>A lot of stammering and head scratching. Circular reasoning, like an irritating argument.
>
>2. All of the band have had previous experience in varying other groups. How has this influenced the way you have approached being in PGMG?
>(no answer)
>
>3. What were your intentions and hopes when you formed PGMG and do you think that you have fulfilled them?
>Start a band. Play shows. Tour. Hit the waterpark on our days off.
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>4. How was going on the road with Alkaline Trio? Did their fans react well to your set?
>They didn't throw anything at us. A few kids liked us enough to let us know it.
>
5. When I saw you live at the Garage in London I was taken aback by the intensity of the show. With this in mind, do you find making an album holds you back by perhaps preventing the audience from seeing and appreciating the passion you have for music?
>I don't need to "see" anyone spazing out on stage to enjoy a record if its a good record. Some bands fail to live up to their recorded matierial and vice versa. Live and recorded are both so different, each with there (sic) own merits.
>
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>6. The new album is released on Matador, which marks your depart from smaller labels. There has been some criticism for this move (notably on Buddyhead.com, where it was said you had ‘sold out the scene’). Did the decision to sign take a lot of thought? What would you say to critics of your decision?
>Yeah. I'm fulfilling a lifelong dream. I am on a label with Cat Power, Liz Phair, Pavement, Guided By Voices, Yo La Tengo, Interpol, The Soft Boys(!), Belle and Sebatian, Solex, and dozens of other bands I have
looked up to for years. i 'm sorry about the scene and how badly its suffering after our dodgy career move.
>
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>7. One of the most striking features about your music is it’s lack of conventionality which produces a collection of sounds which shouldn’t fit but somehow do. With this in mind, how do you go about making music? Is it the case of a ‘free for all’?
>It is. With a lot of Arguing. Jarring together unlike things always has an interesting result.
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>8. It is clear from listening to your first EPs and comparing them to Good Health that your sound has developed and it seems to me you’ve got a lot tighter as a band. Will The New Romance be a continuation of what you were doing on Good Health or does it mark a change for you?
You can tell its us but, we, as a band are exploring new territory. Its head and shoulders a far better record than Good Health in my opinion. But alot of that has to do with the recording itself. We had a lot more time to work
on the New Romance.
>
>9. Do you think that the new record is the best thing that Pretty Girls Make Graves have produced?
Yes.
>
>10. How does it feel to be compared to At the Drive-In? Are they a
>particular influence of yours?
>I don't mind. It does us no justice, but most music journalists seem to be less interested in music and more in bad writing. I liked them.
>
>11. Seattle is a city with a pretty outstanding musical history. If you, or any other members of the band, grew up there how did it shape your life and your musical experience?
>(no answer)
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>12. On ‘Speakers Push the Air’ you talk about your love for music and how “Nothing else matters when I turn it up loud”. What record made you first aware of the emotional power that music possesses?
I can't remember that far back. But i am a whiz at Name That Tune.
>
>13. A lot of your contemporaries seem to be gaining increased recognition and attention in the British (and worldwide) music scene at the moment. Do you hope that PGMG can gain the same fame and publicity as the likes of Hot Hot Heat, for example, and if not, then what are your hopes for the band?
>I hope it never gets to the point that my life no longer feels like my own. I want the option of privacy
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14. So many things seem to pass for punk rock in modern music. From Avril Lavigne to Good Charlotte, the music press attach the term ‘punk’ to bands who dress in a certain way or make a particular type of video. Do you find such suggestions insulting and what does punk rock mean to you?
Punk, to me has always meant to stand on your own terms. A minority of one. obviously it has become a product with a lot of suckers falling for it. I can't really blame a lot of teenagers from the midwest with limited
exposure to whats "hip" for ruining it. Os mutantes are punk. I think I hate the word "punk". There will be another incarnation of an individual movement that abides the spirit of punk. It will just have a different name, like the beats and the hippies.