A mixture of awe and excitement can clearly be heard in Mashburn's slightly hoarse voice. When I interviewed him two years ago, Mashburn cited Strange Ways Here We Come by The Smiths as his most-played album. The times have not changed.

Save Ferris's sophomore album, Modified, hit record stores October 19. It's been a little more than two years since the band's debut album, It Means Everything, rocked the Orange County, Calif., ska scene with a horn-blowing cover of Dexy's Midnight Runners' "Come on Eileen" and the tracks "The World Is New" and "Spam." With Modified, the band deviates slightly from the traditional ska sound, with several songs taking on a slightly more rock persona, best heard in "Thy Only Way To Be." In explanation, Mashburn says that a lot more than the sound has been modified since the band's debut.

"Our personal lives have modified. The reason we picked that title was that it kinda sums up everything -- what we went through as musicians, as a band, in our personal lives. That's what we poured into the record," he says. "We modified our sound a bit. We tried certain styles that we hadn't before, a little more rock. I got to play a little more guitar on the album than before. Basically, we took what we normally did, and we just adapted to do it in a different style. We improved on the songwriting, lyric writing. We grew up a little bit. Rather than totally changing our direction, we just allowed ourselves to do new things."

Not only has the sound changed a wee bit, but the official Save Ferris Web site has been revamped.

"Our saxophone player [Eric Zamora] is really big on the Internet," says Mashburn. "I know we have a really good Web site guy, and Bill [Uechi, bassist] has actually just created the new artwork for our Web site. It's a space ship kind of theme."

In the past few years, the band has toured extensively, circling the United States several times, Mashburn says. With each go-round, the band's fan base grows.

"I still think the West Coast is probably our strongest point, and Southern California as well. Usually, your home base is always your biggest," Mashburn says. "We got around the country four and a half times on the last record. The first time you get [to a new place], nobody knows you. The second time you get there, 'Ah, they're kind of familiar.' The third time, 'Oh, I know this band.' The fourth time, 'Oh, yeah, I like this band.' Hopefully, when we tour with this record, we'll have a really good starting point."

Mashburn says it's weird spending so much "close" time with the other members of the band. "It's almost like being married to six other people." And he admits that touring has changed the dynamics of the band.

"Basically, when we started the band, we started it for kicks," Mashburn says. "Eventually, everything started beefing up real fast. We found ourselves a record deal, and we were out on the road for, like, ever. We got to see a lot of the world, and we got thrown into, like, a 'business. It kind of made us grow up. It was sort of like jumping out into the real world -- if you could call it the real world, I guess. It brought us closer together."

Being on the road for so long also can be a bit daunting. Mashburn says that when they returned home last winter, the last thing he wanted to think about was starting a new album. It was only after he spent some time relaxing, eating non-road food ("In fact, I think I gained a little bit of weight because I was going, 'I'm eating well, every time I can'"), and doing some alternative work that he came back to the Save Ferris mindset.

"We said, 'We're going to do this when we feel right.' When we got off the road, I didn't feel like writing right off the bat. I was kind of burnt on Save Ferris-land for a little bit, after three years of nonstop intensity," he explains. "I got my head away and wrote different types of music. Then my love for [Save Ferris] came back, and I started writing songs. We ended up writing a lot of it just this winter. I had about four song ideas that went on the record, and the rest of it we wrote from scratch.

"When you're tied in with the writing everyday, it's hard. You don't want to finish the record. Usually, one of two things happen -- either you run out of time or money, or someone just goes, 'Look, stop.' With us, we had a lot of time, but [the record company] just got to the point where it was like, 'If you want to get it out in the fall,'--which we did because we didn't want to have longer than two years between records -- they were all, 'You have to finish this.'"

Two songs on the new album that really stand out for Mashburn are the first single, "Mistaken," which he said came out with the best balance electronically, and "Let Me In," which means a lot to him and Mo, lead singer Monique Powell. The zippy "Your Friend" bashes on one-way relationships: those where one friend is the user who wants help but is never around to offer it. Mashburn says that he wrote that song from experience.

"When I wrote it, at the time, I was kind of mad at someone. I guess when you're angry you can get a little immature. I think everyone at one point in their life has had a one-way friendship, where you keep giving and they only come around to take when they need you."

One thing Save Ferris is known for is rockin' shows. Monique Powell shakes her fanny with just about as much energy as she belts out the lyrics, and after the first couple of songs, the band members are sweating. This enthusiasm quickly transfers to the crowd. With the new album and upcoming tour dates, Mashburn says fans should expect more of the same.

"We're not going to slow down. We're only going to keep rocking. Hopefully, we'll get more money, and we'll go crazy -- get some lights or something," he says. "I love seeing bands, but the thing that kills me is when I see bands just standing around. I just want to get up there and take over the guitar -- start rocking. It's just, like, 'Move around a bit.'

"Our whole thing is, when you get on stage, whatever else is going on in your life, you just leave it off, and you just have fun. Not everyone gets to do this. I look at it as a privilege to be performing for people."

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