Congratulations supersleuth, you've found a BBW secret. We hide things like this all the time, so keep on looking. These are the questions edited out of the interview for the sake of brevity. Consider it the 'Decahedron Interview' deleted scenes, if you will. Portions that made it into the actual interview are italicized to help you find the places where outtakes would have been. Johnathon: I think Decahedron is more aggressive than the Black Sea. I think it's kind of more menacing and darker. Jason: I think it's also more focused. I mean -- that Black Sea EP -- Shelby, Joe and I practiced twice and then before I went away Shelby and I, just us two, sat down and put down some … Did it by mail right? Jason: No no no, we did guitar and drum tracks. Then I left and then Joe did it and Shelby put on vocals and just emailed it to me. I was like, "What the hell? We have a band, this is weird." Shelby: It's kind of more of a demo in a way. It feels a little more like a demo. Jason: A demo that sold for way more than it should be sold for. How much is it selling for? Jason: Nine dollars. Not through us. The retail, the wholesale, set at like $3.99. These people mark it up five dollars. Thank you. Well, I'm glad I got it for free from Lovitt I guess. Jason: I'm glad you got it for free. Are you still planning the Frodus boxset? Shelby: It's just gonna be the next installment of the Frodus archives is a double CD. We just have to get around to putting it together. So not all the albums, just cuts? Shelby: Because we put out the Radio-Activity record first, then F-Letter, and then the double CD will have everything, all the rarities and stuff. Conglomerate will stay on Tooth & Nail. Weapons will stay on Fueled by Ramen. Jason: Not necessarily, Weapons might actually move over to Lovitt Records. Why's that? Jason: For Fueled by Ramen it's a fairly dead release, it doesn't sell that many and I kind of want it -- if it's not gonna sell that many records and sit somewhere, I'd rather have it sit where our new band is, I'd rather have it be on Lovitt. And I wanted the record to be on Lovitt to begin with, but since it was originally recorded for Tooth & Nail, it was expensive and Lovitt couldn't afford to do it. Is Lovitt bigger now than it was then? Jason: I would say so. It's all relative, I mean it's all band-related … like Lovitt does a great job, but it depends on the band. A label like Tooth & Nail does massive stuff for everybody and, I don't know their business, but a lot of time it just doesn't work and the band's go in the hole 30 grand. You know what I mean? Lovitt's way more … not low-key at all but does what's needed, does what makes sense for the situation, for the bands and stuff. I'm also doing a paper on apocalyptic music. From the 30s to 2000. I wanted to ask some questions about that too. Your earlier albums were more sci-fi and business oriented but it kind of shifted with Washed Our Weapons, it was kind of on the verge of … something that was about to happen, rather than like you said satirical or sci-fi. Why is that, what changed? Shelby: You know, we grew and had different experience in the world. Experiences like people getting terminally ill within our circle of friends and loved ones. It was a little more real. Jason: Life collapsed. The Black Sea EP kind of touched on the same themes but seemed to be looking back on it instead. Why is that? Shelby: It's kind of a reflective EP, I felt. Yeah, it was more melancholy, I guess. Shelby: I think, in a way maybe that what happened because Jason and I -- without ever saying it -- were kind of sad not to be playing together. And I went out to the West Coast and did all the Bluebird stuff and there was just kind of this point of separation. So in a way, it makes sense, this kind of melancholy "we're playing again but we don't really know exactly what we're going to do with it." It's just the atmosphere of that time and us playing music again. It came out naturally. Did the year 2000 have anything to do with it? Weapons was recorded at least, in '99 and Black Sea was recorded 2002-03? Shelby: Yeah, the times in between, you know … it definitely does. Even the artwork on the Black Sea, it says 'The Black Sea' in Aramaic on it. Jason had that written when he was traveling around the Middle East. It kind of portrays some of our experiences apart at that time. I don't know if I answered your question. Jason: I don't know if I remember your question. Year 2000. Jason: Great year, good wine. One was before and it seemed to be looking forward to something, the other one was reflective. Shelby: Yeah, I guess 2000 but I don't think 2000 any more than 2001. It's just the time in between that affected it. Are you going to continue that trajectory with Decahedron? Shelby: I guess with this band we just want to be challenged so … We have no idea what the next stuff will sound like so … Jason: Because people were pronouncing it 'Deca-he'd-ron' and that's a bum out, I can't handle that. So I went online and got one of those computers to pronounce it for me, [in computer voice] 'Deca-he-drun'. Then I saw the logo that he made up and I thought it was awesome. How many sides does a Decahedron have? Shelby: Ten, ten. Jason: Like as in 'decade' but with a 'hedron'. Shelby: But our limited edition silk-screen posters have a Dodecahedron on them. Jason: I guess the guy didn't realize what he was doing. [laughing] What's the difference between a Decahedron and a Dodecahedron? Shelby: Twelve sided is 'Do'. Jason: Two sides, you get two more with them. You can use them if you want. Shelby: So once we breakup and reform we'll be Dodecahedron in 30 years … when our brains are just in cryogenic tanks, connected to computers. Jason: We're going to come back as Krang. Shelby: [laughing] From Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? He does a great impersonation. Jason: [in high voice] Shreeed-der! My voice in blown. That was horrible. I sounded like somebody's weak mouse from Secret of Nym. I can't do it man, my voice is gone. That was the most tame, weakest thing I've done in like a year. I'm sorry. [laughing] Shelby: If you could have done it well, he could have put up little WAV files. I don't know how to get this on a computer. I'm not that advanced. Is Rock and Roll still war? Jason: Yep. Shelby: Yes, and now we bleed ... We're intense. Is there a lot of rock and roll going on in Iraq? Shelby: Probably guys in their Jeeps playing stuff but … Jason: Let me tell you something. For Christmas -- my brother's in Iraq. We sent them multiple copies of the Lovitt Records DVD for Christmas, so they could just watch and just get into it … and I have no idea if anyone got into it. [laughing] It's hard not to appreciate a man in a duck suit. Jason: How would you rate Operation Shock and Awe? The operation or the whole situation? Jason: Whatever you want to define it as. Um, well it's based on false pretense. It didn't exist, there's nothing there. He wanted to oust the guy from the beginning; it was a campaign of deceit. Jason: Just the portion Shock and Awe, not the whole thing, not Operation: Freedom Iraq. Just Shock and Awe. We blew up a lot of shit. Shelby: If they sold t-shirts at gas stations in the South, would Shock and Awe sell more or would the Enduring Freedom shirt sell more? What's the demographic here? I don't know, but Toby Keith did have the album Shock'n Y'all. Shelby: Hmm, so I think we'll have a split in demographic. Jason: That's amazing. You didn't realize that? Jason: No. Double first name? Always bad. Also, I heard that you were hoping, along with Q and not U, to kickstart the DC scene again, ala Revolution Summer and Rites of Spring. Any of that true? If yes, what's your plan and/or approach? Hmmm.. I like the idea of that, but I think Revolution Summer did what it did at that time... changed the punk scene. Now I feel like there are so many diverse bands in the punk scene there isn't really a need for something quite like that. But if anything we are contributing by being another band that plays music passionately from DC... we are playing our part of continuing a great tradition of DC music that started with Dischord and says "create your own dream and make it happen, be a band on your own terms and not have to play any stupid industry 'games', and push the envelope of creativity. Focus on the things that matter which is: music, community, and passion. Not money, mindless entertainment, and soul-lessness." How do you find time to do all this stuff? Cassettes, Decahedron, Graphic Design, etc. I can barely go to school and keep up a webzine at the same time. Shelby: Everything kind of naturally takes different priorities and levels of activity. Like in the summer when we have almost 2 months off I will do some Cassettes stuff and I can do design on the road with my laptop. So it just kind of works itself out. In all cases though, The Cassettes will be taking it real slow since Decahedron is my full-time band... I think The Cassettes will do 2 shows in 2004 and just record some loose ends. What's the approach on the next Cassettes album going to be? More like "June Bogs" and "Lonesome Sound" or somewhere entirely different? Also, I noticed that "Lonesome Sound" has a kind of cold Frodus/Decahedron atmosphere to it while "June Bogs" and "Wingless Fire" are both kind of bluesy (though very different in atmosphere and message). Was this intentional? Will more of the Decahedron sound cross over into the Cassettes … or vice-versa even? Shelby: The next Cassettes album will be alot more dark, bluesy, and atmospheric. It happened rather naturally I think because I was writing music by myself since the other Cassettes members were busy with Dead Meadow and playing bluesy/finger picking style music fills up more space and sounds better when you are by yourself as there is more rhythmic interplay. It so happened that by the time we were finishing up "o'er the mountain" (second Cassettes album) those members dedicated full on to Dead Meadow and we ended up putting some of the songs I worked alone on the album. And thereafter when I met Saadat (current Cassettes' drummer) we just gelled playing my finger picking more blues/country tunes and we just went with it. I think perhaps a mood of bleakness and more atmospherics is a part of The Cassettes now but i don't see much Cassettes leaking into Decahedron as far as steel guitars and stuff like that.. but who knows! The Cassettes keyboard player, Stephen Guidry, plays moog on the Decahedron album so there are blurry borders everywhere with creative endeavors. How are your politics and your music connected, if at all? Shelby: It's pretty straight-forward, you just read the lyrics and it all comes out. Just go to the website, read the links. It hasn't come out yet. Actually I tried to download them there … in like Palm format or something? I can't do anything with them. I can't even open them. Shelby: Get a Palm Pilot. Jason: You don't have a Palm Pilot? Why not? No, I'm a college student. It took me like six month to save up enough money for a new computer. Jason: All the more reason. When you're going from English Lit straight over to Science Technology, you need to have one thing: a Palm. You tell me about that. I'm a History major; I'm not in English Lit. Jason: Prove it. You want me to go home and print out my schedule? Jason: If you need to ………... I'm going to shave you. [laughing] Shelby: The lyrics are pretty openly against like the war and kind of the state of media and how the way things are going under the administration and stuff. But if anything, it's not an anti-America record, it's patriotic in the sense that we care and that the album's about changing things and making a difference. We see people lying and there's just a lot of BS fed to us every day and people are kind of like sheep just watching it all on CNN, like it's a football game. "Oh wow, they caught Saddam, yeah," and not really thinking about the big picture. And just misinformation with people actually thinking there's a connection between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein. What I'm shocked about is that they let him appoint the commission to investigate himself about the intelligence failures. Jason: I think it's best quoted from our song, "Delete False Culture" when it says, "This is a call to arms." Without the powdered wigs, but … Shelby: There's no powdered wigs or anything in that song. Jason: That's what I'm saying: this is a call to arms via nice jackets. We've all got nice jackets. Thank you. Who's the FCI planning to prop up as their puppet in this coming election? Shelby: The FCI is no more, it disintegrated. It just lingers. I thought the tendrils were extending, it went underground. Shelby: It's gone, probably in Eastern Europe somewhere. The Robot Liberation Front in Russia: rlf.ru coming soon. I guess I should get back to the apocalyptic stuff. Jason: Speaking of apocalyptic, you should ask him how the tour's going. How is the tour going? Is it apocalyptic? Shelby: Pretty good, yes. Jason: My leg's on your leg. That's apocalyptic right there man, the end of the world. Shelby: Jason's a little strange. Yeah, I saw the Lovitt DVD. Shelby: [laughing] Oh man. Jason: In South Carolina -- this is really funny -- I was talking and some guy was like, "Hey I recognize your voice. Aren't you the voice on the Lovitt Records DVD?" I was just like, "What?" He's like, "Is Frodus playing tonight?" "No, we broke up almost 4 years ago." That's the end of that. Nate told me most of the stuff on the commentary is fake. Jason: In what way? I actually said it. Well, made up. Jason: Yeah. I got duped. Jason: [laughing] Oh you're the guy that said you got duped. He told me that the other day, that's really funny. Yeah, I got duped. Jason: What did you ask? You're the guy that believed the accordion right? [laughing] He had Steven on the Sleepytime. That's awesome. Shelby: See, there's some sort of believability because he's the accordion player for the Cassettes. Jason: See that's the whole thing, I tried to make it like pseudo-real. Did you believe Stallone and Pauly Shore were at the Four Hundred Years show? Not Pauly Shore. Maybe Stallone, maybe his nephew I could maybe believe that. But Pauly Shore was just … Jason: The quote is, "Just getting totally Pauly in the corner." He's got too much on his hands with all those movie deals and TV shows he's doing lately. Do you think, I guess punk as a genre of music apocalyptic? Jason: No, I think it has to do with the shoes and haircut. Shelby: I think if anything we adhere more to the punk that Dischord defined. Not the 'No Future' kind of punk? Shelby: Yeah, not the 'no future'. Shelby: More just … to make a difference. Let's make our scene because we see everything that's being pushed down our throats is crap, so we just want our own world. Jason: Not the Drive-Thru Records punk. Isn't that kind of an oxymoron? Drive-Thru Records punk? Jason: Yes. How do you think the world will really end? Shelby: We don't know, we have no idea. Jason: Natural disaster. Johnathon: I think it'll end in fire … lots of fire. Jason: There's that new movie about a new ice age. Shelby: Humanity ending or the world ending? Either/or? Shelby: The world ending is a red dwarf: the sun's just going to expand and suck us in and life will be gone. Or we just might evolve into like some bacteria, anything can survive. It's something incomprehensible. Humanity ending? I don't think humanity will end, it just always rebuilds. There'll just be different balances, different empires, different nations, the cycle will continue. Eventually, fighting so much ... I don't know, we'll see if someone terraforms Mars. You know, it takes a hundred years to terraform Mars, if someone thinks about that then that person, that nation or whoever does it, will save some sort of humanity. Because the way we're going the o-zone will just completely deplete. Jason: I actually read somewhere that the whole o-zone thing is not an actually valuable argument. There's all those things about like the book of lies or something like that, and one volcano eruption is equal to several countries o-zone production, and it happens in seconds. Shelby: But no matter what, cars and smog raises cancer rates. That shit gets crazy, just industrialization. Jason: It's kind of weird that it's a really important thing to breathe well and it just doesn't happen almost any time. It's just such a basic necessity. Well, we have the 'Clear Skies' legislation now, we're gonna be breathing easy. Jason: You guys have that here? I thought it was a nation-wide thing. Jason: It probably is, I just don't even know it. Jeb Bush actually cut the emissions standards for cars, they don't exist anymore in Florida. Jason: [sarcastically] Sounds good. I wish the Smoking Act would come through DC. They passed it in Montgomery County, which is on the other side of DC in Maryland. No public smoking? Jason: Yeah, like restaurants and stuff. At shows, it sucks. California rules, they have smoking behind plexiglass cages, it's awesome. You gonna smoke, You gotta go smoke in the cage. It's awesome. Yeah, you smell like shit after you come home from a show. Jason: It's such a bum out. I can't go out on work nights because I'll have my work clothes on -- I'm a massage therapist -- I can't go massage someone smelling like freaking smoke. It's the opposite of relaxing. Yeah, it gets all in your hair and shit. That was actually another thing to ask, you guys all seem to have your hands in a lot of different projects. How do you support yourselves? Shelby: I mean, I do graphic design and play in this band. Johnathon plays in Unwed Sailor and this band. And Jason, massage and this band. But I think right now we're all focused on this band before our other careers.

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