>Well it was a little bit different, um this time around the band was kind of scattered off across the country. The guys were in Ohio, two of us were in Nashville and I actually live in Denver. So the writing process would go, Matt would start writing the songs in his basement and kind of do a crappy demo recording on his computer. Just to get a rough idea of what a song would be like and then he would email it to us. Then we finally got together in LA and did more of the tweaking process and then had our producer Howard Benson come in and do some further arrangements.

How was it to work with Howard Benson in producing the album?

>It was a lot different then the bands been used to for sure. He’s got this entire team set up. We’re used to just having one guy, it’s actually Matt Hoopes father in law, Mark Townson who’s done all the records previous so it’s a real low key kind of atmosphere with plenty of time to do stuff. But this time, you’re in a bit of a time crunch which is both positive and negative as well because you kind of have to hurry up. But it puts those constrants on you so you know what time you have and what you have to work with so that’s kind of a good thing. But the cool thing is that Howard Benson’s Team is extremely proficient at what they do. Engineers, like a guitar guy, a keyboard guy, a pro tools guy, and they do all this stuff in house and they are all extremely good at what they do and great musicians as well. So in addition to having Howard you also have all these other things too.

How did it feel to move from a small indie band like Ace Troubleshooter, to a major mainstream band like Relient K? Was the transition smooth?

>You’ve done your homework ::laugh:: It was actually a pretty smooth transition just cause my old band has toured with Relient K on and off for a good 2 or 3 years so we both sort of started out in the same place. It took a definite different direction then Ace did, but we remained the best of friends so we’ve done a lot of similar shows and came from a similar place, so when the time came did come for me to join the band, it wasn’t like I was stepping into something completely new. Even though I had to learn a new instrument ::laugh:: because I played guitar originally. But it was like stepping out of one band that I had a bunch of good friends in, to another band that are completely different but very good friends regardless.

What is something that you guys can’t live without on tour, as well as what is your favorite fast food place to stop at on the road?

>Ha. One thing we can’t live without on tour is showers. For some reason it sounds like we are all old, uh lame people but increasingly they are becoming important to us. We have to get in our showers every day and keep clean and that’s kinda how we stay sane. Other than that we’ve got Guitar Hero for Playstation 2 and we’re all kind of constantly on our computers, cause we’re all kind of dorks. It’s kind of the one thing that you have control over, like on the computer you’re in your own little world.

What is your most favorite song to play live?

>It’s probably this one called “Life After Death And Taxes.” It starts off the five of us singing in an Acapella fashion and it’s kind of like a very different set for us, kind of A-typical. I don’t know, it’s just the way the song works, it’s a little bit haunting ::laugh:: to me at least, when it starts but it kind of just kicks in with really heavy drop beat and that’s really what gets me going. But I love the energy of that. I love any kind of fast moving song, which we’ve got quite a number so I guess that doesn’t narrow it down, but I like anything you can really move too.

What is your most anticipated album and artist of 2007?

>07? Um, this is kind of a really cliché answer for me at least but I was really looking forward to and really dig the new Switchfoot record. I think it’s really good and we are really good friends with those guys and all that stuff but I really like their music and I respect them as musicians. I just love listening to them.

I heard you animated Relient K's flash cartoon, “Woodland Forest.” What was that like? Plans for any more?

>Yes, well we were bored one day while we were in Canada and decided that that’s what we were going to do. I’d been toying with that idea of doing something animated for a while and part of the charm of that whole thing is that it’s really crappy ::laugh:: we don’t really know what we are doing when it comes to all that stuff and so for some reason our fans really appreciate that. Like we did that one, and we actually have a couple of them, they’re all done, we just haven’t put it up yet. The new ones will feature Meryl the Squirrel, from the last one as well as Marco the Badger, Rob the alligator, and a can of Tab soda. So, hopefully that will come out in the near future.

After 9 years does Matt still have that old Plymouth Reliant K for which the band was named after?

>I’m told that it’s at his parent’s house and it might even be up on blocks.

That’s about all, thanks for answering our questions. Good luck, and take care. Is there anything you would like to tell the readers of Skylinepress.net?