For those keeping track, this is my first in person interview. I talked with Davey after their 03.17.00 show at the Ottobar in Baltimore.

FSOA: The show Wednesday night in Reading and tonight's show were like night and day. What do you see as the probelm with Wednesday night?

Davey: It was a tough one, I'm glad we dressed up, it put a good spin on it.

FSOA: I was hoping to hear new material Wednesday night. I'm glad you played "Electric Pink" tonight.

D: We've been touring for about five months or else we would have more new material.

FSOA: How do you feel about setlists? I noticed between a show in November and the shows Wednesday night and tonight the similarities between the setlists.

D: We switch the setlists every tour, but once you get in a groove, it is good to keep that. The setlist we had last year was much better, and the places we didn't play on the last tour we are using that setlist with. Like tonight and Albright are places we didn't hit, but tomorrow night in New York we will pull out the new setlist. It just depends if we hit the places on the last tour. We try not to do the same setlist in the same city.

FSOA: Do feel as though you get caught in a rut playing the same thing over and over every night? Does the crowd add some kind of energy into the same setlist?

D: It all depends on the crowd. We've done the same show so many times, and it all depneds on who is there and how the crowd makes it.

FSOA: I was really impressed by how the show went off tonight. To put it in perspective, I first saw the band was in '98 at the TLA in Philadelphia, which has played host to much larger bands such as Wilco and Matthew Sweet, and to top it all off, the show was almost sold out. Basically it is small band on a very small label working their asses off to get thier music out.

D: It is really weird. It is basically out of our hands. We just go out there and tour, and it is up to everyone else to make us big or make us small.

FSOA: How's the tour been going so far?

D: Really good, with the exception of college shows, but West Chetser was awesome last night. College shows are just dry. They offer you a lot of money and you sacrifice a good show, but it financially helps you to do smaller clubs. It's a change of pace, they take care of you in ways that most clubs don't bother to.

FSOA: Is there a difference between the college kids and the Ottobar kids?

D: Not really, we have more chance of getting random people to step in at college shows just because it is free, but it is basically kids who know and come out, especially in the underground scene. It's people coming from Philly to West Chester, not local West Chester kids.

FSOA: How do you think your songwriting has progressed from the early singles to Very Emergency and the new single that is coming out soon?

D: I think we've become more precise and we are better at writing. We've also attacked what we are doing. It is hard to write a good song now.

FSOA: Do you notice, as the years go on, that you are drawing on more influences, or finding influences in new places?

D: As the years go on, there are no other influenes besides how the band reacts to its music. It becomes an innerspace that didn't exist before, that we've created in these first five years, and we only create inside that.

FSOA: Was that part of the reason that some of your earlier bands broke up or didn't work out? You just couldn't find a way to work within that space?

D: What is always true is that one weak link breaks the chain, and that's the curse of all bands, you get one fuck-up who fucks up. It's the tradition of one guy who can't keep up messing it up for everybody. In this band, we purposely picked each other out. You were the strong link in your band, I was the strong link in my band, you were the strong link in that band, and let's be the strong links in one band. Let's play the roles and take care of everything, and here we are, still together. We all lastest through a lot of bands.

FSOA: It's almost like all of the failed relationships working up to the marriage. You've got the good marriage now.

D: Yeah, totally, it took us awhile, but now we're finally here. It's good. People move on, you discard members. We're on the third bass player. Which is preety weird to think that we did that.

FSOA: How's the new guy working out?

D: He's not the new guy anymore, tonight's his two year anniversary.

FSOA: Whoa, I didn't even realize that!

D: Yeah, you don't think about it being two years already. He's the most prolific, he's done the most work with us. Scott is definitely a better member of this band. Thier both good guys (Scott and Tim), but Scott is the correct member. It is a chemistry thing.

FSOA: How would you describe your relationship with Jade Tree? Is there anything you like a lot or dislike a lot?

D: The thing I like is what I dislike. It is such a "friend" thing, which is really awesome, but when it becomes a business thing, we are still friends. There are times when we need to talk business, but we stay on that friend level.

FSOA: Do you think there will be a time in the future that Jade Tree would have a hard business decision that would be complicated by your friendship?

D: I don't know. I never really thought about it.

FSOA: The reason I brought it up is because of the Touch and Go/Butthole Surfers situation.

D: Jade Tree helped us out three or four years ago and we helped get each other on our feet, and I can't see us working together for too much longer, because how much longer can we lose ourselves in each other? I don't ever see any kind of problem between us.

FSOA: On the 120 Minutes interview, you mentioned that The Promise Ring and Jade Tree are growing together. Do you feel that this growth is going to continue to occur, or is there going to be a time when there will be a fork in the road with Jade Tree going one way, and you going the other?

D: There's gotta be a time when we both change. It won't be the type of change where one of us goes left and the other goes right, but we may take different left turns. We're both going to be growing, and hopefully we'll both we growing in positive ways. If we can find a way to keep making it a positive experience, I'm sure we can go with it, but I don't know how long it will last. For now, it will work. We are not under contract anymore, if we part ways, it will be this year. If not, we probably never will.

FSOA: Have you put any thought into how far you want to take the band?

D: We want to see what we can do with our band and we are positive into knowing about other options out there for us, so we know whether we can take it or leave it.

FSOA: Explain your contract with Jade Tree.

D: It was a closed contract until our last record, and now it is opened for another contract. We're putting the single out on Jade Tree and we haven't discussed it past there. Five years into a band, do you really want to sign another contract at an indie label? You really have to think about it. If we sign another deal with Jade Tree, that is pretty much assuming that we will never leave Jade Tree. Now we're at the crossroads. Do we want to grow our band into something different, and now is the time to decide that.

FSOA: Have you looked at a larger independent label or a major label?

D: That's what we are looking at now. We definitely want to see what the interest is. Is there something more perfect for us out there? We have a manager and he lives in Milwaukee, and that's good. He's a great guy and he's helping us out on the side, and it's been good, but we haven't begun to start yet. That will be saved for the summer. Why limit yourself to anything? Look big, and then find where you fit in.

FSOA: Even if you jump to a major label, it will only be a bad experience if you compromise your ideals.

D: That is something I don't see happening too much anymore. You can get a lot of good stuff written into a contract, but you've got to fight for it. You can't go there with stars in your eyes. You have to remain realistic.

FSOA: Sonic Youth got the ball rolling for creative control, and then Built to Spill got a medical plan worked into their contract.

D: We've been in medical dire striats before, and it is not alright that we work our asses off and not see medical benefits. Luckily we worked our way out of that, but it could happen again. In the last year, I have been having neck and head problems from the accident and I need to get a CATscan, but I can't afford it. Now we are trying to get health insurance through our managemnt, so I can get the scan. It is getting to be too much. I've been popping migraine pills before I go on so we can get through the set. It's not right that we don't have health insurance.

FSOA: If the label expects their bands to do well, they need to respect their health, too.

D: Definietly, that is one thing I need written into a contract.

FSOA: What do your shows get across that the albums aren't able to express? Is there a difference between different cities and different countries?

D: The major difference is that the Far East is very distinct from the West. Europe really isn't different, it is more city to city differences. Sometimes kids are really subdued and sometimes they are crazy. Every night is different, except for the Far East which is always different everywhere.

FSOA: What drove you to play music? Was there any single occurance or band that inspried you?

D: Definitely Jawbox, and I was always into power trios, like Jawbox, when they were a trio, Crimpshrine. Thye seemed like really basic bands doing great things. J. Robbins showed me that I really could do this.

FSOA: When I was younger I listened to stuff along the lines of Operation Ivy and Bad Religion, but they always seemed inaccessable to me. When I started to get into the Dischord scene, like Jawbox and Fugazi, they seemed to be more on my level, and after I saw Fugazi for the first time, I walked up to Ian MacKaye to say hi, and he treated me as though I were his best friend.

D: They are always on your level, no matter how much success they have. You've always got to talk to the people. If someone comes up to us for an autograph, we are never going to say no. Personally, I think it's a little weird, but that person asking you doesn't think it's weird. It's not that big of a deal for me to sign my name, and if that makes a person happy and helps them to come back and support us, it's totally worth it. It's all about respecting people. Sometimes it gets to be too much for me and I have to go to a diiferent part of the building. You can't converse with everyone there. It's unfortunate, but true, and you have to accept that. If I get one or two decent conversations a night with people, it's good. Sometimes I feel the pressure when somebody's totally disrepecting me, and putting me in a position where I'm a jerk no matter what I do. It's gets frustrating, but you've gotta realize that you are in a great position to have anyone give a shit about your band. If someone treats me like a normal person, I've got no probl;em talking with them. You've gotta respect people who come to see your band. Some nights you are sick, or you have a bad show, or something outside of music is bumming you out, but it is all part of the job. If you want people to respect you, you've gotta lay yourself down for three hours a night. Some nights I feel bummed, and I feel like I've gotta get out of this. I can't take the guilt to playing a bad show. It just ruins the next day, and I am totally depressed. I shouldn't do this because I can't handle being bad, but I can't be perfect. I lose and I lose. I should be able to be good for at least 45 minutes a night, but hey, sometimes it just falls through your fingertips. I've just gotta realzie that I could be doing a lot of things that I hate.

FSOA: Do you have any advice? It could be general life advice, or something relating directly to music.

D: What do I know that other people don't know? With this band, we basically promised each other our lives for five years, nothing gets in the way, and the band is your priority. If after five years, we haven't caught fire, we can walk away. When those five years are up, we'll probably be a pretty good band, so at that point you'll start to get noticed. It is almost faultless. If you want to be in a band, you've got to work hard. You can't go straight to the major labels, you've gotta pay your dues, you'be gotta sleep on the floors, and play in the basements and bars every night. After five years, you're bound to have a following. Being successful in life is about being a hard-worker and being the provider. You need to take the initaitive and tackle what comes in front of you, and I'm not sure if that directly relates to music, but it is related to life. We are allowing each other in the band to take care of our own lives, and if Dan or Jason totally screws up their life, it destroys my career, too. It is necessary that everyone involved keeps their life togther so the band can function. It comes back to the marraige thing. It's is a lot of fun. It is a lot of headache, but what is worth doing that isn't a headache?