Emerson Hart: It feels great, man. Making a record is a lot of fun, but taking the music directly to the fans, well…we prefer to play live, that's what it's all about. We're not one of those bands that does it all in the studio but then can't deliver live. We're not full of shit - we want the live show to be something people remember.

VOX: You guys definitely have a fervent fan following.

Emerson: Yes! They have been great, thank God for them. In this business, without the fans, you wouldn't be where you are. Music is…so powerful a medium and the goal is to produce something you really enjoy and the fans like, too. We've been very lucky to have the fans we have.

VOX: Let's start with the origins of Tonic…

Emerson: It started in LA about 10 years ago…I knew Jeff in New York City, we ran in the same circles. I moved out here and was running a pool hall…

VOX: Which pool hall?

Emerson: The Hollywood Athletic Club. I had ran Chelsea Billiards, too. One day Jeff walked in, and I said, "I'm still writing songs, man." So we hooked up and started doing stuff. Tuesday nights at Canter's Deli, the Kibbutz Room…Jake from the Wallflowers was around then…we played The Mint on Sundays and every other Saturday at the Viper Room. It went from there. Obviously, there has been a lot of stuff along the way, but that's how it all got started.

VOX: What caused the personnel changes in the band to get to the present line up?

Emerson: Dan Roth, who left, couldn't really handle touring. Kevin has 3 kids, and it was too hard for him to be away. They were hard to replace. I love the guys, and wanted them to what was best for them. Dan Lavery has been great for us, so it works out. Adding Jeremy, who is playing drums for us, was hard. We auditioned, like, 50 drummers, and 47 didn't listen. I would tell them, "Listen to my claps!" Jeremy slid right in.

VOX: What was the music scene like growing up?

Emerson: Well, I grew up on the Jersey shore, going to places like the Stone Pony, seeing Bruce…Max Weinberg lived three houses down. Both my mom and dad were singers, my two older sisters were into music, so I got sat down at about six or seven and started learning guitar. It was a lot of hard work, but I stuck with it. I did get away from it for about three years there, just doing voiceovers and stuff like that, but I didn't feel fulfilled. So, I moved on and sort of rediscovered guitar. I practiced 4 hours every day until I was really comfortable and could do what I wanted to do.

VOX: Now that you live here, what do you think of the LA scene?

Emerson: I just don't really know it. I'm never home. We were on the road so much the four or five years, and I was home about one year out of that time. I never really liked playing LA until the last time at the Wiltern Theatre with all the fans that fucking love the music and go crazy. It hasn't always been that way. LA is such a business-driven town, that it's so hard to play there.

VOX: Tonic really was a critical band in the overall success of alternative music. How did it feel to be at such a pivotal point in music?

Emerson: I don't know. Wow, I've never really thought about it. I remember we sat down with a radio station programmer in Detroit and played "Open Up Your Eyes." Nobody was doing what we were doing. No one was doing it. Everybody was still into Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, which is great stuff, but it's not my style. I write what I write. Music changes every year and it flows with the money. For us it wasn't about cash, it was about playing the best music we could.

VOX: Where do you see alternative rock music heading?

Emerson: We are currently on the tail end of the rap/aggro part of the trend. Korn and bands like that, they deserve their success, but it's not my deal. I respect them for busting their balls. A lot of the music to day is very non-feeling - Brittney Spears, boy bands and that stuff. But they will all end up like the '80's bands, Ratt, Poison and so on, on "Where Are They Now?" We write songs and I think we're more in the classic style of the Eagles and bands like that.

VOX: What does your musical inspiration come from? There is definitely an Irish influence in some of the tunes.

Emerson: Yeah, there is definitely the Irish influence. Irish music. That's…well, on Sugar, it's really the classic songwriter's inspiration - what I was going through and the changes I went through.

VOX: What caused the long period between albums?

Emerson: Well, we spent 3 years touring for Lemon Parade. After that my brain was like scrambled eggs. We were exhausted. I needed to rest my brain. We also didn't want to rush a crappy second record and suffer for it.

VOX: "You Wanted More" is a great song. What's it all about?

Emerson: My personal life. Whether it's friends, business people, whoever, everybody is always wanting. I felt like I had no time to myself.

VOX: "Mean to Me" is the current single. Tell us about that song.

Emerson: For me…I was mean to myself, I was pushing myself too damn hard. After Lemon Parade, I had this fear of doing a second record. You fear that "sophomore slump." I loved the record and wanted to create something I loved as much. But there is the credo the labels have to follow: net sales, net money. You have to hit the mark. We did with the first record, and we wanted to do the same with the second. I hit an emotional low point, an empty place inside of myself.

VOX: What is your definition of success, musically?