PZO: What question comes up in every interview, that you are tired of being asked?
Jon: Oh, I think everyone always asks us if we’re an emo band, if we would classify ourselves as an emo band. And I don’t care whatever people want to classify music as if they would say we’re an emo band that’s fine, if that’s the way someone can classify a genre of music whether it’s one type or another when he’s not even into emo or indie music, he’ll listen to it and be like, hey you guys sound like Korn or something. People don’t know you know what I mean, that’s what I’m saying people have different ways of classifying music.
PZO: People always have to clump bands together.
Jon: Yeah exactly.
PZO: I don’t like when people do that, it’s like every band does their own thing unless they’re copying off someone else.
Jon: Yeah, I think that’s the question we always get asked though if we consider ourselves an emo band, and I’m just like whatever if you want to consider us that that’s fine you know, but I definitely think we’re a rock band playing music. It’s not like we set out and said we’re going to be an emo band, we’re just going to play music.

PZO: What do you have in your pockets right now?
Jon: In my pockets? <laughs> I got a pack of extra gum, I got my wallet, my CMJ pass and my cell phone that’s pretty much it.
PZO: No lint or anything?
Jon: Actually, these pants I haven’t washed them forever cause we’ve been on tour for a long time. Let’s see I got cash, which is very slim to none, and I got some Tylenol pills because I’m sick. And a guitar pick.
PZO: You have a cold?
Jon: Yeah a really bad one.
PZO: I had it last week and I couldn’t even talk.
Jon: It’s been killing me lately.
PZO: Everyone around me has been catching it like the whole cold thing.
Jon: I haven’t felt sick in a long ass time, and I’ve been really sick lately.
PZO: You don’t sing do you?
Jon: No, I just play bass so it’s cool. I do screaming off the mic, but that’s not important.
PZO: Probably sounds even better.
Jon: <laughs> I’ll be like <screams> yahh.

PZO: What is the worst advice you’ve even been given?
Jon: I think just from talking to people not necessarily others, people who I grew up around who found out that I’ve wanted to do music as a thing and stuff. It’s something that people shied away against; it’s just something that you shouldn’t do.
PZO: It’s not a real job and stuff.
Jon: Everyone’s just like well if it doesn’t pan out then you got to go back to school, and I’m just like no, this what I want to do with my life for a while. And I guess that’s one thing that’s always ends up getting brought up, especially with family sometimes. My family is really supportive but there’s times when they get frustrated like when money gets rough and stuff.


PZO: In your press release it said you still have your day job when you go home, what do you do?
Jon: I work at this company, it’s actually a staffing service called Four Legs Staffing Service, it’s when they place you in temp jobs so I work for this company called Century Mortgage, it’s seriously, it was literally a Office Space job, like I’d sit in a cubicle all day. So would Josh, the singer, his desk was five or ten feet away from mine. And it was total Office Space, I remember one time my job was like, I was supposed to have email and they never set me up an email system. So they would have all these meetings I wouldn’t know about and they’d be like did you get the email memo. And it was so Office Space you know what I mean.
PZO: That movie was one of the greatest
Jon: It ruled, but I like it it’s a really good job, but it’s really flexible.
PZO: And they let you go on tour and stuff?
Jon: Yeah I doubt we’ll be able to go back to the same job after this tour cause it’s been so long and then we’ve got so much more stuff coming in the next couple of months. They’re definitely supportive and I know the staff and service will help us out and stuff like that. Yeah I don’t want to work my day job anymore I just want to play music.
PZO: That’s everyone’s dream.
Jon: Yeah exactly. <laughs>

PZO: Given the opportunity who would you kidnap for a day?
Jon: Dude I think I’m not gonna mention girls, so I’ll probably mention guys so I’d probably kidnap Matt Talbott of Hum because Hum is probably my favorite band of all time so I’ll probably kidnap him because I’ve never met the guy and this band that we know Hopesfall, they recorded with him and stuff like that. I don’t know, it’d be a dream of mine to like meet that guy and talk to him and find out what the hell is in his mind.
PZO: Get free lessons.
Jon: Yeah exactly. That band influenced me more than anything yeah there’s tons of metal bands I listen to but he’s got to be the one person I’d kidnap.
PZO: You have a vast influence spectrum; I’m not going to ask that question though.
Jon: Yeah it’s very, a lot of people are like, this guy we did a radio interview at WSOU I forgot the frequency.
PZO: 89.5?
Jon: Yeah 89.5.
PZO: It’s the best station and I don’t get it.
Jon: Yeah it rules, everybody’s been there like Thursday were there... trying to think of other bands.
PZO: A lot of bands like Face to Face, AFI.
Jon: Yeah Sparta, Face to Face, AFI all those bands started out there before they made it big and stuff and for us to be able to go in there and be like whoa this is such a privilege and the guy when he was interviewing me and the band he was just like I was looking through the website and stuff and just looking at the music you guys, we do a curved play list at our website and you guys styles ranges from Dido to In Flames and stuff. You know what I mean. Or like Green Day or something like that. I listen to everything.
PZO: I think you can hear it in the music.
Jon: Yeah I like Natalie Imbruglia a lot and I love Rush and Hum, tons of metal like In Flames. Then there’s punk, dude I love Face to Face, Green Day I love Green Day. Green Day and Soundgarden are the two bands that I picked up on my own when I started to get into music. Like when I started to listen to music for myself it was Soundgarden and Green Day. Those were the two first bands I listened to.
PZO: Yeah Green Day led me into punk. I love them.
Jon: Yeah that’s awesome.

PZO: What’s one slang word that you can’t stand?
Jon: <laughs> Well this guy named Rory he runs our record label of the Militia Group. And Rory always says this word chill. It’s chill it’s chill don’t worry bout it it’s chill.
PZO: Yeah, they say that a lot here.
Jon: In California everyone’s starting to say it and I just think it’s funny I think it’s hilarious just out of the blue.
PZO: Trying to rip off the New Yorkers?
Jon: Like Rory he’s hilarious but he’s the kind of guy like someone is pissed off and he’d be like oh it’s chill it’s just hilarious cause you just laugh at him, it gets annoying after a while but whatever.
PZO: That’s one of my least favorite one’s also. Like trying to replace cool and all.
<It’s chill is repeated several times after>

PZO: Well being that today is Halloween, what was your favorite costume from when you were a kid?
Jon: Let’s see, probably the grim reaper.
PZO: Actually my horoscope said to dress up as either the grim reaper or a serial killer; I think I’m a serial killer now.
Jon: I don’t think you have the grim reaper look with you right now.
<Laughs>

PZO: As a band what do you think your best qualities are?
Jon: I think we are just real people; we’re not trying to be cool or impress anyone. Like we’re just playing music and we meet new people every single day; regardless of if popularity grows or people catch on the band we could care less. It would be cool to succeed and stuff like that. We just want to play music and we just want to be real with people, be friends with people. I just think there’s lots of people who take music in the wrong aspects like to impress girls or whatever for money. It’s good to make money and make a living off playing music; I’m not trying to bash that. I just think there’s a lot of people who lose the fact of what music should be about, it’s about community and having fun, that’s what it should always be about.
PZO: If you make money you can make more music. Most people don’t understand especially in the punk community the whole selling out thing, I think that’s ridiculous, if a band makes money it’s more power to them.
Jon: Yeah exactly, like Green Day is seriously one of the most punk bands I know, their roots have always been grounded and still are. And they look they are having the time of their lives because they are. They had the time of their life when they played music in front of 15 people because they played music you know what I mean. They’re that kind of band and that’s what they still are.
PZO: That’s why I love them.
Jon: That’s exactly what we want to be too.

PZO: Who is the most famous person you have programmed in on your cell phone?
Jon: I just got it so.
PZO: You’re going to say Josh.
Jon: Yeah Josh <laughs>. Let’s see, Scott from the Lindsay Diaries, no <laughs><phone rings> Oh shoot that’s Josh actually, hold on, hello?
<Talks to Josh on the phone about interviews>
PZO: Just remember it’s all on tape. I won’t put it on.
Jon: Oh great <laughs> The most famous person I have on my phone is Chad, he runs Militia Group. I know that’s pretty sad.
PZO: Get like the lead singer of Mustard Plug or something. <laughs>
Jon: But I know my best friend Chandler had, when Hopesfall went to record with Matt Talbott he had to have the number of the studio in order to get a hold of him. And they actually recorded at Matt’s house for a while. So he had Matt Talbott’s phone number programmed in his cell phone and I looked at it, and I’m like oh my gosh. If you ask Scott from Lindsay Diaries he has Chris from Dashboard Confessional so I definitely think that beats Chad from Militia Group. <laughs>

PZO: What event in your life had the greatest impact on you?
Jon: I think like most impact on me personally nothing to do with music. My brother used to be a severe drug addict like extremely bad to the point he almost died, and like right before I moved to California he went to rehab. I didn’t know if anything would work out of it I didn’t know if he would get better cause a lot of people go in and come right back out. But he went in and came back out and totally decided to quit. Which I thought was awesome because for me I’m not used to that, I wasn’t used to, I had friends who were into that, I’ve had friends who’ve died from stuff like that. But I guess since it was family, it brought us a lot closer. Me living in California and my family living in Minnesota it’s like knowing that everyone is tight and close through an experience makes it a lot easier to live in California and do music and stuff like that. I definitely think that had the biggest impact on my life because I look up to it so much to do something like that is huge, I respect that more than anything and that’s awesome.
PZO: Something positive always come out of negative stuff, that’s the way things work.
Jon: Yeah exactly.

PZO: Do you have any superstitious beliefs?
Jon: Oh man, I don’t know not really. Our guitarist Shawn, we always say like bad karma. Cause we’ll be driving in the van and something will happen and he’ll be like oh we need to make sure we do this or else next time it’s going to be even worse. It’s just funny we kid around with him and stuff like that. I don’t think we have any superstitions or anything like that; we’re not freaked out by anything like that.
PZO: Well superstitions is, like you step on someone’s foot so they have to step on yours or else you’ll fight later or something like that.
Jon: Yeah nothing like, no nothing like that.

PZO: What is one thing you’ll do no matter how much money someone paid you?
Jon: Man these are great questions.
PZO: Thank you. <laughs>
Jon: Okay, we went up to Crush, our management office today cause they’re right off of Broadway. They’re on this huge high rise and seriously I don’t know how many stories it is, but it’s far. I went out on the balcony and was like oh my gosh. But I guess if someone paid me any amount of money to bungee jump from there down. There would be no way possible I would do it. I used to be afraid of heights but I’m not as afraid anymore but still there would be no possible way. Looking out there I was like oh my gosh I’m getting back inside this is freaking me out so.
PZO: No sky diving anytime soon?
Jon: Actually it’s weird, I want to sky dive but something like that because of the buildings right next to it freaks me out, well you’re used to it.
PZO: I think bungee jumping is more dangerous than sky diving for some reason.
Jon: The freakin chord breaking or something.
PZO: Yeah or your leg breaking you know. I'd think I bungee jump but not around the leg, the belt around the waist. But then again if the parachute doesn’t open
Together: You’re pretty screwed. <laughs>
PZO: Splattered all over the place.

PZO: What is your best caught in the act story, and you better have a good one.
Jon: Oh my gosh, I can’t think of one, I can’t think of a crazy one.
PZO: Just anything.
Jon: Anything? Oh okay. Well like some kids, in the hardcore scene the whole straight edge thing is pretty big, I’m not ripping on it or anything. I used to claim, I still don’t drink or smoke or anything like that. Maybe if I wanted to then whatever but right now I just don’t want to, I guess after a while I felt the whole tag was kind of a “I’m better than you” kind of thing.
PZO: I definitely feel that.
Jon: Yeah that’s kind of why I got rid of it, most of my friends are into that, which is fine. I’m not gonna not hang out with someone, that’s ridiculous, it’s retarded. But I think the caught in the act thing, everyone kind of knew me to be that way and stuff and we were on our last tour, I was in Washington, no I was in Idaho. And I was trying to get us a show and I went to this bar and I was sitting at the table. I guess someone saw me there and they posted on the message board that I’m a drunk and stuff and that they saw me at this bar. I was like what the hell. I didn’t even care I was like whatever, but I think considering the circumstance, people know me as someone who wasn’t in to drinking and smoking thing and then sitting there at the bar.
PZO: So you don’t consider your band straight edge?
Jon: No no not at all, some of us drink and smoke so we’re not affiliated with that at all. I just brought it up personally because I thought that was pretty funny because the internet spreads so fast man, seriously the internet is ridiculous. People blow things out of proportion because they can hide behind a keyboard. I think that was the most caught in the act story without being gross.
PZO: Well gross is good.
<laughs>

PZO: I was looking at your CD booklet the artwork is sick it’s awesome.
Jon: You like it? Sweet, awesome.
PZO: Have you seen Bad Religion’s Process of Belief booklet by any chance?
Jon: Nah uh.
PZO: It’s very similar with the transparents. Where’d you get that idea from?
Jon: Well this guy named Don Clark he works at this thing called Asterik Studios they did layouts for Poison the Well and a bunch of different bands. He was really into the record; he was like hey I want to do the artwork and we were like okay. And he came up with a couple of different ideas and after we looked at it, it really fit the theme of the CD Light A Match, For I Deserve To Burn the cover has the peoples heads ignite on fire. It’s kind of cool, yeah but I mean its kind of interesting it’s a very diverse layout. It’s a lot of different steps when you look at it its very artsy.
PZO: It fits the music; I think the music is artsy also. You can just look at the images while the music and bring it to a whole new level. With mp3 sharing nowadays I think bands should have cool booklets to encourage people to buy the CD. I wanted to ask you about the title, Light A Match For I Deserve To Burn. As soon as I read that I was like whoa.
Jon: The meaning behind it kinda? Well basically its based on the song Light A Match on the record. That song was inspired by our friend Josh Ressle, we call him red monster. He’s from California, he’s a very good friend, the whole band knows him, me and Josh are very good friends with him. I guess it was just a poem that Josh wrote to our singer Josh send it on email and Josh read it, and they put the two, he kind of used that then put the theme in it like looking at the meaning behind it. If you look at the world in itself and people, sometimes we do so many things that pisses us off and we’re like why did we do that? Why am I such an idiot? It’s not in a morbid sense like I deserve to burn or something like that. It’s just like looking at yourself and looking at
PZO: Sort of like kicking yourself or biting your tongue.
Jon: Yeah, some of the choices you make it your life. I don’t think the song leaves a negative note I think it leaves a positive note because it’s, not trying to be weird but our singer used this before, sort of like a planting kind of thing, you know you go through stuff and just like you said good things always happen through bad experiences usually.
PZO: You learn through your mistakes and stuff like that.
Jon: Yeah exactly it’s basically a basis off that, good things happen out of bad experiences regardless of how bad things get. I mean there’s a lot of things that’s happened in our lives that were extremely bad but regardless of what happens and how bad we look at ourselves it’s like why the hell did I do this to myself. I guess you look at it like light a match, if you light a match and burn yourself things are going to go away. To get rid of things, but it’s just like when you look at it good things always happen out of the bad experiences.
PZO: I think it’s a very awesome poetic title.
Jon: Sweet, our singer is a very poetic guy, all the guys in the band read a lot but our singer is really into poetry and reading. I think it really stands out in the music; I don’t think things are subliminal on the record I think it makes people thing and that’s what you want.
PZO: It’s not like straight out there girl broke my heart sort of thing. I can’t listen to that type of stuff; I like music with deeper meaning.
Jon: Yeah I’m not a vocalist or anything, but if I was a vocalist I’d take the same approach that Josh does, and Shawn because they both co-write a lot of the lyrics I think it’s one of those things where you’re gonna say something why don’t you make it profound or intelligent because if you’re going to say things for the sake of being stupid it’s kind of pointless you should put thought behind the things that you say and I think that should be the thing with everyone. Music should be serious and it should be fun. But I definitely think we take a serious approach to every aspect of the band whether it’s the artwork or the website.
PZO: I haven’t checked out the website yet.
Jon: Yeah okay its actually going to get redesigned, our friend Chandler does graphic design for Hopesfall, he’s going to be redoing our website. He’s actually doing the new layout now though.
PZO: It’s up now though?
Jon: Yeah we have our old one up now at www.thebeautifulmistake.com Yeah the new site will be awesome though the guy who is doing it is amazing, the guy who is doing it is very credible, he’s awesome so.
PZO: So everyone should check that out.
Jon: Yeah totally.

PZO: What song has been stuck in your head lately?
Jon: Oh man, trying to think of the name of it. Okay we’re on tour with this other band called All American Rejects, have you heard of them?
PZO: I was actually supposed to interview them but they’re not on the show tonight right? They’re doing an in store tomorrow?
Jon: Yeah the in store. I have a very vast musical variety but I remember when I heard the record for the first time I wasn’t a huge fan or whatever. Then we went on tour and I started seeing them live and there’s this song on their CD called Happy Endings and it sounds kind of weird but it’s an awesome song, those guys rule.
PZO: I have their CD.
Jon: Yeah their band rules and that song is catchy as hell. The chorus on it rules.
PZO: I got to check out it.
Jon: Yeah I always, I’ve been listening to the CD a little bit more lately so I have to say either that or there’s a couple of songs on the new Hopesfall CD that stand out to me too. There’s a song Waitress that I really like a lot. Tons of different stuff too like <laughs> but I have to say that All American Rejects album has been stuck in my head like crazy since that all of us have been listening to it every night.
PZO: So check that out.
Jon: Yeah, cool.

PZO: If you could eliminate one band off the face of the earth, who would you get rid off and how would you get rid of them?
Jon: Okay I’m not going to say this is a collaborative effort, but I think everyone kind of has had a problem with this band. But like when we were on our last tour, our alternator went out in our van so we were really selective of the power we could use in the van so we couldn’t use a CD player because we had to plug it into the lighter input, punk rock rocks <laughs>. So we just listened to radio and we turn it on and there’s this band Nickelback, I can’t stand that band.
PZO: Yeah, how you remind me?
Jon: Oh my gosh dude like
PZO: I used to like that song but then they played it about 3 million times.
Jon: We turn on the radio; just turn the knob on in the middle of nowhere
PZO: And it goes on
Jon: And it goes on to Nickelback how you remind me. You know it’s fine -
PZO: I think they finally stopped playing it.
Jon: Like I’m fine people can listen to whatever they want because I listen to totally different things that other people would make fun of me for you know what I mean. For me personally that band I’d wipe them off the face of the earth, I don’t know how I would do it. I don’t know dude I don’t want to be mean but it’s just like I look at the singer and his hair and it just drives me nuts like right off the bat. So I don’t know whenever I see the video I kind of want to take the guitar and smash it over his face. <laughs> So like I guess that’s the way I kind of feel about all this.
PZO: The first time I saw the video I’m like what the hell is wrong with this guy.
Jon: Yeah I mean they might be the greatest guys in the world that’s why I feel bad cause I’m not like a -
PZO: Watch you open for them next time.
Jon: <laughs> We’ll play with anyone so but I think one band that we can definitely do without would be Nickelback so, everyone say Nickelback.

PZO: If you were given the opportunity to be a spokesman for any company, which company and product would you choose?
Jon: I’d probably, this will sound so stupid -
PZO: Don’t say toilet paper
Jon: I’m not going to say toilet paper; I’d probably say I’d probably be a spokesperson for Gap or something.
PZO: Gap?
Jon: Yeah for like Gap jeans. <laughs>
PZO: You’d do the Gap commercial?
Jon: I don’t know if I’d do the commercial cause I can not dance.
PZO: Yeah but you can play bass for it.
Jon: Yeah yea of course, I’d probably say something like that, just because a lot of my clothes are from it.
PZO: Cover the gap song tonight, you should.
<laughs>
PZO: Pitch that idea over; freak a lot of people out. Make it all artsy and crazy.
Jon: I’d probably get my ass kicked. It’d be something like that, or else something stupid like me and Shawn and Armin are way into Arizona ice tea. We’d probably do something like that, like freakin doing the product of that stress iced tea.
PZO: I’ve never seen an Arizona commercial I don’t think they advertise like that.
Jon: Yeah, but if they can pick anyone to do it, it would probably be us. It’ll either be that or some form of clothes whether it’s Gap or Diesel or something like, I don’t even have Diesel jeans but they’re nice. <laughs>

PZO: What keeps you grounded and optimistic?
Jon: Just like me personally? Okay, I definitely think friends and family for sure. Like we’re all about touring, we want to tour eight months out of the year and stuff like that. It gets hard doing it; I won’t say being more than four months at a time. Cause after you doing four months at a time you start going crazy. I definitely would say friends and family, because when you go home those are the people waiting for you. Once the band is done you don’t have anything else. There’s people that will remember you for playing in a band and stuff like that but when it all comes down to it your family and friends are more important than your music know what I mean? We’ve had family problems before and of course we set aside the band, this can wait, this is more important. And it doesn’t clash in if we allow music in or anything like that. I definitely think our friends and our families are the things that definitely keep us grounded because sometimes it gets really crazy with so many different things to do and like especially when we used to do, we did so much do it yourself stuff like this entire tour I booked it myself you know what I mean. It gets crazy and really busy, now finally starting to have people to do that. All the time you were all stressed out thinking the only thing you can get away to is your friends and family and stuff those are the only people that are always constant, especially all the members of the band would say that definitely, respect that.
PZO: They’ll always be there to support you.
Jon: Yeah it’s just sad when people lose the fact of where they started out from and the fact of what’s really important in their lives. Music is important but those are the people that supported you and helped you get there. Those are the people that watched you play in front of ten people in some shitty bar. Those people will support you always.
PZO: Don’t forget your roots.
Jon: Yeah exactly don’t forget your roots.
PZO: The great words of H2O. <laughs>
Jon: Yeah <laughs> <coughs> Excuse me.
PZO: It’s okay; I’m doing it too.

PZO: In what ways would you to improve as musicians?
Jon: Oh man, we’re always trying to improve, we really push each other a lot. Recording with Ed Rose, was probably one of the hardest experiences of our life. He really pushed us to become better musicians, so there’s definitely a huge respect for that, and that really fields us when we go to practice, it’s like we’re going to practice on our own, whether that’s practicing other bands CDs, or what you know. But it’s always a thing of trying to improve, trying to become better. So definitely, its definitely like something that’s discussed in our band we’re always trying to improve, we’re never satisfied with how our work performing as musicians. I don’t think there will ever be a time you know, if there was if there were a time where we became stagnant, became stagnant in how you are as a musician how do you expect yourself to expand especially musically like how do you expect your music to grow, evolve. If you think -
PZO: You can’t play the same thing over and over again.
Jon: Well yeah if you have the attitude, you should have a positive attitude and you should go on stage thinking you are for that thirty or forty five minutes that you should. I think it comes down trying to grow as musician and stuff. If you have the attitude that you don’t think you’re going to improve, like it’s good enough the way it is, then things are going to go downhill the music will never progress, the music will not get any better because you’re going to think that you’ve already reached a point that you need to get to. You should always be improving.
PZO: Shoot high.
Jon: Yeah exactly.

PZO: I was going to ask you about the EP, the first CD, is it being re-released or something?
Jon: Do you have the one that has the girl on the cover?
PZO: No I have the new one.
Jon: Yeah I wasn’t actually in the band at the time but they put out a December EP which is an original demo. I think they pressed 2000 copies or something like that. And then the record label SideCho Records a branch off of Militia Group, they wanted to re-release the CD so they put it out with new artwork and stuff like that and we rerecorded it and the recording quality turned out really bad.
PZO: Same music?
Jon: Yeah songs with an added song Disclosure. That’s still out in stores right now. And actually what happened was they talked to Militia Group and they wanted us to re-re-record again before we left on this tour because the recording was really bad and they actually distributed it so we recorded it again before we left for this last tour and I think in the summer or spring its going to be re-released but the recording is awesome. It sounds more current and there’s a lot more new features to it, I definitely would say that anyone who has it already should buy that one because it’s...
PZO: Sounds better?
Jon: Yeah definitely.

PZO: Okay here’s the lightning round. In sixty seconds tell everyone why they should buy the album Light A Match, For I Deserve To Burn.
Jon: I definitely think it has awesome artwork, I think it was well produced, I think anything Ed Rose does is extremely good, and I don’t know. I just think it’s definitely something people should always open their ears to. I think I’m a very open minded person as far as much goes I’m open to anything so I definitely think it’s a record that anyone can pull some kind of aspect out of it whether you’re an hip-hop fan, an R&B fan, or a rock and punk or a hardcore kid regardless you’ll be able to find something that you can enjoy out of it.