Vicky - First off you guys just released a new record which is amazing!, I bought it when it came out how did everything go with that? Like how was all the feedback and stuff?

Dustin - Than You! The feedback has been amazing so far, you know we were really unsure of how people would take the record because it's very different from the last one and i feel like theres a lot more variety on it you know we put a lot more emotion and time into it so it came out exactly how we wanted it to

Vicky - How long did it take you guys to write and record it?

Matt - Well I guess for the songs maybe the course of about 6 months and then we pretty much took a month and a half or two months to just put it all together

Dustin - Yeah just get down to the grind, everyday for two months we were just peicing them all together

Matt - Yeah it was like a full time job to just get all the songs together and then we went to florida and recorded for 6 weeks with James Paul Wisner

Vicky - Yeah I was going to ask you about him, How did you like working with him?

Matt - Oh he's amazing he's a really creative guy he's worked with a lot of bands

Vicky - Yeah he did The Academy Is... I think

Matt - He's done The Academy Is..., he's done UnderOath, he's done Dashboard Confessional so we were excited to work with someone that had such wide variety of bands you know, and we knew we wanted to have a lot of variety on our record so it worked out great

Vicky - Yeah it came out really good

Matt - Thank you

Vicky - So you're on all of Warped Tour right?

Matt & Dustin - Yes

Vicky - How has it been so far?

Dustin - It's exaughsting but it's paid off well so far kids have really been reacting great to our new songs and new live show so it's been great it's going to be sad when it's over but you know it was definitely a great experience this year

Vicky - Would you do it again next year?

Dustin - Sure, it's actually our 3rd year so why not keep going with it

Vicky - Do you have a favorite city that you've played on Warped?

Dustin - Yeah Chicago was actually I think one of my favorites just because the kids there are so incredible for some reason it's like a second hometown to us even though most of the band is from SanDiego it's also amazing playing at The Gorge in Seattle because it's like a famous venue and it's the best looking place in the world and it's just amazing

Vicky - Do you guys get to shower often?

Matt - hahaha uh sometimes

Dustin - haha it's kind of a choice thing some people chose to shower daily some people chose to hold off a little bit including myself

Vicky - so they do have them?

Dustin - Yeah if you want to shower everyday it's possible but sometimes i'd rather rest and i'll just take a rest and get a little sleep

Vicky - Yeah, what are your touring plans after warped?

Matt - After Warped Tour for about a week we are going to tour with a band called The Higher mostly west coast just a few shows and then we're going directly from that to Europe for about 2 weeks and then from Europe to the UK for 2 weeks so we're going to get some over seas action going on in september in october, which we can't wait for

Vicky - So you guys are from SanDiego right?

Matt - Me and him are actually the only two that are not

Stacey - Where are you guys from?

Dustin - I'm from Pittsburg and Matt's from DC

Stacey - Oh I'm from Lancaster

Dustin - Lancaster, PA?

Stacey - Yeah

Dustin - Nice, east coast what what

Vicky - Did you guys start out playing shows around you guys or in SanDiego?

Matt - We were both in local bands from our areas

Dustin - It's kind of like the same story for both of us we both were in bands that knew My American Heart and we were friends with them but both of our bands they decided to i don't know things just didn't work out

Vicky - So when you guys got together did you like go to them or did they come to you or did you just go on a tour immedately and start somewhere else?

Dustin - Oh it's completely different for both of us Matt's band broke up and then we were looking to find a new guitar player once Jeremy left about a year ago and that's when we got in touch with Matt and then I was still in my band when they got in touch with me but they weren't sure if I wanted to continue on with my band and neither was I so thats when I decided to leave the band I was in that's how it was really

Vicky - How old were you guys when you got into music and stuff?

Matt - Into music? I have been in bands and have been playing since I was like 13 or 14 and when I started playing guitar I was about 10 years old

Dustin - I started playing bass in like 5th grade so like 11 or 12 years old and then I started taking it seriously and started joining bands when I was like 13, 14, middle school

Vicky - Was it...hard to start off that young?

Dustin - No, because it always starts off as fun you know? And then your life takes you in certian directions and  for us it led us into a direction where we realized we could actually take it seriously so that's it

Vicky - You guys have been getting pretty big since the tour with TheAudition like last year how do you feel about that?

Dustin - I wouldn't say we are big I mean we still have a lot of work to do

Vicky - I mean you guys have done a lot already

Dustin - Yeah it's good to have our name our a lot more and being on Warped Tour 3 years in a row it's great to see that the response every year is just growing and growing especially the east coast it's sad that we haven't even been here in over a year and so far all the east coast shows have been incredible fans are still coming back you know we were afraid that people forgot about us but insted they just got more hyped to come see us and it's been so long so it's just great

Vicky - What bands have you guys been watching?

Matt - We watch Hot Rod Circut today we were just on the bus with them, i've been watching Gallows, hmm some Circa

Dustin - I love watching Bayside, a band called Evaline they're really cool, but every band on this tour is really cool in their own way

Vicky - If you weren't in a band what do you think would you would probably want to do?

Matt - I'd probably be selling flowers and Dustin would be waiting tables

Stacey - Selling flowers?

Matt -Yep

Stacey - Why?

Matt - I don't know just because

Dustin - And I would wait tables because I like to

Stacey - Really?

Dustin - Yeah at benagins

Stacey - I was there like two days ago I was at the apple store trying to find a mac computer

Dustin - Well keep an eye out for me there I might be there

Matt - I used to work at a benagins

Stacey - I work at Journeys now

Matt - Jorneys? Journeys is fun good shoes get me a pair

Stacey - I can get you shoes 40%

Matt - Really?

Stacey - Yeah come to my store

Dustin - Let's go.

Vicky - Annie from Rhode Island wants to know what was your inspiration for "Shake"?

Dustin - The inspiration for Shake? Most of the new record is all based on different experiences that we've gone through in the past few years as a band personal things and band related things there's a little bit of both in that song I wouldn't say thats a specific song that has to do with one little thing but we've had a lot of issues involving a few certian people like friends, family, and just random people in the industry or whatever and that's song's kind of a gerneral expression for that i guess it's kind of all about how we can just keep going through all of it

Vicky - Alright and she also wants to know...What's the wiredest thing that's happend to you at a show?

Matt - The show got rained out the other day like a few days ago and they called off the entire show and then like 10 mintues later they were like oh the shows still going to go on and it was literally like a tornado and it was hailing and everybodys tents got destroyed, merchandise got destroyed and the show kept going so we had to play like a 20 mintue set after everything got ruined

Dustin - yeah our speakers got rained on so they were all pretty much ruined we had to get a whole new set of them it was kind of dumb if we had a mintue to think about that a lot more crazy stuff could've happend, we've all hurt eachother onstage a few times I gave Matt a little scar yesterday *points to a horrible scratch on Matts face* And like a year ago I went to stage dive and I hit my head on an over head monitor it caused a little damage there haha that's why I don't remember much of my life anymore, my brain doesn't work

Vicky - Well we have to cut it short so is there anything you'd like to add or say to your fans?

Dustin - Well I don't know, we love everybody and we'd rather have friends than fans so always come say hello at shows and everyone keep it real and take care

Vicky - Alright thank you guys!

Anthony - So far so good I think, people seem to like it, our fans seem to like it which is the most important thing

Vicky - Has it been selling good?

Anthony - Yeah it's been selling great it's probably our best selling one so far.

Stacey - Congrats.

Anthony - Thank You!

Vicky - What's your thought process like when writting your songs?

Anthony - It's all stream of conciousness kind of lyrically and musically. I'll pretty much just sit down with a guitar and play and play and play and whatever I play next I kind of feel should come next whatever I think feels right you know?

Stacey - Yeah.

Anthony - I kind of write my lyrics as journal entries really. I just kind of pull them out of my head but sometimes to fit them into a song i chop them up a little bit to make it neater

Vicky - Where do you draw your inspration for your lyrics

Anthony - Just from everyday life you know stuff that i've been through and stuff that i'm thinking about. I used to write strictly from my everyday life for our past albums just like every song is about a specific experience but now i write more about concepts and incidents

Vicky - Any plans for your next music video?

Anthony - We're talking about it now, we're trying to figure out what song to do and we have no idea whenever we figure out what the song is then we will come up with a concept

Vicky - What's your favorite song to play live?

Anthony - The Title track on the new record it's called "Walking Wounded"

Stacey - Is there a reason?

Anthony - It's just really energetic and it has a lot of different parts in it. It's got the real quiet slow parts. Then the fast parts and then the solos and stuff like that. Theres a big crowd sing along. So it's really exciting

Vicky - What are your plans after Warped as for touring?

Anthony - We are going to Austrailia right after the tour, after about a week after the tour ends we go straight to austrailia. Then we come home and we're headlining the victory records tour

Vicky - Where's your favorite place to play?

Anthony - I love playing in New York, since it's our hometown. I love playing hometown shows, where the crowd is great! It's always really amazing, actually the tour in the winter we are headlining the Nokia Theatre that's definitely going to be the biggest show we've ever headlined

Vicky - Have you ever been there?

Anthony - yeah we played there once before, we opened for Hawthorne Heights there. This will be our first time headlining there though and in a place that big. We are so excited about that and playing in NY means my phone never stops ringing my friends and everybody comes to the show, my mom is calling my every 30 seconds asking what time we go on. It's kind of a pain in the ass  to play at home but when we are onstage it's great!

Vicky - Yeah it holds like something thousand people in there i think

Anthony - yeah it holds 2,300

Vicky - oh wow

Anthony - yeah the nokia theatre is pretty big

Vicky - So if it sells out it's going to be huge!

Vicky - Have you been enjoying warped and would you play it again next year?

Anthony - I love it and I really hope they ask us back next year because this is the funest tour we've ever been on we've been touring for seven years and have been on hundreds of tours and this is definitely the funest tour ever

Vicky - Yeah and you guys win the extra 10 mintue thing all the time!

Anthony - Yeah we've won that a bunch of times! It's so cool just hanging out with all the other bands and stuff like that. Everyone who works on the tour here is always so nice, it's like being at camp

Vicky - What bands do you usually see on Warped?

Anthony - That i go to watch? um..New Found Glory i watch them almost every day, we're very close friends with the a lot of the bands. Alkaline Trio is one of my favorite bands so i try and watch them everyday, The Toasters I watch a lot they're like a ska band they've been around for about 20 years I used to go see them when i was like 13

Vicky - Do you have any crazy tour stories?

Anthony - Crazy tour stories...it's always hard to come up with them when people ask, people always ask us and we can never think of anything and then it happens and we're like aw man I know I'm not going to remember this when it comes the time. Crazy tour stories...the only thing I can think of right now is that we played in DC I think it was a couple of weeks ago and I was kind of egging the fans on and some of the security guards were lined up against the stage kind of leaning against the speakers with their arms crossed and they looked like they were bored, so i told the fans that if anybody can get on to the stage that they could get a tshirt. So kids just started crowd surfing and piling over the security guards it was crazy they had to call in backups and stuff because kids were trying to jump up on the stage and the security guards couldn't even keep them off

Vicky - Oh my gosh.. um if you weren't in a band what do you think you'd be doing?

Anthony - Aw man I never even think about that I'd probably be working with a band..before bayside started touring and started doing well I did merch for Brand New for a few years, so I'd probably be doing merch or be guitar teching

Vicky - So anything music related?

Anthony - I'd probably be on tour, if not playing I'd be working

Vicky - What's currently on your ipod?

Anthony - I manage a band called The Status they're from Georgia they just recorded some new songs and i've been listening to their stuff a lot, the New Found Glory cover record, and the new Eisley record is amazing

Vicky - We don't want to make this too long, so is there anything you want to add or say to your fans?

Anthony - I just want to say thanks to all the fans, we have a really rapid fanbase our fans are very dedicated, and seeing all these other bands and their fanbase and the way they interact we just really put it up against ours and our fanbase may not be as big as bands like UnderOath or something...but our fans are definitely the best supportive

Derek - It was great. I mean, obviously it's a lot of work ya know it's a really stressful tour. It's just so hot and it's a lot of work and um it's a lot better this year actually playing because you feel like you're a real band that's part of a tour ya know and not just outside kinda following it. But it really like gave us like a kick start cause we had just started the band like 6 months before that so we were already selling like a bunch of CDs so it helped a lot.

Stacey - How do you guys feel in 2005 when you came together and recorded your debut EP all so fast?

Derek - How do I feel?

Stacey - Yeah

Derek - It was great. Like I said, we really had to rush to get this CD ready just to sell it at Warped Tour last year ya know. And the fact that we were able to like just start the band and just get enough money to make a recording and then you go like already start selling a bunch of CDs and getting a bunch of fans and plays on myspace it was really awesome. I felt like everything was moving really fast and we were happy with the way things were going.

Vicky - Did you think it was too rushed?

Derek - No not really. I felt like we worked really hard last summer and stuff to make it happen.

Stacey - How did you guys come up with the name Mayday Parade?

Derek - Um basically we don't have a great story for that.

Stacey - That's ok.

Derek - It was pretty simple really. Jake our drummer liked the word mayday. Like we knew we had to get a name and so we weren't sure what to use or whatever and instead of everyone just like thinking about it we decided to use the word mayday and then we were actually at a christmas parade 2 years ago and were like alright Mayday Parade. Not really an interesting story.

Stacey - How did your first tour go?

Derek - Well actually our first tour was Warped Tour selling CDs outside. That was the first tour we did. We didn't play though so I guess I don't know if that counts as a tour. The first tour that we actually did play was great. For a lot of the guys in the band it was their first experience touring with a band and playing shows and stuff so that was really neat. It was fun I mean we love touring it's awesome.

Stacey - You guys just released your first full length album not too long ago. How was that?

Derek - The first full length album is an awesome feeling for all of us cause none of us have ever done that before never actually been apart of a full length album. It feels like a really big accomplishment. The fact that it's out on a label and it's not just like a CD that we have like to give to our friends at home or whatever. It's in like nationwide stores and everything it's so cool. So for us it's a really big deal like we love it. We love being part of it and everything and we're really excited about the full length. We're happy with how it came out.

Vicky - Yeah I saw it in Best Buy.

Stacey - How did you like recording it with Zack Bodum and Kenneth Mount?

Derek - That was awesome.

Vicky - They did Cartel's CD.

Derek - Yeah those are the 2 coolest guys ever. Like we didn't really know what to expect going into a studio cause we never worked with producers before so we really had no clue how it was gonna go. We were kinda nervous but they were super super nice guys. Just amazing at what they did. Really helped a lot to kinda like get the album where it was and it was an amazing experience we loved it.

Stacey - Alright. You guys were in an accident with your new trailer. What happened?

Derek - Actually that was our old trailer that's why we had to get a new trailer.

Stacey - The same thing happened to me except I didn't have a trailer obviously.

Derek - Oh yeah we still hit the deer.

Stacey - Oh I missed the deer but it doesn't really matter.

Vicky - We saw a dead deer in the street today.

Derek - It was so rough. We all woke up to like the van swirving and stuff. Like we turned around and looked and there was our trailer upside down in the interstate. There's boxes of CDs everywhere and a semi's running over our stuff. It was terrible. It was really bad. That was Brooks's birthday too last year that was on Brooks's birthday.

Stacey - Aw that had to suck.

Derek - Yeah.

Stacey - So how's Warped Tour been for you guys so far?

Derek - It's been great. It's an exhausting tour just being in a van. Like with people in busses it's a little different. Just having to drive every night and not getting sleep and get up early and be out in the sun all day everyday. It's a little tiring but it's so worth it. It's so much fun and you meet all kinds of amazing bands like awesome people. And all the kids are cool and it's a great opportunity to like get new fans and stuff so we love it.

Vicky - How do you get to like shower and stuff?

Derek - Luckily they actually have showers on the inside of Warped Tour. So like last year when we followed it, we weren't able to take showers.

Vicky - That's what I thought cause like last year a lot of bands were like oh yeah we can't take showers.

Derek - I mean it's been at least like 4 or 5 days since I've taken a shower because it's kinda hard. There's like 2 showers for like everybody so you have to like wait in line forever. It's a big hassle but there are showers available so if you really need to you can take one.

Vicky - Well, that's good.

Derek - Yeah.

Stacey - What was your favorite city that you guys played in so far?

Derek - Favorite city we've played so far. Overall or on Warped Tour?

Stacey - Overall.

Derek - Um we really really like San Francisco a lot. That's our favorite city. San Francisco is amazing. There's a lot of really cool cities though we really love Seattle, Portland is great, San Antonio is great. There's so many awesome cities that we get to go to and hang out.

Stacey - Have you guys been getting like pretty decent sized crowds and good reactions?

Derek - Yeah especially at Warped Tour. It's been cool. There's so many variables at Warped Tour. Like it depends on what time you're playing and who's playing on the main stage whenever you play like kids are gonna be there and things like that. But overall like it's great. It's awesome that like even just to have like a couple hundred kids like watching you is amazing. There's a lot of kids singing along to like the new stuff and old stuff and everything so we're really really excited about that.

Stacey - What's the craziest thing that's happened so far like in terms of like tour stories and things like that?

Derek - Um there's been a lot. Uh actually on Warped Tour not much has happened just because this tour is so like you work all day long and then you drive through the night you dont have enough time to do a lot of stuff. Like if you're not driving you're sleeping you know what I mean? But umm one of the greatest tour stories that I can think of was our tour we did with the Plain White T's. It was the last day of the tour so it was kinda like everyone was playing pranks on everybody because it was the last night of the tour ya know? And it was just a really fun night like the guys came out and wrapped us in duct tape and throwing stuff at us while we're playing and everything. The greatest thing though was the venue we were playing at was this place called I think it was The Dora or something. It was in Dallas, Texas I don't know. No I'm sorry it was The Gypsie Tea Ballroom. But anyway it was their last night of having a show ever and they were shutting the venue down so somewhere rumor got started they didn't care what we did to the place cause it was their last night so like backstage everyone was like hey they don't care if we trash the place so we completely trashed the place. Like I mean we like took chairs and put them through walls and stuff. Like we demolished just like completely destroyed like the whole backstage of this place and then like they came back and they were just like freaking out like oh my god why did you do that cause apparently we weren't allowed to do that like I don't know how it got started that we were supposed to do that cause it was just a rumor. Like they tried to sue us sue the Plain White T's like nobody got paid that night it was a huge deal but it was fun cause we just like completely trashed the place.

Vicky - Did you guys like end up having to pay them?

Derek - We didn't. No I don't think anyone else did I don't think they did but I don't know.

Stacey - Would you guys consider playing Warped Tour next year?

Derek - Oh yeah we'd love to absolutely. I'd love to play it every year. Even though it is a little tiring it's still worth it ya know so I would love to play it as long as they'll have us.

Stacey - Which one of the guys in the band would most likely pull a Pete Wentz?

Derek - Pull a Pete Wentz?

Stacey - Yeah.

Derek - Oh man I'd definately say Jake our drummer. He's like I don't know like I'm not gonna say anything bad about him he's a great guy.

Stacey - That question was for my own entertainment I'm sorry. What are some bands that you admire either on Warped Tour or just in general?

Derek - There's a lot of really good bands on this tour. Well my favorite bands one of them is Queen which obviously they're not a band anymore. But I mean like Freddy Mercury is my idol. I think he's just amazing. There's a band from Florida called Further Seems Forever there's a band called Shailud they're 2 of my favorite bands. There's a lot of bands on this tour that we love too. There's Family Force 5 is so much fun to watch. Those guys it's ridiculous. It's so much fun to watch those guys. There's so many good bands on this tour it's so awesome to watch all of them.

Stacey - You're signed to Fearless Records correct?

Derek - Mmhmm.

Stacey - Was that your first and only record deal?

Derek - Yep mmhmm.

Stacey - No one else offered you anything?

Derek - Oh yeah we had a lot of offers but that was the one that we decided to go with.

Stacey - Is there a particular reason you chose Fearless?

Derek - Yeah really like at the time that we signed with them we were talking to a bunch of different labels and they were definately the ones that were like the most like into it. Whenever we met with them they like rented out a space for us to showcase for them. They took us to the office would talk to us for a long time and like put a lot of effort into like showing that they cared you know what I mean? And a lot of the other labels they didn't really like do that it was just kind of like they were interested but they weren't like making the effort and we were really happy with a lot of the things that Fearless had done so we decided to go with them and they had a really good contract.

Stacey - Was it difficult to get on Warped Tour?

Derek - Um I don't know.

Stacey - Oh you don't do that?

Derek - I'm not really sure. It was pretty much our label that got us on the tour. I assume cause we're not doing the whole thing so it probably is but um we didn't necessarily have to work ourselves to do it. It was just kinda like the label.

Vicky - They didn't like offer you anything last year? Or did they like not know you were following?

Derek - Oh I'm not sure I really don't know if they knew.

Stacey - If you weren't in a band what else would you be doing?

Derrek - Oh man that's tough. Um probably nothing. I have no idea what i'd be doing. I would have to do something with music definately. Cause you can't be in a band forever ya know? So when the day comes when i like have to do something or wanna do something else like working with a record label. I dunno just anything like even something like composing soundtracks to movies or something like that. That would be so much fun. Uh I'd like to avoid going to college and a lot of jobs are hard to do whenever you do that.

Stacey - Have you been watching any of the bands on Warped Tour?

Derek - Mmhmm.

Stacey - Which ones?

Derek - Um like I definately check out Family Force 5. Like those guys are great. Straylight Run, Spill Canvas, The Starting Line's always really good. Alessana is really good there's so many good bands it's crazy there's so many fun bands it's awesome to watch them.

Stacey - What's currently on your IPod?

Derek - My IPod um I've been listening to a lot of the new My Chemical Romance CD.

Stacey - Ohh addicted.

Derek - Yeah like I can't lie I was not expecting that CD to be very good. I was never a big fan of theirs. I didn't like the last CD. I thought it was okay. I was kinda like I didn't really like them. I kinda always thought that their next CD was just gonna be terrible it was just gonna bomb.

Stacey - I thought the same thing.

Derek - I thought there was no way the CD was gonna be good. And then like I had got it and I'm listening to it and I was like this CD is awesome. It's really cool but im also a really big fan of Queen. They've been through a lot of stuff as a band like songs of Queen is just genius. So I've been listening to a lot of that. The new Brand New CD is really good Bright Eyes there's a lot of stuff.

Stacey - After you're done with Warped Tour what do you plan on doing?

Derek - Really just staying on the road as much as possible. We're going straight out after Warped Tour with Alessana and As Cities Burn and Jonesetta and we really love being on the road and being on the road as much as possible.

Stacey - And is there anything else you wanna add or say to your fans?

Derek - We want all the fans to know that if they like come to shows and stuff that we really really like meeting people and hanging out with people. So like we want people to come talk to us and like going out to eat after a show or like whatever. Like we actually get really sad at the end of the show if like everyone's gone and we always like to meet people and just go hang out and like find something to do like let's go get some food or whatever ya know?

Stacey - I can't wait to eat everyone keeps mentioning food.

Derek - Oh yeah. So we definately want kids to know that we like want to do that.

Stacey - Ok so thank you for the interview it was great.

Derek - Yeah thank you guys.

Vicky - You guys are awesome.

Chris - I didn't even see the bull turn. It literally happened when I closed my eyes to blink. All I knew was that there was a bull throwing me up in the air. I didn't even realize that I was hurt until I was sore the next day.

Stacey - Do you think you'll be doing Running Of The Bulls again?

Chris - No. I have no desire to go back to that terrible mess of a festival. It's the worst place on earth but I tolerate it for 45 minutes.

Stacey - What inspired you to begin writing?

Chris - I began writing because that's what people did in the hardcore scene with fanzines. I did it because I wanted to have a zine. But what I found was the more I wrote, the better and more relieved I felt. It was like an addiction. So I wrote more honestly and people seemed to respond fairly positive to it.

Stacey - Do you regret quitting your job to further your writing career?

Chris - Absolutely not. I don't regret anything about that. But odds are, it won't work out. But no, I'm taking a chance but while I'm in the moment I get to live my dream.

Stacey - What's your favorite story from each of your books and why?

Chris - Hmm. Well, from "On The Upswing" I would say "Young, Poor, and Snotty" just because it reminds me of the awesome times with my dudes. I don't think it's the best story I've ever written, actually I think the way it's written is pretty shitty. I seemed to combine like five stories into one mess of an episode.

Stacey - And what about from Live Deliberate?

Chris - Well, that's the book I actually took seriously. See, the first book I treated more like a pretty zine with a glossy cover. I had never written anything BUT zines and I didn't expect to sell anymore than a couple hundred copies if I was lucky. Imagine how it felt when I sold 1050 in seven months. Then I thought to myself, "wow, I guess people are actually entertained by what I do". Note I didn't say they necessarily LIKED it. So with "Live Deliberate", I wrote it with a proper book format in mind. So the stories that I like in the book I like for different reasons. "My First Hero" is the most vulnerable story I've ever written.

Stacey - What was the hardest story for you to write and share with people?

Chris - Definately "My First Hero". It's not a story so much as it is a confession. It really took a lot out of me and it was one of those stories that I had to think twice about including because I didn't know how it would be received because of the way that I treated my mother and my irrational behavior as a child. But that's when I knew I did a decent job as far as my skills are concerned.

Stacey - Are you used to the fact that you now have fans and they consider you their hero and their inspiration?

Chris - You say that as if many people do haha. Am I "used to it". Absolutely not. I am humbled and honored by it though. Someday I just hope to see what they see.

Stacey - Because a lot of your fans are younger, do you sometimes feel that you have to edit yourself and that you have some sort of responsibility to them?

Chris - Well that is something that has been concerning me because I've realized that whether I've asked for it or not, that responsibility has been thrust upon me. And yes, sometimes I do think twice about something that I might talk about. But then the "Am I compromising myself" question comes into play. And if there's something I have to say that I'm a bit unsure of I just make sure to word it carefully.

Stacey - Has there ever been anything that you have shared with the lurkers that you wish you didn't?

Chris - Um, no. But there are instances where I shared too much information that people have taken advantage of and used it to try and hurt me.

Stacey - Did you ever figure out what you want written on your gravestone?

Chris - Honestly, no. "Solid Dude."

Stacey - Good choice. What's the next thing for you to tackle on your List Of Things To Do Before You Die?

Chris - Hopefully swim with the sharks next month in Australia.

Stacey - That sounds really dangerous.

Chris - I also want to learn how to speak Spanish. That's been on the list for awhile but especially after I went to Spain I really want to learn it.

Stacey - What are your biggest fears and have you ever let your fears get the best of you?

Chris - My biggest fear is that I don't live correctly. Well, that's vague or in my eyes. It's like, I did the Running Of The Bulls for the second time because I didn't think I did it right the first time. I felt I played it too safe which I did so the second time, I didn't. Aaand I got hit by a bull. But hey that's what happens.

Stacey - If you were given the chance to re-connect with your father and hear what he had to say, would you?

Chris - I feel I already have and he didn't have anything to say. I don't feel that I'm in the position to have to beg him for emotions, you know? Like, I care, I do. I'm mature enough now to admit it because I denied it for years. But if the dude doesn't have much to say to me I'm not going to follow him around like a little kid who wants more candy. If he has anything to say, I'm more than willing to listen and be empathetic. If he called or e-mailed and asked to go to lunch, I would in a heartbeat. But I don't think he has or ever was taught how to be a compassionate person.

Stacey - Now that the Live Deliberate tour is over, do you have any future plans to do more speakings and readings or possibly another tour?

Chris - August I will be in Australia, September is the next US tour, October is the UK and November is Canada.

Stacey - Are there any plans for a third book?

Chris - Oh definately. I'm working on one as we speak. It's about 20% finished. Not bad for less than a month's work.

Stacey - Definately not. Good luck with that. Will you be recording another spoken word CD?

Chris - Probably not. If I do anything it would be reading my books on CD. I have a few blind lurkers.

Stacey - Haha nice. Is there anything else that you would like to add that we didn't cover?

Chris - Listen to Slayer.

Stacey - Would you like to say anything to your fans?

Chris - Words only diminish the appreciation I have for the people who believe in me...all I can say is, "Thank You" over and over.