I typically do a lot of shopping the day after Christmas. This year was no different. First, I returned all of the gifts that I couldn't stand, and the various clothes that my family bought me that I'll never wear or fit into. Once I was finished with all of my exchanges, I finally had a good hunk of cash to spend on new CD's to ring in the New Year. I headed to Zia Records and purchased several records and CD's, including the latest release from Numbers On Napkins.

The album was scheduled for release in the summer of 2008, but had been postponed until December. To my surprise, Zia had yet to receive any copies of the album, and only had copies of the bands first two releases on their shelves. I considered heading to Best Buy, but decided to head back home and search to web for the CD instead. After searching online for the disc, I found that the album had once again been postponed until 2009. Being a huge fan of the band, I was very bummed. I had some Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket, and had been planning on buying the CD for months. I decided to get to the bottom of the issue, and emailed the band on their MySpace account to find out the reason for yet another delay. I figured that if I was going to drill them for info, I might as well get an interview out of it. After all, I can't be the only fan wondering why the disc has yet to be in my CD player. The band agreed to meet with me on December 30th at 7:00pm in the evening.

I made it to the home of Chase Stain, fashionably late at 7:30pm. As I entered the apartment, I noticed a pile of rugs, including three bear skin rungs and a wolf skin rug. A poker table was in the center of the dining room, and a variety of Native American weapons laid on top of the poker table, ranging from tomahawks and spears, to stone clubs and bows and arrows. A mountain lion rug laid folded on top of his refrigerator, and assorted finely detailed Kachina dolls in various sizes were lined up on the kitchen counters. Chase Stain was seating in one of three chairs in the living room as Matt Martini greeted me and invited me into the apartment with a grin on his scruffy bearded face. Stain stood up and said "hello", and proceeded to walk to the kitchen as he offered me something to drink. I accepted his offer of a Pepsi, and he tossed a bottle of Bud Light to Martini as he handed me my can of soda, and then took a can of Dr. Pepper for himself. The three of us then sat down in the three chairs in his living room, and Stain grabbed his remote and shut off his television. I set up my recorder and asked the two of them if they were ready to start the interview. They laughed and commented that "I didn't mess around" and the tattooed thin and gangly Stain gave me permission to begin.

I was puzzled as to why only half of the band was at Stain's apartment, and was wondering where NON's drummer, Tad Gurthman, and NON's guitarist and co-lead vocalist, Moe Money could be, and if they were in fact going to show up for the interview. The bands guitarist, Matt Martini seemed to be fairly buzzed, and smiled as he somewhat awkwardly sat down in his seat. Bassist and co-lead vocalist Chase Stain leaned back casually in his seat, as he kicked his feet up and put both hand behind his back to cradle his neck. Stain's various tattoo's seemed to stand out, do to the fact that he was wearing a black wife beater. I leaned in and pressed the start button on my recorder and officially started the interview.

Okay, I guess my first question is where is everyone?

Martini: Well Tad and Moe can't be here. Busy with the kids tonight. (Laughs) Busy with the kids. So you're stuck with me and Chase.

Stain: But we are the only two that really matter anyway. (Laughs)

Martini: Yeah (Laughs)

Ok. So I'm just going to start off with my big first question. What is going on with the new CD? Because it's delayed again. So what's the problem? I mean, is it ever going to come out?

Stain: (Laughs) Yeah, yeah. I assure you that it's coming out soon.

Martini: Dude, there's just been a lot of delays. I mean, I'm pretty much wondering if it's ever coming out too! (Laughs) It seems like every time it's about to come out something happens. Cuz... what... we finished recording it... like... what, over a year ago now?

Stain: Well not a year yet.... Well, actually maybe. Cuz we finished recording and mixing it... shit... yeah, I guess we did finish mixing it about a year ago now.

Martini: (Laughs) Yeah, that's what I'm saying! Like a year at least.

Well I know it was supposed to be out this summer, but was postponed until December, and now on your website it just says "Coming in 2009". So I was just curious what the delay is all about?

Stain: It's a bunch of different shit.

Martini: Well the label couldn't afford it at first, but then as soon as Chase came up with the cash, we got offers from some other labels. So we are actually waiting on a new.... like a new altered copy of the contract from our new label. Well maybe.... If they agree to our terms I guess.

Stain: So yeah, we are still negotiating with the new label.

So the new album isn't going to be on Bad Stain?

Martini: The first edition collector's pressing is gonna be on Bad Stain, and the regular pressing will be on F-Bomb Records, assuming that we sign the final contract. The collector's edition is going to be limited to 500 copies and contain an extra three bonus tracks. So basically, the album will be on F-Bomb.

Stain: The reason that it has taken so long is partly because of my money situation, and partly because we've been shopping out the new CD.

Martini: Well it did take us forever to record it. We had Joe Queer produce it, and we had to schedule things around his schedule. He actually only entered the studio once with us while he was on tour, but we would email him songs and then he'd give us his opinion. But while he was in the studio he helped out a lot. I was really stoked because he spent a long time on the only song that I wrote for the album, "Bad Decisions", and he really focused on everything about that song. He suggested didn't guitar tones that really improved the sound, and he changed a couple lines lyrically and now it just flows smoother.

Stain: When the recording was finished we sent out about fifty copies to different labels, but nobody got back to us.

Martini: Yeah, but that was a rough mix and was shit! Once we actually mixed it we got offers.

Stain: Yeah, my bad... Huge mistake sending those out. But then I created a fucking sick press kit with the new mix. Yeah, that was the first time I had ever even got a response from any label from sending a demo, and we had a few A & R Reps contact us with offers.

Martini: I think it was like a hundred labels, wasn't it?

Stain: Yeah, I think so, around that at least. Well, I sent like a hundred copies. We got offers from eleven I think. I just remember that we spent a couple grand mailing them out, cuz each press kit costs us like six bucks, and then three bucks to ship.

So what made you decide to leave Bad Stain?

Stain: Well, Bad Stain is basically my label, and Moe, Matt, and Tad all help me run it. Along with a few other friends. So we aren't a huge label. We wanted to find a label that could promote and distribute the album better than Bad Stain was capable of doing.

Martini: We did have some labels that seemed pretty interested in the new album. Universal Records almost put it out. Well... (Laughs) Not almost, but we also had and A & R rep call us and we ended up meeting with him and getting a contract to have our lawyer look at. But we made changes and Universal basically laughed at us and told us to fuck ourselves. And, shit... we had a couple small major, or I guess more like big independent labels interested.

Stain: Yeah. Like a week after Universal first contacted us we had another couple indie labels offer us deals. I think we had seven different deals that we took seriously, but something happened every time.

Martini: And of course that added to delays. When they came to us we had just got it mastered and we were about to go to press.

Stain: Yeah, cuz we waited to get it mastered. We hoped to get signed and then have the label pay for mastering.

Martini: Yeah, but like a week before we sent it out a bunch of labels contacted us. We figured that if Universal would agree to our terms, they had the resources to do a lot, and we thought it would be awesome.

Stain: But honestly, Universal wasn't a good fit because there were so many stipulations, and we couldn't agree to what they wanted.

Martini: Well I think that the A & R rep was totally stoked with us, but you could tell something was up. He basically asked us a bunch of crazy questions. Like we had to get all of the record sales paperwork together, like old invoices and shit. Then when we finely got the first draft of the contract it was totally fucked up in a lot of ways. Like they said that they thought that Chase should not be permitted to have a beard for some reason, and they wanted to tell us how to dress and shit. Which was really weird. So when we tried to negotiate, they just pulled the whole thing off the table. (Laughs)

Stain: Man, we tried to salvage some other deals, but nothing was good. Everything was kind of shady, or just plain crazy to sign. (Laughs) Like they always wanted too much money, or wanted us to sign for six years and not be allowed to release anything on any other label.... Like I wasn't allowed to release any more solo albums, and we couldn't have side projects or anything like that.

Martini: By the time we got everything figured out with the contracts it was the end of summer, so we pushed the date to December and decided to just put it out on Bad Stain.

Stain: Nothing was working out. My other company got robbed... Cuz see, pretty much all of the money I make from the label gets re-invested back into the label. I own a jewelry business with my father, and that's really how I make a living. That business was robbed and it really fucked me. Our salesman got away with around $835,000, so I had to use Bad Stain money to live on for a few months. Then my apartment was robbed and the crooks got away with $36,000 in music equipment. Basically all my gear, and my entire recording studio. Well, they actually took everything....even my daughters toys, old Christmas decorations, even my fucking underwear. So that really sucked cuz I lost pretty much everything that I owned. Then I totaled my car. Just a lot of crazy fucked up shit.

Martini: Yeah. (Laughs) Stay away from him! He's got literally the worst luck out of anyone I've ever known! (Laughs)

Stain: Well. Yeah. (Laughs) I suck. So basically I had nothing. I mean, I still really don't have anything. So I couldn't afford to put out the album in December and had to put it off until 2009. I realized that I may not be able to put it out for awhile, so I sent copies to some smaller labels. F-Bomb Records responded and they are very interested, and they are a good company. They have a great contract that pays fair, and they have a little bit more distribution than Bad Stain. We are in the middle of working things out and hopefully we'll sign the contract in a week or so.

Martini: I think the album will be out in May or June, assuming that everything works out and we don't have any more problems. (Laughs)

Stain: (Laughs) Shit....Knock on wood. It's fucking crazy how much shit has kept this from coming out. (Laughs)

So what's up next after you guys release the album? Are you planning a tour?

Stain: Well of course we will tour, but not non-stop. It'll be like short one or two week tours. Touring for like weeks at a time is just not possible for us right now.

Martini: Moe and Tad just had kids.

Stain: Yeah, and it's their first too.

Martini: Exactly, so... it's hard for them. Maybe in a few months we can go out for a bit longer, but just mini tours for a bit.

So are you guys planning on releasing several albums on F-Bomb, or is it just a single album contract? Like is this album F-Bomb, and then future albums back on Bad Stain?

Martini: I guess we'll see. It all depends.

Stain: Well this contract is for three years and one album. We don't know if we'll end up extending the albums and doing multiple releases for them. Depends on if they want to continue to work with us after this album comes out. I assume they'll make that decision when they see how album sales are. We have like six songs that we have semi-recorded, and we just need to lay down vocals and tweek a few guitar tracks here and there. We could probably release a follow up EP within 6-8 months of releasing Borrachos. Or maybe another full length within the first year.

Well I'm glad that I finally have the answers to my questions. Any future plans?

Martini: Get drunk and play some pool.

Stain: And I'm going to eat some pizza rolls and watch Dexter.