Metal Mayhem: Its been nearly six months since the release of your self titled debut, how has it been received so far?
Shaun Cooper: Good so far, is been pretty well received over here in the UK. A lot of the shows have been sold out, and our video has been on MTV back in the States so I think that’s a good sign. Not too sure how the album is selling over here, but I like to think its doing OK.

MM: Can you tell us a bit about how the band formed?
SC: Well, John and I were in Taking Back Sunday, we quit and formed this one. Will, our drummer joined us after his bend went on hiatus, so we decided to give him a call and he was like “yeah”, I’ll play drums, and a few months after him, we decided to add John’s sister Michelle to the band.

MM: How would you categorize Strayligth Run? SC: Emo! or dreamy piano based ballad pop rock, any one of the two! MM: Who or what do you draw your main influences from? SC: Sex! Our music is fuelled by sex, drugs and booze! Erm! bands like The Beatles, Radiohead, U2, Guns N Roses and Motley Crue. Each of us have a lot of different influences really.

MM: How do you feel the album has been accepted by the fans of your previous bands (Taking Back Sunday and Breaking Pangaea)?
SC: Some people like it, and some people don’t, there’s a pretty good split. (thinks!) which is usually the case with any record anyway!

MM: Your original demo’s were well received and highly praised, how did they get back to Victory Records?
SC: I don’t know, they must have downloaded them! I still had a previous deal with Victory Records, we were stilled tied in with them anyway. We did actually have an option to be bought out by a major label, but that felt a bit scary and we didn’t really know how long the actual process would take. But Victory were really enthusiastic about working out a new deal, so they got in touch and it went from there.

MM: So you don’t really want to become too commercialized?
SC: No, we don’t want to be put in any situations where we’re made to do things we don’t want to do, but it really relies on the members of the band.

MM: How would you compare Straylight Run to Taking Back Sunday and Breaking Pangaea?
SC: Were nowhere near as good as those bands! No just kidding, we’re much better! I suppose it’s pretty much impossible to compare us to those bands.

MM: Are you still friends with your previous bands, and could you see yourselves touring together? SC: As far as touring goes, I don’t think that’s going to happen. Were all still friendly though, just trying to do our own thing. MM: Is this your first time touring the UK? SC: It’s actually our second. We did a tour with our friends Brand New last January, and we’re excited to be back. We all like Glasgow a lot, but I prefer London when it comes to cities.

MM: How would you compare the UK based fans to the ones back home?
SC: I’d say our UK based fans are slightly more star struck when meeting us, which doesn’t make any sense why they’d be impressed by me! Probably because they’re drunk because the drinking age is lower here, which is awesome. No, they’re pretty much even really, if it wasn’t for the accents, I wouldn’t be able to tell if it was a US or UK show.

MM: What does Straylight Run hope to achieve during the rest of 2005?
SC: Probably a couple more tours, maybe another single back home, maybe another video and hopefully before the years out, start recording a new album.

MM: Any news of a new album/are you working towards a new album?
SC: Just writing songs, we’ve done a lot of song writing, but I think another album is pretty far off as I still feel this record hasn’t been out for that long.

MM: What would you say has been your worst moment with Strayligth Run? SC: When we flipped our tour van, that sucked! It scarred me for life! MM: Any funny or embarrassing stores you’d like to share with us? SC: Erm...Our tour manager had to poop in a bag the other day! Yeah, that was pretty funny! MM: Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions, anything you’d like to add? SC: No not really, just thanks for interviewing us, we really appreciate it!

Interview by Laura Bunn, you can visit Straylight Run HERE.