Anonymous asked: In the opening of "Blue day for Croatoa" there is what sounds to be words spoken by a woman then a whispered reply from a man. If there is, what is it that is being said? or am I just hearing voices?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLaTmro5MfE

Anonymous asked: Do you guys ever play "bad shows"? By that I mean, do you ever play shows that you don't feel you performed your best at, or were sloppy? What do you do to recover from this? ie; practice more, take time off, write more? what was the worst show you ever playeds?

Sure, we play bad shows all the time. The way we recover is by trying to do better the next night. Sometimes on tour you just make mistakes because you’re tired, but the upside is that you get to try again the next day. Since the vast majority of shows we play are on tour and not one at a time, you just have to keep going. And anyway, it usually takes 3-4 shows on a tour before we hit our stride and start playing really well. Many times it’s not actual mistakes or sloppiness so much as a low energy level or feeling of distance from the audience that’s most frustrating.

I don’t know about worst show we’ve ever played. When I think “worst” I don’t just think about making mistakes, I think about awkward or dangerous situations, and maybe not eating, or sleeping outside. How you play is a passing moment. It’s better to not worry too much about it and just do your best. Most times when we remark to people that we thought we played poorly, they’ll say they didn’t notice anything was wrong.

Anonymous asked: hey! i was wondering, what is the cover of Wake/Lift supposed to be?

It’s a transmission tower motif that Paul Romano created, after having some conversation with Matt about the Roxborough Tower Farm in Philadelphia. It’s on Domino Lane in Philadelphia, you can Google-map it.

Anonymous asked: Hey I'm a drummer and was wondering if you all had any tips on drumming or anything that you could recommend looking at

One of the best things you can do is to get a practice pad, and find a way to strap it to your chest (marching band style) so that you can play blast beats (no fills) while you go jogging. We have been urging BJ to do this so that the rest of us can spend less time at practice while he figures out the latest 13/6 polyrhythm.

Anonymous asked: Question for Matt, how can I hold the ambient sound of delay (feedback on max) in loop A and play over this sound distorted parts that are coming direct from the amp?

You can’t, at least not in the way that I have my setup configured (with all effects in front of the amp). To do this, you would need a mixable multi-loop FX setup in the FX loop of a channel-switching amp.

Anonymous asked: It's probably a bit (read: very) out of the way for you guys, but have you ever considered touring Australia again in the future? Or do the logistics and cost involved with touring very far outside of the traditional US/Europe route render this improbable?

Actually, Australia was our first overseas tour, and we had a great time. It’s been a long time since then, admittedly; and plane tickets are more expensive now, but we’d still like to come back if we can make it work.

Anonymous asked: Have you guys ever played So Warm A Solitude live? Do you intend to? Jesus Christ just to imagine. Ivan (Budapest)

Nope. At this point, the songs we haven’t and won’t ever play live are: anything from TGS disc 2, Project Mercury, (Temet Nosce), Homesick, So Warm a Solitude, Blue Day for Croatoa, and the Soundgarden Cover.

We have now played Monument live at least 5 times.

Anonymous asked: Do you still have any shirts by Santos Illustrations from the European tour for sale? Preferably Size Small. Price? Contact?

Nope, they’re all sold out, sorry. It’s possible there could be a reprint in the future, but there are no plans for it at the moment. Santos does killer work though, so I’m sure that there will be more designs from him in the future.

As Armine mentioned, Rosetta and Kings Destroy will be doing a short Europe run next summer, from June 29th to July 16th.  If you’re interested in doing a show, please email mike.persilbooking@gmail.com