I happened to catch a Jetlag show recently while waiting to watch another band perform and I was honestly blown away. Not only can these guys play, but they also have a great stage presence that is missing from so many acts nowadays. Jetlag's singer, Stephen Miller, was kind enough to take the time to answer some of our questions and give everyone else an opportunity to discover this truly great band. Make sure to head over to their MySpace page at www.MySpace.com/Jetlagband to hear a sample of their music. Also, if you want an EP of their music (including the song "The Ark," my personal favorite) sent to you just send us a message and we'll make sure to get one to you for FREE!

Q: How long have the members of Jetlag been performing together? Is there an interesting story behind how you guys found each other?

SM: Jetlag is: Stephen Miller- lead vocal/ guitar,
Jeff Morris- bass guitar,
Chris Pruden- backing vocal/ guitar,
Chris Ryan- drums.

The four of us have been close friends since elementary school but the band was formed in 8th grade. At that time, Chris Pruden and I had been playing the longest although we hadn't worked together. I had formed a couple previous bands and Pruden had been playing in his church for a while. Chris Ryan had just bought a drumset and Jeff Morris didn't even own a bass. For Christmas that year, he had to decide between asking for a bass guitar or a Playstation. He ended up getting both.

Q: At what age did you discover that you had an ability to sing?

SM: I sang whether I had any ability or not. My dad used to walk around the house singing over Joe Cocker records and I must have picked up on that. Originally, Jetlag was an instrumental band. When we were 15 or 16 Chris Ryan and I spent a summer tarring and painting his parents' roof in payment for our first PA system. Once we had that, Chris Pruden and I both started to take singing more seriously.

Q: Like countless other musicians, you list Jimi Hendrix as being a major musical influence to your playing. Which Hendrix songs could you not live without?

SM: Little Wing, Machine Gun, All Along the Watchtower, and especially Voodoo Chile. I don't know how much of his influence can be heard in our band as a whole, but he is the basis for most of my guitar style.

Q: I saw Jetlag perform recently and got to hear you guys play a very good rendition of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "Mary Jane's Last Dance." Are there any other covers that you guys enjoy to play?

SM: We have a great time with Citizen Cope's "Sun's Gonna Rise" and The Dave Matthews Band version of "All Along the Watchtower". We've played some of the biker bars around Tucson which require 4 hours of classic cover material so we have a pretty extensive list: the Rolling Stones, CCR, Joe Cocker to name a few. We have a hell of a good time with "Mary Jane's Last Dance" though. That song really lends itself to our style and allows us to let loose.

Q: Your song "The Ark" is currently one of my favorite songs; it's full of energy and great hooks and is just a fun song to rock out to. What was the inspiration behind the song?

SM: "The Ark" is the second song Chris Pruden and I successfully wrote together. He had the initial idea and I helped bring it all together. We were going for an Audioslave feel in the music with heavy guitars during the verse and then a more relaxed chorus. I wrote the lyrics during a time when I felt like I was doing everything wrong but reaping none of the consequences. I had just come back to Tucson from a road trip and, while I was gone, it rained for three days straight. When I arrived it had just stopped. The song is written from the perspective of a man who stands in the middle of storm after storm watching other men get blown away but he never gets wet. It's a piece on how unfair and unbalanced (in my favor) things seemed at that time.

Q: If you could choose to open for any band in the world, which band would you choose and why?

SM: Tough one. We opened for Ashlee Simpson in 2006 but the audience was wrong for us. I know Chris Ryan and I would both probably chose the Dave Matthews Band because of the band and the crowd. DMB concerts are massive events with people who seem to come because they want to be apart of something. Jetlag takes its music seriously. We use the sounds and the words to make the audience feel something. We try to make our shows more than just entertainment. If the audience walks away thinking that they heard something different that's great, but if they walk away feeling different we've done our job.

Q: What do you do to get yourself mentally prepared before a show?

SM: We usually get lost driving to the venue, break something at the last minute, or realize we forgot something. We have a joke that if Styx's "Come Sail Away" (a song Jeff only enjoys because he knows I can't stand it) comes on the radio it is going to be our best show yet. For me, a Jetlag show doesn't begin until the end of the first song when I hear the audience. Until then, I've usually got too much on my mind.

Q: When can we expect Jetlag to release their first CD?

SM: We started it in December of 2006 and plan to improve and add to what we did then in the summer of '07.

Q: Do you have any upcoming gigs that you'd like to tell us about?

SM: We'll be at the Rock in Tucson, AZ on April 13th as well as another date in May. We'll also be in the University of Arizona's Relay for Life benefit concert on April 20th. Other than that, Jetlag is working towards getting more consistent shows in Maricopa County. As always, check out our MySpace page- it's always being updated.

Q: I say "wombat" and you say...

SM: Rainforest preservation. Come check out a Jetlag show. We won't let you down. If you know any record label execs bring them along.