So, what can be said about a band that manages to rise through these waters and stay afloat for more than oh, five minutes? In the case of Battery, the question revolves around a factor of five years and people still seem to like them. Do they look good on stage? Do they know the right people? Who knows, maybe they're just honest kids who write good songs in addition to everything else. In all honesty, they're probably one of the few groups to truly master the bond between electronics and elegance with a little anger as an expression. It is 100% digital music but the catch is, you can actually feel something here other than a dance beat, a pretty voice and a few samples.

In an effort to side-step the pomposity standard set to stone by every 16 year old ex-shopping mall employee with a lunch-box and the new Skinny Puppy album, why not get down to the basics with this San Francisco trio? Why not have a little fun? So here's Maria, Evan and Shawn and I'll shut up now (promise).

The new album "Distance"...

Shawn: With "nv", we had a lot of things to get out of our system. This time, we did a lot more growing as musicians. We have this new found energy now, all of the songs have this intense effect. I'm not saying they're all 'happy happy joy joy', they're just better in ways I can't really describe. We just feel a lot more of the songs this time around. It's probably our best production effort as well.

Any more vocal mood swings...

Maria: There's nothing on the new album quite as angry as "Manipulator" [Maria's bad hair day on "nv"]. The new songs are actually more "sung", so I don't really scream in such a strong way. With practicing and performing, I've become much more comfortable showing real emotions in front of a room full of people. It was always more simple to put all those things away and sing more mechanically, now its a bit easier to feel what I'm doing while "performing" as well.

The techno geek assembly line...

Evan: A lot of the time, one of us will start a basic track, and then we'll bring it up and work it for a while. We don't always work on things together at the same time, it all depends. Sometimes Shawn will stay an extra few hours here or there, or I'll stay up until three in he morning fucking with a song, etc. After a while, we'll decide "yay" or "nay", or we'll put it on a tape and give it to Maria so she can listen to it for words. We used to pass songs on to one another where I'd start a song and pass it on to Shawn or the other way around. This is how the song grew. We wanted to put more emphasis on the qualities of jamming. I mean, we're obviously not the type of band who sits around jamming all day, but it definitely makes for more of a complete listen as opposed to hearing something one person made and passed on to someone else.

Why make music with your life?

Shawn: The thing that keeps me going is that fact that I simply just have to do it. One of the possible titles for the new album was "O.C.D." for "Obsessive Compulsive Disorder", which is something I've noticed in myself a lot. We have so many sources of inspiration that our music can't just be one style and I don't think it should be. That's one of the strongest things about us, we're so eclectic. You know the realm you're entering but you don't really know where you're going in yet.

Avoiding the typical "industrial" live show...

Evan: Well, for one thing, Maria's quite a performer, I mean she really throws herself into it. We used to rely a lot more on slide-shows and video but that was just more of a hassle. We had a stage designer who was responsible for taking care of it and all this other stuff and it was such hell! We just play now. Shawn and I have grown a lot as performers, we used to be terrified of just getting up there and singing. Its one thing to dance around while you're playing an instrument, but singing is quite a different thing. After all this time, I guess I can say I feel a little less foolish about it.

What do you do for a living dressed like that?

Maria: Evan has his own graphic design business with his sister, which is why he does all the [album] artwork. I actually work with them a couple of hours a day doing miscellaneous office stuff and I also help out Evan's mom with her business. This way, I can work a pseudo-normal day job and not have to worry about walking around with a shaved head! Shawn got stuck with having to look the most conservative because he works at some computer place.