Josh: I'm going to start with an obvious question first.

Eddie: Wait, let me introduce myself. I am Ed and I play guitar in Taking Back Sunday.

Josh: Ok, now let me start with an obvious question. You have a song on Tell All Your Friends called "the Greatest Romances of the Twentieth Century", which was released on the Victory Records web site prior to the album coming out. And, when doing so, it actually had a sound clip in it from the movie "Beautiful Girls" with Michael Rappaport and Rosie O'Donnell. Why is that song clip not in the actual album version?

Eddie: Because we couldn't get rights to it.

Josh: Oh. So it was just a legal thing?

Eddie: Yeah. Otherwise it would be on the album. And we had to put in some crummy sound effect. We would have gotten sued and it's already happened to a lot of bands, so we just wanted to save ourselves the headache.

Josh: A lot of people didn't know it was even from that movie though.

Eddie: It's a great movie. Michael Rappaport is one of my favorite actors anyway, I'd really like to meet him. Even though he's not a big time actor or whatever, he always plays a great like... he's from Brooklyn so he has that accent and I love it. And that's one of my favorite movies anyway.

Josh: Like when he told Ice Cube in Next Friday, "It's back to the ghetto you-go!"

Eddie: (laughs) Yup.

Josh: I was telling Puzzo earlier that Michael Rappaport is the best black actor of our time.

Eddie: Yes he is. Zebrahead. did you ever see that movie? That's a good movie.

Josh: Is it true that your name comes from a Breaking Pangaea song?

Eddie: No, Breaking Pangaea used our name in one of their songs because we're best friends with them. It was kind of just like, a shout out. All the kids ask us that, but no, Fred did it because we've been friends for so long and he said he couldn't figure out a line so he's like "Hey, taking back sunday", and he threw it in there. We got our name from the b-side of a song by the Smiths. It's a secret though.

Puzzo: Not anymore.

Eddie: Yeah, not anymore.

Josh: Does it have to do with the religious sense though? Does anyone ever read that context into it?

Eddie: It could be religious. To me, Sunday is just a sacred day that people take for granted. It's my day to relax and get my thoughts together... spend time with my family or just people I love. As opposed to it being a normal day with a bunch of headaches and problems. Does that make sense? It makes sense.

(first Eddie talks to Puzzo, then Matt Galle)

Josh: Do you think it's good or negative that your cd was produced by the same guy that produced Thursday's "Full Collapse"?

Eddie: I just think people will compare because they're dumb. People always have to compare things to something. I think we sound nothing like Thursday. We both had a great producer and we both made great albums because Thursday is a great band. That's what I say to it.

Josh: I think it's fair to say- for me anyway- that if things are going good in your life, this music may not hit you the right way or to the fullest extent. I mean, I just think if you have a girlfriend you may not appreciate it as much. Or if you just don't feel like you've hit the bottom or something, you know?

Eddie: Yeah. Also, there are some songs on there that are... At the time that we wrote it, everyone was going through some pretty rough times. I think if you're happy and in love, you could enjoy it for maybe the past experiences that you had, but it's not necessarily a happy-in-love album. It's more of a "this is the shit that happened, the shit that broke our hearts". It's personal stuff, but people relate to it. A lot of times the people that relate to it though are sad.

Josh: Do you have any concerns about people maybe see you as blowing up as too big too fast?

Eddie: Yeah, I've already heard feedback on that. I think they're just morons. They are some kids out there who are just stupid and don't know how hard bands work. People can't expect you to constantly play small shows all the time. You can't help it if you get big and kids start wanting to see you. Some people don't understand that because they're not in our shoes. some people just need to keep their opinions to themselves.

Josh: They weren't there when you played at the El-N-Gee with Jericho in front of like, ten people.

Eddie: Yeah. We've been around for three years. There are no bands out there that are playing small shows and are happy and will be still in five years, people just have to understand that.

Josh: I think it was CMJ or one of those magazines that called you "the next Nirvana", what do you think about that?

Eddie: It was a really nice compliment, but I don't think anyone can live up to it. If we do, then good, but I don't think anyone could be the next Beatles or Zepplin or Nirvana or Minor Threat. But it's a nice compliment.

Josh: Well, you were gonna be until CMJ blew it.

Eddie: Yeah, they jinxed us.

Josh: What do you think about the people who see you as the token sort of emo/pop punk band for Victory?

Eddie: It's business. You can't open one gas station on a street corner and not expect another one to open on the other corner. It's music, but there's also a business aspect of it. It's all competition and it's all... I can't complain, Victory's a great label. We talked to a million different labels and Victory was the only one we were into. And you know what, Drive Thru or Vagrant, those labels are good labels, but there is not one kid out there who does not have at least one Victory Records cd in their cd collection. Because that label is classic. That label has opened doors for other labels. If anything, they're trying to compete with Victory. Victory and Revelation are the originators of hardcore, punk and emo. But we're happy where we are. We have this dream of doing for Victory what Creed did for Wind-Up, taking an independent and making it big.

Josh: so you're like the Creed of Victory? That's funnier than the Nirvana comparison.

(Eddie laughs)