Chuck Thomas: Describe the band for anyone out there that hasn't heard of you.

Will Hunt: Basically we've known each other for 12 years or so, and we all grew up in rival bands or in bands together back then. We always ran into each other, and if you came to each guy and said, "Hey, if you can put your own band together outside of your current band, who would you grab?" We were the guys that always said that we'd like to play with that guy, I'd like to play with Brett, or with Troy, all of them. The stars just kind of aligned, we all got involved with other things, and finally those things dissipated. We all had other record deals. Then we started this band. Things just happened in that order. We never did demos or anything like that, we just started off and recorded our record. We tracked eighteen songs for it and it's what you have now in Twelve Year Silence.

CT: How is the tour going? I heard Brett was sick?

WH: Well, we've been out for seven months now, and we've had about three weeks off, in all that. Sometimes, it's a human body, and it takes a while, but our singer had to go to the hospital last night, he's got bronchitis. Other than that, and one or two other things, it's been great. We were out with Seether and Crossfade for three months, we were out with Chevelle for two months, so we've had some good tours.

CT: On the press packet, they made sure that we knew that the band was spelled Dark new Day, with a small n. Is there a special reason for the small n?

WH: There's really nothing behind that other than when you have your logo, you want to have something people will look at and remember. Maybe they don’t right off the bat know what it is that makes it look different, but it's just a design thing.

CT: I noticed on the album that each member kept his individuality that he got from doing other bands when they came into this one. It doesn't usually go that way in "conglomerate" bands.

WH: That's the idea. When you put together a real band, that's what it is, three, four or five people, however many it is, coming together and bringing their own thing to the table, and making it work. That's a real band. Led Zeppelin, prime example. Real band. Each guy in that band was his own entity, but brought in these amazing ideas, and each person gave it his own flavor. And without one of them, they wouldn't have been that. Or the Beatles. And those are great bands...I'm not comparing us to them at all. That's the idea of a band, there's no ego involved in it. We're all old...well, not old...well versed in this business to know that ego doesn't get you anywhere. It's all about what you're doing in your heart and fun and making you happy.

CT: Some of the reviews have said that the CD is "ready for radio." I know you've expressed disgust at the music industry, to even saying you'd like to put your hands around the proverbial neck of the industry. So do you take that as an insult or a good thing?

WH: I think there's two sides of it, when I said that, it wasn't about radio, it was about the inner workings of record labels and things on that end. People basically what they're saying, what they're going to do, and when people don't do that, that's the neck you want to put your hands around. As far as radio goes, radio is something I really don't understand to be honest with you. Yes, obviously if you get on it, and you do well, you can do really well. It's a very important tool, and I think radio has been good for this band, and I don't have anything but nice things to say about radio and what they do. I guess the question is, if you ask somebody how do you get your song to move up the charts, well, I don't know. I really don't. I'd like to think people are calling in and requesting it, but I don't know that. It's just hard to say, radio's an interesting thing. You get some people that really love it and they push it and that's awesome. People say that that doesn't exist anymore, but I don't think that's a whole truth. I think that it does. I think that there is so much out there, and radio playlists are only so big; there are only so many songs you can play in a day. How songs make it into that day is beyond me, but if you're lucky enough to do it, then God bless you.

CT: Speaking of getting on radio, "Brother" has been doing really well.

WH: "Brother" did great at radio, and we've definitely gotten some record sales off of that, and some good touring off of it. It was real cool to watch that take off. It stayed on the charts a lot longer than we thought it would. It got to number six...no, scuse me, I think it got to number five on Active Rock, which is a huge deal. Everyone that was ahead of us or five spots behind us was a multi-platinum artist. Usually for a band like us that's new, when your record gets out there and you're on the radio that much, you don't stay there unless you sell a lot of records, but we happened to stay there, for a long time. Getting back to the radio question, I don't know how that happened. I'm thankful that it did, and it's been awesome to watch.

CT: How did the video shoot for "Brother" go? If I remember right, it was Clint's wife's mom's hometown or something like that?

WH: It's out in this small town, I don't even remember the name of it, but they've got this drive-in theater over there. They keep it up, it's real nice, but it’s kind of freaky looking. Weather that day was amazing; these clouds were over us the whole day. It was just perfect, and we had a great shoot. It tells the story of the song, basically, about Clint and Corey and their brother and their father being a musician. They come from a real musical family, and it kind of shows the story, with some cool performance footage at the drive-in.

CT: Another thing that I noticed about the album and the artwork on the CD is that there is a lot of desert imagery, bleak landscapes and dark colors. It feels like the album itself, when you listen to it, is kind of like walking through a deserted old house, with each song being a different room in the house. Was their intended symbolism with those things?

WH: Wow. There's definitely a vibe about the record, an aura about it. When we tracked it, we didn't go into with any pre-conceived notion about how it was going to wind up, so we didn't go out of our way and say, "We really want to make this dark record." It's just those are the songs that we gravitated to, and the riffs we gravitated to, and Brett naturally has a way of making things go in a darker "Radiohead" kind of thing. It just wound up that way, all the songs are different, and they all kind of go in different places. But the vibe of every song is the same as far as being dark. Kind of like what you said, all being different rooms in the same house, that's a good analogy I think.

CT: Do you find it ironic that the song "Lean," about addiction (Clint's alcoholism) and making choices in your life, is reminiscent of Alice in Chains?

WH: Brett can do a dead-on Layne Staley, we've all known that for many years. It's a cool vibe, not that we want to steal it. Along with six or seven other vocalists that he just loves, it's an influence you can hear in his singing. I think that it was coincidence that it happened, particularly in that song, and kind of interesting that it did happen and something we did notice when it was finished. Just, "Wow, how crazy is that," particularly with the subject matter of the song.

CT: You've said that Troy McLawhorn is your "secret weapon."

WH: Troy's just a really gifted talent, man, he's like your typical...I mean this with all respect, but he's a typical drunk lead guitar player. He's happy, does the show great, likes to have a few beers after the show and always has a good time. He's got a God given talent for playing the guitar in truly his own style. He's like the diamond in the rough. A lot of people might not pick him right after the bat, like that guy's the flashiest or that guy's got the chunkiest riffs or anything like that, but what he brings to the table is a sense of melody and creativeness that is all his own, and that's the awesome thing about Troy.

CT: Favorite song on the album?

WH: It's a toss up; I like "Lean" and "Pieces," those are the two I just wore out when we first got finished. "Taking Me Alive" is another really good one. I don't know I like them all.

CT: You guys are filming the show tonight?

WH: We've done a lot of filming. We've got some friends that filmed for us and we've compiled a bunch of footage. We did something at the Metro in Chicago right before the record came out. We're taking a lot of that footage, and the next single is going to be "Pieces," and we're putting a lot of that footage together to make a video for it.

CT: What do you think of the state of music right now? The past couple years has seen kind of a shift towards more garage rock kind of stuff.

WH: I think that the industry has seen such a "change of the guard" if you want to call it, in general, that there's no dominant force in music right now. The garage rock definitely came, but it kind of went. It's still here, and you've got your stand outs among the crowd that are still around, from the White Stripes, to, I don't know...

CT: The Killers.

WH: The Killers, yeah, again they're on their first record, interesting to see what'll happen on their second record. I think the interesting thing is that you do have that, but then you've got a band like the Darkness that is so left wing and from outer space, which is bizarre to me. I think that's great though. Their record is about to come out, and it's going to be a huge record. I think that's a really cool thing to have so many kinds of music going on at the same time, all doing well. That being said, I wish that rock and roll was bigger than it is. I wish it was more old school, 70's style, early 80's style, when it really meant something. I think that today hip hop, in some ways, and country have taken the place of rock and roll. I don't know why that is, but I'm ready for it to change again. Hip hop has been dominant for so long, that it's getting old, to me even, and I like hip hop. I'm ready to see change. I'm ready for some really dominant rock band to come around again. I don't know who that's going to be, and I don't think they are out there yet. I'm ready to hear it. There hasn't been a Led Zeppelin since Led Zeppelin, I'm ready for that kind of band, people will be like "holy shit." Green Day might be the closest thing to it, that fact that they've stuck around and they've gone into this new record and it's so orchestrated, and they've kept themselves relevant for the better part of twelve years. They're a great band.

CT: Weigh in on the peer to peer sharing controversy?

WH: Sure. Back in the day, your buddy got a record, and you had a cassette deck or you had a double cassette deck, and you made copies. I know they're some relation to downloading cause it's so easy, especially with iPods..."Hey let me borrow that CD" and you dump into your iPod. I get that. I think that the record industry was warned years ago, that they better get on this or it's going to really affect their world, and people were like "No way." Sure as shit, look what happens. The party was bound to end one day, and it has, and they're playing catch up, and we'll see what happens. Sometimes it can be a good thing. It's one thing if some guy buys a CD and it somehow makes it to 30 other people's iPods, yeah, that's a problem. But if it's a buddy and you make a copy for him and some friends of his hear it in his car, that's only a good thing. Within reason. Moderation being the key. It's fine with me, cause it gets your word out. Too much of a good thing is bad.

CT: There's a trend in naming fans. Do your fans have a name, and if they don't, what would it be?

WH: They don''t have a name, I think we're too new for that to have developed yet. Maybe they'd be called The Dark Ones (laughter). Maybe we could call them the Scrotums, like the Maggots. Our Slipknot name for them would be the Scrotums, and our Kiss name for them would be the Dark Ones.

CT: Or the Dark Army.

WH: The Dark Army! Yeah! (laughter) Nice.

CT: Tour with any band living or dead, who would it be?

WH: Led Zeppelin for sure. The Beatles. Kiss, for sure. Pantera...already did that, but I'd do it again.

CT: With Skrape?

WH: Yeah. Tool, there's some amazing bands, but that's a good start.

CT: Any advice for upcoming musicians?

WH: Quit. (laughter) This business is bullshit. No, seriously, the deal is, love it in your heart, because if you don't, don't get in it, because it takes so much. When people say you have to give everything to it, it's the truth. And particularly in rock and roll right now, it's a struggle. So the only glory you may or may not get, is getting a good show. It's not going to be money, it's not going to be chicks, it's not going to be any of that. You're very lucky if you get any of that, and if it does, then God bless ya. Love it in your heart, get in it for the right reasons, and if you stick at it, then things can work out.