With a soundtrack of clinking plates, rustling menus, and businessmen chomping hurriedly on General Tso's chicken, Artie Shephard, Phil Hanratty and I sat down in a corner table at Suzy's Chinese Restaurant in New York City during lunch hour, and really discussed the state of music today. We also giggled a lot and talked about how ErrorType: 11 plan to take over the world, or at least shake it up a bit. First, a history lesson. Moonlighting in Mind Over Matter, Bad Trip, and World's Fastest Car, Artie has been in and out of bands like an indecisive teenager going mall-hopping looking for a Jr. Prom dress. Phil was in Clockwise. So, they do have some idea of what they are getting themselves into with their new band. Artie sounds like an old man ex- plaining the effect of the maturity process, "In every band that we have been in, we did what we wanted to do. It's just that we are older now. I took a bit of a break from being as involved in the hardcore scene and that separation was good...As I got older, I started writing different types of music. Also, on another level, the way that we handle affairs within the band is done with a little bit more experience than in the past. We won't make as many of the same mistakes as we have before. There were a lot of things that I felt I did wrong in Mind Over Matter and everything was done wrong in Bad Trip and everything was done wrong in World's Fastest Car. We've learned from those experiences, which comes with age." Guitar driven and punchy, ET: 11 are on a mission to school you. With a mouth full of broccoli, Artie muses about when is the optimal time to listen to his band: "When you're drunk, because then we sound a lot better. I wish I could play one of those arena rock shows where everyone in the crowd is either stoned or drunk, because you can pretty much get away with anything. We play to a bunch of sober 16 or 17 year olds and if you mess up, everybody is pretty much on your ass about it. It sucks. Get wasted! Drop some acid! That's the best time, when you're wasted, because then we sound better." ErrorType: 11 are particularly proud about how they make a conscious effort to resist the same musical pitfalls that other indie rock bands fall into. Artie explains, "I made it a point of never ever listening to Sunny Day Real Estate, the Promise Ring, or any of those bands again. That kind of music seeps into your songwriting subconsciously, so I just listen to a lot of 60s psychedelic music and 70s glam rock, and that takes precedent in my writing. That's the idea. It is done totally and utterly on purpose to stay away from that sound and maybe introduce people to something a little bit different."

Not only is their sound a reaction to the other more trendy bands out there, but their look is also calculated to set them apart from the rest: "The idea for the artwork comes from a less extreme version of New Order's work. Their artwork doesn't say anything about the band. Some of their stuff doesn't even have their name anywhere on the record. I think that is really cool, but it doesn't exactly help you sell any records, and we are not exactly New Order. I like the sort of thing that says nothing. The art we chose doesn't say that we are an emo band. That is another reason why we chose our name because it wasn't like the springs-of-kites-that-fly-up-my-ass, or that sort of name, where you have a little kid on the cover who is looking the other way. There is no emo picture of us inside." By this time, we were stuffed full of Chinese food. The best part of a Chinese meal is the fortune cookie at the end, and here is what those cookies predicted: Me: "The only thing certain is that nothing is certain." Artie: "Your ability to juggle many tasks will take you far." Phil: "A wise person cares not for what he cannot have, but for what he can have." I take this to mean that Artie will become a mime and that Phil will just have a dumb fortune in his cookie. If everything goes their way, ET: 11 will be selling out rock arena venues across the country in the near future. For now, they will just concentrate on what they do best: talking shit and rocking out.