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Barnes: Hopefully the magic of the band is when you have all these different influences and you can make it work.
You're pretty young and have seen a little success. What do you credit most for it?
Barnes: Isaac. Isaac is a great communicator with people. A lot of people can play music well, and they stay in their room all day and just practice their instrument and they feel their passion for their art, but they aren't necessarily communicating with people. And you have to get to know all different people to create opportunities. Isaac is naturally really good at that, and it helps a lot because I am not. I sit in my room all day and play music.
Flynn: I would attribute some of the success to Jesse's lyric writing. There is an interesting narrative in his songs, and people really relate to what he writes as a songwriter. I feel fortunate that I get to write songs with Jesse because him and I do the majority of the initial songwriting, but also I get to play with so many creative guys that are great at taking something I made or Jesse made and making it so much better than I ever envisioned it being.
Has touring met your expectations? Any big memories so far?
Braswell Roberts: You always hear about bands' vans breaking down, but we've been blessed with good traveling and good shows in fun towns, and getting to see friends across the nation.
Flynn: We did lose one automobile. I lost my '99 Dodge Durango. It was tragic. Thankfully now we have Clifford, the big red band van. He's been a trouper.
Green: Austin City Limits was everything I dreamed of. That was definitely a big highlight. We saw Ryan Gosling.
Flynn: That man could turn a straight man into something else.
Green: We also toured down South and got to meet Jim's family in Mississippi.
Flynn: We were fortunate to play at Cosmopolitan in Vegas for five nights, and they gave us the royalty treatment, which is something we are not accustomed to. We usually sleep on our friends' floors and that type of thing, but they gave us each individually our own suite.
Green: Hot tubs, bed, TVs.
Braswell Roberts: Most comfortable bed on tour. That will do it.
Flynn: We're starting to support bigger bands, and we hope that progresses more and more. It's really cool to play with a band that you actually know, and I think you start to really see the progress because you're getting in front of more and more people every night and you see the band developing more and more. So I think we've been really satisfied with everything, but I think we are ready to take it to the next level. Hopefully that's what the album will do. We played with Gary Clark Jr. and toured with Gomez and Dawes. To see their professionalism and to see that they have established a career out of music is inspiring to us.
Hardest part of touring?
Braswell Roberts: Missing my girl!
Flynn: Driving through the night.
Green: Eating well.
Mehl: Staying healthy.
Flynn: Zach had the flu when we went to Chicago, and we were hanging out with all of our friends. He was in his room sleeping while we were eating deep-dish pizza and pie. It was kind of mean. But he is fine today.
Some of you guys dropped out of KU to pursue the band. Where does school figure into your future plans?
