RacketBoss Jonathan and RacketKim would like to apologize to our readers for this interview. What happened was RacketKim went to do this interview, spent time in traffic, and sent some friend in to do the interview while she parked the car. What follows is the worst interview in Racket History.
Racketeer Heather: What are some of your earliest influences?
Zac: Honestly, I’d say one of the biggest influences on us, no artist could be pinpointed as much as Billy Joel. He’s been a huge influence on all of us. His song writing… there’s such an art to the way he writes songs, and I think he’s definitely an artist who’s influenced us.
Isaac: Obviously, he’s not late 50’s. The late 50’s definitely, Chuck Berry, Little Richard.
Taylor: It’s a combination of the sensibility of classic rock and roll and soul, with craftsmanship of Billy Joel or other artists like Billy Joel… people like Bill Withers, the soul and song. Those are the two things, that’s who we are as a band. And the fact that we’re white guys makes it slightly more rootsy. We add that quality to it. Those are our influences.
Racketeer Heather: Any good/wild tour stories?
Taylor: Anything not wild?
Isaac: People ask us this all the time.
Taylor: There are so many day-to-day things that don’t seem wild to us.
Zac: We had this gig in Florida once where they had subwoofers set up in front of the stage that acted like a step, so, there was like the ground, the subwoofers, and the stage, so there was no barricade. Throughout the show we had about a half a dozen people just jump up on stage. By the end of the night we finished the show and left straight out of the building in a van because everybody came on stage and they were starting to come backstage.
Isaac: There weren’t enough security guys.
Zac: They were basically mobbing the entire stage. And, we have our fair share of pranks. People will put just a little bit of like, baking soda or flour on the drumhead and because it’s white, I come down and BOOM!, and it blows up in my face.
Isaac: There are plenty of crazy stories, but when I’m put on the spot I always kind of choke.
Racketeer Heather: What would you do for a Klondike Bar?
Taylor: What would I do for a Klondike Bar? I wouldn’t do anything more than hand out my, whatever 99 cents. [laugh] I don’t think I’d do that much.
Zac: It depends. If you catch me in the right moment I might do a lot. Swim an ocean, sometimes that need for a little bit of chocolate…
Isaac: They make really good Heath Klondike Bars, I think they may even make Reese’s Klondike Bars.
Racketeer Heather: Yeah, they make crazy stuff.
Taylor: Klondike Bars are really good.
Zac: What do people normally do for Klondike Bars?
Racketeer Heather: Bark like a dog?
Zac: Yeah, I’d do that.
Taylor: This is like what, a free Klondike Bar? Like someone would just give you one?
Racketeer Heather: Yeah, like instant gratification.
Isaac: I’d cluck for a Klondike bar!
Heather: Would you?
Zac: That’s a good one!
Isaac: Cluck cluck cluck! Or Quack! Or do some duck… noise or I dunno, something funny.
Racketeer Heather: What are some of your favorite current songs?
Taylor: My favorite current songs? One song I can’t remember the name or how it really sounds, which I heard the other day…
Isaac: Are you actually being serious?
Taylor: Yep.
Isaac: “Don’t Talk Me Down” – Johnny Society, “Run” – Hero Factor…
Zac: This band that opened up for us on our last tour, the Pat McGee Band. Their new album just got finished, so I listen to that.
Racketeer Heather: What are some of your weirdest inspirations for songs?
Zac: I was inspired to write a song based on a lyric I heard in another song. I won’t tell you what song it is. It’s not plagiarism, it’s just the idea of this really cool kind of phrase. That’s probably one of the more interesting things I can think of where I was like, “That’s really cool”.
Taylor: I’ve been inspired by literally hearing like raindrops that were making this particular rhythm and tone and causing me to literally walk over to my piano. It was making this particular perfect rhythm and nature inspired me.
Zac: In the song “Penny and Me” there’s this lyric that says “Passions burning high” and “Passions” was actually the scent of a candle. So it wasn’t like, passions burning. The lyrics sound like it was meant to be sort of a sexual innuendo but it was actually a play on the fact that scented candles with the title “Passion”.
Racketeer Heather: Who would you like to be on stage with once, dead or alive?
Zac: James Brown.
Isaac: The complete Bee Gees.
Zac: Wasn’t that the name of an album they released or something?
Taylor: Gotta go with my man, Bill Withers.
Zac: Bill Withers, that’s a great one.
Isaac: We have an ongoing joke now…
All: What would Bill Withers do?
Isaac: ‘Cus Bill Withers is awesome. [laugh]
Taylor [singing]: Lean on me…
Racketeer Heather: Flashback to 10th grade chorus.
Zac: You hear his version—and that song has been brutally murdered so many times—but you hear his version, you just go, “This is a great melody,” a great soulful singer, and he’s undeniable.
Racketeer Heather: What sparked your interest in the African AIDS epidemic?
Isaac: Actually, our hometown.
Taylor: I think we were all aware and interested in it but like most people we thought, “What are we really going to do?” And there was a group of guys in Tulsa who spent a couple million dollars developing software that integrated song and internet and they were giving it away. There was kind of this realization of wow, they spent all this money and they didn’t have a bunch of extra million dollars sitting around and they’re giving it away, that’s the first thing they’re doing. To more broadly say, it was a real dawning on the fact that what’s happening is so massive, what’s going on with AIDS and it’s so indicative of what happens when problems aren’t really faced and realizing that there really is an opportunity to give back to our generation. It’s affecting our generation more than any disease in history. Anything like that is either an outbreak or it’s something that older people are mostly hit by. Something like the big killers, like cholesterol or heart attacks, you know. But AIDS is affecting this core of young people especially and it’s like, you’ve got this emergency that’s our generation’s problem and as individuals we can do more with what we have than we ever could in the past. Being an everyday citizen years ago you didn’t have the ability to impact what’s going on. Through technology there are so many ways you can reach out and do something…
Isaac: And organize and communicate.
Taylor: Just by organizing with one another. So it’s those elements, the fact that it’s so large and realizing the emergency and the relevance of it and the ability we have.
Isaac: And realizing that there are over 3,000 AIDS cases in our hometown of Tulsa and that’s a town of a greater metro area of 700,000.
Taylor: In a very conservative, Midwestern, average American town. We felt like those things were… I think in a way there was definitely some kind of major unifying while we were making the record kind of snowballing and the drive to do something. You can’t know exactly why.
Racketeer Heather: Do you have any other talents besides music?
Taylor: Blabbering…
Zac: Burping. I burp very well.
Taylor: I think we have the talent of gab, we talk very well.
Zac: Yeah, for the most part we’d be decent politicians.
Taylor: We could talk… forever.
Isaac: I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
Zac: I never said it was a good talent or a good thing! It can be an evil talent. There are good and evil talents.
Taylor: We’d probably all be good movie critics, anything critical we’d be good at.
Zac: I draw a little bit, Tay paints, Isaac does graphic design stuff.
Isaac: I do impressions.
Zac It seems it’s that way with a lot of musicians, they just tend to have other talents, if they’re creative musically, whether it’s abstract or involved or not. Most of our friends who are musicians have some sort of creative side to them.
Racketeer Heather: For people so young, you’ve seen and done a lot. What would you like to do/see that you haven’t yet?
Zac: To be the first band to play in space, absolutely. Live music in space. Space is going to happen. Technically, there’s no sound in space so it would be the best concert you’ve ever not heard. You have to have oxygen to make sound. When you watch Star Wars and you hear all these lasers… Star Wars would be like [makes gun motions]. That’s what it would really be like. Think of Star Wars without: pow! pow!
Taylor: I’d have to say, and this is a bit somber, but I would legitimately like to see something, to be a part of doing something that really has a lasting impact beyond music. Music in itself is such a language and it’s so powerful but to really be a part of seeing something tangible along the line of what we’ve begun to do with The Great Divide because I think our generation is so comfortable that I think we need to get a little bit uncomfortable, and we need to get a little bit unnerved.
Isaac: And realize that life is difficult.
Taylor: But really, tighten our bootstraps and go do something real, without blaming anybody else, just do something real. I would love to—by the end of my days—to have done something that really, legitimately impacted people’s lives. That’s really a fruity thing to say but seeing what music can do for people it makes you think about what just inspiration gives people.
Isaac: Inspiration with action.
Taylor: Yeah, inspiration with force.
Racketeer Heather: Who’s your favorite cartoon character?
Taylor: Wow! Favorite cartoon character… I’ve always liked the Pink Panther, he’s pretty much awesome.
Isaac: I’m gonna go with… I was gonna say Bugs Bunny but I’m gonna go with a non cartoon character…
Zac: What!?
Isaac: Who’s kind of like a cartoon character…
Zac: Kermit?
Isaac: No, Fozzie. Fozzie Bear.
Zac: He was a cartoon, Muppet Babies…
Isaac: Yeah, Muppet Babies!
Zac: I’ll go with Taz.
Isaac: Good choice!
Zac: You know what, forget Taz. Taz’s dad from the cartoon Tazmania.