Kristi is available to write musician-to-musician interviews, subject to scheduling availability.
Below are several examples of her previously published music interview/writing works.
Please feel free to contact us at MailKristi@aol.com for more information - thanks!
READ KRISTI'S PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED FEATURES BELOW

<<<as published in Review Magazine>>>
OK Go Gets Going
by Kristi Kates

Live, they cover the likes of Elvis Costello, Whitesnake (not a typo), Toto (also not a typo), and The Smiths. On record, they uncover their own unique brand of power pop that's quite familiar, yet also somehow utterly new. OK Go singer Damian Kulash talks with musician and writer Kristi Kates about playing live, the return of melody, and those damned catchy N'Sync songs.

Chicago band OK Go - collectively, Brown University semiotics major Damian Kulash (vocals), Andy Duncan (keyboards and guitar), Tim Nordwind (bass) and Dan Konopka (drums) - have already had their story typed up dozens of times. The facts: Kulash and Nordwind met at "dorky summer band camp" when they were 12 (Nordwind being from Kalamazoo). They ran into Duncan and Konopka at college in Chicago, and took them along for the ride as OK Go's new wave-influenced pop songcraft - including insanely catchy tracks like "Hello, My Treacherous Friends," "Don't Ask Me," "1,000 Miles Per Hour," and the band's first single, "Get Over It" - caught on. Soon, they were opening for likes of Elliott Smith and The Promise Ring, selling out their own shows, and snagging They Might Be Giants' John Flansbergh as their manager. A deal with Capitol Records wasn't far behind, and now, after being written up glowingly in the likes of Alternative Press, Blender, CMJ, the L.A. Times, Entertainment Weekly, Elle, and YM, they're gearing up for what's looking to be an extensive round of touring in the U.S. and in England. As a warm-up, they recently wrapped a live performance at the Sundance Film Festival, which singer Kulash found both fun and somewhat contradictory to the spirit of OK Go.

"It was kind of... Hollywoody," he carefully explains, "we went over well, and it was fun, but there's this predatory, weird thing about Sundance that seems to counter the spirit of people getting together to watch each other's stuff." Indeed - that's what Sundance was conceived for in the first place. But since it's degenerated into a power-playing, cell-phone overrun trend event ("I can't say much about the cell phones, since I'm on mine all the time now, but you know what I mean," the singer chuckles), Kulash, although appreciative of the opportunity to play there, has better things to do. "You know how it is - there are good venues and bad venues," he explains, "but it's more about the crowd, don't you think? What I really want is to keep playing at places that are small and exciteable. I like being able to see everyone in the room, I like being able to see that the people in the back are dancing, you know?"

Dancing being a familiar sight at OK Go shows, it's understandable that Kulash would want to keep that connection going. U.S. audiences are getting hooked on the fact that the band makes pop music that is, more than anything, fun - a fizzy combination of sing-along, witty lyrics, synth-laden choruses, and sharp instrumentation. So their upcoming U.S. tour schedule - which sees them passing through New York City, Boston, Chicago, Denver, and San Francisco, and Detroit - should be nothing less than a success. But will England feel the same way when OK Go hits Brit shores in March? "The scene is kind of strange over there," Kulash ponders, "it's weird how small the scene is, and how fast things get absorbed. Two or three influential people will say that something's awesome, and suddenly it's the big thing, then, a month later, it's not. Having made a record in the States, it seemed normal to watch people's reactions at our label when the album came out - but now, even though the album's been out for a while, we're going to have to go through those same convolutions over in England, from people that are kind of out of time with it. It's crazy how these things work."

If OK Go just keeps doing what they're doing, though, British audiences might just be drawn in as much as U.S. audiences have been so far. Even Kulash's influences-slash-contemporaries have been intrigued enough to pop in at some of the band's appearances. "We played a Cheap Trick song for Cheap Trick in the studio once - they were a huge influence on me when I was 18 or 19. We were playing in D.C. once, and I looked down and saw Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye (Fugazi) standing shoulder to shoulder in the front row. It's amazing, but terrifying, having someone whose work you admire standing right there." So, who do the guys of OK Go have influencing them from their respective CD players?

"As for me, I got an ipod - I'm a complete yuppie now," Kulash jokes, "Have you seen those things? They're amazing. I've got, like, 500 albums in there. What I'm listening to the most right now, though, is the Navy Blues record by Sloan, and I can't get over this collection I have of the best of Bill Withers, it's unbelievable. As far as the band goes, we all listen to similarly various things, if that makes sense," he laughs, "we usually agree on what's good - no one really has a style that they don't like. Sometimes we disagree about which hip-hop group is the best, or modern country versus older country. Tim likes Kiss a little more than I do, I like Cheap Trick more than he does. And we can have a healthy argument about whether Justin Timberlake is channeling that whole Michael Jackson thing too much or not."

Justin Timberlake? "I'm unashamed to say that some of the best pop music I've ever heard is N'Sync songs," Kulash explains, "I mean, they get the best people to write for them. It's hard to listen to them in their current state and hear anything but the shininess of the promotion, but if you heard, say, the Rolling Stones do "Bye Bye Bye," it'd be a different story." If they're lucky, fans might just get to hear OK Go themselves doing a cover of "Bye Bye Bye" - well, okay, maybe not that song, particularly, but perhaps a few tunes by the likes of The Cure, The Breeders, or The Specials. "We just had a week off recently, and we spent it in the studio, recording versions of cover songs," Kulash enthuses, "it was fun for us to record and have it not really matter how it turned out. One day it may get released, or it may not - it was just kind of a present to ourselves."

Pop music being in the strange state it's in today, winding down from the last phase of teen-pop and rap-metal, OK Go is hitting the scene at a great time - right as real melody is returning to songs, from the White Stripes to Coldplay. "It's interesting that you mention those two bands," Kulash muses, "one's really raw, and the other's not." Well, although the two bands' styles are vastly different, they're still based on melodic songwriting - much as OK Go's tunes are. "True," Kulash agrees, "Yeah. That's exactly how I feel about it. It is a super good time for rock - there isn't this monolithic thing we're all 'supposed' to sound like. From a purely distanced view, it's actually a good thing that none of those bands have bashed through the American consciousness and made everyone buy it, like a Creed or a Britney Spears record - this way, labels still have to take risks and make choices. And it's not like everyone likes the exact same new band - there's so much going on that you have to form your own opinions. I'm as much a fan as anybody else of the Stripes, the Strokes, the Hives - but I'm also a huge fan of the new Spoon record - and although a lot of it's been called retro, it's really all just good pop songs." And from what's been heard of OK Go so far, Damian Kulash definitely knows what good pop songs are all about.

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<<<as published in Express Magazine>>>
Challenge Your Ears With Orthrelm
by Kristi Kates

Orthrelm is what music aficionados would call "a challenging listen." Blending near over-the-top metal sensibilities with churning, shredding guitar lines, underground prog-rock with a hint of jazz and technically baffling drum patterns, Orthrelm - made up of the duo of Josh Blair on drums and Mick Barr on guitar - is both confusing and mesmerizing audiences across the country. There's not a lot of flash to Orthrelm - what impresses is the music, not the stage setup or costumes. But that very quality adds to their appeal, especially when you realize that the two apparant everymen on stage are remarkably skilled musicians who devote an equally remarkable amount of time to getting their compositions exactly right, whether it's as a series of 1 to 2 minute songs that entirely avoid repetition of any kind, or as the one long track of their current album, OV, a listen that spans 45 minutes straight and dabbles in genres from the aforementioned metal to Middle Eastern influences. If you're tired of pop, soured on rock, or bored of the usual metal, Orthrelm will definitely be a new experience for your ears.

Both Josh Blair and Mick Barr started playing music in their later high school years, both experimenting with all different kinds of sounds. "Neither of us have been in too many straight-ahead bands," Blair thinks back. Even now, when they're not working with Orthrelm, they both frequently veer off to participate in a wide variety of other musical ventures - Barr plays with Crom-Tech, Octis, and Quix*O*Tic, and Blair, who has also worked with ABCS and WWIII, cites his current "other" band, Supersystem, as more than a side project - "it takes up far too much time to be a side project," he laughs, "let's call it the other half of my musical existence."

But for now, at least, it's Orthrelm that's drawing the most attention. Different, abrasive, detailed, impressive, and uncategorizable, Orthrelm is making their own way, defiant of genres and slowly but surely finding a core audience. "It's hard to define music," Blair ponders, "especially now. I feel like everyone listens to everything now - it's so easy to just go online and download a little of this, a little of that. It seems like everyone's heard everything, and, as a result, genres are really fading." When Blair and Barr began working as Orthrelm, they had, as Blair puts it, "short attention spans," so most of their songs were extremely short indeed - written, over, and done before there was time for either musician to get bored. "Those short songs were just kind of where our heads were at when we were making those first records," Blair explains, "they were sort of roller coaster rides, where you'd get in and things would roll through and fall back on top of themselves. The first couple of albums were stuff that Mick had written, and I'd write drum parts over what he did. Later on, our records became more and more collaborative. The current album grew more on its own, and actually had more room TO grow."

Which explains, perhaps, why Orthrelm has embarked on yet another of the steps of a growing band - the national tour. They're in the middle of a fairly extensive tour schedule, with their people sending these two eclectically reckless musicians out to play in front of crowds that, so far, are either loving 'em or hating 'em. They're definitely experiencing some growing pains, but they're approaching it all with a good attitude. "This tour is our first since OV came out," Blair says, "so it's really an older album to us, but it's the bulk of our live set on this tour. We also throw in a few new things, but it's mostly stuff from OV. It's been so long since we've been out on the road - and we're playing mostly bars and smaller venues - so I'm really kind of shocked at how many people are excited that we're out - that's really nice."

Blair is also probably a little shocked at how some of the bar audiences are reacting to their music, which obviously doesn't fall into the usual category of "fun music to listen to while you're drinking." But it's all just par for the course. "Well, to reach the smaller towns, sometimes the only option you have is to play a bar," Blair points out, "it's kind of difficult at times - in addition to the giant cloud of cigarette smoke at bars, it's harder for us to play our music, because you're kind of being forced into this role of Beer Soundtrack or Beer Salesman. And people often just aren't into what we do. There have been several shows where people were yelling at us and throwing ashtrays and things, but while I do fear for my safety at times," he chuckles, "not everyone spends a lot of time seeking out new music or wanting to be challenged by it. So I do understand their confusion."

Hopefully, interest in Orthrelm will continue to rise, so that the duo can be packaged into more welcoming venues. But it's not all bad. "Nah, we're okay," Blair confirms, "it's actually nice to switch up our surroundings. We really do like playing for people who are interested in what we do. And we've played with a lot of interesting local bands, as well - sometimes we get stuck on indie-rock bills that we don't really fit into, but overall, we've been pleased with who we've been getting paired up with for shows. It's inspiring to me to see the other musicians that are out there doing their thing. We've been enjoying visiting all the different cities. Now if it just wasn't so cold in the Midwest!" he laughs.

Blair and Barr had best stock up on their woolen hats and gloves, because it's about to get colder as Orthrelm continue their tour, traveling East across the U.S. They're nearing the end of their current schedule, but will luckily be playing several college towns, which are usually full of musicians and others who will surely be intrigued by what Orthrelm has to offer. Named by Pitchfork Media as one of the Top 50 Records of 2005, and recently nominated for a Plug Award for Best Avant Garde Album, they've got a good foundation going, and they'll be staying on the road through March 19th in order to draw more listeners into the Orthrelm camp. And then it's back to the drawing board to make more of this music that challenges the listener and asks for receptive - and respectful - ears. "After the tour, we'll be working on some new stuff that we hope to record this spring and put out later this year," Blair says, "it takes us a long time to write and record. Sometimes we distill things down to nothing, sometimes we come back around and change things. We're also working on a lot of things individually, and that's exciting too - then we'll get together and see what sticks."


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<<<as published in Express Magazine>>>
30 Minutes with Andy Dunlop of Travis
by Kristi Kates

Once in a great while, a band surfaces that makes everyone really take notice. Not just for their place in popular culture, or for that one chart-topping hit wonder... but for the strength of all of their songs, and for the emotion and skill of their live performances. Glasgow, Scotland's Travis is one of those bands, growing and blossoming even as they sit poised to take over American musical consciousness with their "new" album, The Man Who, which has already hit double-platinum in the U.K. after being released last year. Their music recalls several British favorites - echoes of Radiohead, Style Council, Oasis, and The Verve can all be heard in their sweet, reflective, yet definitively rock-n-roll tunes. The lyrics, most penned by lead singer Fran Healy, could be packaged as poetry. And the boys in the band - Healy, guitarist Andy Dunlop, bass player Dougie Payne, and drummer Neil Primrose - have that ever-charming rumpled-rogue look that so many of the stylishly hip Brit bands do. But it's the way that Travis puts all of these elements together that makes them uniquely and only Travis.  I caught up with Travis guitarist Dunlop - he of the alternately chiming, alternately scorching guitar sounds - on a rainy Midwestern morning in Cleveland, Ohio. Over our respective cups of coffee, we had a chance to talk about the tour, Travis' favorite movies, the lure of America, and the notion of Travis rocking out to AC/DC.

Dunlop had already been awake for an hour or so when we sat down to chat, and life on the road seems to be treating him well. "It's been brilliant, actually," he enthused. "It's been a long tour, a really long tour, but it's been just brilliant, really good." And their just-prior tour with headliner Oasis was another highlight. "If we could pick a band to open for, I think it would be Oasis - we did just do it, but we had such a good laugh with them, I'm sure we'd do it again." And who's the headliner now? Why, it's Travis - with opening acts ranging from The Waxwings to Leona Ness, although a little band out of Los Angeles remains a favorite. Dunlop recollects, "when we did Britain, we had Remy Zero open for us, they're an American band, and they're an amazing band - it's nice when your opening act is so good, they make you say, "Bloody hell, we've got to go out and do a right good job, then!""

Right, indeed! And, being as that this is the band's first really big trek through the States on their own, one has to wonder if any part of the U.S. stands out - and it appears that not just L.A., but both coasts shine brightly to the men who. "I think all Scottish people have a fascination with the West Coast," Dunlop explains, "I mean, it's sunny there (in California) all year, and when you're used to none of that, to grey skies all the time... it is the sun, I think. I think my favorite city has to be New York, though - it's like a country all on its own, it reminds me of how London is to England. And we've been there a lot, so we've gotten to known people there, and gotten to know the city."

And cities all over the States are definitely getting to know Travis, even as the differences between their European touring and U.S. touring become more and more apparant. "Both the U.S. and the U.K. are very different," he muses, "I think that Brits have always emulated U.S. music to a degree - the Brits just put a different slant on things. And I find that once you start travelling a lot, it's a bit of a challenge - so it's nice to tour in America. The States are really built for touring, you know - you don't have to think about things like the language and currency changes, like you do in Europe. You go to bed one morning, wake up the next, and everything's different." So true. In Europe, traveling from country to country occurs quickly, often within several hours - and with those travels, one must adjust to many cultural changes that aren't always so easy to accommodate to when you're spending your nights on stage and your days on a tour bus. But Travis' combats the road-lag with a slew of creature comforts while on the road - and, as you'd expect from a band with such obvious artistic interests (three of the band members even attended art college), the focus is on books, music, and films.

Dunlop explains that the entire David Bowie back catalog ("especially the David Bowie Storytellers album") is a current on-the-road favorite, along with books by William Burroughs and Kurt Vonnegut... and a much-played copy of Adam Sandler's slap-happy golf movie Happy Gilmore? "Yes!" Dunlop laughs, "we've got a lot of comedies, silly things that make us laugh, like Happy Gilmore... that's a staple... we've also got a lot of Stanley Kubrick films, and Harold and Maude, with that great Cat Stevens soundtrack. We've got two drawers full of videos, but the sad thing is that we can't take them back with us, because the format's not the same." Somebody buy these guys an American VCR!

With such varied interests in films, you've got to wonder what different musical interests these guys have... is there a collective musical influence as a band, or do they all bring different influences to the mix? "All different, really," the guitarist states, with a long drag on his coffee cup, "Fran didn't listen to a lot of music growing up at all... and Dougie (bass player) was into classic rock, like Fleetwood Mac and that... I came from heavy metal, myself, a lot of AC/DC and such." Perhaps Travis should cover a little AC/DC live? "Actually, we do," Dunlop confirms, laughing, "we sometimes play "Back in Black" at soundcheck - but I don't think the world's ready for Travis' AC/DC covers just yet!" But they must be ready for Travis' Britney Spears' cover - that's no typo - they do a cover of one of the teen diva's tunes in concert. "Yeah, we do that one song, "Baby One More Time," and right at first, people are kind of looking at us, like, "what are they doing??" but they catch on after a bit. You know, when you strip away all of the pop layers of that song, it's actually a good song, a dark song, even." So will we see any plaid skirts and pigtails on the members of Travis in the near future? A big laugh emotes from Dunlop, "Uh... no, no, not that!"

Headed back to the studio in the fall, Dunlop and bandmates will hunker in to L.A.'s Ocean Way facility, to work again with  The Man Who producer Nigel Godrich, who has also produced the likes of R.E.M. and Radiohead. Frustrations can run rampant when you're recording tracks live, as Travis often does - but, with Godrich behind the boards, it's a different story. "We will be working with Nigel again, definitely - it was brilliant, he's absolutely amazing to work with. He's got such a strong set of ears. We lay all of our tracks down live, and, for any band, it can be infuriating, as you know, in the studio, when you finish recording, and step behind the mixing board, and it doesn't sound the same," Dunlop continues enthusiastically, "with any band, there's a dynamic that you get when you work together, but it's hard to capture because it's one of those... invisible things. Nigel can capture that for us. And the first thing we need to get a good collection of sounds is a good set of songs - and Fran really does that for us. He's never played us a song we can say "no" to. He screens the songs on his own before he even shows them to us - he's rather hard on himself." And it's paying off. Travis' songs are all songwriting gems - and the range of sounds that Dunlop gets on guitar are nothing to scoff at, either. On stage and on the record, the guitarist uses a roster of Gibson guitars, is particular to the Les Paul, and has also been experimenting with Rickenbackers as of late - and it's guitars he'll stick with on the next disc. "There aren't really a lot of new sounds I can think of that I want to experiment with," he muses, "I have played a six-string banjo, but (laughing) that's a sound you've got to be careful with!"

Well, perhaps a banjo wouldn't really fit in on the next Travis disc - even with the band's lush instrumentation - but these new song titles certainly do. From "Coming Around," to "Safe," and "Flowers in the Window," the band's latest set of songs looks to be as strong as their first. The band has already started to play several of the new songs live, and "Safe," in particular, is strikingly beautiful in concert. Speaking of which, Dunlop had to get moving - with a show tonight, and a continued schedule of concert dates to follow, it's not going to be a slow day in the life of the little band from Glasgow that could. So, one final question to the personable guitarist, the question that everyone's asking - with no one in the band actually named Travis, why are they called "Travis?" "The band name is actually after a Wim Wenders film called Paris, Texas," Dunlop explains, "we named the band after the main character in that film. As you know, all of us are huge, huge movie buffs, and we all grew up listening to the soundtrack album." Well, if their debut album is any indication, perhaps this generation of music fans will grow up listening to Travis.

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<<<as published on Student.com and in Review Magazine>>>
Heaven and Hot Rods:  
Stone Temple Pilots' Robert DeLeo
Talks to Kristi Kates

Nobody ever said that the Stone Temple Pilots would have it easy. From Core to No. 4, the band's gone through more trials and tribulations than Madonna has hairstyles. But STP bass player Robert DeLeo still says that it's the band he's always wanted to be in. Musician and writer Kristi Kates talks to DeLeo about their struggles, the Pilots' new disc, and the unlikely influence of Jim Croce.

The Stone Temple Pilots - singer Scott Weiland, guitarist Dean DeLeo, bass player Robert DeLeo (yep, they're brothers), and drummer Eric Kretz - have been on the road with the Red Hot Chili Peppers since the end of July, pumping up the interest in STP's eclectic new album, the aforementioned No. 4. The two band's styles do compliment each other nicely - the Peppers alt-funk vs. the Pilots' alt-rock - but it ain't all water under the bridge just yet. If you think about it, these are two bands that should really both be headliners - yet the Pilots are, for all practical purposes, serving as the Peppers' opening act on this current tour. Not that there's any dissention in the ranks or anything like that, but it can be frustrating at times - for instance, how would you feel if you'd invested in a $20,000 light rig for all the kids to see, only to have your set pushed back to the shiny daylight hour of 7:50? "Well, that part of it is definitely not satisfying," explains a weary Robert DeLeo, crunching on an apple in his Detroit hotel room. "Nothing against the Peppers, but I'm kind of getting tired of being a backup band when we shouldn't be." And a backup band is something that the SoCal quartet was never meant to be from the get-go.

Robert DeLeo met Scott Weiland some 10-odd years ago at a Black Flag concert near L.A., where they quickly found out that they were dating the same girl. The stuff that fistfights are made of? Nope - they also found out that they were both musicians, so it wasn't long before they hooked up with drummer Kretz and Robert's brother Dean, to form the band that was first known as Mighty Joe Young, and is now known as Stone Temple Pilots. A slew of hit alt-rock albums later, the band found themselves mired in lead singer Weiland's much-publicized struggles with drugs, and both DeLeo brothers and Kretz temporarily bailed to form the one-album, one-hit rock project Talk Show before putting the STPieces back together in late 1998 or so.

"I love Scott to death," DeLeo emphasizes, "and he's come a long way, he really has. But, when your singer can't function as a human being - I mean, when he's actually going to jail for getting high - well, I think there's something wrong there. When we started out with Core (STP's first album, 1992), it was a 100% functional album. I'm proud of that record. But with Purple, Tiny Music, and even with No. 4 - well, we had altercations with Scott getting high through all of those, and I think that Scott could've been 'there' more on several of the songs, if you know what I mean. Six months ago, I even got to the point where I kind of wanted to keep STP just as a hobby. But I can't dwell on that anymore."

Not to mention Weiland doesn't seem to be dwelling on it anymore, either. After a jail stint that's been talked about in the press more than the band's deserving music, Weiland finally married long-time girlfriend Mary Forsberg, and is well on the way to cleaning up his act, although his creative antics on stage continue. "I don't think I've ever seen Scott like this," DeLeo smiles, "he's not only sans drugs, but he's a lot more mature. And everything's more cohesive than it's ever been." Good news for a band whose future wasn't even certain a year ago. And, although all of STP's discs have been lauded by critics and fans alike, that cohesiveness and chemistry ("the best it's ever been," DeLeo enthuses) really shows its stripes on No. 4. "It cracks me up when a band comes out, and people want to peg you as such-and-such a band," DeLeo says, "you can't even really tell who a band is until their 4th or 5th record." So what does No. 4 have to say about Stone Temple Pilots?

Well, for starters, it's most obviously a comeback of sorts for the original STP quartet, with a stronger and hopefully wiser Weiland at the wheel. It's a continuation of their collaboration with uber-producer Brendan O'Brien ("I think he's always been a part of our sound," DeLeo clarifies). And it's the first album they'll be promoting under their new management, their first management change since 1991. But the sonics are what really stand out. There's no loss of the familiar STP sound - the driving Kretz beats, the Motown-meets-Philly bass lines, the textured guitars, the distinctive Weiland vocals - but this album might be the most varied of the Pilots' discography so far, with tunes ranging from the heavy opener "Down" through the likes of "I Got You," "MC5," and the poppy, almost Beatlesque stylings of "Sour Girl," their current radio hit. "When Dean started playing 'Sour Girl," I thought of a bass line - like a Larry Graham 'If You Want Me to Stay' sort of bass line, or like a Paul McCartney bass line," DeLeo recollects, "so you have your Larry Graham bass along with a Spinners-style Philly beat, and that played right into that song."

The Spinners? Larry Graham? So whatever happened to the press' endless (and tiresome) comparisons of STP to the Seattle grunge movement of the early '90's? "I didn't get that grunge thing," DeLeo laughs, "I, myself, don't really listen to anything current. I like a lot of Brazilian music, and I love R&B - one of my favorites is Stevie Wonder's 'Signed, Sealed, and Delivered' - but there are so many different influences in this band!" Which brings up the Jim Croce reference. Think of STP's songs - do any of them bring Mr. Croce and his bluesy folk-rock to mind? No? Okay - just think of DeLeo humming Croce's "I Got a Name" in your ear… ("Moving me down the highway, moving me down the highway,") … and now, perhaps, you'll hear that familiar Joe Macho bass line that's echoed in a little Top 40 tune called "Interstate Love Song"…yes, ladies and gentlemen, Stone Temple Pilots remain full of surprises.

Even more surprises will be coming up soon for fans of STP. The "Greatest Hits" disc idea that was being bandied about for a while is being shelved for the time being ("it may be just a little too early for that," DeLeo confirms) - but will the band be hitting the studio again anytime soon? "Absolutely!" according to DeLeo. There's no definite release date for the new album yet, but the band is well on their way to crafting more of the tunes that radio, MTV, and their fans all love. "We might go up to the Hudson Valley (region of New York State) to record this time," DeLeo ponders, "I do like the weather in California - I mean, when I get time off, I do surf, and I'm a total beach bum - but I'm originally from Montclair, New Jersey, so I miss the East Coast." More touring is on the agenda for the band, too - their tour with the Chili Peppers extends through September 22nd, and, although they've hit both Europe and Asia in their travels, there are still more horizons that they'd like to see. "We did just get up to Alaska," DeLeo enthuses, "it was the first time we'd played there, and it was amazing, Anchorage was beautiful," he continues, "but I really want to go to Australia and New Zealand - yeah, Australia, New Zealand, and South America would be my choices for where we'd tour next."

Wherever STP tours next, here's hoping that things continue to go well. And if we had three wishes for DeLeo and the whole STP crew? Well, how about a successful tour, a chart-topping album, and perhaps even a set that starts at 8:30 for a change? The way they've been going lately, it could happen - in the words of the Stone Temple Pilots themselves, it sounds like it might just be all Heaven and Hot Rods from here.