Plain White T’s

Bobby: Ok, first can you please state your name and position in the band?

Tom: My name is Tom Higgenson, and I sing and play guitar in the Plain White T’s.

Bobby: How did you guys all meet?

Tom: We actually met in high school. We were just kinda friends who, you know we were in various other bands and just kinda played music together. And we just decided to start the Plain White T’s.

Bobby: How did you come up with the name?

Tom: We actually, we had a few names that we were choosing from. One of them was Plain White T’s and I was looking through some of my favorite bands’ cd booklets and stuff. In every cd booklet there was a picture of the band, like a member of the band wearing a plain white t-shirt. So I was just kinda like “Ya, this is cool” and we just went with it.

Bobby: What were some of the other ideas for names you had? Do you remember them?

Tom: Ummm Shoot, I don’t even remember now. “Where’s Arnie?” was one of them. Ummmmm, geez I don’t even remember.

Bobby: Ok. How did you get in contact with Fearless?

Tom: They heard our record and they just really liked it and Bob, the owner of Fearless, he wanted to meet with us. He took us out to dinner and just talked to us and everything went well. So, you know, we really liked Bob and everything he had to say. So we just went with fearless.

Bobby: So you just released your album “Stop”. What would you say is your favorite song on it?

Tom: My favorite song? Geez, umm, I don’t know its hard for me because like they’re our songs and it hard for me to pick like which is my favorite. I like “Shine”, that’s a good song. I like the song “Penny” and umm, I dunno. “Radios In Heaven”, I like them all, you know?

Bobby: Ya, that’s good. Why did you decide to name the album “Stop”?

Tom: We wanted the song “Stop” to be the first song on the record. We thought of the whole art work with the stop sign and the cars and all of it. Everything in motion and stuff. We just figured that would be a good name. It went along with the theme you know.

Bobby: Ya. On your bio it says that you write most of the songs. Did you write all of them, or which ones did you write?

Tom: Ya, you know. I write out all the lyrics and I usually write all the song. Some times Steve, our other guitar player, will come up with like a guitar hook or something and he’ll show it to me and I’ll take it and write the song around it. But otherwise its just me, you know, I just come up with most of the stuff.

Bobby: That’s good, your bio also says that you like to watch movies.

Tom: *laughs* Ya-ya, yes.

Bobby: What would you say your favorite ones are?

Tom: Umm, my favorite ones? I’m a big Audrey Hepburn fan like “Roman Holiday”, “Breakfast at Tiffanys”. Let’s see… One of my newer favorite movies, I saw “Vanilla Sky”. I liked that movie a lot.

Bobby: Ya, that’s a good movie.

Tom: “It’s A Wonderful Life”. I don’t know, I have a to many of those.

Bobby: Ya, so you have a lot.

Tom: Ya.

Bobby: It also said that you are a vegetarian right?

Tom: ya, ya.

Bobby: Do you just not like the taste of meat like some people, or are you against animal cruelty and all that stuff?

Tom: Kinda the animal thing. I used to eat meat, of course, and I enjoyed it. Buts its like… One time I bit into a bone in a hamburger and I just kinda thought about, you know the bone was from like a cow, that was alive. I just kinda thought about it for the first time, like what I was actually eating. I don’t know, it grossed me out and I haven’t eating meat since then.

Bobby: Who gave you the nickname “Higgensteen”?

Tom: *laughs* You know, actually our manager, cause I’m a big Bruce Springsteen fan. And my last name’s Higgenson and I don’t know. He thought it was funny to call me “Higgensteen” because I was so big into Bruce Springsteen. So, its kinda funny.

Bobby: Have you ever seen him live?

Tom: I actually did. A few weeks ago actually. We were at home, in Chicago and I won tickets on Ebay. He was playing in St. Louis. So I won tickets on Ebay to go see him in St. Louis. So me and the drummer, Dave, drove down to St. Louis to see the show. It was unbelievable.

Bobby: That’s good, if you could pick anyone, dead or alive, to tour with, who would you pick?

Tom: Wow…, I don’t know. Bruce Springsteen would be awesome. Ahhh, geez. I don’t even know man, that’s a hard question. I mean, we’ve done a couple tours with Sugarcult and Jimmy Eat World. Those two are just amazing. Either one of those two would just be great to play with again. I know Steve, our guitar player, loves Green Day. That’s his favorite band, you know, it would be awesome to tour with those guys. I don’t know.

Bobby: Ya, Green Day are awesome. What would you say to try and convince someone to buy your album?

Tom: To try and convince somebody to buy the album? Umm, I don’t know. (Tom then asks the questions to some guys in the background, I do not know who they are. One of them says: “Buy the album, I’ll give you my address, if you don’t like it I’ll give you your money back.” Another one ask: “Are you trying to convince someone to buy the album?” Tom replies: “No I’m not.” His attention comes back to me) Sometimes we do that actually at shows. Like I’ll just tell somebody “Hey, did you see us play?” and if they didn’t I like try to get them to buy the record. And I’ll say “If you don’t like it, next time we come through here, bring it back and I’ll give you your money back.” You know?

Bobby: Ya, that’s a good way to get your music out.

Tom: Ya, well you know, we just try and get as many people as possible listening to it.

Bobby: Yep. Why did you decided to become a musician?

Tom: Ummmmmmmm, well. I don’t know. I just knew I could do it I knew I had a talent for it. In high school I started playing the drums, I started playing the guitar. And its like I understood music and I love music. Once I started writing songs I was like “Wow, I can do this” and I knew if I tried hard enough I could make something out of it. I just got it into my head that’s just something I wanted to do. And that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.

Bobby: Do you have any advice for young musicians?

Tom: Just do it. I think you can do anything if you believe. If you, like truly try your hardest, your not going to fail. If you really want to be in a band, if you really want to be a musician, just do it and don’t stop intill your there or as good as you can be.

Bobby: How has the success of being in a band changed your life so far?

Tom: I don’t know, I don’t think we are really that successful yet. Its just, you know, we’ve just been on tour a lot. Which has been awesome, meeting a lot of cool bands and cool people. And its just cool to meet people out there that are doing the same thing your doing. Just in bands, trying to make a living and trying to get their music out there. And just do their thing. Its cool to see other people like us out there and its like, I don’t know. We’ve met a lot of people, like fans as well, just people who are getting into out music and understanding what were doing as a band. There’s a lot of cool people out there and its cool that we get the chance to go on tour and you know, play in front of different people every night. It’s a cool thing.

Bobby: Now a days you can find almost any song you want on the internet, Kazaa, Morpheus, used to be Napster, stuff like that. How do you feel about that?

Tom: I’m not too worried about it. I mean, I think its kinda cool. Its like if somebody has heard of us but cant find the cd or wants to hear our music before they get the cd, well then chances are they can go online and find the songs somewhere or something. I mean sure in the long run, we might not sell as many cds, but people have easier access to our songs. So we’ll probably have more fans, cause our songs will be out there, easy to get. So if they hear of us they can go online and get the song and listen to it and maybe they’ll like us and maybe they’ll come to a show, and then maybe thet’ll buy a CD or maybe a shirt or something. The fact that they might like the song, get something out of the song is cool.

Bobby: Do you guys have plans on recording a music video anytime soon?

Tom: Ya, actually I think we are going to try and do a video for the song “Stop”. And I mean, we are just gonna do it. We’ve actually kinda tried a couple times, trying to get a hang of it. With friends who would go to school for video stuff, film school or what-not. And I don’t know *laughs* I guess I’m just talking around the question. But yes, we are gonna try and do a video for “Stop” and I mean we’ll just, hopefully, try and try intill we get it right.

Bobby: Do you have any ideas on what you want to do it about?

Tom: Dave, our drummer, was coming up with some ideas and I’m not really sure. We haven’t really sat down and talked about it. You know, what we really want to do. No real set idea yet I guess.

Bobby: What would you say are some of your favorite bands out there at this moment?

Tom: We like The Strokes a lot, we like Jimmy Eat World, Saves The Day, The Exits, The Stereo, ummmm, who else? *thinks about it for a bit* I don’t know. I mean theres more I’m sure, but thast all I’m thinking off.

Bobby: A couple more questions I guess. Now a days, on chat boards, message boards, things like that, you always see the terms sell-outs, things like that, what do you think about that?

Tom: Umm, I don’t know. I don’t think anyone can really say that about us, we haven’t really done anything to see out..

Bobby: No, I meant not necessarily you, but on a whole, what do you think about that?

Tom: O, I see what your saying. I think its kinda lame, I mean people are in a band, your making music, so that people can hear your music. And you know, for most artists out there, that’s the goal: to get people to hear the music and appreciate it, understand it. To have a connection between the artist and the listener, and I think the bigger you get, the more successful you get of that, the more people are hearing the music and the more people you are connecting with. People associate that a lot with money but I don’t think it necessarily has to be about that. Money usually comes along with getting more fans and getting bigger and more successful as a band. I think the big thing is all about reaching people, and if you can reach more people, then that’s the whole point.

Bobby: I guess that’s about it, do you have anything you want to say, any shout outs?

Tom: *laughs* I don’t know, we can plug the website, www.plainwhitets.com and we are going to be on tour the next few months intill Christmas so hopefully we’ll be getting out to wherever your at, and where ever the kids reading this are at.

Bobby: OK, that’s it. Thanks for doing it.

Tom: Ya, thank you man, I’m glad you got a hold of me.