Hoobastank 'Name worth remembering'
	www.hoobastank.com     Interviewed by Nathan
Q & A with Douglas Robb, Markku Lappalainen, and Dan Estrin

On their current tour with Pressure 4-5, Hoobastank have stepped up into the headlining role. With a lot of talk about the meaning of Hoobastank, it's simply the middle name of bassist, Markku Lappalainen. I had the chance to sit down with Markku as well as Douglass Robb (lead vocals), and Dan Estrin (guitar) before their show in Detroit, and see what's on the minds of this up-and-coming band from Los Angeles, CA.

SW : The tour with Incubus seemed to generate a large amount of excitement for Hoobastank. Did you find the same attitude everywhere you went?
Douglas Robb: "It was awesome dude, just every night was an unbelievable crowd response; not only to us, but to Incubus. Those guys would come up to us and their manager would come up to us and be like dude, we never seen such crowd response to an opening band."
Markku Lappalainen: "It was the greatest time we ever; that I ever had, and we get to do it again in Europe."

SW: You are going back out on the road with Incubus in Europe, and this time you'll be playing with 311. Are you excited about getting this opportunity?
Markku: "That's gonna be a really good show, ya know."
Doug: "We do Europe with both of them, and then when we get back, we have like 10 days off and we do the whole US with just 311."

SW: Will you be coming back to Detroit?
Markku: "Most likely we will be coming back to Detroit, or at least as close to Detroit as we can."

SW: You had the opportunity to play with LIVE, a band that has been in this business for a long time. Was it just another tour or did you show more respect towards them?
Doug: "Yeah, I got a lot of respect for them. I was a big fan. I respect them more for what they do nowadays, then like a fan. They are really great guys; cool and generous."

SW: Do you feel that down the road other people will have the same respect for Hoobastank? Will you stay the same down to earth type guys?
Doug: "None of us got into this business for fame or fortune. It was also just for the music and fun, and I think people who get into it for the wrong reasons and accomplish some kind of success usually get corrupted by it."
Markku: "It's kind of in our nature."

SW: Garret @ On Track reviewed the CD calling it near perfection. Would you agree?
Markku: "Tell him that the check is in the mail. Don't worry, the money is coming."
Doug: "Oh Really? I personally thought that this album would be torn up critically. I don't think it's a critic's album. Critics like to write up what's really different and what's really different from what's going on right now. I just felt like our record is not ground breaking by any means. I don't think we are doing anything so different than anybody has done. The songs are pretty simple. It's really about music, not about being so different and crazy."
Dan Estrin: "It's also really early too. It's been out for what, only a month. If we get good reviews I'm happy. If we get bad reviews that's great too."

SW: How do you feel about being a Post-Napster band? Do you think the internet is still a source to draw fans to your shows?
Markku: "It was on Morpheus. It was out there before the record came out. A lot of kids download out old record which is kind of cool."
Doug: "I think for a band like us, music-sharing programs are a great thing. At this point, it can only promote us. It's not taking any money away from us because we aren't getting any money anyway. We are seeing no money from the record sales for who knows how long."

SW: Hoobastank made the TRL countdown on Friday; how do you feel about TRL and MTV?
Doug: "I personally don't watch TRL too much. I really don't watch MTV too much. M2 I think is cool because it plays music. The people who complain about TRL are our hardcore fans. They are always scared about teeny-bopper girls who are only gonna like you guys because so-and-so is hot and not because of the music. Whatever, if that happens; those fans aren't gonna last that long anyway. The true fans are always gonna stick with you. And it was all about true fans in Detroit. With an amazing high energy set from their just released major-debut on Island Records, Hoobastank is a name worth remembering."