PZO: If you could put a tour together including yourselves, who would be on it?
Marko: Oh my goodness, I would say the ideal tour would be bands that have friends of ours in them.
Airin: It would be a big festival tour
Marko: It will be a festival tour of bands from our scene. The Ataris, Silver Jet, Summer Camp, maybe Lagwagon, all bands from our scene. I think that would be the funniest thing and have a tour where we play. Where we all had tour buses but instead of all the bands having there own tour bus, having it kind of being a revolving thing. It will kind of be like a lottery, for the first week it would be the bass player of the Atari's, our drummer, the singer of Lagwagon, and Tim from Summer Camp all sharing a bus.
Airin: It will actually be like summer camp.
Marko: I think that is fun, rather then just a tour with separate bands doing their own thing, it will be a mix up community of people touring and they each have there own bands. There is also the possibility of collaboration and interaction.

PZO: What musicians do you look up to?
Marko: I look up to musicians that work really hard and establish an identity and create a world and kind of live inside it. The Beastie Boys, Tom Wades, and Madonna are all examples of musicians I look up too for various reasons whether it is for their musical skill or their creative self or whatever, their contributions. What about you Airin?
Airin: I would say creative ones live David Bowie, people that have kind of changed, Kurt Cobain changed things.

PZO: Do you feel any pressure to "break into" the popular music scene?
Marko: No, I do not think there is pressure at all, because like we have always said, just the fact that we have formed a band and having songs together and played shows, that is success enough. Anything else that happens is just icing on the cake it is great. Our label is really cool about letting us grow at our own pace rather then forcing us. The only pressure you feel I guess is when you try to plan for the future and you realize there is only one way to be able to make a living for the rest of your life of music and that is to have some type of commercial success. You can't really think about that when you are driving in a van for eight hours to get to the next show. Thoughts like that there's just no room in the van for thoughts like that, there is barely enough room to have a bass player on tour with us. We decided to be extravagant on this tour and bring Airin along.

PZO: Is there any way to describe what it feels like to be up on stage and have an audience singing your songs back to you?
Marko: Sweet, just very sweet.
Airin: And neat. Sweet and neat
Marko: It is just-
Airin: Weird
Marko: yea it's a trip, to be in another state from where you are from and having played the club scene from where we are from for so long. You see people in the audience and you are like hey that is so and so who used to go with so and so, and that is that guy from that band. To be out here and you see these people and you have no idea who they are saying maybe a few kids you met at the warped tour and to hear them singing back songs you wrote in your little community back home.
Airin: It is just weird when something you do is spread out.
PZO: Affects so many people
Airin: Yeah
Marko: And you get to see it, if we worked at the coca cola factory we would be bottling soft drinks that would be drank all over the world.
Airin: But we don't get to see people's faces when they go ahhhhh.
Marko: Exactly they would have their coke and their smile. So the cool thing about playing in a band is you get to make this music and go out there and directly see how it is affecting people's lives. It is really cool.

PZO: What's in your CD players right now?
Marko: We have been listening to a really selective variety of music; on this tour especially we have been innovative with constant rock music. Being on a rock tour, we are on a rock tour right now with three other rock bands. It depends on what mood you are in, I think in general we like to listen to music that doesn't sound like us. What's in our CD player right now for example?
Airin: Vincent Gerellas new record, Brian Adams, Radiohead, Bonnie Choi
Marko: Ron Sexsmith
Airin: Ron Sexsmith, pretty much anything we can get our hands on, because we have long drives.
Marko: Just weird stuff. A lot of techno, a lot of trip-hop we have been listening too.
Airin: Bjork

PZO: Do you guys ever listen to the radio?
Marko: Yeah we'll like channel surf.

PZO: Do you ever get sick of songs that are played on the radio all the time?
Marko: We don't listen to the radio that much to get sick of songs. There's one thing about the radio that bums me out, there can be a song I really like, or an album I really like and if they play a song off it so much it starts to make it where I don't want to hear it again. Even though I like it. I can't listen to Nirvana's "Nevermind", or Green Day's "Dookie" again because the songs got so hammered on the radio. You know it's a good thing because that is what it takes for those bands to have careers and for people to discover those bands. When we listen to the radio I notice, especially Airin and me because Airin and me are probably the biggest surfers in our band. Not that we actually go out and surf in the ocean, but we like to listen to the radio and go, "Whoa this is a country song, let me listen to a verse of this to find out what it is about. Oh cool that's an interesting thing, oh wow this is an old song from the 80's."
Airin: "Oh wow this is a nice trumpet contrero"
Marko: Exactly it is so fun music is just so neat. It's like flavors of a lollipop or scented incense. It's the same eight notes you are dealing with, and primarily the same scales everyone is dealing with. It can make you feel so different, like one second you are listening to Hall and Oates and you feel like just cutting foot loose. The next thing you are listening to Tricky and you feel like you are transported into some mysterious place you have to have a special key to gain access too. And the key to gain access to is-
Airing: Ecstasy and eating blow pops.
Mark: Exactly, it is just weird. Your mouth is completely blue!
PZO: I know!
Marko: Is mine purple?
Airin: Nah, but yours is pretty blue though, it is kind of neat.

PZO: What is the strangest phone call you've ever received?
Marko: "Marko wake up we are under terrorist attack"

PZO: What's the craziest thing that you've seen happen in the audience?
Airin: Huh, I don't know. Probably people singing along.
Airin: Or that time in Little Rock that guy thrown against the wall. They were pitting so close to the wall because it was such a small venue and they were moshing and one of the guys got thrown head first into the wall. That was pretty crazy.
Marko: What about that freaky kind of like hippie chick that got up on stage and started doing the hippie dance, but then just started thrashing around.
Marko: Something about Little Rock.
Airin: Oh she licked my face.
Marko: She licked your face?
Airin: Yeah.
Marko: The craziest thing that ever happened, a swirling hippie dancer jumped on stage and licked Airin's face.

PZO: What is the most misunderstood song lyric in your opinion?
Marko: Of Sugarcult?
PZO: Uh-huh
Marko: I guess our radio single called "Stuck in America" which is written probably about a year and a half ago. It was about being bored in a small town and just being sick of having your only cultural outlets being Wal-Mart. In light of recent events that song almost sounds like a –
Airin: Political thing
Marko: Yeah a political song, but it is really not, it is a sociological song if anything. I always say this, songs are like kids you put them out there and you try to teach them a couple of things instill some values, but ultimately they are gong to have a life of their own. A song becomes it's own thing. "Every Breath you Take" by the Police for example.

PZO: What is the one thing you would not do no matter how much money you were offered?
Marko: Play in a rock band, kill somebody..
Airin: There you go, that's my answer too, there are probably some more things, but that is a pretty good one.

PZO: What is the worst advice you have ever been given?
Marko: Kill somebody, no I'm just joking.
Marko: Don't drink and drive, you might spill your drink.
Airin: Stay in school.
PZO: Oh that's good!
Airin: Try the eel sushi, I did that once and it was really bad, I did not like it.

PZO: What about the best or even worst pickup line ever heard or used?
Marko: Do you want to get some pizza and fuck? What's the matter, you don't like pizza?
Airin: And that's one he's used.

PZO: If you could see any band perform any song live what would it be?
Marko: You are asking total crazy music geeks this question; we are probably going to be here for 45 minutes trying to figure this out.
Airin: Just trying to find the perfect one. I would say the Beatles, "Tomorrow Never Knows" maybe.
Marko: I would say, I don't know...God...any band ever performing any song ever-
Airin: That'stough
Marko: I would like to see Sum 41 performing "Fat Lip"
PZO: Are you serious?
Marko: No. I would like to see David Bowie on the Ziggy Stardust tour performing- "Ziggy Stardust"
Airin: Starman, that's all I know.
Marko: "Starman"
Airin: "Is there Life on Mars"
Marko: "Is there Life on Mars" would be cool. You know who I would like to see, I know this sounds cliché but I would like to see The Stooges in 1973 performing any one of their songs. Whether it is "Search and Destroy" or "I Got a Right". Just because I have heard some crazy things about Iggy Pop when he was in that era.

PZO: What is one of your favorite lines in one of your songs?
Airin: "That's what you get for falling again." I don't know.
PZO: Actually, that is my favorite line.
Airin: Really?
PZO: Yeah, that's my favorite song too.
Airin: Maybe that, I'll go with that
PZO: Your going to go with that one?
Airin: Yeah, just because it is your favorite too.
Marko: Mine is, "Lost in you and I can't find my way again."

PZO: How did you guys come up with the title "Start Static", for your new CD?
Marko: I came up with it when I was on my way to the studio, the recording studio. I was stopped at a light trying to take a left; it was right in front of a Carl's Jr. I saw this star, and I thought, "star, star, start" me and Tim have been tossing around the ideas of the word static. I had this art concept of using televisions as part of our artwork, and I thought static from the TV is kind of cool. Then I thought, "static, get static, static this, this static that." Then I saw the star and I was like, "Star, start static, that's kind of cool." Then I made this huge list and start static was basically just ended up being the name we used because we couldn't think of anything better at the time. I just think it sounds kind of cool.
PZO: It sounds cool I like it.
Airin: It has a couple of different meanings you know.
Marko: Yeah it's like static radio, radio static, TV static, music static. Hey, Ben.
Airin: Or start a fight.
Marko: Yeah, like to start a fight with somebody, just to start commotion, to shake shit up is to start static. So I like it on that level. Also it is our first album, so the word start you know.

PZO: What is one of the proudest moments in your life?
Airin: The birth of my baby, no I'm just kidding.
Ben: Well we went to number one on Much Music and I was pretty proud of that, which was yesterday. I was really proud of that.
Airin: Did we really go to number one?
Ben: We didn't finish at number one, but we-
Airin: Hovered there for a second?
Ben: We finished at number two.
Marko: We got beat by Dr. Dre.
PZO: Awww.
Marko: I guess signing our record deal. Which represents the result of the four of us working our asses off really hard for something. When you are in a band you are not just working on something like you are working at a company, "Hey the new product was a success, yea!" And everyone in the break room starts high fiving each other and eating an ice cream cake. When you make a band you are doing something in addition to everything you are doing in your life. You are getting together people and you are working on something that is your own project, and it is against all odds pretty much. You work on it to a point where you have fans, and you get a record company to come and tell you they like your band enough to want to give your band a record deal, it is a pretty good feeling. I remember the day we were all in there, we cracked the Champaign bottle when we actually signed the deal. We felt really good about the label we were choosing and we felt really ready to make a record. That was a pretty proud moment for Sugarcult.
PZO: Do you have one Airin?
Airin: Just the whole thing, getting the deal, having a record out and having it do well is pretty cool. I would say all of the above.

PZO: How did you guys end up touring with Reel Big Fish?
Marko: We did the Warped this summer, and we were looking for tours that were available and several tours were available to us, and Reel Big Fish we thought would be real fun. If the one thing the warped tour has taught us is that we like playing in front of teenagers, and we knew Reel Big Fish had a young crowd, and a loyal following. I think that is when we went, "Hey, Reel Big Fish is a fun band, they have a loyal following lets go out there and play for their loyal following and try to make them our loyal following." And our singer Tim has been looking for a horn section for our band, and he thought, "Well lets tour with Reel Big Fish and maybe we could steal their horn section."