Fanscape: How's everything going on the tour?

Tom: Really good. It's been like a week and a half and it's been kick-ass. It's been great, have no complaints.

FS: Is 10a.m. an early time for you guys to get up while out on tour?

Tom: We usually get up around noon, so slightly early. We were up real late last night too.

FS: Oh yeah? What were you guys getting into last night?

Tom: We actually weren't getting into anything, it was some real stuff. We were coming from New Mexico and we stopped in Tucson cause our tour manager, Tommy, owns a pizzeria there so he made a bunch of pizzas and meatball subs for a bunch of people on the tour that we were friends with. So we got to make the pizzas and chuck the dough around and all that.

Then after the pizza at like 2 in the morning we went over to our friend in Tucson's studio. We have a guy that plays with us live, a second guitarist and he's leaving us at the end of the tour so during the Warped Tour we're auditioning people to take that spot, so literally the day after Warped Tour we have literally a whole another month and a half of shows. We need to find someone to take that spot while we're on tour, so it's kind of hectic. So at 2am we had to go audition this one dude that we know in Tucson. So we got done with that at like 3 in the morning and we're like "ya know what, this sucks, we gotta go to bed, we're so tired."

FS: How do you line up these people that you're auditioning, is it just through people you know?

Tom: Yeah, just friends of friends, people that we've known for years.

FS: Is that the first person you've auditioned so far?

Tom: Yeah, he's the first.

FS: That's crazy, if you don't find someone in the next month or two...

Tom: Well, the guy last night was pretty good. And we've known him for a while, and we got another guy that is pretty solid so we feel like we've got someone, ya know.

FS: So you guys have been doing this tour for a while, what do you think contributes the most to its longevity and success year after year?

Tom: It's the place to be every summer for junior high and high school kids. Sure some of em might go to Ozzfest and all that, but Warped Tour is the real, big deal. It's the one that they're saving their pennies all summer for. It's the one when you go back to school in September that you're gonna be telling all your friends about.

FS: Yeah, it's like a summer camp for punk rock kids.

Tom: Absolutely.

FS: And it's cheap too, it's like $30 for the whole day.

Tom: Yeah, you gotta figure if it's like $30 and there's 60 bands playing, that works out to like 50 cents a band. You can't beat that. Where else are you gonna see MxPx, or My Chemical Romance, or the Offspring for 50 cents.

FS: Yeah, I was talking to Kevin Lyman and he wants to keep the price down by bringing in sponsors to pay some of the costs. Do you think that potentially alienates fans at all by having a lot of sponsor's on the tour?

Tom: No, cause they're so used to it. Everyone that works on the tour or comes to it are used to it. I mean, it's been sponsored by Vans since the second year, so that's a huge sponsorship right there. Then it became "The Warped Tour, sponsored by this, that, and the other thing" and the kids like it cause they're all out here giving away free stuff and running contests. MySpace is running a contest where you enter and you can go see your favorite band from the stage. So everyone is doing cool stuff and the kids seem to dig it. I don't think anyone is going "Pfft, I can't believe that that company is sponsoring the Warped Tour." In the end its like, "Hey man, pay $60 bucks off my ticket for the show."

FS: What do you think is the coolest booth you've seen on the tour?

Tom: We've been going to the Cingular booth, where you sign autographs and stuff. But after we're done we go there and sit in the air-conditioning and grab water. There's a big window on the side of it and it's always situated where all the kids are coming and going and the windows are the ones where we can see out but they can't see in. It makes for great people-watching.

FS: What's a typical day like when you're not performing?

Tom: It just depends, we have a lot of things we need to do that we're doing everyday too, like press and signings and stuff. I usually like to make it out to our merchandise booth and talk and hang out with the kids, and just be accessible to the fans. They're stoked when you take the time to come out and say "what's up," and for some of them it makes their day.

FS: Any specific bands on this year's tour that you make a point to go check out?

Tom: I'm really waiting for Thrice to get here, cause I love them, they're great. I've been checking out a bunch of bands that I've heard of and heard a lot but haven't necessarily seen live. Went and saw My Chemical Romance the other day and they were cool.

FS: So any crazy moments on this year's tour so far you'd like to share?

Tom: Ya know, everyone will always ask that question and its like the first couple of years we were touring EVERYTHING was crazy, like "oh man, we were in Phoenix and this kid was crowd surfing and it was gnarly!" and now its like everything is crazy and we say "I can't believe that happened" is so commonplace that its like "yeah, I can completely believe that some kid broke his finger at the show and didn't bother to go to the hospital because he wanted to go stand in line and meet us." He comes up and shows us his mangled finger like "check this out." And we're like "Guy, go get your finger looked that, seriously. There's medics all over this place." And he's like "man, all I wanted to do was come meet you guys, I'll do that later".

FS: That's crazy.

Tom: Yeah, and I asked him if it hurts and he was like "Hell yeah it hurts!"

FS: I'm sure there's tons of stories like that at Warped.

Tom: Yeah, I was like "man, you're crazy, go get your finger taped to the other one or something."

FS: So you guys have a new album out, and you guys only have like a half hour or so for your set. Do you try and integrate as much of the new album as you can or is it mostly older stuff?

Tom: We try and do like 3 songs from the new album everyday. We do about 9 or 10 songs a day, depending on how we flow through things. We try and mix it up.

FS: Reading some reviews, interviews, and through message boards, this latest album is being treated almost like a revival for MxPx, did you have any intentions or expectations of it being like that when your recorded the album?

Tom: It was kind of a thing where we kind of wanted to go a step backwards. Everyone says "oh, you've matured on this record" and I think it's kind of like we "immatured" or "de-matured," it's kind of like a step back to the way we used to do things. The way we recorded the record, we just busted it out. We did it really quick at our own studio, it felt like the old days. It wasn't like 3 months recording the record and going out to dinner with the label guy and schmoozing every couple days. It was just bang, bang, bang, in the studio from 10am to 2am everyday, all day every day.

FS: You say it's kind of like the old days, does that have something to do with moving from a major label to a smaller label on this record?

Tom: Absolutely, cause I don't think A&M would ever let us record a record like this cause they would be like "No, we want you to go into the studio with this guy who wants to charge you $100,000 to produce your record because he made big hit records in the 80's" and "you need to record at this studio and not your studio because your studio is crap." When the fact our studio was great and this record sounds just as good if not better than anything we've ever done. We did it at our own place, we did it in three weeks instead of three months and we did it on our terms.

FS: So with a label like Side One Dummy they simply just put more trust into you guys to make the album that MxPx wanted to make?

Tom: Absolutely, A&M were more concerned with "What's the radio single gonna be?" and "What will MTV play?" where Side One Dummy was more concerned with "Hey, that song makes me want to get in the pit and kick someone's ass!"

FS: That's what it's all about.

Tom: Yeah, they were more concerned with how these songs make them feel and believing that "that one song is gonna be huge on the Warped Tour, watch !"

FS: The album is going over well on your fansites and message boards, I was actually talking to some kids and asked what questions they want answered.

Tom: Go for it.

FS: What artist would you like to collaborate with?

Tom: Hmmm... I think it would be fun to work with Peter Gabriel. The guy does some crazy stuff that I just love.

FS: What's in your CD player right now?

Tom: Recently, the guy I've been playing with is in a new band called Eager Seas. They have a record coming out at the end of the summer and I've been listening to that a bunch lately. The record is called "People like People."

FS: So do you guys listen to the radio at all, or are you just into searching for the underground stuff?

Tom: When we can we'll listen to the radio. When we cruise into town for a show and we're in some rental car we'll throw on the radio to see what's playing. But it's mostly its on iPod's and stuff like that.

FS: Yeah, same with me. You dropped the latest album, but the hardcore fans always want more. Do you have a lot of unreleased stuff that you'll be releasing in the near future?

Tom: We've got tons of unreleased stuff that we have and can release on a moment's notice but we don't have any plans for that right now.

FS: What's the current state of Arthur?

Tom: It's kind of on hold, we talk about it every once and a while and get together and practice and play some bar shows at home. But we're really busy now with the MxPx record, and the other guy that plays in the band, he's off working with Good Charlotte, so if we're home it doesn't necessarily mean that he's home.

FS: So you guys are gonna look to develop Arthur when you have a lot more downtime and not promoting a new record?

Tom: Yeah, definitely. We have fun with that when we go play local shows and stuff like that.

FS: What is your least and most favorite thing about your job?

Tom: My favorite thing is being able to play music live on stage for people and just have people go off and have a great time doing it. And I get to do that all the time, I get to travel the world doing it. My least favorite thing is that it keeps me away from my family and friends being out on the road for months but it's the nature of the beast. It's what you gotta do, rock bands tour. It's not like we're in a rap group that does one tour in their career and plays a couple shows here and there. We do it all the time.

FS: What's your favorite beer?

Tom: We stick to the light beers, it's called a beer belly for a reason.

FS: So you guys are going on tour at the end of Warped Tour as well?

Tom: Basically, the Warped Tour is the beginning of a World Tour for us, we do Warped in the summer in the states and then we go to Europe for a bunch of dates and some festivals. Then we do a bunch of shows on our own in England and then we head down to Australia and do a headlining tour down there and then up to Japan for a bunch of shows. After Japan, we're working on a show in Korea, which should be really cool since we've never been over there. Then we'll have like a week or two off, then we head out on a headlining U.S. tour for a couple months around October or November. Then after that we're talking about doing some radio shows or possibly going down to South America in December.

FS: Who are you guys touring with?

Tom: In the headlining tour it's not locked up yet, so I don't want to say anything and get people excited and then if things don't work out have to answer those questions.

FS: Any wish list for who you'd like to tour with?

Tom: The Clash, The Beatles, The Who, Tom Petty, Elvis Costello.

FS: Any REALISTIC wish list you'd like to tour with?

Tom: It's pretty much locked up, it's like 95% locked up. So the wish list would be the three bands we have on there with us.

FS: Nice politically correct answer.

Tom: Haha.

FS: Thanks for taking the time out; I know it's early and sometimes hard to do an interview when you first get up.

Tom: Its cool dude, thanks a lot.