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Still Remains blows me away. I had been keeping up with the band via their indie releases. When their manager sent me an mp3 of one of their new songs (the explosive "White Walls"), I knew I'd really get into this new album, Of Love And Lunacy. But when I saw them destory the Back Room during South by Southwest with their gothic-induced posthardcore/metalcore wall of sound, I was floored. I’m a fan. A big fan.

Tell me about hooking up with Roadrunner Records...
To start, we have to mention Mark LaFay,” explains Miller and Willey at the same time. “Once we hooked up with our manager (LaFay), things started taking off – bigger shows, further away from home. He inspired and pushed us to take this band to the next level. He got us in contact with many labels. Roadrunner was the label we always joked about being on. The fact that our dream label was interested was and still is an unbelievable circumstance to be in. We were excited enough that some of the other labels had shown interest. Mark showed Mike Gitter (our A&R) our EP and said, "This is the next band you're going to sign." Mike said something to the tune of,"yeah, we'll see." After a couple days of listening, Mike called Mark and said, “You’ve peeked my interests." From then, we had a team working out all of the details.

How did this Road Rage Tour get set up? In what ways are you looking forward to this? What are some things about the road that you look forward to the most? The least?
(TJ and Evan) Roadrunner set up the tour. We are all excited to be on the road again. But it will be most exciting to be on the road with label mates and make some new friends, see new cities, play our new songs.

There isn’t much that we are not looking forward to, to be honest.

Let's talk about the new album, Of Love And Lunacy. What was it like recording? Anything unusual happen during the studio time?
(TJ and Evan) Recording was very challenging in the fact that it demanded a lot of repetition and tedious attention to detail. The team of engineers was a lot of fun to work with and get to know, however they knew how to push us to get the best out of us. Drums were tracked at The Warehouse in Vancouver, while everything else was done at The Farm in Gibsons. We got to see the city for a week before being trapped on the mountainside for the rest of the time. Although we were mostly busy, there was a bit of cabin fever going around so we spent a lot of our time making movies of us goofing around, chasing llamas, and a documentary on the proper way to make macaroni and cheese.

How was working with Garth? What did he do to your songs, if anything? How did he approach producing you guys? Describe his actions, habits, and teaching / instruction...
(TJ and Evan) As Garth listened to us play through our songs when we first arrived; he realized that he wasn’t going to have to do too much "surgery." In some cases, he's had to re-write/arrange a band’s songs so that they made sense. He even mentioned that he has had to tell bands that they are not ready and to go home and keep writing. For us, he was excited to see that we had a good grasp on song structure and arrangement. He did however have a couple suggestions.

Some we took, some we didn't. We really valued his input, especially since he could tell where we were going with it. His approach for recording bands is to not be in the way of they are doing. He wants to find each band's sound so that all of the records with his producer credit don't sound the same. He was a fun guy to be around and made us feel at home.

Concerning your songwriting for this album... tell me an interesting story (if there are any) on how a certain song was written.
(TJ and Evan) One of the songs was actually mostly written two years ago. One of our members at that time didn't like it. Jordan recorded his guitar riffs to his computer and after having his computer repaired; he stumbled across it while we were writing. He then decided to re-present it to the band. With just a few small changes, it became a song called "Cherished."

What songs on this new album stand out lyrically? Musically? (Please explain)
(T.J.) I think lyrically, the ones that stand out to me the most are Stare and Wonder, White Walls, In Place of Hope, and The Worst Is Yet To Come. In those songs, I was really able to take what was inside, and put it into words. Those songs really helped with different experiences I was dealing with at the time. Musically, we all have different reasons why different songs stick out.

(Evan) In the song "In Place Of Hope" the keys really standout in the verse. I follow the rhythm of the individual notes with a simple accentuation of its root. Jordan has a guitar melody that he plays using an ebow. Although the synch part is more pronounced in the recording the bass really drives and pushes the melody along until the vocal pre-chorus line transfers the attention into a triumphant chorus with no loss of momentum. Everything else in that song is cool too.

What led to choosing the title Of Love And Lunacy?
(T.J.) The title comes from feelings I felt during the writing process. There are songs of excitement and happiness, and songs about brokenness and being lost.

This is the dumbest question ever... but it's a long time in coming from us: What does the name Still Remains mean to ya'll?
(Evan) The name was actually just thrown together to be on a flyer for our first show. When a local promoter heard that our old bands had come together for a new project he immediately booked us for his New Years Eve "02 show. We didn't have a name so we came up with it in a day so we could get on the flyer. Since then I like to say "He Still Remains" with us, despite the chaos in the world.

What is metal for you? What do cool riffs do for you guys on stage? How do you enjoy power? What turns you on more -- a great musical riff or a great sing-along part? Why?
(TJ) To me, metal is a driving force within everyone that is either ignored or put to use. Metal is a feeling that most people are scared to share with others. Power? I don't know it actually. It's hard to make plans lately with things happening so quickly. Tours being booked, video shoots, and many other things that go along with this business make it tough to plan for anything else.

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