It didn’t take me long to figure it out: I didn’t want to meet the Beatles. I wanted to BE the Beatles.

And so Graham and I finally got down to our first film script, and I can say with complete confidence that we had absolutely no idea what we were doing. Of course, we had no idea we had no idea what we were doing, and that meant our enthusiasm stayed intact.

One of the things I always thought was the secret of The Beatles was that our music was self-taught. We were never consciously thinking of what we were doing. Anything we did came naturally. A breathtaking chord change wouldn't happen because we knew how that chord related to another chord. We weren't able to read music or write it down, so we just made it up. My dad was exactly the same. And there's a certain joy that comes into your stuff if you didn't mean it, if you didn't try to make it happen and it happens of its own accord. There's a certain magic about that. So much of what we did came from a deep sense of wonder rather than study. We didn't really study music at all.

Everyone in the band wore their influences on their sleeves and there was not a bit of the typical L.A. vibe going on where the goal is to court a record deal. There was no concern for the proper poses or goofy choruses that might spell pop-chart success; which ultimately guaranteed endless hot chicks. That type of calculated rebellion wasn't an option for us; we were too rabid a pack of musically like-minded gutter rats. We were passionate, with a common goal and a very distinct sense of integrity. That was the difference between us and them.

We definitely didn't want it to be anything like our first or second records. We wanted to experiment more than we ever had and take any new idea and run with it as far as we could.

Once it got really big with Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, there wasn't much mentioned about us. All those bands put out records around the same time, and we hadn't put one out in two years. I don't think it hurt us, though. I'm glad we didn't get lumped together with them, because we're not those other bands.

Because of all the different looks The Beatles had, I didn’t realise they were the same four people. I thought they were people from the land of “The Beatles” and the music was the music from that country.

We never expected anything, actually. I think we still don't expect anything. We were proud of the album when we finished it, so whatever success it has we are just like, 'Wow, cool.' It's not going to change the way we work or think. I'm as proud of this record now as I was when we finished it.

It never occurred to us to wonder how we would feel being seen like that.

Recuerda: hasta los Beatles empezaron como una banda de covers. Paul McCartney ha dicho: “Yo emulaba a Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis. Todos lo hacíamos.” McCartney y John Lennon se convirtieron en uno de los equipos compositores más importantes de la historia pero, como recuerda McCartney, sólo empezaron a escribir sus canciones “como una manera de evitar que otras bandas tocaran el set que tenían planeado”.

I just can’t believe anyone would start a band just to make the scene and be cool and have chicks. I just can’t believe it.

We weren't really interested in those bands; we were—because we came out of this subterranean scene. And then Nirvana breaks big, and it's just diametrically opposite: we have, like, facial hair, and just, kind of, logger shirts, but we're all, like, "sensitive" and "feminine"—you know what I mean?

I never thought that I would be labeled something like Generation X because of that movie (Reality Bites). I had no idea going into it, and it wasn't a label I could relate to.

Remember: Even The Beatles started as a cover band.