Bob: We're a band from Chicago, IL. We write songs about a lot of things. We definitely are a band that's unafraid to learn, unafraid to grow, and is unafraid to take chances. We've been a band for a little over a year and this is our first major tour.

How has it been going so far?

Bob: It's been going awesome but it's definitely trial by fire but it's been totally a success so far. We've been learning how to play in front of this many people every night and a little more each night.

Chris: It's a bigger tour with different dynamics than playing a small club.

Bob: But I think it's a good experience.

Chris: You play to the crowd a little bit more because people far in the back can't see you.

How does your band differ from other bands?

Chris: A lot. We're nerds.

Bob: We've been ripped on so many times because we're on the Internet 24 hours a day. I think what's different is that a lot of bands out there have much different influences than us. It seems like the obvious influence that most musicians would have would be The Beatles. At least in my mind that seems the obvious thing. It's amazing how many people just listen to completely different bands. We're a lot more into that kind of stuff rather than rock but then at the same time we like to rock. We listen to all sorts of different kinds of music and I think it comes out in a weird way because we all have such different personalities in the band. I think through the different personalities come different channels of the musical process throughout everything that we've been doing. Everybody has been putting their own input in. When it all gets done because we're so different, it turns out to be something really different.

Chris: I think a lot of bands are into the same bands we are too but a lot of them aren't getting popular or recognized. Twenty years ago I think if you were influenced by punk rock and stuff like that, that would be what you need to make it big so to speak. Nowadays you have to be in something so far from that. A lot of bands can come out and say they're honest and be honest. A lot of bands are really honest but we're honest in a different way. We're not the same people as a lot of people around. We're just in the eyeballs and it comes out.

Bob: I'm not sure if any of that made any sense.

Chris: I'm saying a lot of people would say we're being really honest and that's a generic answer. They are being honest. We're just a different kind of group of people. We're the oddballs that found each other and it worked out really well I think.

When I ask a lot of bands what influences them, I get some interesting answers. I've had some people from hardcore bands tell me that Frank Sinatra was a huge influence on them due to the fact that he was such a charismatic showman.

Chris: When it comes to hardcore the live shows are really, really important and yeah, Frank Sinatra. That really adds tons of charisma so of course I can see that coming.

There’s no telling what answer I get to that question. What were some of the bands that influenced you guys?

Chris: I think the bands that have influenced us have changed dramatically since we’ve started the band.

Bob: We were all drawn into popular music and that’s how we got into bands like The Beatles and The Zombies and The Rolling Stones and things like that. Actually I got into progressive rock music. For me the bands I listen to are Guns N’ Roses and the whole rock and roll era into punk rock. By the time we started the band I was really into Saves The Day and stuff like that but now I still love the Saves The Day and they’ve progressed with the band in my mind. I’m still into that but I’m really into the same stuff Chris is into.

You guys have layered female and male vocals. What do you mean by that?

Bob: Well, actually all four of us sing but Greta and I sing all the lead vocals. Basically either we switch off or we sing a certain song. All four of us are songwriters and we just sing either together or separate. Sometimes we have male and female harmonies. Sometimes male and male harmonies or Greta alone.

Tell me about your record you have out called So Sudden.

Bob: It’s an album that we wrote. Greta actually wrote most of it. It was in January or February that we wrote it and then in March we recorded it.

Chris: It’s like seven or eight songs. They thought maybe they should get some other people into the band. They went out and looked for a drummer and that's actually kind of neat because I'm also a drummer and I was in a lot of projects at the time and I suggested Darren our drummer who was in other bands too. We hooked up and then Darren told me I had to come listen to this music because it was something completely different and that I might be into as a bass player. So I came and checked it out.

Bob: We got Chris to join.

(At this point in the interview we get interrupted by a guy from another band who has a Hush Sound sticker and tells us that someone from The Hush Sound's street team gave it to him and told him to pretend like he’s happy to get it. The guys are pretty enthused as you might imagine.)

That is a really wonderful street team you have there. Real positive.

Bob: Yeah, really. The So Sudden album was initially actually going to be an EP and it was just going to be Greta and I on acoustic guitar and piano. Coming from all the music I was doing before, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I wanted to get musicians and I didn’t want to settle for people...everybody goes through that phase growing up where you’re just in the bands that are recycling different people you just happen to be friends with. I said you know what, I want to take people that I really respect as musicians and I was pretty much sick of all the people around me. I wanted to meet new people and make new friends. That’s how it all came together. Basically when Chris joined the band, we had around 11 songs written so he didn’t have time to put as much writing on the new album obviously. We added two more songs and he had a part on vocals. After three weeks we were all in the studio recording 13 songs and we couldn’t throw any of them away. We just liked our songs.

Chris: Some of them maybe were not fully completed thoughts but we just really liked the way it all came together so suddenly.

Bob: That’s how our kind of music happens. It’s when you’re doing it because you love it.

Chris: There’s definitely mistakes on the album but that’s what makes the album real.

Mistakes are what makes you human. Tell me about the new one you’re working on.

Chris: The new one is insane because we have so many people working on it. Sometimes it was very frustrating. Sometimes it was very rewarding. The finished product or what we’re starting to hear now is coming out really, really cool. It’s completely different than So Sudden but it’s where we are now. It’s what we’re doing now. That’s cool. On So Sudden we found a label and we were not worried but everyone’s concerned with doing what they want and not doing what the label wanted them to do. That was really cool that our label let us have free reign. They didn’t ask about anything. They didn’t want to hear the demos. They said if we wanted to show them the demos they would be more than happy to listen to them but when they heard the demos they thought it was already cool. We went through maybe three albums of writing before we were happy with the songs and 30 songs later or so, we ended up choosing 11 that were really, really rock solid. That’s going to be the new album. It’s called Like Vines and it’s coming out June 6. I’m excited about it. I think it’s amazing.

Bob: I think it’s coming out really good.

Chris: I’m just happy to put my name on there.

How difficult was it to have to actually throw some songs away so to speak?

Bob: It wasn’t really hard. Like I said earlier, how we’re all very, very different from each other, we all have very different opinions about some things. There was a song on the album that I played acoustically for the guys and they all really liked it. We tried arranging it for months and months and months. We just could not arrange the song the way I wanted it to. It’s called “Where We Went Wrong” and eventually we called in our producer who was behind the acoustic song and he couldn’t figure out how to arrange it either. We actually called in another producer and had him help out. His name is Dan Duszynski and he’s amazing also. He knew exactly what the song needed to do and he took the song, what we had written, and really went with it. He pushed us to do different things and it worked out really great. That was a song I was really attached to lyrically. Those were the songs that were really hard to get rid of, the songs that I was really, really attached to or Greta was attached to. Those were the ones that were hard to let go. Some of the other songs were just cool songs that we had to let go. Of the songs that made it on the album, I don't regret the ones we dropped because the ones that made it onto the album are really special.

Chris: I think a lot of them we could have developed more and gotten them on the album but we were pressed for time.

Bob: Yeah, we have a very short period of time. That made it exciting for me in a way because we had a little over three and a half weeks to record the album which is basically a little more than what we had for So Sudden but we spent so much more money on this one which surprised me but at the same time we were paying for a professional producer and a professional studio this time. What made it so awesome is that we had all this time to write the album because we weren't on tour but at the same time Greta was in school and I was working full time and Chris was working in real estate and Darren was in school. Everyone was trying to get everything done outside of the band. We were practicing every day and writing and by the time you play a song for a month long it doesn't seem new anymore. A great song might go but at the same time all the songs that we wrote on the way were a path that we took to get to where we are now. The album I think is going to be really special. We cut 90 percent of that and added to it. We are all really excited about the album.

Somehow I can't see him in a suit selling someone a house.

Bob: Oh no, he was a secretary. That's what's great about this band. We saw chances and we took them and we're not looking back. This is our first tour and we're sitting here drinking free beer, eating free lunch, and free dinner everyday. The hard part is driving but I'm not even going to complain.

Chris: We're so undeserving. There are so many bands out there that work for two or three years and never reach this point. Ten years and just never reach it. We've done what we love. We've done it the right way. We've done it honestly and now we're here. Hopefully the success will follow this. This is the beginning of something that hopefully will let us be able to play music for a long time. I'd like to be able to do something like The Rolling Stones. I'd like to be playing music when I'm 50 or 60. That would really be something special. Playing music and that would be my job because this is the only thing I like doing.

Maybe you will be able to do that. And as long as you get free beer, you should never complain about anything anyway. How much longer is the tour for?

Bob: Well, the tour goes to May 15. We're on it until April 19 because Greta is still in high school actually. She graduates in May so we were lucky as hell to get her out of school because she goes to a private school and it's a very strict one too. We had to talk to the dean and let her know this was a huge deal. We need to do this. We like taking every chance we can get. I thought this was the right tour for us and we all agreed on it. We talked to the dean and got her out and we're on it until April 19 and she has to go back to school a few days after it.

Chris: This tour continues on.

Seems like everyone's parents are real supportive.

Bob: Chris' parents were in a traveling band for many years.

Chris: Yeah, they played the hotel circuit. They're a good gauge of when we do something good or when we do something bad.

Any other thoughts or comments?