C: How do the songs you were doing before this compare with the new record?

JM: It's kind of weird because they never got the chance to be recorded in the way that these songs did. The just got demoed. They were a little more all over the place. From the time we got signed, we really just found our sound as a band, and I really found my place as a songwriter. Before, I'd here a cool song by somebody, and I'd say to myself "Oh, that's cool. Maybe I should try to do something like that." It was a little more all over the place, whereas with this record I just wanted to write songs by me and for me, and I want to make more of a statement of who I am as a songwriter, rather than what's around at the moment or what's going on at the moment.

C: Speaking of place, how do you see yourself fitting into the rock 'n' roll picture that is the year 2000?

JM: Well, it's kind of a weird thing. Like I was saying, we really just wanted to represent ourselves, and we were never swayed by the fact that a lot of music in this genre is just getting heavier and heavier. Even though we listen to some of that music, that's not really us. In terms of finding a place for ourselves, it's nothing we really thought too hard about. We were never really like, 'Okay, what kind of record could we make that'll fit into what's going on at the moment,' we just went out to make the best record we could. Hopefully, the songs will speak for themselves.

C: What do you think of the state of pop music right now?

JM: I don't know. There seems to be a problem with bands that get signed for one song. They'll have that one really good song, and the rest of the album will be a little bit crappy. That's what we were deliberately trying to avoid, to not have any songs where people go, "Oh, yeah, I always skip over that track," but really just make it so that every song stood up on its own and was a strong song in its own right. That's definitely what we were trying to go for.

C: That's true. I buy certain records, and the singles are great, but the rest of the record's just terrible.

JM: What got us thinking about that was just being consumers. We obviously play music, and we're big music fans, and I think just as consumers we got sick of buying an album and the rest of it, except for the singles, just sucking. It just got so frustrating. We're not going to fall into that, and that's why even up to the last minute, we were pushing ourselves to make every song on there great. Even in the last few days, we were throwing away songs that people said would be great for the album. We knew we could put out something better. We just got so sick of buying albums and having that problem.

C: Speaking of consumerism, your songs have appeared in a couple of teen-oriented movies. Do you think that group is going to make up the majority of the people buying this record? It's got the catchiness of some teen-oriented stuff, but it's also got the maturity of something adults would like.

JM: That's totally what we were trying. We definitely felt when the record was finished that it appealed to a wide audience. We get e-mails from people who are fifteen, but also from people who are in their thirties and forties. That's awesome for us. We get asked how we feel about your music being in movies and television shows, and anything that gets our music to more people is something that we want to do. We're trying to get an audience of people who enjoy our music, not so much trying to go for a certain demographic. We just want to put our music out there, and whoever enjoys it is more than welcome. We weren't trying to throw something out that was teen-oriented. As musicians, we strive for more than that. We wanted the record to be accessible, yet we still wanted it to be challenging in some respects, without losing the base of the songs. Any fan we get is awesome.

C: Any fan's a good fan.

JM: You bet. We get the nicest e-mails from people.

C: Have you gotten any really weird hate mail yet?

JM: (laughs) Not yet!

C: That's very fortunate.

JM: Not yet, I'm sure it'll be coming (laughs). Thus far, we've been very lucky. Even everyone we've played in front of has given us a great reaction.