Chris Wise: Well, the most noticeable difference definitely is that we have a drummer now. However, none of these songs were written with drums -- there were some ideas, but for the most part all of the songs were all done before we even tried to get drum parts written. Plus, Red Follows Red was recorded about three years ago, so naturally we sorta grew out of that sound and just tried to write better music.

The recording process for A Family Light and Red Follows Red were pretty different. Red Follows Red was recorded in a house with a friend of Jason's. It was basically just a collection of songs we had, and there was no real cohesive theme, or at least nothing that I would call an album. A Family Light was different in that we knew what we wanted; we were a little bit more comfortable in the studio and generally in the music that we had written. There was a long gap between recording the demos for the album and the actual recording because Mia Kat Empire had moved downtown from Kingwood, so we had a lot of time to really think about what we wanted, and I think that helped a lot.

Chris: I think when aiming to make an album, you're a little bit more restrained in what songs you choose to involve. We had written a couple of songs that we loved, but it didn't make sense to have them on A Family Light. Fortunately, a lot of the songs went very well together, because it could've just as easily have been a bunch of singles. There was no collective agenda to write something cohesive or have a theme; we didn't figure that out for a while.

I still buy CDs and have felt a little disappointed in how it seems a lot of bands generally don't care what song goes where, but when a band does, you can tell, and that album generally sticks with me longer than a really good single.

Sergio Trevino: There are definitely intentional themes within the album, but they are in no way linear -- there's no storyline throughout. You're dead on about leaving and being left; in that way, the album is pretty personal. I also felt inclined to analyze the family structure, as I was drawn to write about the relationships between mother and daughter, father and son, and, I think most importantly, son and mother. Why? Not sure, but that's where I was for two years, and now I think I've laid the topic to rest, and I'm ready to move on.

Jason Willis: For the most part, all of the songs on A Family Light were written the same way. Usually Sergio has the foundation of the song, consisting of his guitar part, vocal melody, and lyrics. Then we listen to it as group and try to get a feel for what else the song needs to be complete. Once we establish the direction of the song, Chris and I will write our parts and any other parts that we feel could be complementary or provide more depth.

But now that we have a drummer, our songwriting has changed a little bit. During A Family Light, when we would write a song, it normally would not include drums, and they would be added later. Having Justin in the band gives a whole new element to work with, dynamics. So now when we work on something new, we write the whole song together and try out new ideas as we go.

Jason: "Blood On The Streets" has quite a story with it. Sergio and I were at a pawnshop when we saw this old Kurzweil organ set up in there for $200. We ended up getting it, and "Blood On The Streets" was the first song we wrote with it. We were really excited about the song; it was something different and fun for us. Mainly because Chris and I got a chance to experiment with instruments we weren't exactly comfortable with at the time -- Chris on the organ and me on the mandolin.

We wanted people to hear this new song live, but the problem was that we didn't have anything that replicated an organ like the Kurzweil -- it was always something really churchy-sounding, and the Kurzweil was just too big to carry around. So we cut it in half. Literally. The top portion of the organ was a double set of keys; the bottom part consisted of the bass notes, played by the feet, the volume pedal, and the internal speakers. We decided that all we need is the keys, because we ended up modifying the output to be used through another amp. That idea worked for about three shows. The portion with just the keys was still huge. It would take up the whole back seat of my car. Eventually, I bought a keyboard that we now use for any piano or organ parts.

So, for the "squink," there wasn't anything electronic going on with this song. What you might have heard was the mandolin. Near the end on the chorus, I throw in an octave of a note to change things up a bit. If that's not what you're talking about, it could have been some of the noisy high stuff, which was also on the mandolin.

Jason: The alarm thing you hear is, yet again, the mandolin. It's actually for the beginning of "Westward." I originally wrote the song with the slow strummed intro doing the chord progression that the song has, but we felt it sounded too dry by itself, so we added what you hear now. The sound is made from looping a strumming pattern on the mandolin strings before the nut over the headstock, where there is no pickup. This vibrates the body of the mandolin and allows its resonance to make the strings above the fretboard vibrate and kinda gives a strange harmonic tone to it.

As for the connection between the two songs, there isn't one. I wish we could tell you some really deep, meaningful, and creative explanation. But it's honestly just a coincidence. Good job on pointing that out, though.

Sergio: "Flame," "Mothers," and "Holy Water Revival" were all written within a week right after a difficult break up. I was angry, but I didn't want to make angry music. I wanted to make music that expressed how I felt, but also have some hope or optimism. So, those songs come off as fun and upbeat.

Sergio: Yeah, that was a tough show. Yeah, I personally hate it when I go to a show and I can't understand a thing the singer is saying 'cause he's being drowned out or the sound system can't really support too much volume. I do feel like I have something to say, and I do feel our shows are better when I can get that across.

We're generally concerned about our mix anytime we play, so we'll ask the crowd what they think of the mix. That's pretty much all we can do.

Jason: Usually we like to play a little loud, because we lacked dynamic before we had a drummer. So now, I guess you can say we get excited about hitting the extremes of opposite ends of the spectrum. I know I like to have my amp at a certain volume to get the right tone I want. I imagine that's the same for Chris.

Usually the big problem we have is with Sergio's acoustic. It has a very rich, resonant tone acoustically, [and] when you combine that with a loud live situation, it can cause quite a bit of feedback on his part. Sometimes it can depend on the venue and the way the room is set up. Room size and shape can do funny things to the way stuff sounds. So oftentimes, before a show, we'll figure out what we want to do for that. Our usual solution is to bring this small PA setup that we use for practice, and we'll run Sergio's acoustic through it.

This is great for us and the crowd for a couple of reasons: 1. we can hear more of the acoustic on stage in addition to the monitors that we already have; 2. the crowd can hear more of the acoustic, because the speaker is pointing right at them; and 3. we can control the tone of the acoustic on stage to our liking, we won't have to worry about a sound guy EQing us a tone we don't particularly want.

Every now and then we'll try some new ideas out, like different amps, running [Sergio] directly into the house system, micing the amp, micing the amp AND running him direct. But it can be pretty tough sometimes to get things to mix well. It's a broad spectrum of tones we deal with and they can clash, especially the electric vs. acoustic. As for vocals, we do generally like the vocals to sit on top of the mix. Sometimes that can happen, sometimes it can't. It can depend on the venue and what kind of equipment they have. As for me, if I can at least hear the melody of the vocals, I'll be all right.

Chris: I guess growing up in La Porte is just like anywhere else; you tend to forget you're surrounded by chemical plants until someone points it out.

There are a lot of good bands coming out of La Porte. Giant Princess and The Alsace Lorraine are my favorites out of the area; they're extremely talented musicians and people we've known for a pretty long time. Luckily, we have a place to play, The Forum, thanks to Sergio's parents. We used to do shows in a Knights of Columbus hall, and that was never convenient. It got too crowded and it was a lot to maintain. The Trevinos have put a lot into The Forum, and it's doing really well, the kids in there have been extremely supportive of the place.

Chris: We released Red Follows Red independently, so we were able to make our money back and sell enough to feel comfortable about giving the rest of them away. As for the EP, we're only going to have it at the CD release show -- they're songs that we've been sitting on for a while now along with some demos and songs that didn't make it on the album when we started recording A Family Light. We didn't have a CD release show for Red Follows Red, so we really wanted to do something special this time around.

Justin Terrell: We actually used to open up with the beginning of the album -- "Mane of Gold", "Westward" -- pretty frequently, and I really enjoyed that, but I'm sure we'll do something different because of that. We will be playing "Noncommittal Blues"! END