// INTERVIEWS

My Interview w/ Aimee Echo
July 12, 2004 @ Modified in Phoenix, AZ
Interviewer: siX

// MYquestions
1) What are some of your favorite tracks off of Initiation?
Ooooh. The same old thang. I know i've said this before but I'll say it again. I love them all equally because they are all different. They are like my children. Can't have a preference, but it seems to me the one I want to hear most right now is "the Conversation." I don't know why but right now when I am listening to it that is the one i go to first.

2) How has your relationship with your mother helped you?
She has always been so incredibly supportive. Without her there would not be theSTART fundamentally because of so many things. Emotionally. Econominally. *laugh* She is always there for us. Promoting and the whole nine yards.

3) Everyone has been dying to hear "the sin original". The one girl who has it refuses to share it. Would you be okay with fans hearing it or is it something you want to remain a mystery?
It's weird because it didn't come out quite--the reason it's not on the record is because it didn't come out the way we wanted it to come out. And so the way i feel about that is, if we chose not to release it then it shouldn't be released. Remain a mystery

4) How would you feel about fans getting "circles" tattooed on their bodies?
I think it's amazing. I think it's really, really intresting. And somewhat important I think. To have a bond, like a true bond. We are all bonded. It seems really stupid because it's just superficial little mark. But to me it means so much more. And even just the band, it's saying that yeah all of us are in a band together. Take the power back hopefully.

5) I'm a huge fan of lyrics. Who are some of yoru favorite lyricists?
Robert Smith. Pj Harvey. John Lennon. Leonard Cohen. Patty Smith. There's so many I could go on for days. I am trying to think of one lyric though that--when you really appreciate a lyric is when you get mad that someone wrote a line that you want. It's so good and you wish you wrote it. But I can't put my finger on one right now.

6) When people are shouting out requests of what to play, how does that make you feel?
Really, really good. It's nice to know that people want to hear anything. *laugh* But especially specifically having knowledge of our body of work.

7) When you're playing and the audience is singing louder than you. What thoughts are going through your head. How do you describe the feeling of listening to them sing your words?
I can't even explain to you, how good that feeling is. It's so weird I am trying to put into words what it feels like. It feels like the greatest expression of love that you can probably get from a group. You know what i mean, because it's not a one on one experience, it's sort of an everybody as one experience. The moment of unity that's so intense. Ahh, it feels so good.

8) What's the worst show you've ever played? Either the grossest conditions or worst crowd?
I feel like I've played so many shows, that all of them are all blending into one right now. And i can't think of one. I am trying to think of one that was really bad though, where I came off and was like ahhhhhhh. A lot of shows are hot and horrible and hard. But i can't think of one right now.

9) You used to own your own piercing studio. Do you still pierce at all?
No. Yeah just don't have time, not that I wouldn't want to do it again. It's a fun thing to do and an intresting art form

10) What's the best dream you've ever had?
There's two that were really really good in a "rock" way. I don't know if it's a weird thing to talk about. I had a dream that we were opening, that we were at an outdoor festival. I dont really know if we were playing but I was on the side of the stage watching the Cure. I told everybody about this dream for a long time. But I dreamt that I saw the cure and I was standing there and listening to them. And I am getting chills right now as we speak because I was on the side of the stage watching the show and they were playing a song that I hadn't heard before. And I tried to wake up and write it down because it really wasnt a cure song. YET. And then last month I was at an outdoor festival and I was on the side of the stage listening to the songs from the new record that I havn't heard yet. It was like a three year time difference. My voice is going. Keep going fast before it goes

11) Everyone knows that youre a vegan and were vegetarian for a number of years. what made you come to the decision of chosing this lifestyle?
Oh my family has a history of vegetarianism. But me I was exposed to a lot of literature when I was really young and I was vegetarian really young, but not vegan. And then i tried to do the vegan thing and then actually had a period where I ate meat out of horrible financially necessity while on tour, which is a total bullshit excuse because i should of just starved. But I did it. Anyway long story short. It didn't last long and I went back to being vegetarian. And then again once I was vegetarian I started reading and reading literature that I had already read before. And what actually kicked me over to being vegan was a "why vegan?" pamphlet. And rediscovering the horror of factoring farming.

12) What food do you miss the most after the change?
Not so much anymore. Not food. Being somewhere and everyone is able to have something that I'm not. But if I see everybody and they are eating something that looks absoluately delicious and I have to abstain it's kind of a bummer. Usually it's like "oooh I brought this lovely cheesecake... oooh you can't have any." Because everyone can eat vegan food.

13) What's it like to have a label that actually supports you, unlike the previous labels you've been on?
Amazing. Comfortable. Reassuring. Refreshing... *laugh*

14) What was it like playing your first show as hero? -Phil
Weird, we did what six songs, and we had written them all in what maybe ten days. And played with two of my favorite bands. I had all the lyrics taped to the monitor so I wouldn't forget them and I was writing them all in the afternoon.

15) If you were only allowed ONE condiment (as in food condiment) for the rest of your life, which would it be? - Stormi
She wants me to say one thing, but i am going to say something else. Soy Sauce.

16.) What do you think of Mike Smith being in Limpbizkit now and are you still cool with him?" (Since he wears the hoodie everywhere.) - Jes(sic)a
Um, whatever floats his boat *laughs*. I am sure it was a monetarily beneficial decision. He is sweet. You know we hang out. And when I see him we talk and we have a good time.

17) Are you appearing on the new Deadsy album? Rumor has it you did vocals on a song called "Colussus"?
I did a song with Deadsy about two years ago. And it wasn't released on their last album. And I don't know if it is being released. They tend to redo things over and over. But I don't know.

18) Why should people vote this coming election? - Kompressor
Because voting isn't a right, it's a responsibility. And the idea that you can't manipulate your own destiny is a completely incorrect thought. We need to start over and teach everybody that is important to be responsible. There are so many more of us that are the same, then there are people trying to manipulate. I'm fortunate I am not one of the 1%, and I don't think it's fair that people with alot of money and not alot of body--I dont think it's fair that the top 1% gets to have control over my life and my destiny. And our only way to take it back is to vote. If not and if this election goes wrong in the shady way like it did last time, then it's time to revolt! Seriously, because we outnumber them by far. That's why there's the right to bear arms, it's when your government turns against you. Okay you have a knife, it's a tool you can use it to do many things. A gun is just to kill things, there's no positive that comes out of a gun.

// SONGmeanings
LOS ANGELOS: A lot of the way that i write is things have many meanings for me. And Los Angelos is about so many things at once it is hard to describe. A large part of it is stemmed from three assasinations. One was John Lennon. The Other one was Kennedy. And the third was the girl from my sister's band that was shot in her apartment in Hollywood. I guess the "I'll clean up later" part, I was watching a television show about the man that shot-- I can't remember her name, that actress. But he was kinda describing the mess that it left when she was shot, and it was just a very odd visual. That's half of it, and the other half of it was a friend of mine who had a heroin problem that I lived with. And that's "I'll clean up later" *laughs*. There's alot of different ideas, and that's whats weird about when people ask me specifically about songs is that my mind doesn't really work in a linear fashion, so it's very hard to get a straight story out of me or a song.

TRINITY: Basically it's a story about (ERICK interupts interview, there's laughing) somebody that's passed who wants to come back and be mortal

MELT: I cannot remember the words... If i remember correctly but i cannot remember any of the words right now. It's a space-age love song with a lot of ideas about DNA splitting and crossing into a different dimension

GLIMMERMAN: About a friend of mine who had a nightime drug problem

BIGSHOT: About how extremely horribly I have been fucked up, fucked over by rich men that were in control of my life.

DVS: It's about the media and their manipulation of everything. The best trick that they have is this: they lean everything to the right and then they say "oh the media is liberal! oh the media is liberal!" so you think that the message you are getting which is a conservative message, is a lefty message. And everyone is completely baffled and confused. So that was that one and also the media's expectations of women to have a certain value. I noticed on certain news channels the women were nipped and tuck and made up and on others they wern't as nipped and tuck. It was when *blank* went to Fox, she went from the really relaxed intelligent looking non-makeup wearing, bright journalist-- not that she is not anymore. She got a facelift and she wears tons of makeup and she has her hair done and her perfect little gucci suits. It's just weird when she shifted to fox she took on a whole new image. Not that I think that there is anything wrong, but as far as I feel about women and image I think whatever makes a woman feel good image wise that's not harmful to herself. Whatever you want if you need a nose job or a tit job or whatever it's your deal. If it makes you feel better inside I am not going to past judgement. And the third one was about Dear George and I am a grand conspiracy theorist. And I believed early on there was a little more knowledge then we were led to believe about the events of 9/11 and it turned out-- i wrote that song a long time ago and it turns out to be true. There was knowledge to the administation that something that was going to happen.

TIME: A story of a girl who has been stood up kinda, or maybe not we don't know because the story doesn't end. But it's about waiting for your date.

HANG ON ME: Hmm.. Hang on Me was written about a friend's relationship and when he broke up with his girl. It was based about a couple of things he said about the break up. So it's the story of someone else's break up not my own.

DIRTY LION: I can't remember the words. It's an adam and eve story. I am trying to remember what the actual catalyst was for it. I can't think of it right now.

LIKE DAYS: My life. Everyday is the same. And some days have felt like a nightmare.

PEACOCKS: Peacocks is sort of about the last five years of our lives. How everybody wanted us to fail and everything did come crashing down around us. It's sort about the end of the world too. I have this armageddon dream that I have repeatedly, and my mom has it too. And it's a visual of the stars falling out of the sky and us rising above.

DEAD END QUEEN: Not really about any particular person. And everybody thinks that it is but it's not and I am being totally honest. It was actually written in a non-linear song. Everybody knows one of those, everybody knows a dead end queen that sucks the life out of you and then you don't want them around you. And they try to come back and tell you again, "I'm not a bad one, C'mon." You know everyone has one of those whether its a man in their life or a women in their life. Everybody has a fucking liar.

ALL OR NOTHING: It's the time in your life when you aren't with that person anymore and you are remembering when there were all those fantastic things that you used to have and now they just walk on by. Ahhh.. Yup good old post-break up heartbreak he wont look at me anymore song.

// THREEwords
Erick: big-hearted, childlike, special
Billy: hilarious, brave, sensitive
Jamie: brilliant ninja villian
Eno: perfect, small, buddy

// aSENTENCEabout
Human: She has the most generous spirit of any person i have ever met. And is as smart as they come and as aware as she is, she is still not jaded and still hopeful about most things. She is a rare one.
Fiona: Fantastic. Witty. There is not one word that sums up Fiona. I want to think of the word that describes the traits that she has. Resiliant. Warm, Kick Ass. HOT.
Puke: Combative. He is always one for debate. Idealistic. Earnest.