I’m doing pretty good, how you doing?

Good thanks.

Where are you at today?

I’m in Hawthorne, New Jersey.

Is that where you live?

Actually I live in Mass. I was just home for like two weeks after the Godsmack tour and now I’m back here. The rest of the band is from Jersey, so I’m staying with my drummer and we’re rehearsing for the upcoming tour.

How were things on the road with the Godsmack tour?

Oh. They were great man. We were playing to … you know as an unknown band, a new band, we were playing to three quarter to packed small arenas and theaters. It was great. The crowd was so responsive to the music and everything has been going great so far.

You guys were actually out here in my hometown last month. In Great Falls, Montana.

Oh right on.

That’s where I’m talking to you from.

Did you guys get to come to the show?

I went to see Godsmack. I heard you guys playing at the radio station and I was thinking, why don’t these guys set up and play tonight?

Oh right. That’s when John and I were just traveling and doing promotions with Godsmack and Metallica.

That’s why I was wondering. I figured you guys weren’t all there. Anyway. What do you think of Godsmack’s decision to go with “Touche” as their next radio single?

I think it’s a great decision. I think it’s a great song (laughs). No I do. I think it’s a great song. I think Sully’s vocal performance on it is just amazing. Both him and John, they pushed each other, you know and brought each other to places that they necessarily don’t go on their own.

Tell me a little about the history of that song.

That song actually was a song that I had come up with the music for and John and I were working it out in New Jersey when we were doing pre-production for our record and never got around to finishing it. When Sully called me and invited John and I out to Hawaii to work on “The Other Side” with them, I immediately, John and I thought of that song. We showed Sully it and as soon as he heard it he ran behind the drums, Robbie grabbed his bass and Shannon ran behind the percussion and we just finished it. You know. It just fell together effortlessly, you know.

Let’s get some of the questions about Godsmack out of the way.

Sure.

When they blew up the way they did, were you more like along the lines of ‘right on, good for you guys,’ or were you more like ‘this really sucks?’

I was totally along the lines of right on for ‘em. I mean, Sully, Robbie and I started that band. I was very happy and proud of them, you know what I mean. The split up wasn’t like your typical split-up where we didn’t talk and hated each other. I left for the reasons that I left for and he understood and respected it. So, him and Robbie and I always stayed close, so I was really happy for them you know.

Do you think leaving the band, in the long run, made you a stronger person?

Definitely. Definitely did. There were times that, of course, anyone would get down. You just gotta keep your head up. It’s all about the music. For me, I just poured myself into my music and here I am.

What triggered you to get back out there and get back to playing music and form Dropbox?

After Godsmack, I took maybe eight months or a year off as far as playing live shows, but I always wrote and would still write for myself and keep involved in stuff as far as musically. I put a band together after Dropbox, I’m sorry, after Godsmack, called Powderburnt, that had some regional success and the band imploded. And that’s when Sully and I, he actually turned me onto John’s CD and once I heard John’s demo, I heard the kid’s voice, I moved to Jersey and we formed Dropbox immediately. We’ve been together ever since.

I know it’s still early in the run, but are you getting tired of getting asked about Godsmack?

No. No. No. What it is, is what it is. I can’t change the past, you know what I mean? Even beyond Godsmack, Sully and Robbie and I were friends for years and years before we even thought of starting a band together you know. So to talk about it, it’s where I came from you know what I mean? I started the band with them and wrote some songs on the first record and such. It’s part of what I am today, you know. It doesn’t bother me to talk about it.

What was it like for you and those guys when you first starting this band? I know Sully was in Strip Mind at some point …

I had just come out of a band called Hostile from the area that was like a really, really heavy hard core band. Sully had just gotten out of Strip Mind. He came to a Hostile show and we were coming to an end of that band. We just decided to get together and see what happens. We got together and we got Robbie and started writing some material and went in recorded a full length as a band called The Skim before we changed the name to Godsmack and basically that’s how it started.

Tell me a little bit about how you got hooked up with the “Transformers” thing.

It’s actually pretty funny. Atari went to Universal looking for some music for the game and Universal gave ‘em a stack of CD’s that they could listen to and such and the first one they grabbed was our CD and they heard ‘Wishbone’ and as soon as they heard it they told Universal they had found their band and their song. They had John and I come up to Beverly, Mass., for a meeting and the rest is history.

How has that been? ‘Cause you see the commercials on TV with you guys and the video game in the background.

It’s been great. Atari has been absolutely great to this band. They supported us through our first video which we necessarily may have not have gotten as a new band and all the commercials have been amazing. That’s a worldwide campaign, so they’re helping us reach a demographic and audience that necessarily wouldn’t have reached this early as a band, you know.

Do you think it’s kind of weird that the song has kind of a … I should say ‘adult’ meanings.

(laughs). It’s definitely. It was definitely laughed at once or twice behind closed doors among the band for sure.

Describe the chemistry that you share with John and that you’ve shared since you guys first got together.

The only way I can explain it is not to sound like a jerk or anything, but people either get it or they don’t get it, you know what I mean? I had this same chemistry with Sully where we could just sit and write together and my thought was his thought and vice-versa. For me it’s the same with John. I went down here and my only knowledge of him is what I heard, his voice, you know. His voice was so amazing it drew me to him. I got down here to find that he was this humble, amazingly talented guy that just gets it. We just sit and again, it’s an extension of each other’s thoughts when we’re writing so it’s really, really cool.

At this point, if you could share the stage with any bands past or present, which ones would you choose?
Sabbath and Zeppelin.

You’ve been in the business before, at least starting out and you guys are just starting out, what’s your feel for the music industry at this point in your experience?

The music industry is in a weird place. It hasn’t been like this. With downloading and everything else, the industry on every level has completely changed from what it used to be. The only thing that I think that’s different is back in the days when we first started, at least when I did and Sully and the guys and everyone did, it was more about getting a band together and getting out and working the shit out of clubs and trying to get noticed. Where today, it isn’t about that at all. Today it’s about getting Pro Tools at home or getting some kind of PC recording equipment at home, honing your craft, coming up with products and trying to get them to the right ears.

Do you think it takes away from your artistic abilities, having to live up to expectations on the label and doing all the things you’re supposed to do to be a band these days?

For us it wasn’t like that. Thanks to Sully and the way the situation went for us, I’ve never met an A&R person in my life. I’ve only dealt with Sully and Monty and Avery, the presidents of Republican Universal Records. As far as creative controls, nobody’s fought us on anything. We didn’t try to write this record a certain way. The label or Sully didn’t say, okay we need this kind of a record. John and I got together and wrote what came out of us. They got it and that’s pretty much how it went. It was definitely an extraordinary circumstance for this day and age.

Tell me a little bit about this upcoming tour with Drowning Pool.

It’s gonna be Atomship, Dropbox, Flaw and Drowning Pool and we’re definitely looking forward to it. We got the chance to do a couple of shows with Drowning Pool. Some radio shows in a couple of places in Ohio, in Toledo, I believe and Cleveland. They’re great guys. I loved the first record and I really like this record too.

Have you guys toured with Atomship yet?

We haven’t, but the coolest thing is, it’s funny, when Dropbox was out in Burbank doing our record, they were doing their record at the same time. We were both actually staying at a condo community called the Oak Woods, so we actually met each other and got to hang out and party and it’s just a coincidence now that we get to go out for the summer now. It’s gonna be great. It’s gonna be a fun tour.

I recently caught an Atomship show and was blown away. I think they are gonna add a lot to that tour.

Oh definitely. Like I said, they’re great guys and their record is great too.

Lee, thanks for talking with me.

Thank you man. It was great talking to you man.

Have a good one.

Right on, you too man.