Jon Ware: RTR was actually sort of a side project that stemmed from a previous band I was in called handsfreemethod. The band was already on shaky ground to begin with, and I was the primary songwriter. When I started writing songs that would later become RTR songs, I played them for the band, and they generally didn't like the music. One guy actually told me they thought the music was "just too depressing". He asked me to stop playing it! Haha.

Q. Is this something you expected to turn into a full time project or was it the response of the fans that really made you keep going?

Jon: I definitely didn't expect it to turn into a full time deal. Before the band broke up, I had all these songs lying around. Even though the band didn't like the music, I thought it was actually pretty good. I didn't want the songs to go to waste, so I posted them on a Myspace profile just because I had nothing else to do with them. Kids then started finding out about it and telling their friends, and soon I had guys and girls telling me which song was their favorite and asking when a CD would come out, or when I was going to play a show near them. It sort of snowballed into something I wasn't really expecting. But then my band broke up shortly there after, and it pretty much became full time for RTR.

Q. I read that during the early recordings you actually just grabbed a hand recorder and laid down some demos. Did you find this very therapeutic at the time?

Jon: It wasn't really therapeutic. It was nice to hear the songs laid down, but honestly I have a really horrible short-term memory. If I don't record a song soon after I write it on a recorder or on a video, I forget how the song goes and how the lyrics fit into the song. I had to record them, otherwise I would've forgotten how to play them. It's so sad. I actually have to make videos on my web cam teaching myself how to play my own songs, because I write so many that if I skip playing it for a week I forget how to play it completely.

I literally have 40 or 50 videos on my computer that are just tutorials I've made for myself so that I can relearn the songs when I forget how to play them, and trust me I'll forget. But yeah, it was really sad recording into a hand held recorder. The band I had been in hadn't been very successful, so I didn't have the financial ability for quite some time to record. And when I put the RTR Myspace profile up, I actually uploaded the songs from the hand held recorder, because at the time that was as good as it was going to get.

Q. What can people expect from RTR if they haven't heard the music before? What kind of people do you think will really relate to these songs?

Jon: To me my music is pretty generic if I'm being honest. People tell me that they can see influences in my music from other bands, but that my music stands on it's own, and isn't easily compared to just one band. I think that's people being more than a little generous to me.

I think you would expect from RTR what you'd expect from any other band in this type of genre: honest storytelling and honest writing. I don't think it really does much good to write songs that aren't about real life experiences, because I personally find it kind of dead. There's no soul to the music or lyrics, and that's great if you're a fan of that type of thing.

When I listen to music, and when I write music, I need it to be real; there needs to be something behind the music. Hopefully I'm attracting the type of people that want something real in and behind the music, because honestly that's really the only thing I'm all that good at doing. Besides Eminem, I'm not really a rap fan, because the majority of music is all pretend, it's all made up. Most rappers have these claims to fame, rapping about how they have a Maserati, and how they go all night long...It's like come on man, you're 18 years old. You don't drive a Maserati because you live at home in your grandmother's basement, and you think you're hard. You don't go all night long, because at some point you'd get raw, or pass out from exhaustion. It's all make believe, it's all hype. Personally, it's really hard for me to take an artist seriously when all they do is sing about things that obviously are so far away from reality it's sickening.

Q. Since starting in 2008 you have already released two EP's. Are you taking a break from writing now? What is next for Reboot The Robot?

Jon: There's never really a break for me. I've tried, but what happens is I'll write a song about taking a break. It's horrible, haha. There's always some sort of lyric or music going through my head. I don't always write it down or make a full song out of it, but my mind is just sort of overactive with music. I couldn't shut it off if I wanted to.

As for what's next: There's a new EP that's going through post-production right now. I'm not sure what tracks will or won't make it, but hopefully the track listing will be solid by the end of the month. I'm looking into a few shows here and there in the summer, but booking a show as an acoustic act is pretty tough unless you're John Mayer or Dashboard Confessional.

Q. I read that you were looking to have a full band for your next release. How is the hunt going for musicians?

Jon: I don't want a band, per se; I'm just using studio musicians. There's three songs done already, but what might happen is that before releasing a full-band album is that these first three EPs may be re-released as deluxe editions with both the acoustic and full band versions of the songs on the album.

I've been in quite a few bands, but the same problem seems to exist in all of them. You've got guys that aren't as devoted as they should be, or you've got the guy that is devoted but he isn't paying up for his share, or you have the guy that wants everything done his way. This just creates so much drama that you can't get one song recorded without some sort of complication. With studio musicians all that's done away with, because they aren't in the band. They only do what they're told, because that's what they're being paid to do. It makes life so much easier. I'm not against a full band in the future; I just want to become more established in music before I take that step.

Q. Will your next album be an independent release or have you found anyone to back it financially? Is it a goal to be on a record label sometime soon?

Jon: Man, finding ANY sort of financial backing in this industry is like finding Taylor Swift at your local Wal-Mart. It probably won't happen. Every RTR release so far, and in the foreseeable future is probably going to be independently produced and released. I'm all for financial backing, but I'm not for giving up creative control at all. I've seen it over and over how a great band with a great sound does really well independently and then signs with a major label and practically sells their soul and music to corporate America. If you're in it for the money and girls then by all means sign the major label contract. But if not, you better read the whole thing over and over before signing.

Look at Dashboard Confessional. Look at Fall Out Boy. These are great bands that signed a major label contract and their music, their image, and everything else changed because they loved money more than their music. I'm not saying a major label deal wouldn't be great because if the terms were right it would be. It's just that those guys have a horrible history of taking a band and changing everything about it. Now indie labels, that's a different story. I'd be down for singing with an indie because their artists, for the most part, keep creative control. But I don't know. I've contacted label after label and it seems everything has fallen on deaf ears. You need a label of some sort for touring support and promotions. But the underground market is just so flooded with such capable bands that it feels like the competition to get signed to an indie label is just as big as the competition to be signed with Geffen or Atlantic.

Q. So the cover album that is coming out…. Can you tell us a little more about it? Can you tell us any of the covers that you will be doing that people might be familiar with? What do you hope to bring to these songs?

Jon: I like doing covers. That's one of the best things about being a musician. You hear a song you like, and then you add your own personal touch to it. It allows you to use a different side of your creativity you know? I think cover albums are fun. New Found Glory put out From The Screen To Your Stereo parts 1 and 2 a few years back and I loved them. So I wanted to do one on my own. But there's a whole lot of red tape you have to crawl through with getting the artist's permission and so forth to record the music. So that's where we're at right now. I'm trying to be really different on the cover album. I'm doing a lot of music that I think might surprise some people. A cover I really want to do is "After All" by Peter Cetera. He's the man. And Cher was really great back then. I love that song. Hopefully that works out. I'm also looking at doing "Eternal Flame" by The Bangles, and a song called "Captivated" from a relatively unknown, but insanely awesome band called Slow Coming Day. They broke up a few years back and only released one album. But it was so great.

Q. What is you favorite cover song by someone else? And what was you favorite song you covered?

Jon: There are just so many great covers out there! I think one of my favorite covers is "Enjoy The Silence" by It Dies Today. Holy crap. The last part where he screams, "enjoy the silence" is brilliant. Anberlin did a really great cover of the song as well. No screaming though. Sigh. As for my covers, I really like Adam Sandler's "I Wanna Grow Old With You". It's from the Wedding Singer. He sings it to Julia on the plane. It's such a good song, and the lyrics are priceless. Sandler doesn't get enough credit for his musical ability.

Q. Are you looking forward to writing new material after the release of the cover album?

Jon: In all honesty the material for the follow up to the covers album is probably already written and sitting in my notebook. I have around 200 songs, all lyrics, just sitting around my place. I'll write some lyrics and then I usually come back a few months later and find lyrics that fit the music I've just written. I'm sure I'll be digging into all those songs for the follow up.

Q. How do you go about your writing? Is it based on personal experiences? Do you end up locking yourself away for periods of time to write?

Jon: All of it is based on personal experiences in one way or another. I have a song called "Get Some Rest Tonight" which was written after seeing my mom in the hospital trying to hold on to her life as she fought cancer. "Taken Away" is about a girl I dated. I flew all the way across the country to see her only to land in Florida and catch her cheating on me that night with her ex-boyfriend. "This Is A Rescue Mission" deals with my strict religious upbringing and how I have trouble dealing with it. So yeah, everything is very, very personal. So personal in fact that I was really self-conscious as to what people would think when I released the music. It's weird to write down your most intimate and personal experiences and then share them with a world full of strangers. It's so dysfunctional if you think about it. It's hard for me to talk to my wife about really personal hard points in my life, but I have no problem doing so with a world full of people that I don't know in the least bit.

Q. I can't wait to hear some new songs. Is the tentative release date of Winter 2010 still a reality?

Jon: Well, the EP will be released for sure by then. I give up if it isn't! As for the full band stuff, I'll be starting sessions for that this summer with producer Brad Nyght at The Bakery Studios in Colorado Springs, CO. It's a nice set up there. Brad's the man. Dude really gets it. Hopefully we meet that winter deadline. I don't see why we wouldn't. But then again, when you're in the studio anything that can go wrong usually does!

Q. Any last words to our readers?

Jon: Yeah. Save lives. Go vegetarian. For serious!