SM: What were some of the misconceptions you had?

RA(T): Kids will come up to me and be like: “So does this mean you aren’t gonna be touring with punk bands?” And no, it means nothing like that at all. It has nothing to do with our touring.

SM: You’re not opening for Nick Carter next week?

RA(T): (Both Laughing) Maybe a couple weeks.

RA(J): That’s something that’s up to us. We still have the same booking agent, we’re still on tour with Anti-flag and a bunch of bands right now. All the misconceptions they (the fans) have right now-they say, “Oh, you get to have a tour bus now.” A tour bus comes out of our pocket. It will always come out of our pocket. These things never come out of the labels pocket.

RA(T): Nothing’s for free. We’re not comfortable with paying for a tour bus and nobody is going to just give one to us. But we’re happy. Nothing we get is really free you know what I mean? We might get a loan to go into the studio but its like, nothing you do on a major label is free. We also didn’t get one of these million dollar deals you hear about. We’re not buying our own personal jets. We’re not doing this for the money. We’re doing this to get our band out there and our message out there.

RA(J): And that’s no bullshit. A lot of people perceive that as bullshit but it’s the case. That is exactly what’s going on. I hate that, kids come up to me and they’re like-

SM: You wouldn’t be in the van if you didn’t have to be in the van.

RA(J): Exactly. I mean...shit.

SM: A lot of people don’t realize that the reason a major label picks you up in the first place is because they may not necessarily want you but they want your fans. So for you guys to turn around and abandon your fans wouldn’t make any sense anyways right?

RA(T): Yeah, we’ve had conversations with Dreamworks too and they’ve told us, there are band’s that we’ll (Dreamworks) give input to. There are bands that we’ll kind of help coax their career a little bit. And they say to us, “you guys aren’t one of those bands. You guys are a band that we recognize are doing your thing. And if we try to fuck with it, it’s gonna fuck it all up. Plus you guys are a punk rock band, you do what you do. We want you to keep doing what you do and that’s why we want you is because we want you to do what you do.”

SM: What’s the situation been with fan backlash since the signing and what have been the bands experiences with listener backlash all along the way?

RA(T): There’s backlash, like you said, in anything you do. There was backlash from friends when we signed to Fat. They were like “oh, well you guys signed to Fat, you totally sold out.” The definition of “sold out” I’m not even sure but alright. Then we played a show at a House of Blues and a kid thought that was when we sold out. No matter what you did, they’re gonna be there to persecute you. The only thing you can do is block it out and let them have their opinion because as long as I’m comfortable looking at myself in the mirror everyday, knowing that we’re doing the right thing, that’s all that really matters. As long as we’re not compromising ourselves to do what we do, that’s the most important thing. That’s what fans should look out for. They should look out for bands that don’t back up things they say or what they do. If we said, “Oh, we’re not rising against anything, we’re not mad at anybody. We agree with George Bush.” If we went back and said all that, then feel free to ba sh us all you want. In the meantime, what have we done to deserve any of this?

SM: There are a lot of people that have said Dreamworks is like the mecca as far as artistic integrity and keeping that with their bands. What were some of the things that drew you to Dreamworks or perhaps specifically scarred you away from some of the other labels and offers you had?

RA(J): It’s the people involved. You want to feel comfortable with the people that you’re going to be working with on a day to day basis. I think there’s certain labels out there that cater more toward Mariah Carey and its like, will they be the right home for Rise Against? Probably not. So, we just felt like they (Dreamworks) understood us the best.

SM: Ultimately it’s about getting your message out there as far as you can I suppose.

RA: (Both) Yeah.

RA(T): Plus we’ve got a lot of respect for their roster. Bands like Jimmy Eat World, Sparta, AFI, and Saves the Day are bands that came from the background we come from and they have no complaints. It’s cool.

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