You guys are going to be releasing your first LP very soon. How does that feel to be releasing a full length as opposed to an EP?
It feels great. We're excited to be putting it out. We'v been sitting on it for about a year so it's nice to finally get it out into the world.

Will this new album be all new songs or will it feature more recent singles of late?
PARDON ME is going ot be on it and so is UNGRATEFUL. We're going to be premiering a new single in two months right before the record drops.


And I couldn't think of a better time to release this CD than during the ROCKLAHOMA festival?
Yeah for sure.

You guys have played ROCKLAHOMA before, right?
Actually no. We've played at a lot of midwest festivals like SOUTH BY SO WHAT, but we've never done a ROCKLAHOMA festival.

You guys are in for treat. It's an amazing festival.
We are excited. We've heard great things about it.



Who all helped you guys behind the recording console for this album?
It was produced by CRAIG OWENS and JORDAN DISORBO did the engineering, mixing and mastering. They are the best team we could've asked for. They're both artists and they definitely know how to make it out our own. They kept it artistic and wasn't all about making an album to sell. With them, it was all about artistic integrity. That was exactly what we wanted.

What is going to be different this time with the band on this album?
It's the exact same CITY OF THE WEAK that people love . It has the groovy rhythms, the fierce guitar riffs and 2 1/2 octaves worth of vocals. It's just more mature. When people hear it they are going to realize that this is the next step for us. It's the next chapter. I think that we took our sound and took it out of the box. We stretched it and expanded it. The things that we've done before have been amplified. It shows a lot of growth and more maturity. The biggest transition in life that people make is from high school to adulthood and that was the span of time in which our music was written. So it's only going to grow more from here.

You guys are going to be hitting the road starting next week. Are there any dates that have you particularly excited?
I'm excited about the Michigan show with SUPER BOB. Any time we can link up with other tours it's really fun. It's like a big super mega show. We're also co-headlining with ECHO BLACK for our tour. The last time we played in Michigan we played at THE MACHINE SHOP which was crazy. We've also got some dates in Wisconsin and Wisconsin always gets crazy. Getting back to Florida will be great too. We've just had a huge snow storm here and it's less than freezing here today  so I can't wait for some sunshine and warm weather.



Now when you start a band you have this vision of what it's going to be like and as you progress you learn that it's something else. What has surprised you the most about this whole CITY OF THE WEAK experience?
Probably how advanced musically we are and how creative and artistic we've become. I've been trained musically and can play a variety of instruments. I've played trombone, piano and guitar on other people's albums and I've taught for ten years. It's not like I wasn't there musically but I never imagined being in a rock band as a child. To me, it looked like it was all about jumping around, getting in people's faces and having a really great record. I never thought of myself as a great performer or a great musician. To me, this band is just something that we do but when I go back and hear the albums and read the reviews and hear musicians say great hings about us, it just surprises me. I never envisioned that growing up I thought being in a rock band was jumping up and down and strumming the guitar but there is an art to it and it's nice to hear great things about our approach to rock.  Obviously we have our haters but I feel we've always sold people on our live set and our musicality.

And how is the rest of the band holding up these days?
Everybody's great. We're just doing our thing. CODY is doing a lot of video work. As a matter of fact we just filmed a new music video last week and we went big on it like we do for all of our music videos. I don't want to give away too much. We've posted a snippet on our social media . CODY does great film work and he does all of our design work. We're working right now on getting some pre-order bundles together for the new record. We're all just doing our thing.



And with the new album, what is the big idea? What would you like for people to come away with after they hear it?
The record is going to be called PULLING TEETH and it describes our experience in the music industry  and out experiences as professional musicians and the challenges that went with putting this album together. We're in a time when anyone can put their opinion on social media and get attention. Even though it's easier now to be a musician and just do it, there are still tastemakers that run radio and large publications. There are still people at the top who hold a lot of power and can make or break careers. I feel that with us, we've got tons of fans and we catch on great with people, but when it comes to working within the music industry I feel like we do get a lot of resistance. Even with our cover of PARDON ME by INCUBUS - we faced resistance by radio stations who didn't like that the song was a cover.  Every song on the album can be summed up with the theme of trusting nobody and how tough it is working in a band and getting people to listen. I want people to get onboard with this album and I hope it inspires them to live their lives the way they see fit and not listen to what other people think.