Cory: I’m Cory, and I am the vocalist for Norma Jean.

Maggie: Okay, I have a question, um.. I saw your outfits for OzzFest and your set.. what is with all of the dirt and the burnt clothes?

Cory: Where’d you see that?

Maggie: It was on some photographer’s website.

Cory: Oh, cool!

Maggie: You were wearing, like, torn-up clothes – it was awesome.

Cory: Yeah, yeah – we just wanted to do something different. The thing is – what’s hard for us to get across is that our music is dirty on purpose. Musically everyone’s just dirty sounding. You know, you can see our backdrop and stuff, it’s really messy like our cabinets are tilted on each other and melted and none of them are perfect or square. We did this really awesome photo shoot with this really amazing photographer, and we got really dirty for it.

Maggie: Yeah, I saw those.

Cory: And he took some amazing pictures. So we just thought it would be awesome to do something different. To stick out and have fun with it, you know?

Maggie: Are you doing it tonight?

Cory:  Not tonight.

Maggie: Awesome.

Cory: For sure.

Maggie: I don’t get to see that until next week – next Saturday. Awesome. Why did you pick the name Redeemer for the new album?

Cory: It sounds cool.

Maggie: (Laughs)

Cory: Next question! (Laughs) It just – it does sound cool, do you think it sounds cool?

Maggie: Yeah!

Cory: Redeemer. You know, we’re all Christians and Jesus is the ultimate redeemer and that’s what we believe, so it’s just such a powerful thing to attach the record to. The thing about what that word means is, you know you hear people say casually, ‘you need to redeem yourself’ or ‘I need to redeem myself’. The thing is - you can’t, it’s not that easy. If you redeem yourself, you have to do it through someone else, let it be God or whoever, you need to have that person’s approval. Just that and how personal that is is really amazing. And I kind of tied that into some of the songs on the record, and it’s really personal lyrically moreso than anything we’ve done before.

Maggie: Is it going to be as chaotic as the last record?

Cory: Uh, it’s different. I mean, we’re always gonna do something different than we’ve done before. It’s easy to do the same thing again – so no, it doesn’t sound anything like O’God the Aftermath. (Laughs) But it’s still heavy, so.

Maggie: So are you proud of how it turned out?

Cory: Totally. There’s a lot of energy in this record. When we were tracking these songs, we were putting 300% into these, into the tracks just behind the scenes and it comes through.. it’s amazing. It was Ross Robinson who produced the record, really pushes us to put so much passion and energy into the music.

Maggie: Where did you record at?

Cory: We recorded in this really small town called Weed, California. Out in the middle of nowhere. Isolated. Radio Star Studios which is Sylvia and Greg Matthews’ place. Sylvia did Undertow, Tool’s Undertow record and some other cool records. That’s her studio, it’s really cool. Then we tracked vocals at Ross’s house, we lived with Ross for a month. And he has a beach house.

Maggie: (Laughs)

Cory: On Venice Beach. It was insane. It was just great staying there, it was a really awesome atmosphere to do vocals.

Maggie: Ah, did you do anything fun other than recording then?

Cory: Well we were on the beach, so of course we had fun, you know? We had like... I don’t know, it was awesome. (Laughs) I don’t want to go too deep into it and I don’t want to brag about it.. but it was bad as crap staying there. Bad as crap means awesome.

Maggie: Yeah. I’ve heard.

Cory: (Laughs) Cool.

Maggie: I’ve heard many times that Norma Jean means ‘patterns of grace and mercy’ from interviews with Daniel and that, I wanted to know where you found that meaning from.

Cory: I wasn’t there. That was before me, about a couple years before me. I’ve heard the story a thousand times, but the story they always tell was that they didn’t know that was going to be their name. One day at a show Josh announced them as Norma Jean and that was it. But, you know, Daniel did look it up and it means patterns of grace and mercy. And it sounds cool.

Maggie: It does. (Laughs)

Cory: It’s gotta sound cool!

Maggie: I know! (Laughs)

Cory: It does! (Laughs) It’s true! Just like the music has to sound good, the name of something is also a part of having to sound cool.

Maggie: Okay. I heard from MTV.com that you’re planning a fall tour with Between the Buried and Me and Fear Before the March of Flames.

Cory: Yes we are. That would be correct.

Maggie: Are you going to announce who the other bands are..?

Cory: The other bands are Misery Signals, The Commitment and The Fully Down. The Radio Rebellion Tour.

Maggie: Are you headlining?

Cory: Yes. It’s our headlining tour. It’s our first major headlining tour in a year, or a couple of years.

Maggie: Yeah, I noticed.

Cory: And the record will be out by the end of the run, so it will be full-on support for that record.

(Beep)

Cory: The Radio Rebellion Tour is actually a SmartPunk Tour, but it’ll be our tour.

Maggie: Yeah.

Cory: But they’re the sponsor behind it.

Maggie: How many years has Norma Jean been playing Cornerstone?

Cory: Oh man. I wouldn't know. It seems like they've been playing it before they were known as Norma Jean. I guess about 5 or 6 years.

Maggie: Wow.

Cory: That's a good guess. (Laughs) I think the only year Norma Jean didn't play was last year.

Maggie: Oh, you didn't?

Maggie: Oh yeah!

Cory: Which As I Lay Dying is headlining this year.

Maggie: Yeah. That's crazy. Are you happy for them?

Maggie: Yeah, that is amazing! I heard that.

Cory: It's really great that there's a band like that with a positive message who makes great music, not just mediocre whatever, for the money. Totally stoked. Buy good records.

Maggie: (Laughs) Okay.

Cory: Put that with stars around it on the interview - **BUY GOOD RECORDS** from Cory.

Maggie: I will! (Laughs)

Cory: (Laughs)

Maggie: To you, what's different about playing here than other shows? Let it be the crowd, the atmosphere, things like that.

Cory: *Long silence* I guess it's pretty different in a few ways. It's a Christian festival. It is. We're not gonna lie, we love playing here for all of these people. That's the biggest difference. We don't play very many, if any – (Beep) – Christian shows besides festivals. And this is the best one. For sure.

Maggie: Yeah, this is my first year here.

Cory: Really?

Maggie: Yeah.

Cory: Awesome!

Maggie: It's insane.

Cory: See, now things have changed over the years, how things go.. but it's a cool place to be.

Maggie: Yes. Right now, you've been on OzzFest for a couple weeks?

Cory: About a week, yeah.

Maggie: How's that going?

Cory: Best tour ever – a lot of fun. We're all friends, you know, we have Unearth, Bleeding Through, Atreyu, Hatebreed. You know, these are all bands we've played with in the past, just hanging out. It's like – hanging out first, playing second. Because we get 30 minutes to play and about 23 ½ hours to chill. So... (Laughs) It's funny because we'll be scrambling all day, you know, to get onstage and we'll get up there are like 2 o'clock or something and then we'll get back down and just be like, "Well. That's done. Nothin' to do, let's go hang out in the hot sun", you know? So it's awesome. Just totally stoked.

Maggie: Yeah, I was telling a friend of mine about the line-up this year and she gushed because you, Unearth and Atreyu being together reminded us of Thick As Thieves. We went to that. We're just used to seeing you together. Like you and Unearth last year.

Cory: Yeah.

Maggie: That was.. amazing.

Cory: Yeah, we did two tours with Unearth last year, and the one tour with Atreyu and Unearth. So, to be out with them again is insane.

Maggie: Yeah, I'm excited to see that again!

Cory: There's two bands that we're really missing, because we've toured with them so much in the past is Throwdown and Every Time I Die.

Maggie: Yeah.

Cory: We miss them. Those dudes should be on the tour, but they're not.

Maggie: I know. What do you think about Every Time I Die being on Warped Tour?

Cory: I think it's awesome.

Maggie: It's extreme. Because now, they're this different style than the last time they played Warped. They're still very good though. (Laughs)

Cory: Yeah, they're dorks. I love 'em. (Indecipherable mumble that I respond to, followed by his laughter)

Maggie: (Cracks up at his giggle) Okay! (Beep)

Cory: Beep!

Maggie: What is that? (Laughs)

Cory: I dunno! Somethin' beepin'.

Maggie: Yeah. (Trying not to laugh at his expression)

Cory: Go ahead.

Maggie: Do any of you guys know how to hip hop dance or are secret fans of R&B music?

Cory: (Giggles)

Maggie: (Cracks up)

Cory: We, like, joke rap, like Ebaumsworld. (Laughs)

Maggie: (Laughs) That's the best kind!

Cory: But not really. We've been dancing before. If you go into.. when we were with bands and were touring in the UK, some parts of Europe, after you play – every night – almost consistently every night after you play there's a dance party.

Maggie: (Laughs) Wow!

Cory: It starts almost immediately. And it's so funny. But actually cool because they'll have several different rooms, they will be a rock room, you know? You'll go in there and they'll just be playing Radiohead and like these awesome bands, instead of just hip hop for the whole boring night.

Maggie: (Laughs) Did you guys go dancing then?

Cory: Oh, totally! Of course we did. It was a blast.

Maggie: Do you think you're any good at dancing?

Cory: (Immediately) No.

Maggie: (Laughs) You just do it anyway?

Cory: Yeah. No one's good at dancing. I mean really, who's good at it?

Maggie: (Cracks up at his serious expression) What do you mean who's good at dancing?!

Cory: I mean, think about.. if you really break it down, who could possibly be good at that?

Maggie: (Still laughing)

Cory: You're moving around. I don't mean to simplify it to something, you know..

Maggie: Well if you simplify it enough, anyone could be good at it.

Cory: Yeah.. so maybe everybody's good at it.

Maggie: There! That's better than saying nobody could be. (Laughs)

Cory: But then I guess you could say.. nobody's good at what?

Maggie: Uhh..

Cory: That was confusing, wasn't it?

Maggie: Yeah, it was. (Laughs)

Cory: (Laughs) Neeevermind, forget it.

Maggie: (Laughs) So, if you could listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Cory: Oh, wow. Another hard question. That's.. I can't answer that. For real, like.. (Beep) Songs are.. songs that have a lot of sentimental value, but even those I would get sick of. So if the question was if there was a song I could always listen to and not get sick of, there isn't one, because there's not a song that I wouldn't get sick of after a while.

Maggie: Yeah.

Cory: But if I had to pick one, I would have no frikking idea. It would take me a long time. I hope it wouldn't be like, "Pick a song right now because this is it!".

Maggie: (Laughs)

Cory: You know? I would hope it would be, "Hey, in a couple weeks you'll have to pick one song to listen to over and over".

Maggie: (Laughs) You want it in advance.

Cory: (Pretending to be serious) Yes, I want advance notice for that question, please.

Maggie: Okay.

Cory: Interview me in two weeks so I can think about it.

Maggie: Alright. I'm on it. I know you've probably been ask this many times but I'm extremely curious; who did you get to do the album art for O'God the Aftermath and the rerelease? Because it's incredible.

Cory: Yeah. Totally. [Ryan] is the best out there for layouts, and records, he's the best. Him and his brother kill with that. Basically what I think is that they know what is going to be cool, instead of what is, like the ball rolling down the hill kind of thing. They can easily blow you away. Like with O'God, he blew us away totally.

Maggie: So there wasn't a concept in mind for it?

Cory: We – the concept was that we wanted an image for each song on the record. And that we wanted that image to represent the song in a way or certain lyric or theme of that song. And that was pretty much our idea. And we had a few ideas after that when we had to meet with him and stuff, but it was Ryan. And now he's nominated for a Grammy.

Maggie: Is he really?

Cory: Mmhmm.

Maggie: For what?

Cory: That record.

Maggie: That record? That is so cool.

Cory: Yeah, him and his wife went to the Grammy's. They didn't win-

Maggie: Aww!

Maggie: (Laugh) If you could choose between eating someone like celery for the rest of your life or ice cream for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

Cory: What was the other one?

Maggie: Celery.

Cory: Celery? Ew!

Maggie: What's up, you don't like celery?! (Laughs)

Cory: No, I do, I just don't want to eat either one of those for the rest of my life! Just that?

Maggie: Yes.

Cory: I'd pick celery, even though that'd suck. Because I know that much ice cream cannot be good for you. I would hope the celery would be a better pick.

Maggie: That's a lot of fiber.

Cory: Yeah, I'd deal with that. I don't want to die that way, from ice cream.

Maggie: (Laughs)

Cory: Yeah, I'm gonna go with the.. uh.. what's it called.. the smart answer, the celery.

Maggie: Okay. I was planning on asking Jake this, but I might as well ask you because you'd know too – where did mohalk come from?

Cory: (Giggles) That's so fu – nowhere! I just said it!

Maggie: Really?

Cory: I wanted a mohawk but.. (Sigh) ..We do that, we just play with words because we get bored on tour like – (Claps) – that. Like couldn't! Or could. There's a freaking L in it. So we would say, like, cool-dent. It's ridiculous.

Maggie: (Tape cuts off here) I’m sorry – the tape ran out – can you start that part over?

Cory: No. I can pick up where I left off. CHECK! One two! Um – (Laughs) No, obviously it doesn’t have an element, but (Laughs) I was just being dorky on camera.

Maggie: Well now, everyone I know and I use that term to describe that hairstyle.

Cory: A mohallk?

Maggie: Yeah, a mohallk.

Cory: What – where you cut it into a Mohawk but you don’t stand it up?

Maggie: Yeah.

Cory: Yeah, the first time I got my hair cut like that, I tried to explain it to the girl that was cutting my hair and she did not understand why I wanted to do that.

Maggie: (Laughs)

Cory: But she did it, and she cut it, and she got it even.. so it’s funny.

Maggie: I just heard it from the DVD, so I had to ask about it. Um, before I came here, I asked my mom, “What would you think if I had Jake cut my hair into a mohallk and came home like that?” and she was like, “I would kill you!”

Cory: (Laughs)

Maggie: (Laughs) I was like, “Mom, it’s Jake! He cut it!” and she went, “I wouldn’t care who it is!” (Scottie and Jake walk in to drop off their bags, say hey, then depart. Jake Ryan from the Chariot enters as well)

Cory: Well that’s cool.

Jake: Oh, I’m sorry dude.

Cory: No, we’re just doing an interview, it’s all good.

Jake: Can I get a hug?

Cory: Of course, man. (They hug, Cory roars) Yeah! That’s a man hug! That was Jake from the Chariot.

Jake: No I’m not!

Cory: I know your band, dude! (Jake departs, pounding on the dressing room window outside)

Maggie: (Laughs)

Cory: So where were we?

Maggie: Uh, I don’t know. We were talking about my mom..

Cory: Oh yeah, the mohallk. That’s funny.

Maggie: Yep. Is there anything you regret doing while on the road? Like the result of a dare or anything like that?

Cory: (Sigh) I’m not the one that does the dares on the road.

Maggie: Who does?

Cory: That’s more Scottie and Chris.

Maggie: Okay.

Cory: And I’m sure they’ve done many things they regret. Chris has shot bottle rockets out of his butt. I’ll just put that out there.

Maggie: (Laughs)

Cory: (Laughs) Scottie won a – there was like a gigantic bucket of animal crackers. Have you ever seen those?

Maggie: Yeah.

Cory:  He ate half of one of those.

Maggie: Ew, oh my God.

Cory: He was supposed to get a gold-top Gibson guitar, but he didn’t finish it and I’m sure he regrets that because he felt like crap for about a week.

Maggie: Yeah, I’d feel like crap if I didn’t that and didn’t win anything.

Cory: Yeah. We’ve done some dumb stuff out of boredom. (Laughs)

Maggie: You – wow (I can’t stop laughing because his laugh is so amusing) That kind of supports the making-up of words, I guess. On a day to day basis, what do you guys to grow spiritually?

Cory: Lately we’ve been having Bible study every night. We pray, and then we read something out of the Bible and we just talk about things going on in our lives, and how maybe that applies to our life at all. It’s really amazing what comes out and how we can help each other that way.

Maggie: Yeah.

Cory: It’s really no different than when you go out and get together with some of your friends and just had – almost gave each other therapy, with your closest friends and family. We’re like brothers. We’re with each other all the time. That’s something we’ve been doing lately.

Maggie: That is awesome. Oh! That reminds me. I was planning on asking Jake, but I was wondering if you knew about it – he signed a ticket of mine and he signed a shirt of mine – before, when I saw you guys. He put “Rom 6:23” and it took me forever to figure out what he was doing, my friend was like, “It’s part of his phone number, save it!”

Cory: (Laughs)

Maggie: Or something stupid like that. I was retracing his signature on my shirt, and I was like wait a minute – and I grabbed a Bible and looked it up.. it was amazing. Like, it took me forever to figure it out, but when I did I was like, “Awesome!” you know?

Cory: Yeah. He puts that on everything.

Maggie: (Laughs) Oh really?

Maggie: Sorry that didn’t apply to anything, but what you said reminded me..

Cory: Yeah, that’s cool. It’s awesome.

Maggie: Okay, so what’s your favorite show to watch on TV?

Cory: Um, for the longest time it’s been Lost. I’m addicted to that show. I mean, the season’s over now but I watch that. Definitely Lost.

Maggie: Okay. Aren’t some of the Underoath dudes into that too?

Cory: Yeah, we talked with them about that show recently.

Maggie: Yeah, I’ve heard Chris and Grant used to watch it together or whatever.. um, which lyric from any one of your songs means the most to you?

(Beep)

Cory: That’s kind of a strange question because I don’t write lyrics that don’t mean anything to me.

Maggie: (Laughs)

Cory: You’re like, “Uh?”, because they both have some kind of meaning to me, but I wouldn’t be able to pick a favorite between those two.

Maggie: Okay. Do you have any questions for me?

Cory: Um.. how old are you?

Maggie: I’m 15.

Cory: Really?

Maggie: Mmhmm.

Cory: Whoa.

Maggie: Why? (Laughs)

Cory: I just didn’t see that comin’.

Maggie: It’s really annoying, especially here.

Cory: Really? Why?

Maggie: Because everyone thinks I’m a kid trying to sneak backstage.

Cory: (Laughs) No, it’s just really surprising. Because mentally you don’t seem like a 15-year-old at all.

Maggie: Yeah, I get that a lot.

Cory: (Laughs)

Maggie: It’s just the most common comment I get (Laughs)

Cory: That’s awesome.

Maggie: What sucks, I guess, is that when my mouth is shut I’m still very young (Laughs)

Cory: That’s awesome.

Maggie: Do you have anything else you could like to share?

Cory: Redeemer comes out in September. There you go.

Maggie: Okay, thank you!