This summer, I traveled to Bonnaroo and caught up with a wide array of artists, many of whom found themselves at crucial points in their careers. This interview, with Jared Champion (drums) and Matt Shultz (lead vocals) of Cage the Elephant, is the first part of the series. (Cage the Elephant will be playing at the Higher Ground Ballroom in Burlington on October 21^st - tickets are on sale through Programming Board.)

How's Bonnaroo been so far?

Jared Champion: Awesome. The show was actually better than I expected. 'Cuz we had an early show on Sunday, and I thought, aw man, everybody's gonna be doing it real big on Saturday.

Matt Shultz: You kind of wonder if anybody's gonna come out, and then it was packed, and we were like, oh my god, people came out. It was very exciting.

You guys aren't camping, are you?

Jared: We played 2007 and we camped. Three of us got heat exhaustion and had to go to the medical tent. Matt had to get carted around naked on the back of one of those carts.

Matt: I wasn't naked.

Jared: He was naked! Oh, he had one little towel on.

Matt: No, it wasn't a little towel. It was a thin sheet though.

Jared: You could see everything.

Matt: There was this guy in the medical tent who was tripping real hard, and they strapped him to a board and asked him where he got the drugs, and he was freaking out. I was like, Don't do that to him, he'll never be the same!

Your live show is really energetic, and you've said before that you want your music to be raw and passionate. What is it about that kind of music that attracts you?

Jared: You can feel it. It's not just manufactured.

Matt: Even a more relaxed song can be raw and passionate. It's just where the heart is, where your intentions are.

Jared: People feel that in music. You can tell if someone just makes it to make it or if someone makes it because that's what they love. That's pretty clear to see, usually.

You guys started Cage the Elephant to sort of carve out a niche for yourselves in Bowling Green. You didn't really want to be doing the same things everyone else was doing...

Jared: Yeah.

Matt: We were really just trying to waste time. It's one of those towns where there's just nothing to do, short of playing sports.

Jared: Or drinking at the bar.

Matt: Not a whole lot to do. So we started a band.

Musically, do you feel like you can chart your own path, or do you ever feel pressured to focus on this or that kind of sound?

Jared: We actually just finished recording our second CD, and it's a lot different. Totally different. We want to kind of take a page from the Beatles' book – not taking a page from their music, but taking a page from the way they approached things, always trying to change and reinvent themselves, and just grow as people.

So how do you guys reinvent yourselves?

Matt: For me, it wasn't even so much of a reinvention as it was just...

Jared: Growing. Yeah, reinventing is the wrong word...

Matt: Yeah, in life we get into certain ruts or patterns, and after a while you get tired of those patterns.

Jared: You only fall into those patterns because that's what's comfortable.

Matt: So I always like fresh stuff. Try anything once. Like the other day I tried some ketchup-flavored chips. They weren't that good, but I was trying! That's the whole thing. It's all about keeping it fresh, I guess.

So what is musically fresh about this album? What's something you did that you hadn't done before?

Jared: Our first album was just like go go go go go – pure energy. And I think we kind of channeled that same energy, but figured out we could do it through softer songs, too, and have the high energy songs mixed in there.

Matt: On this record, there's more chill stuff than we've ever done. I think we're just listening to different music as well. We were talking about that change thing – when your musical tastes change, the music you make changes. When you fall in love with a certain band or whatever, it kind of becomes a part of you. And when you make music yourself, elements of that become part of your music. Obviously, you want to do something different and you don't want to sound like anyone else.

Jared: But there's a part of that that rubs off on you, that you can't help.

Lyrically, you're not just mindless energy. You definitely have things you want to focus on and criticize...

Jared: Some of the critics that say bad stuff about us, they try to make it sound like we're just dumb rock 'n' roll. Just rock 'n' roll – not like, intelligent music. But if you listen to Matt's lyrics, they're not dumb. It's kind of like “thinking outside the box” stuff. And even our music...

Matt: It depends on the box that you're living in. For me, it's just where I am in my head. Most likely, it'll change, just like everything. I will tell you, I'm a hypocrite – I belong to that group. But I just try to write where I am in my mind. Things in our lives change. So where I wrote a song, it's kind of like a window to where I was at the time. I don't know – I try not to overthink it too much. I've always liked people like Bob Dylan, Kurt Cobain, Frank Black of the Pixies. Lyrics that have a poetic edge to them.

Where are you trying to point that edge? What is it that you're trying to say?

Matt: I think I was just really pissed off, about a lot of things that I think everybody's kind of mad about. Financial circumstances and just not understanding why you can't get a break. Feeling like you're stuck inside of some control. I'm a big people-watcher. I've always been fascinated with human behavior. The relationships between society and the governments that control society have always fascinated me.

How do you write about society or politics without sounding stale? How do you say something new?

Matt: I don't know, I don't think we try. It's just what you do. I don't know if it's fresh or not. But I don't think I've ever written a political song, honestly. I feel like they're more...

Jared: Social.

Matt: I'm interested in the relationship between government and society, but I'm more interested in people's hearts and where they are inside of that.

What are you ultimately trying to accomplish as a band? When will you sit down and say, “I like where Cage the Elephant is right now”?

Matt: I don't know.

Jared: See where it goes. I'm having a great time just with the ride we're on right now. If it goes farther, it goes farther. If it doesn't...

Matt: We're kind of at the mercy of whatever happens. A lot of times we can sit there and we can try to observe the different variables that could've changed the outcome of a situation, but the truth is that you are where you are. I believe that what happens is supposed to happen, so I just wanna see where it's gonna end up. I don't know.

In the story of Cage the Elephant, what kind of variable is Bonnaroo? How important is it to your overall trajectory?

Jared: I think every festival's important. Especially with the festival setting – people just come in with an open mind, ready to absorb music. They're not here to be like, oh, prove to me that you're good.

Matt: I feel like it's like that everywhere...

Jared: No, I think festivals are more receptive. It's definitely like that.

Did you guys come to Bonnaroo with a specific goal in mind?

Matt: To play a show.

Jared: To play a show. A good show. To start people's days off good on Sunday, get everybody having a good time.

Matt: I think you can plan a little bit, but how much control do you really have?

So with Cage the Elephant, is that how it's always going to be? Focusing on the day-to-day?

Matt: I would hope so. But like I said, I'm a hypocrite.

Jared: [laughs] We can't help it. No one can.