Karate: Back at it. Still at it. PREV / 3 of 4 / NEXT ainly it's highly difficult. I mean, I'm sure everybody says this about what they do but it's a very difficult life to lead and have any lasting personal relationships with anybody. It's just really really hard. It puts obvious strains on it. But also, I think the hardest strains it puts on it are the less obvious ones. Like when you get back and you're so excited to see your girlfriend but you haven't been together in six months and so you don't even share common experiences. Or your girlfriend gets up at 6 in the morning and you can't fall asleep until 4 in the morning. To me, it's been difficult and it's something I have had to constantly struggle with. Goddard: In some ways I think it's a very selfish endeavor. Not selfish in the way that, you're being selfish, but it's not as simple as it sounds when you're like, I'm committed to playing in this... I mean, it's the longest relationship I've ever been in. I never thought it would be that way but, yeah, the subtleties are the most difficult and not always front and center. They do show up after time, and have become, at least for me, definitely issues. They do arise and I don't always know how to answer them. I know you guys aren't leaving, as far as the main bulk of travel is concerned, until next weekend. The whole thing kind of coincides with the tail end of the Presidential election and I was just wondering about your opinions on it, your routines as far as following it, how that affects your input and exposure to it... McCarthy: Our tour and the election are sort of coincidentally happening, of course. Goddard: Well, with the last election, we were on tour in the states almost at the same time as the election and we were in Minneapolis right before the election was going on and we spent the rest of the tour trying to hone into the radio to find out what the hell was going on from day to day. I mean, that's my only memory of the last Presidential election and, of course, everything surrounding it--the fact that we were on tour. I don't really know about this right now, other than coincidentally, it's all happening at the same time. Farina: I think a lot of people like us and our friends, maybe in the past never took it so seriously. I remember thinking, "Al Gore and Bush... there's really not much difference." And then seeing what Bush really did, everybody now, most of my friends, are taking it very seriously and I think that I've never seen my peers be as involved or as concerned with getting ready to vote other than now. When I look back at my own decisions, I think I could of cared less. I thought Bush and Gore were two extensions of the same corporate wing or something. And after the last four years, I think it's just a huge responsibility to vote and I think most people I know feel the same way. McCarthy: Yeah, where's Joe Lieberman been in the past months, man? I thought he would be campaigning for Democrat. Goddard: You know, one of the other pluses in some ways, that personally I've gained from at least traveling with the band, is that I know a lot of people in a lot of different places in this country alone that come from various different demographics and financial backgrounds and are in different places in their lives and I see how, especially in the last four years--or maybe I've just been more aware of it--how it has affected some people, literally that I know personally, in decisions, maybe economically. I don't think any of us live in a bubble. We're lucky to have seen a lot of places and h PREV / 3 of 4 / NEXT