MTV: "Alive" definitely has a positive message. The chorus, "I feel so alive for the very first time," sounds like an awakening.
Sandoval: Everybody realizes at some moment ... that you don't want to walk through life bummed all the time. No matter what it is, if you can remember just that one thing that brings you alive and that wakes you up. For me, it's the love I have for my family, for these guys, my faith and my belief in God. Once I know this love, no matter what I go through, I can always hold on to that to give me that joy and give me that hope. It's one of our most uplifting songs.
MTV: You've got two very special guests on the album, dancehall toaster Eek-a-Mouse ("Ridiculous") and former Bad Brains frontman H.R. ("Without Jah, Nothin'"). Why did you pick those two?
Bernardo: Eek-a-Mouse is someone we listened to growing up. [We like him for his] reggae-style flavor. He's a legend in his own right. We had to have him.
Sandoval: Most 14- to 15-year-olds aren't gonna know who H.R. or Eek-a-Mouse are. But for us, it wasn't about "Hey, let's get the hottest singer out there so we can sell records." These are people we looked up to. It's undeniable what [Bad Brains] have done for punk rock. Hopefully, by listening to a P.O.D. record, you'll hear these guys and realize that there's more [to music] than just what's going on right now. ... It's not to sell records. Most bands out there that we talk to find out we got H.R. or Eek-a-Mouse and they're like, "Wow, that's just straight respect."
MTV: There's a real sense of family within P.O.D., and not just because Sonny and Wuv are cousins. You all, literally, live right near each other, don't you?
Sandoval: Yeah, we're all in the same neighborhood.
Daniels: We've been together 10 years, and we've pretty much been through everything with each other. [But] we still get pissed at each other, knock each other's teeth out and all that good stuff.
Sandoval: It's a second marriage.
Daniels: When you spend that much time with three or four people, you just have a tendency to ... become like brothers. We struggled together for a long time.
Sandoval: That's how we are able to do what we do. It's not like [we put out an ad saying], "Bass player wanted, vocalist wanted, drummer wanted." We came together through all of our beliefs and our faith. We all lock up. We know what's important to us, and we try to keep that guiding our way at all times. Not only that, we're married, we have children, and we just try to keep our well-balanced life in a crazy rock and roll industry.
Bernardo: A lot of our wives were our girlfriends before. They've seen this band go all the way from the beginning. That's why we've had the support that we have. Same thing with our children. They've grown up watching us, and we've had to explain to them why daddy's gone so long, why Uncle Sonny's gone. Especially in the last year, seeing us do the TV shows, they understand more. It's like, "Look at my daddy, he's rocking out. I want to be in a band too."
MTV: You're a spiritual group. Religion plays a big part in it, but you don't really beat people over the head with it.
Bernardo: It's an undertone, man.
Sandoval: We don't consider ourselves religious. Religion is traditional and routine. We just believe in the relationship we have with God. It shapes and molds our character. I don't have to sit here and chant. I just wake up in the morning and realize that without some type of guidance from the Almighty, it's in our human nature to be nuts. We're not perfect, and by no means do we try to push across in our music that we are and that this is how you should live your life. We realized growing up that we needed some type of direction in our lives. Not because someone told me, "You have to be this, you have to be that." I saw for myself. I saw lives change, our families mended and relationships restored. To me, that's God. ... If someone wants to spit on me it the streets, I pray I won't smack them back. (All laugh.) There's a lot of people out there that are trying to go against the norm and put up their middle fingers. They do all the drugs they can do, sleep with all the [groupies], but there are kids that are like, "I want to go out and be a good person today."
MTV: Does it bother you to be constantly asked about the religion thing?
All: Nah.
Sandoval: I don't mind answering. [But not] when they're like, "Are you a Christian rock band?" Because what they're saying is, "These guys are Christian rock, so if you're not out there and you don't believe in the same thing, you better not even give them a shot." It becomes a joke. I don't know what Christian rock is. ... Is there a Buddhist rap or rock?
Daniels: Yeah, are the Beastie Boys in the Buddhist rock category?
Sandoval: People get up there and say what they want to say, and it's no big deal. All of a sudden P.O.D. get up and we talk about loving one another and it's, "Hey, don't preach at me. Who are you?" And it's like, "Hey, dude, you handle your business. You do what you've got to do." This is us, and no one's gonna tell us any different. This is what we believe, and it works for us. ... There's nothing we haven't seen, nothing we haven't done. There's nothing that shocks us. If you have a foul mouth and you cuss around us, that's fine. It's like, "Hey, dude, you cuss all you want." This is us.
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