Ed: How`d the tour go? Any casualties? Any wacky and wild stories to share?
Mike: The tour this year was fantastic! I really do not have enough good things to say, especially about the gentlemen in Battlefields. Rosetta actually got away unscathed. Battlefields, however, had their van broken into (loss of about $1000 in personal effects), and blew out two tires all in the span of a week. We`re all sort of lame dudes, so as far as wild stories go...I`d have to say we come up short. I did spend five hours overlooking the valley where the Trinity Test (the first atomic bomb test) happened. That was scary.
Ed: I`ve never gone on tour before and have always wondered - how bad does the van smell at the end of the trip?
Mike: You never really know how bad it smells until you have to sleep in it. When the van is moving, one cannot really tell just how nasty it smells due to the airflow. But at night, when the van is stationary� wow, it was terrible. It got so bad that I actually spent one night sleeping on the roof of the van on 26th Ave in Manhattan amiss all the crack heads.
Ed: And the follow up - do you invest in a lot of Febrez�?
Mike: We had a bottle and lost it somewhere. It turned up when we were loading up the van the last night of tour in Ohio. Figures.
Ed: Do you all have similar musical tastes or is there some sort of rotation schedule for the stereo while on the road?
Mike: Just as we have similar tastes, we are also polar opposites with some stuff.
Ed: What would the Rosetta Tour mix-tape include?
Mike: Bjork, Jeff Buckley, The Minor Times, Cable (for when I`m driving), Machugga (to piss me off), Stars of the Lid, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Neurosis, My Bloody Valentine, Mono, Mogwai, Envy, Boris, Boards of Canada, Tarentel.
Ed: Any more tours slated for 2007?
Mike: In October we are going out with Giant. And we are doing a tour with Circle Takes the Square, but we are still milling over when it would be best to do that.
Ed: So this year you released a split with Balboa in April, you have the full-length Wake/Life coming out in October on Translation Loss, as well as the two splits with Souvenir`s Young America and Atheist Prayer you`ll be tentatively recording in September (not to mention Armine`s side project Rise of Because). Is it safe to say you`ve all been "inspired" as of late?
Mike: Inspired is one way to put it. We got really close to a few of the bands we had been touring with. Somewhere along the way it always comes up that "We should do a split." And we can never turn that down. Atheist Prayer broke up so that is no longer happening. However, Relapse is putting out a split 7� featuring Rosetta and The Minor Times. The SYA split really excites me personally because we plan on getting really experimental. Due to these splits, we are taking time to write and record in September and October.
The Rise of Because material was actually finished up two years ago. It was not until recently that I decided to talk to Desolation House about putting it out. The solo CD I have coming out on Translation Loss is a more representation of my recent inspiration as it contains all the electronics for Wake/Lift re-mixed.
Ed: On the split you did with Balboa, both bands recorded their own tracks and then recorded one as a whole. Are the two up coming splits going to be done in similar fashion?
Mike: Unfortunately no. We share a practice space with Balboa so that alone made it easier to write the collaboration track. Also, we are really close friends with the Balboa guys so it was a really enjoyable process as we all got to chill in a room together and compose.
Ed: Is Wake/Lift going to be a concept album like The Galilean Satellites?
Mike: Yes. I can`t write songs any other way. A concept is different than an agenda. I think if I wrote songs that were all together different I would be promoting a political/personal agenda of some sort. When hardcore is used as a soapbox I get worried. I would very much rather get creative and let the listeners come up with their own conclusion about what the lyrical content means.
Ed: I read this is the first album you as a band haven`t engineered yourselves as well as the first recorded to analog tape. Any particular reason for the new methods?
Mike: We had some issues when it came to recording the drums with The Galilean Satellites. We had a hard time getting a decent sound with the equipment we had available. So when it was recommended by Translation Loss that we record drums outside of our studio, we jumped on the opportunity, especially a chance to record with Colin.
Ed: How did Colin Marston (Dysrhythmia/Behold� The Arctopus) come into the picture? What was his job on the recording? What did he bring to the recording process?
Mike: He has been a good friend for awhile. We developed a relationship with him when Rosetta toured with Dysrhythmia. He is also very good friends with everyone at Translation Loss. So it really made sense to go with him. We knew he was someone who could capture the sound the way we wanted. He also turned us on to the Paul Stanley stage banter CD - I`ve Got Something to Say. Awesome.
Ed: Something that has always intrigued me is how do the non-major label bands sustain themselves day in and day out? I would imagine going on a several month tour would cost a lot of money as well as make having a regular 9-5 job kind of difficult. So my long-winded point/question here is; what do you guys do for a living? How do you sustain yourselves?
Mike: I�m a middle school teacher. Matt (guitar) teaches at The University of Pennsylvania. Dave (bass) and BJ (drums) just finished school and are looking for work in their fields. We have a very basic outline of what our tour schedule will be like a year in advance. So we have time to plan and save. Each person is basically responsible for their food money. What we make on the road always gets reinvested in Rosetta. Staying alive on the road for us really is not that hard. As long as we get enough for a tank of gas we are all set. Touring is a money trap and we have no delusions of getting rich off of Rosetta. We do it because we love it.
Ed: Are you, as a band and as individuals, where you thought you`d be now when you started Rosetta?
Mike: We are so far from where we thought we would be its not even funny. None of this was supposed to happen. We were never supposed to leave the church basement we were practicing in but somehow we did. So we really owe a lot to the people who supported us and the people who are constantly bugging us to tour.
Ed: Where do you want to take Rosetta from here?
Mike: We definitely want to keep on touring. But our main goal is to compose a better record then the last. What we do after Wake/Lift should be a logical progression forward while pushing our musical boundaries.
Ed: I`d like to finish up here by saying thank you for taking the time to answer my fan-boy questions and an even bigger thank you for the music you make.
