MORGAN Y. EVANS: You’re about to drop your second album and first in four years but despite the long wait you are doing great at active rock radio, being number one most added. That must feel great after all the doubts and time in between your debut.

MARK WILKERSON: (laughing) Yeah. Such a long time. You kind of forget what it feels like to hear a song that you wrote on the radio. It’s good to know we can still produce stuff people respond to.

MYE: How did you keep your head up after some of the things that went wrong and how did you go about the process of finding the dudes to replace your old band mates that left after the first label dropped you? How’d you choose and trust the new guys? It must’ve been discouraging to start over.

MW: That was what took the majority of the time. Writing music is one thing but finding guys you can gel with, that’s what took the longest. Had we gotten these guys on board two years ago we would’ve been back then. It just took so long to find the right guys. The last thing we wanted to do was hold auditions ‘cuz it’s a sterile, stale environment.

MYE: Kind of forced, huh?

MW: So we kept going through friends and doing what we could, but we finally had to hold auditions. We were looking for not who necessarily had the best audition, but who also fit the part. The guy Sean we hired as our guitarist wasn’t the best in auditions. He’d gotten the music a couple hours before, but he was trying and had a really cool presence about him. Ultimately that made the decision for us.

MYE: So much has gone on for you in the last few years... Long question, ok? Writing a song is usually personal, like therapy for some people. Your old label said they didn’t hear any hits on the songs you gave them and Course of Nature was dropped even though you’d done huge tours and sold near 200,000 copies. Now four years on, labels would mostly be psyched for sales like that. Even Amy Winehouse or RHCP’s Stadium Arcadium sold a lot but would’ve sold more years ago. In Course of Nature’s case you have giant potential. It must’ve been surreal since you wrote “It’s Not Over”, a huge hit for American Idol alumni Chris Daughtry, but it was supposed to have been on your second album. You wrote it for yourself so was it hard to hand it over to someone else?

MW: I’d pretty much scrapped it. I liked it, but it was back when I thought the labels had the method to know, “This is not a hit”. You kind of buy into that, or I did years ago.

MYE: They’re the experts, right?

MW: Right. They’re the ones making big bucks to make these decisions, so they must know. They’ve been doing this forever. At the end of the day they don’t know anymore than I do. With that song there were big production differences in what I submitted to Lava, our old label. It was me and an acoustic guitar on an acoustic demo for the label and they said, “Y’know, it’s not rock enough”.

MYE: I didn’t know that. So you submitted it as a sketch first?!

MW: Yeah.

MYE: Oh man, it’s weird they rejected it so early.

MW: Yeah. As far as handing it over, it was a dud to me. There’s no denying what Daughtry brought to it ‘cuz the dude’s got an amazing voice, and the American Idol machine, I mean… They’re going to sell records just based off television.

MYE: Right, and his band is touring a lot.

MW: Yeah. It was pretty much a no-brainer for me. There’s no doubt that if I’d put it out as Course of Nature anyway it wouldn’t have sold, you know, four million records.

MYE: That’s pretty insane. It seems like it’s hard sometimes with the post-Napster environment as it makes record companies even more afraid to take risks, even when if they’d listened more closely they might have heard the song was there all along. There’s no sure-fire formula, though. Look at Modest Mouse. Their label was writing them off even though every album is great and then they had a massive hit with a quirky song “Float On”.

MW: There’s so many bands, even when we were on Lava. Matchbox Twenty almost didn’t happen and you talk about a thirty million plus record! They were probably two weeks away from being out the door and a station in Birmingham, Alabama started playing another track off the record. I think they put out “Long Day” and it didn’t do anything, so typical label stuff they were gonna be put in the garbage can. Then the station started playing “Push” and it just took off. Next thing you know, thirty million records.

MYE: Did you know Daughtry ahead of time or was it more of a business connection?

MW: I’d had no contact at all, but the guy who’d produced my acoustic demo at Avatar in New York, he had the ProTools track for “It’s Not Over”. He said he’d just been asked to work with Daughtry and did I mind if he tried to submit one of my songs. I was like , “Yeah!” I wasn’t using them anymore. They worked on it and made it more Chris Daughtry than Course of Nature. My song was an angry “you slapped me in the face” type song, and they changed it into a sort of ballad type song. It gave it a little more pop appeal than rock for that audience. The song is basically the same, but a lighter version of it.

MYE: How did you end up involved with Jeff Hanson and his Silent Majority Group as a label? He’s worked with Sevendust who I have always admired for their work ethic. It seems Jeff is really pushing for you.

MW: It was something since back in the day. We had a manager from our home town who was a greenhorn and just was trying to learn his way kind of like we were. That usually doesn’t work out as well. Our manager, in my mind, was trying to do what Jeff Hanson did, ‘cuz when we came out was right when Jeff was just banging with Creed. Our guy tried, but it just wasn’t a good situation. I’d always admired what Jeff had done because he started from nothing and brought his band up to mega stardom just by believing in them and getting the job done. Every band Jeff Hanson worked with I was always kind of envious of and I really dug every one of them. Sevendust has always been one of my favorite bands. We kind of fell backwards into working with Jeff. We did so many showcases for labels and it was such a run around. Everyone was scared and nobody wanted to step in because they said , “Oh, this band has been dropped. They are tainted, no good!”

MYE: I heard the title of the new disc Damaged was a comment on bands being treated like “damaged goods”. That’s a great point.

MW: It’s true. I can’t tell you… We got passed on by a couple of labels. They set up a showcase, more typical business crap. They’d spend all this money to have a showcase and then the head guy wouldn’t show up and the follow up would be , “Well, they didn’t sell a million records the first time around so why should I believe in them now?”

MYE: Lame.

MW: They wouldn’t even listen to the new music. It’s all what you’ve done in the past and not your music. Your track record. I think that’s kind of retarded (laughing). The new one, I hope it works out. This to me has been position A from the beginning. We were gonna try and do this on our own ‘cuz after going through what we went through before, I thought we should keep as much control as possible this time. I was losing a lot of my creativity ‘cuz I was worrying so much about business stuff.

MYE: Feeling a little shot, huh?

MW: Yeah. So it worked out great ‘cuz we’ve kept a lot of control and handed over our piece to someone who actually knows music and whose opinions I trust. In the past everyone I talked to, I didn’t agree with their decisions or their music choices. Jeff and I, we seem to have followed the same path as far as what music we like and obviously he’s gotten behind us and is trying hard for us so it’s good.

MYE: It’s great when you don’t have to go against your own instincts.

MW: Yeah.

MYE: On the new album “Time Is Slipping Away” is probably my favorite. It seems like it must be fun to play with the power pop vibe, and I like the chorus hook.

MW: Yeah that one was written two years ago and it made the album but was kind of older to us. It’s funny you say that one ‘cuz I haven’t gotten that yet as someone’s favorite. It’s good to have different people comment on every song.

MYE: Yeah, different tastes.

MW: That was actually a song I wrote when I was really worried about the state of my career. Everything seemed to be getting away from me. We got dropped from the label and had put so much time into trying to please them and into writing for them but they weren’t lending us their best ear. Stringing us along. I have a feeling it was contractual.

MYE: Was “Anger Cage” also about pent up frustration?

MW: “Anger Cage” is about living in L.A. (laughing).

MYE: You’re an Alabama boy, right?

MW: Yeah. It’s traffic here, assholes, everybody. I have a hard time. I don’t jive well with it.

MYE: You can get stuck in traffic there for SO LONG!

MW: I DO NOT do well with that! It’s also the lack of concern for other people. I know it’s like that a lot of places but here it’s abundant. That’s where I drew a lot of inspiration for that song (laughing).

MYE: Well, it’s paying off, right?

MW: That’s one good thing that came from it.

MYE: Between releases you also married actress Melissa Joan Hart from Sabrina the Teenage Witch and now have kids. Course of Nature was doing well before but how vindicating was it for you to have a hit through the publishing end of “It’s Not Over”? You can tell critics, you know , “Screw you! I brought home the bacon”. They can’t say you’re just riding on your wife’s fame.

MW: Yeah. Everybody always thinks that, ‘cuz people tend to forget we were doing our band before that and you get thrown into the category of , “Oh, his wife’s a celebrity”. I’ve never asked her to do anything. She gets involved in everything ‘cuz she’s a woman.

MYE: (laughing)

MW: She really believes in what I do and has always wanted to help, but I was always closed to it. I was successful before her, and I also want to be successful on my own. It’s part of (laughing) “being a man” for one, but it’s impossible for it not to come up. I’ve gone through a lot of down time and if my wife being a celebrity was going to have helped it would’ve happened sooner than five years!

MYE: Right.

MW: So it’s a little annoying, but at the end of the day I have a family and a great wife. This is just my job.

MYE: How has having a family changed you as a person and musician? When people think of rock music they think of Keith Moon from The Who crashing a Lincoln Continental into a pool and things like that.
How do you maintain the rock ‘n’roll thing with a family.

MW: It’s a big adjustment, like juggling acting. I’m a total athlete at heart and I work out and eat right. I drink, well…very seldom. I’m not normal in that way, I guess. I have a hard time relating to musicians in that because my lifestyle is so different. Because I have a family now, it is hard thinking about leaving and touring for so long. I’m trying not to dwell on it and am just gonna do it ‘cuz it’s something I’ve definitely wanted to do. I’ve been dying to be back out on the road for so long and the desire is still there, but not as strong as it used to be. It’s not going to be , “Woo hoo! I’m on the bus”.

MYE: Ahhh, you’ll have fun.

MW: Yeah, there’s no doubt I will. It was priority A back in the day, but my personal life comes first so now it’s priority C or D. I didn’t have a car or a house before when we went on tour.

MYE: Low overhead, man!

MW: (laughing) No ties to anything.

MYE: It’s good Melissa is being so supportive of you though.

MW: She loves it. She loves music.

MYE: She directed the new “Anger Cage” video, right?

MW: She did. That was her first time doing any music video production. She’s done short movies and features directing, but never music. I think it’d be good if she gets into that more. She loves to act, but she’s also looking to do more directing now. She loves it. She loves having to (laughing) not put on make up.

MYE: (laughing) This is kind of a retarded question, but does she really know magic and talk to animals and shit?

MW: (laughing) She is a little crazy but she doesn’t do any of that stuff.

MYE: You were saying you wanted to be an athlete but were injured and the music took off for you. I think sometimes sports and rock mix better than people think…emphasis on sometimes. People think of jocks beating up weirdoes, but it isn’t always the case and sometimes dialogue through music can bring people together.

MW: Yeah. I think it would be different if we were in the emo scene. That would get a little dicey.

MYE: (laughing) I can relate because my father, Tom Vink-Lainas, worked for Sports Illustrated in the 70’s. He fished with Ted Williams, awesome stuff. Now that I am a musician myself, sometimes I’ll be at a club or bar and not even realize I’m yelling at the game on television. Punkers will say , “What’s wrong with you!”

MW: (laughing) What’s wrong with this guy? Why does he care about that?

MYE: How do you feel about the whole steroids scandal in baseball. Andy Pettite of the Yankees said he took growth hormone twice to heal an injury and that’s all, so hopefully that is true, but there are so many other players also. It’s sad.

MW: It’s kind of what the music industry did with downloading and jumping onto something to put in the news. Across the board this will come up in every sport. But there is excessive use like Barry Bonds, I think.

MYE: It’s hard to know who to believe.

MW: Right. If they’re going to test they need to be tested once a month, no questions asked. Thirty day warnings also kind of defeat the purpose (laughing). If a guy is taking something to heal an injury then it will be documented. I look back at guys like Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron. Bonds can hit a line drive out of the park. Hank Aaron could barely get ahold of the ball to make good contact but he really did it. I think steroids taints the game. I lost interest in baseball a few years ago when they had the strike. The greed and amount of money players make…It’s high in the NBA and NFL but baseball is over the top. They just need to make the new testing deal what it will be and move forward.

MYE: The bridge of “Right Before My Eyes” made me wonder if you liked the band Further Seems Forever. Their last record Hide Nothing had a lot of controlled tempo changes and focus on melody as does yours. They are more in the emo/punk scene than what you are doing but I thought you’d like them. What bands do you draw inspiration from these days?

MW: Musically or lyrically?

MYE: Anything, really, or from your own sources in life.

MW: Lyrically I try and keep it all personal. In order to really “emote” on stage it helps to be something personal that you feel strongly about. I keep all that as close to home as possible. I don’t do a lot of fictitious writing but with other music it’s been tough for me lately. I’ve gone back to 90’s rock and have always been a big 80’s guy.

MYE: You don’t like much newer stuff?

MW: The new stuff lately has seemed bad to me. I haven’t heard a song on the radio and said , “I gotta go get that record”.

MYE: It’s good then to know people are into what you are writing.

MW: I hope so, but nobody’s really buying records anymore. There are so many ways to get it free, I guess. There’s fewer ways to tell how many people really have your record. Breaking Benjamin are probably my favorite right now as far as liking their music, lyrics and sound. I think they are doing it better than anybody in their genre--them, and Three Days Grace are bands I like, but other bands haven’t struck me lately as phenomenal.

MYE: It’s hard ‘cuz some artists and labels seem scared to be themselves now. Hopefully with Led Zeppelin coming back people will say ,” Oh yeah”.

MW: (laughing) “That’s how it’s done”!

MYE: I was wondering objectively, there’s also a classic Black Flag album called Damaged (In 2002 Rolling Stone named it #340 in the best 500 albums of all time). The reasons behind why you named your record that are pretty cool, I think, but I wondered if you were worried about criticism because of this?

MW: I wasn’t aware of that. I’m not a Black Flag fan, really. I don’t own any of their albums. I’ll definitely go check it out. I didn’t know that. Band names are sacred, I think. Album titles less so.

MYE: There’s so many bands that have had songs with the same name, even “Liar”.

MW: Like Henry Rollins.

MYE: That’s ironic. It’s one thing if people cop it from somebody, but not as much if it just happens. Just curious. Now, what would you like people to take away from the new Course of Nature album, especially since it is a rebirth for the band after a lot of work?

MW: I hope people know that and realize that for a band to put out a second CD isn’t always an easy thing to do. So many things go on behind the scenes. I would’ve liked our first record to have reached more people, but I hope our old fans see the growth. I hope new fans will enjoy Damaged and not just one song. Every song on there is a song I bled for. I hate the fact that now it is so easy to buy just a song because labels are so in the habit of signing a band for one song and the other nine songs are filler tracks.

MYE: Totally, dude. Bands get lazy. What happened to the album?!!

MW: You miss out on so many good things. Bands I’ve stayed with as a fan over the years were bands who had great full records, not just one or two songs. I’d like some more than others, of course, but I want to be able to put in a record and listen to it from top to bottom.

MYE: Your album is anticipated for the New Year, but if it goes well, and it seems like it already is, what are your plans after that?

MW: I want to be doing our third album by this time next year, because we have so much of it already done and I want to get in while it is fresh for us. I want to do a couple more Course of Nature records.

MYE: You have to admire bands that can tour and put out records consistently these days. Sevendust for awhile didn’t have as frequent albums as some contemporaries, but people don’t know how much goes into each one.

MW: Yeah. It’s a hard, long process. We did Damaged in just six weeks. Albums used to take six months to make. Even after six weeks you’re ready to go and play live. You’re just done. Then after playing live for six weeks you are ready to go and get some new material (laughing).

MYE: Alright, Mark. Thanks a lot and good luck.

MW: Thanks, brother.