MP3: Hey Scott, how are you man? Scott: I'm all right. How're you doing? Fantastic. Hey, well, I got some questions here for you. Hopefully you don't mind answering them? Hopefully I can answer them. [laugh]. Ah, so I was just actually listening to Drive. Mm-hmm. And at first I thought it was actually…before I opened the biographical material I thought it was kind of a nod to Brian Eno--like a la Music for Films… You know, sort of the idea of producing music for a specific activity in your life? Yeah. Yeah. But then I read about the Nike sponsorship. So I'm curious how this whole project got off the ground initially? Ah, well, we were approached by some creative people over at Nike to come up with 45 minutes of music for this new product that was sort of a partnership between Nike and Apple and the ipod Nano. And, we had about like a month of time, we were building a new studio and they came to us and we had some ideas and we just went in and worked together and, you know, it works well as a run piece that was what they specifically asked us to do something for, you know, to sort of motivate the runner. But it also, it works well. And one of the things that we've heard from, a lot of feedback we've heard is that people love listening to our music while they are taking long drives or while they're doing some sort of activity, whether it's working out or running or whatever.

So it kind of fits into all those categories. And it was cool just to not…you know, the main direction was to make something with some energy, and to think about the runner. And we were able to achieve that. And I think we came out with a nice little product. What was the research process like for this? I picture something similar to an opening to the old television series, The Six Million Dollar Man. Ah, well our music has lot of movement in it and it is just…we had a few friends that run on a regular basis and we threw some songs to them and talked to them briefly about what it is they like to hear. And then we just went in and started working on it and then as time went along we continued to get feedback on it. And sent some things off to the creative people over at Nike and had them test it out.

And it was something that came together in about 45 to 50 days and [we were] still able to focus on our new studio, which is being built and also get back into the creative flow for the new album. 'Cause, you know, lots of times you go in cold when you start working a new album and you sort of spin your tires for a little while. And this was something that was a focused project that really allowed us to get our feet wet again in the studio and it worked out well. So it did, in fact, as you were saying, sort of stimulate your creative juices for new material? Definitely, yes. And your studio is complete or in the process of being built? It's still being built. Unfortunately, it's--I don't know, it's just one of those things that's just taking a little longer than we thought. But, it should be done hopefully within the next month and we'll be able to get back in there and start working on music. Related to the Drive project, do you exercise yourself? Not as much as I should. I had a knee injury a while back where I'd severed my ACL and tore up my leg pretty badly. But what I do is, I do some cycling. I have a stationary bike in the house and I do lots of walking. We have lots of hills around the house here and I've got a big dog. So we go out and walk the dog a lot. But really not[hing] too strenuous on my leg. It's actually healed better than the one, than before. But the problem was that since I put so much weight and so much stress on my other leg, the doctor said that I'd probably eventually have to have that ACL replaced at some point. So that always scares me.

I still jump around like a maniac onstage and will probably do things I should not do. But, you know, I probably don't run as much as I should. So you obviously didn't use yourself as a subject for what you were creating? I would listen, I mean I always listen to what we do, after we're out of the studio and I dissect it. And, you know, and I mainly listen to it for dead spots and energy and stuff like that, but no, not in the same way that they had us sort of specifically writing for--the running aspect of it. How did you prepare for the project? I mean coming out of the gate with a very focused intention--how did that differ from the way that you generally approach the musical creative process? I think it's pretty much the same. We went in and started…although what was different was that usually we'll go in and we'll open it up to all sort of different styles and tempos and stuff like that. This one--since it was for this specific project--a lot of the down-tempo stuff wasn't approached. And we sort of kept it, you know, everything in higher bpms and stuff…so, but, pretty much the same.

And we just went in and got the bass out and did some bass product and guitar stuff and we brought a great guitar player in and it was fun. It was…I mean I don't think it was the same as for an album, because, you know, in the album we were really trying to create a mood and a vibe that covers different tempos and has lots of ebb and flow to it. But this was full on energy from two or three minutes with some dynamic moments throughout the mix but ah...

And also doing everything as a continuous piece of music and thinking about that and thinking about how the songs would go together…some of the conversations we've had with people that work out or run to our music about specific goal points that one meets while in the middle of a 30- to 45-minute run. And where the energy needs to be kicked in here and…so it's those little things.

When we go into the making of an album we just go in not really thinking about anything like that. But it's more of creating something that one can listen to from beginning to end that has some tone to it. This is a little bit different. Would you ever consider producing soundtracks for various other human activities, say like dishwashing or gardening? Ah, I doubt there'd be much dishwashing--especially in our crowd, but what was the other one again? Well I just meant that, you know…as a joke. But I mean exercising and running that's just an activity that a lot of people do… But our next job is to get in and make an album, a studio album and then tour for that studio album. And then if something else that comes up that's different, that challenges us, that makes things a little bit different for us in the studio, and then we'll think about that at the time and see if it makes any sense. Yeah, I was thinking it would be fun to work on something like a scuba diving project or something. My partner Ken, he's big into scuba diving. That might…I'll have to see if that's something that might work out for him. Yeah. Definitely. I mean it is silent down there. [laugh]. Were there any reservations on your part regarding partnership with such large companies and their ability to kind of push back on your creativity? Ah, there was really, the creative part…I mean we had absolutely no issues with anybody from either companies, creatively. It was just more, was the goal being achieved as far as the energy? And everything we heard from them was positive and we came up with things that they weren't even thinking about. So, it wasn't really an issue at all. Since this will definitely act as something to appease your fans at the moment, how long do you think they'll have to wait for another proper studio album? Ah, well, hopefully, sometime--middle of next year hopefully. And with the studio--the new studio coming together quite slowly--hopefully we'll be able to get in the next couple months and work through the holidays and take some time out from doing DJ [gigs] and have something ready to be released sometime mid to late summer next year. Great. Well we look forward to it. All right. Thanks. Thank you for the time. Yeah. Thank you very much Scott.