JJ: Speaking of...you've got a website, photos, all kinds of multimedia at your Okayplayer site...it's wonderful.

JFN: Yes! Go, Internet! It's about to change the world, just like the music movement I'm in. We're that underground voice that's tryin' to be heard, saying, "Look, there are other things out there."

JJ: It seems you carry a responsibility, and take great pleasure in taking real control over your image, a sense of agency--making that a part of everything you do.

JFN: Yes. We are doing it ourselves. CoolHunter is Richard's label, so they just handed us the money and we did what we wanted. We hired our photographer. With MCA, we spent so much money and we got nothing. We told them "we're telling you what our concept is, we're clear about this. Trust us," and they refused to do so. They spent money (and not even a lot) on a video, the budget that we got...it wasn't that much money, but for them, it was a lot of money to spend on us, because they didn't think we were going to go anywhere (which made us think, "then why did you sign us??). They got it all wrong. We had to go back and trying to fix it at the end. They didn't support our vision. Now we're doing it the way we want to do it, and it's been working out thus far.

No one knew our music was out last time--I think that's what we were lacking. Our fans, and music fans, they know about us, because they're into finding what's new, what's unique, what's putting out a vibe. So, as far as I'm concerned, those people are like artists. They have the same mindset as I do: always just looking for something that makes them feel good. We did reach people.

And even if we never do reach "the heights," we have Black Lily, which is really starting to fend for itself. We perform there every week. People do call us for gigs. We're fine. I completely support myself. I haven't actually had a regular job since 1992. The way things have gone for us, it's been great. We've just been really, really blessed. And blessed enough to have people believe in us, so we can believe in ourselves. So, we're going to be fine regardless. We finally got a chance to finish our album exactly the way we've wanted to, so I'm very excited about it. If nobody but our fans listened to it that would be great. I know we do have some diehard supporters, and that's what we're concerned about today.