JB-  If The Populars were in a tabloid next week, which of you would be in it and what would the story be?

Dave-  (laughing)  A tabloid?  Let me think here.  The best I can do here, Jeremy, because I’m a little under the weather, is “Lead guitarist from band gets in a scrap with a man that didn’t say ‘thank you’ when Dave held the door open for him.”

JB-  Wow, that’s deep.

Dave-  I f**king hate that more than anything.

JB-  You know, it is frustrating.

Dave-  I hate that.  You hold the door open and they just like “nah”.  The guys kind of joke about it, they call me Captain Courtesy.  But some day, I think if it happens to me again… I think I have a breaking point, like another 300 times I think I’ll just start having a nervous tick, and I’ll just have this unitard and I’ll be wearing it with some sort of red cape…

JB-  (laughing)  Can we get pictures of that when that happens?

Dave-  I don’t know if you’d want that, buddy!  That’s money in the bank!

JB-  Tabloid pictures.

Dave-  That’d be it: me in the cape and kind of foaming at the mouth and twitching and me just going “thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.”

JB-  Or what about when you hold it for one person and 30 more go through?

Dave-  Oh man!  Yeah.  I don’t mind that.  In most cases they’ll notice you and they’ll go, “Yeah, hey, thanks a lot.”

JB-  Because if you’re in a mall you’ve gone now from customer to doorman.

Dave-  (laughing)  That’s right.  And you know, sometimes I’m like “Shit!  Do I look like a doorman?”  Maybe I do.  My clothes aren’t that great!

JB-  Well if you’re wearing your bellhop jacket.

Dave-  That’s funny because I do have a long pea coat…

JB-  Then don’t wear that!

Dave-  Maybe that’s the problem (laughing)

JB-  Who is The Popular you would want to stay away from your sister?

Ernie-  Oh God, Meck!  Because the thought of Meck and my sister would just freak the shit out of me.  (laughing)

JB-  Now you’ve gotta explain!

Ernie-   No, it’s just that when Meck’s sisters come out I’m like, you know, just to get a rise out of him I’ll just jokingly flirt with them and stuff.  You can just see it in his face he gets all worried.  It would probably be karma coming back at me - (him) trying to get a rise out of me.  And I’d freak out and there would be a fistfight and THAT would make the tabloid!  (laughing)

Meck-  Oh, Ernie.  Because I know that she loves him.  Because he’s good looking, he’s funny, he’s smart.  What woman wouldn’t want Ernie, quite frankly.  He is the dark, handsome one of the group.

Dave-  Can I say both of them?

JB-  Sure, but you’ve got to say why.

Dave-  Boy, that’s getting a little personal.

JB-  Have you seen the SpeakFree site?  (laughing)

Dave-  Ernie.  Because Ernie is [in a scary voice] dark and mysterious.

*  *  *

JB-  Define the word “celebrity”.

Ernie-  Celebrity is someone that is addicted to the spotlight…addicted to the limelight.

JB-  What do you think of celebrities making these stupid publicity moves, for example being on a reality TV show,  in an attempt to revitalize their careers?  Is it helping them or hurting them?

Ernie-  I think in most cases it hurts.  I like the idea of being a musician solely.  I mean, who gives a shit who I date?

JB-  Apparently your bandmates do!  As long as it’s not their sisters!

Ernie-  Yeah, exactly.  But going to that phase where you’re more of a celebrity than a musician has absolutely no appeal.  I respect guys that you never hear about in a personal context, you know keep their private lives exactly how they should be, and that’s private.  I admire that as opposed to (television show) “Tommy Lee Goes to College”.  I mean, who gives a rat’s ass?

Meck-  I don’t know.  That’s such a tough question.  It would have seemed to me that reality TV five years ago was going to be a passing fad.  The issue is that people are watching reality TV instead of living reality.  People are so tied into their TVs and into cellphones and gadgets and they’re isolating themselves from the world we live in.  Whether or not that is an accident is yet to be seen.

JB-  Give me three words to describe The Populars.

Meck-  Loyalty, respect and perseverance.  Loyalty because the three of us have been deeper than family for so long.  It’s always the three of us.  It seems it always has been.

Ernie-  Passionate, unrelentless and hard-working.  We believe in what we’re doing and I wish I could put it into words better but we have so many people that believe in us.  If you look at that and realize how lucky you are, you just don’t take it for granted.  There’s a lot of heart to what we do.  It’s everything to us.

JB-  The three of you love music so much.  What do you think of schools cutting back on music programs?

Ernie-  I think it’s just very important for schools to offer that kind of thing because how many kids are into music and just need that opportunity to play?  It should be in every school.  I don’t know why the funding isn’t there, it definitely should be.  And I think that’s something we’ll be involved with.

Meck-  It’s outrageous.  Canada is supposed to be an artist culture.  The idea of Canada is supposed to be of progressive ideas and thinking, and art and freedom over commerce, citizenry over consumerism.  That’s one of the things we are trying to say with our record is we’re fully aware of the way that our governments, both ours and our brothers to the south, are cynically scandalous and corrupt

JB-  We elect these people, so what does that say about us?

Meck-  It says a lot about people still fearing change and difference.  People accepting the norm because it’s at least easier than changing things.  Change is difficult, but it is important.

JB-  Five years down the road, or maybe even one year down the road – where do you hope you’re going?

Meck-  If I was to talk to you this time next year I would hope that a lot of people have heard our record.  And as a result of that I would hope that we would continue to be able to travel so that people can see our band and expose more people to our record.  The Vindicator LP is called that for another reason because the three of us have made a lot of records and put a lot of energy into albums and art that have never seen the light of day.

Dave-  We have seen the shows have really picked up significantly since the first two years.  It’s like we’re building this engine and we’re trying to turn it over and it wasn’t firing the first two years and now we have this record.  I think we’re still in the process of tuning it up and it’s going to be able to be a hot rod.  Our record is quite dark but it’s also saying, “Let’s fight for it.”  And I think it’s a great introduction to our band.

Ernie-  When you pour your heart into it someone’s going to connect to that.  There’s emotion there and that’s what gets people.  Being honest and just letting it all go, that’s going to make you friends for life… and hopefully fans for life.