VOX: Do you think the rap/rock style is on the way out?

VOX: How did the Union Underground come together?
BS: Pat and I go back over ten years. We were 14 or 15 years old, right before high school, like ninth grade, hanging out playing guitar in our rooms and we put together a band, so the Union Underground has been around for years. Pat and I connected right away and had the same vibe. We just kept working at it until we found the right line up.

VOX: Where did the name come from?
BS: It's what we call…we had this little studio we used at the back of a friend's house, and it was called the Underground Union. We would go there to create, write, jam, and the Underground Union had this vibe to it - Pat suggested we change the words around, and there it was.

VOX: How would you define your sound?
BS: That's a hard question to answer. We're a rock band. Not metal, not hip-hop, not rap-metal, not anything other than a rock band. I hate to attach labels or be labeled. We're a rock band.

VOX: Who are your musical influences?
BS: Personally, and I think for the entire band, Alice In Chains are a huge influence. They're probably the biggest, but there are a million others. Guns 'N Roses are a band that got me really wanting to play in a band. "Welcome To The Jungle" just fucking freaked me out and made me have to play. GNR and that attitude. Right now, though, I've been listening to the Ultimate Tony Bennet CD. I'm serious. I have a really diverse taste, and I'm not ever just into one thing.

VOX: Was there something you wanted to get across on An Education In Rebellion?
BS: Uh, well, An Education, the title, is not from some political motivation or social motivation. We're not telling kids to fuck authority or your parents. It can be misunderstood. It's about the personal rebellion that was what we grew up with. Nothing we do and nothing we've done since an early age can be called "normal." We've lived outside of normal boundaries. Living this life and playing in a band is not normal. It's about our personal rebellion.

We're not trying to discourage people from taking their own interpretation from it. I think it's cool that people get something personal from it, but I just want to make it clear that we're not trying to encourage kids to rebel.

VOX: "Killing The Fly" is the current single - tell me about it.
BS: That one, actually, is almost three years old now. We were playing an older, different version for a year or so, then went back and wrote different music for it. The song itself is about what I was talking about before - when we were pursuing this dream, we had to have tunnel vision for years. You sacrifice a lot - you sacrifice relationships and shit like that. It's hard, and the song is about the way you feel about that, and about being on the road, and being willing to break down anything that gets in your way. It's got a little bit of regret in it, and it's got plenty of rage in it as well.

VOX: How about "Turn Me On Mr. Deadman"?
BS: Lyrically, there's that nod to The Beatles and "Revolution #9". I wrote it down years ago, but the lyrics really have nothing to do with The Beatles. It's more sarcasm and making fun of rock stars and how they act. So many of them forget about the times when they were 17 and thinking about quitting and forgetting about when they were poor. We were poor for years, but we had to take our shot and we wanted to keep our integrity. Some rock stars forget that shit and we wanted to take a stab at them.

VOX: Where does the inspiration come from?
BS: Mostly all personal experiences…something that happens, something I see on TV or read about. It could be anything.

VOX: What's the last day job you had?
BS: Day job? I've been doing this since high school. We put the stuff together and wanted to get a deal and do our own thing. I feel lucky that I've been able to make money at music and not had some fucked up day job where I had to spend forty hours a week doing something I hate.

VOX: What do you think you would be doing if you weren't in a band?
BS: I don't know. It's never crossed my mind. I've never looked back and wondered what I would have done - no "what ifs" - we just hit the edge of the cliff and jumped in, man.

VOX: Are you into the Internet - do you see it as an important medium for the band?
BS: It's huge for us. Wow, huge, man. It's amazing that we survived without it…that the world survived without it. We answer all our own shit, man. Hundreds a week, individually. We try to respond to all the fans, as well as meet them after shows, at meet and greets and whenever we can. We never want to cut the lines.

VOX: What's up next for The Union Underground? Crazy Town, right?
BS: We'll be taking April off. It's been awesome, but we've had 2 weeks off in nine months. We can use a little break to recharge and get ready. In May we head to Europe for Euro Ozzfest dates, hitting Germany, London, Paris. It'll be our first time for many of the places. We'll be with Ozzfest all summer, and then us and Crazy Town will be doing some one-offs.