AAG HAS RECENTLY CAPTURED THE INTEREST OF PRODUCER PHIL TAYLOR (SONGWRITER FRONTMAN OF MACHINA / FUTURE LEADERS OF THE WORLD) AND AAG HAS JUST FINISHED TRACKING THEIR FIRST MAJOR RELEASE WITH TAYLOR AT JUPITER STUDIOS IN ST. LOUIS. FOUR SONGS FROM THIS RELEASE ARE UP ON THE AAG SITE NOW BUT THE MASTERED VERSIONS OF THESE SONGS ARE NOT DUE TO BE RELEASED TILL JULY 3RD YOU WILL THEN BE ABLE TO BUY THEM AT THEIR PAGE. AAG'S RECORD RELEASE PARTY WILL BE AT KINETIC PLAYGROUND IN CHICAGO ON JULY 5TH WITH TATTOOED MILLIONAIRES AND FIREBUG!

MUEN: SO TELL US, WHAT IS THIS NEWS ABOUT YOU GUYS WORKING WITH PHIL TAYLOR (MACHINA, EVANESCENCE, FUTURE LEADERS OF THE WORLD)? AND HOW DID THIS JULY 5 SHOW ALL COME TOGETHER WITH FIREBUG AND TATTOOED MILLIONAIRES?

VIRGEL: WHAT IS GOING ON - ON THURS. JULY 5TH AT KINETIC PLAYGROUND IS AMERICAN ANTI-GRAVITY'S CD RELEASE PARTY FOR THEIR FIRST MAJOR STUDIO RELEASE. AMERICAN ANTI-GRAVITY IS A RELATIVELY NEW CHICAGO PROJECT THAT HAS IN LESS THEN A YEAR TOGETHER ALREADY CAPTURED THE INTEREST OF MANY "TOP INDUSTRY PROS". ONE OF WHO HAS DECIDED TO TAKE ON AAG AS THEIR PRODUCER, PHIL TAYLOR FROM MACHINA. MACHINA IS ONE HALF EVANESCENCE MEMBERS AND THE OTHER HALF FUTURE LEADERS OF THE WORLD (PHIL'S FIRST SUCCESSFUL PROJECT WHO LANDED A DEAL WITH EPIC A COUPLE YEARS BACK.) PHIL HAD A LITTLE TIME, DUE TO THE FACT EVANESCENCE WAS STILL ON TOUR, TO PRODUCE A COUPLE OF BANDS. PHIL AND I (VIRGEL) MET BACK IN 2004 WHEN EPIC PAID FOR HIM TO STAY IN CHICAGO TO "BUILD A MIDWEST FOLLOWING". MY PREVIOUS BAND PROLIXON OPENED FOR F.L.O.W. FOR A HOSTAGE RADIO SHOW HERE IN CHICAGO. WHEN PHIL HEARD THE NEW AAG BAND HE WAS LIKE "YEAH WE CAN DO SOMETHING WITH THIS YOU SHOULD COME OUT TO ST. LOUIS TO JUPITER STUDIOS AND RECORD A CD. SO AMERICAN ANTI-GRAVITY DID AND THE E.P. IS COMING OUT NEXT WEEK AND LIKE I SAID THE RECORD RELEASE PARTY IS AT KINETIC PLAYGROUND ON THURSDAY JULY 5TH. THE NIGHT IS GOING TO BE AMAZING MAINLY BECAUSE OF THE ENTERTAINMENT THAT IS TEAMING UP WITH US TO CELEBRATE THIS EVENT. WE HAVE 5 HEADLINERS FROM DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE COUNTRY ALL ON THE SAME NIGHT. HOW IT STARTED WAS DAN MOULDER FROM KINETIC CALLED ME AND TOLD ME TATTOOED MILLIONAIRES WERE COMING IN FROM L.A. TO DO A SHOW AND ASKED, KNOWING THAT AAG'S RECORD WAS GOING TO BE COMING OUT AND AAG AND THE MILLIONAIRES HAD A FEW MUTUAL FRIENDS, IF AAG WANTED TO BE THE HOMETOWN SUPPORT FOR THIS SHOW. OF COARSE WE SAID YES IMMEDIATELY AND TOLD DAN WE WOULD MAKE IT OUR CD RELEASE PARTY. KINETIC IS ONE OF THE COOLEST CLUBS TO PLAY OUT HERE IN CHICAGO SO ALL OF US IN AAG WERE MORE THEN HAPPY TO STAGE THE SHOW AT KINETIC. DAN THEN TOLD ME THAT SINCE IT WAS OUR RECORD RELEASE SHOW THAT WE COULD BRING A FEW BANDS OF OUR CHOOSING. SO FIRST PERSON I CONTACTED WAS JANUS. AAG AND JANUS HAVE BEEN KICKING CHICAGO'S ASS TOGETHER FOR A WHILE BUT NEVER HAD THE CHANCE TO DO IT PERFORMING ON THE SAME NIGHT AT THE SAME PLACE. SO A JANUS - AMERICAN ANTI-GRAVITY SHOW IS LONG OVER DUE. THEN FIREBUG GOT A HOLD OF ME NOT KNOWING WE EVEN HAD A SHOW OPENING SAYING THEY WOULD BE IN CHICAGO AND WE SHOULD HANG OUT MAYBE HAVE THE TWO BANDS DO SOMETHING TOGETHER WHILE THEY WERE IN TOWN. FORTUNATELY A ONE BAND JUST HAD TO DROP OUT OF THE SHOW ON THE 5TH AND I WAS LIKE "BOY DO I HAVE THE BEST SLOT FOR YOU GUYS. SO BAM, OUR FRIENDS FROM L.A. FIREBUG WAS ADDED TO THE LINEUP. HOUSE OF MOIST FROM TEXAS IS PLAYING SUMMERFEST IN MILWAUKEE AND WANTED TO HIT A GIG IN CHICAGO WHILE THEY WERE PASSING THROUGH. FINALLY DAN FROM KINETIC ADDED THE GUYS FROM THE LAST VEGAS, (WHO YOU CAN FIND ON THE GUITAR HERO 2 VIDEO GAME), THEY ARE GOING TO BE GUEST DJ'S SPINNING RECORDS THROUGH OUT THE NIGHT. SO THAT IS WHAT IS GOING ON IN CHICAGO ON THURSDAY THE 5TH.

MUEN: WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO AFTER THE RELEASE?

VIRGEL: First, I am probably going to sleep off the hang over. No just kidding I am going to Disney Land. We have done a lot of traveling already as a band. We really want to be comfortable when we tour and we think we can get that to happen right away. Since this is our debut release we haven't had the luxury of shopping a record because there wasn't a record to shop. Yes we are ready to tour but we are going to let this record sink in for just a bit and see what we can do to tour comfortably. A lot of people are like who cares if we have to live gig by gig we are playing rock and roll, and that is fine. But we are all very confident we have made some good decisions and we have written some good songs and there is no way we should have to eat out of a bean can every night. We have a bunch of opportunities that are all pending on the release of the record. So hopefully we can get someone to fund us a little before we just head out on tour.

MUEN: WHAT STUDIO DID YOU RECORD AT? WHO ELSE WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR MIXING AND ENGINEERING THE ALBUM?

VIRGEL: Ok I want to apologies for the length of this answer up front. When it comes to studio recording you can't get me to shut up it is definitely "my deal". We traveled out to St. Louis for a while. We recorded the E.P at Jupiter Studios. When I first started talking to Phil (Taylor) about doing the record we briefly chatted about different places to do pre production, and when I say briefly, I mean about 5 minutes. Phil was like, "you know what Virge you guys don't need any writing changes or anything like that, the changes are all solid, your stuff is about 90% there already let's just make all of our adjustments on the fly and go straight to Jupiter." That was that we just went straight out to St. Louis and started recording. Phil of coarse produced the project with a little help from all of us in AAG and Thomas Carpenter was the engineer on the project. Tom is an un-believable engineer he is young with a real good taste in music and the dude is just quick as all hell. Tom works on many of Taylor's projects, you never see Tom getting flustered or anything and better yet the dude doesn't take breaks I think he may be a robot. But a very polite and nice robot. It was final mixed by Tom with a little, well maybe alot of direction by me and the guys and Phil. As for the final mixes the way it went down was we had to be back in Chicago for some showcases Phil had to be in Arkansas to get together with Machina so Tom Carpenter mixed them at Jupiter and sent them out e-mail to me and Phil, we got back to him on what changes we thought had to be made and Tom did it. The good thing about Tom is he is a pro, no questioning us no b.s. if we said the guitars could use 2dbs more on the chorus' he brought the guitars up 2 dbs in the chorus and that was that he sent everyone back perfect on the next e-mail. I never once didn't get what I wanted to out of the final mix the dude did an amazing job. We had Chris Fonte do the mastering that I just got an hour ago.

So as of right now that is all we have that worked on the record. Since we put out a few songs for people to bite on our site, we have gotten all kinds of interest from some major people to do things with these tunes. One of them being Martin Atkins of Pigface, his label rep. has gotten a hold of me alot recently telling me Atkins really enjoys the music and is looking forward to doing a Re-mix of the song You'll Never go Away. Right now it is still in the negotiating stages but look for that to be happening soon. We are pretty excited about getting Atkins in on these tunes he is definitely a legend in the Chicago underground scene and we can't wait to work with him.

MUEN: WHERE WILL PEOPLE BE ABLE TO BUY THE CD?

VIRGEL: First and foremost the best way would be to get out to the C.D. release show at Kinetic and grab one of the special addition CD release show copies of the new E.P. but of coarse not everyone in the world are going to be in Chicago on the fifth. So right away you will be able to pick it up through I-Tunes and C.D. baby but keep checking our myspace page (www.myspace.com/americanantigravity) for developments. Everyday we are getting new interests and all of these interests are pending on the release of our record. So we are all positive (aag / phil / the studio/ etc..) someone is going to pick us up and get some distribution right away. But all we can really say is keep checking the myspace page for developments.

MUEN: WHAT INSPIRED THE SONG "YOU'LL NEVER GO AWAY"? AND HOW ABOUT "THE CURE"?

VIRGEL: You'll never go away is just a you can't keep the children down because we are the strong and we will take over. Typical anarchist rock and roll type of view. I would like to say Find a Cure is a song that fits way more then just one meaning. But I would say for the most part it's just about letting someone into your life even though you know they will just have to go away. We all live because we are going to die and sometimes you open your heart and love just to know that person is going to slip away and never be reachable someday. Sometimes I think it is about watching someone you know just float out of sanity and you just can't reach them no matter what you do.

MUEN: HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN ON MYSPACE?

VIRGEL: American Anti-gravity will be on Myspace for one year next week so I guess this could be not only our debut record release but our one year anniversary with Myspace.

MUEN: WHERE DID YOU FIRST MEET FIREBUG? HAVE YOU GUYS PLAYED SHOWS TOGETHER BEFORE?

VIRGEL: Well that is kinda a trick question because I met everyone in that dream but that was long before I talked to them or met them. I have loved Firebug for about a year we never got a chance to play with them yet but we definitely were more then excited to find out they were going to be in town. I was on the phone making arrangements to have them play at the record release 5 minutes after they told me they were coming to town and wanted to play a show with us.

MUEN: TELL US BRIEFLY ABOUT TATTOOED MILLIONAIRES, WHAT ARE THEY DOING AS OF LATE?

VIRGEL: Tattooed millionaires are crazy, they probably have just been banging tons of chicks lately I guess? I mean that is what they do right? They are a touring band whose drummer is from Chicago and I have a mutual friend that suggested to the people at Kinetic that we play together. They seem cool the little bit that I have talked to them.

MUEN: WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE CHICAGO MUSIC SCENE? IS IT STILL PRETTY STRONG, ON THE ROCK AND INDIE SIDE?

VIRGEL: Strong is a strong word let me tell you what is strong.. The talent of the bands that are coming out of Chicago is strong but I have mixed opinions on the scene in general. There are a crap load of un-believably origional talented bands I really like Plane, and all of the side projects that come out of that camp, Janus, Ahab Rex is cool, National Jet Set is doing some very interesting new stuff and Greyce is good. But in order for a scene to be strong you need the business end of the scene allow the artists to be artistic and well guys in suits and ties with slicked back black hair that one month ago was selling some scam life insurance to your grandma usually don't know what that means. Unfortunately that may be the reason I didn't just reply yes the Chicago scene rocks. For instance, I saw a fan getting kicked out of a Chicago club just recently for dancing to wildly along to a band that is playing on stage. We like to get crazy and have the fans get crazy at our shows we got booted out of a place a couple months ago on our first song for Jross Green (keyboards for aag) taking a sip of water and spitting it in the air. Yeah so if you want to go out to have a blast and see a band don't go to Sylvies in Chicago!!!!!!

MUEN: WHAT CLUBS IN THE CHICAGO AREA WOULD YOU SAY ARE THE BEST FOR ORIGINAL INDIE BANDS TO PLAY?

VIRGEL: Kinetic Playground is great The place sounds great looks great and has an un-believable history as well as smart booking agents unlike the ones I talked about in the last question. Martyrs is a great sounding decent room if you want to give away half the cover to the club. Double Door was at one time the coolest place to see a band. I still think they pack them in and the sound there is just amazing I have had some of the best shows of my career at Double Door. The Metro is always cool and big plus all ages is a nice change but really I miss my favorite art commune Charybdis that got shut down by the Chicago government for "rave activity" and pornography one time a performance artist covered her self in paint and slid across a canvus and oh yeah by the way there was an Adult Book store that didn't get closed down because they were "grandfathered" in the rules didn't apply to them.

MUEN: WELL GOOD LUCK ON THIS CD RELEASE PARTY, WHERE IS THE AFTER PARY GOING TO BE?

VIRGEL: At blueberry's it is his birthday.

MUEN: ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT TO SAY?

VIRGEL: Thanks MUEN!