Take all of the music you've ever heard and throw it in a blender. Filter it with careful attention to detail, add a dash of cautious optimism and sprinkle with some of life's most depressing moments, and you'll get a feel for the sound you hear when listening to Illustrated Man's Amie Street offering, .

Hailing from Albuquerque, NM, the band is made up of Seth Launer (guitars, bass, backing vox), Dereld Padilla (guitars, bass, mandolin), and John Wall (lead vox, guitars, percussion, keyboards). I recently had an opportunity to interview John Wall, and asked him about the band, Drama, and the band's plans for the future.

Amie Street: What would you say your influences are for Illustrated Man? What music types do you feel are encapsulated by your sound?

John Wall: None of us have many limitations to what we like to listen to. I know we each have expansive music collections ranging from blues and jazz to rock and rap, classical and even a little country. As far as our styles go, we pull a little from the likes of R.E.M., Van Halen, and Jimi Hendrix, just to name a few.

AS: How did you start playing together as a band? In other words, what led you to each other?

JW: We met over ten years ago at a hockey game. Seth and his brother Brian were starting a band and had recently met up with Dereld and a bass player named Paul Gonzales. I happened to be sitting next to the two brothers and overheard them talking about needing a singer. I immediately introduced myself and within the week we had formed a rock band by the name of Zero Hour. Over the following five years we would record two albums and play numerous gigs, some of which were opening for major label artists in front of thousands of people. Zero Hour eventually ran its course and split up, but the three of us remained dedicated to the music we wrote together -- our chemistry was palpable -- so we kept writing songs and eventually released our first CD as a trio under the moniker Illustrated Man.

AS: When I'm listening to Music for Your Own Personal Drama I feel like melodies and harmonies are incredibly important to you. Is there another element of your sound that you feel makes you stand out from others?

JW: Both Seth and Dereld have a real understanding of music theory and are always looking for the little details in the composition to take it to the next level. Then, I not only add my voice but also my sound engineering skills and try to make it just a little different from everybody else.

AS: I see that you are from Albuquerque, New Mexico; did you start out there, or have you migrated there?

JW: Although we have all lived here long enough to consider ourselves natives, we have entirely different backgrounds. Seth was born in New York, raised in Arizona and spent a stint in San Francisco where he began to seriously hone his craft on guitar. Dereld was born in Colorado, came to New Mexico but then spent six years stationed in Germany while serving in the military. While there he joined a band that toured that country extensively, providing him with invaluable experience. I am the only one to be born in Albuquerque but was raised in Oklahoma City. I returned here after finishing high school to pursue better opportunities.

AS: Have you done a lot of live performances other than in the NM area?

JW: Unfortunately no. We are all way too fiscally aware to have ever decided to get in that beat up old van and drive around the country playing at pizza joints for fifty bucks. Should the right opportunity ever come along I'm sure we'd all be up for it, but at this stage we're quite happy being close to home and pouring out our creativity in the studio and to whoever wants to listen here in our own backyard.

AS: Music for Your Own Personal Drama... That's a terrifically interesting title; does it mean anything in particular?

JW: The title comes from an old friend of mine that I spent a lot of time with as a kid. One day we were driving around in my car listening to tunes and a song came on that was particularly dramatic sounding. We were both really into it and when it ended he turned to me and said "Man, that's like music for your own personal drama!" That always stuck with me and while we were making the album there was all kinds of drama in our lives. Our old band had just broken up, Seth was dealing with a divorce, and I was splitting up with a long-time girlfriend. The name just seemed to fit what we were all going through while we wrote the songs.

AS: One of my personal favorite tracks on Drama is All I Need . Did that song come from any personal experience?

JW: That was actually the last song written and recorded for the CD. We felt like we needed something slightly more upbeat, and by this time we were emerging from all the "drama" that we had been going through. I had met a new girl who would eventually become my wife and I was quite smitten. The song is about how, through all this junk that was going on, she managed to make it all basically disappear with the simple wave of her hand at me and I somehow knew then that everything was going to work out just fine. OK, I know a song about a girl isn't all that original but sometimes that's just how it works.

AS: Other tracks, which seem to stand out on this offering, are Wise , The Vultures , and Jet . What can you tell me about these?

JW: "Wise" is one of my favorites. In a nutshell it's about trying to find someone who understands you despite feeling like a bit of an outsider all your life. "Vultures" was written years before I even met Seth and Dereld and talks about a guy I went to high school with who committed suicide about a year after graduation. He was found in our high school parking lot after overdosing. His father was the governor of Oklahoma and police had found a pot seed in his apartment. The news media went crazy and he was on the front page of the paper every day. He decided he had let his father down to such an extent that his only choice was to end his life. The "Vultures" refers to the media and the role they played in that tragedy. "Jet" is simply a cool guitar song that Dereld had been fooling around with for quite some time and when we went to record it, just as tape started rolling, we heard a jet flying over the studio. Dereld said, "I can still hear the jet." Then he proceeded to track it.

Illustrated Man is currently working on their follow-up album, which is due out this spring. John says that "if you think that you know what Illustrated Man sounds like" then you'll be in for a big surprise. He describes the new album as a "concept album," as Illustrated Man's Sgt. Pepper, and says that it is a complete left turn from Drama, combining distorted guitars, hip-hop beats and a sound that is much more intense. Watch for the new album soon!