R: Rampway

A: Adeem
M: Maker
D: DJ DQ

R: How did you guys come together as Glue?

A: Online dating. (Laughter) No, chat rooms. (More laughter) It's an incredibly long story, but I'll offer you the short
version.

R: Yeah.

A: I actually met them [Maker and DQ] separately. I did a show in Chicago in 2000 and I met Maker there because
his group Them Badd Apples from Chicago opened up for me, Shalem, and Sage because we all went out there
and played. We used to do shows together. So, I met him and I also heard his beats and we were just kind of
working together. Then in 2001 there was another show in Chicago that this dude flew me out for, but the show got
canceled and I already had a ticket for Chicago. I was there for like twenty-four hours and instead [I] just hung out
with him [Maker]. We made this song called "Maker Mine" which is on Sweet Talking Your Brain and we just
decided to start working together. It came together super-quick. Later on, we started talking about doing a twelve-
inch and in October of 2001 me and Shalem were also doing a tour. In Cincinnati, we played there and The Animal
Crackers, DQ's turntable band, opened up for us. I saw DQ scratch and he was drumming! I mean, he's gotten
way better, but even then he was just like...

M: Today he did s--t I'd never seen before...

A: I'd never seen him do that either! He was doing some s--t and I was just like, 'Whoa! Holy s--t!' So, I went out to
him afterwards and I was like, 'What do you...What do you do? Do you just deejay here?' because Shalem was
going on the road with Sage and I needed a back-up DJ. The idea came into my head, 'Well, I might as well
have somebody else. If somebody calls me to do a show, then I could just call this dude and he could meet me.' So
anyways, he was just like, 'I'm not doing s--t! I'm trying to get out of Cincinnati.' Two weeks later, he literally showed
up at my mom's house in New Hampshire with all of his s--t in his car! We just went in my friend's house; he had a
house, and set up four turntables in his basement. We just practiced and put together this routine. Then talking to
him [Maker] on the phone, we just decided, 'We should do a full album!' I was like, 'I want something different that
what you usually do with your group, so send me something real musical, not so much straight Hip Hop.' This
motherf--ker sent me a CD within three days and it has like thirty beats on it and they were all incredible! So I was
like, 'Alright, maybe we should do an album?' He was talking and I wasn't doing anything at the time, so he told
me, 'come to Chicago.' I told him, 'Maybe we should get a DJ?' and this motherf--ker is just laying on my floor
watching Cartoon Network or something and I was like, 'You wanna go to Chicago?' He was like, 'Sure!' So, we
literally just drove to Chicago and we stayed at his house for almost a month and we just worked. Slept all day and
worked all night. We got a feel for what we were doing and it was really dope actually because the stuff that I was
going to do on the Seconds Away album (Pause) It was much more (Another pause) It wasn't as dark or some of
the real emotional stuff and I brought the wrong notebook. It was this notebook that I had that was from this
relationship I was in and the girl just ditched! I was living in an apartment, all by myself, with all of her s--t. So, that
was all my writing from that and I thought, 'Maybe we should turn these into rap songs?' (Laughter) And we did. It
just worked out. So, that's how it really all kind of came about and over the next couple years we kept making trips
back to Aurora. We never really went to Cincinnati at that point? (Asking Maker)

M: No.

A: We like did a show in Chicago or some were close and I'd fly in. He [Maker] would drive there and that's how it
formed. Then it just got real serious.

R: Dope. What's your ultimate goal as a group in music?

A: We all speak individually on this one.

R: Well, that's fine.

A: My personal goal and, I think, for us is I feel like I've found the vessel, necessarily? I think that's the right word, I
suppose. That for what I want to do artistically and musically...I found these guys and his [Maker] beats let me do
that and the way he [DQ] scratches, I think, it all compliments each other. So, I want to keep making music and I
want us to do like a Blues album, a Soul album, and I want us to do whatever! Just keep making music and not
really stop and push ourselves until we can't do it anymore. At the same time, commit to some sort of social
activism which really provides our music as some sort of standard for change.

M: Basically, I want to just keep making honest music, man. All the music that we've been making is just what
we are and what we feel. So, you listen to Seconds Away, you listen to Sunset Lodge, and you listen to our new
record that's going to come out, they're all different. We ain't trying to stick to nothing, we ain't trying to do
something somebody else is doing, and we're just making music how we make it. That's what we do when all get
together and I just want to keep doing that because it's a blast.

D: As far as goals, I never had any expectations, I never came in with any preconceived notions or what this was
going to be all about. Kind of like every song, every time we get together it's something new and I kind go in with
that mindset. I don't know what's going to happen, I don't know what record I'm going to reach for, and it's all very
spontaneous. We all try to not limit ourselves as far as creativity. We just kind of go with our spontaneity. That's the
creative process. There's really no rules or any kind of limits to what we do as far as that. (Adeem leaves for a brief
moment)

R: Alright. Did any of you guys see the State of the Union or hear about it?

M: The next morning, I caught a little bit of the aftermath when he was at Tennessee? (Asking me) He touched on
some of the things that he spoke about the night before, 'We're addicted to oil' and what other crap that he was
saying. It was like the other day and we were on the road...Is there a specific question about it?

R: Ah, what do you think about the Bush administration in general and what's going on right now?

M: You got enough tape in here, man? (Laughter)

R: Ha, it's about two hours long.

M: I'm pretty jaded on the political tip, but back in the mid-90s I got really into the whole activist movement in
Chicago and I felt really strongly about it. When I decided to go out with my music, I kind of left that behind, but a
lot of the feelings are still there. I just can't wait for George Bush to get out of office and we can try to continue
somewhat of a civil nation and stop f--king it up, you know? I don't know, but at the same time it could just be the
same s--t. We could just get another George Bush in there. Let's pray not! (Adeem comes back)

D: I don't know. It's been kind of exposed, especially through the whole movement of reality TV. Media has taken
on that exposure role as far as the administration. I kind of feel like we're not citizens anymore. We're like
'customers' of the United States. I think the key in mind state is just to create your own realm, your own reality and
how you deal and how you cope with what's inundated with us everyday. It's hard. You cand get into, you can buy
into it, you can worry, you can panic, and have all this anxiety about stuff that's beyond your control or you can find
a different way. All those means, it's all out there. It's all out there waiting for us and if you just take the time, step
back, and take everything into perspective, there's another way to live.

R: You want to add to that? I was just asking about the State of the Union. I don't know if you saw it or not.

A: I didn't get to catch it, unfortunately. I really wanted to see it because those things are really awesome to watch.
They're really funny.

R: Yea, i know. What's you view of the world right now?

A: I tell you what...I feel like a lot of the music I was making was very internal. I wasn't really ever trying to play the
whole, 'What was me?' sort of thing, I was just saying, 'This is what goes on in my head and I'm just putting it on
record.' It's almost like therapy to myself, but as things have changed in the world, a lot of is still the same s--t, but
it's become much more external and I'm commenting a lot more on things that I see. I agree with what Dan said
and I think we all feel the same as for as being customers here. Especially being from New Hampshire; New
Hampshire is very weird. It really is almost like this 'free' state. I remember I was in Manhattan when 9/11
happened and I was actually there. Me and Shalem were about to go on a tour and he was actually way down like
34th. We got stuck in New York for two days. There were tanks and planes flying around; it was unreal! But it was
one of those things where my first thought was, 'I need to get to New Hampshire because no one's f--king with
New Hampshire!' They don't even know it's there. (Laughter) But it was one of those things where I realized, we
we've put in a situation, I feel, and I don't know how the rest of the world is, but I think America, necessarily, it has
very much to do with physical contact like, 'If it's not in my face, I can't see it and it doesn't exist!' You know what I
mean? Africa is destroying itself right now! I mean, civil war everywhere you turn, massive genocide, and same
thing going on in Iraq, but here I am at a Hip Hop show playing. I can't physically fly to Iraq right now and stop the
war myself, but it's hard because those things aren't in your backyard and none of my family is out fighting. I can't
physically put myself in first person in that war, besides of what it's eventually doing to my society right now, but it's
hard because I feel like we get very complacent that way. I think, we're all very numb to what happens and what
goes on because if it can't be summed up on the news, if I can't see it on CNN.com, why should I care? That's why
places like Democracy Now! and independent media in getting the truth are so important. I think, what Mark said,
'It's the same s--t!' Who do we really have as far as the other side of the coin? Is it the democrats? Those motherf--
kers can't get their s--t together to save their own skin! They're just as corrupt! It's the same thing, but there's
different standards, I think, that we kind of hold them to and we see republicans as dirty old white men, which a lot
of them are. I'm sure there's some great republicans out there who are trying to do their thing, but that's the face of
what goes on. It's like a f--king married couple that f--king hate each other! They just bitch, moan, and complain
and they're married for fifty years, but nothing ever gets better! But that's not what we have to live, but they make
these rules and until they directly affect us - until you (Talking to me) get pulled over and you get abused by police,
until I get my electricity shut off because I don't have enough money to pay because I'm paying bills that are
ridiculously high, and trying to put gas in my car, that's when we start really seeing what's going on; we have to
sleep on the streets. So, I don't know. I just think it's time for people to wake up and whatever that takes because
some s--t's going down! It has to. We lit the wick and eventually s--t's got to blow up and in our generation we're
going to see that s--t.

R: Alright. On a lighter note, how do you guys go about making a song? You told me a little bit about it, but
do you guys just get together like, 'Yo, I got this beat!'

A: It's happened everywhere you can imagine! The best that it happens is when we're all together. It's kind of
funny; I always think about this. "Early Morning Silence", one of the songs we have on our new record Sunset
Lodge, that's like the most...it's like the song about waking up to your dead girlfriend! I mean, that's f--ked up!
That's just bizarre, you know? Maker had this beat and he was just playing it. (Turning to Maker) You were just
feeling it. You thought it was okay.

M: Yeah.

A: But you were like, 'Well, it's alright.' At the same time, I started writing to it. It was really bare. Dan was listening
to some records and found this old Blues sample, which will remain anonymous for copyright reasons, (Laughter)
but this old Blues sample of this dude who's singing the chorus and he's saying, 'Run away from me...Turn your
back on me' It's just about this guy who's taking off, running away from all these things. So, I started writing the
song and it goes backwards like Memento where in the beginning the dude's off trying to find himself, searching for
he lost. In the second verse, he's in bed. Wakes up and finds the girl in the morning. In the third verse, is right
before they go to sleep. He's reading next to her and shuts his flashlight off. So, it goes backwards, but that song
happened in one day and it was so random. I wrote the first verse, but after he [DQ] found that record, I wrote the
second verse and turned it into that song. Also, "Holding the Horizon Hostage", another song on there, I wrote that
when we were on around November and we were driving away from New York. An ex-girlfriend of mine lived like
thirty miles from New York and I'd seen her while we were in the car and I just wrote it. But we go about it in that
way that we all have to be feeling it. We all add our own parts and that's when it becomes a song. It's not a song
until then.
R: Yeah. Since you're on tour right now, what's life on the tour like?

A: It's really weird. It's a different scenario for us because we all have girlfriends and Maker drinks like casually,
you know? I don't think I've ever even really seen you drunk. Dan doesn't drink. None of us smoke pot. I'm straight-
edge. Dan's practically straight-edge, except those f--king cigarettes! We're not like getting wasted and looking for
girls. We're very focused on doing what we got to do, enjoying traveling, and seeing the country, but we're also
stuffed in a small f--king car. It's like a low-rider right now because there's so much s--t in it and that's what life is
like. It's eating it.

M: Very work-like.

A: Yeah.

M: But we have fun.

A: I mean, these guys are my family. We've become family and I love going on tour and being with them in that
sense is just a whole different life, but this just our job! We started; we got here at seven! Right now it's two. That's
a seven hours day that we've been running around, doing things, and then the performance is so...I really...I was
done after song five! (Laughter) I was so tired and I was going into auto-pilot.

R: Yeah, when we were all yelling, 'Encore!', you were like, 'Ah, f--k!'

A: I know! You should have seen me! I was laying down on the floor in the back! (Laughter) The dude's like, 'One
more, man!' and I'm like, 'F--k you! No!' But yeah, I don't know.

R: What's the funniest or weirdest thing that's happened while you were on tour? Is there any one thing
that sort of stands out?

M: The last tour we just did - it's not very funny - but we lost, how many? Three vehicles broke down on us?

A: Three. In a span of a week.

M: Just craziness. These crazy people just gave us their car and their house. Then went to Tahoe and hung out
with Bud...What's his name? Bud Gaugh? (Asking Adeem)

A: Yeah. The drummer from Sublime.

M: Yeah. Hung out with him, jammed with him at his crib, and showed us his guns. (Laughter) The whole tour was
just odd! It was fun. We had a good time. We had terrible times; we had great times, good shows, good sushi! We
made it fun and had good times.

R: Dope. Anybody want to add anything?

A: One time when we were in Charlotte, North Carolina. No, we were in New Jersey! We were on Warped Tour.
We did a little bit this year, we did the whole thing in 2004. (Pause) Dan's got a reputation for that really saying a
whole lot. Kind of quiet, but when he says something it's extremely profound. So, it was just me and him in the car
and we were going to park. It was in this crazy place in New Jersey. He [DQ] hates when I tell this story. So, this
dude like never said an angry thing ever. We pull up and we're trying to look for parking. There's this big, angry,
nasty, demon-fat lady who just hated life and she comes up to the car. We show our passes and we're like, 'Yo,
we're performers on the Warped Tour, where do we park?' She's like, 'Twenty dollars to park here!' Then I'm like,
"No Way!' She says, 'It's tweny dollars to park here!' Dan's like, 'We're performers.' She says, 'Well, I don't care.
That is performer's parking." She was lying obviously; just trying to get us to park there. Dan looks up and
she's yells, 'You can go up there!' Dan reaches out the window and goes, 'I'm gonna go up there and check if this
is true and if it's not, I'm gonna come back and f--king kill you!' (Hysterical laughter) I just exaggerated that a
little bit, but it was amazing! That was my favorite moment. My jaw just hit the floor. He started a fight with this old
lady. It was great! (More laughing)

R: You [DQ] want to add to the story? No?

D: Yeah, that lady was a bitch.

R: Just a weird question. I always put in one weird one, just because. I know on Sweet Talking Your Brain,
you always had songs relating to your childhood.

A: Yeah.

R: Each of you guys can relate to this, but was there like a scary nightmare you used to have or something
that just used to freak you out as a little kid?

A: Not really, but this is kind of f--ked up. (Laughter) I'm an only child and we moved around a good amount. Not a
ton, but my family's great. My parents are incredible, incredible people and I think they learned about twenty-one
years too late that they should not have gotten married, but they're much better separate than they are together,
you know? I used to fall asleep every night; had to have a fan on. Just fall asleep every night staring at my door.
Just like standing guard. I hated the dark.

R: Word?

A: Yeah, it freaked me out real bad.

R: You still doing that?

A: No. It may have stopped around seven or eight, but I have a very vivid imagination and I saw the Nightmare on
Elm's Street Movies. I used to stare at that door and be like, 'If Freddy comes in this motherf--ker - I'm gonna kill
him!' (Laughter) I remember that. I used to stay awake. I've always been really preoccupied with death and be
worried that I was going to stop breathing in my sleep when I was really young. I was really interested in that whole
kind of thing.

M: I had a f--ked up dream. I wasn't a kid. It was like late-90s or something. It was just weird, but I was sort of in
that 'half-sleep' mode and I guess I was awake, but I was dreaming. So, I was staring and I'd seen my mother
sitting in a chair across the room, right? Everything's going in slow motion and I start floating towards her; doing
dog paddles in the air, you know? As I'm getting closer, she starts getting older and it just all starts
getting distorted. She looks like a corpse while I'm getting closer and I'm freaking out like, 'What the f--k?' Finally, I
get to a point where I can't focus and I'm just staring. I focus and it's the vacuum with a jacket on it and I'm just
sitting up in my bed like (Opens mouth in awe while everyone laughs.) I couldn't sleep after that for a couple days
and I just kind of freaked out.

D: Oh, man. I used to have dreams where if I started to run and I started to kick my legs fast enough, I could start
to fly and float like a pixie. (Laughter)

M: But that's a great dream. What are you talking about?

R: Yeah!

D: I guess a frightening dream would be my passivity translates well into my dreams because I'd be in threatening
situations where I had to either protect myself or protect my mom or my sister and there'd be this ambiguous being
or whatever would be coming ever-so slowly towards me. I'd try to throw punches and I'd try to push him and I
couldn't hurt him. He just kept walking towards me. It was like my Kevin Arnold moment where he goes to punch
the bully and he hits him in the shoulder, (Maker laughing) but I don't know. Stuff like...

R: What was coming at you?

D: I don't know. Just some Just some ambiguous giant man. Some very threatening being. I don't know what he
was trying to take from me or what he was trying to do, but I just remember trying to punch him.

R: Oh, okay. Where do you guys see yourselves then years from now?

A: Celebrating the anniversary!

D: Ah, man! Are you asking us that question? (Laughter)

A: Celebrating the tenth anniversary of when you asked me that question! (More laughter)

D: Ah, that's...

R: Doesn't have to be ten years. Just in the near future.

D: I don't know because five years ago I couldn't that I'd be sitting here at this bench talking to you so that's a
doosey. I been plotting my escape from Cincinnati for as long as I can remember. I haven't quite mustered up the
courage to do that, but hopefully I won't be there anymore.

R: Sounds like an awful place.

D: No. It's just, that's another question. Man, that's a hard question. Hopefully I'll be wiser. I will have conquered
some wisdom, some happiness, and questions I've always had about myself, our place I guess, and our focus in
this world. Hopefully I'll be happy. Somwhere. That's a hard question.

M: In ten years, I see myself hopefully hangin out at my crib. Married with some little 'dudes' hanging out. Making
beats. Having them pick up my records and hopefully successful at what we're all doing. Making some good
money. I really want my own house. Just a huge...what you call a plantation house with fifteen rooms and I could
do anything I want in there. I see myself and all of us having some kind of good luck with what we're doing and
being able to support ourselves and our families.

A: In ten years? (Laughs) I'm either going to be...I know I'm going to be married. For sure. I got a beautiful and
amazing girlfriend that I'm looking forward to marrying hopefully sometime soon. I want to have children. I want to
be home schooling them. Teaching them to be little soldiers. (Laughter) I'm still going to be making music. I know
that. Whether it's just in my basement or it's doing tours or whatever. If not, I think I'll either be a politician or a
preacher.

M: Those are two extremes, man.

A: Yeah, I think I'm going to be a preacher-politician. Oh, wait! They already are. (Giggles) I'll be a good one
though. I don't know, man. I see myself being involved in some aspect of change. I want to go to Europe. I want to
be involved in something significant. So, just explore every part of this world that I can before I take my last breath.

R: Yeah, okay. One more question. What's your all-time favorite song?

A: Oh, Jesus. All-time favorite song?

R: Yeah. You can't change it. Once you say it, that's it. It's going to go on your record and that'll be it. (Long
pause)

A: Can we give an all-time five?

R: If you want...

M: Nah, dude. That's cheating!

A: Yeah, but five is just, you know? All-time favorite song, man? (Long Pause) 'Hangin' Tough' by New Kids on the
Block? (Laughter) Just kidding. Well, I'll tell you what. 'Two of Us' by The Beatles off Let It Be. That song made me
decide that I want to get married, for sure. I just thought that song was incredible. The way it was written and that's
the song I listened to on my first date with my girl. 'There There' by Radiohead. That song definitely changed how I
thought about a lot of things. There's a line in one of the songs; just a chorus where Thom Yorke says, 'Just
because you feel it, doesn't mean it's there.' That's incredibly depressing, but at the same time I thought it was just
very real. I thought it was brilliant. Those two are really important. There's so many songs, but all of Endtroducing,
DJ Shadow album. That album meant a lot to me. Mecca and the Soul Brother by Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth.

M: Now you're spitting out albums and s--t.

A: I can't help it.

R: It's like everything that's ever been released in Underground Hip Hop.

A: Yeah. I really think so. I want 'There There' to be played at my funeral and I want 'Just the Two of Us' to be
played at my wedding.

M: I'm going to pick one song...

R: Yeah.

M: ...because I don't cheat!

R: And because that was the question.

M: Yeah. I'm going to pick 'I Am, I Be' by De La Soul. (Laughter)

A: That ran through my head.

M: At that time, when I heard it, that was when Hip Hop was like Hip Hop. You could do whatever you want, but
nobody was doing that like that. Like that song is timeless. The music, what they said, and everything was like
perfect to me. I could listen to that song everyday for the rest of my life and it's just dope.

A: That is. That is one of my favorite songs. The Posdnous verse on that is like one of the best verses ever written!

D: Probably 'Good Feeling' by the Violin Fems [Spelling?] Just very personal for me because of the way he talks
about a perfect moment slipping away. That's just the way I'm always time traveling. I'm always reaching for
something that's just out of reach that just happened and I just don't want it to go away. That's what that song is all
about.

R: Alright. Oh, man!

A: Hold on. There's one last thing I'm going to say. The song, 'Latryx' by Latryx. That song right there actually is
what changed my whole entire view on Hip Hop. That's what inspires me to rap. That song is one of the greatest
Hip Hops songs ever and, I think, it's completely innovative. I still think no one can touch it! That's all.