It seems to me like this is a heavier record than Underdogs, do you guys think that's true?

M: I think that we've always lived in a strange kind of juxtaposition - live we've always been a helluva lot heavier than we are on the record... We just wanted to do it. It depends on what your sense of heavy is, 'cause for me, the heaviest songs on the record are the quietest.

What do you mean?

M: The heaviest thing I've ever heard is either Rachmaninoff or Tchaikovsky for vibe or mood as opposed to just metal.

D: I think I can speak for Matt when I say this, and that's that the new wave of 1983 was just as important to me as the heavy metal of 1983. You want to sort of cross boundaries and not be just one sort of band.

That's a "music person" thing.

M: I think it also has something to do with maturity. As you get older, all the skeletons you have in the closet musically start to come out. If you wandered around as a kid and you were into Iron Maiden, you wouldn't dare tell someone you were into Simon & Garfunkel. But once you get older those things don't seem to matter so much.

What sort of skeletons did you bring out of the closet?

M: In my youth I listened to everything quite openly. Me and my brother, our record collection was immense - it was well over 200 albums.

...Which is really big for a kid.

M: Well, it was all we did really. It ranged from really hard rock to '60s rock to classical to punk, folk, everything.

D: When I was 15 years old I was equally as influenced by AC/DC as I was by The Cure.

M: Music is music. You can't really limit yourself. I think from a writing standpoint, the only reason people are limited to doing one thing is the simple fact they can't do anything else. It's that simple. I mean, if you can do other things, then why not? (Whereupon, Dave goes back to the original query, is the new record heavier than the last one?)

D: I don't know, is it a heavier record? A heavier record?

M: I think in places. But I would say in a Who sort of way. I would more categorize it as an "out-of-control-ness." "Frantic" is a good word. FINALLY, THE NEW STUFF

Did you accept the Pepsi club tour dates to practice the new songs before you played to big crowds?

M: That's one of the main reasons we agreed to do the Pepsi tour. It was because we wanted to do the new stuff in front of a small crowd instead of playing it in front of a large crowd. We played six new songs: "Giant," "Suburbia," "Born To Kill," "I Miss New Wave," "Load Me Up," "Hello Timebomb."

How were they received?

M: Almost better than the old ones.

How did the diehard fans take hearing the new stuff before the record was even out?

M: You only get about 20 per cent who are diehard fans and the rest are just these people who got tickets and showed up [with the Pepsi tour contests].

D: They were calling in to request Collective Soul or something and they got tickets. But core fans like new songs.