Cartel Wanted to be Jackasses

Now that the saga of the Dr Pepper bubble is in the band's past, the band has come out and spoken a bit more honestly about the good -- and the bad -- of being trapped in a bubble and recording their new album in just a few weeks.

I think what we did was, we made the best decision we could, and should have made at the time, and it turned out fine. It wasn't a failure by any means, but I think knowing what we know now, there would have been things we would have done differently or requested were different.

I think they tried to make us have all of this drama and all of these things that we're just not," he continues. "We told them we're not a drama band. They wanted to turn it into 'Real World' rather than 'Jackass.' We told them 'Jackass' is way more popular and funnier than the 'Real World' could ever be. I think if we'd known that from the beginning, we'd told them to go fuck themselves pretty quick."

Interesting -- though I am really not sure why they thought recording an album in a bubble would somehow have equated to them doing Jackass-like stunts. That said, I also always got the feeling the band was somewhat hornswaggled into the whole thing. While I may have been critical of the "stunt," at the same time, I sort of felt bad for them because I really don't think they got the full story of what they were in for.

Pugh went on to say he feels like the pressure to record the album in the limited time and space helped push the band to new levels -- and take a more rock approach than on their earlier work. He went on to say that while "everyone around them" [including their record label, Epic] is expecting a number one, he's not that concerned about the charts, or even the earliest sales numbers. He spelled out the obvious -- something a lot of the people in the music industry aren't getting, saying, "I don't care about that. It's not about the first or third week -- it's about six months down the line if you're selling out shows and people are liking your music. It doesn't matter how many you've sold, at least to us."

Cartel's self-titled album hits stores August 21st, and the band will be touring in support of it through mid-October: