SuburbanHorror: How did you guys get your name?

Elias Paul Reidy: Basically we all started out as young musicians, playing our own styles of music and putting together different other projects. We took ourselves - the concept of having a band name - too seriously. When we put this band together, we knew what mattered to us - the music- was there, so I don’t know, we didn’t really have a good time taking the name seriously. We just wanted to be silly and have a good time with it. We just threw a bunch of words together and called ourselves the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.

SH: That’s it?

EPR: Yeah, really simple.

SH: Your inspirations for songs are really powerful - really meaningful and great. How do you come up with songs?

EPR: I don’t know. It just happens. It’s always been that way. We’re a local band from Jacksonville; we’re all friends from then. We had a record deal when we were a local band. We still write music the same way. Usually, one of us will pick up a guitar - I’ll show Ronnie a bit of a song, and he’ll start singing to it, and a song grows out of it on the spot. We all just do our part. It’s a collaborative effort - Joey makes up the bass riff, John makes up the drums, and we trust Ronnie to do what he’s always done and write meaningful songs. The songs are stories about us as kids growing up, stories about himself, one of us, or someone we know. It’s all touching on real issues.

SH: You guys have a couple videos on FUSE and MTV now. What’s it like turning on the TV and seeing your own music videos?

EPR: I wish we could. We’re on the road so much it’s hard to see it. When I do turn it, when I’m off and there’s a TV in front of me, it’s very surreal. What means most to us is being on stage - that feeling when you get on stage and look out and there’s thousands of people singing your music back and like it’s really happening, that’s our dream come true. But, being on the mainstream world and having TV promotions, that’s a little more unreal. It’s just kind of, "Wow that’s weird."

SH: Time to dish dirt on the band. Who is the messiest one on the tour bus?

EPR: I think we’re all messy in our own ways. But, I mean, it depends on whom you mean. Do you mean who leaves trash lying around the most? Besides Phil, our guitar tech, I don’t know, John wears the same shorts every night when we play, and they get so sweaty.

SH: Different underwear?

EPR: Yeah he changes his underwear, but the same shorts. And he leaves them hanging around. You just walk into a room on the bus, and the whole room on the bus will be engulfed in that smell.

SH: So what do you guys do in your spare time on the tour bus?

EPR: We just hang out in the back lounge and listen to music, basically. Talk to each other.

SH: Are you guy’s big movie buffs? Do you play video games?

EPR: Yeah, actually Ronnie is a huge video game buff. He’s really into video games; he’s invested a lot of money into getting a flat screen for his bunk for his Xbox360, he’s pretty decked out with the wireless stuff. It’s pretty cool. I’m a huge movie buff; I’m definitely the biggest movie buff on the tour.

SH: What’s your favorite movie?

EPR: I’ve been in love with "Scar face" forever. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." I’m not big on gore movies. Ronnie likes gore movies; he likes horror movies a lot. I don’t like seeing people cut up and stuff, they really get to me. I’m really into movies that make you think, like "Crash," "Fight Club," "Snatch," "American Beauty"

SH: What’s something about the band that no one knows that you want to reveal to Suburban Horror?

EPR: That we’re all friends and a real band. We’ve been living together for the past few years. People are really surprised when they see us hanging out naturally. We’re not just being paid to play this music; we love being here. It is real, and it is okay to like that.

SH: What else is new with the band?

EPR: We have a new video called "False Pretense," that we filmed on tour last year. After doing the "Facedown" video and getting the necessary band video out of the way, where it shows all of us with equal face time, we were like, "Let’s making a movie music video. Let’s make something like "Thriller" inspired my Michael Jackson. So, we just got in front of the camera, we wanted to be hands on for this. We wanted to give people a little insight to who we were.

SH: Who is the best dancer?

EPR: COME ON! (Points to self) Have you seen on stage? Just kidding. We all get it on. There is no real dancer. We all have fun equally.

SH: Your song "Guardian Angel," have you ever thought of putting it out more, likes "Facedown"?

EPR: Like making it a single? Maybe. HINT. That’s all I’ll say about that - with a wink.

-Magic Stick Mish