John:  Adam Ezra.

Band:  Aaawww.

Band:  (Laughter)

John:  I’m so happy with what I’m doing that I wouldn’t want do anything else.  However, if I had the opportunity, James Taylor, Sting.   Rick Braun, jazz trumpet player.

Adam:  Ani.  Ani DiFranco.

Jimmy:  Paul McCartney and John Lennon.  I’m a big Beatles fan.

Adam:  Isn’t Paul McCartney writing kind of cheesy stuff these days?

Band:  (Laughter)

Jimmy:  Well you know, back in the good days.  There are so many.  Getty Lee.  Just too many people I would love to play with.

Jeff:  Well, he took McCartney.  But I would pick Bob Dylan.

BB:  If you could be in another profession other than your own, what would it be?

John:  Probably a schoolteacher.  Level doesn’t matter.  If I could just have an influence on a kid.

Jeff:  Before I ever did music I use to do acting, theatre, and I would probably have to say that.

Jimmy:  You stole mine.  Yeah, it would definitely have to be something in the arts.  I’d like to paint I think.  Not houses, but paintings.

Jeff:  You can paint my house.

Band:  (Laughter)

Jimmy:  I’m not very good at it but it’s something I’ve often aspired to.  I think you have to die first before you get good, though.

Adam:  I don’t know.  An accountant.  An investment banker.  Anything where I have to wear sensible shoes.

Band:  (Laughter)

Adam:  My cousin Shana is up in New Hampshire and she’s making pottery and I always thought that was real cool.

BB:  What do you hope to be doing in a few years?  What do you hope the band will have accomplished?

John:  Exactly what we want to be doing.  Wherever we are that, that is exactly what we want to be doing.  Touring nationally and have the same sort of creative ability that we own right now and maintain that and just continue doing what we’re doing.  Just being able to play in front of as many people as possible.

Adam:  The hardest thing for me is I’m a single guy and I can live in very low standards but these guys have families that they’re all supporting.  They’re trying to make ends meet with a job on the side.  With some of the things that are coming down the line for us, this next year it’s gonna be… we’re all having discussions right now about what point we drop the day jobs and go on tour.  We have contract negations with a management company in the U.K. right now and we’re talking to management people in New York.  It would be a great thing to be on the road, but… I would love to be making a living playing music, but also these guys playing with me and being able to support their families while we do it.  That would make me pretty damn happy.

Jimmy:  Everything he just said.  I’m a firefighter and I love my job.  But absolutely I’d want to make a living with my first love, which is music.  There’s nothing I‘d love more than to be on a tour bus with these guys, traveling all around the country, playing for whoever wants to listen.  That’s what I want to do.  And just to be able to pay the bills doing it.  And if you make a million or two… that’s cool too.

Jeff:  Not to be redundant, but my goal has been the same for the last fifteen years and that’s just to make a living, for myself and my family, playing music. 

BB:  What do you hope people will get out of your music?

John:  I guess that while their listening to have a good time and when they leave to be able to have them recall a song that we played and maybe sing or hum the songs on their way home.  Come out of our shows feeling really good,  and energized, and happy.

Jimmy:  I’d like the people to get the same emotion out of it that was put into it.  Music is all about emotions and that’s as a songwriter, you put a lot of heart and soul into it.  Whether it’s an upbeat happy song or you’re singing something sad, I hope they can feel that same emotion.

Jeff:  For me, when I step up on stage, it’s an escape.  The only thing that matters to me right there is the music.  The traffic on 93 doesn’t matter.  The bills aren’t going to get paid this month, doesn’t matter.  It’s like an escape and if we can kind of transfer that to the crowd where they can get an escape by listening to us and enjoying us then… you know, just getting out of their world for a couple of hours at night.  That’s a positive thing.

Adam:  I kind of react two-fold to the question.  One is as a performer with these guys as part of the band and seeing our music have an effect on people and in the immediate sense they come and experience our music and they get an emotional reaction from it.  That’s very rewarding to me.  Two, is as a songwriter.  I hear people complain that I try to cram too many lyrics into my songs.  I would love for someday someone to say that you challenged my perspective about something or made me think about something, or maybe influenced the way I thought about music and how you can communicate through music.

BB:  Lastly, what advice would you have for aspiring musicians?