Jonathan Callicutt: vocals, guitar
Griffin Campbell: bass, backing vocals
David Parker: drums, backing vocals
Jason Sneath: trumpet, backing vocals

SS: HOW DID THE BAND GET STARTED?...ORIGIN OF THE NAME...ETC.

JONATHAN: The name came from James Joyce's novel, "Ulysses." They were three words on one page that I thought sounded good together, phonetically pure. Griffin and I knew each other from the South Carolina Governor's School of the Arts and we both ended up going to the University of Georgia and we thought that maybe we could have some fun playing in a band. We've never really been in one before so we were kind of unexperienced. We got David through an ad in a newspaper as well as our old trumpet player, Jason's actually our third, but that's kind of where we came from.

SS: WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR PREVIOUS TWO TRUMPET PLAYERS?

JONATHAN: The first one moved to go to grad school in Memphis and the second one was really committed to school and marching band and we were all graduating and wanted to go on the road full time so we just had different goals.

SS: WHERE DID YOU GUYS GO FOR THIS TOUR?

JONATHAN: We did Pittsburgh, Toledo, Cincinnati, two days off, four days in Chicago, Detroit, we came down here tonight in Spartanburg, tomorrow Hilton Head, Wilmington on Saturday, and then we're off for a couple of days. Wait...we played somewhere last night. Knoxville last night.

SS: DID YOU GUYS GO OVER WELL UP NORTH?

JONATHAN: We actually do, it's really surprising, especially New York. The first time we went up there I was really afraid of you know, "Southern Boys" blah blah blah, whatever, "We don't want to hear the hillbilly music," but everybody just had a great time and the last couple of nights we went to New York we played three night gigs and we had a whole lot of fun. Chicago was good too, Ohio and Pennsyvania are good too.

SS: SO HAVE YOU GUYS ALL GRADUATED FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA?

JONATHAN: Um, David and Jason are waiting to finish and Griffin and I graduated last year.

SS: WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE LABEL THAT PUT OUT YOUR FIRST ALBUM? WHY AREN'T YOU WITH THEM ANYMORE?

JONATHAN: It's kind of a difficult question, you don't really want to say anything bad about anybody. They were sort of new to the game and so were we. We really didn't know what to expect from a label and they kind of didn't know what to do with the album once we got done with it. We sold a lot of copies of it, it's just certain things were managed poorly on our part and their part due to lack of experience. Those guys moved from Atlanta up to New York and we just decided to do the second album on our own.

SS: DIDN'T YOU GUYS COMPLETELY SELL OUT YOUR FIRST ALBUM THOUGH?

JONATHAN: Yeah, it's all gone. We sold like 5,000 copies. People are calling us all the time wanting to know how to get the old album and I don't even know. I don't even own a copy of it myself. The old label is called Desafinado and the best way to do it is to get onto their website and ask them if you can get a copy from them. That's the only way I know how to get it anymore.

SS: SINCE YOU GUYS ARE IN THE ATHENS (GA) SCENE, HOW DO YOU LIKE IT?

JONATHAN: The Athens scene is alright. Athens is a great great town and we love calling that place home. We go everywhere and I can't think of anywhere else where I would live. The Athens scene is kind of strange. I've been there for five and half years and it's never been the music town that everyone says it is. There's a whole lot of bands there and there are some really cool clubs there. The 40 Watt Club is probably one of the best places to play in the country. But there's really not much of a scene. There's a couple of bands out there that we're really good friends with like The Quadrajets -- a couple of guys from that band live in Athens but they're basically from Auburn. And a little bit of a honkey tonk band called the Star Room Boys so there are a couple of us that are real tight and we support each other. That's about it.

SS: DO YOU GUYS KNOW THE WOGGLES?

JONATHAN: I know Manfred. He works at a record store in town called Wuxtry. I've seen him on a number of occasions. They come to see us once in awhile. Hillbilly Frankenstein was a lot of fun when they were around. One of their guitarists, I'm friends with, he runs a music store and he gives me a good deal on strings.

SS: YOU GUYS SEEM TO PLAY COLUMBIA A LOT, DO YOU LIKE PLAYING THERE?

JONATHAN: That's where I grew up, it's where I'm from. And the Elbow Room has been a pretty good gig for us lately. They pay us well, they're good people and it's not too far from home.

SS: HOW DID YOU GUYS LIKE THE RIVERFEST UP IN COLUMBIA?

JONATHAN: Riverfest was cool, it was strange because we were really late. We had gotten stuck in traffic on the interstate between Athens and Columbia and it was bad weather in Athens when we left. So we got there really really late and so we just had to throw everything on stage and play. It was a lot of fun and the people there seemed to have a good time and the Cigar Store Indians are good friends of ours and they're a great band, so it's always good to play in front of them.

SS: WHAT ARE FUTURE PLANS FOR THE BAND?

JONATHAN: To do this for as long as we can. As long as we're all having a good time and as long as we're still writing good new songs that are helping us grow musically.

SS: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF SPINAL TAP?

JONATHAN: Spinal Tap! (laughs) I always thought Spinal Tap was really really funny. I have two really old amps and all the knobs go to 12. So I always felt that I had one up on the 11, but that's beside the point. It's really funny. We feel like Spinal Tap once in awhile, like when we play a big show and nobody shows. You can hear the crickets chirping in the background but I don't think that we'll ever have a big Stonehenge backdrop come down though. But that's about it.

THE END