Inside Wants Out

RY: Inside Wants Out, a lot of your new-coming fans want to know if it will be re-released and if so, when?

JM: Yes. I would say within the next year, but probably not until then. I own all the rights to Inside Wants Out. When it came time to put out Room For Squares, it was a mutual decision to not keep Inside Wants Out going, it's interference. When you first start out at a label, you have a lot of ground to cover and you have to prove yourself. To have competition with yourself and with another record seems kind of counter-progressive. It'll definitely come out though and I'll be happy as hell when it does.

I also want to say to fans, keep an open mind. They are just records. Room For Squares isn't as good as Inside Wants Out in a lot of ways and is ten times better than it in most ways. I think I have really great fans who are going to be really open-minded in doing stuff that is going to be different from time to time. However, I'm not going to go completely off the deep end and start putting out stuff that is just out of synch with people and what they listen to.

CM: I originally reviewed (the independent debut CD) Inside Wants Out a couple of years ago and obviously there's been a huge leap since then. What was it like working on the major label debut Room For Squares and re-recording some of the older songs?

JM: It was okay. The ones that I didn't re-record are the ones that I didn't think were good enough. There is a certain amount of magic in Inside Wants Out. I think people understand, which was not even the design. The design was that it was just kind of a demo. It was something that would go away after a little while. People would have it at shows until the "real record." It kind of took on this charming life of half-demo, half mix tape. But "Back To You" and "No Such Thing" and "My Stupid Mouth," those were the songs off that record that I felt like were not done.

CM: What should the audiences expect on the new tour?

JM: A show that is equally balanced between satisfying the people who heard about me when I was playing Eddie's Attic and the people who heard about me the week before tickets went on sale. It's going to be a little bit planned out instead of just getting up there and feeling it and playing whatever we want. It's going to be a little bit more ...the show's going to have a little bit more of a design. There's going to be an element to the show. Basically, there's going to be an acoustic set inside of the rest of the show. There's actually going to be an Inside Wants Out set that I'll do alone to kind of satisfy the people who wish they had the CD. I wish that I could sell it to them right now, but I'm bound and gagged by the man.

CM: I'm sure you'll be the victim of bootleggings and file sharing...

JM: I hope so.