Now that you've been together long enough to have a couple of albums under your belt, is there any specific part of being in a "band" that you like more than any other? Writing? Recording? Touring? Being barraged with questions via email by me?

We love being barraged by questions, always. But the favorite part is probably playing your music and enjoying it and seeing other people sing along. That never gets old, when you've affected someone enough that they've memorized the words and came out specifically to listen to you. It's really one of the best compliments anyone can get.

Over the past few weeks I've been listening to your albums, especially your latest release, Neanderthal. What was the recording process like, this time around? Has it gotten easier to work and create in the studio environment?

No, that one was a barnburner in particular. I think we've made it harder on ourselves by really limiting the amount of time that we'll allow ourselves in the studio. The first two albums we were in the studio for months and on the last two we whipped em out fairly quickly. Too much waiting around kills us, we like to get the songs in the can and get em released so that we can play them for everyone.

There are some particularly lovely bits of musicianship on Neanderthal, but when I drop it into rotation on my stereo alongside Radio Free Earth, Loser of the Year, and Cynical, vocals are what make me take notice. "Mr. Foff," for example, has some of the loveliest harmonies I've heard in a while, and the lead vocals on the title track, "Neanderthal," are super nice.

Not that the vocals on the earlier releases aren't good, by the way. "Summer Day" off of Loser of the Year, for instance, is just a great song with some lovely vocals.

Thanks, we work on vocals all the time. Actually we just finished practice and we're having a creative difference when it came to a harmony on a new song. Ben and Wendy didn't like a harmony that Mike had (this is Mike writing right now by the way, I'm trying to write it in third person. I don't know why I just thought it'd be fun) and we ended up having to change it. I mean, I complained for a bit, ha-ha. We figured it out, but the important thing is that we're all paying close attention to those details because we all love vocal hooks. That's really the kicker for a lot of our songs so we all feel strongly and do our best to make sure that the vocals sound great (at least to our ears.)