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members present: Matt Cutshall, Tommy Coops, |
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| PZO: As a band, what are your best qualities? Matt: Best qualities as a band…like as a whole? PZO: Yeah. Tommy: Our hair, our attires… Matt: It’s either going to be hair or friendship. Because a lot of bands are not close, close friends, but we are all best friends here. Probably hair and friendship. Tommy: I’m going to go with not hair, but friendship. Judah: Friends first, right? Tommy: The way we act towards each other is the best quality we have. Duck: We fight like brothers, we love like brothers. Jeff: Well, that’s funny because you guys actually are brothers. Duck: We’re brothers <points to himself and Judah> Jeff: It sorta ties in. It sorta makes sense. Tommy: The way we interact with each other is probably my favorite quality about us. PZO: Does the same person do your hair? Tommy: <points to Judah> He does our hair. Judah: I’m a stylist. PZO: Really?? Tommy: Yeah, we pay him extra. Just a little bit. Duck: Proud brothers. Judah: Awww. PZO: That’s pretty cool. PZO: What’s a common compliment people give you as a band and individually? Matt: I’m going to say that people say they have a fun time or that we’re fun—our stage performance or whatever. They’re like your show was fun. I think that’s a huge one we get a lot. Tommy: Yeah. Matt: Like your show was so much fun-- Judah: or energetic. Matt: or energetic. I think that’s probably the best compliment we get all the time. Judah: You guys are having fun on stage. We’re into it. PZO: and individually? Tommy: Compliment that everyone gives you, wow. Duck: The talent. <laughter> Tommy: Oh my god. Oh no. PZO: I saw that.. Matt: We’ve developed nicknames and his is the talent because he can pick up any instrument and figure it out, play it awesome, sing incredibly while playing drums. Tommy: or the head. We call him the head also. Duck: Hey, you guys gave me that name. Jeff: How’d you get through the doorway, bro. Tommy: Judah is-- Matt: He’s the fun. Tommy: He’s the fun and he’s the hair. People are like he’s the artist. He’s the fun, the jolly guy. Judah: Ooo. Russell Brand. I've never heard that one before. Tommy: Jeff is the lovable one. He’s approachable. Jeff: I got the soft eyes. Matt: I thought loyal. Tommy: Yeah, loyal. Without looking like one, he’s the dog. He’s always there with you. He’s your best friend. Jeff: Did you just compare me to a dog? <laughter> Tommy: Yeah, but in a good way. Jeff: Okay. Tommy: and I would say Matt is the charm. Matt: Thanks, man. PZO: and what are you? Tommy: I’m like the---what am I? Matt: He’s the drive. Judah: He’s like the manager that’s not our manager. Tommy: Exactly. I’m the guy the manager’s talk to and then I relay. Judah: The middle man. Tommy: The middle man. I like that. I’ll take that. I’m the middle man. PZO: So your VMA Nomination---I just want to say you guys were robbed. <protests from everyone> Duck: You’re so sweet. Jeff: It’s something you can’t be too upset about because at least it was your friends that took it, you know? Tommy: It worked out for everybody in the end. It worked out for us in some ways that will be unveiled soon and it worked out in ways for them too. Matt: It was a win-win situation. Tommy: It was a complete win-win situation. PZO: I’m sure you guys were just happy to be nominated. Tommy: Exactly, it was an amazing show. What was it? Like our 10th show ever and we got to play with Jason DeRulo. Yeah, I’ll take that. That sounds awesome. PZO: and NeverShoutNever. Tommy: Yeah and NeverShoutNever which is amazing. PZO: You guys are unsigned. I have to assume that’s the band’s choice. Matt: We are building ourselves as a band first. We want to get our own experience, create our own story before we actually sign on to “the man” who is going to push us even further. Tommy: We want to find the best family we can find for us. We’ve chosen management, our booking agent, everybody in our band to be like what we are. All we want is an extension of that. Matt: It’s the final big decision we have to make. Tommy: Huge decision and we just don’t want to make the wrong one. PZO: But you’re currently in talks. Tommy: We’re definitely flirting. We’re focused on it, but we’re flirting. <laughter> PZO: As far as your debut album—are you cool with making that happen without a label? Tommy: As of right now, our managers have been awesome with setting us up with awesome producers and co-writers so, we haven’t really needed a label to step in yet and as of right now we’re going to write as many songs as we possibly can for a full length. PZO: So you haven’t started? Tommy: No, we have. We’ve been writing non-stop. Matt: We have quite a few songs complete or almost done. Tommy: We have writing sessions 3-4 times a week. We want to have 30-40 songs for a full length and cut it down to 12 and cut it with one person that will take it where it needs to go. So, until then there is no need to jump in to any situations with a label until we need to put that out. PZO: That’s cool you guys aren’t trying to rush it all. Matt: No, no rush. We’re enjoying ourselves. We’re happy, we’re on tour, we’re still writing, we’re having a great time. There’s nothing to rush into right now. We’re just enjoying ourselves and going along with the ride which is fun. PZO: What event in your life had the greatest impact on you? Tommy: Meeting Jeff. I’m not kidding. Meeting Jeff made the biggest impact on my life. I met Jeff nine years ago and he’s been there for all the family stuff and you know he’s the only friend that’s ever stuck by all the stuff that I’ve been through that we’re not going to talk about on the flip cam, but we can talk later. <laughter> Tommy: Yeah, he’s been there and helped out a lot. When we were looking for a guitar player it was-- Duck: a no brainer. Tommy: Yeah and then meeting all them was a huge impact in my life. I was in a different place and when I met them it just got me where I needed to go, so that’s my personal---what about you guys? Duck: Starting this band is mine. I’ve had so much fun in this band already. Jeff: Can we say unanimously that starting and being in the band? Judah: Oh yeah. Tommy: Right. Matt: It’s changed all of our lives literally because we are dedicated to this and we’re on the road all the time. We’ve unfortunately lost some friends that we don’t get to see more and they don’t quite understand or whatever. But, we’re dedicated to It Boys! as a band and that’s probably got to be the biggest impact on our lives. Tommy: This took me from having millions of dollars to zero, so…I’m just kidding. <laughter> Judah: Or like a dollar. Jeff: Go from a nice cozy home to--- Tommy: a van. But we wouldn’t have it any other way. Like touring and being in our van is where we want to be. Jeff: Oh yeah, I’m not complaining. PZO: What’s your best childhood memory? Judah: Wow, I like these questions. <everyone tries to get Duck to tell the sleepwalking story> Judah: You don’t even remember it. He was asleep, but tell it anyway. Duck: Well, apparently I sleepwalk. I do it all the time. Jeff: There’s no apparently. Judah: I don’t sleep in the same bed as him anymore. I’ll just sleep on the ground because I’ll wake up and he’ll be cuddling me. I’ll be, "Duck, what are you doing?" Tommy: Or hovering over you, breathing heavily, it’s terrifying. Judah: Or talking to me and saying those random things. Tommy: Okay, tell the memory. It’s amazing. Duck: Okay, so I got to bed upstairs in this two-story house. I wake up downstairs in the kitchen with a loaf of bread in my left hand and a gallon of chocolate milk in my right in mid-drink—I wake up in mid-drink. <does re-enactment> What?? <laughter> Tommy: The best part though is he took another bite and another swig before going back to bed. <laughter> Duck: It was good! I enjoyed it. I know what’s up when I’m sleeping apparently. PZO: At least you didn’t choke. Duck: I know, right? It’s scary. Tommy: No, we’re scared that one day we’ll wake up and he’s going to be gone. <laughter> Matt: If you can do that then you can leave the house. Tommy: He might have left the house, we have no idea. Duck: I went to bed in my underwear and woke up fully clothed. Like coat, pants, shoes, socks, hat. I woke up sweating in my bed. Matt: What, you got ready in your sleep? Duck: Yes. Matt: Oh, wow. Tommy: Always look your best. Duck: That’s me. Judah: I think mine would have to be getting a Super Nintendo. But anyways, next question. <laughter> Judah: I was kissing the box, so.. PZO: Do you still have it? Judah: Of course. Matt: How old were you? Judah: I was probably like ten and I was going like <starts kissing an imaginary box of Super Nintendo> and I was kissing it looking at the game and going, "AGHHHHH!" <laughter> Tommy: We have multiple Super Nintendos, we have a Sega Genesis, on our computers we have every Super Nintendo game ever made-- Judah: All of them. Every Wii game too. Tommy: every Wii game ever made, X-Box, PS2, PS3, PS1, we have so many random things. We have a game that projects Duck Hunt---we like video games. Judah: I’m a gamer. Tommy: We like video games a lot. We bought a 1,000 dollar projector for our basement just to play video games on this humongous wall. PZO: It’s perfect to get together. Judah: Oh yeah. PZO: What was the last good deed you did? Matt: Last good deed… Tommy: This is a Matt one. He does good deeds all the time. Matt: Yeah, I don’t know. I mean it’s not a huge deal, but we had a girl come to one of our last shows and you could kind of tell that she was in an awkward, weird situation. She took the bus by herself and she’s like twelve years old and we could tell she was by herself and traveled kind of far to see us. We were all excited, so we gave her a shirt, and signed the shirt because she was staring the whole time, but couldn’t afford it and I could kind of tell. I was like, "Did you want a shirt?" She was like, "Yeah, but I don’t have the money" and I was like, "Here, you got a shirt" and we all signed it for her, so that was nice. It made her day. She got a picture with all of us and she was happy, so. Judah: Two days ago you came to our house out of breath. Remember you were pushing some car down the street while everyone was driving by. Matt: Oh yeah. That was actually very recent. I was out of breath because I’ve completely stopped working out since joining the band. <laughter> Matt: There was a car stuck there and the guy tried for like 5 minutes to look around and no one would help him push it out of the way. So I got out of my car and pushed that car maybe three blocks. Tommy: Because we’ve been there. Matt: We’ve been there, we know. You gotta help out. I did that and the guy was like, "Did you want a few bucks or something?" and I was like, "No Dude, I was just helping you." Jeff: I actually just helped some lady who fell down, completely fell face flat on the floor today. Matt: Today? Jeff: Today. She was walking right in front of me and <does falling movement> and everything flies away and I helped pick up everything. Tommy: For the record, every day for the past nine years, I start the day off by going, "What’s new, Jeff?" And every day he goes, "Nothing, man. Nothing happened today out of the ordinary". Then twenty minutes later he’ll go, "Dude, I learned to fly today". You told me nothing was new. You tell me every day nothing was new. <laughter> Jeff: It’s a true story, too. Tommy: He actually learned how to fly. Jeff: Yeah, I actually forgot because I have a terrible memory, but I learned. PZO: What’s the worst advice you’ve ever been given? Tommy: Worst advice we’ve ever been given. Matt and I, we were sitting and talking about our dream, the tour is going to be good and this guy walked up to us and goes, "You know what? If you guys want to get to here <raises one hand high> and you’re here <other hand low> then stay right here <hand low>. Don’t do it. Don’t follow your dreams." Matt: It’s too risky. Tommy: It’s too risky. Matt: and we’re like, "What?? Stay where we are?" Tommy: It’s safe. Maybe it’ll work, maybe it won’t. Matt and I looked at each other and we were like that is the worst advice someone has ever given, ever in a million years. <laughter> Judah: Was he saying don’t sell out or what? Tommy: He was saying don’t try because if you try you might fail. Matt: He was saying stay comfortable. You guys are doing alright, stay right here. Don’t try to shoot for the moon. Tommy: Don’t shoot for the stars because you might fail. Don’t set goals. Matt: The crazy part was it wasn’t a joke. Tommy: It wasn’t a joke, he was very dead-faced, serious and then he walked away never to be seen again in the midst. PZO: Where was this? Tommy: Vegas. We were just eating somewhere and the guy walked up to us. It was out of control. Dude, I tried it worked. Matt: We’re right here. Tommy: We went up a little bit. That’s how that guy lives his life just so that we’re all clear. Judah: Never take that promotion. <laughter> PZO: Given the opportunity, who would you kidnap for a day and what would you do? Duck: Oh my gosh…I have to say Will Ferrell. Judah: I was just going to say Will Ferrell. Duck: Brothers <points to himself and Judah> Judah: Go to the beach or camping. Duck: Eat candy and have a great time. Tommy: I would hang out with Conan O’Brien for a day. I think he would LOVE me. <laughter> Tommy: Like I honestly think he would love me, I do. Matt: You know I think I would love to kidnap Ellen Degeneres. She’s so cool. We would do everything. We would go to the beach, we would go here.. Tommy: You could hit on girls. Matt: You’re right, we could hit on girls. And we rock the same hair. Jeff, what’s yours, Jeff? Jeff: Uh…. Duck: He’s blankin’. Judah: Probably some hot girl, I’m guessing. Jeff: Uh..No, that’s weird. That sounds creepy. I would probably try to kidnap my favorite drummer or guitar player or something like that. Slash or something. Duck: Teach me! Jeff: Or something like Motley Crüe, something like that. Seems like it would be once in a lifetime type of thing. Tommy: At that point, I think if I kidnap Slash I would be like, "What do you want to do, man?" He’d be like, "Yeah, you know let’s go buy cars" and I’d be like, "Can’t do that…" <laughter> Tommy: I can come with you. Jeff: This is on you, right? Tommy: If he was paying we could do a lot more stuff. PZO: If money wasn’t an issue. Tommy: Skydiving with Slash would be a good time. Matt: Would make for a good story. PZO: and get it video-taped. Jeff: I’ve done that. Tommy: He’s done that. It was funny we did it together. I was tandem with him. PZO: I thought you had to do it with an instructor. Jeff: I’m certified. Tommy: Yeah, he is. I was strapped to him. PZO: Man, you guys are licensed to do everything. Matt: You’re certified? Jeff: Man, I’ve done like 450 jumps. Tommy: I was strapped to Jeff and was like, "AGHHHHHHHHHH!!!" It was terrible. It is nothing like the simulation. Judah: I can’t believe you did that. Tommy: I won’t go on a plane, but jumping out of a plane-- Matt: I just can’t believe this. You, skydived? Tommy: You knew that. You were on the phone with me as I was going to the plane. Matt: I don’t think I believed it. <laughter> Tommy: I actually did. Matt: Wow, I didn’t know that. Tommy: I was strapped to him. He’s smaller than me too, so I was a little scared, but it was okay. It worked, we landed, we’re here. Judah: YouTube.com. Check it out. Tommy: Yeah, YouTube.com. It’s not on YouTube.com PZO: You should put it on there. Tommy: We should put it on there. PZO: What was the last meaningful thing you did? Tommy: Completing our first national tour last tour. Matt: That was very meaningful. Judah: We’ve all been in bands before, but we’ve always been hire-ons for these bands and this is actually our project we actually got to do and finish our first tour and it was exciting and it was fun. Tommy: We’ve all toured nationally before and stuff, but this is like our baby that we started as a group. PZO: What has been the band’s biggest decision in the past year? Tommy: Probably move to a 5 from a 6. That was a big one. Matt: When we what? Judah: Yeah, we had six people in the band. Matt: Oooh. Tommy: We had six and then we moved to five. That was a tough one. That was a hard decision. We lost friends because of that. That was a hard one. Matt: Probably another huge decision was making sure we were spending our money right. With all of our gear, the trailer and the van and everything, we had to budget ourselves here. Tommy: It’s very easy to go out and be like Oh, let’s just get---No, we can’t do that. It’s not a good idea. Yeah, we did buy lights which we didn’t need. Matt: We needed them. They’re fun. Tommy: Yeah, we needed them and Matt’s haircuts. Matt: and my haircuts. Tommy: and for some reason he’s the only one who gets them paid for, but it’s okay, we’re fine, we’re good, we’re all happy and stuff. Nah, I’m just kidding. <laughter> PZO: What is one thing you would not do for any amount of money? Tommy: I can’t answer this. <laughter> Matt: There’s not much Tommy wouldn’t do. Tommy: We play this game so much. I can’t answer this. Jeff: Wait, how much money? Duck: Publicly humiliate myself. Matt: See I can humiliate myself. Duck: Depends.. Jeff: I would never physically hurt my family. Tommy: I couldn’t physically hurt my family, but I could emotionally. I could never kill anyone. PZO: Something not illegal. Tommy: Seriously, you’re digging. We’re going to get into some scary answers. <laughter> Judah: Cut off my arm. I don’t know. Tommy: I would not steal from an orphanage. <laughter> Judah: For a million dollars? Tommy: I would totally do it. I would do it. PZO: and you could always pay them back with some of the money you earned from stealing in the first place. Tommy: I know! See? Don’t ask me these questions. I would do anything for money. I’m just kidding. Duck: He’s a Jew. <laughter> Tommy: Number one, I’m Jewish. Number two….. Duck: There is no Number two. Tommy: Ask me that question next year, there’s a lot less that I would do. Right now, there’s a lot I would do. Judah: I don’t think he would shave his head for a grand? Tommy: Nah, I wouldn’t. Judah: Ten grand? Tommy: Get me to five and I’ll do it, but other than five thousand then no. Matt: Wow, really? Duck: Really? Tommy: I would be in zero interviews or pictures. <laughter> Judah: I could get you a gorgeous wig. <laughter> Tommy: Alright, next question. PZO: What is something you have always wanted to do as a band, but have not done yet? Tommy: Get along. I’m just kidding. Matt: We haven’t played Whimbley Stadium yet. Tommy: I think the big one, if we could just get the one, just the one: the Staples Center. Even if it’s a fest with a hundred bands. That one sound check. We’ve played really big venues, but I just want that one epic drum sound check in an arena. Jeff: It’s all about the drums. Duck: I wanna sound check my drums. Judah: Be the first band to play on the moon. I don’t know what they’re talking about. Tommy: Sound check on the moon would be sweet. Judah: What’s up, Moon!?!?!? <air guitar> With no one there. Tommy: No one else could afford to get there. <laughter> PZO: What question would you like to be asked in an interview? Tommy: I would like to be asked what question I would like to be asked? Some things we just can’t answer. PZO: There’s nothing you want to get out there that you hope someone would ask you? Tommy: Well, maybe because this one was good. We get asked a lot of the same ones. Jeff: This was a pretty good one. Judah: Like how did the band start.. Tommy: Okay, I would like to be asked what languages we all can speak. Matt: I can speak Italian. Judah: How about what’s your favorite food? Tommy: I like the language one better. Judah: That one is easy, quick. Tommy: Fine. My favorite food is couscous. Truth. I’m from Israel, so my favorite food is couscous. Matt: I like pizza a lot. I like Taco Bell a lot. I like Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Tommy: Taco Bell is really good. Matt: Yeah, don’t you guys like Taco Bell? It Boys!: Yeah!!! Tommy: My favorite food is Taco Bell. <laughter> Duck: Honestly, Mexican food is my favorite. Judah: and Italian food and American food, and I’m just kidding. Tommy: Taco Bell! T-A-C-O. Tommy and Jeff: B-E-L-L. PZO: I was so tired of their bell sound they kept ringing. Tommy: I know, I was so tired, but I respect it. PZO: Because of what they do. Tommy: Because of what they do and how they gave everybody stuff. They’re good people there. |
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