Reporter Corey Moss recently hooked up with Tripmaster Monkey’s Jamie Toal to discuss its new release, Practice Changes.

CM: I hear a lot of differences in the two records — was that planned out, or how did that result?

JT: It was more like natural progression. We just decided to pull out all the stops and let people take out what they like from it.

Being on the road for a long time, we came back and were just hearing a lot of the same sound on the radio, and we wanted to do something a little more unique. I would say the result is probably pretty good, unique at least. What do you think is different on this record?

CM: I guess to me, Goodbye Race was like straight-at-you kind of rock, whereas on Practice Changes there’s a little more searching going on when I’m listening to it. You know, my brain is really turning and twisting.

JT: That is exactly what we wanted. The last one was kind of like, OK, here’s the hook. This one’s a little more complex. It’s going to take a few times of listening to it, and I think people will start to discover more and more things about it. I think the album was a good idea.

CM: I first heard Tripmaster Monkey at the People’s Music Festival a few years ago with Collective Soul. Since then, Collective Soul has really taken off. Is that inspiring to you?

JT: What do you mean by inspiring?

CM: I guess I’m asking if that is where you see yourself in a few years?

JT: I’m not sure. The thing we’re interested in is just getting the music out. I think it would be strange for us to be a big MTV band. We just try not to think about those things, and it keeps life simple.

CM: What is the favorite part of your live show?

JT: It depends on what songs we nail. We recorded most of Practice Changes in the studio, so first we had to figure out how to play the songs live. Once we had that down, we were so set on making sure we could nail them, that we were stiff as a board the entire show.

We’ve been working on loosening up. “Beyonder” is really a fun song to play. “(Anthem of the) Interstate Army” is tough, but it’s great if we can get it.

CM: Has there been any changes within the band since the last album?

JT: Other than switching around instruments on some songs, not really. Chris [Bernat, vocals and guitar], Wes [Haas, bassist] and I all lead-sing at least once on the new one. We wanted to control the studio environment a little more so we picked up some recording equipment that we could afford and our own producer and did most of the recording at home. This way we could expand on some of our weirder ideas, and we had the time and resources to do it.

CM: I’ve always wondered where the name came from?

JT: Chris describes it best in the bio. It’s from some book that he read or stole or something.

CM: How would you say Iowa has treated you? Do you ever wish you were born into more of a solid music scene, like say, one of the coasts?

JT: There is a … I don’t want to say it because the best way to axe a scene is to say there is one. There is a lot of good creative stuff going on in the Quad Cities right now. There’s just not a lot of support.

There’s, let me see, four solid bands in the area now and like three or four new bands putting out some pretty good stuff. I don’t know if I’d like the coasts because you’re always right in the stick of it, you know? There’s no retreatability.

For me, it’s really nice to get away from everything. I think it’s natural for anyone in their 20s to want to move away at times, but we’re pretty happy where we are.

CM: What’s in the future for Tripmaster Monkey?

JT: Right now, we’re playing the college circuit and letting our new stuff be heard. We’re talking with a lot of booking agents, trying to set up a big tour.

We’d like to shoot a video and put out a single, but we don’t want to do the blow-your-wad thing, you know? We just have to get up off our slacker asses and think of a song to release. I don’t know, what song do you think?

CM: Man, I don’t know.

JT: Yeah, I don’t think we’ll ever agree on a song.

CM: There seems to be a ton of bands expanding on the multimedia stuff. Other than the video, have you had any other creative ideas?

JT: We’re really lucky to be friends with a lot of people in different forms of media. We have one friend who does some creative video stuff, and we’re gonna have him work on the video, so that’s great. He’ll be able to at least make something to work with.

I don’t want the video to look all serious like a lot of ’em today, but on the other hand, “Shutter’s Closed” was kind of a joke, and we don’t want that again, either.

CM: Yeah, there are a lot of either real serious or real funny videos. Have you seen the “Peaches” video? That’s hilarious!

JT: Yeah, but that Footoos one has got to be the best. I just love that video — I mean, that’s a really great comparison. We just want our video to be something cool to look at. We want to explore but still be cool about it.

Sometimes I watch some of these videos, and I’m like, “These guys are so fucking serious.” I have a “Star Search” theory, shit, how’s that go? Oh, if “Star Search” was still popular today, there would be a lot of those kind of bands on it.

I mean, not to say that you can’t still really be into what you’re doing. We’re just too low-key for that. Super-star posing is just a little to tasteless for me. I’m sorry, am I totally rambling on?

CM: No, just say what you want and have a good time, and I’ll try to write it all down. Well, is there anything that we didn’t cover?

JT: I’m pretty happy with how things are going. It’s gonna take a while for people to get into the new record, but it’s worth it.

CM: Cool, thanks for your time and good luck on the tour.

JT: Hey, thanks a lot, I appreciate it. I hope I didn’t sound like I was ragging on other bands there towards the end, ’cause I’m not really into that.

Tripmaster Monkey stops at the Maintenance Shop tonight for a 9 p.m. performance. Tickets cost $5, and all ages are welcome.