Do you feel like the Napster revolution—that ability to share files and burn CDs—is an extension in any way of the punk revolution of the 70s and 80s?

I think they’ve taken it 100 steps further—I think this the most exciting time that’s ever been in rock n roll. For one of the very first times, the power is in the hands of the artists, to be able to make a record at home, because you can make it on a $500 laptop, to be able to put that record out via MySpace, and if it’s great, maybe a million people will download your track... It’s beyond the wildest dreams of those punks in 1977, who went out and just said you could be in a band if you knew three chords. Now you can be a band and be a record company and be a television broadcaster—everything.

Do you consider Carbon/Silicon to be a “punk” project? Is there any expectation for two punk legends like you and Mick to be more punk or do you guys pretty much have carte blanche now?

The great thing about this was that when Mick and I started this band six years ago and realized we could record records in our own studio and just put them out on the internet, and we didn’t have to answer to a record label or a radio program or a journalist or anybody—we could just make music and put it out there—it really freed us. It was incredibly liberating …. We could just make music we really love, where we’re feeling today, and we were able to take the music that inspired [us] when we were young—like the MC5 or the early Stones—and, I hope, put that in a modern context by recording it with programming and dance loops and samples. So, we could take that early, exciting rock ’n’ roll music and, I hope, put it in a modern context. And that’s been the most amazing thing for us to be able to do that. When we go out and play live now, it’s two guitars, bass and drums—and that’s still the best lineup you can possibly have. You know, Mick and I have both been there with the computer and the sequencer plugged into the P.A., and it’s not as fun as being in a rock ’n’ roll band.