Interview with John from Decoy
Via AIM
By Joanne

Much thanks to John for the interview!

Joanne: So. Who are you and what do you do in the band?
John: I'm John, I play guitar and talk to people on the mic before we start playing, because that's the only chance I get.

Joanne: Fun stuff. So you all are in high school right? What's it like trying to manage high school and a band with playing shows?
John: Well I pretty much book all the shows myself, keep in contact with other bands and what not is key, everyone is super friendly and always helps out. It's annoying to jungle school and the band...I mean I love my band....and well school isn't too fun so it keeps me busy. It definitely limits where and when we can play.

Joanne: How do you guys afford all your equipment/travel expenses/studio time?
John: Well we play twice or three times a week...and just make as much money as we can selling shirts, cd's, stickers, whatever...put it all in the bank and just keep doing it...it adds up pretty fast. We got lucky recording always, our old bassist had a studio we used, but after he left we got way more serious and our music led us in a rockin direction. Broken Wheel Records is helping us record our new CD 'Between The Lines' coming out in Feb.

Joanne: Gotta get the CD plug in there. How is/was recording?
John: We're in the middle of it right now, we just finished the drums and they sound awesome. I'm going with JF tomorrow morning and he's starting his bass. It's gonna sound very good. We're all real impressed so far.

Joanne: How did you end up working with Broken Wheel Records?
John: Well it all started I think with Reject Clothing, they gave us a sponsorship over the summer, and we noticed a band we used to play with all the time, Outpatient Zero, got sponsored as well, so we started playing shows together and OPZ hooked it up from there. They are very rockin guys.

Joanne: Which I guess sort of connects to my next question, how did you get sponsored by Reject Clothing?
John: I sent our CD to the president, Dickie Wallin, and he didn't seem too interested at first. I just stayed in close contact with him and he said he'd put us on the 2003 compilation. After that he decided to come to a show and from their he was like...ok I changed my mind. It was a very fun day. Rejectclothing.com.

Joanne: You've got the plugging thing down, eh? That is very cool though. If you could describe your live show in three words, what would they be?
John: intense, fun, sexy, haha hell yeah.

Joanne: What sets your lives show apart from other bands? Like, why should I come see your show? Sell yourself starting now.
John: We're a lot of fun on stage, we make conversation in between songs, it's good times. We do a lot of fun guitar harmonies, I love those, we move around a lot. I'd blow you kisses too.

Joanne: hahaha. Where did you get the album title, 'Between The Lines'? What (if any) is the meaning behind it?
John: OK good question....let's see if this makes any sense because I'm still not sure if it does. See we were all trying to find a common theme between all our songs, like maybe if the lyrics had some sort of connection we could make that the title...it turns out it wasn't that easy and we just started looking so hard into the lyrics we just decided to make the name Between The Lines. Now does that make sense?
Joanne: It does to me.
John: Then we're golden
Joanne: You were looking between the lines for an album title..and BAM there it was, almost like magic.
John: Exactly.....right under our noses!

Joanne: You are officially the first band I will have ever asked this question of, and I might as well do it before the question becomes old: Where did you get the band name from?
John: HA, their is no meaning behind the name of the band...i guess Decoy being a means used to lead into danger is just so badass that it had to be our name. I just hope we aren't led into any danger on tour, that'd be bad.

Joanne: If you could tour with any three bands, who would it be?
John: BigWig (we played with them I have to tell you that they are our favorite band), Thrice, and Thursday. That's just me personally, we hav lots of influences collectively, the Used, Glasseater, Strike Anywhere, Don't Look Down, Lifetime...etc

Joanne: What is the venue that you dream of playing, like what would be the most amazing place to play?
John: hmm I dunno anywhere really where the people are into the music. Not a stadium...I don't like seeing bands with thousands of people, it's just not the same.

Joanne: Nice answer. So what are the plans for 2004 shaping up to look like?
John: Promoting our new CD like crazy, playing out of state as much as possible. We just wanna tour forever. Lots of sexy pictures taken by Michelle and lots of promotion help from Jackie (she runs our street team...I wanted to say that they rock).

Joanne: What are some goals that you have for the band? Any certain label you want to end up on, etc
John: Sub City, the Militia Group, any label would be cool.. Oh I like Fearless records a lot, that would be a nice place to be. We don't really care about getting famous or whatever, we just love playing. We'll play anywhere for anyone, so just as long as we can tour forever we'll be happy.

Joanne: So genuine. Okay, here's the last one, and its mandatory. What color is your toothbrush?
John: It's purple, with blue bristles. I use sparkly toothepaste too if you think that's weird...i dunno
Joanne: That is so awesome. I want sparkly toothpaste.
John: They make you think your teeth will be sparkly...but they aren't.

For More Information:
• Decoy Official Site: www.decoyrock.com
• Reject Clothing Official Site: www.rejectclothing.com

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