Are you guys excited to release your new EP? What can people expect from it?

Aaron: Well, it's called Playtime! and it's coming out on April 13, 2010. You can just expect big songs. They came out bigger than I thought they would, actually. I think people are going like it. We really like it and believe in it.

Luciano: We're just hoping you have a good time when you listen to it. That's the point. When we play those songs live, it's definitely a party so we just try to capture that.

It's been nearly 2 years since your debut, which received a lot of positive fan response and media attention. Because it has been so long, do you feel any kind of pressure?

A: I mean, not at all, really. The more media the better. I think I speak for everyone when I say it only fuels you, really. It makes you want to really work harder and get out there. The main thing now is the new EP, making people aware of it. We believe in the songs and we like them and we want other people to know about them and like them too.

You guys were selected by Spin.com's Buzzcatcher section. What did that mean to you?

A: It felt great. I think we've all grown up reading SPIN, so it's one of things when you're a kid you look at it and you're like wow if I could just get in SPIN or get on MTV and then you get on it and you're like I've got to keep working (laughs). But it feels great but it's just one of those things. It's another one of the milestones along the way.

How would you compare your fan base in America to Europe? Specifically in the U.K., I've noticed you have a pretty good following.

L: Actually, I feel like the best response we've gotten was when we were in Serbia and Croatia. It was really cool because Ras is from Serbia so we got such a warm welcome from everybody there. We played a couple of shows there. I remember playing the last show before we left and it was kind of like friends and family and the place was packed.

Rasko: Most of our fan base is here though.

L: Yeah, most of our fans are here in New York.

A: Yeah. Though I'd also say that for the shows we played in the U.K., the response was really good. They seem to get the music and really like it. I'm not sure what the difference is. It's not that they don't here, but it seemed to click really fast there.

L: Also, people just seem more open to try new music and hear you out, where in New York which is where we play most often, people are a little stricter and not so easily open to hearing new music as they are over there.

It seems like people here are more influenced by mainstream radio and television, whereas overseas they seem to be less easily influenced.

L: Definitely. They're ready to hear good stuff. They're ready to hear good music and they'll give everybody a chance and make the decision for themselves.

How do you describe your music? When somebody asks what kind of band you're in, what do you tell them?

L: I just pick up a CD and tell them to check it out. I would say rock, pop-rock or indie.

A: Indie pop rock, I think (laughs).

L: That would be kind of hard to describe because there are just so many sounds out there. We just hope with the EP or any of the music that we can say just press play and you'll like it.

Anything I've read describing your music has a lot of slashes in it.

(laughter)

L: Well I think that's all part of being a very diverse band. Everybody's from a different country and I think we bring a lot of different elements to the table so we can't really just say it's one general. And it's kind of broad from song to song even though there is one coherent feel across everything.

A: It's nice to be a slash band, you know what I mean? We've got different things going on wherever we want. We're not confined by one certain thing.

How does being from such different places influence your sound?

L: Well everybody has very different influences. We all listen to very different styles of music then we have some crossovers that work. But I think everybody just brings completely different things to the table and when we hear each other's ideas it sparks something in everybody that doesn't come from the same place and hopefully it works.

Photo by Sylvester Zawadski

Do you guys just jam together and come up with ideas? What's the songwriting process like?

Dave: There's usually a few different ideas we have. Like, one person has an idea then we'll go jam it out a little bit. We're very democratic and take it step by step. We kind of build it from the bottom, into one idea and then the next.

A: We don't really vote on things, usually. We just foreknow when something's hot and it's not and we'll work until we get it and make it right.

So after the release of your EP what are you going to be doing?

A: Lots of shows to support it. A lot of regional stuff initially and then after the release we'll be playing DC shows, Boston shows, Philly shows then probably going back the UK hopefully in May. We'll see what the label has in store.

So are you all about playing live?

R: Absolutely. You've got to be a good live band. All the great bands are great live and that's why they're great.

L: Yeah, when you see a great band onstage you can tell why they're out there.

A: I mean, that's where it started. If you can't play music live, then what are you doing? Why be a musician?

What's the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you onstage?

A: I don't know. I do embarrassing stuff all the time. I don't even know what's embarrassing anymore.

L: Well, I have a weird story. I don't know if it's embarrassing, but in Serbia we played on a boat – a raft, really – in Belgrade. Our sound check was right around sunset and we were swarmed by mosquitoes. So we drenched ourselves with Off and different products to try to get them off.

R: There were thousands of them. I've never seen so many mosquitoes in my life.

L: And then half an hour later when sound check was done, they were gone.

A: Yeah, I was talking to the guy that ran the place or he was doing the sound check or whatever and I asked him what was going on with the mosquitoes when he was spraying me down with all these chemicals and he said they had forgotten to spray the water that year (laughs).

D: Rasko got bitten pretty bad.

R: Yeah, it was one of those moments.

D: So it wasn't really embarrassing, but still worth telling (laughs).

R: If you saw my face you'd laugh, though.

A: Yeah, and the beer tasted like Off for the rest of the night.

You guys are pretty active on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace…

A: We try to be. It's just another way to connect with people. You know, you write songs to connect with people. You write them for yourself, but then the other thing is when you play them live, you connect with people. And Twitter and Facebook is another way for a band to connect with people. So aside from being a promotion thing it's a good, honest and more of a personal way to connect. As a band, you start to see who your fans really are.

Do you use any other forms of social media?

L: No, I guess just the main ones. I mean, we chat online from time to time with instant messenger and those things, but I guess just the main ones.

A: It's crazy, there are just so many ways to do that, you know?

L: What I like about Twitter is you have to be brief with your updates. On Facebook some people just rant. Like, alright I get it (laughs).

If your fans were to visit Astoria, what places would you tell them to check out?

D: There's a great panini place.

A: Yeah, the Il Bambino's panini place. Definitely tell them to go there. That's my neighborhood joint.

L: Brooklyn Bagel. It's in Astoria, but it's called Brooklyn Bagel.

A: Yeah, they have the best bagels ever. And then just to throw on the pile, there's a beer garden that's pretty cool. It's called the Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden.

D: Yeah, that should have been number one.

A: Yeah, really. The weather's getting kind of nice too now, so.

D: It's in Culture Park, next to Costco (laughs).

So you can drink and then go buy some stuff you'll regret later.

A: (laughs) Yeah, some giant stuff you'll regret later.

D: Like 5 bundles of toilet paper.

NERD NOTE: Astoria is a neighborhood in the northwestern corner of the borough of Queens in New York City. The area was originally called Hallet's Cove, after its first landowner William Hallet, who settled there in 1659. It was renamed after John Jacob Astor, the wealthiest man in America, with a net worth of over $40 million, in order to persuade him to invest $2,000 in the neighborhood. He only invested $500, but the name stayed nonetheless. From Astor's summer home in Hell Gate, Manhattan – on what is now East 87th Street near York Avenue – he could see across the East River the new Long Island village named in his honor; however, Astor never actually set foot in Astoria [Wikipedia].

Finish with this sentence. We want all of our fans to…

(talking in the background, laughter)

A: Rasko says get laid (laughs). No, I don't know... I'd say 'have fun' would be about it.

R: That's what music's all about. When you go to shows, just have a good time. Rock out. We hope we do that for our fans as well.