Bowling For Soup

Bowling For Soup

So now you’ve got full control of your own record label. Was that always the goal?
JT: Not really…I don’t guess there was ever a “goal” as far as what our outlet would be release wise. But now that we have done it all oursleves, it feels pretty freakin’ good!

So how much fun was it doing the music for Disney’s Phineas and Ferb? Any plans to do more cartoon themes?
JT: It is a blast….The guys on that show are a class act! and SO talented. It is just a treat! I am working with Disney constantly to find the right show that works on TV and works with the music I write…. I hope it happens soon!.

How did the process of putting together “Fishin For Woos” differ from earlier DIY efforts?
JT: Well, FFW was made NOT knowing it would be a DIY, but we just new we needed a new record to tour on and release. So I wrote the songs, sent them to the guys 3 days before we hit the studio (in acoustic form) and we recorded them. No rehearsals before pre-production…. and it worked. I think we just have it down to a science…. in all honesty.

I heard you’ll be re-releasing earlier albums. Fully remastered with bonus tracks?
JT: Fully remastered, but no bonus tracks…. because there weren’t any! before we got on a label, we put everything out we had!

The band has it’s own unique sense of humor and fun. If there is a scale and Frank Zappa is on one end and Wierd Al Yankovick is on the other end — where do you see yourselves?
JT: We are definitely on the Wierd Al end. We don’t like for you to have to THINK too much, sure their is hidden meaning and things that are open to translation, but for the most part, it’s all out there.

You’ve been around over 17 years and still having fun, is that where the album name “Fishin For Woos” comes from?
JT: No… Fishin’ for woos is what a front man does when he says “Are ya’ll ready to rock?!?!?” and the audience goes “WOOOO”!!!!

Along with the double entre lyrics you guys really have refined your melodic pop sense, is that based on the experience of doing TV, movies and jingles?
JT: No, it’s just based on practice….11 albums is a LOT of songs!

Tell me a great story about one of the songs on “Fishin For Woos”… like my favorite track, “Turbulence.”
JT:  I have always been a “life is short” guy, so any time I have the chance to convey the “everything is gonna be alright”, without actually saying “everything is gonna be alright” (which is WAY overdone) I take it. My next door neighbor a few years back was a pilot. Once I asked him, “when you guys are going through a hellacious bumpy storm and it’s just nutty and passengers are freakin out and such, do you get scared?” and he said simply “It’s just like driving a car….It’s just bumps in the road.” He didn’t mean it to be as poetic as I took it, but that stayed with me. When Linus of Hollywood flew in to do the album in Dallas, we had a few days to “last minute write” [ Note: Linus of Hollywood engineered several songs for “Fishin’ For Woos”. ]  I told him we had a ballad, but that I thought we could write a better one and He said, “I was thinking on the plane about how cool it is that everyone is going to the same place… and turbulence is something we all feel together at that moment… and then we go off to our lives when we land.” I was like “HOLY SHIT DUDE – – I’ve been wanting to write that song for years!” We wrote Turbulence in about 45 minutes…no shit!

Thanks for the interview, Jaret!