Rbx: Your new album is called "Gusto": what does it mean ? Why did you call it this way ? Also, are you satisfied with this new work?

Derek: Gusto means...Whatever you want!, i don't know how this title came out, it was the title of a song in the album, and we have to choose the title track so we picked up this one because we thought it would sound good. We are very satisfied with our new record because it mirrors what we wanted to do before recording it. Even if could be sound a bit different from our past records.

Rbx: I think that Gusto has a different sound from your past records, for example the title track sounds in a country style and Contagious reminds me something from the 80'....so why have you decided to change and improve your syle?

Derek: In this case we have written the lyrics before and than we have composed the music and it was very cool because we have done this together and everyone gave his contribution so came out a record with a lot of different influencies.

Rbx: Your Plans for the future? A tour in order to promote your new album? You'll enter Canada? Can We see you in Europe and Italy soon?

Derek: We have done in August and September some dates in U.S. and Canada and now we'll join the Punk-O-Rama tour and come to Europe in October/November. We will come also in Italy because there are a lot of our fans there and because I think italy now is very cool.

Rbx: I know that you have already played in italy in the past, have you enjoyed that experience? And what do you think about Italy?

Derek: We have played in 1994 and was not a good show, probably Italy was not ready for us and there were only a few people. But when we played at the Decostruction tour in 2001 I've realized that the punk scene in Italy was bigger and stronger than before, and above all we had a lot of fun when we have played in the past.

Rbx: Now, something about your lyrics....How can you think and write such strange funny and mad stories? Do you use special drugs?? are all the stories true?

Derek: Basically Mark writes the lyrics, after 12 years together I don't know how such ideas can come in Mark's mind. But I think that the reason is that he drinks a lot of wine. Some stories are true others not but what we wanna do is to amuse people with our lyrics.

Rbx: Why don't you speak about politics in your songs?

Derek: Guttermouth has never been a serious band, so we think we haven't the right to deliver a serious message in our song. We believe people want to enjoy life and with our lyrics we are trying to let them do that. There are a lot of negative things in life and we don't want to repet them in our lyrics.

Rbx: After almost 2 records out for Epitaph Records, do you consider a positive think your change of label 2 years ago? Why?

Derek: Yes, It is very positive especially for Europe. Now with Epitaph we can reach easily more people than before, and our fans can find our records without any problem. When we were on Nitro we had a lot of distribution problems and was very hard to tour in Europe. But Now we can easly go and tour in more places and we can reach more people.

Rbx: When you have done this change I've read somethnig about your old fans considering you a sort of sell outs. do you think they are right? Do you think you have lost some old fans with this change?

Derek: I wish that I had the money to be considered a sell out. Then I don't know what I have sold. Epitaph gave us only the opportunity to travel and play more. No more money are involved. About the fans It doesn't seem we have lost some, I think we have gained a lot of people.

Rbx: What do you think about Internet piracy? I mean for example the possibility to download all the tracks of your new record one month before its release? do you consider it positive or not?

Derek: I think that it can hurt in way. If people don't buy our records, we have no money to travel and play live. But The positive thing is that people who burn our cds at home can come to our shows and support the band in this sense.

Rbx: What kind of music do you listen in your spare time?

Derek: I like very different kind of music, but above all i listen to very hard guitar music. I like old L.A. punk linke Germs, X, Black Flag but also something newer like International Noise Conspirancy and the Refused.

Rbx: What do you think about the new trend of punk music, I mean emo-core, bands like Get Up Kids, Dashboard Confessional and something like this? do you think that Punk music and deep romantic feelings have something in common?

Derek: I consider emo as pop music because is what it is really. Now a lot of punk bands are pop bands, I've nothing agaist them but I consider them as pop. It's very hard to label music right now. I think that all the new "cool" kids bands out there have learned how to be a band on manuals and they are copies of the copies. They have no new ideas, they are just following other bands.