You’re headed out on tour soon. Has it been a while since you’ve been out live?

“We haven’t done an actual, honest to God live show with the original three members performing together in years. We’ve done guest appearance type things were we do two or three songs. Last summer we did one at Madison Square Garden, one in Miami and one out here on the West Coast. Every so often we do something overseas. We did a big show in Brazil two years ago. But those were just sort of larks. Kind of like ‘Hey, someone’s offering us this show, let’s go do it.'”

Are you looking forward to doing live shows again?

“Oh yeah. Live shows are much more gratifying. And the ability to stretch out in a 70 or 75 minute set means we can play songs other than the hits and songs that we maybe love, but weren’t huge radio hits. It just allows us to be a lot more creative.”

Has the technology changed a lot since the last time you were out?

“Oh, hell yeah! I’m astonished at the advances in technology just over the last few years. A lot of the things that we used to really have to struggle to pull off on stage are now a piece of cake. That also is going to make it a lot more fun for us, because we don’t have to be so worried about the technology all the time.”

Kurt will be the vocalist for all of these shows. Will Chris make special appearances?

“We’re talking about that possibility, but it’s difficult for him to travel. He also has children. They’re young and he has twins! It’s hard for him to be away even overnight.

“Actually, the way we’re doing the shows is we’re just flying out for each show. None of us has the lifestyle anymore to be able to accommodate six weeks on a tour bus or something like that.

“Two shows in a weekend is a busy weekend for us and then we’ll lay off for a couple of weeks and then do another show. I think it’s going to be good.”

Have you thought about playing festivals?

“We’ve discussed it. The label has brought it up with us. As with everything else, we’re being very laid back about it. We’ll see what’s on offer and decide when the time comes.

“I think we’ve kind of accidentally fallen into that elder statesman category in the last few years that festivals [like Coachella and Lollapalooza] seem to kind of dig. The label has also been talking about some European festivals, particularly in Germany.”

You have a huge following in South America. Is it a different experience playing to those crowds?

“Totally. In Argentina or Brazil or wherever, we were like a superstar band, strangely enough. Whereas here in the States and in Europe, even though we had Top 40 hits, we’re still considered kind of a club band or an underground kind of thing. Down there, we were never underground – we were top of the pops from the beginning. So it’s a totally different dynamic.

“I like it, but it can also be uncomfortable, because we didn’t really grow up with that role so it’s a little strange for us.”

You’ve been very successful outside of Information Society with all the scoring and commercials you’ve done. Is it hard to step away from that and back into a band?

“No, it’s great. I kind of have ADHD, which has been really helpful in doing commercials because thirty seconds is about my entire attention span. I love to change back and forth between different tasks and different modalities within the discipline.

“It’s a refreshing thing, because when I do scoring or commercials, I’m there to facilitate someone else’s artistic vision. I’m more of a creative helper. With the band, we get to do what we want. So we’re doing it this way because that’s the way we want to do it, not because that’s the way a director or an ad agency wants it.

That success must allow you a little more freedom with the band too.

“Right. And the most revolutionary result of that is that the three of us – James, Kurt and myself – because we’re not completely relying on each other for our livelihood and self image, we can be a lot more laid back about band issues. It has really smoothed out our creative process, because we’re able to be more relaxed about everything. When you’re 24, every hi-hat in a drum pattern is a life and death proposition. Now it’s like, ‘Whatever.'”

Have you been asked to produce anyone else?

“I get production offers from completely baby bands, which unfortunately I can’t take, because I can’t afford it. You can’t spend six weeks for free.

“Occasionally I do remixes for more established acts. I just did one for Cheetah Girls and one for Corbin Bleu from ‘High School Musical.’ They’re more creative larks. I do it for the fun of it. But no, I haven’t actually been approached to produce anyone that I would have seriously considered doing.”

Anyone out there you’d like to work with?

“To be honest, I’d like to work with some people more as them producing us than me producing them. I’d love to have the guys from Simian Mobile Disco produce some tracks for us.

Is there a single from the new album?

“No there isn’t, because we’re on a small label now and it’s not like they’re going to be spending $350,000 on payola and radio promoters to drive a specific single up the pop chart. So it’s just the album. College stations don’t want to be forced into singles either. They play what they want and that’s kind of the way we’ve been approaching it.

“We’re discussing with the label the idea of doing a remix album. There’s a whole raft of people that I’d love to hear remixes from – whether we can afford everyone I’d like to see doing remixes is a whole other question. That would be a fun project.”