In advance of their Australian Tour, our own Dane Wang chatted to the drummer of New York's Brand New - Brian Lane. He picked his brain on music downloads, the upcoming tour, tattoos and their latest album, "Daisy".

Dane Wang: Hey Brian, thanks for speaking with us!

Brian: No worries.

How have fans responded to songs off "Daisy" live?

Pretty well, we’ve only been on tour for two months since "Daisy", and of course the more you go on tour the more chance you get to play live... Songs such as "Gasoline" and "At The Bottom", I think those are the songs that people react to the most.

What was the writing process like? How did it differ from "The Devil and God"?

It didn’t really differ that much, the only real big difference was that we were able to record it in our homes; we didn’t have to go away. Everything was much more relaxed - we didn't have to worry about studio time - and I think that played a big role in the writing. Otherwise the whole writing process was the same: we’d go in, we’d hash out some songs - maybe twenty or thirty songs - and then we’d record the album over a month or two. That’d be it.

What was the main theme and inspiration for "Daisy"?

There’s never a main theme in what we do. I mean, I think a lot of "Daisy" has more to do with a certain chapter coming to a close, and all the songs kind of reflect that.

You chose to work with Mike Sapone again, is he like the sixth member of Brand New?

Yeah, totally, he’s been our friend for a long time. He’s a producer that we all recorded with when we were in bands at sixteen year old. He’s been with us for a long time and he’s a good friend. We recorded every single thing with him, pretty much. He writes, we write, he comes up with production ideas. He’s definitely the sixth member of the band.

How do you feel about people with Brand New tattoos?

I think it’s cool and flattering. It’s a great time to be able to create music which has such an affect on people that they want to tattoo it on their body. I think it’s a great thing.

What did you listen to while growing up? Do you believe that has influenced your style today?

No, I think all of us kind of go through phases and listen to different things at different times. Because we hang out a lot together I think we all get into what each other listen to at that time, so we all go in cycles of different waves. I don't think anything we’ve listened to individually has done anything, but it’s the fact that we just listen to different things.

You guys are heading down to Australia very soon, what are you looking forward to most while you’re here?

Haha, damn... The sun, we’re very excited! Australia’s always a great place to be. We love being there and we love hanging out in Australia, and that it takes so long for us to get there but it’s worth it for us to go back because we have fun every time we do. I’m just looking forward to being there in general and hanging out there again.

I still remember your first Australian tour in '07 when you played at the Roundhouse, it was the night of my 18th Birthday and it is still the best concert I’ve ever been to. I even got "Seventy Times 7" tattooed on my ankle.

Haha, sorry about that.

Nah, I love it!

But basically, what sort of setlist can we expect from your shows next week?

We have no idea; we haven’t made a setlist in a while. We have a main song list alright, 'we can play this on tour', but we just go up there and add what we want to do and what we want to play, depending on the mood. We know what songs we will play but we just never know what order. So we'll mix it up from all four records, for sure.

Is there any chance of playing "Seventy Times 7"

There’s always a chance, but we won’t know until the night!

I read in an interview that you said you were unsure about how to release future music with technology being a huge factor, what is your opinion on free digital downloads?

I have no problem with that, I think it’s great that people can share music like that; I think it’s endless. The internet makes everything an endless opportunity to share and discover new music and I think it’s a great thing. People think certain artists, when they sign to a major label, in general only ever see money from record sales. But the only people making money on records are the labels, but if you’re able to share your music and people are able to find out about it, even from word of mouth, I think that’s really cool.

Have you thought about writing another pop-punk record? Maybe just a few songs even?

Hahaha! Umm, we never think about writing a certain kind of record so I can’t really say. I mean, we all write pop music, so it’s not unheard of I guess.

You’ve been a band for nearly a decade, constantly touring and playing music. Do you plan on taking a break anytime soon or do you feel you can do this for another 10 years.

I think Brand New will always be a band, I don't think there’s any reason not to be. I don’t think we’ll be a band that will just be touring nine or ten months out of the year. But I don't think we’ll ever stop making music together or putting out records and doing what a band should be doing.

That is so great to hear.
Finally, what are your plans for the rest of the year?

With that being said, we don’t really know. We’re going on tour for a week and a half just in the U.S. in April, then after that we’re going to take the summer off and do some restructuring, start writing and hopefully record at the end of the summer. We’re not really sure - everything’s up in the air right now.

Thank you so much for your time, Brian.

Yeah, of course man.

I look forward to seeing you next week, take care.

Cool, see you soon.