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Project 86 frontman Andrew Schwab takes time out during several interviews scheduled at GMA:2005 to answer a few questions asked by his peers from the band Disciple. It was a fun interview and one that space in the latest HM didn’t permit the full “experience” of, so we’ve included the entire interview here, only cutting out some chatter on Star Wars and video games…

Kevin: What are some of your favorite tour stops? And that would include not only venues, but truck stops.
Andrew: As far as cities, we like Minneapolis. Uh, we like Tulsa, Oklahoma City area…Houston, Dallas. Anywhere that’s not Florida, basically.

Brad: Yeah, Florida’s real tough. Uh, (turning to bassist Joey Fife) Uh, Joey did you wanna ask something? Joey, he’s the big … he’s the biggest Project 86 fan.
Joey: Uh Andrew, what is an official item for your band to tour with…. which, PS2 or…
B: Like, do you have to have playstation or xbox with you?
J: There you go. Yeah.
A: Um…no. It’s not like absolutely necessary. I do like playing video games a lot, but, I mean, last year I bought a game boy advanced, and so I play lot of the old school video games, and some of the newer ones.

B: You mean like Tiger Woods golf?
A: No it’s more like Mario golf, Mario Brothers. They call it a classic or whatever. So that was the last one, I still have that. They have some more advanced systems that are handheld systems that would be really great to own, but they’re, you know, like two hundred bucks.

B: I just saw someone downstairs that had that PSP, have you played that?
A: Yeah I played that last week. It’s like two hundred fifty bucks. Some pretty good games on it.

B: The screen’s like this big (holds hands and thumbs a good five inches apart), though, right?
A: Yeah, it’s literally, like, that big.

K: Ok, these are Doug’s questions, but I’m gonna ask them anyway. Uh here we go… How do you resolve most band conflicts? Has it ever come to blows or wrestling, and what is the longest period that two of your members have not spoken to each other?
Doug Van Pelt (low voice): Good question.
K: …Doug Van Pelt, ladies and gentlemen! Have you ever hit one of your band members in the mouth?
A: I’ve smacked their guitars.

(laughter)
A: In 1998, it wasn’t hard, but it was sort of, sarcastic retaliation. It wasn’t, like full on blows. It was more like, I said something he didn’t like then, like…I was like “whack”…he just kinda looked at me, with big eyes like “I can’t believe you did that.” But kinda sad, so then I felt bad.

B: Have y’all ever gone just, a ridiculous amount of time without talking between to members?
A: Same guy and I, Randy uh….not like on the road. Cuz, I mean, we’re cool when we have our separate lives. There’ve been sections where we were like, just edged a little bit here and there. That’s part of the beauty of being in a band, is you can kind of stem away that tension that’s inevitable. I mean some people find meaning in their marriages, and their vows…resolving conflict….That’s one of the ugly beauties of being in a band, I guess.

K: Yeah, absolutely.
A: Usually it just patches up, though.

K: So how you resolve it?
A: Um, inevitably, it has to be a conversation or something, and then it usually resolves, and everything’s cool.

K: So you recently came back to your original label, Tooth & Nail? What reservations did you have about coming back, and…
A: Well, initially with Tooth & Nail, we had an introductory deal, and we grew, and that’s the thing, we sort of outgrew the record deal that we were in. And that creates awkwardness along the way. We left and went to Atlantic, and left Atlantic, and at that point in time Tooth and Nail was going to merge with EMI. Then finally, when we were talking to them again, which we never thought would happen, they had reached the point, where…even now, they’re a big independent label, with backing. So it just made sense. I mean, we laid everything out on the table, and it was everything from labels that were just starting up, to majors…and it just made sense. I mean, we had done them before, they knew how to market our band, and it just made sense. And now going into the new record we’re writing, we have a really good setup, probably better than we’ve had on other labels.

K: Tell us about the new album.
A: We’re still in the writing phase. It’s like uh…probably like 15 to 18 skeleton-structured songs. And I haven’t even written any vocal ideas yet.

K: Vocally, are you going to sing a lot on this album or…A: You know, I’m just going to see what comes out, but I definitely want to try and experiment with things on this record, so it’s important that you keep evolving as a band. And as far as musically, there’s definitely some different stuff on this record, in terms of just the vibe, some of it’s pretty heavy and…

K: Do you let a producer help you decide what you’re going to do at times?
A: Yeah, you find out, if you’re working with someone, a talented producer, and not just an engineer, and leaving some openness there. For... Whether it’s constructing choruses or rearranging parts, you’re going to get the best result. Because that’s a fifth band member coming in and contributing ideas and taking songs from one place, to the next level. That’s their job, you know.

K: And it should be. If you go into the studio, and they don’t give you any opinions or help you, then you shouldn’t be working with them.
A: Yeah, unless you’re so talented as a band that you just need someone to make the record sound cool.

K: Right, yeah. That’s true.
B: Um…you just recently wrote a book, and I really want to ask this question. I want to know, what the books are really about…the first one and…you’ve written two correct?
A:Three.

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