Nate: Taylor’s beard.

Isaac: Do you feel you have given it your best when pursuing your musical dreams so far? Why or why not?

Paul: Honestly, I don't think I have. The main area I've slacked has to be in the self-promotion aspect. Promoting and advertising yourself takes an amount of confidence/cockiness that I'm afraid I lack. I do think DOAT is worth being cocky about though.

Nate: There is a lot of risk involved with being a musician... especially if you depend on it for a living. Would we make more music if we didn't have day-jobs? YES. But, there's even less money in music now than ever before. There used to be a time when you could make a living making music without "getting signed" or "making it big.” That doesn't seem to be the case anymore. That's why we keep our day jobs. So we don't have to live in cardboard boxes and eat cat food.

Taylor: I feel like I’ve been doing the best I can balancing the logistical side of life and the artistic side of life when pursuing my musical dreams. I’d love to be a full-time musician, but I also know that the beginning of every month, the bills are due. Yet, being in multiple bands over the course of 11 years, I feel like I’ve done a lot of things that seemed impossible when I first started out. Opening for Grammy winners, playing festivals, selling out venues, having people you don’t know tell you how much they enjoy your music...stuff like that keeps you going.

Isaac: Who do you look up to for your own influences and why?

Paul: Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Springsteen for the passion/intensity; Dylan for the poetry; Against Me! and the Flobots for the message/intelligence; Kurt Vonnegut for the hope; and revolutionaries everywhere for the discontent.

Nate: Springsteen. He's the fuckin’ boss.

Taylor: I’m all over the place with musical influences, but for drumming style probably R.E.M., The Beatles, The Black Crowes, Counting Crows, Phantom Planet, Arlo…I’ve got a pretty simple, straight-forward style.

Isaac: Do you feel that Indie music gets the respect it deserves? Why or why not?

Paul: I think it does in the sense that, while it doesn't usually sell nearly as well as the pop records, the people who respect it actually know what it is and why they respect it.

Taylor: It does and it doesn’t. Indie music appears to be more popular than ever, but that doesn’t mean it puts asses in the seats. There are a lot people out there that enjoy it, but a vast majority of people would rather go to a cover show.

Nate: I think the term "indie music" is supremely overused these days. It seems that "indie" has become a title to explain the type of music that used to be made independently, in spite of little awareness or lack of widespread popularity. But now, "Indie" is cool. So really it isn't "Indie" anymore. Wait.. what was the question?

Isaac: If you could change one thing about the music business, what would it be and why?

Paul: Is it too obvious to say that I'd like to see that success in the music industry is based on the quality of the music?

Isaac: What has been one of your biggest setbacks and how did you overcome it? What lesson did you learn about yourself?

Paul: My biggest setback was when my last band broke up. I had been losing my passion for the music for a little bit, and I didn't know if I had it in me to start all over again. Thankfully, Taylor hadn't lost his passion and wasn't ready to quit, so we started DOAT.

Taylor: For this band, there have been a couple phases where we weren’t sure what was going to happen next. We started out with just Paul and I writing songs, not sure where the road would take us. Eventually, we added a bass player who left the band after about a year and only a handful of shows. Around that time Patrick joined the band, so we had a lead guitar player but still no bass player. Then we stumbled upon Nate and forced him to play bass. There’s been a lot opportunity to say, “hey, this isn’t going to work,” but we always found our way through and I think we’re a much better band for it.

Nate: Shitty bass player. Still working on how to fix that one.

Isaac: What type of feedback have you been receiving about your music from fans and music critics?

Patrick: So far, so good.

Paul: I've heard mostly good feedback from people. Honestly, I'd like to hear more people's honest opinions.

Taylor: A lot of other musicians seem to enjoy our sets.

Isaac: If you knew that you would never gain fame and fortune with what you are doing now, would you continue to make music? Explain.

Paul: At the risk of offending every non-band member in the world, being a nobody in a band is way more fun than being a nobody not in a band. It's not about the fame, it's about the music.

Patrick: There comes a certain strength with approaching the music scene with a sense of practicality. If you accept that you may not achieve that superstar status, but can enjoy writing and performing, then it becomes a more substantial part of life.

Nate: Yes. We will never be famous. I'm ok with it.

Taylor: I play music because I enjoy it. If mild fame comes, cool. If major fame comes, even better. If no fame comes, it doesn’t matter, I’ll still do it.

Isaac: How do you handle negative feedback or negative energy about your music?

Paul: Fuck 'em.

Nate: Guns.

Taylor: Because of answers like that, I try to be the one who deals with negative feedback.

Patrick: Fortunately, the Omaha scene has always been fairly supportive. There usually seems to be a good sense of camaraderie amongst the various musicians in the area.

Isaac: What role do your family and friends play in the equation of your pursuant of a music career?

Paul: They're all supportive. As long as I have health care my parents are all for it.

Patrick: They’re always a source of support.

Taylor: They’re always supportive and encouraging.

Nate: Being successful in a local band is more about getting your friends to come to shows than the actual music itself. It's all about marketing your band to the people you know to get the place filled up as much as possible. That way you don't have to take out loans to make records.

Isaac: What is the best site/s that you can be found on the Internet?

Paul: Now that there are no actual people on MySpace, it's become a great site to hear new bands. We musicians sure do love having free websites.

Patrick: SLAM Omaha has served as a good resource for hooking up with bands locally.

Isaac: The floor is yours; final words & wisdom of thoughts...

Paul: Hey, have you heard about that new Death of a Taxpayer band? Their guitarist can wail. 

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