It gets misrepresented in the press that I was in the Faint. I was never in the Faint. I was in this band Norman Bailer, which was the precursor to the Faint. We were starting to fuck around with keyboards, but we were basically indie rock. Once the Faint guys made Blank-Wave Arcade, they were fully on another fucking level. All of a sudden, their little cardigan sweaters were gone and they were dressed in cool shit. They would set up their own lights in the littlest spaces, so even at a house show, you’d feel like you were at a stadium. They totally transformed.
I still think there are so many bands that owe so much to them. I’ve talked to Brandon Flowers, who has said as much about the Killers. They were just a few years ahead of their time. And they did get offered an insane major label record deal that they said no to—which I think they all regret now, because [drummer] Clark [Baechle]’s bartending and [frontman] Todd [Fink] is, like, making hats, you know? But if they would have done it at the right time, they would have been the hugest fucking band. I don’t know what real justice there is. I mean, there isn’t any in the music industry.
It was always the three of us: the Faint, Bright Eyes, and Cursive. We were all best friends. We made Saddle Creek together, and we made this blood pact that we were going to stay together come hell or high water. Eventually stuff fell apart. One of our friends ended up with control of the whole label, and it was no longer a communal thing, which was the whole idea. Once that started getting frayed, people started making different decisions for themselves. But at the time, we really believed in it. We all passed up a lot of opportunities and a lot of money. We were idolizing Dischord and Merge and wanted to be like those guys. We wanted to stick it to the man and do our own thing and conquer the world. We had a lot of big ideas. But you know, whatever. Some of them worked out. Some of them didn’t.
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