What about some history-getting started and all that?

Ari: I guess about 5 years ago I met Dan (guitar) through Rob (Fish...), and Rob gave me Dans number and through Dan we met somebody, somebody and somebody, there has been a million different members (he hates this question i can tell) and it brings us to where we are now basically. It would be too long for me to describe everything that happened, but we made a demo and gave it to Mike Hartsfield at New Age, then he put out a 7", after that a 12" and we have put out a third record by ourselves. Recently we finished recording our new12" which will be out on Jade Tree september 8th. So that´s about what we are doing right now.

Why did you leave New Age?

Ari: Well, we left New Age I guess because we feel that New Age has a very limited audience, like kids into... not only straight edge, but kids into sxe New Age style of music, you know it´s known for one type of music. It didnt really do us any justice, I mean Mike did alot for us -he got us started and all we really appreciate and still realize that, but we didnt think New Age represented us do thats why we did it by ourselves after that.

What about the "money is cool" thing, if you really thought that money was cool you wouldnt have put out those "live" recordings on "background". Incase you were "profit" you would have made another record with those tracks to make money (bldsh: It´s a joke, just trying to make conversation out of this...)

Ari: Well it´s basically a joke and it comes from New Jersey where we are from, people at that time used to think that we made alot of money and that we were very money-hungry and greedy, so we just decided to make a joke out of it. So we made a shirt with a guy running away with two moneybags and it says "money is cool" on it. You know we dont make any fucking money but money is cool if you ask me, I do like money, I just dont really have any.
- This guy got some silver pants holy shit! (bldsh: Ari remarks on a guy passing by)
He´s got some money...
Ari: Yeah he got some money...

What do you think about Sweden?

Ari: Yesterday we were in Stockholm.
Scott: Awesome!! The most beautiful place, the most beautiful city I´ve ever been to -Prauge may be in close but it´s a lovely city, I like it , you know the city is on the water. But then we had a kinda bad experience in Sweden. We had two Vans and one of them broke down last night.

Well, we heard you had some trouble.

Scott: Yeah, we got stuck in a town today for a while, then we drove here, we are all pretty much worn out from the drive last night.

Do you recall the name of the town?

Scott: Well what was it?
Ari: I slept through it.
Scott: Me too, it´s in between here and Stockholm, about 300 km from here, so whatever that is...An interesting sidenote is that Strife broke down in the same town.
Ari: You got alot of bugs in Sweden. Sorry!

So if you compare European scene with the one you got back in the states what do you think?

Ari: I´m not sure I´ve got enough information to make any judgement about any of the scenes, yesterday in Stockholm was really weird. There was like alot of kids that basically I think were just random...Like there wasnt any real scene, they just wanted to see a band play, the rest of Europe has been pretty cool, like good scenes I guess, I see that there is people here tonight , but i really have nothing to judge scenes on except the turnouts of the shows and they have been good, everything has been cool so far. I think you have to be a part of a scene to know what it´s about, I see alot of Strife-shirts (in Umeå) so i guess everybody likes Strife.

Have you heard any Swedish bands?

Ari: I´ve heard heard of Refused and Doughnuts.

What do you think of them?

Ari: I´ve never heard Refused but Doughnuts is´nt really my style, too metalish, not what i´m into.

What are your influences?

Scott: Everything I´ve ever heard in my life.
Ari: I dont think any of us have direct influences, we might -I relly dont know. I dont think there is anything we like and annuelate, but we all listened to a lot of different stuff but thats a hard question, its like what your influences in life, everything you absorbe, take or like is possibly an influence on things you do. Music is obviously a influence and maybe litterature, but I guess everything around you is... I dont know -I´ts hard to say.

How do you like touring with State.of.the.nation so far?

Ari: At first we were on the road with Sensefield, S.O.T.N and 4 walls falling and that was like a circus -it was like 30 to 40 people, and it´s so hard to travel with that many people. Everybody is like a big baby, try to leave a show or organize where to sleep with that many people, but it was really fun.
I think we made some good friends, lik4e Sensefield and 4 walls falling guys were cool -it´s uniqe because i never like Sensefield before, I´ve always thought they were really wimpy but watching them play every night really got me into them.
I dont think we´ve been on the road with S.O.T.N enough time to really get to know them yet, it´s only been two days we.ve been with them so hopefully we will get along...I assume we will.

We talked to Sensefield and they were nice people, they are´nt a straightedge band even though they seem to be recognized as one!

Ari: Not everybody in Lifetime is sxe either. Lifetime has never been a sxe band -I am and i write the lyrics so it came a cross as that but like Dan -me and him, we were the two original members and he has always been a drinker as long as I known him, I dont mean alot, but we have never been a sxe-band.

Do you think that sxe-bands are making a too big deal of being sxe?

Ari: Sometimes, yeah I think so. When thats all they care about and thats all they are I think it´s too much. You know it´s like a every shirt have to be about straightedge and XXX and all that shit. I mean being sxe is an individual choice and what people have to realize, and what they realize when they get older is that everybody is different and everybody can handle things differently and just because aperson drinks doesnt mean he abuse it.
I think everybody should be tolerated and everybody´s differences should be tolerated -you know what happens when there´s no tolerance, white people is killing black people, thats why there´s rascism and sexism, people dont wanna tolerate things that are different . You know smoking may scientifically be proved as bad and i personally think it is, doesnt mean that it is bad for someone else -thats what so great about life , that theres different decisions to make and its your life so you get to do whatever you want as long as it doesnt affect somebody else. So i think that some straightedge band have taken it a little bit too far... I think that moderation is probably the most important thing in life, if you abuse anything it´s bad and people abuse straightedge, as well as people abuse ciggaretes, drinking or whatever.

Is that a reason for you to write lyrics about individuals and feeling instead of "you should do this or that"?

Ari: Yeah, I guess to me the individuals are more important and one of the reasons why i write personal lyrics is cause thats all i know. I feel that i dont know enough about this world and about people and stuff. I´ve screwed up myself in my head and i´m not pefect so how can i tell ,like you guys how to live your lifes when im confused about my own. Thats really why i write personal lyrics.