Trail of Dead vs Rival Schools

If my memory serves me right, the tour we are about to embark upon was the result of a chance meeting I had with Sam [Siegler, Rival Schools' drummer] in the Union Square farmer's market. What I want to know is, did I imagine this event?
Walter Schreifels: That's the same story Sam is telling.

I believe Sam was with his kid at the time, who looked about the same age as my bandmate Jason's kid.  How has band members having kids affected the band getting together, if at all?
Since we're all pretty much awake with our kids by 7am anyway, we're no longer confined to just rocking at night. We get most of our rehearsing in before noon, pick up the kids from school and carry on. I think we're all more prompt as well.

There was a long gap between your previous releases and your most recent one.  I imagine people wonder what you were up to during that time.  Was this hiatus a question of enjoying a life away from music, or exploring other musical endeavours?
I lived in Berlin for a few years, toured around the world solo acoustic, made a couple of albums and most importantly became a father. I was still doing Rival Schools somewhere in my mind but it was just on the back burner.

Has there ever been talk of properly releasing the "Unreleased" album, or is this something you are content to have available for free on the internet?
I'd love to release it on vinyl, it wouldn't hurt to give people the option of downloading it legally too. I was a little annoyed when I first heard that the songs were available on the internet but in hindsight I can see that it was ultimately a good thing for us because it helped to tide fans over while we were off working on our official "released" album for the last ten years.

In my opinion we live in a weird time for rock music.  Do you get the sense that it is a dead end, that every road and by-road has been explored only to be re-hashed, or do you believe an evolution of the rock idiom will lead to new and experimental forms of music?
The Sex Pistols were a rehash of many things yet they completely re-energized the medium when they hit. On the flipside of that, PIL – which sprung from the ashes of The Sex Pistols – is a band I still don't think the world has gotten it's head around in terms of experimentation and evolving the form. I don't think it's a zero sum game.

In reference to this last question, where would you like to place yourselves?
I want to write better songs, better lyrics, sing more, try things we haven't tried before, save rock and roll.

For me the lyrics are crucial to the depth and character of any song.  Can you name a few lyricists who have been influential in your own music?
Morrissey would be a cornerstone. Ian MacKaye, I love Pete Shelly's lyrics too. Chuck D., Bob Dylan of course, Syd Barrett...I like lyrics with a sense of humour, some bite and sadness.

These days we get asked to do a lot of email interviews, and there is often times very little contact with the journalist – we don't see a face or hear a voice (much like the interview we're doing now).  Personally I don't mind doing email interviews, but do you think this new trend in journalism will lead away from the personality-driven journalism of the sixties into a more sober, disembodied, spiritless form of interview, or do you feel answering interviews this way allows you more freedom of expression?
I'm ok with online interviews, sometimes I prefer them. In terms of being able to express my point of view or get my personality across, sometimes I think I do that better in person where other times I wish I could learn to just shut my big yap. In the sixties there were way less bands and exponentially less media outlets to cover them, the journalists were paid and exposure weighed heavier, so it was better.

I'm always annoyed at how people assume that just because we are in a rock band and play rock music, that all we listen to, day in day out, is rock music.  I'm sure the case must be the same for many rock musicians.  What music outside of the rock world do you think people would be surprised to discover you listen to?
I've been listening to the Annie soundtrack a lot with my daughter lately, the original cast recording of Hair. The Carpenters' Now & Then has also been on pretty steady rotation. The great thing about music and being a musician is that there's so much out there to discover, enjoy, dissect and eventually regurgitate in my own music. Variety is a beautiful thing.

On the internet, your band name seems to be closely associated with the term "post-hardcore", which to me is another one of a million meaningless attempts to categorize and sub-categorize music for the sake of marketing and easy consumption.  Do you personally hold yourselves in any particular genre, or are you content to say that you are a rock band (feel free to elaborate)?
I've never been crazy about "post-hardcore," though Emo is the more awkward one. The goal is to be a genre onto yourself, post-genre!

I personally rail against being categorized.  How important is genre, in your opinion, to people's appreciation of music at the end of the day?
I saw an interview from the late 70s with Paul Weller and Joan Jett on the Tom Snyder show recently. I was surprised to see Paul Weller trying to position himself and The Jam as part of the New Wave thing as that was happening at the time. Wanting to be classified, it was pretty transparent that Paul saw advantage in being considered part of New Wave. To Joan's credit, she stuck to her "Rock And Roll" guns. As you pointed out, making up names for different genres dumbs it down but as creating awareness and finding new fans is important to maintaining and growing a band, I can live with it.

Lastly, I assume the video game reference of the band name and first album was intentional.  Were you fans of this particular Playstation game?  And as a follow-up question, are there any games you like playing now (on our last few tours, Lego Star Wars has been a big hit)?
Ironically, I'm not into video games at all, though some of them have great names. I wrote a song for Gorilla Biscuits back in the day called Stand Still. One of my favourite lyrics from that goes "Instead of thinking we play Donkey Kong, there's something wrong with that." I would have liked to call the band Space Invaders if I thought they'd give us the rights. Lego Star Wars sounds like fun, though; I'd like to give it a try. Lego Star Wars could be a band that you would hear about at SXSW. They're a rap band who wear masks and sample CAN.