What happened with the label? Is this record out on your own imprint?
Yeah, this is our own imprint, it’s called Ohlone Recordings now. We are working with ILG, which is Independent Label Group out in New York. They are basically a distribution and promotion company. They are going to take control with that side of things, which is actually a huge help because we wouldn’t be good at that. This is on our label and we are really happy about that. Things don’t really feel that different to be honest. There is a little bit more freedom, but we had a lot of freedom on Interscope as well. It’s more like a name change.
You’re a visual artist as well, have you gotten a chance to paint at all?
Not as much as I’d like. Drew and I did the artwork for our last record, our friend Rohner [Segnitz, Division Day] who has done a lot of our past records, he did El Celio, he has been a part of all our websites, and he did the artwork for this new record. Obviously, we had like an outline for him and helped with art direction and so on, but not as much painting as I have done in the past. We were more focused on creating the record. Drew has done a lot still, but myself, not so much.
Do you plan on or have you done exhibits at any galleries?
I have only done one, Drew and I have done one in San Francisco. That was fun. Drew just had a showing in Philadelphia; I think it was in AP magazine like musicians that are painters. He did a series of all the presidents, it was kind of cool.
Is your writing process a pretty collaborative thing?
Usually, it’s just based on us getting into a room, playing together and recording it all. It’s kind of how we have always written. It’s a democratic approach. We all contribute, and pretty much everyone writes their parts. I do all the lyrics and vocal melodies. Sometimes, these songs are derived of me singing and Dino playing drums and keyboards at the same time and a baseline, like ‘I Don’t Know’ and ‘Savior’ both came out pretty quickly like that. Verse, chorus, post chorus, and there’s the jest of the song, and it’s really spontaneous. To be honest, I don’t even know how we do it, or what we do. We just get into a room and do it.