The Daily Orange sat down with Max Bemis before his set at Juice Jam, where the Say Anything frontman appeared sans his bandmates.

The Daily Orange: What made you decide to do an entirely acoustic set?

Max Bemis: Well, our band hasn’t practiced in like, four months. It would have been bad, so I figured I’d try to make it as good as possible.

How do you like performing in front of a college audience?

They’ve actually always been really kind. I always get nervous, because you never know with college kids. Most of the kids who listen to us are in college, so it’s about the age. So they know the songs, and it’s always fun.

What do you think about the other bands here?

First, the first band, White Rabbits, sounded really good. I’d never heard them before today. And I’m a fan of Third Eye Blind, or I was, like a lot of people, but I still think they’re a good band. I like that they’re still touring and that kids still get into them, even though they’ve been doing this for 10 years.

Is Say Anything planning to tour with the new album?

Yeah, we’re looking to go on tour in late October, and we’ll be through New York soon.

The Daily Orange also spoke with White Rabbits lead guitarist and vocalist Greg Roberts and guitarist Alex Evan.

The Daily Orange: You have an interesting dynamic, with multiple percussionists joining with keyboards. How did that develop?

Greg Roberts: It kind of developed depending on what the songs needed, just whoever had a free set of hands would join in. We have enough people that we can afford to do things like that.

What made you decide to do a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Maggie’s Farm?’

GR: The way we do it is from The Specials’ second album. They do a cover of ‘Maggie’s Farm’ on it. We kind of have in mind more the way they do it. And plus, you know, it’s Dylan, and it’s always fun to cover Dylan.

What do you think of performing at colleges?

GR: It’s a laid back environment, and usually the people are sitting down, which is pretty relaxing.

Alex Evan: We actually haven’t done many college shows; we’re still getting used to it.

GR: This will be like, our third in two weeks.

What do you think about the other bands at Juice Jam?

GR: This guy, [gestures to Bemis] I have no idea who that is. Third Eye Blind I remember, and they’re pretty good.

He’s the lead singer of Say Anything.

GR: I’ve never heard of them.

Published on September 2, 2007 at 12:00 pm