Shakefire sits down with JP Clark, Jake Mai, and Joe Bortscheller of the rock band Young & Divine to talk about their upcoming EP album,  live performances, and anything and everything music.

Shakefire: So guys, who are some of your musical influences?

Jake Mai: I'm really into Third Eye Blind, John Mayer, Aerosmith, and Zeplin. It's very diverse. There's not really a certain genre of music that I champion. I just like well written songs and the personalities behind them, kinda matching and it all making sense.

JP Clark: I am kinda like a pop guy; I'm definitely into pop stuff. I grew up listening to Blink, Green Day, Jimmy Eat World, Muse as of late, All American Rejects, Oaisis. Sorta like the classic bands that I feel like were at the forefront of everything while we were growing up.

Joe Bortscheller: I'm pretty much on the same boat. I bounce back and forth a lot. It depends on what kind of mood I'm in and what kind of day you'll catch me on. But if you catch me on a day where I'm thinking about something deep then I might be listening to some kind of indie, experiemental Imogwei or if I'm a funky mood I'll listen to some old school funk or something.

SF: Your music has a mix of pop, punk, rock, and a whole bunch of other genres. How do you guys want to be classified?

JM: Epic Fantasy Metal. Epic Fantasy Viking Metal.

JPC: We really want to be classified as a rock band at heart. I think at the core of all our music there's a rock vibe.

JB: It's like we're a rock band with pop songs. We're like pop rock.

JM: It's funny too because in our bio it even says we're a pop punk band but I don't think we're a pop punk band. My definition of pop punk is bands like Blink and New Found Glory. Obviously, bands that I respect and love but we're not in the same vein because if you listen to the album, it's a collection of songs that are very, very diverse. There's pop songs, there's ballods, there's straight up rock songs. You don't really find many pop bands that do that. A lot of shit we've gotten is that people assume we were put together because we're on RCA or whatever.

JPC: Like our first single too; "Shake that Bubble," although we don't mind the song. It's tough, that like the game you play. You get defined by your first breakout song. You definitely set the stage. I'm hoping that it's a positive thing when people find out that we're not all just about the bubble song.

SF: Why did you decide to release a EP rather than a full length album?

JPC: Long story short, FYE wanted to exclusively release something. They didn't know what, we weren't sure what. Kinda knew we couldn't do the album because you can't exclusively release an album because only one person would have it. To us, we didn't feel as a band that we were ready to put out our first album yet. We are on a major label that is going to expect things and we all just thought it was smart to lead off with the EP to try to build the hype more, build up the buzz for this big release of the album and go worldwide with it and go crazy with it. If things were to work out according to plan, that is the plan. This is almost like a steping stone still to the album. On a fan base level or a popularity level, we all feel like we're really close but we're not quite ready for the whole shebang yet.

SF: You guys have stated in the past that musicians have forgotten that they are entertainers. How important to you is a live performance?

JPC: It's everything. I'm mean, it's not everything. Of course you need a good recording too. Especially if people are not buying music like they were. If you have a hit single, you'll sell quite a few but the average musician does not sell a lot of albums so what else is there left? There's the live show. If you can't sell kids on that, you're going to have some trouble. When you're playing in front of people you need to sell to them.

SF: How do you guys feel about piracy?

JPC: It definitely sucks. It's weird because I think now it's expected and that's just the way things are. You can be pissed about it but it's like being pissed that traffic lights aren't always green. You know that they're going to go red. You just have to adapt to it otherwise you're not going to go on very far.

JM: We came into the game knowing thats what the situation was. We're out here for the love of music at this point. No one's making any money, no one's going home with 15 broads. It's all about playing. It's all about having fun. Obviously one day we'll like to have a little bit of money, but for right now it is what it is.

SF: Were there any difficulties in recording your album before the label was involved?

JPC: I think we're just stoked that that is what is going on. We recorded an album on our own and the label we have, they're putting out an album that we did completely on our own. It's not something that happens a lot. I think it's really cool that we weren't changed at all, we weren't asked like, "okay, we like this one song but we need you to write four more just like that." It was like, "We like what you already have going on so let's just run with that." And we're running.

JM: We basically just championed what we had done already which was amazing.

SF: Any plans for after the release of your first full length album?

JPC: Our plans are really just to stay on the road and just keep doing what we're doing, whether it's in front of eight people, or 80 or 800. We've played them all at this point.

Their self-titled debut EP features the hits "Shake that Bubble" and "Weakdays" and is available March 23rd in stores exclusively at FYE and online at iTunes and Amazon.com.