By Justuna Zurek-- Staff writer, Midwest

Cash Cash. Sound familiar? It should, since they've toured with the bands you know and love. Including Sing It Loud and Cobra Starship in the UK and now on tour with I-Rival, Queens Club, Breathe Carolina and Family Force 5. Their sound may be different, but their energy is even more vivid at their live shows. A 4 piece punk-pop band from New Jersey, sat down with us in Chicago on the very first day of the Dance Rawr Dance Tour.

JP: Do you want me to say a shout-out to your company or something?
JZ: Doesn't matter, whatever you want.
JP: What's the name of your website?
JZ: Musiqtone.com

JP: What's up guys, this is Jean Paul from Cash Cash and you're on musiqtone.com

JZ: Introduce yourselves and what you do in the band.
JP: Well I’m Jean Paul and I sing.
S: What up I’m Sam, and I play guitar and bass and sing.
A: Hey I’m Anthony and I play drums.
JP: You look like Side-Show bob, that side-show bob guy?
A: Where’s that sideshow bob guy?

JZ: How did the band get started?
JP:Umm me and sam started playing together in elementary school, in cover bands, jazz bands, we formed a punk, pop, punk-pop band.
S: yeah, we’ve been playing together ever since we basically learned how to play guitar together and stuff, and different versions of bands and stuff since like sixth grade. And then finally got this group together and a lot of what you see now, then a couple of years ago.
A: Yeah, yeah.

JZ: Ok, so you guys made an EP and then came out with the full-length. Are there any plans for a new record?
JP: Yeah, I mean, we’re working on some new songs right now, you know, coming up with ideas were not sure when were gonna release anything, but probably gonna do an EP sometime early next year or something.
S: yeah were just demoing right now getting all our ideas out and were gonna record in December, so we’re gonna see.

JZ: What are some of your influences that influence your writing?
JP: Life in general. Life is amazing, there are so many different things you can get influence by, from people, relationships, family, friends, movies, tv, a little of this and that.
S: We really try to take it all in, make it all come together, and yeah find new exciting things like everyday. We have some ideas coming to us.

JZ: Do you have any musical influences?
JP: No.

JZ: No?!

S: Well we found some guitars and influenced each other.
JP: No we like so many music from like 90s alternative to Nirvana to Goo Goo Dolls, Third Eye Blind, Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, Dolls in Chains, Beatles, Led Zeppelin, New Found Glory.
S: The Rocket Summer…
A,S,JP: Jimmy Eat World.
JP: Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Madonna.

JZ: Do you guys look up to anyone, musically?
S: There’s always people that like, are always gonna be a little bit star struck with, like the Goo Goo Dolls. Or like Jimmy Eat World.

JZ: So you went to the UK, how was that?
JP: It was awesome. We went with our friends Sing It Loud and Cobra Starship, they were all sold out show, and it was just crazy.
A: It was crazy that they were singing the words, and stuff over there.

JZ: have any memorable moments, fan moments?
JP: Memories…none that I can think of right now, a lot of crazy stuff especially on Warped Tour.
S: A lot of crazy stuff was thrown on stage at us at Warped Tour, a lot of unmentionables underwear and bras so yeah.

JZ: Yeah I saw that.
S: Well there you go, and yeah it was a lot of memories, especially with the UK, a lot of fans knew about us, and knew all the songs that we had no idea yeah.

JZ: is there any place you’d like to go?
S: Japan I think, Australia would be cool.
JP: yeah Indonesia, Pacific Islands, South America, Brazil maybe.

JZ: if you could change anything about the music business what would you change?
JP: I think it’s perfect the way it is.

JZ: I’ve heard different responses to that.
JP: No seriously, the music business is what you make it, you know, if you spend so much time just bitching about it, you don’t actually do anything about it. Now it’s all about finding your owns ways to be successful, that’s not necessarily relying on somebody else, you either have to have the passion and the desire and the work ethic to make it happen. Make your own business. Relying on the music business to decide your faith, as if relying on your own business to decide your success.
S: Yeah, there’s a million other ways now, that you can control. You can go from fully independent and reach just as many people, as if you did everything through a major label and a major corporation. So there’s like countless options in between you could do, and it’s really just finding the best way that suits your band.

JZ: Is there something you live by, day by day?
A: Probably drumming for me. Playing everyday. Just like getting to play the drums everyday. Playing music for people that are enjoying it and hearing it. That in itself is a lot of fun and keeps us all together, and keeps us doing what we’re doing.

JZ: What’s your favorite song to perform?
A: DYNAMITE. I call it! I’m calling it right now.
JP: Probably Sugar Rush or Party in your Bedroom, I don’t know.
S: Cascada, thirty seconds of that song, I like Sugar Rush a lot. It wasn’t a single or anything yet, but it seems to be a crowd favorite. We get such an amazing response. It’s awesome.

JZ: What makes your band unique from others?
JP&S: We’re the best! We’re the best ya’ll!
JP: No umm, well let’s see. What makes us different?
S: I’d say a lot was when we just started out we would always record ourselves. Like since we first started. We had this tape four track recorder that my mom wanted to throw out that I had to keep, but we’ve been recording since like eighth grade, so basically the bands like our peers, that people that we played with would leave on tours, you know when they could. If they had time from school, in the summertime and the wintertime, they always hit the road. We just stayed in the basement and recorded, so like going into, we’ve always been recording. So I feel like that set us apart for a little while, but I mean pretty much everyone records themselves now, since it’s really easy. And besides that….I don’t know.
JP: We’re a very hard working band. We design a lot of our own stuff.
S: We’re a very hands on, a lot of bands do that, a lot of the same attitude, but we’re really DIY even though we’re on a major label and everything, but we pretty much do everything, we produced the album basically ourselves, with the help of some people.

JZ: Who writes most of the music and lyrics?
JP: Usually Alex and I start with the random spark and then, once we feel like it’s something to present we put it together, and we bring it to the band and finish it.

JZ: So is there a specific process?
S: yeah it’s different…
JP: Every song is different.
S: yeah like some songs, just an acoustic guitar jam could start if off, or like keyboard or weird sounds and stuff.
JP: Or like some weird ideas, it’s just different for every song.

JZ: Where do you see the band in five years?
JP: Probably, I don’t know…
S: ISS International Space Station broadcast from Mars. Probably on the road still. Touring on album number five. Hopefully we’ll still be out here, touring and playing new music that long.

JZ: What is your obsession with Naked Juice?
A: I’m like over the NakedJuice.
S: Actually I haven’t had it in a while though.
A: We haven’t had it in a while, but we get it a lot, people just bring it to us, I’ve had so much of it now, but it tastes so good.
S: we’re always on tour, so we don’t eat as many healthy things, and that’s like 19 different fruits like shoved into a little bottle. It’s healthy and it tastes amazing. Keeps us going. It tastes good.

JZ: Do you have anything to say to your fans?
JP: Thank you. Come to a show, we’re different live than on CD, we kind of bring a different element. It’s way more like…I don’t even know.
S: Party time! Come out, we’ll be on tour for the rest of the year.