Sleeping in a van between gigs may not be a band’s idea of a pleasant situation, but the Slats have found ways to spend time sleeping in comfort during tours.

“A lot of times we meet people at shows and crash,” lead singer and guitarist Brian Cox says. “We rely on the kindness of strangers to put us up.”

Cox says those interactions are what he enjoys about touring.

“Some of the most enjoyable things are meeting new people and making new fans and friends,” he says. “Meeting people who like and get what we’re doing is rewarding. It’s a one-fan-at-a-time type thing. There’s a lot of personal contact out there.”

Cox says the band sometimes has a certain plan of attack when it comes to the day-to-day events on tour, but those events often end up changing, especially when it comes to basic amenities.

“Mark [Langgin] usually has a plan every tour to buy a bunch of food and bring it,” Cox says. “That usually goes out the window within a day because I’m always wanting to eat out.”

Drummer Mark Langgin says he would rather just hit up the grocery store during daily stops on the road. Langgin says Cox’s job allows him to afford to eat out.

“Brian, being a freelance graphic designer, is able to make his ends meet a little bit easier,” Langgin says. “He works in kind of big chunks of time where he’ll do a couple big projects in a couple months and then not do any work for four or five months.”

Langgin says he does a lot of the promotion and booking for the Slats. Cox does the graphics work, and Langgin says guitarist Jon Hansen contributes in the area of coordinating the daily operations of a tour.

“Jon’s got a lot of friends on the coasts, and he’s really good as far as networking and finding us places to crash,” Langgin says.

Langgin says touring is the best way to network and find other shows, and they have been hooked up with quite a few show that way. One show in particular sticks out in his mind.

“I remember we played this house in Fort Wayne, Ind. about a year and a half ago,” he says. “We go in their basement, and the ceiling is, like, two inches above my head. There is all this duct work and everything, and it just sounds like crap. We play as loud as we can, and they just love it. We got to meet these kids that are just fried-out metalhead mullet kids.”

Cox says he defines a good show by his feelings during the performance.

“I think good shows for me are shows where I don’t feel self-conscious at all,” he says.

“Shows where I can really throw myself into what I’m doing.”