JustArts: You've been on the road with O.A.R. a couple times now. How has it been touring with those guys?Stephen Kellogg: Of everybody we've played with in the business, I think [O.A.R. has] the classiest operation. It's inspiring because it's not like they had some stupid hit and all of the sudden they had a million fans. They know how they got where they [are] and they've taken care of the people that worked with them along the way.

JA: When did you really start to consider music as something more than a hobby on the side?

SK: I went to rock 'n' roll shows all the time. I ran around the house with a broom acting like a rock 'n' roll guy. But I never thought of it as a real [career] option. I bought into a lot of the [stuff] people were saying, like, "well, what are you really gonna do and what's your fallback?" But when I got to college and I saw that you could sell your records and make some money and survive, then all of a sudden I started to dream that maybe you could do that for a job. I mean, it can't be any harder than going to law school or med school.

JA: How do you spend your time when you're not touring?

SK: For me it's about going home and seeing my family and friends and getting inspired again. And then there's always planning for the next tour, so a lot of times I'll go home and I'll end up doing a lot of work just to write new tunes and plan for the next tour.

JA: What's in store for you and the band in the future?

SK: In our time off in December we recorded some new songs [for] a new record that we'll probably make this summer, and we shot a DVD in Boston at the end of last year that we're also editing. We're gonna do a couple of weeks [touring] with O.A.R. and then some shows on our own, and then doing a co-headlining tour with the Pat McGee band for a few months.

JA: On stage, you've gotten a reputation for being an exciting live show with dancing and a lot of jokes. What are you and the band like offstage?

SK: I feel like you have to be yourself and somewhere I just realized I was just a goof. Above all else we're buddies and we're just trying to do this for a living. One of the big goals for this year is just to get better at music. Sometimes our show is so crazy and it's a great time but then we listen to the bootleg of the show and were like "we were [messing] up so much."

JA: You've gone from playing college coffee-houses to playing to an arena tonight. Do you ever stop to take in how far you've come in such a short time?

SK: Once in a while we take a minute and think of that. It's a great honor to be playing the arena but it's still not our arena. It's O.A.R.'s arena and they're letting us be guests in it. So we've got a long way to go.

JA: You and the band always appear so comfortable on stage, but do you ever get nervous before or during a show?

SK: I get nervous if the vocals aren't really clear, and when I'm talking people can't understand what I'm saying and I feel like I can't connect. The thing is, though, we're human, and if we miss tonight then we'll have a shot to make it up [tomorrow]. As long as we're giving it our best every night, we try to take comfort in that. Sometimes you have some 6'5" football player who doesn't seem to be enjoying the show kind of giving me the evil eye. You do your best to shake it off.