DB- Let’s talk a bit about Halloween [the band covered Dark Side of Moon dressed up as members from the Wizard of Oz with the film projected onto screens] How much time did you work on preparing the album?

CG- While we were on the road out west we talked about it, listened to it a bunch of times and watched the movie together. Then we went though it and split up certain parts- “Is this in your vocal range?” Al said, “I kind of want to play a solo here” and I said I’d like to sing the song “Time,” and we went through it. What we did then was we went home and absorbed it as much as possible over a week. Then we came back and we probably went through the entire album from start to finish five times and did so me spot fixing on it. We did one day of four or five hours, and the night before we did two hours with Adam the sax player, Nancy the singer and Kirk the keyboard player. We all just came together, blasted it out and tried to get the details down. It was actually a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. It was also pretty liberating to play someone else’s music like that. It was a great learning experience because that’s a pretty constructed album- when you see how things are foreshadowed music ally. It was really interesting to get that deeply into it.

DB- How do you think it came off?

CG- A lot of the night I had a good time and that’s a pretty good indicator. I think all of us were really relaxed and I think that’s 95% of the battle. Of course I’m sure there are some clams in there but it was just fun to do and that was the most important part. I haven’t heard it yet, I probably won’t listen to it for a while.

DB- Speaking of which to what extent does the band sit down and analyze what took place after each individual set or show?

CG- Personally I used to obsess a lot more and it wasn’t positive. I was just like, “Oh man, it sucked.” After a first set we’ll come off stage and talk about it. Sometimes though, I think we don’t have a clue how it all came off. Sometimes we’re overcritical or obsessed about certain details that don’t make up the whole experience. But when there are obvious things we definitely talk about it and try to solve the problem on the spot or try to fix it the next day at soundcheck. Everything is constantly going in for body repair. There are dents and scratches in everything. We’re constantly working towards the goal of having everything be interesting and good quality.

DB- Incidentally, jumping back to Halloween, how did you decide to be the Tin Man?

CG- I figured as much personally but I didn’t tell anyone. Then at least two other people came up with it on their own so it pretty much had to be.

DB- Is there some deep metaphoric significance to the selection?

CG- That I’m a heartless bastard? Yeah. (laughs)

DB- Fair enough (laughs). How was your trip to Japan? How did the audience respond?

CG- It was pretty much a whirlwind. We got there and we had to immediately adjust to the time difference. We arrived in the afternoon, went out and had dinner, then woke up the next day in a fog. We had one full day off to explore so Rob and I ran around Osaka. Then when we did shows the next three days, we had a road crew and someone to do the interpreting for us when it was necessary. All the people were really nice and helpful, so they made it easy.

The audiences were very good. They actually looked like they knew a lot of the songs, all of the words. At least it looked like they knew the words. I thought they would be a reserved, clap at the end of the song kind of crowd, but they were actually raucous and loud. They were fun. It was a lot like playing a smaller show here. It really wasn’t that much different until afterwards when you tried to talk to somebody. It was slightly surreal.

DB- One final question, I’d like to hear your thoughts on moe.down?

CG- As far as the music and everybody’s attitudes, everything came out so great, especially for the first time. If we can do that on a repeat basis I would be psyched out of my mind. It was fun to choose bands that we wanted to have come play with us. It was cool to select this specific location, kind of in the middle of nowhere, and have this event take place. There’s some responsibility along with it but I think everybody was really happy in terms of how it came off. We had a lot of great people helping us out and if we can do this again yearly or even twice a year I think we would all be really excited.

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