Why did you decide to start Stone Canyon Records, and what are the positives and negatives of running our own label?
Stone Canyon Records is really a labor of love. It was actually necessary after our experience with Geffen Records, who released our first two records the After The Rain record and Because They Can. We had to do it. We are living proof that you can sell 3 million records and have nothing to show for it financially. It’s really a bummer man and it’s really amazing what kind of creative accounting a large record conglomerate can come up with. They work you like dogs, they don’t help you in all the ways that they assure you that they are going to help you. We realized all the success we had off the first record was primarily because of the incredible touring presence that we had on the road for a year and a half, the videos that we made, that we paid for and got on MTV and the publicity that we surrounded our trip with, which we actually arranged around a very close friend of ours, who has since moved to Ireland. Basically, those three components made the success of that first record. Our record company didn't even believe that we were a live band. We never got tour support from them. And I know it sounds like I am complaining but all it really served me to do was get to a point where, after Because They Can when the musical tides changed and alternative rock really became the big thing, it took us about two years to finally get ourselves out of the major label contract and get us to the point where we could start our own label. With our own label, Stone Canyon Records, we have all the freedom in the world that we could ever want. The only downside is, I suppose is that your access on the surface is a little more limited because you don’t a bazillion dollars in promotion behind you. But in today’s musical economy, you can always work out a relationship with a distribution company whose willing to do that same kind of job for you. And that's what we are in the process of doing right now and the good news is that the machine is already in place and we’ve just done a deal to get our records back in the stores, so I don’t think there are going to be any compromises only successes.
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