The views expressed in the interviews and reviews are solely those of the individuals providing them and do not reflect the opinions of BacStagePass.com!

All photographs are the property of www.BacStagePass.com.  Please do not use without permission!  All photos taken by Becky unless otherwise stated!

Scottie chats with Barbara

June 17, 2005

Telephone Interview

This interview was a memorable one for us, we hope to see these guys in our area soon! This band will be on the Sounds of the Underground Tour.

Barbara: First of all, for our readers that don’t know about Norma Jean, please give us some background information on the band.

Scottie: We’re from Atlanta, Georgia, we’ve been together for about 6 years now. We’ve been Norma Jean for like 3 or 4 years maybe, a few of us were in another band before. We have 2 CDs out, the last one just came out March 1st.

Barbara: Describe each member of the band including yourself in one word.

Scottie: Woah, um, let’s say Cory is a kid, Jake is mom.

Barbara: There’s a lot of those in the bands these days.

Scottie: Really? Yeah, he definitely takes care of stuff. Um, Daniel’s a hippie, Chris is a redneck, I’m an idiot. I do stupid stuff, that I shouldn’t *laughs*

Barbara: *laughs* This past March, you released O’ God The Aftermath which went to #1 on Billboards Top Christian Albums and 62 on Billboard Top 200, which is a great accomplishment. When we received the advance copy of this CD, we immediately noticed the song titles, which are a great play on words. How did these titles come about?

Scottie: That was basically me, Cory, and Daniel staying up all night, a lot of nights when we were in the studio. I think we had one song name that was like that, it took 2 words that had something to do with the song and made one word. We kinda just liked the way it was going so we decided to see if we could do it for every song name and kinda just run with it. So we ended up staying up a lot of nights working on it, but it all came together.

Barbara: It’s really neat! Norma Jean has been on the road for quite awhile now and you’re going to be starting the Sounds of the Underground tour on June 25th. How are you preparing yourself for this festival of a tour?

Scottie: *laughs* Really, I don’t know. We’re definitely all getting BMX bikes, we’re starting a bike gang on the tour with a bunch of the bands. So um, other than that we haven’t done too much prep for it, we’re going up for a few rehearsal dates before. But, yeah I’m not really sure what to expect we’ve never done a festival tour like this, they’re expecting a lot of kids. It’s gonna be so fun though, all of us are like best friends on the tour. We’re really good friends with a lot of the bands.

Barbara: Well that should be fun.

Scottie: Yeah, it should be a lot of fun.

Barbara: Sounds of the Underground is an outdoor show which can change many aspects of a band’s live performance such as lighting. How is Norma Jean adjusting to this?

Scottie: *laughs* Um, well we’re definitely not used to playing outside and not during the day with it bright outside. We usually have tons of lights and projection going while we play so, I don’t know, we’re just gonna get up there and headbang. We bought a banner, we’ve never had a banner before because we usually have projection screens going. That’s one thing that I guess we’ve done. But other than that I guess we’re just gonna get up there and rock out.

Barbara: This tour has many bands on the bill. How do you plan on making Norma Jean stand out from the others? You probably already said that, you’re gonna rock out *laughs*

Scottie: Yeah, *laughs* I feel like we’ve already covered that question. We’re just gonna headbang.

Barbara: What band or bands are you anxious to watch on this tour?

Scottie: Oh, I can’t wait to see Gwar and Clutch every single night. Um, “A Life Once Lost”, I love that band so I’m really stoked that they’re on it too.

Barbara: Are there any bands that you feel should have been included on this bill?

Scottie: Yeah, I would say tons of bands. I wish Meshuggah was on it, I love that band. It seems like that would have been an awesome band to be on it. So I guess if I had to say one, I’d say them. Maybe Aerosmith.

Barbara: Yeah! *laughs* what is a typical day in the life of Scottie on the road verses a life off the road?

Scottie: Woah, on the road, wake up, leave the hotel, usually sit for a long time while we drive somewhere, hang out, a lot of hanging out really *laughs* It’s probably actually more of that home, at home I just wake up, lately I’ve been waking up and going to eat lunch around this time. What time is it right now? 4? 2?

Barbara: No, it’s 5:30 *laughs*

Scottie: *laughs* Oh it’s 5:30. Yeah, just now getting out for the first time. I’ve been a lot busier lately though, I play in another band called Spitfire now so I just got home from that. So basically when I’m not doing Norma Jean stuff I’m up there doing that stuff. Actually I just started a record label too and the first record is coming out in a few weeks so I’ve been super busy with that.

Barbara: You sound busy!

Scottie: Yeah, I’ve been really busy lately, but before I joined Spitfire or started the record label when I was at home I was definitely just sitting and hanging out a lot and going places with friends, I still try to do that a lot but now during the day I’m actually more busy on the phone and stuff I usually can’t sleep as late as I used to. At night we’re usually hanging out doing whatever with friends.

Barbara: What CDs are in your CD player right now?

Scottie: The Handshake Murders, Meshuggah - Catch 33, Interpol, and that might be it, oh and Lightning Bolt and Unfamed’s new CD.

Barbara: Who is your all-time favorite band? Out of anyone, old, new.

Scottie: Wow, all-time favorite. That’s hard to say because it used to be AC/DC or Guns ‘N Roses back in the day. Now I’d have to say like Interpol or Meshuggah maybe.

Barbara: Okay. If you could design your own tour, who would be on the bill?

Scottie: Woah, um…a lot of bands. Probably every band that I just named that’s in my CD player. Meshuggah, Unfamed, Helmet, A Life Once Lost, um let’s see, AC/DC, Primus, I’d put Botch on there. I never got to see them live. We’ll go with that.

Barbara: Okay. Do you have any pre-show rituals?

Scottie: Not really rituals, I always usually wear the same thing when I’m playing. Like on a whole tour I’ll just bring a whole set of clothes that I put on right before we play, wear for the show then take off just because I don’t want to stink up all my clothes on the road. Then I definitely stretch a lot.

Barbara: What’s your favorite song to perform?

Scottie: Um, actually right now I’ve been having a lot of fun playing, I don’t know the names of our songs, but the first one on Bless the Martyr, the first song on that CD. (That song is “The Entire World is Counting On Me and They Don’t Even Know It”)

Barbara: Time for some fun questions, If you were a cartoon character, who would you be and why?

Scottie: Woah, holy crap. Let me just think, are there any cartoon characters that rode or hung out with dinosaurs?

Barbara: Heather said Fred Flintstone, the Flintstones.

Scottie: Dino! I’d just be Dino, I’d be the dinosaur dog.

Barbara: *laughs*

Scottie: You can’t get much better than that.

Barbara: Really! Any funny tour stories you’d like to share with us?

Scottie: Woah, that’s so hard! There’s so many. (Scottie asked their tour manager for funny stories) It’s such a hard question! Oh yeah, here’s one, we ended up on a beach somewhere in Seattle, yeah this isn’t gonna sound funny, none of these are! We threw sticks, can you just put that?

Barbara: *laughs* Okay.

Scottie: Favorite funny tour story, one time we threw sticks *laughs*

Barbara: *laughs* I’ll put that.

Scottie: Thanks.

Barbara: Okay, if you could be a fly on the wall of any celebrity, who would you choose and why?

Scottie: Woah, um, let’s see. Any celebrity. What kind of fly would I be? *laughs*

Barbara: *laughs*

Scottie: I’d be a sexy fly on Angelina Jolie’s wall because she’s a babe.

Barbara: We’ll put that on there and maybe she’ll read it and find you.

Scottie: Oh that would be awesome! Can you put my phone number on there for me? Don’t forget that I’m a sexy fly. *laughs*

Barbara: *laughs* Is there anything you would like your fans to know about Norma Jean or the Sounds of the Underground tour?

Scottie: I would like for them to know that we love getting gifts on the road and we will hang out with everybody that brings us stuff.

Barbara: *laughs* Alright! Well it was a pleasure!

Scottie: Awesome!

A big thanks to Scottie for taking time out with us. This was one of the funniest interviews we’ve ever done, there were definitely a lot of laughs. Scottie was so much fun to talk to!