Can we start off with a little history on you guys? You've been together awhile. 
Flynn: We have been together I guess about 7 years now. We all had been doing our own thing before this, whether it be solo stuff or whatever. Some of the members were in other groups as well. We just kept running into each other at shows and stuff and eventually we just started meeting over at Cookbook's house and having barbecues and stuff and one thing led to another and we started making music together. Eventually we just kinda crewed up as LA Symphony. 

You guys have quite a story since you got together, few bands have had as many hassles as you guys have. 
Joey: God's chosen! (laughter) Cookbook: Thanks for bringing that up man, we really appreciate that! (laughter) Now you guys were really being hyped for a release on Squint Records almost 2 years ago and then there was a buyout and the record was shelved. Do you guys have any rights to that at all or is it just locked up for ever? Flynn: Basically. It's for sale if you want to buy it, it's just a little bit more than what we got so we thought we'd let the past be the past. Unfortunately that album will come out if Word decides that want to capitalize on it. That's Word Music Group/Warner Bros., they have it. 

Are you concerned that if "The End is Now" blows up that they will "cash in" on your success? 
Flynn: Yeah, we don't really have a problem with that because the people we are working with now will capitalize off of any of the buzz that Word/Squint had created back then. You know what I mean? 50 Cent is the same thing. He had an album with Columbia that was shelved and I'm sure now there's much more incentive for Columbia to release that album. 

"The End is Now" is on Basement Productions and Gotee Records. What made those 2 labels right for you guys? After all your past label troubles, what made you comfortable enough to deal with them? 
(laughter) Joey: We had gone through a lot of scenarios in our own heads. We had a meeting once about putting the record ourselves and trying to figure that out and stuff. For us I think that it was just a matter of, well with Basement we had been working with him for distribution of "Composition #1" for a long time. The guy was doing a great thing and he had a nice distribution channel. It just made sense. He's a nice guy and we trust him and so we rolled with him. With Gotee, we have just always had a good relationship with their artists as well as their staff. People that are with Gotee are definitely friends of ours. We like the way they are doing things and we like the things they are doing in our area and market so it just made sense. 

Since this a "fresh start" of sorts for LA Symphony, what do you hope you bring to music that is fresh or that may be missing right now?
 Joey: I think that just the genuine, honest, "This is my heart. This is what I feel." attitude in your Christianity and in your music and in the whole gamut of things. I think that a lot of Christian music is... I don't want to say the same but things have already been tackled... I don't know. For us we just want to express what's in our hearts and how we feel about real things and about real life and about real days and not be so propaganda-y about... you know what I mean? I feel our music is more expression than guidance and a lot Christian bands are more about guidance or grace or something. We just write from our hearts and what we feel more or less. 

With the "The End is Now" being fresh into the market, I'm curious about what you think about the Hip-Hop market now? What do you see that you would like to see changed or that is good in the market you just entered? 
Joey: I would say that I think that there are so many markets within the Hip Hop genre, like radio Hip Hop and backpackers Hip Hop and I would say that a lot of it is detrimental and not so uplifting or positive. If it is those things than it's often hidden in "smoke weed" and "drink liquor" and "have sex" or whatever and I think that that's not everyone's reality. It's just not everyone's life. Like I said, we are more of an expression kinda group and you can't...I guess you can feel when you smoke weed but it's just... I don't know. I think that with so many genres within the genre, or phases of it, it's just kinda hard to say where it is right now. Flynn: When you think about Hip-Hop in the last 10 years it has become like this huge monster. I look back a decade ago when De La Soul and Tribe Called Quest and groups like that were hot to us and they were "not even pushing platinum" but they were like the hugest thing in Hip-Hop at the time. We have seen it grow so much that there is now this ultimate expectation on a major label group to sell like to platinum. With that comes this whole cookie cutter commercialism expectation that I don't think was on Hip-Hop as much before then. So now you got somebody like 50 Cent. He got shot 9 times! That's part of his gimmick, part of his pitch, part of his commercial viability. It's like good lord man! What are we supposed to all be like Arnold Schwarzenegger action heroes to sell records?! (laughter for a long time) What about the music? What about that? You know what I'm sayin'? It's definitely a weird time and a weird position for Hip-Hop but everything goes in cycles. We make music that we like and I think that with this album we wanted to take our sense of humor, our sarcasm, and even our cynicism combined with our lyrical abilities combined with maybe sonically enhancing the quality of our music to kind of make it commercially viable but yet not sell out what we are about. And also not to try and shoot any of us 9 times to sell records. (laughter) I'm not saying 50 Cent got shot 9 times to sell records but they definitely capitalized off of that. 

Do you feel that you have more of an "uphill climb" because you have chosen to go a different route? 
Uno Mass: I would have to say yes definitely just because of what's popular in Hip-Hop now. What's popular is so cookie cutter and one way that if you don't come in one way, like what Joey was saying with coming with the "bling bling" or the "hoes" or whatever, then it's not accepted. It's like, "What is this? "and they don't look at it. They don't look at it as art and your expression they just look at what is selling right now and what the mainstream has accepted and what they buy. It's always gonna be harder to project an image that's not the norm. I think that it's hard but you just continue to make good music and continue to be true to who you are. The mainstream is just so cookie cutter right now that it's hard for an artist to come in from a different angle or whatever and breakthrough and be successful. Cookbook: To just add to that let me say that I'm thankful for groups like Outkast that have never done anything like anyone else but still come with hits and still sell a lot records and are still able to do that. That gives us hope that if we have something different to say that there is a place in the whole mainstream of music where good music is still good music and it can transcend. Joey: I would also say that people listen to different music for different reasons. Some audiences are listening to totally escape and the guy that comes on stage and says, "Hey, who smokes weed!?", some people want that. Some people want to smoke more weed and totally escape and the music is just a byproduct to them. To them, they can listen to anything if it's being done by a guy who is promoting their escapism and that's why they listen to music and why they live there lives that way. Some people listen to do different things and I think that right now there is a huge generation of people who are totally listening to escape and I think that sales project that "action hero guy" like Flynn said. Getting shot 9 times or whatever, people follow that as if it's a movie. You know what I mean? Some people are listening to be enlightened and some for other reasons. I think that with the music we make it is harder because we don't have a gimmick. Most people have a gimmick and I couldn't tell you what ours is. I think we just make music that we feel so I don't know. 

With so many members, how do you guys approach songwriting? Are their main writers or do you each take lead at different times or what? 
Cookbook: Yeah, each of us writes. We do it in a few different ways but usually a couple of us in the crew make a lot of the beats and then we all just select which beats we like. At that point we decide whether we are all gonna be on the song or just a couple of us. Once the decision is made we all write our own parts, then it's just deciding whether you are gonna write 8 lines or 4 lines or whatever. We all contribute, no one writes each other's raps or anything like that. We come up with a concept and then everyone writes what their viewpoint is on that concept. 

Do you feel like having so many members brings out your best? In a way, maybe everyone is trying to step it up and be "better" than the next guy. 
Joey: I would say it definitely challenges me to want to be better and to not be complacent with where I am and to do something different knowing that everyone is else is going to continually grow and continually do something different. I don't want to standout as the one who is not changing and doing something different when are others are. Iron sharpens iron and we are all writing and all growing and so that challenges you to continually grow. 

What song off the album do you each feel closest to? 
Flynn: I feel closest to "I Can't Have Her" because it's my life story dude. (laughter for a long time) Enough said. Cookbook: I think a couple of standouts for me are "Ladyluck", because of the theme of doing what we do regardless of any criticism, and also "Charlie Brown" and some of the songs where we have just been able to get it off our chest and express the things that we have been going through. I think that those are ones I connect with knowing that time that we went through and not being able to release that. Joey: I want to say "Wonderful" and "Ghana Homage" for me. At the time we did those songs and for so long it was just hard. It was hard to write songs and to listen to music and to read music news and to talk to your friends who are getting signed and putting records out. That was a good 3-year span that was ridiculous in my life. It was devastating to me and I was really frustrated. Through writing those songs I feel like I learned something about myself. They helped me get that out and for me personally those are the most honest songs about how I felt on the record. Uno Mass: I think for me "Gonna Be Alright" and the "Gonna Be Alright" remix. They are just fun songs and for me it's another view of the way things were. Some of the songs on this album are more just talkin' about what we've been through and what we've experienced and that song just looks at it from the positive side that we are still here and still making good music. So, that would be the song for me. 

How do you hope people feel after listening to "The End is Now"? 
Cookbook: I hope they feel like they enjoyed it and that it was worth the money they spent! (laughter) Joey: That's a good question. With every other record we've made my answer would totally be that I want them to feel like they have sat down with us. With this record though it's just so reflective of a time that was so hard. I guess I'd want them to feel like they have listened to us talk for an hour or so. Uno Mass: Good answer. Flynn: From where we are coming from we just hope that we create music that people are genuinely gonna like and want to play again and again. Also, I think there's some stuff that we've said, our expression of what we've been through, that people, whether they have been through a record deal battle or a breakup with their significant other or whatever, I think that it's good as humans to be able to say, "Wow. Other people have gone through pain. Other people have gone through confusion." Whether or not they have experienced our kind of confusion and frustration or not, I hope that they can kinda say, "yeah, I can feel that. I know what that dudes talking about." To me it's a comforting fact that you're not alone in the "human struggle". I'm not saying our struggle is... we haven't been in a concentration camp or anything... it's just what we've gone through. Cookbook: Just to add to that, I totally agree with what Flynn is saying. I think the word for me is just "connected". I hope they feel connected to that common struggle or whatever that we have gone through. We just want to keep it real you know? Keep it bling bling! (laughter)

Any tour plans coming up? 
Flynn: Yes. We are going to be going out with Living Legends and the Percussions at the end of January. In February we are going out on our own routing thing. In March, April, and May we'll be out with Out of Eden. 

Parting thoughts? 
Flynn: Just that life is full of challenges and change. Change is the only constant in life really so we definitely have to be prepared for it. We have learned that. Just keep doing what you're doing and what you feel is right in your gut. Joey: That's mine too! Cookbook: That was deep Flynn, I'm gonna roll with that, too. (laughter) Flynn: Uno, you down with that? Uno Mass: yeah. Flynn: Alright! That's my five-dollar thought for the day! (laughter) Can I get my five bucks? (laughter)