Mike is wearing a pair of long dark khaki shorts and a black t-shirt with a skull emblazoned with red and green lightning.  His hair is bleach blonde and provides a vast contrast to his twin sleeves of tats. 

music-reviewer.com: Mike it’s really thrilling for me to be interviewing you, I have been a fan of MXPX since Life in General was released, when I was about 14 or 15 years old.  Over the past ten/fifteen years you guys have really evolved as a band.  Who would you say is your fan base now? Or how has it changed?

Mike Herrera: Well, a lot of our fans have definitely grown up with us over the years and a lot of the guys have families, girls, kids…Its really weird, when we see our friends change, they’ve graduated college, grown-up, got married, and got a “real” job.  That is really strange to me because we’re (MXPX) still out here touring.  It’s truly weird to see people going through their life cycles where they get into punk rock music and they end up having to grow up and go through all that and they still like it, but it’s defiantly not the only thing they think about in life. 

m-r.c: With Secret Weapon being released in July, what experiences do you think influenced these songs?  

Mike:  I guess just mainly think and feel like, “Hey! were an underdog working class band,” and uh, those ideas shape the songs, the attitude behind the whole thing (album), so as you listen to the album you’re going to get a lot of themes coming out. 

m-r.c: How does the albums sound compare to your past work?

Mike:  Its hardedge, I would say that this album is much harder and in a kin to our live shows, its much more raw emotion. 

m-r.c: Who did the writing on this album and what was your process?

Mike:  Ummm…..Me.  I write all the songs, actually I have written all the songs for all the albums  

m-r.c: So when you started out as a musician you were obviously influenced by many different bands…who do you think were your current musical influences are?

Mike:  They’re basically the same as they always have been with a few new bands thrown in… Black Flag, The Ramones, NOFX, Circle Jerks, Bad Religion, Rancid, you know just, just punk rock…as well as Elvis Costello and a few of the new 80’s punk rock and just singer/songwriters, Superdrag and Sugarcult.  As far as new bands or newer bands, bands like Sugarcult, I’m a big fan of, we got Tim singing on the record, and we had a lot of guests actually and it’s been really cool and fun.         

m-r.c: What would you say your goals are for this album?

Mike:  Umm, I think were just storming the castle on this one...just kicking down doors, and uh, you know starting fires, moving from room to room…that kind of thing. (with a sparkle in his eye) 

m-r.c: Are you working on anything new?  Do you think you’re done?  Obviously you would know if you were done… (Laughs in slight discomfort)

Mike:  (Laughs) Well…I think were just starting…Were definitely not done, I think this record can bring about a lot of new fans, sort of bring back punk rock in general.  I think there has been, there’s been sort of, a lot of a bands distancing themselves from punk rock saying, “oh, we’re a rock band, were an emo band or we’re this or that, but whatever and really if you think about it most of the bands are kind of punk rock, they’re punk bands, maybe they are a little slower, really were all coming from the same place, the same areas as far as that goes.  I think were proud to say, “We’re a punk band!”  Hopefully with this new record were going to bring that back.

m-r.c: How would you define “success”?  I mean, obviously you’re very happy doing what you are doing…you love music, so do you think up to now MXPX has had success?

Mike:  I mean absolutely.  There are different levels of success; there are different definitions of success, but for me, in this band, being able to live, you know, on music and having punk rock, “pay the rent,” so to speak, is uhh…being successful.  You know not having a regular job, working for myself, it’s awesome, its great…Not having to grow up, but at the same time growing-up in some ways, paying bills, and the way I make money to pay the bills is by having fun and acting like a kid and traveling around, so its been awesome. 

m-r.c:  I saw some of your younger fans when I walked in and they look soo young…Many of them probably were not even around when your first album was released…

Mike: Ha, yeah its generational, you know, some fans that were a little bit older than us when we came out, listened to us and grew-up and had kids, and now their kids are fans.

m-r.c: Mike, thank you so much for sitting down with me and chatting.  I really appreciate it

Mike:   You’re welcome…good times. 

Photos by Adrian Alexander