Better Than Ezra
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Uncovering the Mystery of Better Than Ezra
Interview by Kelly Ladd
Kevin (vocals)
Tom (bass)
Travis (drums)
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| HardRock.com: How does it feel to be the secret of the O-Rock mystery? |
| Kevin: It's nice because O-Rock has been a big supporter of the band. And it's special to play a venue as cool as the Hard Rock. |
| HardRock.com: On your latest album, Closer, how has your sound evolved from previous albums? |
Kevin: I think with every album that we make we learn what works and what doesn't work. We learn new tricks in the studio. I think our last album, How Does Your Garden Grow, we really kind of went to experimenting with sounds. And then with this album, we wanted to take the straightforward rock approach to our music and incorporate those sounds and make them more esoteric sounds. And try to kind of get what our band does best and I think that is what we were able to do with this album, so I think...
Tom: Yeah, we spent a lot more time on this record than the last two and that allowed us to experiment. We did a lot of it with just the three of us because we have our own studio, of course. We can just go in and experiment with ideas. Before we needed an engineer or a producer and that is what we did on this record.
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| HardRock.com: You guys performed at the Miss Teen USA pageant, so I must ask you their final question… "President Bush's daughters, Jenna and Barbara, have had well publicized problems with underage drinking. Have they been treated fairly by the media?" |
Tom: (laughs) Well, we're from New Orleans and I think underage drinking is kind of a given. You start drinking when you are like 14.
Kevin: Speak for yourself. I was studying. You know, kids and teenagers are going to go out and do what they are going to do and a lot of the times that involves underage drinking. It's not right but it's pretty much a fact of growing up. You know doing things responsibly in moderation, I think is the key to anything. But the Bush daughters have to know that they are going to be under a microscope and that is the kind of burden that they have. I mean on one hand it's unfair that they have this kind of scrutiny and the same time the benefits they get from being famous come with a lot of responsibilities. So they have to know that if they were partying at Fat Tuesdays on 6th street in Austin, which is this place that everyone goes. We've been there before. That they are going to get busted. They just have to get a little wiser. I think they need to start, what we used to do. They need to start wearing wigs at 15.
Travis: Covert.
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| HardRock.com: Well, I think we are going to crown you Miss Teen USA. You have the best answer. |
| Kevin: Mr. Teen USA. |
| HardRock.com: Mister, excuse me. What insight did you gain from your experience with the Miss Teen USA pageant? |
Travis: (laughs) What insight?
Tom: Anytime that you are on national television it's a little bit scary. That was completely live. We've done Leno, Letterman and Cohen, but those are all taped in front of a live audience. This was live. There are no mistakes, nothing. You've got one shot at it. That was the first time we've done that. It was kind of cool.
Kevin: I thought those girls would be real prissy and kind of just airheads, you know. But I was really surprised that all of the contestants were really cool and we're just into that. It wasn't like the things that you see. I think people give such a bad idea of pageants especially with the Jon Benet Ramsey thing, with all of these stage moms, "Come on, honey…DANCE!"
Travis: "BE HAPPY!"
Kevin: "BE HAPPY!" "SMILE!" "SMILE!" But they were really cool. The girls were smart and talented and they could drink. Whoo!
Tom: We were all at the same hotel.
Kevin: We were in the same hotel for three days and they had like beer funnel parties every night and crazy stuff.
Travis: I don't know where all the parents were.
Kevin: They were at the orgy.
Tom, Kevin, and Travis: (laugh)
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| HardRock.com: Since you are from New Orleans, do you ever go crawfishing? How many can you eat in one sitting? |
Travis: Well, we don't really go crawfishing.
Tom: Yeah.
Kevin: Actually, I have.
Tom, Travis: You have?
Kevin: Most people don't go crawfishing. You go to the restaurant and they pour them out. But I actually did go crawfishing one time in Louisiana. We caught enough to eat. They use this flat boat and the water is really shallow because they grow rice patties in the off-season they have crawfishing. The water is too shallow for an engine so they have this big hydraulic wheel that just pulls you along. And that's about it. But I can eat about, uh, 5-10 pounds.
Tom: Yeah, we do it by pounds not by individual crawfish.
Travis: But so much of a crawfish is just waste, well the shell of it. So, with 5 pounds of crawfish you aren't getting that much meat. About a third of a crawfish is meat.
Kevin: It's pretty nasty business. You really do suck the heads. It's sounds gross, but that is where all the good juice is.
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HardRock.com: Isn't that what they call it "sucking head?"
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Tom: That's what Travis calls it.
Kevin: Are we still talking about the Miss Teen USA pageant?
Kevin, Tom and Travis: (laugh) |
| HardRock.com: (laughs) Tell me about your craziest moment at Mardi Gras. |
Kevin: Ah man, that's a tough one. When I was in college…
Tom: You better not tell that story.
Kevin: College is the best time because it is when you're young enough and have enough stamina to truly enjoy Mardi Gras. And I remember having no money and me and my friends would go and drink Mickey's Big Mouth Beer from Circle K and 7-11. We had no place to sleep. We'd sleep in the car and we'd take No-Doze, those caffeine pills. We were just jittery idiots drinking Mickey's Big Mouth and Mad Dog.
Tom: We'd ride every year at the Luna Gras. It's Monday night and that's always fun. I mean it's crazy stuff. It goes by so quickly. It lasts like 3 hours but it feels like 5 minutes. If you ever have the opportunity to, you've got to do it.
Kevin: We're used to be playing a lot of shows in front of 300,000 people. It's insane. People throwing their tops off and then we have a lot of fans who know what float we are on and they run through the whole parade and we are just pelting them with stuff. Their faces are all red and bleeding by the end.
Tom: We don't throw the individual beads out; you throw the entire giant bags and pelt them. You can really hurt somebody with them.
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| HardRock.com: Are you only better than Ezra? Or are you better than John, Larry, and Frank too? Who else are you better than? |
Kevin: John, Larry and Frank?
Tom: (laughs)
Kevin: We're better than John. Larry and Frank got us beat. We're better than most. We're also modest.
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| HardRock.com: Do you think the band Anthrax should change their name because of all the stuff going on? |
Travis: I heard that they did.
Kevin: No, I saw an interview today on VH-1. And he said that he's just waiting until it blows over. And I thought that it was just a phat pun. I don't know. They shouldn't have named their band Anthrax in the first place. It's just lame. One of the albums is called Spreading the Disease.
Tom: Is it?
Kevin: Yeah. I don't know. One of the critics said, "Heavy metal in general is just about being in bad taste." If I was in it, I'd probably keep the same name.
Tom: I have to agree.
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| HardRock.com: I looked on your website and you didn't have a bio posted. Tell me something "Extra Ordinary" about you. |
Kevin: I was second runner-up in the Trigonometry I high school state.
Tom: Really?
Kevin: Yep! I got the second highest scores in the state. I almost went to nationals. You didn't know that, did you?
Travis: Actually when I was a kid, I played a Jawa in the Star Wars movies.
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| HardRock.com: Did you really? |
Tom: Are you serious? Was it in Phoenix?
Travis: (nods head)
Kevin: You did not!
Travis: (bursts out laughing)
Kevin: He's lying.
Travis: That was good. We used to tell kids that. We had the playing cards and on one card they had two little Jawas. Me and my brother would tell all of the kids, "this is us. We played them."
Kevin: I was actually believing ya.
Travis: I know. (laughs) I can't believe that. I hadn't even thought of that since I was a kid. (laughs).
Tom: I scored 102, 960 on Miss Pac-Man once.
Travis: (laughs)
Kevin: Now that's extraordinary.
Travis: That's extraordinary.
Tom: (laughs)
Travis: Oh yeah. Alright.
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| HardRock.com: And the final question—If the world were to be destroyed tomorrow and you were asked to choose one of your songs to go into a time capsule to be sent into deep space, which song would you choose that best describes your sound and why? |
Kevin: I would have to say. What?
Tom: Well, it's between two.
Kevin: Which ones?
Tom: "Lifetime" and "Closer."
Kevin: I was going to say "Under You" or "Extra Ordinary." But I'd say either "Lifetime" or "At the Stars" for the last one.
Travis: Are we looking for a consensus or are we just saying it?
Tom: What do you think?
Travis: Ah, that's tough. Maybe I don't know. That's a tough one. I don't know. I'll go after you go.
Tom: Um, I like "At the Stars" a lot.
Travis: I might say "King of the World."
Tom: Maybe "Misunderstood."
Travis: Yeah, "Misunderstood" off of our new record.
Kevin: "Misunderstood." Closer is on sale now at Tower and Best Buy.
Tom: for $12.99.
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