August 1, 2001

by Cynthia Ruiz

This interview was conducted outsideof Bogart's in Cincinnati after Homegrown played their set. They were really sweaty. Also, John and Darren sound alike on tape,so most of the time I just guessed at who was talking unless I could rememberin my head who I was talking to at that moment. Oh well.

Cynthia: So what are your names?

Darren: I'm Darren, the drummer.

John: John, the guitar player.

Adam: Adam, the bass player.

Darren: That's our last name, by the way. Darren Thedrummer.

Adam: Yeah, it worked out really well that way, very convenient.

Darren: Yeah, thats why I'm a drummer. I can't be a guitar player.

Cynthia: So how long have you guys been a band?

John: Since August 1994, which is uh...7 years now.

Adam: We were freshmen dude.

John: Yeah, we were freshmen in high school.

Cynthia: How did you get started? Like, how did you guys meet?

John: Well, we all grew up as professional musicians, and one day we just decided to write professional music and be a proffessional band.

Darren: I played in a band called "Polo" at Disneyland, the stage that comes out of the ground. I used to play there when I was real young and they used to have Disneyland passes, they used to go all the time. I met them through there, they came up to me and said hi and we became friends.

Adam: Tomorrowland. That stage is crazy.

Darren: Yeah, the Tomorrowland stage. Have you been to Disneyland?

Cynthia: Yeah, a couple times.

Darren: When I was younger I used to play it.

Cynthia: Yeah, I've performed there before.

Darren: Marching band?

Cynthia: Yeah, I was a flag girl.

Darren: Did you come out by "Its a Small World"?

Cynthia: I don't remember.

Darren: You have a bad memory.

Cynthia: I know I do. What are some of your musical influences?

John:The radio. Whatever's on the radio, we like, we listen to, we try to write songs like that.

Cynthia: You like the radio?

Darren: That's sarcasm. Put a little sarcasm quote next to that.

Adam: Sarcasm translates horribly in ink.

Darren: Yeah, I've noticed that.

Adam: It sounds good in conversations, but in interviews, it just sounds like "What are they talking about?"

Darren: Yeah, it just doesn't come through.

John: I grew up listening to death metal and Metalica and Slayer and a little bit of like....

Darren: What kind of bands do you like?

Cynthia: Me? I like MxPx. Well, they were my favorite band for a long time.

Darren: Do you like the Ataris? Oh wow, you have a little MxPx guy.

Adam: Do they give you free stuff?

Darren: Yeah, if you show them, they'll give you so much free stuff.

Cynthia: No they don't. I've met them too many times. What's in your CD player right now?

John: Bach.

Darren: I have the new Blink 182. I know that's not cool to say, but I do.

Cynthia: I haven't heard it.

John: Jimmy Eat World, Alkaline Trio.

Cynthia: I saw Jimmy Eat World last week.

Adam: Further Seems Forever.

Darren: I'm sorry you saw Jimmy Eat World. That must have been a nightmare.

Cynthia: Why?

Darren: Seeing Jimmy Eat World live. That must have been horrible. I feel bad for you. They're a great CD band. Were they good live?

Cynthia: Yeah, it was my first time seeing them live.

Darren: What did you think of them, honestly? You don't have to lie because we can erase this.

Cynthia: I liked them.

Darren: Really, they were good? Did you sing all the parts?

Cynthia: Yeah, I guess.

Darren: Good, cuz I'm gonna go see them play.

Cynthia: They were pretty good. And I saw them in their home town.

Darren: I've never seen them live before.

Adam: They're an amazing band.

Darren: Yeah.

John: How'd you see them in Phoenix?

Cynthia: Cuz that's where I'm from and I was just home visiting.

John: Their new CD is amazing, really good. I guess that's it. We listen to everything. Rap, hip hop.

Darren: We just got the new D12.

Adam: Pretty good.

John: Pretty good, not bad. We listen to everything.

Darren: We got a Playstation 2.

Cynthia: I'm addicted to the snowboarding game.

Adam: We're worn out right now. We apologize. We just got off stage.

Darren: Yeah, we don't mean to be such a bummer, we just almost died on stage.

John: When its cooler outside in Cincinnati than it is in the club, that's a bad sign.

Adam: In the midwest.

Darren: That's pretty hot.

Cynthia: Yeah, I just got back from Arizona, so I'm used to the heat, but I hate humidity.

Adam: That's the beautiful thing about Arizona.

Cynthia: Did you guys say something about a new album?

John: Yeah, we'll hopefully record it by late fall, post-winter, early spring, pre-summer some time....

Cynthia: So some time within the next year?

Adam :Probably February or March.

John: Most likely March or April.

Darren: We just signed with Drive Thru Records as did the Movielife, the band we're on tour with.

Cynthia: Are you guys really glad about that?

Darren: Really, really glad about that.

Adam: Drive Thru Records is doing a great job.

Darren: They're pretty much like the best label there is. Better than most majors too.

Cynthia: I agree.

Darren: So we're really excited. They're run by great people that care about their bands so we're very very happy that they're putting out our new record.

John: Its only been like, what, ten years since our last record?

Adam: Nine or ten years, yeah. Its been too long.

Darren: Yeah, we're supporting a record from '91. Quote sarcasm right there.

Adam: Quote sarcasm after every line.

Cynthia: What is the craziest thing you would do for a free Yoohoo?

Adam: For a what?

Darren: A free what?

John: What is that, sex?

Cynthia: Do you drink Yoohoo?

Darren: Yahoo? Oh no, thats the website.

Cynthia: Yoohoo!

Darren: You know what, I drank Yoohoo and I vomited so I hate Yoohoo.

Adam: I'm lactose intolerant so there's nothing I would do.

Cynthia: Nevermind, bad question. I had to ask cause my friend stuck a Yoohoo sticker on his butt at Warped Tour for a free Yoohoo.

Darren: For macaroni and cheese, I would probably take my clothes off.

John: For sex, I'd pay for it. No, I wouldn't pay for it.

Adam: You would take your clothes off?

Darren: Yeah I would take my clothes off for macaroni and cheese.

John: I would take my clothes off and jacket.

(everyone laughs at the witty Blink 182 humor)

Darren: Hey that was sarcasm again right there. Put that in parentheses.

John: This is a smooth interview.

Adam: Smooth like a midwest highway.

(laughter)

Darren: Oh God. Quote sarcasm again. OK, you got it? She's getting it.

Cynthia: Do you guys have a favorite city that you like to play in?

Darren: Yeah we do, we've got a couple.

John: What? Sorry, I just farted.

Cynthia: Yeah I know.

John: Did you hear it?

Cynthia: Yeah.

Adam: I didn't hear anything.

Cynthia: It was kind of in my face.

John: No, actually it went back inside.

Darren: He can fart and suck it in.

Adam: When we're at home, its a lot of fun.

Cynthia: Where's home?

Adam: Southern California. Like Riverside, Pomona, Los Angeles, Orange County.

Darren: That little town...

Adam: Oh, Rexburgh, Idaho.

Darren: Cleveland, Cincinnati, we love it here.

Adam: Chicago's really good, Jacksonville.

Darren: Texas is really good. Maine, Canada, New York.

Adam: Honestly we like a lot of places.

Darren: Atlanta....I don't know. We love everybody.

John: We do good everywhere. We're the best band in the world. We have to do good everywhere. We don't have a choice.

Cynthia: Do you guys like touring? Is it fun?

John: Its torture to me.

Cynthia: Is there anything you do to make it fun? Like getting blow jobs? Is that fun?

(I said this because John mentioned while on stage about the blow job he got last night in Cleveland that left him with blue balls)

John: No.

Darren: I wouldn't know.

Adam: No?

Darren: No.

John: When I'm trapped between four white walls called a van...

Darren: With two white people.

John: With two white people, touring across white America in a beaner....

Adam: That's a lot of oppression.

John: See, thats why I'm sad right now because oppression leads to depression.

Adam: Oppression is the first step.

Darren:Yeah, serious note right here.....Touring is fun.

Adam: What was the question? Yeah, we like touring.

Darren: It's the best job in the world, no sarcasm there. Playing with great bands like Reel Big Fish and Goldfinger, this is probably the best tour we've been on in a long time.

John: And Zebrahead.

Darren: And RxBandits.

Adam: We miss Zebrahead a lot.

Cynthia: Yeah, I saw them here a couple weeks ago.

Darren: This is probably one of the best tours of the summer. Probably cause we're on it.

Darren: Are you really sad? Let's turn this off for a minute, let's talk.

(Darren turns off tape and I don't remember what we say here)

Darren: Back to the interview.

Cynthia: Would you guys ever cover a Britney Spears song?

John: No.

Adam: Nope.

Darren: Christina Aguilera though. Christina Aguilera's pussy smells like a tomato though, I swear.

John: We're actually waiting for Mandy Moore to get older.

Adam: Not me, I don't care. I'll take Mandy Moore in a second. She is the hottest one out of all the girls. Absolutely beautiful. And she's got that sweet little smile, you know she's nice.

Darren: Yeah, she's cute. Jessica Simpson I really like though. Was that your question? Out of all the girls pop stars, which one do we want to have sex with? I would be with Jessica Simpson.

Cynthia: Yeah, I think she's pretty.

John: Jessica Simpson's hot. She broke up with that guy from 98 degrees too cause she wouldn't put out.

Cynthia: Thats cause she's a Christian.

John: You can still be Christian and put out.

Cynthia: I know. I do all the time.

(QUOTE SARCASM!!)

Darren: Alright.

Cynthia: What do you like to do when you're not touring or playing? What are your hobbies?

John: When we get home from touring, its strictly serious band business....

Adam: Practice five days a week...

John: We're on the phone from like 9 to 5 with booking agents and promotors, passing out flyers, doing stickers for the band, mail order....

Adam: We do a lot of work so when we go on tour, we don't have to.

Darren: That's why we want to tour so much, because when we're home, we have to practice every day and promote. This is the easy part.

Cynthia: So being home is the actual work.

Darren: Yeah, being home sucks ass.

Cynthia: What do you think you would be doing if you weren't in the band?

Adam: Fishing.

Cynthia :Do you see yourself doing anything that's not music related?

John: Surfing.

Adam: I love fishing to death.

Darren: I'd be working at Brother's Frozen Custard at the Glendale mall in Southern California. Five days a week. Its my Dad's business so that was a shameless plug right there. Brother's Frozen Custard, it's the best. Premium Ice Cream. Its amazing. Glendale Mall.

Adam: You know where else you can discover great music? Utilityrecords.com.

Darren:Oh yes you can. Let's talk about that, shall we? Adam, tell me about Utility Records.

Adam: It's a fabulous label. It has new Home Grown material, it has a great band called Limbeck which came out four months ago. Utilityrecords.com. Oh yeah, and our website, homegrownonline.com. That's very important. People should know about that. Cause we like when people visit cause any time anyone asks us a question, we write back. We always write people back.

Darren: We're big computer nerds. We play a game called Diablo 2.

Cynthia: I've heard of that. I don't play though.

Darren: Aww, if you would have played it, you could have been in our clan.

Cynthia: Isn't it a strategy game?

Darren: Yeah.

Cynthia: I'm not into them.

Darren: I wasn't either, and I just started playing it, and now I am.

Cynthia: I'm too stupid for those games.

Darren: I am too actually.

Cynthia: I like the Sims though. I got all into the Sims.

Adam: Sims is a great game. I love it. Its addictive.

Cynthia: Are any of you guys single?

Adam: Yes.

John: We're all single, ready to mingle.

Cynthia: I don't know why I had to ask that....

Darren: Why, do you wanna go out later?

Cynthia: No.

Darren: You never know.

Cynthia: Well I don't really have any more questions....

Darren: Let me see your list. Let's make sure you asked everything.

Cynthia: Closing comments?

Darren: What city is this gonna be published in?

Cynthia: It's an online thing.

Darren: We love online.

Cynthia: I think most of the subscribers are from Connecticut, Ohio, and Arizona.

Darren: Probably like our favorite cities are in Connecticut, Ohio, and Arizona. We just wanna say peace out to them and we love them and we'll see them soon.

Cynthia: Right on.

Darren: Thank you.

Cynthia: Is that all?

Adam: What? Thank you.

Home Grown
NCA
Drive Thru Records