Rockline Interview with U.P.O. April 16, 2001
Rockline: Joining us rite now: U.P.O. First lets introduce Shawn Albro. How are
you doing tonight Shawn?
Shawn: Im doing Awesome how ya doing?
Rockline: Im doing fine and Tommy Holt how are you dong this evening?
Tommy: Great to be here.
Rockline: Nice to have you here.
Talks with members of Chimaira.
Plays the U.P.O. song "Now You Want Me"
Rockline: Wow that sounded good. U.P.Os "Now You Want Me"
Rockline: Okay lets hit the phones we have Jessica in Oklahoma City. Welcome to Rockline Jessica.
Jessica: Hi, Um I like you guys a lot I actually listen to you on the KAT in Oklahoma City and I have a question. What does U.P.O actually stand for?
Shawn and Tommy laughs J
Rockline: You never been asked that before have you
Shawn: Weve been sworn to secrecy for about another 2 more months you know by the record label. Its actually just a we just threw it together. We got signed and we didnt have a name for the band so we just picked some letters and thought we go with it and come up with a name later. But Its actually stands for a lot of different things rite now and the way the fans keep hitting the web site they come up with better stuff than we thought of so were holding out yet .
Rockline: Its one of those things you can have a lot of fun with it.
Shawn: You can.
Tommy: Make one up.
Shawn: Yeah
Rockline: Go ahead and mention the website.
Shawn: Oh it just a upomusic.com or you can go to epic records and scroll through all the bands we are on there too.
Rockline: Were their any previous names Tommy that you guys kicked around?
Tommy: Um no It was always that.
Rockline: It was always U.P.O.
Shawn and Tommy: Yep..
Question for Chimaira
Rockline: We are going to take a call from Lea who is in Maryland. Welcome to Rockline Lea
Lea: Hi (sexy voice)
Rockline: You got the attention of every guy in the band. Both bands. Whats your question Lea.
Lea: Um, I think you guys are the coolest and I love you guys and my question is what is the wildest thing you all did on tour.
Rockline: Now Lea we have two bands here. We got U.P.O. and we got Chimaira. Who is the question for? Is it for Chimaira?
Lea: No, U.P.O.
Shawn: Um Tommy what was the wildest .
Tommy: Well um
Shawn: I tell you what one time we were doing a show, we were on tour with Creed and Seven dust and something and Creed cancelled that night so us and Seven dust split off and we played a show in Toledo.
Tommy: Oh God, It always gets crazy in Toledo
Shawn: And we just got a little out of control and we had to do a show the next night with STP. Aw man ..Lets just say there was scarring involved. We got hammered and I woke up in a pile of chains out under the bus it was great.
Tommy: Watch out for Toledo
Shawn: There is a lot of crazy things thats going on the road and it varies from time to time place to place. We have been fortunate we had a lot of good crazy times.
Goes to a break ..
Another phone question for Chimaira..
Rockline: Lets go to Oklahoma City and talk to Cecilia. Welcome to Rockline.
Cecilia: Hi, this question is for everybody. With the passing of Joey Ramone is there any rock stars that has died that you would like to jam with or meet?
Tommy: Oh my god there is so many
Rockline: Lets go around the room by name. Shawn you start us off.
Shawn: I think Janis Joplin would be cool to do a little something with..
Rockline: What did you have in mind?
Shawn: She rocked, I mean I wasnt around for her playing but just looking back at her video footage ..ah man she through down.
Rockline: Tommy what about you?
Tommy: Oh my god..everyone. Bonham, Moon, we have lost so many great people. Kurt Cobain that was brutal when we lost him but um yeah so many great people has past.
Continues on to Chimaira
Plays a song by Chimaira "Balls to the Wall" written by Accept (awesome song)
Continues with Chimaira
Rockline: Okay lets move on. Reno Nevada. Carin, Hi Carin
Carin: I wanted to ask you a question in both bands. How would you define the message that you were trying to get out in your music.
Shawn: I think you know..there are so many types of music that are out there rite now so many people are coping so many different vibes. I think if you just as a band you stick with what you know and if what you know is a certain thing and thats cool. If you got a message to say ..if you got something to say with your music, which a lot of bands do these days, you can be aggressive and you can be as a..you know ..hard and heavy as you wanna be, but at the end of the day I think you know keeping it positive even the heaviest of bands that are out there rite now still got a good message and still you know not about killing each other you know its about come and stand up for what you believe in. And you can be heavy and you can mosh and you can throw down with the best of them and still keep a positive note all the way through. So I think for the message for a some of the music and some of our music is definitely have a good time but its okay to help, heal and inspire people too and if you can do that with songs I think thats a cool thing. I think they have been doing that forever. A lot of good musicians, you know theres fly by night bands that come and go and stuff but I think the their music stands around forever the music I want to be a part of is make people think a least for a couple of seconds about what their doing and how their doing it.
Rockline: And that was Shawn from U.P.O.
Plays the song "Godless"
Rockline: Now thats a fine song "Godless" by U.P.O. Were gonna take a time out
Goes on break
Rockline: Time to say goodbye. I like to thank Shawn and Tommy of U.P.O. When will we have a new U.P.O.?
Shawn: Were hoping oh man hopefully this summer, definitely I mean its got to be before August. We just have so many songs we are rifling through you know were just trying to ..
Tommy: Its in the mix
Shawn: Yeah its in the mix
Rockline: When the U.P.O. album is done come back.
Shawn: Definitely