I totally feel that we benefit from it and I think it's great.
<Steve nods his head>

PZO: What is one of your favorite lines in one of your songs?
Matt: I don't know. I like them all. That's kind of a broad question. It's different you know.
Steve: I didn't write the lyrics, but as an outsider I would say one of them that's funny is a line in "Nugget", "It's three years til I'm twenty-four And I don't want to die in a nuclear war."
Matt: I guess I like the lyrics in "Infection", 'cause they are really honest. Just as far as I am concerned.

PZO: Are you looking forward to the release of a certain artist's album?
Steve: Origin of Symmetry.
Matt: Origin of Symmetry.
Steve: It's going to be fuckin' sick.
Matt: We were just in Europe yesterday. Actually, we just got back yesterday and it's already out over there. It's so wonderful.
Steve: If Ozzy puts one out, even though they just put one out.
Matt: I'm looking forward to listening to it again. It's that great.

PZO: Do you ever get sick of songs that are played on the radio all the time?
Matt: Oh, I get sick to my stomach. I start vomiting.
<laughter>
Matt: Every time I turn on the radio I puke.
Steve: This band has heated arguments about that subject right there.
Matt: There are some good songs on the radio dude, I'm not dissing everything, 'cause there are some really good bands that play on the radio like Rage Against The Machine. I have respect for Incubus even though I don't listen to them. They're a good band, I respect their music.
Steve: They're a good band.
Matt: But most other bands, Limp Bizkit and shit, they suck, they make me throw up.

PZO: Who is your favorite new artist?
Matt: Dude, I like this band called a Hundred [100] Reasons.
Steve: They're good.
Matt: No one's heard of them over here, they're from England.
Steve: They're like the English At The Drive In.
Matt: No, dude not even. I think they try to market themselves that way, but they don't sound like that at all.
Steve: Are they a straight edge band?
Matt: I don't think so. Maybe. They're pretty cool. I like....
Steve: The Exit.
Matt: The Exit, ever heard of them?
PZO: Yeah.
Steve: They are sick.
Matt: They are sick. We just put them on our tour that's coming up in January and they are so rad and they are going to be huge. They sound like a cross between good Get Up Kids songs and The Police. If you can imagine.

PZO: What band would you like to see back together?
<silence followed by laughter>
Matt: Can the people be dead? Can I resurrect them? Jimmy Hendrix Experience.
Steve: Led Zeppelin.
Matt: Nirvana. That's it. Wait. Sublime.
Steve: I don't know. Nirvana was one of my favorite bands, but I don't know if I would want them resurrected.
Matt: Yeah, I don't think I would. Nevermind, let Kurt rest, he was over it.


PZO: What is your best childhood memory?
Matt: These are getting really introspective. High School is childhood right?
PZO: Yeah.
Matt: When I was around 15-16 it was pretty cool when we first started the band. I like to remember that a lot. We were all having a good time. It was crazy being sixteen and being the youngest band at every show. Some bands were ten years older than us. That was pretty cool. We used to have so much fun with legos.
Steve: Watch Transformers.
Matt: He-Man.
Steve: You know how much morals those cartoons taught?
<laughter>
Matt: Morality.
Steve: You're like a moral ass little kid if you watch those.
Matt: All those Hanna Barbera cartoons were pretty cool.
PZO: Scooby Doo!
Matt: Scooby Doo was fucking good until Skrappy, dude.
PZO: I know. He messed it up.
Matt: He just fucked it all up.
Steve: Skrappy sucks.
<laughter>

PZO: What is the stupidest thing you ever bought that seemed like a good idea at the time?
<silence><Matt starts to tap his fingers>
Matt: I could say some mean shit. But I don't want to do anything like that. Umm...<taps fingers>
Steve: Honestly, a planner for me. Like a day to day planner. I so can not use those. I am so disorganized.
Matt: Yeah, I don't even know. That's a weird thing, I can't really think about anything that I bought and not want.
PZO: What about one that you bought, but don't really use?
<silence>
Matt: I would have to say....
Steve: Matt's not a very wasteful person.
Matt: I would have to say maybe.....if I ever bought a CD, I've never bought a CD before. But, if I ever bought a CD I bet I wouldn't regret it. Does that make sense? I regret buying some of the CD's that I bought, but you got to buy them to see if they are good, you know? Sometimes, you buy a CD for two good songs.

PZO: What is the worst thing you have ever done, and gotten away with?
<Matt and Steve bust up laughing>
Matt: Well, my girlfriend is here....Umm...you want one from when I was a kid? You know dude, when I was a little kid, I would go around and like break shit.
<laughter>
Matt: I would seriously go around during Christmas time and I would break people's Christmas lights. When I was like 14. That was the dumbest ass thing I think I've ever done. It was really fun. Being 14, I would like take a bashing rod and start bashing lights or I'd just take lights and throw it at the persons house. It sucks, dude. It's a really sucky thing to do. But it's like when you're that age you don't even care.
Steve: You don't even care about anything.
Matt: Yeah, so it's like I did that shit. Is that the worst thing?...I don't know. I haven't really done anything THAT mean to other people. That would be something I would really regret, except for that. I want to apologize for all the people who like walked out to get their paper in the morning and stepped on their broken light bulbs.
<laughter>

PZO: What is one of the weirdest dreams you've ever had?
<Matt taps his fingers>
Steve: I dreamed that I was my dad once.
Matt: Oedipus complex dream?
Steve: No, that's mom.
Matt: No, Oedipus complex is wanting to be your dad.
PZO: Yeah, when you want to be your dad.
Matt: So you kill your dad to marry your mom.
Steve: The story of Oedipus...
Matt: Oedipus kills his fucking dad and marries his mom.
Steve: Oedipus complex is being in love with your mom isn't it?
Matt: Right, so you want to be your dad.
Steve: No, it was not like that because my parents are divorced.
<laughter>
Steve: I stand corrected. Yes, I had a dream involving Oedipus complex.
<laughter>
Matt: Did you tell your mom about it, was she stoked?
<laughter>
Steve: No,.....my parents are divorced for the record and they we're divorced when I had the dream.
Matt: I had a dream one time that I was chilling in this dude's house eating baloney, slices of baloney and for some reason I was getting really angry, I don't know why. The other day I had a dream....I don't even remember what my dream was, dude.It was fucking weird. It was one of those things, I was just chillin' and everything is all normal, but it's not. Sometimes I'll have dreams where, I'm like this is a dream and I want to wake up, so I'll just jump off a cliff in my dream and I'll wake up before I hit the bottom. It's like I purposely tell my brain to jump off the cliff.

PZO: What event on your life had the greatest impact on you?
Matt: <whistles> These are good questions, I must say. This is probably the most intelligent interview I think I've ever been involved in, for the record. Anyway, as far as that shit is concerned, dude, the most impact? Probably, my dad playing me, "Voodoo Child's Slight Return" by Jimmy Hendrix because that's what made me play guitar and music is the only thing I can truly say that I love. That and father's remeldy and mother for harmony. My mom taught me how to sang harmony 'cause she used to sing in a band and shit. So, my parents.....biggest impact on my life, especially them getting divorced and like learning to deal with something at a young age and obviously going on tour. Besides my parents, going on tour would be the biggest impact on my life.
Steve: The BIGGEST, definitely.
Matt: The biggest lesson in humility that you will ever experience.
Steve: Just being in a band.

PZO: In your opinion, what is the most important thing to get out of life?
Steve: Get life out of life.
Matt: Wisdom, dude. Straight up. Experience as many things as you can, no matter if people say it's wrong or not or whatever. You should do everything so you know how you feel about everything and not how everyone else tells you how to feel. Anything you want, as long as it's not hurting someone else.

PZO: What is something you have always wanted to do, but have not done yet?
Matt: Go to South East Asia.
Steve: Yeah, probably South East Asia.
Matt: Like play Brazil, play Africa, and stuff like that. Alright, I want to....I have a pretty steady girlfriend right now, but one time in my life I would like to have a girlfriend in like every country.
<Steve Laughs><Nevra gives Matt a weird look>
Matt: But not like...I wouldn't lie to them and tell them that I didn't have a girlfriend in every country. I would be, "I have a girlfriend in every country, are you down with it?" I don't know why. Maybe because I really love traveling and it would just be cool to know that I could just go somewhere and hang out with somebody that I know and that I love to be around.
Steve: There's just so many different beautiful girls.
Matt: It's like an impossible fantasy.

PZO: Describe the worst date you ever had.
Steve: I've only been on like three dates in my whole life. Like actual formal like, "Do you want to go out?", dinner, movie, type date. Like the title. All the rest of my girlfriends, I just kind of had anyway. I never really had a bad date. I had boring as hell dates. Where it's just awkward.
PZO: Wouldn't that be considered bad?
Steve: Yeah, that's considered the worst it could be. I mean you've seen that show, it could be a lot worse.
Matt: I went to winter formal with some chick and I was a senior. It was kind of weird 'cause she was my friend's ex-girlfriend and she asked me to go with her and soI said yes to be cool or whatever. I didn't want to just diss her after my friend, Noah, he was in the band at that time. He had already dissed her and I didn't want to double diss her, you know? So it was weird, 'cause I wasn't going to kiss her or anything, but I was dancing with her and wearing nice clothes and stuff. What an awkward experience, you know what I mean?
<silence>
Matt: <laughs> you guys look really bored. Are you extremely bored or what?
<laughter>
Matt: It's okay if you are, I don't mind.
PZO: No, we're not!
Steve: You ain't got to lie, to kick it.
PZO: No, we're just really serious. Sorry. We aren't bored though...
Matt: Yeah, you don't have to lie.
PZO: We'll tell you, or at least I will, if I was.
Matt: I'm just joking. It's cool.

PZO: What is your favorite punch line or joke?
<Matt taps his fingers>
Matt: I don't have like a normal joke.
Steve: Incidet.
Matt: Incidet. That's a good punch line.
Steve: Like for a sense of humor, when you go on tour with like 5 guys everybody's energy gets inward towards eachother. It's all so far in the realm of an inside joke. Sometimes...example. Somebody we'll ask us something and we'll say, "Incidet" and they'll be like <does "what the hell are you talking about" look> and inside of our heads we're doing the Beavis and Butthead laugh.

PZO: Favorite pick-up line.
Matt: "You're a beautiful woman." If I was to pick up on a girl, she would be beautiful, so I'd just tell her what she is.
Steve: And that's real.
Matt: And it usually works. Girls like honesty.

PZO: Is there a question that comes up in interviews that you're tired of being asked?
Matt: Where did we get our band name or how long have you been together or what instrument do you play, or those things if the people checked us out on the website they would know. Probably stuff like that or you know that you send them your CD and all this promo stuff for no reason.





 
 
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