Enoch Magazine ) Toadies just put out a new record. Tell me about the writing process.

Todd ) I’ve been touring with the Burden Brothers since 2002 and we were looking at a long break from writing. I started talking with the guys and we decided to write a Toadies record. We wrote it in a month and a half.

Enoch Magazine ) Our magazine focuses a lot on the homeless and we’re working on a documentary about the homeless on Skid Row in Los Angeles. Do you know about Skid Row?

Doni ) Yeah, I work on Skid Row.

Enoch Magazine ) As you travel you see homeless people in city after city while on tour. What can you do to help the homeless?

Todd ) I think you can find a charity you trust and donate to them. Give the homeless clothes and money.

Doni ) I work in a production company that’s based downtown right by Skid Row at 5th and Spring. When we look out our window we see Skid Row. So every time I walk out the front door I see someone pissing, crapping, smoking crack, or doing heroin. It’s a real dark place. These hospitals in the area are just dropping people off on Skid Row. The place needs a lot of help.
                                             
                                             
Enoch Magazine ) Are you scared of it at times?

Doni ) It doesn’t feel threatening. No body has really messed with me before. I just walk on the other side of the street.
                                                                                           

Enoch Magazine ) On the Toadies Records there is many religious undertones, tell me where this influence came from.

Todd ) I was brought up really religious. I always had it shoved in my face. When I started writing music I started using this imagery.

Enoch Magazine ) We live in America and we have Jesus shoved down our throats on a regular basis. What is you guys perception of Jesus?

Todd ) I am sure he was a great guy who had a lot of cool things to say but so did Buddha and Ghandi.

Doni ) I think its warped. I am sure it’s a great message but humans have screwed it up and twisted it to their own ways.

Mark ) People take and focus on what they want to with the exclusion of what they don’t want to face. I think if you look at the examples set by Jesus, whether it was real or fictional it’s a good thing to pair yourself with like love yourself as your neighbor; But when people start telling you, you can’t dance, or you gotta believe this way or that way that’s Bull@#$%!!!

Todd ) I think its interesting to have a religion that focuses on caring and forgiveness but you figure its ok to shoot, bomb, or rape people that don’t agree with your religion.

Enoch Magazine ) I agree that its warped and its gotten so far away from loving your neighbor or helping the poor and needy

Mark ) Yeah people have become so judgmental. Oh, there not as enlightened as I or not following Christ. It’s the opposite of what I think the message ought to be. Don’t judge other people, love your neighbor as                                                                        yourself.

Enoch Magazine ) I saw a tee shirt that says Reject Religion Embrace Jesus and it was very interesting. With it your looking at the principals of what Jesus was about.

Todd ) Yeah i saw a Facebook profile that summed up politics and religion in America.

Politics – American

Religion – Jesus and God.

Enoch Magazine ) I grew up being a punk rock kid my whole life. Did Punk rock music have an influence on your background?

Doni ) I’m from a small crappy Texas town so seeing and hearing Bad brains brought me away from the racial tensions of the Texas town I grew up in. Seeing 4 black guys do it better than most white guys was pretty cool.

Mark – Yeah It did. When it first came out I was into Nugent and Sabbath like everybody else and I heard the Sex Pistols and the Clash and I hated it. Then I realized you don’t have to be a virtuoso to play music.