Kapowie! Kurt Morris busts a move with a bonafide email interview with Innermeans, a brand-spankin' new hardcore outfit on Tooth And Nail...so pardon the glaring errors and just enjoy!

1. SO, HOW DID INNERMEANS HOOK UP WITH TOOTH AND NAIL???

me: umm... well it kind happend like this. . . our friend jason stinson from overcome was always telling brandon ebel "yeah.... check out this band innermeans..." and all tha kids from Zao and jason carson from supertones were always putting in the word for us to tooth and nail that they should totally consider signing innermeans. Brandon had previously heard of us from word of mouth through guys like Tim from Focused and all. But he had never really heard our music yet. Jason stinson advised us to record a promo tape to send to T & N cuz they'd already heard of us and they'd definately consider it. So we just recorded one day at this studio out here called Moonsong and it was sent to tooth and nail and about a week later i got a call. so that's pretty much how it all unfolded.

2.HOW MANY ALBUMS ARE YOU SIGNED TO DO?

me: well right now there's not much set in stone. so far it's just like we're doing this EP CD/7" and there's been a little talk of a full length if this goes good. . . but nothings for sure yet. everythings just up in the air right now.

3.TELL ME A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE ALBUM YOU'RE DOING. (WHO RECORDED IT, HOW MANY SONGS, NAMES OF SONGS, NAME OF EP, ETC. ETC.)

me: It's gonna be a four song CD/7" and it's suppose to be released July 22nd on Solid State/Tooth and Nail records. We recorded it about... i think a month and a half ago or so at Moonsong studios in Riverside, Ca. The songs are called Bloodguilt, Casualty of Me, Discord, and Falling Time. The title of the EP is just gonna be self-titled... "innermeans". so it's pretty much just really basic. basic recording, basic layout... it's kinda like a sample of what we have to offer. i dunno... we're totally expecting to put more time and energy into our next one though, Lord willing...

4.WHAT OTHER BANDS ARE THE MEMBERS OF INNERMEANS IN?

me: alex plays drums for this band called Project 86. sean and steve and i all use to play together in Bloodshed. But our main focus always lies on innermeans over all our other projects.

5.HOW'S THE SCENE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA?

me: the scene out here is really growing sooo fast. it's progressing so much. bands pop up everywhere out here, all adding to different syles of hardcore. i swear, it seems like every hardcore kid out here is in a band or project of some kind. which is great. that's exactly what we need. it's rad cuz you dont have too much of a dominating scene out here where certain bands are put on a pedistal above the others. everyone's pretty much equal and everyone has a lot of respect. shows are constantly happening and kids are coming together and eliminating their differences and just having fun and building up the scene. it rules. as of now, there's a lot of division in the scene as far as claim or creed or religion or beliefs or whatever... but kids are starting to let each other in and realize that all these things can be put aside and looked over and just respect one another.

6.HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE INNERMEANS'S SOUND?

me: umm.... we try and capture a lot of emotion in our music. we kinda combine heavy breakdowns and upbeat stuff which gives it a really origional sound. i dunno... we're a hardcore mutt. we get together and take influence from a wide variety of music that we're all into and throw it together and you get innermeans. really stompy, really heavy, yet at times really upbeat and punk rawk. that's us.

7.WHO INFLUENCES YOU GUYS, BOTH LYRICALLY AND MUSICALLY?

me: all Lyrics are inspired by Jesus Christ. we basically cover the struggles and failure we face every day and the refuge we find in God. Innermeans always has and always will claim to be a Christian band. We dont preach at kids telling them they're going to hell. we just live our lives and our struggles under the shadow of Jesus and let our lives be an example. Musically, we find our influence in the vein of bands such as Unbroken, Vision of Disorder, Converge, Threadbare, Coalesce... it's pretty wide and spread out as far as sound goes...

8.DOES INNERMEANS HAVE ANY KIND OF GOAL WITH BEING A BAND, OR ARE YOU ALL JUST IN IT FOR THE GOOD TIMES, TONS OF MONEY, AND HOT WOMEN?

me: yeah bro... it's all for tha girls and cash... No just jokes. for reals, we're here to further the kingdom of God and to promote Jesus Christ as our savior. We dont tell anyone what to believe. we just speak of what jesus has done in our lives. besides, hardcore is the farthest thing from a money making scene, and we're all ugly so we dont get chix.

9.IS THERE A LOT OF UNITY BETWEEN THE sXe/ VEGAN SCENE AND THE XIAN SCENE OR IS IT PRETTY DIVIDED?

me: Like i said, it's just like everyone know's what everyone believes out here and they kinda leave it at that. there are no grudges held... no one really cares. to most kids out here it's just like "yeah. you believe what you believe. i believe what i believe. let's just leave it at that." no one's really willing to be open minded to change. things are getting a lot better as far as unity goes. but there's always gonna be that barrier there of "I'm different than you." there's not much you can do about it.

10.ANY TOURING PLANS?

me: ummm... nothing solid right now. we're working on maybe touring for a few weeks with Zao after Cornerstone but i dunno how's that's gonna go. other than that, we've been getting calls to come out and play out of state so i'm gonna try and maybe throw something together. other than that, we might do this little West Coast thing out here with my friends band Inflict. they rule. they're punk rawk. heehee. . . hi mike and chris =) so nothing's for sure right now.