Written By Cary Barnhard

While preparing to play the Sundance Film Festival with his band the Exies, Singer/Guitarist Scott Stevens ran into a slight complication: he lost his keys. When the frantic search ended, he found time to answer some questions for Heat Beat Magazine. HB: Your song "Ugly" was used by the WWE as the theme for the Survivor Series. What did you think of that?

SS: I thought it was really cool. I'm not a huge fan of wrestling, but I'm glad they chose it.

HB: You went with a more stripped down approach for your new album "Head for The Door"…

SS: Yeah! We just simplified things a little bit. That's kind of the way we saw it; that's kind of the way Nick (Raskulinecz) saw it as producer. The songs lended themselves to being that way.

HB: So it wasn't a conscious decision?

SS: Yeah, the songs just kind of dictated it. We didn't really set out to say, "No Programming this time," it just kind of happened.

HB: You also changed drummers recently. How do you think that affected the band?

SS: It changes it quite drastically. You get one more personality in there that's very different and things change. He made it a little bit more of a song-oriented thing rather than a jam thing. Playing more of what's necessary for the song, that's why we got him.

HB: Can you take me through the process of how The Exies write songs?

SS: Usually I bring in an idea or someone else brings in an idea and we hash it out. We see what's there and the wood shedding begins. You get a bead on it; feel a groove. Then we kind of know where to go with it, how to construct it and craft it. That's kind of how it starts, just by sweat.

HB: What can people expect when they come see you play live?

SS: We sound exactly like our record. Well, hopefully we sound a little bit better. But it's high energy; it's just straight ahead rock and roll. If you want just a straight up loud rock band with good energy and intensity, you're gonna get that with us.