Josh: South Park. Do you hate that song now since South Park had a whole episode with the word “hella”?
Mike: No, I actually thought that was one of the funnier episodes. I haven’t seen South Park in a while, but I remember someone talking about it and then I saw it. It was funny. I guess it wasn’t maybe a big deal for me ‘cause I’m from Vegas. I do kind of hate that song though because people started using it... And then they started over using it. And I don’t know if it was a joke or not. It’s weird because have screen names based around it, just internet stuff like that.
Josh: There’s actually a band called Hella too.
Mike: There is? That’s cool. Vegas and then northern California, kids says hella. If you’re not from there, it’s really weird.
Josh: After South Park though, everyone was saying hella.
Mike: I probably didn’t get that though because I was in Vegas.
Josh: You actually have a song too that’s up up down down and all that, that’s kind of funny because it’s a band now I guess and a lot of other people use it as a song title too.
Mike: Yeah, we went to the record store the other day and saw that Ataris song and we were like, “They stole that from us, it was our idea first”, just joking you know. But I’ve never heard that band. I’ve never even heard that Ataris song. I think Creation is Crucifixtion has a song called “the Contra Code”, so they didn’t even bother to write it out. It’s everywhere.
Josh: I want a good explanation of who Rich Hall is because now he’s in the Time in Malta thank you’s.
Mike: He does commercial stuff for radio stations in New York and he books at CBGB’s. He got us a show at CBGB’s. When we went out there, he was a big help to us. He’s just been a really big help to us, so we made that song for him.
Josh: And then you put in that thing about Carson Daly.
Mike: I don’t know if you’ve seen him before, but dude, he looks like Carson Daly.
Josh: This is something I was thinking about the other day, so I’m going to give it to you.
Mike: Ok.
Josh: I was thinking about the title Unfortunately, We’re Not Robots in two different ways. One was in the sense that we wouldn’t have to deal with all these emotions and everything that comes with being human, but as I said that, it was kind of like, is that the idea or is it more of a “we want to be robots” kind of thing?
Mike: It’s kind of about both. It’s sarcastic. Sometimes it’d be easier if we didn’t have to deal with things like having a job and just...
Josh: Things that robots have to do.
Mike: Yeah. Negative things. But then it’s kind of like a reminder that sometimes it’s good that we’re like this and that we have emotions. It kind of goes along with the whole we are all dead thing, and a lot of the things that have to do with that CD overall. It’s just to kind of realize that we are alive and to reach that full potential. It’s really gloomy, and scary... Just the whole world. You never know if it’s ever just going to end or anything.
Josh: How is it to kind of be in CurlUpandDie and just sound the way that you do, because most bands these days don’t tend to have the straight up just in your face balls.
Mike: It’s totally weird. We were the kids who listened to hardcore in high school and now we’re not in high school any more, so we’re like the next generation of hardcore kids. It’s weird, everyone’s younger than us. A lot of bands are putting “emo” parts in and more singing and what not... It’s weird to see how that’s going and I see us going in a different route with our EP, what we’ve written so far. We don’t want to go in a trend or anything, we just want to do what we do and hope people come and like it. It hasn’t been Poison the Well or anything close to that at our shows, but... That’s another thing though, hardcore is blowing up so much. All these hardcore bands signing to major labels. It’s a weird time right now. We’re not really going away from it, we’re just trying not to be a part of it. There aren’t too many faster hardcore bands, you know?
Josh: Yeah, and where it’s just in your place because bands have slower parts now. It just gets slower or softer. Umm... In the email interview I asked you about all those bands that have blood and death in their name, and I think CurlUpandDie is an awesome, but looking back at it now if you could have chosen a different name based on all the blood and death what would you have picked?
Mike: I have band names in my head, I always think of them, like if I started another band. But I’m going to keep them in my head. Because I don’t know if that would ever be fufilled or not. And we have always wondered what our name would be if we weren’t CurlUpandDie. I want it to be more of a symbol now though than a word.
Josh: You mean a symbol like Prince?
Mike: No, no, no. (laughs) A symbol like how we just put it into one word for the new record. But we haven’t thought of any other band names. If we had side projects with names, we’d still probably choose names we’d semi-regret. One of the names I wanted to be for either a zine or another band was the Nirvana song I Hate Myself and Want to Die.
Josh: There is a band called I Hate Myself.
Mike: Yeah, so it’d have to be a zine. Kids would be like, “Oh shit, that hella rules!!”.
Josh: See, but you could do that for a zine because all you need for a zine these days is a name.
Mike: Right, and then I could get everyone to contribute. Put it together.
Josh: Once you have a name, you’re golden.
Mike: I want one of those picture zines. I’ll have other kids do a couple interviews and everyone will love it. There will be no content at all. There won’t even be pictures of people in bands, just like, pictures of girls talking to dudes or something. And pictures of kids with fashionhawks.
Josh: And you could take a picture of that bush.
Mike: Yeah. It’ll be an artsy thing.
Josh: I’ll email it to you, I’ll build you the site.
Mike: (laughs) Ok. Totally, do it. It should be one of those online journals. That’s the future right there... Those online journals and fashionhawks. Kids got it wrong, dude. So wrong. At Furnacefest, I swear there was like, a million kids with fashionhawks. They didn’t watch the bands, they were just hanging out with their buddies trying to meet girls.
Josh: Are you drinking that Red Bull stuff?
Mike: Yeah.
Josh: Isn’t there bull urine in that?
Mike: Dude, no way. Come on.
Josh: That’s what someone told me once. Either urine or another bull liquid.
Mike: (looks over the ingredients) It’s mostly caffeine.
