You also pulled down the MP3 section from your Web site. Was that at the label's request?
Yeah. It's a shame too, because the most important thing in the world to me is getting our songs out there. And we have a ton of them and I wish we could just constantly put new songs up for people to hear. We just recorded 10 to 15 new songs and if I had my way, I'd put them up right now, so everyone could download them. See, that's what I'd do if we owned the masters. I'd do stuff like that. Just give the music away for free. [Geffen has since agreed to the return of the MP3 section.]
Um, but how would you earn a living, then?
I don't know. It's just karma -- somehow we'd get paid back. I guess maybe from concerts or....
But now they want the album and unfortunately they have the right to claim ownership of the tapes. It's crazy. It's totally unfair. I mean, that's us on the tape. That's me singing. Those are our songs. That's us rocking out. How come they can just walk in and pick up the tapes and say, they're ours? They didn't even pay for 'em -- we paid for 'em.
I don't know. We don't really worry ourselves about it. The goal is just to make music and get it out there. And to have tons of people singing along to our songs. That's what makes us happy. I swear we pretty much just put the whole business side of things out of our minds and keep rocking. Unfortunately, through neglecting the business side, it's like our business problems are just piling up. I guess that's what happens when you don't have a manager. [laughs]
So what are you going to do about it?
I have no idea. I don't really care, either, because at the end of day no one can stop us from getting together and playing and as long as we can do that we'll be happy.
And if and when the record comes out on Geffen?
We'd just ignore it. We don't really bother ourselves with the actual album. All our fans already have the songs -- they downloaded them off the Web site before it got shut down.
How did you guys get this far from where you were last year?
I think it was gradually getting more and more focused on making music and turning away from the idea of trying to be a successful product. It was probably a year ago that we fired our manager and we just started to veer off into outer space. I really think it was the best thing we ever did, because we don't have people whispering in our ears all the time trying to steer us back onto a normal course. We've been free to just do whatever we want to do, and figure out what it is we want to do. And that's led us to where we are, for better or worse.
And yet it seems like a creatively fertile time for you. ''Maladroit'' is the biggest-sounding rock you've ever done.
Yeah, we feel the same way, and we're really excited about moving forward and just developing from there. Now we're starting to try songs that the other guys wrote and that the other guys sing on. We just have a very relaxed and live and creative feel in the studio. It's our home.
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