MO: That’s good for me. So Wapred Tour: How has it been? I know it’s starting to wind down a little bit now, with just a few days left.
Ben: Oh yeah, it’s the last three or four days? Three days.

MO: Right. So how has it been treating you so far?
Ben: It’s great! We’re so attached to it, used to it, I don’t know. It’s such a big part of us right now, it could be our last big thing. We might not play any shows next year, you know, we’ve been out for two years straight, but we kind of don’t want to go, too.

MO: You’ve kind of started bonding with some of the other bands.
Ben: Oh yeah, and with so many bands. Right from the get go we’ve just been bonding with these bands. It’s just now you can meet new people, the more people you get to know. Just everyone. There’s just so many people, it’s like a lifestyle, your own little city, for the past, what, forty-six days now?

MO: It’s your third year, so it probably starts to feel a bit like summer camp after awhile.
Ben: Oh yeah. Things for Yellowcard are changing really rapidly. I mean, I probably won’t be on this tour next year, you know, so it’s like, 'Wow!'

MO: What bands were you looking forward to seeing this year?
Ben: Bad Religion. NOFX. Taking Back Sunday. We’ve grown up with bands like that who were on this level where they wouldn’t give us the time of day and now here we are and they have totally accepted us. We’re friends. We have a real good sense of credibility going.

MO: And now you all get to go out and start trouble together.
Ben: Haha, yeah you never know. We have so many close friends and different connections you make. It’s kind of a full circle thing, this whole Warped Tour is for us.

MO: Your band is involved in the Justice Throughout Music program. What’s that program specifically about?
Ben: It’s just like public service announcements from like artists and stuff. They came in and they filmed me. I don’t know what they use it for, it’s either the internet or maybe local channels. The guy was using his words, he was really, really into it and his idea of getting artists to talk about issues. It’s a good thing. But I think it’s pretty online based, I’m pretty sure.

MO: How did that come about? How did you get setup with that?
Ben: Yeah, well, he contacted us because he knows we’re pretty interested and know we’re on the Rock Against Bush compilation and we’re a part of punkvoter.com.

MO: Yeah, that’s something else I wanted to bring up: Being on the Rock Against Bush album. Sounds like you have a lot you want to say as far as civil rights, politics.
Ben: Well yes and no. We’re not even ... Like, we’re not really that hard up on it, but we want to represent because we have so many kids watching our show now and we want kids to be aware of what’s going on with the vote. We’re not out there, you know, like Anti-Flag, saying ‘fuck Bush!’ We know who we’ll all vote for.

MO: And now you kind of have a platform for speaking about it.
Ben: Right! We want to address it, that there’s actually something to be talked a bout, and looked into. We can reach a lot of people.

MO: So you’re kind of taking a stand and saying ‘we don’t want to take a stand either way, we just want everyone to be more aware’?
Ben: Well yeah. Like, ‘this is our opinion’. Just make sure you get up, get out and do something, whatever it may be. But just to let you know, our band won’t be voting for Bush.

MO: You all are originally from Florida, relocated to Southern Californa, and it seems like it would be a little more difficult in SoCal; it’s an area where the genre is a little over run.
Ben: Right.

MO: How did you make a name for yourself amidst all that.
Ben: Yeah. There’s just so many different bands and labels, but we wanted to go out there and get in and see ... We just knew it, I mean, I guess we had faith that we would stand out and that our shows would prove it.

MO: And what kind of helped you with that? What helped you stand out like that?
Ben: Well, having the violin in the band. We had a cool record and we played every show we got. We played everywhere. Played every show and people watched us, they liked the band, they liked the performance, and we sold CD’s. Fans kept going and we kept track of them on the internet, on our message board. It was kind of a cool thing.

MO: So moving from Florida was definitely a choice for the music...
Ben: Yeah. I mean, it’s what we grew up on, on Epitaph and that kind of Southern California punk rock thing. That’s kind of why Yellowcard even started. We were following the sound, where all these bands came from and these record labels. That’s basically what it was.

MO: The way your band is kind of starting to stand out from others like it is by having songs that are a little more lively and upbeat, you also have the violinist. Were these things you actively decided on, to help make your music stand out? Or did it just come together?
Ben: No, it was completely natural. We were just in high school and right when Yellowcard started, Sean and I had an acoustic guitar group. We all went to an arts high school, so it was really creative. Sean was a friend and we had our little two guitars and the violin, and we would perform at our high school, perform at like the ... Well, they would have school performances like every quarter, you know what I mean? And you could audition and if you got in, you could perform and be part of the program. That was right when Yellowcard started and we were just friends that were always around we listened to the same kind of music. And we wrote this slower song and we said ‘Sean, you should play on this one part and he did, then he did it once at one of our local shows. It was cool. It was a garage band, just local, total local, just thinking about graduating high school, you know?

MO: Right.
Ben: But then we went along another year, wrote another record, we wrote like two records when we were in high school, Ryan joined the band at the end of high school and that’s when it really, really started.

MO: Yeah, he left college for the band, right?
Ben: Well, he went to our same high school. He had another local band, and we all grew up together. Then he was in college with Sean, our violin player, they went to the same college, but then Sean would drive back and play Yellowcard shows. It was like a three hour drive. And then Ryan ended up joining our band because our singer was quitting, so it was like, we started writing all these new songs and we were like ‘let’s just move to California’.

MO: I bet his parents took that real well.
Ben: Well Sean’s parents disowned him for about two years, took his car away. He came to California without a car. Ryan’s parents were pissed, because it was like the second time he’d tried to play in a band. Because right after high school before he was in college he was in another band and played with them for eight months, then came back and came back to college. And that’s when we were like dude, you should join Yellowcard since your back.

MO: So what are your plans for another album? Your last one came out last year.
Ben: In March, we are recording and it will come out in summer.

MO: And have you written on the road at all yet?
Ben: Oh yeah, we write here. Everywhere we can. Like Ryan will start a riff and he’ll keep it and then whenever it’s time to turn that into a song we’ll do it.

MO: So on the road, it’s not really a collective effort, you just all kind of make your own little pieces and bring them to the table.
Ben: Yeah. I mean, someone always starts the theme. Ryan is usually the one who starts the theme of the song, whether it be a verse or a chorus, we jam on it every which way and by the time we bring it to the band, we have a pretty good idea of where we want it to go. We make it happen.

MO: And obviously your debut on Capital Records has gotten a lot of buzz; you got the two nominations on MTV ...
Ben: --No, it’s now three! I just saw online, we’re picked for the Viewer’s Choice Award! We just got that, I guess, this morning.

MO: And best new artist in a video?
Ben: Yeah, Best New Artist and MTV2, and now we’re in the top five for Viewer’s Choice.

MO: That seems like it will be a lot to live up to with a sophomore album, does it seem like a bit of pressure on your head?
Ben: Hell no. We’re just going to write a better record. Watch us.

MO: And so after this tour, what are your plans?
Ben: We take two days off for the VMA’s and then go to Europe, Japan, and the rest of the world. We just keep working on that area and do what we did here and try to build it up all over the place.