JOANNA: State your name and what you do in Trail of Dead.

JASON: My name is Jason. I play drums primarily, but I also play guitar and sing on a few songs.

KEVIN: My name is Kevin and I attempt to play the guitar.

JOANNA: And how long have you guys been a band?

JASON: We�ve been a band for 20 years.

JOANNA: How long have you really been a band for?

KEVIN: OK. 27 years.

JOANNA: Wow, you must be pretty old. How long have you been playing music for?

JASON: Uh, since we were about 42. No we�ve been playing together since we were like 5.

KEVIN: I�d say we started when we were like, in the womb.

JOANNA: How�d you guys meet? Like, in the hospital?

JASON: Yeah, we met at the hospital. Our moms were all like, friends.

KEVIN: Yeah, that�s kind of how it was. Should we stop trying to be �witty?�

JOANNA: Yeah, how long have you really been a band?

JASON: 6 years?

KEVIN: Yeah, 5 or 6 years.

JOANNA: So it�s pretty much full-time?

KEVIN: I�d say it�s been pretty full-time since, �98, �99. Since we quit the coffee shop.

JOANNA: You guys worked at a coffee shop?

JASON: Yeah, we�ve worked a bunch of weird jobs. I was a mortician for a while.

JOANNA: How�d you guys decide to all switch instruments when you play?

KEVIN: We basically switch partners. We�re like swingers.

JASON: We�re also kinda A.D.D., too.

JOANNA: So you get bored after a while, playing the same instruments?

KEVIN: No, it�s really just like, a collective, collaborative effort. Everybody sings. Everyone puts in an element into the band. No one really sticks to just one roll.

JOANNA: You�re kind of like an anarchist collective?

JASON: Yeah, yeah� there�s a little bit of anarchy, a little bit of democracy, and little bit of a dictatorship.

KEVIN: I would be the dictator.

JOANNA: So you guys are from Texas?

KEVIN: Yeah, from here actually. Austin.

JOANNA: You�ve lived here your whole lives?

KEVIN: Pretty much.

JOANNA: Do you consider yourselves Southerners?

JASON: Yeah sure� we�re Southerners.

KEVIN: Good Southerners. Kinda like Mark Twain.

JASON: Yeah, I�m kinda like Flannery O�Connor.

JOANNA: How do you like being on Interscope?

JASON: So far it�s pretty good.

KEVIN: We stay pretty self-sufficient as a band. We don�t try and rely on other music industry pitfalls that have hurt a lot of other bands who have become severely indebted to their label. You just gotta watch out for things that seem attractive at the time but end up hurting you in the end.

JOANNA: Being on a major label now, do you ever feel that you're just being marketed as a product?

JASON: Well in some form or another but there�s no escaping that, because that�s how their world works. But at the same time, we�re using them to get our records out to people who normally wouldn�t get them, and to kinda put an influence on those people and give them something to them other than Good Charlotte or Limp Bizkit. We wanna give them something with a little more substance, even something a little darker and moodier, like the way I always loved Joy Division and New Order.

JOANNA: Do you watch pornography?

JASON: I do.

JOANNA: How bout you?

KEVIN: Uh, yes.

JOANNA: If you�re in the mood to watch some, what are you gonna look for?

KEVIN: Um� when I rent porn, I kinda go for the ones that seem to have a ridiculous plot or something. I like to see female ejaculation.

JOANNA: Oh yeah, those are hot. Very few women can do that you know.

JASON: I mean, I�m not into the anal shit.

JOANNA: Really? Why not?

KEVIN: Like double penetration? You like double penetration?

JOANNA: It�s fun to watch a porno, and see something you wouldn�t do in your personal life.

JASON: Double penetration is too much. Too many dudes. I wanna see more women.

JOANNA: So do you think it�s kind of healthy to use pornography as some sort of release?

JASON: Yeah, especially when you�re on tour.

JOANNA: Because some people think it�s really bad, or that it perpetuates violence towards women.

JASON: I don�t see how it perpetuates violence towards women, because a lot of women seem to make a lot of money doing it. They seem happy.

KEVIN: Usually at the end of our tour, in the van there are a lot of um� magazines. You start to tour more often and the collection just grows. And you go to all these gas stations and you�re like, �I don�t really wanna buy this,� but you do anyway. It�s like an impulse buy. I mean don�t get me wrong, we do read other things.

JASON: And don�t buy the grab bag things.

KEVIN: Do you feel that your website is helping to give porn more of a punk rock element?

JOANNA: Well, I think there are a lot of connections between sex and Rock N' Roll, would you agree?

KEVIN: Well, that�s what Rock N� Roll means.

JOANNA: It means sex?

KEVIN: Yeah, that�s the term. Rock N' Roll is sex. Rock... and roll.

JOANNA: (laughs)

JASON: Well seriously, in the 50�s, rock and roll meant fucking basically.

KEVIN: And funk, too. That�s where the term funk came from. It�s like the smell of sex.

JOANNA: So does your music identify more with the smell of sex or the motions of sex?

KEVIN: We�re probably more like premature ejaculation. (laughs)

JASON: We throw on like, the Cure�s �Disintegration� and make looove all night.

JOANNA: All of you?

JASON: Well all of us in one room, and one lady.

KEVIN: We�ve all had group sex before.

JOANNA: Can you tell me about it?

KEVIN: Oh man, it�s just freaky.

JOANNA: That�s actually my next question. I wanted to know if you guys have any good tour stories, like about sex.

JASON: Well, Kevin and I have girlfriends. But I mean you know, but I mean, if you were to talk about it, the question is do you get sex when you�re on tour. Cause you know, now there�s this whole thing of like, indie bands being all rock star. All we do is drive from one show to the next, and there�s no glory in it really.

KEVIN: I�m monogamous, but I have to say, my hotel bill the next day is pretty high. I rent a lot of porn.

JASON: I can�t really tell any stories, cause it�s kinda like, what goes on on the road, stays on the road. And if I were to talk about my other band mates, they�d get pissed off. They�d have to be here to verify that sort of information.

JOANNA: So what are you guys working on now as a band?

JASON: Well we have an EP coming out at the end of the month. It�s called �The Secret of Elana�s Tomb.� The title comes from this book where this really sick doctor fell in love with this Cuban girl who had tuberculosis. So she died, and he got this stuff to preserve the corpse, and basically, he would fuck the corpse. He then got caught and went to prison for 6 years for necrophilia. It�s kind of intriguing because it�s so demented and it doesn�t really happen that often.

JOANNA: Are you guys on tour now?

JASON: We�re gonna be on tour starting mid-April. We�re gonna be in New York. We�re playing Irving Plaza.

JOANNA: Well is there anything else you wanna add?

JASON: I guess I�d just say that I'm happy to see that there are websites run by females who enjoy sex, and love to talk about it and express sexual ideas.