Buzz: In the press release for Gizmodgery, you mention Pianosaurus. What exactly is that and how did influence your decision to do an album entirely on toy instruments?

Mahaffey: From what I got of it, in 1986 Pianosaurus was a toy instrument band and they had a toy instrument album out consisting of a Schoenhut toy piano, student bass and toy drum kit. The problem with that was that if you find that record and listen to it, that?s all it is. It?s a little bit of acoustic guitar and toy piano, but that?s about it. I just thought it was time for an updated version of that and I think we did that. I just thought it?s the year 2000 and there?s so many toys for kids that deal with music--all those little guitars with samples on ?em and stuff. I just thought it was time. I?ve been wanting to do it for years and we utilized everything available to us. It was an exercise in recording and it was a lot of fun. I would just say that no one?s quite done it like this. It was like "Hey, here?s some uncharted waters" and the fact that it ... I don?t know ... it was really a challenge to do. I?ve always dug toy instruments and loved having ?em around and playing with ?em and always wanted to make something out of it. It?s just a little kitschy thing that we decided to do.

Buzz: What was the process you went through to find all the instruments you used on the album?

Mahaffey: Some of them we had to seek out. A lot of them we got on Ebay. The great thing is that my brother (Mike, also a member of Self) has kids and he bought them all kinds of little noisemakers and gadgets. Plus, I?m always finding little bubble gum containers that make little beeping noises. There was a giant tub full of toy cell phones that we recorded and used and it was a lot of fun.

Buzz: How much did it cost to buy all the toy instruments?

Mahaffey: I don?t really know the amount of money. I know it wasn?t a whole lot, because you can find this stuff for really cheap. But stuff like the Mattel Star Guitar, we had to find on Ebay. And it was pricey because it?s a toy from when I was younger.

Buzz: How exactly did you have to modify the recording process to accommodate the toy instruments?

Mahaffey: Well, you?re dealing with really crappy instruments. It was the whole thing of working to get a good sound of it. We had to make it all sound bigger than what it really was. Most toy sounds are thin and hollow. For instance, when you?re ripping the voice box out of a stuffed animal, it?s a lot of midrange and it makes a "whhhssshhhh" sound. Dealing with the midrange and getting the sounds to work together was really the biggest thing. We had a bunch of toys saved up that we?d kind of been collecting. We recorded half the album during Breakfast with Girls (Self?s 1999 Dreamworks Records debut), so we were doing two albums at once for a while. I wrote four of those songs in one day, then I started finding more toys to mess around with and finished the album at my house in about two months. All in all, we?ve probably spent about three or four months on it. There?s some songs where it?s just me at my house. Some of them the whole band went into the studio and wrote it as we went along as far as what we were laying down to tape.

Buzz: What are the advantages and disadvantages of playing live shows with toy instruments?

Mahaffey: Well, it?s great that it?s a complete toy show. And the thing I?m really happy about with the album is that we didn?t really cheat as far as using any real cymbals. But in order to do the live show, we have to cheat there to pull it off. The little toy cymbals wouldn?t make it through more than two songs. [Drummer] Jason [Rawlings] hits ?em hard and they?d sound like banging trash cans anyway. It?s still kind of true to form, as far as appearance anyways. Aside from that, the advantages are obvious in that now that we?re starting to do shows, it?s easier to pack everything into a van. The disadvantage is that since we are doing this live and stuff, and even in the recording process, it?s hard to get them in tune with each other for more than a couple of bars. And you?re dealing with little eight-inch connectors. They?re all noisy, all the little keyboards anyway. A lot of these are from the old-school days when everybody had analog synthesizers; they didn?t have presets where they popped the sound in like they do today. It?s more challenging in that sense and more old-school. Our practices have been really fun, though. Nothing sounds organic at all. It?s all bells, whistles and bleeps and stuff and it?s really weird. We?re doing a couple of new versions of songs from Breakfast with Girls--"Uno Song" translates really well and "Susie Q. Sailaway" was originally a toy instrument song. But then everybody heard it and said we had to put it on Breakfast with Girls.

Buzz: Are there plans for a long-running tour for Gizmodgery?

Mahaffey: All we have planned right now are a record release party here in Murfreesboro (Tenn.) and a Tower Records show in Nashville. It really is just dependent upon the reaction to the shows. If it?s doing well, we?ll do some extra shows, maybe going up to New York or L.A. If everybody?s just kind of like "That was cool," we?ll probably just start the next Dreamworks record. I could go either way. I?d be down for touring around for awhile.

Buzz: How are advance sales for the record?

Mahaffey: I?m actually at Spongebath Records right now and they?re filling orders for it as we speak. I think it?s gonna be really positive. We did a video for the song "Trunk Fulla Amps" and we just got the edit back and it looks great. Some radio stations are starting to add it. Everyone I?ve played it for is starting to dig it and it?s already doing better than I thought it would. I do see it as a kitschy thing.

Buzz: What sorts of bands were your influences and how did they find their way into your work?

Mahaffey: I was really into hip-hop, you know--beat-making and sampling. The idea of taking a sound from an album and making a melody out of it was so cool to me. I got into sampling and at the time that Subliminal Plastic Motives (Self?s 1995 debut on Zoo Records) came out, there weren?t a lot of people doing it--sampling and playing live instruments at the same time. The closest it probably came was probably Nine Inch Nails, but it was all dark, you know, and not everybody wants to hear super-dark shit. It?s kind of innovative and I think that?s what people latched on to. I just have so many different influences musically that I try to meld it all together. And sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn?t. But we?re not a jam band. It?s a studio band. I never get the Phish comparisons or something. There?s all these eclectic styles flying around, but we?re not "The Grateful Dead 2." That?s good for me, because I would probably throw up.

Buzz: How did you deal with being thrust into the alternative spotlight with 1995?s single "Cannon?"

Mahaffey: That whole record (Subliminal Plastic Motives) was kind of misleading. My demos for that album didn?t really have any guitar on it at all. My brother had moved up from Florida and I told him he could play in my band. He put those big heavy guitars on it when he got into town and it really changed the sound of that record. I wasn?t really into rock ?n? roll, but I was going around to some radio stations and they were playing us after Guns ?n? Roses and shit like that. Regional reps were taking us to strip clubs and things like that. I didn?t like that sort of attention and the people it brought out to the crowd. It wasn?t people I could relate to and I wasn?t touring with people I could relate to musically. I like bands like Korn, Filter, Garbage, Cracker and 311, but a lot of it was just like this schlock-rock stuff that I really don?t want to have any part of. Now, I?m not dismissing the sound of that record. When we play live, we are a big loud-ass rock band. And as much as I dislike portions of that record, I think that the next album we do will definitely get back to some guitars.

Buzz: What was it like doing the Dreamworks record last year and how was that different from being on Zoo Records, your debut label?

Mahaffey: Well, we spent two years on Breakfast and one of the reasons for the delay was "Susie Q." being put on that album. With Dreamworks, I can do as many as two independent records for every Dreamworks album I do. So if I really wanted to get as creative as I wanted to, I could. I could do three albums a year, which is both stupid and impossible. Actually, I had a one-year, one-album deal with Zoo Records and they wanted to keep us. But this guy had come in and bought the company. And he was totally not a music guy at all--he was a guy who comes in and buys companies. He was like a pit bull barking at us all the time. I didn?t review a contract with them and Dreamworks said they wanted to sign us, started zipping around our shows and followed us around. We just got along well with them. They?re really an artist-friendly label. But now it?s kind of crunch time. They want to sell some records.

Buzz: What?s up next for the band?

Mahaffey: I?ve already got a bunch of songs for the next Dreamworks record. And I just moved to L.A. and my home studio has gotten to the point where I can fly the rest of the guys out here and do the record out of my house. That saves money because if you?re doing work in a big, big studio, it can cost around $2,000 a day. Mine is not a big-time studio. It doesn?t matter whether I?m getting paid or not--having it is great. I guess for now, I look at Gizmodgery as the end of an era for me. This record is the nth degree of doinking around. Now I?m gonna get back to bein? in a band instead of doinking around.