Are the fans always very hysterical?
Alex: Yes, not only in the United States, but also in Europe. We did some showcases in Scandinavia and young people would come and talk to us. It was cool, but none of this is impressive to us. We live in LA and there are much bigger stars there, they’re everywhere. People are less excited about us there, they’re more used to it. But I wouldn’t walk around a mall in Kansas, for example.

Don’t you think this posture about fame is a bit cynical?
Aaron: There’s no cynicism. We worked really hard to reach fame, day after day. We didn’t become a hit overnight – we wrote, rehearsed, played live for years to get here.
Alex: It all happened gradually. In eight months our lives turned into what we’ve always dreamed of. We’re always on tour and we got to visit 11 countries in a month.
Aaron: It ended up turning into a much bigger job than we thought it would be. And, with all the success, it keeps getting bigger and bigger. It’s such a shame nobody tells you you’ll have to stay away from home for months and months.

It seems like being away from home is a big pain for you...
Alex: Being away from our families and our friends is the biggest problem. Our girlfriends travel with us, which make everything easier. Otherwise, we’d be talking in the cell phone all the time.

You took a long time to get in studio, didn’t you?
Alex: We signed the deal five years before Camino Palmero was released. At the time I was 15, I was still in high school and the record label wouldn’t let us make a record. When I graduated, I thought the time had come. Still, they wouldn’t give us any money. They thought we weren’t ready. Wherever You Will Go was written four years ago, when we were really frustrated for not having an album yet. Since then, we’ve written about 100 songs.

Maybe they thought your music style wouldn’t do well around that time...
Alex: Yes and no. When we were signed, bands like Matchbox 20 and Counting Crowes were breaking into the music scene and there was a market for our type of music. By the way, I think it’s even harder nowadays cause there are a lot of other bands making a sound similar to ours.

If you didn’t get anything from the record company in all these years, how did you survive?
Alex: Luckily, we come from families that support us a lot. We could stay in our houses, writing songs. We’d write, record a demo and give it to the record company, wanting to know if the time to record had arrived. The answer was always "no". After some time, even our comprehensive parents started to say that we had to look for a job, that we were going crazy, that the CD would never come out.

What made the record company change their minds?
Alex: By chance, a movie named Coyote Ugly appeared and one of our demos was used in the soundtrack. We even appeared in the history, playing – still without a record, of course. But the name of the band isn’t on the credits, just mine and Aaron’s. This small part in the movie finally convinced the record company that the time was there.

Even after making the record, did you keep on writing songs?
Alex: We don’t take long to write, but we haven’t had a lot of time really. We write whenever we feel like doing it, but we don’t feel like doing it if we don’t have time to have ideas.

Does good music come from good influences?
Alex: I think so. We grew up listening to The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, a lot of U2, Pearl Jam, things like that.

Have you ever listened to anything by Bad Company [British band]? Sometimes you sound like their songs from the early 70’s.
Alex: Never listened to anything, but you’re not the first person that says that. I always forget to look for the guys’ album to listen. We’ve also been asked if Alice in Chains influenced us, specially after the lead singer died because of an overdose. I can’t understand how the guy had been addicted for ten years and never did anything about it.

Are you taking part in any anti-drug campaign?
Alex: I really don’t understand the fascination people have for drugs. We’re a totally drug-free band. Music is our only drug, actually. I don’t understand how other groups can do doped what we’re doing. It’s always too much rush to fall into drugs.

Besides music, what do you like?
Alex: Cell phones [laughs]. They keep us in contact with our families, girlfriends and friends. It might have been awful to fall on the road ten years ago, when they didn’t exist. Imagine what it would be like not to be able to call whenever you want, wherever you are.

Have you discovered the dark side of fame yet?
Aaron: With the success, a lot of people want to interview us [laughs]. Just imagine having to tell the same history ten times a day for months... It’s almost a slave work. It can be brutal.
Alex: Playing is the easy part, all the other things that are difficult. We finished the album in summer 2000 and our record company still waited one more year to put it out in the stores. We’re happy now, after having sold over 1 million copies and getting back each penny we invested in ourselves over years, but it was hard to wait so much.