ÿþRadioTakeover Interview with My American Heart

<br><br><b>RTO:</b>  you guys are definitely a band that's starting to carry the san diego music scene. how does it feel to finally be getting out there for everyone to hear you guys?( <br><b>Larry:</b>  we've been in the scene for almost 4 years now and the fan base is growing. there's nothing like coming home from a tour playing your home town, having people there that's been loyal since day one and also new fans showing up and being open minded. we've wanted this for a long time and it seems like things are coming together. it feels great.
<br><br><b>RTO:</b>  how has the san diego-area influenced your music? has being a san diego band helped you guys out any?( <br><b>Larry:</b>  if it werent for a few bands in san diego, we wouldnt have gone anywhere or kept going. our band was originally a larger than life cover band and it got serious. we started listening to noise ratchet and counterfit a lot and watching them grow from nothing to huge totally motivated us. those bands definately influenced us in so many ways. besides the amazing weather in sd, the opportunities of san diego >venues and promoters has definately helped us out in so many ways.
<br><br><b>RTO:</b>  my american heart recently played the taste of chaos.what was that like? ( <br><b>Larry:</b>  it was a great experience. the drives in our van and what we were doing everyday definately toughened us up quite a bit. playing acoustic which we have never done before and had no time to mess with was seriously an interesting experience, it was tough but the exposure and you being more intimate with your music to the fans made me appreciate the acoustic approach a lot more. it's tough, more focus on vocals if anything and definately motivated me to focus more on technique. it was an enlightening experience and a good time.
<br><br><b>RTO:</b>  do you think the overall reaction from kids at the shows was a good one?( <br><b>Larry:</b>  i think it was, people got to see us more intimately and also people who have never heard of us got the feel of songs weve had and got to hear them in a toned down state, no loud guitars, no loud drums, just an eased down environment.
<br><br><b>RTO:</b>  are you finding that since the band has done several tours now that more and more kids are starting to get into the music and approach the band?( <br><b>Larry:</b>  i think the more you tour, depending on which markets you are hitting, your listeners will continue to grow. not only touring but the promoting around the venues and on the internet has helped us in so many ways.reaching more audience and them judging by their taste, not everyone is gonna like you but some may and people just being open minded in general seriously make me happy.
<br><br><b>RTO:</b>  my american heart in general is pretty young.how old are all of you guys exactly? and how has it been being younger than most of an already pretty young scene?( <br><b>Larry:</b>  we have a new temporary bass player who is 20, jesse is 17 and so is steven. i turn 18 may 28, jeremy is already 18. we are still little kids or so i'd like to think so. age aint nothing but a numba! this scene is really young. i'm just like one of them being this age and i've never considered myself to be anything more than a fan of music just like anyone else. some people grow and some dont. luckily the band is on the same page as acting our age is concerned and growing as musicians.
<br><br><b>RTO:</b>  do you think being young works to your advantage? or do you think of it more as a deterrent?( <br><b>Larry:</b>  some people marvel at us being so young and producing a mature sound but to me, again age is just a number, its not about age, its about what you know and how much you can grow and understand your instrument and how serious you take it. you really do get what you put in. just non stop practicing and reading has helped us in so many ways. in all honesty though being young is the hype we've gotten a lot of, and it has helped us in a lot of ways but has scared lots of people like industry away as well. it works both ways.
<br><br><b>RTO:</b>  you guys were formally called "no way out," why'd you decide to change your name?( <br><b>Larry:</b>  no way out was the name of 20 other bands we had no idea about, we were getting threatened by a bunch of people using that name, we also felt that was the old us, we started making a sound for ourselves for the ep we put out as my american heart. we felt it was more mature and totally fitted us.a bunch of mixed asian mexican white kids that are american regardless of ethnicity. we get so much shit for it though. "haha but you guys are all asian and mexican blah blah blah bullshit" so we get killer names like my asian heart, or my filipino heart. its pretty sicccck. i dont mind it though.
<br><br><b>RTO:</b>  the demo or ep, whichever you prefer calling it, i've heard people refer to it as both, has done really well sales-wise on sites like smartpunk.com.how rewarding is it to see something like that happening for your band?( <br><b>Larry:</b>  its an ep to me. surprisingly has done better than i thought it would on smartpunk.com. it seriously gives me chills knowing someone took their mom or dads credit card or even their own to buy what we've made, i couldn't be happier knowing people want to listen to our band and actually pay for it.
<br><br><b>RTO:</b>  you guys expect to release a new record this summer.tell me a little bit about this? will it be another ep or just a full-length?( <br><b>Larry:</b>  we will be releasing our first full length "the meaning in make up" in september. produced by sal villanueva (takingbacksunday, thursday) and mixed by matt squier (thereceivingendofsirens, northstar, thrice) which is being put out by kevin lyman (warped tour) and bob chiappardi(concrete marketing). we seriously have the best team we could have ever asked for.this cd is currently being recorded, and its seriously coming out as the best work we've ever done. the cd has a lot to do with who you are as a person and figuring that out. it's shaping out really well.
<br><br><b>RTO:</b>  what are you expectations in releasing the record?( <br><b>Larry:</b>  i just want people to hear how much we've grown regardless if they like it or not. get on tours and reach as many audiences as we can.
<br><br><b>RTO:</b>  my american heart is on the vans warped tour this year? give us some specifics. are you playing the whole tour? just some dates.what's the deal? ( <br><b>Larry:</b>  we are playing all of warped tour on the ernie ball stage. we are so freaking lucky! it's been a dream of mine to just play a date of warped since being in this band and to see it actually happening makes me really excited.
<br><br><b>RTO:</b>  how stoked are you guys to be on this tour? what do you expect from it?( <br><b>Larry:</b>  we will be promoting our full length coming out on warped and hopefully it pays off. i really dont know what to expect, we never played more than two days on warped so hopefully something good comes from it. i dont think getting exposure would hurt at all. 
<br><br><b>RTO:</b>  any other bands on warped tour you think are worthy of people checking out? ( <br><b>Larry:</b>  there are so many good bands this year, i dont have the roster but from the top of my head the recieving end of sirens as well as circa survive are seriously what i am most excited about watching. 
<br><br><b>RTO:</b>  in the next year what do you think you guys will accomplish overall?( <br><b>Larry:</b>  we want to reach out to and touch as many people as possible with our music. that's basically it.