JPG: I read that you and Bob [Crawford] were about to attend graduate school, but he talked you into a month long tour and the three of you caught a glimpse of what could be.
SA: Absolutely! It’s funny, even on that first tour, during the tour, one of the days we spent in Athens, Ohio, Bob spent the day at the music department there because he had applied and been accepted in Ohio University there. He was very entertained going there, checking it out, while we were on tour.
JPG: It’s kind of like the old line when I was doing theater about having something to fall back on in case the arts world doesn’t pan out.
SA: Definitely, you hear that. It just rings over and over in my mind, but there is no bad education. If you spend 15 years in school that can’t be a bad thing. If I spend 10 years on the road that can’t be a bad thing because, no matter what, I spend so much time learning and seeing and if I’m correcting the mistakes I’m making along the way… Education is just priceless, however it may come, formal or not. And I think that that automatically gives you a foundation and cushion to fall back on anyway.
JPG: I interviewed Derek Trucks, who received his education as a teenager while on the road and continues it through his reading material during any downtime while touring, which is really fantastic. His mind’s enlightened through a combination of street education as well as a literary education.
SA: Absolutely! We’re afforded a lot of time in this business and the choice, the choosing of reading materials and the furthering of your education is huge for us as a group. Everybody from the band to the crew, we’re all one unit and we all share and talk about that. Right now, we’re in Iowa City and it’s just that great kind of atmosphere for that here. It’s a college town. It’s really exciting because you can find great book stores, great reading and strike up a conversation about such things. It’s really, really great.
JPG: Since you were looking at graduate schools I take it you that you did have something to fall back on.
SA: Sure, and regardless of those degrees, I think our parents did a good job of just work ethic, you know.
JPG: I’m glad you brought that up because that’s something that Rick [Rubin] mentioned in the press release; a hard-working touring band, the work ethic involved. Is that something you recognized from your parents instilling it in you or was it done subconsciously?
SA: Subconsciously. Getting your son out on a 40-foot tall concrete bridge to help him weld (laughs) gave you an idea of what it’s like to put in time. We did a lot of outside work, a lot of labor. Me, in particular, did many years with my dad working on his bridge company as well as, we have a hobby farm at home. It was a lot of responsibility that I’m not capable of always saying that I was the best at at all times, but we definitely were pushed. My parents provided the situations.
JPG: I’ve done some construction jobs and I think the beauty of it in a weird way is that as you are doing it there’s a good feeling of doing physical labor but it also refocuses you to do your original artistic work.
SA: Absolutely. I mean, those guys are, they are machines and they are just unbelievable people, the fellows that I worked with, the guys that didn’t question one bit, just went out and survived, just pure survivors. I have the utmost respect for them.
JPG: Now, I do want to talk more about as you put it your “hard rock” roots in Nemo. First off, is it that or your punk roots because I’ve seen it described both ways.
SA: I would imagine it was more hard rock, it wasn’t punk rock as per Black Flag, Sex Pistols and things like that, the Ramones, it wasn’t like that. It was more of a modern, I would say screamo, melodic hard core, probably would be something like that. But it was hard rock.
JPG: One thing that I heard was a comparison to Dinosaur Jr., which falls into both categories.
SA: Sure, we definitely screamed a lot more than Dinosaur Jr. was. It wasn’t like it was singing-oriented, but we were influenced quite a bit by bands like Faith No More. Things like that was kind of the direction we were going towards.
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