Noize Pollution: Can you give us a little bit of history prior to being signed by Interscope Records like where you're from, how long you'd been playing together as a group, etc�
Monte: Well we've been together for like three years now and we only got signed a year ago. A lot of us are all good friends for a few years and we all played in other bands together off and on and shit. So one day we were just hanging out and we were like fuck it man, let's put a band together, all of us. Some of us live in New York and most of us live in Jersey. It's been really cool, most of us are really good friends so it's been great.

NP: How did Jason Newsted and Twiggy Ramirez get involved?
Monte: Well Interscope wanted us to send out a bunch of demos and shit for producers. It just so happens that Twiggy is a friend of our A&R; guys and they all liked the music. Newsted came out to see us and Twiggy came to New York and we all ended up hanging out. Newsted, after Metallica started producing bands and he came out and dug the music. I've known him too for a long time. I'd met him a long time ago, so we kind of knew each other a little bit. So then a couple of us came out to his house in San Francisco and hung out with him there and shit. But then he wound up being to busy (Echobrain) so we ended up going with a different producer. He didn't want to treat us wrong you know what I'm saying and not give you my all because I'm doing too much shit so we were like all right and said it was all good.

And Twiggy, we were hanging out and we went to record in LA and Dave Sardy did one of the Manson records and Twiggy was friends with our A&R; guy so we ended up clicking with him. He's a real cool guy and ended up going out to all these clubs and drinking and shit. Twiggy came in and hooked us up while we were recording. He ended up jamming with us a few times and he was like, why don't you try this and we were like cool.

NP: Now did Twiggy actually play on the demo that helped get you signed?
Monte: Nah, no, we had met him after the demo. Yeah, he worked on "Seeds of Change" and one other song on the record. But like I said, we hung out all the time and shit so it was pretty cool.

NP: Where did the name "Dragpipe" come from and is there any meaning behind it?
Monte: Um, you know that place over by the Guitar Center, that coffee place, coffee house; it's like a hot rod place.
NP: Out here in LA?
Monte: Yeah, across the street from TOI (Thai Restaurant) It's like a coffee joint. Well two of the guitar players were hanging out in there one day and they saw this cool light and it had a pipe. Like a side pipe attached to it. And they were like that would be a cool name for a band Dragpipe. But the real meaning behind that name, I looked it up in the Dictionary about what Dragpipe really means. You know how back in the day, all the hobos would hang out underneath the trains, well the Conductors used to throw a pipe out with a chain on it to knock them off so they would fall to their deaths.
NP: Fuck!
Monte: And that's what the real meaning behind it. But we like all that hot rod shit so the name works out for us.

NP: Metal Edge magazine and Revolver magazine listed you as one of the many bands to watch in 2002. How did you feel once you heard the news?
Monte: That's cool! We do what we do you know and it's really cool to get the recognition. We're just of bunch of friends hanging out and jamming and playing tunes. There are a million bands out there so I just hope that people come see us and have a good time.

NP: I've read and heard you guys talk about your music and you guys describe it as "Gasoline Rock"?
Monte: Yeah because it's so fast paced you know? It's up in your face and shit. We look at it as kind of this, none of us have cars but it's great driving music. Just push play on the CD and floor it you know.
NP: Exactly! It is drive music; I've been listening to it for over two weeks in my ride. Your music is like a jump-start to the heart with a kick in the nuts edge to it. I can honestly say that you are the only band to have that style to it which makes you stand out on your own.
Monte: Yeah, that's the whole thing we went for. We don't want to sound like anybody else and that's kind of hard because we're trying to break new ground by doing our own thing. It takes a while for people to catch on. I mean we got a cool following back here (East Coast) but we haven't really done that much touring for people to get it. Right now all that punk/emo thing is happening right now, which is totally cool, but you know, I like a lot of old school punk. I'm not into the pop punk thing happening now. More power to them though. We're just trying to do our own thing and if people get it, than awesome.

NP: You guys have three guitar players in the band while most settle on two. Why three?
Monte: Well, like I said we were all friends just hanging out and we were like let's just put a massive band together where it's just a wall of sound. You know how when some bands go and record and they double tracks up and then when you go and see them live it's kind of strange?
NP: Exactly!
Monte: Well with us, everything we do on the record, we can pull it off live because there are so many of us.

NP: What's the story with Jai Diablo's chrome teeth?
Monte: Well, he chips them a lot. That's how it first starting. He was chipping them while he was singing into the mic and then his dentist was like, why don't you just cover those things up. I guess he starting doing that. He's got his own freaky style to him, I mean the kid's already an albino with a black tattooed up arm so it's his own thing. I like it a lot though.

NP: I also heard that he urinated on a plant at Interscope Records �.is that true?
Monte: (laughs) Yeah
NP: (laughs) Was that before or after you were signed?
Monte: I think what happened was that we showed up late one day and they gave him a bunch of shit. One guy left the room and was kind of pissed off at us so Diablo just took a piss. Oh and this one time we played this show in New York and the sound guy was asshole and this chick squatted down in the audience and pissed. It was excellent.

NP: The title of your CD, "Music for the last day of your life" kind of sums up the intensity of the whole record. Where'd the name come from and the cover of the CD eerily reminds me of 9/11?
Monte: Yeah, it's not really about that, but imagine what you would do if it were the last day of your life you know what I'm saying, you should just go balls out and just go for it. Do you what you want to do and live what you want to live. Make it your own day you know. Everybody has a thing they'd do and they are all different you know.

NP: Your first single "Simple Minded" is getting a lot of air & radio play. Naked chicks on cars, record label executives scratching their heads, I love it. Tell us about the concept behind the video.
Monte: I don't know. We wanted it kind of little bit of the old school style cause we missed it. The destruction and sex and all that shit you don't see that anymore unless you're in a rap videos. We just kind of wanted a little bit of all that in the video. It was cool you know and it was cool for our first video. It gets the point across and we kind of missed the old school style. The hot cars, the hot chicks. It seems like everyone is skateboarding or dancing in the streets so we wanted to avoid that.

NP: My favorite track off the CD and probably the one song that stands out the most would be "Fountain of Pain."
Monte: Oh really, that's cool. That's cool about that record. Everyone I've talked to has a different favorite song.
NP: I really connect to that song for some reason. It reminds me of what my brother is doing musically wise right now.
Monte: That's excellent man.
NP: Do you know what that songs about? I know it's kind of hard to ask the guitar player that question but figured I'd give it a shot?
Monte: Yeah, no doubt. Um, you know, with Jai, he writes about our own experiences and what we go through in life. But it's kind of like what you get out of it you know. What do you get from it and that's what it should mean to you.

NP: What's the next single going to be?
Monte: I don't know, we're thinking we want to do "Seeds of Change" or "Tuesday." Probably "Seeds of Change."

NP: What's next for the band, going on the road anytime soon?
Monte: Yeah that's what we're setting up now. We're probably going to start playing a lot in New York and stuff again. We've been slacking a little bit since Christmas and stuff. We just started getting back together and rehearsing. Actually we've been working on new stuff because we've been playing some of those songs for a couple of years and some of them we first started with. We know them like the back of our hand now and we want to work on some new tunes to give fans a variety when we go back out. We're dying to get out to the west coast; we haven't even played there yet.

NP: A few days ago, I e-mailed all of our street teamers that listed Dragpipe in their top ten and I had them send me a few questions they would like to ask you. So here we go:

Travis of Mason City, IA asks: Did you ever record anything with Twiggy or work on anything and if so, will we be able to hear it? And how is the relationship with Twiggy?
Monte: Well we recorded "Seeds of Change" but we didn't record "Wisdom" but he came up with some of the versus as far as the music and he wrote a couple of notes to it and was like why don't you try it like this�Yeah, we hang out with him all the time. He's really cool guy and I think he's pretty happy that he's out of Manson now. I know when he was with them, he dug it but I just think it was his time to move on. He's a really cool motherfucker definitely!