Damon Atkinson, drummer for Hey Mercedes, spent most of his morning reading and replying to e-mails. Since the band furnishes their personal addresses on their Web site, many of the e-mails are from fans.

“It can occupy our time, but what we do is the band, so answering e-mails is a part of it,” Atkinson says. “We like to be in contact with people and it’s always good to hear feedback from kids – whether it be positive or negative.”

Of the e-mails, 99 percent of them are positive. The leftover one percent are often bigger fans of Atkinsons’ ancestor band than the one it spawned.

Atkinson, along with two of the three remaining members, sprung from the ashes of Braid, a band heralded for its emotional tremblings. Some of those fans have clenched tightly to Braid, brushing off Hey Mercedes as the band who could never live up to Braid’s former glory.

“For us – especially me, Bob and Todd – it’s old; it’s done with,” Atkinson says. “There are some people that still hang on to that, and we understand.”

But since Hey Mercedes has been traveling the country in support of their first full-length release, “Everynight Fireworks,” the band is striving to make a name for itself outside of its Braid personage.

Touring with label mates such as Saves The Day has garnered Hey Mercedes a youthful crowd – a crowd not as familiar.

“I’m almost guessing by now that 50 percent of our fan base doesn’t know a whole lot about Braid,” Atkinson says. “Those fans weren’t exposed to Braid.”

As veterans in the business, their songs often deal with more sophisticated subject matter. The band’s tight sound meshed with this lyrical maturity brings the fear of not being able to appeal to a younger crowd.

“There is that level of maturity,” Atkinson says. “You can’t get past it, because time is what does it to you, and we’ve been there. What we understand, whether it be emotionally or whatever, is exactly what we’re playing.”

This take-it-or-leave-it attitude fuels the Vagrant Records’ band, who has shown it can still relate to younger kids. The band goofs off just like everyone else, and knows how to have fun.

Atkinson remembers the last show his band played on the road. It was in Seattle on the last date of the Saves The Day/Thursday/Hey Mercedes tour.

“I recall playing the last song – `Let’s Go Blue’ we were playing – and I looked down while I’m playing and I see lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, tortilla chips and water all over me,” recollects Atkinson.

Saves The Day, determined on pranking Hey Mercedes, decided to shower the band in a deli tray, creating a salad on stage and on Atkinson’s lap.

The prank wasn’t enough to keep Atkinson at bay. He is fresh off a tour with power-pop icon Weezer, where he lent his skills in order to fill a gap behind Saves The Day’s drum set.

Atkinson has exhausted his time since the tour’s end paying bills, placing orders and rummaging through new merchandise so he can bolt back out the door to tour with Hey Mercedes.

He will also continue to answer the e-mails which either praise or compare his band.

Either way, Atkinson has no regrets about his past in Braid, and no worries about his future with Hey Mercedes.