Joanna: What are your names?

Gared: My name is Gared O’Donnell.

Joanna: What do you do in Planes Mistaken for Stars?

Gared: Ummm, errr….. what do I do?

Joanna: Do you remember?

Gared: Are we supposed to get philosophical here?

Joanna: No, no… it’s just a standard question I ask everyone.

Gared: I try my best to sing, and I write all the lyrics.

Joanna: And what’s your name?

Chuck: My name is Chuck.

Joanna: What do you do in the band?

Chuck: I play the bass.

Joanna: How long have you guys been a band for? You’ve been around for awhile, haven’t you.

Gared: Yeah, yeah. In punk-rock years we’re, like, old men.

Joanna: Yeah, how long has it been?

Gared: Too long.

Joanna: No, come on… tell me!

Gared: Almost seven years.

Joanna: I remember when I was a freshman in college, my roommate had a Planes Mistaken for Stars bumper sticker. It fit perfectly cause your name was long enough to go over the whole bumper.

Gared: Uh, yeah ? that's awesome! [Laughs] How long ago was your Freshman year?

Joanna: A little less than the length of time you’ve been a band for.

Joanna: So what’s kept you guys together for this long?

Chuck: We’re incredibly in love with each other as people and as souls and at this point, we couldn’t be without each other.

Gared: It’s not even about being in a band, or being part of the music industry, it’s like… what else do we do? The thing is, the music that you write and the records that you press will last a lot longer than you. And maybe four-hundred years from now, someone will dig up our LPs and that’s history. It’s an honest documentation and that’s honest storytelling, and hopefully people will be able to translate it enough to figure out what was going on in the world.

Joanna: Wow. That was intense. It’s rare to find bands these days that feel so passionate about their music.

Gared:Yeah… there’s all these shmucks who spend more time on their hair and their makeup than they do on what they’re actually saying or playing.

Joanna: It’s true. But unfortunately, a lot of those boys in those bands are really cute, and it’s always very tempting to listen to music that’s sung by attractive boys. I’ve seen some strong men turn into suckers around hot girls, who lack substance…. I think it’s OK for females to have the same weakness every once in a while.

Gared: I’ll admit…. have been a sucker for a pretty lady, at least once.

Joanna: Don’t take this the wrong way, but you kind of remind me of, like, the Unabomber.

Gared: Oh, is that a compliment???

Joanna: I think it’s a compliment. I used to read a lot about the Unabomber and think that he was a pretty interesting person…. Aside from killing people, he was pretty cool.

Gared: I’d like to think I’m a bit more dapper than he is.

Joanna: [Laughing] Has anyone ever compared you to the Unabomber before?

Gared: Honestly, no. I mean I’ve gotten Jesus Christ comments before.

Joanna: I think I have more respect for the Unabomber than Jesus Christ.

Gared: [Laughing] Yeah, but I’d give anything to be Jesus Christ for a day.

Joanna: So speaking of Jesus… um… Do you watch porn?

Gared: Do I watch porn? Of course! Who the fuck doesn’t???

Joanna: Well a lot of people deny it. It’s good you’re honest about it.

Gared: It’s necessary.

Joanna: Oh, thank you so much for saying that. What was the last porn you watched?

Gared: The last porn I watched was something I got for free.

Joanna: Who gives you porn for free?

Gared: The internet.

Joanna: I see. Well, to get back at you I’m going to go home and download your songs and not pay for the record [Laughing]. So what type of free porn do you like?

Gared: Well, I’m not really into the whole set up shit in porn. I’d rather just see two people just go nuts.

Joanna: I feel ya.

Gared: [Laughs] Hey doll, am I making you feel awkward?

Joanna: Oh please. It takes a lot to make me feel awkward.

Gared: Are you challenging me? [Laughs]

Joanna: [Laughs] Oh no. So would you ever have sex on camera?

Gared: You know, I’ve thought about that, actually, really heavily before -

Joanna: It seems like you think about almost everything pretty heavily.

Gared: I’m sorry… forgive me. Maybe I should just water myself down?

Joanna: No! I think it’s wonderful!

Gared: Doing what I do I have an outlet for everything… but if I didn’t play music… I’m sure I’d be there with you. It wouldn’t bug me in the least. Who knows, maybe I would suck but I think I could do it. I’m not belittling it at all, cause I think it’s an amazing thing…I really do. I think it takes a lot of fucking balls… literally.

Joanna: Well, in the 80’s it seems like sex and rock m’ roll were more intertwined. Maybe if you were a band back then, you could have done both.

Gared: It’s disgusting how little sex has to do with rock n’ roll these days, and that’s what makes me sick. You’ve got these guys on stage that are fucking walking the walk and they’re not talking the talk. There’s really no fucking balls to it. It’s like people take themselves way too seriously these days, but it’s for the wrong reasons. It’s like, for their image and this and that. I just want to be like… you know, you’re a fucking fake, you’re a fucking phony, and you just graduated high school and you’re a trust fund kid and your fucking parents bought you all your equipment and they bought your mascara and they bought your hair dye and…

Joanna: You know, I have some mascara… and I bought it all by myself. Do you want me to put it on you? [Laughs].

Gared: I’m sorry, am I coming off a bit archaic?

Joanna: It’s ok. You’re the Unabomber. You’re supposed to come off like that.

Gared: I’m not really like that. It’s just been a long day.

Joanna: What are you guys doing now as a band?

Gared: We’ve got three more weeks of the tour left, and then we go home and regroup, and start writing.

Joanna: Is there anything you want to say to all the people on BurningAngel who took a break from jerking off to read this interview?

Gared: Yeah. Take care of each other and take care of yourselves and be good. Understand humility and understand humanity, and uh, just realize that there’s not always cameras following you; It’s not your show, it’s all of ours. You’re not an island. Just take care of each other.