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Featured Artist:
The Cataracs

 On MTV.com: The Cataracs
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Bay area boys The Cataracs sit down in this week's Hot Seat and answer our burning questions.

Q: Tell us about your craziest touring experience.

Campa: For me the craziest experience of touring was driving from San Francisco at 2:30am, right after finishing a show, to make it to Eugene, Oregon for a show the next night. There's something about hurdling through the dark in a cramped-as-f*** 12 passenger van with hella s*** strapped to the top that can just make a kids mind explode... in a fun way that is. I was intoxicated with fear and excitement and it was one of the best feelings in the world.

Cyrano: It was our last show of the tour. We played the Senator Theater in Chico, this massive auditorium, completely packed. We were popping champagne onstage and spraying people down and the fans were going nuts. When the show was over I met up with a couple girls who took me to a house party where I saw some friends from Berkeley who had come up for the night. Everybody there had come from the show and showed lots of love and I was hitting it off with this one girl I'd come with, so everything was going well. Then suddenly a fight broke out and the cops came so me and the girl decided to bounce. I called our DJ, who happened to be parked around the corner with some girl he'd met earlier, and he took us back to the hotel... it was an interesting night... I didn't sleep but I did write a children's story.

Q: What type of college class would you'd most want to take and why?

Campa: English. Because I suck at articulating myself and I feel an English degree could really step my game up.

Cyrano: Maybe psychology or behavioral economics, learning how people work and how that fits into a larger context. I'm a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell.

Q: What city in America is the most fun to visit and why?

Campa: Not Reno, Nevada

Cyrano:It depends. Is Disneyland a city?

Q: What's some of the best advice you were ever given?

Campa: "You try hard, you die hard."

Cyrano: Look at the bright side.

Q: What's in heavy rotation in your MP3/CD player right now?

Campa: Bun B ft Pimp C and Chamillionaire - "Underground Thang"

Cyrano:MGMT and The Virgins. Maybe too much.

Q: The last good book you read or TV show you're addicted to.

Campa: Siddhartha. Tim and Eric Awesome Show. Great Job!

Cyrano: I'm reading the Audacity of Hope, which is great. Lost has had me going for about four seasons now, but man... I hope it starts making some goddamn sense.

Q: What's the first concert you ever saw - how was it?

Campa: Heiroglyphics and Souls of Mischief in Berkeley when I was 12. As far as I can remember it was awesome.

Cyrano: My older sister took me to see Korn when I was 13 or so. I was hyped, knew all the words, it was great. I remember the guy in front of me got pissed because I was screaming along to everything.

Q: What are three items you can't live without on tour?

Campa: Contact Lenses. Eye Drops. Marijuana.

Cyrano: My PSP, my guitar and coffee. Lots of coffee.

Q: Who are your major musical influences?

Campa: T-Pain and everyone else whose gettin this $.

Cyrano: Ahh... it changes a lot. I'll hear something I like and be like "man, I wanna do a record that makes me feel the way that did." I might pop in London Calling one day and make something uptempo and gritty or put on some Tears for Fears and make something completely different. One never changes though: The Beatles.

Q: Any random messages or tips you'd like to give to mtvU watchers?

The Cataracs: We are called The Cataracs because we see things differently and we hope that we make music that you love. It's our passion to create music that comes from the heart and music that shows who we are as people. One record may not sound like the next and that's the way life is. You wake up one day and you feel happy and the next day you maybe sad. That's the way life is and that's they way our music is.

Oh and one more thing, cows don't drink the milk of other cows so neither should you... LOL!!!