LAC: Good answer!
 

Julian: I know. Well, we recorded the album there so we spent a couple of months in L.A.. We were in Hollywood. We spent way too much time in Amoeba music. Amoeba is insane! We also ate at Bossa Nova on Sunset a lot! It’s open late and we’d be in the studio late.

LAC: You are coming to LA soon to play the Echo. Ever played the Echo before?
 

Julian: No, we’ve seen shows there a couple of times, but never played there. We have played the Viper Room and Spaceland.

LAC: The Whigs tour relentlessly. Is this the classic mold of the Rolling Stones – two year tours, living out of a suitcase, breaking the band on the road?

Julian: Kinda. You start a band and that reason is to actually play. Why would you want a band if you don’t like touring or playing in front of people? For us it’s a good thing. We’re touring all over the country and then we’re going over seas, so we’re touring two continents. That’s how people are going to get to know us. Anything else, getting on the radio or getting on TV is just icing on the cake.

LAC: You’ve played small and large places. Is it tough making the adjustment?

Julian: It’s nice. We like the variety. We’re used to playing small indoor places. As far as large outdoor festivals goes, we’re working on that a little more. Everything sounds and feels different on those stages, just bigger in general. I think we’re getting better at it.

LAC: Do you feel the comparisons of your sound to the White Stripes, Son Volt, or Kings of Leon are fair?
 

Julian: I think they’re fair. We’ve listened to some of those groups, but we’ve never really tried to sound like any of those groups. We’ve been really lucky that most of the bands we’re compared to are bands that we’ve liked or respect. It’s nice that we’re not being compared to bands that we’ve never heard or don’t really care for at all. Sometimes the “Southern” thing people will mention - the Kings of Leon or My Morning Jacket or something like that. It’s never anything deliberate but I think we come from a similar mentality or background. We do get comparisons to The Replacements and Guided by Voices – those seem to be kind of recurring.

LAC: You have a rock edge to your sound, but then songs like “Production City” have a sort of Franz Ferdinand “funk” to them. Are you trying to run a different direction there?

LAC: Are “Hot Bed” and “Already Young” more the Rock and Roll that exemplify the Whigs?
 

Julian: “Hot Bed” reminds me of something we’ve done since the beginning. It’s an upbeat, fun tune. Hopefully catchy as well! You want to have different types of songs on the album, but in the writing process you sort of write what comes to you. You don’t really want to think about it too much. You hope at the end of the day you like the song and the direction that it took. Hopefully it will also fit in the album. There’s a lot of albums where you record more than you put on the album. Sometimes they’re great songs, but they just don’t fit. You hear that a lot “we recorded this song for the last album” but it didn’t really fit so we saved it and put it on the next one, that kind of thing.

LAC: The Whigs hail from Athens, GA. Is there a Southern Element to the Whigs music? Giving reference to the droning pedal tones, cranked vintage Fender amplifiers, and loud drums as examples. Do you think that comes from a Southern inspiration?
 

Julian: I think so. I don’t think we go out of our way for the Southern thing, but I think part of it is by nature. We would hope that where we’re from reveals itself in the music. In Athens, itself, there are many more bands that sound much more “Southern” and twangy than we do. When I’m at home I don’t feel like we’re the “quintessential Southern Rock band” but I understand how going to the North or to the West people hear that in the music. I hope so. I like hearing music from California, New York, London or the Pacific Northwest and you can sense all that [regional] variety.

LAC: How do the Whigs rise above that and get noticed?
 

Julian: It’s sorta nice because it has a healthy competitive effect on you. There are lots of bands in town so if you’re gonna break through at all,you’re gonna have to stay pretty sharp. There are lots of different types of music, even more than Athens is famous for. Going to shows everyday just reminds you that you can’t be the one band in town everyone is going to see.

LAC: How did you guys break through all that?
 

LAC: Moving to a discussion of your artistry, how do you write together?
 

Julian: Parker plays guitar and he’s the main songwriter. If he has something he wants to work on, he brings that in. It varies. Sometimes it will be a blueprint of a song where it will come together really quickly. Other times it will be a part or chorus or verse and we work on it form there. Everyone sort of works on their own parts in that I work out a lot of the drum parts. Sometimes we have to rearrange stuff, some things come together really fast.

LAC: Do you do a lot of your writing together in a room or the studio?

Julian: Most of our material comes together in our practice space with the large stage in mind. We rehearse and rehearse and play endlessly trying to hone it where everyone is happy with it and would be proud to play it in a show.

LAC: Have you met Dave Matthews himself?

Julian: Not yet, maybe one day! He’s obviously a great artist in his own right.

LAC: Is “Right Hand On My Heart” the first single?
 

Julian: It is our first single. All the radio stations have that track in rotation. We focus on it and try not to complicate that. When we were on Letterman, that’s the song we played. The record just came out, it won’t be like that forever. Of course, live we play songs off the new record and the first record.

LAC: Your music video is on your Myspace page for “Right Hand On My Heart.” It has a very raw and gritty look. Can you tell us more about that?

Julian: The director is from New York. Great guy! He wanted to keep it true to the band. That’s our backyard in the music video. When we were talking about it he didn’t want the band on a pedestal. He wanted everyone together, natural. We had all our friends come out and we had a huge costume party at our house, and shot it like a sort of home video. It was a lot of fun for us and everyone involved. We just wanted to have a big party at our house. We just got a bunch of kegs and barbeque and everyone sort of hung out and drank. Everyone knew they were there to do a video, but in between takes it was an actual party.

LAC: How did you develop and progress from “Give ‘Em All A Big Fat Lip” to the writing and recording of “Mission Control?”

Julian: The songwriting has improved throughout the albums. We didn’t seek to do anything drastically different but there was room for improvement working with producer Rob Schnapf and working out of LA. The goal was to make the new album sound a little more electric and a little more live like our shows. I think Rob and the engineer who mixed it with him [Doug Boehm] made all that possible.

LAC: Given the heated election year 2008 has become, I have to ask does the Whigs name refer to the political party?
 

Julian: It is an election year. No, we are not overly political. We just liked the name.