Band Name: 
Interviewed: Daniel Jakubovic (Vocals, Guitars)
Interviewer: 
Date: 2010-06-08
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WE HAVE DANIEL THE VOCALIST/GUITARIST OF AGAINST THE WALL ON THE PHONE.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: HI DANIEL! HOW ARE YOU?
Daniel: I’m great, how are you?

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: I’M DOING REALLY GOOD. YOU GUYS ARE OUT ON THE ROAD RIGHT NOW.
Daniel:Yes, we’re touring until July with Framing Hanley, The Veer Union and Transmit Now. We are having a great time out here.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: WHERE ARE YOU TODAY?
Daniel:I’m going to do the rock star thing and tell you that I’m not really sure. I’m still in Alabama. I just sit behind the wheel and drive the vehicle from place A to place B. Jon sits next to me with the GPS and tells me where to make a right or a left. It’s so stupid with those GPS things because even when we go back home and we go to the studio, we will be driving and he will say "Okay make a right according to the GPS." I will be like "Dude, I know where I am."

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: WELL AT LEAST IT’S A TEAM EFFORT.
Daniel:Yeah, totally

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: YOU GUYS ARE OUT OF NEW YORK, HOW LONG HAS THE BAND BEEN TOGETHER?
Daniel:We have been together for almost five years.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN FRIENDS A LONG TIME.
Daniel:Yeah, I was looking for band mates and I met Jon on Craig’s List. I met Danny the drummer on Myspace actually. I stole him from some Jersey, Spanish, rock band. I was like "That drummer plays pretty good." I contacted him and he left that band and joined mine. Good for us, bad for them.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: YOU HAVE A NEW ALBUM OUT TITLED THE TRUTH.
Daniel:Yes

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: LET’S TALK ABOUT THE TITLE, WHY THE TRUTH?
Daniel:First of all, I’m going to say that it’s not a new album, it’s our first album and we’ve had it for a while. We are working on a second album now. Why is it called The Truth? Because there is a song on the album called "The Truth." We thought it was a good title, I don’t know exactly why we called it that. A lot of the songs on the album are pretty old, from the beginning of the band. "The Truth" is the only song on the album that I co-wrote with Danny the drummer. He goes to church and I am the complete opposite. I am the most non-religious human being on the planet. I have no F’ing idea why we called it that.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: YOU PRODUCED, ENGINEERED AND MIXED THE ENTIRE ALBUM YOURSELF RIGHT?
Daniel:Yes

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: THAT IS AMAZING. DID YOU GO TO SCHOOL FOR THAT?
Daniel:I grew up in a musical home; my dad is a professional musician. I grew up in Israel actually and my dad is the biggest rock record producer over there. He also toured over here with a lot of famous people like Bette Midler and Paul Simon in the 70’s. I grew up in studios and I grew up recording my own songs. I have been producing stuff since I was ten years old. It’s the only thing I know how to do on Earth. I can also cook, but besides that I don’t know how to do anything.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: AS LONG AS YOU ARE GOOD AT IT, THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS.
Daniel:I guess so

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: EVERYONE KNOWS I CANNOT COOK.
Daniel:All you have to know is 1-800-TacoBell. That’s a pretty good cook right there.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: DO YOU PRODUCE FOR OTHER BANDS OR JUST YOUR OWN?
Daniel:Yeah, it’s my job actually; I produce albums for a living.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: YOU ALSO PLAY A LITTLE BIT OF KEYBOARDS AND DRUMS ON THIS ALBUM. HOW MANY INSTRUMENTS CAN YOU PLAY?
Daniel:Guitar and drums are my main instruments. I also play bass, keyboards and all kinds of string instruments.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: WOW, YOU ARE VERY TALENTED.
Daniel:Thank you, you are too. I wish I could see more of that.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: THANK YOU, ARE THERE ANY GUEST VOCALS OR GUEST APPEARANCES ON THE ALBUM?
Daniel:There’s one kid that screams on one song. I have a song called "Tomorrow I’ll Be Gone" and he screams at the end of it. He is pretty young, he is the vocalist of a band that I produced a few years ago and his name is Moe Mustafa. He is a good guy and a great screamer. Our drummer Danny sings on "The Truth" in Spanish. It is a song that is in English and Spanish.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: AT FIRST GLANCE, THE ALBUM COVER LOOKS LIKE AN ELEVATOR SHAFT, LIKE IF YOU WERE STANDING UNDERNEATH AN ELEVATOR LOOKING UP. WHEN YOU LOOK A LITTLE CLOSER IT IS THE INSIDE OF A BUILDING.
Daniel:Yeah, it’s a courtyard in the West Village of Manhattan.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THAT AS THE COVER?
Daniel:Honestly, I don’t know, I wanted something completely different for the cover, but it was too hard to execute. We were doing the photo shoot of the band and the guy who was doing it took some random photos at the location. The guy who designed the cover basically picked it as the cover. I was like "It’s great, let’s just get it done. I don’t care." It was about the music anyway.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: BEFORE I TALK ABOUT THE SONGS, HOW CLOSE ARE YOU TO COMPLETING YOUR SECOND ALBUM?
Daniel:It’s already written and partially recorded. It will probably be out by the end of the year. I can’t wait; we already play a lot of it live.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: WHAT HAS BEEN THE RESPONSE TO THE NEW SONGS?
Daniel:It’s a much more exaggerated "us" kind of a thing. It’s more musical, progressive and more versatile. That’s what we do, we like all kinds of music and songs. We don’t just do one thing; it’s not what we grew up listening to and loving about bands. We don’t want to do just one product or style of music. We like to do soft songs, heavy songs, complicated songs and simple songs, we do everything. The new stuff, lyrically, talks about more real things like the world we live in, society and everything that is going on around us. All the bullshit that we deal with as opposed to The Truth, which is relationship based. The new stuff is about human behavior and why people do the things they do. It’s exposing a lot of things about everything.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: IF YOU WATCH THE NEWS FOR AN HOUR, YOU CAN HAVE A WHOLE ALBUM.
Daniel:If you write an album about the news then the information you have might be false. You don’t want to support any agenda of a company and that is what the news is basically.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: YOU CAN CALL THE NEW ALBUM TRUST NO ONE.
Daniel:Exactly

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: THE INTRODUCTION TO "ALONE" IS AN EXCERPT FROM A POEM.
Daniel:Yes, we did a random search two or three years ago. Jon was the one who found this awesome lady from Louisiana named Myrna D. Badgerow. She wrote this poem, Jon found it online and we contacted her. She was very happy to be part of it. We told her we wanted to use her poem on the album and she said "Sure." They are big fans and they come to our shows. A couple days ago we were sitting at their house eating a barbeque. They cooked a barbeque for us. They are good people.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: HOW COOL AND "BECAUSE OF YOU" IS A COVER SONG.
Daniel:Yes, by Kelly Clarkson.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: TELL ME ABOUT THE CONCEPT BEHIND THE VIDEO FOR THE SONG "NIGHTS OF DECEMBER." YOUR BROTHER DIRECTS ALL OF YOU VIDEOS RIGHT?
Daniel:Yes, he directs and edits. That’s what he does; he’s a crazy video guy. He does movies, films and music videos.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: IS THIS SOMETHING HE DOES FOR A LIVING?
Daniel:Yes, his name is David Jakubovic.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: YOU GUYS ARE PRETTY HANDY.
Daniel:We try to keep it in the family; we don’t have a plumber though. In the music and in the arts we all try to help each other out. He does movies, I do music for his movies and my dad does music.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: DID YOU COME UP WITH THE CONCEPT FOR THE VIDEO OR WAS IT ALL HIM?
Daniel:It was all him, we have three videos actually. We also have a video for "Walk Away" and for "The One." "Walk Away" was the brilliant video he came up with about school shootings and what brings an individual to the point that he wants to massacre a bunch of innocent people. It shows the course that leads up to that. It was a crazy job that he did on that one.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: I LOVE THE VIDEO FOR "THE ONE" BECAUSE IT SHOWS YOUR HUMOROUS SIDE AND IT SHOWS MORE OF YOUR PERSONALITIES.
Oh yeah, I agree, I enjoy watching that video because it’s funny. It’s cool that you saw that. Thanks for listening and watching it. When are you coming to a show?

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: I WILL BE COMING TO A SHOW, I JUST TALKED TO FRAMING HANLEY AND YOU GUYS COME THIS WAY AT THE END OF JULY OR AUGUST.
Daniel:Yeah, but we won’t be there. When you come to New York, look me up and come hang out. We will go to the Beer Garden. That’s where I invite all my friends, we go to the Beer Garden and get all screwed up on alcohol and then take the conversation from there. I love touring, it is the best thing ever playing shows with all that energy, but I live right next to the Beer Garden. I miss my couch sometimes, sitting and watching House. That’s what I do.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN OUT ON THE ROAD WITH FRAMING HANLEY?
Daniel:A couple weeks and until July 1st.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: ANYTHING OUT OF THE ORDINARY HAPPEN SO FAR?
Daniel:No deaths, no violence luckily, anything out of the ordinary? No, they are great guys, we really connected awesomely well. It’s good times, one big party from start to finish.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: I SEE YOU HAVE A PAYPAL BUTTON UP SO PEOPLE CAN DONATE TOWARDS YOUR TOUR. I LOVE THAT.
Daniel:It is what it is. We need a little bit of assistance financially for this tour.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: PEOPLE DON’T REALIZE HOW EXPENSIVE IT IS TO BE ON TOUR.
Daniel:It is crazy expensive.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: THE PRICE OF GAS ALONE IS SO EXPENSIVE.
Daniel:Gas, food and then motels.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: HOW DO YOU CUT COSTS OUT ON THE ROAD?
Daniel:We go to Walmart and every now and then we sell our bass player for extra change to any random females that need to get laid. We say "Here’s Jon! 25 cents going once! going twice!" Take him for ten minutes in exchange for a tank of gas.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: WHAT DO YOU DO FOR ENTERTAINMENT ON THOSE LONG DRIVES AND TIME BETWEEN SHOWS?
Daniel:Honestly, nothing, we just hang out in the car. It’s a good way to unwind because it’s quiet. I don’t do radio just because I don’t want to listen to the same song 2,000 times over and over again. We just hang out and do the occasional pretzels and banana chips. That’s all it is, nothing special in the van.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: I LOVE BANANA CHIPS.
Daniel:You love them? They are crazy man. They always disappear very quickly.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: AT FIRST GLANCE YOU THINK THEY LOOK KIND OF GROSS, BUT THEN YOU FIND OUT THEY ARE REALLY GOOD. I GOT HOOKED ON THEM.
Daniel:Totally, I love that shit.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE INTERVIEW DANIEL. IT WAS GREAT TALKING TO YOU. YOU ARE A BLAST.
Daniel:It was fun, let’s do it again soon.

SHAUNA O'DONNELL: BEFORE I LET YOU GO WAS THERE ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO ADD OR SAY?
Daniel:Check out the band, buy a shirt, buy a CD, come to show, support the band, smoke a joint and do whatever you need to do. Thank you for your time so much!