Toddstar: Okay. It’s the second song that got dropped. It’s the first official radio single, but you guys also dropped “Turn It Up Like (Stand in the Fire).” That was poignant in that it talked about the state of the world right now and was also co-written by all four of you. How often is that an occurrence where a song is actually co-written by all four of you?

Daniel: For us, it’s actually every song. We encourage everyone to write together. I’ve met some groups where there’s obviously a principal song writer and sometimes they kind of want to keep the other members out of it because they feel maybe like they’ll make it worse or something like that. We’re just the total opposite. I feel like each one of us is kind of a filter, if you will. The more filters that it can go through at the end of the day, it is a more agonizing process, but we do feel like we get better songs and we’re all happy and we’re all content and feel connected. And yeah, it’s a better thing.

Toddstar: When you’ve got that kind of connection – and in a band, you hear the term brotherhood thrown around a lot – does it help build the camaraderie between you guys knowing this really is a team effort and not one main guy and everyone else pitching in?

Daniel: We all equal share responsibility. We all have to do things that we don’t like, and we try to split that up amongst everyone as well. From day one, I think one of the things that really helped us stay together and get as far as we did, we’ve always been a divide and conquer kind of group where in the very early days we’d all take a task. Jonny was in charge of booking. Mark was in charge of social media. I took care of the vehicle and logistics and also the money and stuff like that. What’s been cool is we did that forever and as we’ve grown, we’ve been able to keep that same work ethic, but now leverage other people to help us and do some of the more mundane tasks so we can stay on top of the things we’re here to do, like write music and for me build giant stage contraptions and things like that.

Toddstar: You mentioned stage contraptions and we have discussed touring. Nothing More puts on an amazing live show. I’ve been able to see you guys on several different types of stages. One of my favorites to see you on, and unfortunately this tour isn’t routed for it, is the stage at The Machine Shop in Flint, Michigan.

Daniel: Oh yeah.

Toddstar: There’s something about the band and Flint. You guys are Texas boys yet, it’s like Flint welcomes you guys in like the second son. What is it about The Machine Shop and Nothing More than just works?

Daniel: That is a good question. Obviously the name, The Machine Shop and we have a machine on stage if you will, DrumTron. There’s just a spirit to that place. Before we even played there, I met the owner, Kevin. We were at a festival and he’s there just smoking a cigar. The guy that just stands out in a room. He’s an awesome dude. I don’t even know if that’s the right expression. From the moment I met him, I was dying to play his club. To finally see it, it’s just an explosive environment. It’s really cool. He’s cultured a music scene there in Flint. People will drive and fly from all over to be a part of it. It’s always a blessing when we’re there. We’re always super pumped. Funny story. Jonny rides DrumTron up into the air to play The Scorpion Tail, the midi device that I built. The ceiling there is so low, the last couple times we played there, we had to go up and trim out nails that were coming through the ceiling from the tiles on the roof so Jonny wouldn’t scratch his head on them. He was that close. It took him all the way up to the ceiling.

Toddstar: That’s cool. Getting back to the single, you guys released the video for “Tired Of Winning” and, like you said, it kind of takes on the alien space scene. How much of the visualization and imagery for the video did you guys actually put into play while you were still writing and recording the music? Was the visual part of it there from the inception or is it something that cultivated its own life once the music was there?

Daniel: It was a little of both. I remember Johnny telling us a story that kind of birthed the original idea of the song. It was being around someone and like your third eye, your spiritual eye opens, and you can see someone for actually who they are. That’s an example of an image that we wrote the song around that ended up in the music video. There might not be any lyrics necessarily that directly point to that. That one was all kind of actually birthed at once.

Toddstar: Okay. Looking back on your career – you guys have been plugging away and really cranking at this since Nothing More’s inception in 2003 and you joining a year later. Looking back at the growth of the band and yourself, if you could go back and talk to Daniel in 2004 as you were starting this rock and roll ride, what piece of advice would you give yourself based on experience or knowledge you have now that you didn’t have then?

Daniel: That is a fantastic question. The main piece of advice would be to not worry about anything. When you’re a young band and you’re roughing it like on nothing, it just feels like a crisis is around every corner. It’s always a war zone, it feels like. I would let myself get a little too stressed out back then and not enjoy the moment. You could say that the stress is a motivator to work, but I think I would’ve had the same outcome whether stress or not. If anything, I probably missed some opportunities from being worried about something, being worried about the van breaking down, or if we’re just not going to make it at some point.

Toddstar: It took you a while to break through, but you guys did that in 2011. You’ve been just cranking through ever since. This summer, the band is on all the big festivals. With that success comes some of the other stuff. What are the things you miss the most when you’re out on tour or in the studio for days, weeks, months on end? What are those things in your daily life that you miss?

Daniel: Everything. I got married this last year; six months ago, actually. I have a brand-new life back at home waiting for me that I do miss terribly. We have two amazing Malamute-Wolf cross sled dogs and two cats. One thing I miss a lot about being home other than obviously my wife, friends, and family is just driving a car… having a car there that I can go and be by myself, go anywhere I want. I am a bit of a motor head. I do have my mountain bike with me, but it’s just not the same.