a.       Well thank you. For saying that. Very cool of you. Some critics in the US despise us for always including so many different musical styles in our music… It’s like they want us to pigeon hole ourselves and create ONE singular style. Which I actually feel like we do. It’s just a very broad palette that we tend to choose from when we’re writing and recording. As big music fans ourselves, we’ve soaked in almost one-hundred years of popular music so you can’t help but be influenced by all of that. That’s how I see it. And yet our sound is OUR sound. Between Fernando’s and my guitar style combined with my lead vocals, Ricky’s “rock meets world music” drumming style and Roger’s eclectic late-60’s bass style, there is a definite sound to the band Transcendence. Especially on this album.

a.       Simple answer. The music business imploded! Never again will we see a music business like we had in the 20th Century. That's both a great thing. And a not so great thing. It’s great in terms of how it forever changes the ability of major record labels to abuse, mistreat and take advantage of musicians and artists the way they have over the last 100 years. Let’s not even get into it. I'm sure your readers are already familiar with how fucked musicians get by the majors. And yes, that’s still going on with the big names now; the super commercial Top 40 artists.

b.       It  also stops the monopoly that the major record labels have had in terms of what the public gets to hear or not. The playing field has definitely opened up to the point where anyone who makes music can find a fanbase and ever get on the radio and in music magazines like yours etc. The indie music revolution is in full swing now and consumers are actually digging it. That’s great.

c.       What most people don't know though is how challenging it is for indie artists to compete against the major label artists. It takes a lot more work on the administrative and business end. And that takes away from our ability as artists to just do what we are supposed to be doing as artists, like recording albums, writing songs and touring.

d.       In our case, we were signed to a major distributor and right around the time that Tower records went bust, so too did the distributors and nearly all the record labels – both major and indie. When our distributor went bust, they took over $30,000 in back royalties owed to us with them, as well as all our inventory of back catalog albums. And worst of all, they took away our ability to release albums. Because you can’t really do a real album release without a distributor. There’s no sense in it. No matter how popular your album becomes, no one is able to find or buy your album if you don't have distribution. So it took us a while to rebound from that; which we eventually did. It was a rough ride but we survived and actually thrived in the end, because we WERE eventually able to find another record label and another distributor and release the All Your Heroes Become Villains album.

a.       Easy. We work our arses off. Actually, in terms of creating albums, there isn't much of a difference between the musicians who play on our solo albums versus the Transcendence albums. We all play on each other’s albums. It’s a very incestuous group experience. Like a little army of like minded individuals who all contribute to all these different bands and side projects. It’s a common thing now. With Transcendence it’s the same six to seven musicians who have been playing in the band since the beginning. With Ed Hale solo albums we’ll change it up a bit. We may add other players who aren't in the band. But the lineup is pretty much the same.

b.       The real trick is how we are going to handle radio and live touring now that we’ve got both a growing hit song by Ed Hale AND a brand new album by Transcendence out at the same time. We are brainstorming this with our whole team every day! It’s a logistics nightmare, but I'm confident we’ll find a way to pull it off. As Ed Hale & the Transcendence, we’re a rock band still. We want to go out there and tour at least six major cities in the US in order to bring them this album LIVE IN CONCERT, right? We’re going to bring people a BIG SHOW. Like theatre or like a musical almost.

a.       To answer your first question, yeah, I do feel that “people power” has that ability. The world is changing so rapidly now that anything is possible. Here in the States we have so many different people movements happening. From the Tea Party to the Occupy Movement, which is global. In the UK you’ve got way more people involved in your people movements already. Which is ironic since the US has so many more “people”. So we should be seeing the streets of our cities clogged with people just like we saw in the UK when you all had over 2,000,000 people protesting the austerity measures.

b.        I hope this happens soon here in the US. Because we are getting screwed every which way past Sunday. And I do believe that we’re watching it happen right now. But we’re still at that stage where the people movement s are just beginning to coalesce here. In time the government and the politicians and the big corporations are going to wake up one day and see every street in America filled with people — because nearly everyone here now is totally and utterly dissatisfied with what a Police State America has become. The 99% movement is just getting started. And yeah, once it really gets going, I have no doubt that we the people will win this thing.

c.       With me personally it all started in ’99 with the WTO protests in Seattle, what they call the Battle in Seattle, where we were able to shit the whole conference down for the first time in American history. I thought that was one of the most important activist moments in recent American history. OR better put, in world history, because the WTO is a global organization. From there I jumped into the 2000 Presidential Elections protest movement where Al Gore had won the popular vote but bigger powers that be installed “GW” in the White House instead. It was complete fraud. No different than what we see in developing countries when these various different dictator types take over a country right before the entire world’s eyes.

d.       That’s what happened to us here in America. We got a fake president installed in the White House against our will. We fought like hell to stop that from happening in Palm Beach Florida where all the action was. But unfortunately we were not able to win that one. I ended up writing a song about it called “The Journey” all about these battles we the people are fighting against this New World Order Police State. That song is on our first album Rise and Shine. I was very inspired by how many people from all walks of life were willing to take to the streets and protest. That’s what that song is all about.

e.      Once GW was illegally sworn in as our President, all hell broke loose as I'm sure you all remember and the world has never been the same since. In less than a year “someone” was able to bring down three skyscrapers in New York City AND hijack three massive jet airplanes in the most heavily armed country in the world. If that wasn't a set up I don't know what is. When people look at it objectively they see the bigger picture and realize that the whole thing was a major set up in order to bring both our countries into a series of wars all over the globe, which are still raging on to this day ten years later, AND in addition to that it enabled the US government to enact and pass a whole new series of laws like the Patriot Act and Homeland Security that pretty much wiped out all of the freedoms that we as Americans once held so dear and were so proud of. Our country has never been the same.

f.      Those events opened my eyes to a much bigger picture regarding what’s really going on in the world and how things really work, compared to how “they” want us to believe things really work. There was nothing more brilliant and beautiful than that one day in early 2003 when millions of people all over the world marched in solidarity to protest George Bush’s and Tony Blaire’s plan to invade the country of Iraq. You all had over one million in your streets. So did we. So did Italy. And Spain. And France. I marched all over this country, from city to city. It was a real thing of beauty. The only problem was that our country had already been kidnapped and taken hostage by the Bush-Cheney White House, so no matter how many people all over the world protested, that administration did exactly what they intended to do years before Bush or Cheney even got in the White House.

g.       So even though our protests didn't work in that moment, and that is very sad – due to all the innocent lives that have been lost due to these illegal wars, what it did for us turned out to be very positive. It reignited our People’s spirit of activism. And for that I am very proud to be a part of the 99% who are willing to lay down their lives to bring back our democratic freedoms and rights and hopefully one day bring justice to bear down on these criminals who started these wars and took away our rights and freedoms. On YouTube there is a music video to the song “White House Jihad” that I wrote about this insanity and the atrocities committed by these war mongers. It continues to be a popular song and video and still be very controversial; precisely because we’re ten years into this craziness and nothing’s changed. We still can’t get these wars to end.

h.       Over the last few years I've become very involved in what they call Civilian Diplomacy. One of the oldest Peace and Anti-war organizations in the world is FOR (Fellowship of Reconciliation) and I was very lucky to be chosen by them to be a Civilian Diplomat. I was able to go to Iran to attend meetings with the President and former president and all the religious leaders and Ayatollahs and even meet them again at the UN in New York to attempt to build a peaceful bridge between Iran and the US before it’s too late and these crazies start World War III.

a.       What motivates me man is how simple it is to volunteer to help others and how good it feels. People tend to glamorize volunteering now, but in all honesty it’s such a feel good thing to do that I almost consider it a selfish act. I do it because you get the best of both worlds out of it. You get to help other people, which is definitely a noble act, AND you get to feel good about doing. It’s the ultimate win-win.

b.       The only problem is that everyone ‘s so obsessed with social networking they tend to spend way too much time doing it and not enough time doing what they should be doing, like making music. That’s a big issue right now. There’s this fear based mentality going around right now that’s making everyone paranoid that they're missing out on something if they’re not always online or on Twitter or Facebook. But the truth is that you really aren't missing out on much. Especially compared to the bigger things you're supposed to be doing as a person or as an artist.

c.       Another negative aspect to it is that social media is like a box of cereal or a crack pipe. You may think what you're doing is really important in that moment. But it’s very temporary and transitory. What you do today is going to be completely forgotten by tomorrow when you're Facebook Wall gets covered up by all the “new things” that everyone including you is about to throw up there. In that respect I think it’s a bit of a waste of time if as an artist you leave it be the only thing you do as a means to connect with your fans. It’s much better for artists to control their own website and organize their fans and their news and music and videos on their own platform. Let social networks just be your “side project”. People are actually starting to migrate back to traditional websites because they find that there ‘s a lot more substantive content on websites as compared to social networks.

a.       Last year and this year, because we were promoting an acoustic singer/songwriter album, we were able to tour all over the US in different major cities performing in a whole new way – compared with the normal rock band running all over the stage approach. We did a whole tour sitting down and playing acoustic instruments, guitars, piano, cellos. And we were seated. Yes of course our instruments were mic’d, so it wasn't really “purely acoustic” but our instruments were acoustic. This was the first time we had ever done this, thought maybe it would backfire. But instead the fans really liked it. They were quiet and they listened and they applauded and they interacted with us. It was a much more intimate kind of show compared to touring as a loud electric rock band. That was very cool.

a.       Well you know with these kinds of questions one has to be careful, just out of respect for everyone’s privacy… you know what I mean. So let’s agree not to use anyone’s names. But you deserve this. You’ve worked hard reading all this serious stuff. So let me see… In 2008/2009 when we were in the recording studio recording this new album and another new one at the same time, the one I told you about already, there was a lot of stress boredom and tension, as described above. And for better or worse, there are certain things that go on in studios to help the musicians not go crazy from the stress and tension, and also happen to help lift the mood or keep you awake when you're flat dead exhausted.

b.       That stuff got a bit out of hand towards the end there. In fact it got WAY out of hand. I was crashing at the producers house because he was cool enough to offer that to us since he lived very close to the recording studio and it was way cooler than staying in a hotel. By now everyone’s heard how crazy things got in there, and how bossy I was being due to this commitment I felt we had to create something spectacular. I was being very picky and choosy, constantly trying to get the best out of all of us. Making people redo their parts ten times in a row till they played something “new” or “unique”. I was also being very picky and choosy regarding the mixing process. We had never laid down that many tracks on one song before, let alone 11 songs that packed with flavor. So it was a grueling process. I mean, we were in there for over six months alone just mixing this record.

c.       Between the various substances that were being passed around and the stress caused by the enormity of the project, the producer eventually went insane. He just had a total nervous breakdown over how long it was taking and how particular we were being as a band trying to create the biggest baddest thing we’d ever created. He flipped out one day and left the studio. I stayed for another ten hours with the assistant engineers to keep working. I got home to his house at about 3 am. I woke up at about 9 or 10 am to get to the studio early. I threw my clothes on and went downstairs to the kitchen to pour some coffee. I was like 90% still asleep, barely awake. Wiped out. So I was just standing there sipping my coffee and staring out the window.

d.       All of a sudden out of the corner of my eye I see our producer in a pair of baggy shorts and a t-shirt wheeling one of those big executive office chairs down the freaking street with a big ass computer, an entire stereo system,  and a giant flat screen TV of his all piled up on top of this chair. He was moving out of his own house and into some rental house he owned down the block! For real. It was like early morning, the sun was beating down and totally hot and daylight outside and this guy is on a major street with cars passing by him wheeling this giant “homeless person” type makeshift cart he put together using this office chair with wheels. It was one of the most surreal things I've ever seen. I knew he was mad, but I didn't think he had “gone mad”… but there he was. baggy Bermuda shorts, a sloppy white t-shirt and a pair of sandals wheeling everything he thought he needed to survive down the street in broad daylight. He looked like a freaking homeless person. And here he was wheeling it right by his own house that he has just moved out of supposedly.

e.       His wife was furious. His kids were freaked out. Our whole band was freaked out. he stayed in that house for two solid months by himself with all the blinds closed and in total darkness. He never came back to the studio. We had to work by ourselves with the assistant engineers everyday and then all night and then drive over to his “secret bachelor’s crash pad” in the middle of the night and play him the new mixes we were doing so he could approve or disapprove of them. It was insane. He never returned to the studio. We finished mixing the album on our own in the studio with engineers and no producer. I guess we just broke him down from the strain of it all and so too did certain other things. But I'd never seen anything like that before. It was like a freaking movie. I'll never forget it. [In his defense, the good news is that he eventually straightened out and moved back in to his own house with his wife and kids. So all’s well that ends well.]

f.       The guys and I were just talking about this question over the weekend trying to determine what could be shared or not shared with the public and we remembered so many other stories like this. The time a producer of a previous album of ours stole all the master tapes to our album and held them for ransom until we gave him all this money. We all had to sell half our guitars and gear in order to raise the money to pay him so we could get our album back to get it mixed and mastered. That was insane.

g.       And then there’s the tour we did through the Southern states when on one particular night after an incredible show – I think it was in a town called Gainesville – we all woke up in the early afternoon of the next day in all these weird places all over the town. None of us were together. It was surreal. One by one we started calling each other’s cell phones trying to either figure out where WE were or where the other person was. It was crazy surreal. We all finally found each other and got together except for one of us, who we won't name. We couldn’t find him ANYWHERE. He was like really lost. We called him twenty times.

h.       Finally He called US. And we’re like “Dude where are you?” and he replied “Dude I have no idea. I just woke up in the woods!!! Where the fuck am I?” And we’re like “Dude we don't KNOW where you are. That’s why we’re asking you! Look around, what do you see?” and he's like “All I see is trees. I'm in a forest. I must have gone outside to get sick and passed out in the forest. Fuck man where am I?” “Dude we don't know where you are! We’re in the van driving around looking for you!” And it just went on and on like that. We just could not find him and he had no idea where he was because he had drank so much he couldn’t remember the night before, or at least how it ended. The worst part was that we had another show that night in a different city so we were all rushing around trying to find him so we could make it to the next town on time.     

a.       Besides sleeping? Well right now music is like ten full-time jobs. So I don't get any spare time. I mean it’s past 2 o’clock in the morning now and we’re doing this interview right? So this is what it is right now. It’s just non-stop music or music business work 24/7. And in between we may get to sleep a little or shower occasionally.

b.       But when things aren't so crazy, I enjoy just about everything and anything. I'll try anything at least once. I'm a thrill seeker, obviously. I think you have to be in order to choose this for your living. So I like doing crazy things like sky diving or taking off in a car and driving nowhere until you decide to stop for the night. I also like traveling to foreign countries and living there for a while, just to absorb the culture and vibe and learn their language.

c.       I just got married for the first time, and hopefully last time! [laughs] So I love hanging out with my wife. When we’re together I don't care what we do. I just like being in her presence. She’s like a beautiful badass princess-goddess. Totally awesome. Open to anything. And just as adventurous as I am. Lately we’ve been going around the country to all the different Occupy Movements to participate in marches and demonstrations. That’s been very cool. We dress up in different costumes to make a bigger impact on the media so they give the Movement more coverage.