The following was saved from an impromptu instant messaging conversation, July 4, 2005. Reprinted with permission.

Mike Stoodley...

On his upcoming THR interview:

"...It's surprising what you remember once you get going. Or maybe suprising what you forget too...repressed memory anyone? Actually I thought the other day that the further away it all gets the worse it looks. Have to remind myself that a lot of people did actually find our efforts worthwhile! [...] I guess it's something that musicians struggle with when what they aim for doesn't quite pan out. Pretty common. I was thinking of all the things I would do better in retrospect and it's like "hmmmm, where do I start and how long have we got?". It's pretty cringe-inducing the extent that internal band problems manifested themselves in poor performances."

On the Verlaines experience:

"It was a pretty interesting time. It fits nicely in Graeme's world of reaching for the stars and ending up drunk in the gutter... I never bought into that kind of idea. In fact I loathe romanticising music or bands. Mind you the Verlaines aren't much if not hyper-romantic. I did buy into the idea - in fact I argued for it - that as a band we were trying to do more than most would even attempt and as a consequence we were liable to screw it up more often."

"A lot of what attracted me to the band was the music, and its huge potential for mind-blowing dynamics and structure. Graeme is an incredible guitar player and a privilege to work with in that sense. The Verlaines also sounded crap on record and 'live' and I thought I could help with that. Not sure I did, though I sure did try."

On the Way Out Where album:

"Regarding sound, I'm pretty picky. On the whole I think Way Out Where is pretty ok, but I wish we'd used a greater variety of guitar sounds. It has what I call the 'wall of mud' sound, which is a bit mean but I think some single-coil guitar pickups would have opened up the sound a bit. It's all a very thick humbucker noise. But it's ok. At least it has a bottom end!"

On the Way Out Where album cover:

"Looks like Pop Art gone wrong to me."

"I'm going to do a "worst moments" list, and the Way Out Where cover is right up there."

"When I saw it it was like "whatever". Beyond caring at that stage. I don't think Slash (record company) knew what to do at that stage either."

[ Responding to the suggestion that the cover was not really in keeping with the 'somber Verlaines' image. ] "No, especially when you look at the thought that went into the covers for Hallelujah... and Bird Dog... But it's not like I had any bright ideas. Just that no one else did either. It was at the end of the recording in L.A. - trying to work with Slash's art department to come up with ideas and some images that would work for us and them. We left L.A. with it unresolved, and I think they sent it to us when we were back in Dunedin. I had gotten pretty pissed off towards the end of the time in L.A., when during mixing it became apparent that the only person the producer would take any notice of was Graeme... I was also unhappy about the amount of compression used on the mixes - especially 'Cathedrals Under the Sea', one of my favs that I thought was having all its life squished out of it. So I was already less than receptive and when we got the cover it was so awful it was like, well, what can you do? But like I say, none of us had any better ideas at that stage."

On his decision to leave the Verlaines:

"Well, truth is I knew long before then that I was on the way out and was really only in it for purely selfish reasons. I wanted to record in L.A. and do another tour of America. Once I'd done that there wasn't anything to be had in staying in the band so I quit. It wasn't going to get any better."