Who knows what I expected, but it was certainly not what I got. There is something about interviewing punk bands. Maybe anticipating a cocky rambler to the likes of Blink182 front men Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus, or possibly a dry prankster like that found in Frenzel Rhomb, determined to throw you on a totally irrelevant tangent, you left wondering where the truth ends and you become the bands inside joke. Whoever I thought would answer the phone that afternoon, I'm definite the down-to-earth, polite and somewhat reserved bass player who sat on the other end of the line came right out of left field.

No one quiet knows where they came from but their presence within the Australian Punk scene is undeniable. 28-days are five Auzzie guys who have forced a place for themselves in the alternate arena the old fashion way; by touring both domestically and internationally behind each and every release. Claiming to offer 'unique, melodic brand of pop entwined with hardcore sensibilities and laced with hip-hop - Australian style', Kristen Atkinson caught up with 28 days' Damian Gardiner as they prepare for yet another round of Big Day Out performances.

What does 28 days mean to you?
What it means to me is just fun...my whole life really and a chance to experience something that not many people get to experience.

Were you a Punk fan as a kid?
Not really, I was more into metal and hip-hop

Do you remember the first record that you brought?
Ummm…..first record I bought…Kiss Alive 2.

People usually try to dodge that question, they don't like to admit the answer...
No, I like kiss. They were pretty funny.

With two ep's and three albums behind you, do you think 28 days has fine-tuned the ability to make an album that will be commercially successful?
I don't know cause the last one that we wrote (Upstyledown) probably sold better than this last one…That's something that we don't try to do though.

So it doesn't affect the approach you take to writing at all? No, no. The more professional we seem to get the more we try to shun it. We're not really after commercial success.

What are you after?
Just touring the world and having fun really. We don't mind getting played on commercial radio, but…we don't really get too keen on having all the …middle-of-the-road kind of people at our gigs.

Your latest offering, 'Stealing Chairs' doesn't have as much of the blatant anger that drove your earlier albums. Do you think that's a result of you guys growing up?
Yeah definitely, yeah…we just grew out of the other kind of stuff I suppose. We're growing as songwriters too, so we're just trying to make everything a bit more mature sounding.

So what approach do you guys take to song writing? What comes first the rhythm or the rhymes?
We group song write and Jay writes all the lyrics. So I have nothing to do with lyrics at all…We just write everything in jams, no-one ever comes in and says heres a song and ya gotta play it like this, we do it all ourselves which is pretty cool.

What haven't you done yet that you'd like to do professionally?
Score a movie. I mean to write and produce the score for a movie.

What's the biggest lesson you've learned since getting singed?
Don't listen to everything the record company tells you and be very alert and don't be scared to ask questions.

Okay now you've got the Big Day Out tour coming up, how are you guys going to prepare for that? What do you do to get in the mood for that style a performance?
Its pretty easy to get in the mood to play for thousands of people. But to prepare for it I'm just gonna not really think about it too much and enjoy it. We've done it before too so its not like we're gonna get a big shock, we know what to expect and that makes it easier. But yeah, we're just gonna really look forward to it, its an awesome opportunity to play in front of a lot of people.

Do you have any pre-show rituals?
Everyone just has two Coopers green beers. That's it just two, no more no less.

Trent from One Dollar Short said there's a real camaraderie between Australia's alternate artists, being on fair few festival runs have you found that?
Yes definitely, We're mates with everyone. We're mates with One Dollar Short, we're mates with the Bodyjar guys, also its just kind of the new independent music scene in general…So yeah we're all mates and its just cool.

What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever done for you guys?
Put out some ridiculous lie on the Internet, on our message board.

So you guys have been the target of some pretty wild rumours?
Oh yeah, since the message board has been around.

Do you want to share some with us?
Apparently, some girl said that our DJ got her pregnant in a town that we'd never even been to…its just crazy. Its a bit worrying really, but we don't really see much of the message boards so we're pretty sheltered.

You guys have built up a large reputation as a touring band, travelling extensively behind your albums. Has their ever been a crowd that you've struggled to win over, that has met you with a real animosity?
Back in the early days every gig [was like that]. When we first started we were playing with hardcore punk bands and we had a little more poppy sound. So yeah probably for the first year it was nearly every gig.

What do you want to say to all the fans coming to support you guys at the Big Day Out shows?
Everyone just enjoy themselves, and manage to see as many Auzzie bands as you can cause you have to remember it's not just all about the internationals. It's an Australian showcase too, so go and see as many Auzzie bands as you can. And be careful.

Now we know that Eminem has just released his first film 8 mile overseas, could you see yourself and the guys starring in a 28 days movie one day?
Not a movie, but we're seriously thinking about our own show on community television, on channel 31.

You are?
Yes we are. We've got the DVD out on our latest CD and I think people like the DVD better than our music now. So we're going to try and copy that.

So what's the show going to be about? Just you guys getting up to a whole lot of mischief?
I don't know really yet, we're just working on it but we did ROVE last night and we were talking to Chris Isaac, cause he's got his own cable show in America and we got his number and we're going give him a call and see if he has a few ideas.

And finally, have you ever really stolen a chair?
No, no, never stolen a chair. Plenty of bikes when I was younger but never a chair.