So you asked, and they answered. It's the answers to the SkullsNBones exclusive "Coalesce".

What are your guys top five albums of all-time?

Nathan Ellis: The Cure-The Top, Neurosis-Enemy Of The Sun, Elvis Costello- Imperial Bedroom, The Police- Ghost In The Machine, Codiene- The White Birch

Sean Ingram: Tool-Aenima, Concrete Blonde - Bloodletting, Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans, Bad Brains - Rock for light, and Decendents - Livage.

Jes Steineger: Metallica-Garage Days Re-revisited, Tool-Aenima/Lateralus, Fugazi-Repeater, The Black Keys-Thickfreakness, Stevie Ray Vaughan-Live at Montreux 82 & 85, The Mars Volta-Frances the Mute. Wait… that’s six…

Will you ever wear costumes while playing?

Nathan Ellis: Not really, no. One time Sean was SXE for a Halloween show we played. I played a show dressed as Rollie Fingers once, but not with coalesce.

Sean Ingram: Well, I think we did. One CMJ show. All of us in khaki pants and white tees. I saw the green lantern mentioned in this. that would be rad to see a band pull off. I don't think we are fun enough though, it's usually strictly business when we play.

Jes Steineger: I wanna dress up in a baseball jersey some day. Wait….

What the craziest thing you've ever done on tour, whether its some drugs or something you did live just what is the craziest thing you've done?

Nathan Ellis: We're not really into the "party". I will say that I don't remember the end of a night in Minneapolis not to long ago and I owe sean a million dollars for cleaning my puke out of the van. There's got to be a crazier story than that though.

Sean Ingram: One time we were driving through the night in the middle of nowhere, and a huge meteor storm started happening. One after another it was turning the sky bright green, and as bright as day. Then a super huge one happened and it blinded me while I was driving. It wasn't green at all, it was bright white. I knew one hit real close. Sure enough 15 minutes down the highway we saw a burning tree where it hit. We swung around and got out and checked it out. We got scared because a big rig pulled over and headed over too. We 've probably watched too many horror movies in our lives, because we booked out. I wish we hadn't, because we found out those things are worth a fortune. It was easily the size of a basketball. I have some old 35 mm photos of it stashed somewhere. Seriously the craziest thing I've seen. Other than some random pulling a gun on us at a gas station and then chasing us down the road. Or the time Bloodlet had a bunch of vampires chillin' in their van in Seattle, that one was pretty funny in retrospect.

Jes Steineger: Sorry friend; what happens on the road stays on the road.

I bought the 002 7" when it came out and I still love it to this day. I was wondering what made you (Sean) decide to change your vocal style from mid range shouting to low guttural bellowing?

Sean Ingram: Well, it wasn't a conscious decision really. When I first started doing this I was using my vocal chords to scream and it was tearing me up. as I got to do more shows and learn how to use my body, it naturally changed. It's my natural sound, I'm pushing as much air if not more than when I started. I don't use overdrive tricks, or pedals, or eating the mic tricks. Keep in mind I was doing the band at 18 or so, and you grow up a lot physically from 18 to 30.

What was the guitar set up for all of the OX sessions? Amps, pedals, guitars, mics on amps.

Jes Steineger: I used my two 70s reissue Strats for most tracks; one with a Lace blue in the neck slot and the other with a Lace red in the neck slot. I used Ed’s Kramer Ripley for the intro piece on “By What We Refuse” and some other overdubs – crazy ass stereo pickups. Nellis and I used Ed’s telecaster and an old acoustic guitar and Fender amp that were lying around the studio for the interludes. Most of the guitar takes ran through 3 amp setups simultaneously: (i) my JCM900 through my old Marshall 1960 cab; (ii) a Peavey 5150 through a Mesa cab; and (iii) an old Fender jazzmaster head through a 12” home stereo speaker with a huge chunk of the cone tore out. Ed would blend these three sounds together in different ways depending on the song; and sometimes he’d just use one of them (e.g., the beginning of “The Purveyor…” is just amp iii). I used an old Ibanez chorus pedal on certain pieces, a few different settings on Digitech Whammy, my 90 dollar Wah that I bought in NY a few years earlier, a few really old phaser and distortion pedals that Ed keeps locked up in a vault, and a Little Big Muff that I threw on top of the normal distorted mixes to make a real mess. I have no idea what sorts of mics Ed used. They were touchy as a mug, though. I’m sure if you listen real hard to the record you can hear random clicks from Jr taking pictures while we were doing overdubs and interludes.

Between '95 to '99 who did you think was one of the best punk (hardcore/chaoticore/emocore/metal/whatever) band out and who at the same time were terribly underrated/no one got a chance to see?

Nathan Ellis: Since we're all from the KC/Lawrence music scene I think we could all name a ton of bands that never made it out of this town but had a huge impact on us. Secular Theme, Giants Chair, Molly McGuire, Season to Risk, Boy's Life, etc...

Sean Ingram: I have to agree with Nellis on this one. We kind of just bumped into bands at fests and were never around long enough to know what was what other than the KC/Lawrence scene.

Jes Steineger: Without a doubt, Iron Rite Mangle.

What was the best place you ate at while touring?

Nathan Ellis: There are a lot of different places all over the country that we try to hit when we are in that area. Denver has Watercourse, the Pick Me Up in Chicago, and even when we get home from tour Ghengis Kahn here in KC tops the list. But I think the meal we had in Germany this last summer takes the cake. We had played a show and got the offer to stay at this family’s house. When we arrived the mother was making a huge meal for all of us at 2 am and the father was sharing his best booze. The mother didn't speak a word of english but just smiled at us while we ate. That was the best place we ate while touring, I think.

Sean Ingram: Absolutely the family in Germany Nellis mentioned. My favorite thing about that family is that the whole house was decked in music and metal. It was a totally normal family that was clearly close with each other, not weird or anything, and they had the whole place decked out with high end posters and band memorabilia. Oh and the dad loved Garfield, so there was some "I hate Monday's" stuff with Garfield sprinkled here and there, haha. Such an amazing family. Jes, what was their name?

Outside of this rad family, the best meal I've ever had on tour was in Los Angeles. It was some little shack with 2 arcade video games. Across the street from some famous high school for being in skate videos. I got a hot pastrami and cheese and I still dream about this sandwich to this day. It was unbelievable. The dude who ran it had pics of famous people who ate there on the wall so maybe it's a notable place to the locals. But damn that was a great sandwich.

Jes Steineger: I’m pretty sure that German family’s surname was Bauder; they lived right outside Karlsrühe. I like to eat out on tour; everywhere I get to eat out is my favorite place since I never get to eat out at home. I prefer all fast food establishments and red lettered Chinese restaurants. I have a speed metal metabolism and a punk rock gut, baby.

What album changed your life, and made you say "I want to be in a band"?

Nathan Ellis: Another local band. Kill Creek "St.Valentines Garage"

Sean Ingram: I think I would have to go with Danzig "Lucifuge" on that. That record got me through highschool. that record made it reasonable to say "fuck you" to every jock, and other asshole in highschool and throw yourself into something constructive like music. It was also my gateway to the misfits and the more punk side of music. I was hung up on youth of today and shelter too at a point, and for the love of god I have no clue why. I tried resurrecting those records the other week and just couldn't after track 2.

Jes Steineger: Metallica’s Garage Days; the summer after my fifth grade year. Live shows were more important for making me want to be in a band rather than albums, I think. Seeing Metallica on the Justice tour in 1989 really made me want to be in a band. My dad brought me to that show. Within a month I was taking guitar lessons. The Jesus Lizard in 1992, 108 and Quicksand in 1993, and Tool in 1996 each re-affirmed how much I wanted to play music.

What are your thoughts on the evolution of Punk music?
-It went from dirty "I don't give a fuck" then through truly "hardcore" years and has now branched off into several sub-genre's, what are your thoughts on that?

Sean Ingram: You know I've been answering this question as "i don't' know, i've been removed". But after being around again for a year, it seems to me that in general, it's more forgiving than it used to be. For example, it used to be that lyrics could offend. That's not the case anymore, no one cares. You can write about anything no matter how fucked up and it'll be passed over. It seems like it's more about only the music aspect, and the image of the players than the movement. I used to hate that there was a movement against barcodes, or girls holding coats for their boyfriends, or whatever. I really miss it now. A trend or a band like brokencyde just simply could not have survived in the 90's. And if A.P. had a band giving instructions as to how to style your hair to look disheveled in their pages (hocking hair care products) , everyone would have cried foul. That's just not the reality of today. Maybe it's the inclusion of hot topic and mall culture into punk that's changed things so drastically, or it could be kids just have a lack of respect for their roots. who knows. As far as I'm concerned, I think the "i don't give a fuck" should always be the attitude and that's how we've always tried to proceed when we get the chance. As far as sub genre's go, it was inevitable. That's just how it had to happen over time. It used to all be rock n roll in the beginning, even Punk in it's purest form is a sub genre of something else. I can deal with that, but it's kinda depressing as a whole in a lot of ways. But that's not to say that there aren’t some new cool things happening too. Shows have become way more organized, communication with fans has never been better, and vinyl is still king.

Jes Steineger: I don’t really know where things are today. I can only speak for myself and say that I only care about the rush a show can give me on occasion; apart from the feeling, I don’t think there’s anything else I really care about. That’s all I ever took punk to be.

Craziest Show You've Ever Played?

Sean Ingram: That would probably be the Wilkes Barre fest where James threw the drum, and it got passed around and dropped on a poor girl. the p.c. police crucifying us for that, having the real cops come and tell us to get the fuck out of there, and some little girl yelling at me in tears was pretty ridiculous. Everyone totally overreacted to our set, it wasn't even that nuts. But with the lack of twitter and the internet to disperse info immediately, it kinda stewed and grew bigger than it was until it hit the print zines and became epic. I remember hot water music chastising us on stage immediately after our set saying "we don't condone what just happened here", haha. That seriously bummed me out. Stacy quit after that, it was just one of those personal "what the hell just happened" moments for me. It wasn't even the show, it was all the reactions and stuff that happened afterwards that made it so crazy. We did a tour with Converge that had some pretty raw moments, I have real fond memories of that trek. The craziest actual show has to be the basement in minneapolis. It's actually on the coalesce dvd. the camera person keeps wiping the steam and sweat off the lens. Someone pushed me real hard and i put my hands out to break my fall and grabbed some girls boobs "tune in tokyo" style. I've never been embarrassed before during a show until that one. I remember the energy was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Best show I can remember ever. And I got to cop a feel without getting into trouble.

Jes Steineger: Reno, NV, summer 1995. We met our roadie Spencer at this show, and he and his/our friend Dean were of the exact same sort of spirit that we had at that time in our lives. It’s so hard to analyze what makes a show “good” crazy. There’s lame crazy when you have a bunch of jock meatheads beating the hell out of everyone, and there’s predictable crazy when everyone feels they have to run in a circle pit or do a stagedive in a certain way or dance like a sprinkler. That afternoon in Reno was authentic crazy though: real creativity and expression. No one knew who we were and the small crowd that was there just felt free; like they got us in a way that no one else ever did after that. We also played a show in Rosewood (?), Oregon in early 1998. It was a middle school gymnasium and everyone at the show was under the age of 14. We were like 22 at the time so it was weird as hell. There were seriously like 100 of these little punk 14 year olds going absolutely bonkers with us. We ate spaghetti in the promoter’s bedroom at his parents’ house after the show while listening to old punk records. So freaking strange. A few more shows come to mind: CBGB’s and Buffalo with Converge in Jan 1997, Coney Island High in NY with DEP and Neurosis in Nov 1998, Baltimore with the Daughters in summer 2007, more than a few shows this past summer in Europe were crazy as well. Oh yeah, then there was the first show we ever played with DEP in Philadelphia in 1997. I remember bleeding at this show more than any other; my guitar smelled like a corpse the next day in Long Island when I opened the case. During our set a fight broke out between some squat punks and some straightedge kids and we just kept playing through the whole thing. It was just a really violent show. DEP opened at that show and so I think the mood was set when Ben started attacking everyone in the crowd with his guitar during their first song…haha… Good times. Wow, I got a lot of favorite craziest shows.

Sean Ingram: Oh shit, you are right Jes. Stalag 13 in philly. It was a squat and we played with DEP. It was the fact that someone brought a pitbull and it bit someone, so the dude who got bit stabbed the dog in the middle of the show with a knife. I think it was on the stair case, there was blood everywhere.Every once in a while someone will tell me that the dude who owns that dog wants to kill me if he ever sees me again because we didn’t stop playing or something. Like I had a clue what was going on, haha. That fell under scary crazy.