Sons of Hippies have received great praise in the Bay area with the release debut LP Warriors of the Light. Their anticipated sophomore release, A-Morph, is out this week, as well as the beginning of their tour in to support it. Sons of Hippies were kind enough to take some time from their tour preparation to answer a few questions in an e-mail interview with Reax. They discussed their birth, the intricacies of being an independent band, as well as the definition of success.
Check out Sons of Hippies for their CD release and tour kick off party this Thursday, September 2nd, with Have Gun Will Travel and Big Blu House in Ybor City at New World Brewery. 9pm, $8 cover, 21+ only.

REAX: For the individual who has never heard of Sons Of Hippies, let’s do the basics: Give us a brief history of the formation and growth of Sons of Hippies.
Sons of Hippies: It's pretty basic: Jonas and I met each other while playing in different bands in the Sarasota scene. Before I left my band, I transitioned with a solo project - Jonas was always a fan. Sooner or later we hooked up, he bought a MicroKorg synthesizer, we found a garage to rehearse in, and the rest is history.

REAX: Is the name of the band a reference to our generation?
Sons of Hippies: The name of the band is unfortunately devoid of mystery - plain and simple: my mother raised me on Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles while dropping acid at Woodstock, and Jonas's Dad raised him on Zeppelin and Pink Floyd while eating mushrooms in the Amazon. We decided spontaneously on the name at the Bonnaroo Music Fest 2008 while watching Against Me? in "That Tent." I thought at first that we were special, but meeting people of mostly the same ilk for a few years now, I realize all are sons of hippies. And we love that.

REAX: In a past interview you said that your music, and music in general, should “convey an attitude, not a musical style”. So, what is Sons of Hippies’ attitude?
Sons of Hippies: Our attitude is simultaneously one of ultimate love, passion, and understanding, combined with a zero-tolerance form of bullshit. Be respectful, be polite, get what you want, but love one another while you are doing it. Everyone is competing here, we all know that — but while you do, give a kiss, understand the enemy, know we are forging for the same goal.

REAX: What is the mission statement for Sons of Hippies’ inc?
Sons of Hippies: Work hard. Take drugs. Overcome. Work harder. Succeed.

REAX: When listening to A-morph I hear some Sonic Youth, some Muse, some dance, some industrial, and some grunge. Sons of Hippies beautifully and seamlessly blend synthetic and acoustic sound. Did you set out to create a musical potluck or did it come naturally?
Sons of Hippies: Nothing was intentional in either our first album nor our latest. It's a bit of a fright to realize our influences are so vast and broad, but for us, songwriting comes from a pinhole bored in the middle of our brains, where everything is netted and captured without our knowing. We listen to mostly to our unconscious minds, and there we find all the disparate influences.

REAX: While critics have been and will be praising or slandering your latest release, what are your feelings about A-morph as a free-standing album, as well as in comparison to Warriors of the Light?
Sons of Hippies: Warriors of the Light was a beautiful, porcelain-skinned baby to us, with no regard to critics, the media, genre. We were fresh soldiers on the search of psychedelic fortune. It was, and is, epic in our minds, However, we understand that to make a mark in this playground of new musicians - where everyone has the answer, everyone has the desire to succeed - there needs to be either enough marketability, or enough hype to overcome it. A-morph is an attempt to combine enough catchiness with the right amount of nuance.

REAX: Despite your recognition, praise and popularity, Sons of Hippies is still unsigned. Do you find that being an independent band allows more freedom? Would you say that it is beneficial or detrimental to a band’s growth and success in the digital age to be signed or unsigned?
Sons of Hippies: We book tours on our own - six weeks at at a time - get our own press, play our own shows, etc. It's a ton of work but I've found that relying on anyone at this level to help in the process of distributing our music has been a downfall. It's all about the money you are willing to spend vs. the time you are willing to commit. We're all about DIY everything, until some label show us differently.

REAX: Hypothetically speaking, and assuming a reasonable contract was offered, would you be interested in signing to a label with the release of A-Morph?
Sons of Hippies: Absolutely. We are above nothing other than living from our art.

REAX: In a past interview from 2009 that is posted on your Myspace page, you say that for your last album, Warriors of the Light, you opted out of recording the drums to a metronome in order, “to preserve the energy and artistic intention.” Did you follow a similar path with the recording of A-morph or did you decide to take a more polished and produce approach?
Sons of Hippies: We recorded all drums on A-morph to a metronome because we were urged to by close friends in "the industry." Our goal with this record was to have it be more industry standard, more accessible, and luckily, I don't think we compromised much emotionally to achieve this goal. There's a subtlety that exists between objective performance and emotion, and I feel we embraced them both throughout the recording of the record.

REAX: If you guys had a choice between spending six months in the studio or six months on tour which would you choose?
Sons of Hippies: That's a good question based on circumstance. Personally, we'd say six months on tour, but if six months in the studio eventually allowed us two years on tour, we'd choose that.

REAX: That being said, are you excited for your coming tour?
Sons of Hippies: We're ecstatic.

REAX: Lastly, define success for Sons of Hippies. In other words, at would point would you be able to say, “We’ve done what we set out to do, everything from here on out is extra-credit”?
Sons of Hippies: Success for Sons of Hippies exists in the super-natural realm where our music has invaded consciousness worldwide; where everyone hears our music and understands the meaning, to the point where the world is altered and humans respect one another and ask for love at a moment's notice. Where people question, deliberate, and hail the truth - when we are bonded to one another eternally instead of against one another forever.