Interviewed by Brian Rademacher
Date: June 2011

David Brenner: Hey Brian, how you doing today?

Brian Rademacher: Good, the weather is not the best but I’ll survive!

David Brenner: Yeah, here in Vancouver the weather is not the best either but the sun is trying to peek out.

Brian Rademacher: I’m sure you hear the same questions over and over again. I want to know about the person Dave Brenner… coming from Canada what do you miss the most being on tour when you’re not home?

David Brenner: You get use to a certain type of beer here in Canada and you go to the States and you can’t get those beers. You do have some great beer in the States but I do miss the beer I like in Canada. I’m a huge hockey fan and on our tour bus we get the NHL package but it seems we never get the Canadian feeds and their commentators. You watch a game and it’s a Florida feed. It’s like listening to a hockey 101 lesson. It’s funny the commentator would "Oh that’s icing, icing is when you shoot the puck behind the center line" you say ok where’s that Canadian feed. (laughing).

Brian Rademacher: When you were in high school what were some of the things you did after school?

David Brenner: That’s when I started to play music, it was jam time. I got together with my buddies and jammed. I would go to one kids house where he had a drum kit we would play a bunch of ALICE IN CHAINS songs, than I would go to my other buddy’s house and jam some more. That’s all I did after to school, go to different friend’s houses and jam all day.

Brian Rademacher: Do you remember your first guitar?

David Brenner: Oh yeah, I still remember it and hold a grudge against my Mom because of it. She put it out for spring cleaning and left it out on the street for garbage. You know that once a year you do spring cleaning and that’s what happened to it. My Mom threw out two of my guitars and the very first one my Dad bought me for Christmas. I was pretty pissed about it to tell you the truth. It was a cheap Aria Pro guitar, but I loved it. It had such a cool look it didn’t matter if it was a piece of crap, I liked the way it looked I loved the way it felt and I wrote some songs that were important too. I was sad to see it gone.

Brian Rademacher: I know about spring cleaning because I cleaned my daughter’s room today and I found four forks, four spoons a butter knife and a couple plates.

David Brenner: You wondering where it’s all going, you’re saying where is all the cutlery man. (laughing) How old is your daughter?

Brian Rademacher: Twelve

David Brenner: Oh I thought she was saving it up because she was moving out and she would have place settings. (laughing)

Brian Rademacher: Do you remember the first songs you tried to play?

David Brenner: I learned some stuff in guitar class like "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore". The first song I tried to learn that meant anything was "About A Girl" by NIRVANA; super easy song like two chords in the whole friggin’ thing. It was easy back then. I had to make a bar chord-oh geez this is going to be tough. It was the first song I could play front to back. The calluses was a slow process back than you get a blister and you say what the heck I gotta stop playing then you get a calluses and you learn a calluses is your friend. You keep on going and abusing them, now I got perm-a-calluses.

Brian Rademacher: What was your first job like?

David Brenner: My Dad ran a steel fabrication shop. I was in eight or ninth grade which is pretty young. Every day I would get home get on my bike about twenty minutes up to the shop and work about four hours a day. I made pretty good money back then. I think the minimum wage was five dollars and fifty cents and I was making eight bucks an hour. I was most likely the only kid in the eighth grade that worked a job five days a week. I was making decent coin; I don’t know what I did with that money, I’m sure I blew it on crap. You do learn lessons in doing that stuff and next time I got a real job and learned how to save a little better.

Brian Rademacher: Did you collect anything back then?

David Brenner: I collected some (sports) cards back then but I don’t feel I spent a lot of money on them. I spent most of my money buying super Big Gulps at 7-11 and crap like that. It was fun and easy work so I’m not complaining. If I learned how to save better I could have bought myself a sweet guitar.

Brian Rademacher: What was it like giving your first autograph?

David Brenner: It would have been 2001 or 2002 at a show I know those things didn’t come easy for me like hearing your song on the radio the first time and the first autograph I gave those things are surreal. It happens so fast it’s hard to believe. The first autograph I gave I felt a little embarrassed because you are used to playing shows for thirty people and their all your buddies none of them want your autograph that’s for sure! All of a sudden you’re playing a show for five hundred strangers. Then people are interested in meeting you and getting your autograph. It’s almost an embarrassing feeling but it becomes normal after awhile.

Brian Rademacher: Do you have anything special on your tour rider for the upcoming "Carnival Of Madness" tour?

David Brenner: We are a pretty normal kind of rider band. We don’t ask for much; we get some beers, water, chips and salsa gum. One of our crew guys will always put something weird on there to see if he can get it. It would be something like a football helmet filled with cottage cheese and it would never show up! We just get the bare essentials.

Brian Rademacher: On the new album "The Truth Is…" do you have a song that you like to play live the most?

David Brenner: I’ve been jamming a few on my acoustic guitar at home there’s a song called "Gentleman", my favorite song on the new record. I love that song and I hope we start playing that one live pretty soon.

Brian Rademacher: Do you feel fortunate that you get to do what you really want to do?

David Brenner: I remember growing up and wanted to do this and not anything else. I felt fortunate back in 2002 when we started but seeing so many bands come and go I still feel I’m pretty fortunate to be able to do it and seeing bands that I thought were great back then not making it anymore. It’s a tough industry to get into but it’s a tougher industry to stay in. I really feel fortunate because I live in this beautiful home and can buy things I want and I’m lucky to be in a band that is doing fairly well and I love it.

Brian Rademacher: When you guys are on tour do you have any conditions?

David Brenner: Tyler would say me and Dean compete in everything which is partly true. We play a lot of PS3 Hockey on the tour bus and as opposed to playing each other we found a way we can play with all four or five of us on the same team. We actual play position locks. It’s a lot more fun than playing against each other.

Brian Rademacher: I use to love to play that hockey game that they guys spin around on a stick.

David Brenner: Oh you’re talking about rod hockey, I love that game and also bubble hockey. I played a lot of those games, Canada against the USA and Canada vs. Russia. I love rod hockey I’m a big fan.

Brian Rademacher: When you finally get to go home what do you do to relax?

David Brenner: Sometimes you need to do some stuff that brings you to ground zero like mowing the lawn. I look forward in coming home and doing some stuff around the house; yard work modifications to the house, just some personal stuff you don’t get to do living on the road. You’re home for only two months a year and ten months on the road so it’s nice coming home. I’d be happy coming home and spending time with personal friends and family maybe play some ice hockey and some baseball; simple things, everyday things that you don’t get to do.

Brian Rademacher: Do you have any personal goals at all?

David Brenner: Yeah it would be hard not having a goal without motivation. We recently had a platinum record; we set some goals as a band and we are always looking to improve. Every record we release out-sold the one prior. We set a goal in a way trying to out-sell our previous record which is going to be tough after a platinum record. I also have personal goals. I would eventually like to have a family and stuff like that. I always set goals for myself.

Brian Rademacher: Dave it sure was good talking to you and as I said in the beginning of this interview I didn’t want to go in the direction with this interview and ask the repetitive questions that you are always asked. I hope I achieved that. Would you like to say anything in closing?

David Brenner: I would like to say to the fans, I know we’ve been off for awhile; our fans show great patience and we look forward in getting out and seeing them and look forward to playing for them again. See you on the road, bye.