NORMA JEAN INTERVIEW
July 2, 2005

Ed Martin for Prophecy21.com: How's the tour going so far?
Daniel Davison Drummer for Norma Jean: Really, really good. We're about a week into it now, so I think we've got a feel on how the whole thing isgonna go. It's been awesome.

P21: How have people been reacting to the new material so far?
DD: Good. On this tour there's a lot of people who probably haven't seenus before. We just finished a tour with Atreyu and Unearth and we playeda lot of new stuff on that. That went over well and I bet there's some kidshere who saw us on that tour too, so it's all good.

P21: What are you guys planning on doing after this tour?
DD: We're taking off through September except for some fests likeHellfest. So that's whats right after this tour. Then in October we'regoing to like a little three week headlining tour throughout the EastCoast and Mid-West, I think Darkest Hour might jump on that. Then latethis year we should be going out with As I Lay Dying.

P21: Do you guys have anything in the works in the way of a DVD?
DD: Yeah, since we've been writing O, God we've been playing around witha camera recording practices and recording sessions and we shot a lot onthe three month world tour we did.

P21: What are your plans for video releases for this album?
DD: We did one back in like February for Bayonetwork. Then we just shotone for Absentimental. I'm sure we'll do at least one more still too.

P21: How did you guys decide on what you wanted to do with the artwork onthis CD?
DD: It was a collaboration kind of thing, we knew when we started writingthe album what we wanted it to be. We wanted an image to represent eachsong. So the images that are in there in some sort of round-about wayrepresent the songs. It's very symbolic, but the song titles are the sameway they can represent what the song's about and what we're trying to say.

P21: What's your favorite song to play off of the new album?
DD: Probably Vertebraille, which is the second track off the album.

P21: Are there any bands in particular that you were excited to find outyou would be with on this tour?
DD: Not really any one in particular, but I am stoked to be on this tourbecause we do have a lot of friends on it. Bands like Throwdown andUnearth, it's cool to get to hang out with those dudes.

P21: Is there anything that you don't like about playing a biggerfestival like this?
DD: There are a lot of good things and a lot of bad things about a tourlike this. As far as what I don't like, the sound isn't always that greatand the stages are huge so you're real far from the crowd and you can'tget as into it as you can in a normal venue. At the same time thoughthere's 5,000 people at the show, so I'm not complaining by any means.It's definitely a good tour.

P21: What would you say your influences were while writing the new album?
DD: I don't think I could pinpoint specific bands that influenced the newstuff, but as far as my drumming goes, early influences would've been likethe Deftones and Helmet. Other bands that have influenced us are likeNirvana, Unsane, At The Drive In, even though they're not really hardcorebands. There are hardcore bands that have inspired us too like Coalesce,Botch, and Dillinger. But the biggest influences were those other bandslike Unsane and Nirvana just because they have such a passion and that wasvery influential.

P21: Were there any big differences between the recording of this albumand the last one?
DD: Yeah, it was completely different. The last album we recorded live,like all of us at the same time. This one we did the more conventionalway by tracking it a piece at a time. It let us focus better and spendmore time on each one thing.

P21: Are there any bands that you haven't gotten a chance to tour withyet that you'd really like to?
DD: As far as in this genre not really, but if I could just pick any bandto tour with, it would probably have to be the Deftones. I doubt that willever happen cause we're so different, but playing with them would beamazing.

P21: What do you usually do to kill time when you're on the road?
DD: We've never had this much time before, because on this tour we're onlyplaying for 25 minutes, and we're here all day. You sleep on the bus andyou wake up and your already at the show, so you maybe read for a littlebit, then do a meet and greet that we have to do every day, then we set upand play and by five o' clock at the latest were done playing and we havethe rest of the day to just hang out. It's kind of strange. I like to readand sometimes I just hang out and walk around. Sometimes I'll stay at themerch. Some other dudes brought bikes on the tour so that's a good time.

P21: Is there any show you went to when you we're younger that you reallyremember as one of the best shows you've been to?
DD: I remember I saw Helmet when I was in 8th grade which was amazing.Then I saw Unsane that same year and those bands are two of my biggestinfluences, so that was very cool. Then I saw Isis a few years ago andthat was really cool.

P21: What bands have you been listening to lately?
DD: I listen to a lot of Radiohead and this band Sixteen Horsepower whichis this mellow kind of laid back stuff and this band Blonde Redhead.

P21: Thanks is there anything you want to add?
DD: Nah man, it's all good.