Interview October 22, 2007
How have been your last tour of four months with an incredible amount of US-Europe-US travels...
Christopher: Its sort of a blur. But I'm pretty sure we had a good time. But it was also a bit of a shock as we had spent the last couple of years in a very quiet, immobile state. And then all of a sudden we're driving and flying all over the place.
Before this tour, you were playing between four and six songs on stage and now you're playing, at least, seven songs, so your shows seem to be longer. Is it something that you decided?
Christopher: Well, we don't like playing long sets and we don't like seeing bands play long sets (in our opinions bands shouldn't play longer than one hour). I guess we have short attention spans. But, at the same time, people are paying money to see us and I think we owe it to them to play longer than 45 minutes.
And then, recently, you decided to tour again and this time with the Smashing Pumpkins in October. How do you feel about that ? Excited i guess ? Worried maybe ?
Christopher: It's going pretty well so far. It's probably the least stressful tour we've ever been on as there isn't a whole lot of pressure. Most of the people in the audience have never even heard our name so we don't have a lot to lose. And its always interesting to try and win people over who have never heard us before.
Billy (Corgan) phoned you ?
Christopher: No, it was all set up via email between our manager and theirs. But we have met Billy and he's been very kind to us.
My favorite album from the Smashing is "Mellon Collie...". What's yours ?
Christopher: It would have to be Siamese Dream.
And after that, you will play in Europe in 2008 ?
Christopher: We'll be touring the UK in January and then throughout Europe in May.
What kind of reactions did you get after the release of "All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone" ?
Christopher: They've been mostly positive but some people have said that we didn't really try anything new with this record. I think that argument is valid. All of A Sudden...sort of seems like a summary of our previous three records. We all love it but I can understand if people were disappointed that we didn't break a lot of new ground with it. Having said that, I think we've kind of reached a turning point in terms of what we want to do with our music. We've already been working on a lot of new songs and they're pretty different than anything we've done before. So we expect and hope that the next record will be a bit of a curveball.
I saw on the net that you were in the top 100 of the billboard charts or something like that...what do you think about that?
Christopher: It was very strange. We've somehow snuck into the mainstream. Which is something we're happy about it, but its also very strange as we still feel like we have no idea what we are doing.
Have you recorded more songs during the "All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone" sessions in the Pachyderm Studio ?
Christopher: Nope.
What is your favorite song in the eits discography ?
Christopher: The Only Moment We Were Alone.
A lot of people asked why you have never played an encore...? even if you did it, in Amsterdam (2002). Christopher: They just seem sort of contrived. We put all we have into our set and then to just leave the stage and then come back to play one song seems somehow wrong to us.
What is your best memory on stage recently ? Maybe when you blew up your amp in London ?
Christopher: That was a pretty good one. Also we played in Mexico City recently and the reaction of the audience was amazing. Its so much easier to play in front of enthusiastic audience.
Have you a favorite drums player ?
Christopher: Maybe Keith Moon or Brendan Canty (fugazi)
As usual, if you have any last words...
Christopher: Well, we'll be back in europe next year and we look forward to seeing you.
