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Hayley: Hi, I'm Hayley. I sing.
Josh: I'm Josh, I play guitar.
Jason: I'm Jason, I play guitar.
John: I'm John, I play bass.
Zac: I'm Zac, I play drums.

Trevor: And so like, you guys are back home now. So how's this feeling, after you guys have been signed and everything?

(Sounds of equipment rolling on the bridge overhead.)
(Laughter all around)

Hayley: It's surreal. People are calling us, every day, telling us, "We saw your video on Fuse. Oh, you're in this magazine. Oh we just found out that your CD's sold out in stores." It's really- it's really weird, 'cause we're not seeing any of it when we're out and all our friends are back home supporting us and you know, it's cool.

Trevor: That's great. So how'd you guys hook up with Fueled By Ramen? Like, I mean, 'cause you guys just came out of nowhere, appeared on a samplers, and everybody's like, "Who's this band? 'Cause they're really really good."

Hayley: (Laughs) Um, we- we really didn't play anywhere except for here in Nashville. You know, we were a local band, a garage band for a while. But John Janick, our management basically, you know after we had demos recorded and stuff, got a hold of it through our management. And um he decided he wanted to come see us play and just kinda get to know us, 'cause he was really interested in the songs we were writing and who we were. And uh, so he came and saw us play at Taste of Chaos which was just an acoustic thing and that just kind of stirred up more interest for him in our band. And then he came and saw us play again. We were in Orlando and we decided that we, you know, it was a good fit, and he introduced us to his label. We already knew, you know Fall Out Boy.

Trevor: Yeah.

Hayley: And all that stuff which was amazing. And he let us come by the office and we got to know everyone and we knew that was where we needed to be and we knew it was who would put out our record and would carry out the vision that we would like to be carried out.

Trevor: Well they seem to be a good job since everyone's responding really well to it.
(Collective yeah)
Josh: It's amazing.

Trevor: How are the other bands on the label? Like have you hooked up with them any? Talked to them at all?

Jason: Yeah, we played um, about three or four shows on the Fueled By Ramen and Friends Tour. And The Academy Is... was there, and Fall Out Boy, and Gym Class Heroes and we made friends with them. They were just such cool guys.

Trevor: Yeah I met like, everybody when they were up here in Nashville and they were awesome.
Josh: Yeah, they're all really nice.
Trevor: Yeah like, I remember, I tried to come up to see The Academy Is... again with Mae. Like, two feet from the door, the show sold out.
(Collective oh yeah)
Zac: We were there.
Trevor: Were you?
Hayley: Yeah.
Jason: It was fun. One of the best shows I've ever seen The Academy Is... play.

Trevor: Yeah I was walking around and like, Mike and Tom were out in the van and I was like, "Dude. That sucks." Mike's like, "Well here. I'll serenade you." and he's playing his guitar and I'm like, "Thank you."
(Collective laughs)

Trevor: Let's see. Warped Tour. You guys are such a young band. And that's gotta be incredible to be playing Warped Tour.

Jason: It is. It's awesome. It's great to find every day that we go and play at Warped Tour, we get there early in the morning and Fueled By Ramen's already got our stuff pasted everywhere. We've got poster and flyers being handed out from the second the doors open. They're really doing well for us on Warped Tour and it's just an awesome experience for us to get to know all the fans- to get to know all the people that are hearing about our band through word of mouth and stuff. It's incredible.

Trevor: So are the fans on Warped Tour responding pretty well to it and everything?
Jason and Zac: Yeah.
Jason: Yeah, we have a great turn out. Pretty much every day and we play on a really small stage. The Shure Stage and it's always- the location's not always really close to the main stage where everybody is, but surprisingly we have a lot of people show up and it's awesome.
Zac: Yeah, people would just be like walking by and they'd like be on their way to My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy and they'll just stop and watch us, even if they're missing their show. It's just great for us, 'cause like, I wouldn't stop. (Laughs) I'd just keep going.
(Laughs)
Jason: We also work really hard to get people, to make connections with the fans and give them free stuff and you know, just say hi to them.

Josh: You have ants on your feet.
Trevor: Do I?
Josh: Yeah, like lots of them.
(Hayley proceeds to destroy the ants and save my feet.)
Trevor: Weird.
Josh: There's still one on your foot.
Trevor: Where?
Josh: Right there.
Hayley: Get him before he bites you.
(Laughs)
Trevor: Okay.
(Collective laughs)
Trevor: Where were we?
(Collective laughs)

Trevor: I totally lost my train of thought. (Laughs) The ants.
Hayley: (Laughs) The ants.

Trevor: Yeah um so like, the fans have been responding well. Have you guys been watching any certain bands when you get a chance? Like who have you been checking out?

Zac: Oh yeah. I watched Emery the other day. They are one of the funniest bands. Like, their whole deal is every time they play, they wear something different. Like the first time I saw them, they were wearing Hawaiian shirts, then the next day basketball jerseys.
Jason: We also, like every chance we get, we check out My American Heart. They've become really good friends of ours.

Trevor: Yeah, they're kind of like you guys. They've like, exploded like all of the sudden so they're getting all of this attention and you guys, probably like kind of have a little connection there.
Zac: They're such cool guys, too. Like every day we announce eachother's shows like, "Go see My American Heart at 3:15." or "Go see Paramore."
Hayley and Jason: Yeah.

Trevor: Awesome. Are there any new released that have come out that you guys have been listening to a lot?
Josh: Dredg. Their new CD is incredible.

Trevor: Yeah, a friend of mine went and saw them with Circa Survive and said it was like, the most amazing show he'd ever seen.
Josh: I bet. I mean, the drummer plays piano. That has to be the best.

Jason: I like the Gorillaz new album.
Josh: Yeah, it's pretty good, but it's weird.
Hayley: We got Death Cab for Cutie's new album. It's called Plans. It's awesome. It's a lot more mature, I think.

Trevor: You guys are getting ready to go back on Warped Tour in a couple of days, so what's after Warped Tour.
John: Uh, well, we have like a few things lined up to where our managers are trying to find out what's the best tour for us to be on. We're working on a few different bands, which when you're in any band, it's always like, last minute to try and figure out what tour you're gonna go on next. Especially when you're an opening band and stuff. So they have a few different bands. Rufio is one of them they talked about. Um, All American Rejects.
Hayley: Emery.
John: Emery was also another one. Simple Plan. So there's a bunch of different options.

Trevor: If you guys got on tour with any of those, you'd get so much exposure. 'Cause like, Cartel is playing with Simple Plan in Atlanta on August 17th and they're such a good band, and that's gonna be so great for them.
Hayley: Yeah, that's gonna be awesome.
Zac: Yeah, we know a dude from- I don't think he's in their band anymore.
Hayley: No, he's not.
Zac: His name is Adam, we used to talk to him. He actually was the person to tell us about Warped Tour, to tell us how to do it. How to get a good merch spot or whatever.
Jason: It's nice to have someone help out like that.

Trevor: It's always good to have someone that just tells you advice and everything.
Jason: Yeah. It's not as hard as they said it would be though. Copeland told us that it would be really hard because they said they were on for like three days and they couldn't do it anymore. It's hard but it's so much fun.
John: Yeah.

Trevor: Copeland's such a great band, but I don't know how the Warped Crowd would..
Everyone: Yeah.
Jason: That's what they thought as well.
Trevor: I mean, like yeah, they're good though.
Hayley: Yeah, they're awesome.

Trevor: They played around in Cleveland a couple of shows at a place at Lee University called The House, it's like a small little building. Copeland played that one night...got shut down by the cops.
Hayley: Wow.
Trevor: Copeland got shut down. How does that happen?
Jason: Yeah, that's weird.

Trevor: So what would you guys think about playing with All American Rejects?
Jason: I think it would be awesome.
Everyone: That would be amazing.
Trevor: I would defnitely go to see that show.
Jason: I think that would be a good match for our band.
Hayley: Yeah.
Jason: We have the same type pop elements, and the rock side.

Trevor: Have you heard their new album?
Everyone: Yeah.
Jason: They're on Warped Tour right now. I watched them play the other day, they're so good.

Trevor: Is there anything else you guys want to say?
Zac: Yeah, thanks for doing this.
Trevor: Yeah, no problem.
Hayley: Thanks to everyone that's heard the album, that's buying it now. We've had a lot of great support from people. Thank you.
Trevor: Like I told Jason. I was at Best Buy, right when the doors opened. I blasted the album on the interstate.
Hayley: That's awesome.
Everyone: Thanks.

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