>Well when we came together in August of '04 we actually had a deadline to meet. Going out on a limb, Eric had arranged studio time in December with engineer Jamie King (BTBAM, through the eyes of the dead) to record a band that didn't exist! haha. So with that as motivation, Eric, Tripp and Ben started jamming out for a few weeks on what now is Hypnogogic Hallucination, I came into the picture to round out on bass, then Chris arrived to give the band a voice after the song was completed. After that impromptu birth of ROR, we rented a space to practice in and proceeded to write everything else. As for influences we were all listening to everything under the sun but didn't have time to sit down and collectively asses everyone's interests being that we were rushing to get into the studio. I guess if I had to make a list of our "all-stars" it would be, Failure, Hours, Grade, Botch, Refused, ..and you will know us by the trail of dead, Cursive, XTC, At the Drive In, Muse, Cave In and Deftones.

Was there any Glassjaw influence in any of the tracks on "The Electric Sleep"? I couldn't help but notice a couple similarities.

>I hate it that so many bands get lumped in with sounding like GlassJaw. I mean before GlassJaw was huge they were saying that Palumbo's vocals sounded like Elvis Costello. The sad thing is that I bet a lot of kids don't even know who that is today. I think that Chris' vocals at the time were more inspired by Chino from Deftones than anyone else. Any time where Chris might "sound" like Palumbo in purely coincidental. It's not like we were in the studio saying "Yeah dude, do that! You sound like GlassJaw!". Don't get me wrong, GlassJaw is an amazing band and I think that we all have listened to ".....about silence" more times than we can count. Yet being that they are more of a contemporary to us than our other influences, we try to steer away from sounding like them.

How did the band change after Jimmy joined the band?

>Well we got a lot of flack from people when we included him in the liner notes and picture of the EP because he never actually had a hand in writing or recording any of it. We decided to include him because he was in the band when the EP was finally picked up and released. Besides, many bands have one or two members that write and record everything but still include the rest of the band on the CD. We just didn't see it as a big deal. As for the newer material we have written with James, we are so happy with it. He adds such a dimension to everything and with his experience in the music world it helps solidify the band in so many ways. We are truly lucky guys to have him!

After he joined ROR, how did your song writing methods change? Would you say you guys started using a different approach at all?

>Well we actually stopped writing in a group situation and took a more compositional and mature approach to what we were doing. More like how Codeseven recorded their last album, Dancing Echoes/ Dead Sounds. Most of the songs we have now were never hammered out in a practice space like on the EP. We actually find it impossible to write as a group in a small space, mainly because you can't hear a damn thing! haha. The computer just makes things so much easier. When we finally write a song and play it together, things flow incredibly well.

Now discussing your full length, about how far are you guys into writing and recording that?

>Well......we hope that we can get something out soon. We are a very picky group of guys. It has to be just right for us if we are to release anything. Only time will tell.

Has your style changed much from "the Electric Sleep" EP to now? If so then how?

>Oh yeah..by quantum leaps and half court rebounds. We actually don't even play much of the EP live anymore. It's kinda funny when you think about it. People will ask us, "Why don't you play from the EP?" and usually we just say, well we are just tired of it...hahahahah. You have to look at it this way, we wrote that almost 3 years ago! Then played only from it for almost two years after it's recording. Feeling Faint Productions seemed to be the only label that believed in us. They wanted to get our music out there but we didn't have enough to produce a full length. So the EP was released just to get the ball rolling so-to-speak. You can listen to our newer music on either Myspace or Purevolume. As for the EP, it will always be forever special and meaningful to the band. It was our first, and acts as the seed planted that keeps growing to greater heights.

Now you guys really are a band that is based off a pretty widely acceptable sound. You have clean vocal stylings of a true to the core rock band, but you have the musicianship of a metal act holding up the structure of your songs. How do you think this style has helped you guys out?

>It has definitely made things fun. We were all kids growing up in a NC metal scene, metal was, is and always will be our "base". All of us have played in metal bands. I actually filled in for guitar in Glass Casket for Dustie Waring when he was touring with BTBAM. Eric, Tripp and Ben used to be in a band called In Gabriel's Name, which used to open up for Botch. Chris used to be in a band called Blame the Fallen which is now the Solid State band He is Legend. James of course was in Codeseven when they were one of the biggest upcoming hardcore acts with the production of Converge's Kurt Ballou to reinforce their sound. Also when we were first starting out, our friends in BTBAM, He is Legend, Glass Casket and Stretch Armstrong invited us to play sold out shows with them which helped out immensely in our beginning days. We will be forever grateful to all those guys and that genre, and can never thank them enough for all of the support.

Would you say that it's a lot easier to play different types of crowds?

>We usually keep the metal crowds interest because of our energetic stage show and technical proficiency with our instruments. With the rock crowd they obviously dig the melody but really just like to see what all goes on when everyone plays during our comforting cacophony of sound at every show. haha. I guess that makes sense right?

What crowds have seemed to have dug your stuff the most?

>Well actually the BEST show we ever had was with Hawthorne Heights in our hometown of Winston Salem. The crowd was young and not yet jaded by the rest of the world so they dug our different sound. They clapped to the music, moved around like crazy and even asked for autographs! hahahahahah That was hilarious. We had no idea what to think, so we didn't. We just enjoyed every second of it.

If you could go back and change one thing about the recording of your last EP what would that be and why?

>Nothing. It is perfectly flawed just like we want it. We would rather spend time making newer music. It's all a learning experience, just like a college art student doesn't go back and redraw crayon pictures he did in pre-school, we will leave the EP the way it is now and forever.

Ok, on a less serious note now. If you could take a group of people with you in an adventure to take over the world, who would it be and why? Remember this is pretty vital to the interviewing process.

>I guess the entire cast of American Idol, Po the Teletubby, Geraldo, Puff the Magic Dragon, Oprah and Ralph Nader. Could you imagine that group in a Braveheart-like battle charge...holy shit that would be amazing. Hell, don't even bother with taking over the world, just put that group in a medieval dinner theater. Guaranteed, a sold out show every night. Don't steal my idea.

Or what about bands on tour? Who would they be?

>I guess if we could play with any of our influences mentioned above that would be incredible. As for right now, we would love to play a tour with Fear Before The March of Flames, Circa Survive and Dredg. That would be a killer line up.

That just about wraps things up for me. Is there anything you'd like to leave readers of skylinepress.net with?