JNCO: How long have you guys been together?

Steve: Our drummer started when he was like twelve years old. The name has been around for a long time, but with this line up and these members who have been working and doing everything that we’ve done, it’s been about seven years probably.

JNCO: How did you guys come up with your name, Unwritten Law?

Steve: Actually Wade, our drummer, came up with it one day when he was skating. It popped into his head and he liked it, so he decided to use it for the band.

JNCO: Is this the first album with Pat Kim?

Steve: Actually Pat Kim is not on this album. We got him after we did this album cause our bass player quit the band right before we went and recorded. We actually used this guy Mika from a San Diego band called Pivot. We brought him up and told him to record. After that he was still in Pivot so, you know, he did not want to leave his band. So we just called up Pat Kim one day and asked him to play? And ever since then he’s been with us.

JNCO: Have any radio stations started playing your songs?

Steve: Uh yeah. All the San Diego stations. I think now there are probably about thirty-five or forty stations around the U.S., and around the world, that are playing it now.

JNCO: With the emergence of Sprung Monkey and Blink 182, do you think the San Diego music scene is on the rise?

Steve: Yeah, I definitely do. Also there is the band Buck 09 too, who’s doing really well. We’ve all been playing around together since we were really young, for like the last ten years almost. San Diego is finally starting to get some real recognition. I think there will probably be some more bands coming out of San Diego really soon.

JNCO: We dropped off a box of JNCO stuff in your dressing room. Did you wear it or sell it?

Steve: No I wore it.

JNCO: Good. Do you like it?

Steve: Yeah, it’s pretty cool. We definitely didn’t sell it. (Laughs) Yeah actually, you know, I made like a hundred bucks on the stuff... thanks.

JNCO: Compare your current album to your last one.

Steve: Let's see... this album we just kind of went in and just followed our hearts and just played whatever we wanted to play. On our last album we thought we had to stick to a certain type of music cause everyone thought that we were a certain type of band. This time…I mean, we still played what we wanted to play, you know, but I think that was always in the back of everyone’s mind. We were using a producer that was like the fuckin’ punk god. This time we used a producer whose name was Rick Parishar. He did the first Pearl Jam, the first Blind Melon, a couple of Alice in Chains records, and we just went in there and just played, wrote some songs, and just whatever came out, came out. It ended up turning out to be the best stuff that we have ever done, and we just played what we wanted to play instead of like, you know, whatever everyone thought we were going to. Even though it’s not really different, we thought that if we played what we wanted to play that everyone else would hopefully like it too.

JNCO: Your recent tour in Australia was very successful. Why do you think they were so attracted to your music?

Steve: Cause that style of music is really big over there and we went out there with Blink 182, which is just huge over there. We had been there once already, and that tour did pretty well, but this one just went off. That music is just kind of blowing up out there and we have the California sound, so everyone was really into it. It was really cool, being on the other side of the world.

JNCO: Yeah, I’ll bet. Tell me, what was the most recent arrest of one of your band members?

Steve: The most recent arrest? (He sounds surprised) Uh…no one has been arrested recently, thank god. (He laughs).

JNCO: What was the best comment that you’ve ever read about the band in a magazine?

Steve: It would have to be on this last tour that we did and it was a review over our new album. It was in a Jacksonville local newspaper or whatever, and it said that our album was the best rock album of ’98. We were just like, oh my god that is so cool. I think that has got to be the best one I’ve ever heard yet.

JNCO: That has got to be flattering. Hopefully there will be more reviews like that in the future.

Steve: Yeah, definitely, no kidding. I hope so.

JNCO: What are your plans after the Warped Tour?

Steve: Right after that, we have like a week off, and then we are doing the European Warped tour through all of September. And then once we come off of that, we are going to be doing Blink’s U.S. tour in October and November. Lot’s of touring.

JNCO: It sounds that way. So do you guys have any sort of ritual that you do before each live show?

Steve: Um, yeah kind of. For like the last year or two, the band has been getting into magic and stuff like that. We all sit around in a circle and just kind of sit there with each other before we go on and just channel each other’s energy. It’s meditation really. It’s helped us out a lot. It helps us to focus, you know. Because right before a show, you’re either like sketchy or just antsy to get on. Sometimes you just get... almost over excited and so if we just sit down together and meditate for, you know, five minutes or whatever. Then we come off totally relaxed, and we have full energy and full mind control over ourselves, and it works out really well.

JNCO: What would you say is the worst show that you have ever had?

Steve: We definitely have some. I would have to say it was when we played with Sepultura in Phoenix. It was the worst show, but a pretty cool show at the same time. You know… we’re getting up there singing Suzanne, all poppy, punk and stuff, and everyone there is dressed in black, and looks like they’ve crawled out of 1985 and shit. We played four songs and got booted off the stage.

JNCO: Did you really? What happened?

Steve: All the people there were there to see Sepultura and they didn’t want to see anybody else, you know. They were not about to listen to forty-five minutes of some poppy punk band, you know.

JNCO: Right. That must have been awful.

Steve: Yeah, but it was cool at the same time. I almost enjoyed it better cause it was with the Sepultura crowd. If it was with one of our crowds, like a normal crowd for us, it would’ve sucked, but since we were playing with Sepultura it was just with a bunch of these fuckin’ metal heads. So it was like all right, that’s kind of cool we got thrown off stage. But it still sucked. But I think that’s probably the worst experience we’ve ever had on stage…a thousand people going, "boo…you suck, get the fuck off the stage." It was funny at the same time.

JNCO: What would you say you miss the most when you’re out touring?

Steve: ...Just being at home and hanging out with my friends. You’re stuck out there living with the same dudes 24 hours a day, living out of vans and hotels, you know. Just being able to go home and just hang out and to get drunk or do whatever…with my friends. Or for other people…like Scott, he has two kids and a wife and he misses them immensely and other people have girlfriends and stuff. Mainly girlfriends and friends.

JNCO: What is the best place that you have ever played? Which crowd had the best energy?

Steve: Well, San Diego doesn’t count because that is our home town. It’s a given that a band’s hometown is going to go off. So I would either say Jacksonville, Florida, or…anywhere in Australia, cause the kids…they go absolutely nuts out there! They don’t get that many bands over there, especially from America. So anytime a band comes over there they just explode. It’s awesome!

JNCO: And why Jacksonville?

Steve: I don’t know. We just do really good there. It just always goes off, the energy’s always really good, and the kids are always really stoked. Probably some of the best shows that we ever played were in Jacksonville, Florida.

JNCO: Great. Ok Steve. Thank you very much. Good luck at the Warped tour and also at all of the other upcoming tours that you have planned.