Greg Grunberg: We formed the band about five years ago. We’re very, very close friends and we each have a charity that we represent. We’ve been responsible for close to $3 million worth of charity money and our latest project Hoggin’ All the Covers Unleashed! is really exiting. It’s a way for people to buy music from hopefully their favorite actors; people they recognize from TV and support the charities we each support

TCC: Is charity the reason why you formed the band?

GG: Well, my oldest son has epilepsy. As with any condition or disease or any cause, you feel like you're never doing enough, you always want to find new ways to help. This just seemed like the perfect way. Selfishly I get to hang out with my closest friends and we have a great time, we make really good music and put smiles on a lot of people’s faces. Unselfishly we don’t make a penny. It all goes to the charities. It’s been very, very rewarding

Bob Guiney: When Greg formed the band, it was one of those things where just a bunch of friends getting together, having fun, getting to be rock stars by night. I don’t think any of us [pictured] what we would have now. We raised a lot of money for charity. I just recently, at the end of the year, got to give a really nice [check] to the children's hospital. It is easily the most important and most rewarding things I have ever done. It’s something I’m really proud of and honored to be associated with.

TCC: Are all the charities you work with related to children’s causes?

GG: No, not all of them. We also support the environment. We support, well a lot of them are related to children, but not all of them… most charities and causes will affect generations anyway. So inevitably, yes, the charity will effect children but in my case it definitely helps me. Our oldest son, he’s 14 now, has epilepsy. I never want to see another parent go through what we did and the struggles we continue to find ourselves in keeping his seizures under control. I started a website called TalkAboutit.org and it’s getting people to remove the stigma attached to epilepsy. We'll talk about epilepsy and raise money for it. I think most of our charities do affect kids.

TCC: Besides through music, how do you further promote the charities you support?

GG: We attend the events, we’re always talking about them in the press. Now, it’s just a great way for…let’s say the children’s hospital in LA and The Art of Elysium, they get Bob’s support, so Bob will go to their events, Bob will talk about their cause. Every time we do a press event, every time we do an interview, all the charities benefit from [it].

When Jesse Spencer talks about his charity, and he’s also mentioning in the same voice the band so epilepsy gets a plug, and so it’s been a great way to cross promote all of our charities at the same time. I think I have never done more for charity than I’ve done through this band. It seems effortless. It’s just so fun what we’re doing. For me it’s been, I get off stage and I think ‘we fooled them, we got away with it again.’ It’s just been such a blast.

BG: I think I’ve gotten to do more benchmark type moments between The Tonight Show [and] American Idol Gives Back. In two weeks we’ll be playing the NAMM convention which is the biggest festival for musical instruments and the latest in musical technology, then we’ll be back, hopefully doing three sold out shows in Niagara Falls. All of those events, for me, have been bigger and more monumental in my music career than what I had before this band. I think a lot of it comes from the fact that when we play that NAMM convention--or even with the proceeds from Hoggin’ All the Covers Unleashed!--when we play these events the actual money goes to our individual charities, so it is a really awesome way to feel like a rock star for a few minutes but at the same time make a contribution to something that you believe in and that you are proud of.

TCC: What song do you enjoy playing live?

GG: I love any of the ones I sing, any song. I love stuff that has a real kickin’ beat [with] people dancing and smiling. I like most of our stuff. One of my favorite moments is when we kind of bring it down and Bob does this really great song. It get’s everybody’s attention; it doesn’t pound, it’s not dancing, suddenly you are like ‘oh, what’s goin’ on?’ It’s got a story attached to it and so any of the dynamics of the show, to me, are a lot of fun. When we take it back up…it’s moments like that that I think surprise people. Like ‘wow, this is a real show, there are 18 people on stage and their pouring their heart out to give me a good show.’ People are surprised by that.

BG: I agree 100% with Greg. We definitely like to keep a majority of our songs upbeat. We do have one or two that are a little more moody than most, not [that they] bring you down, [it allows people] to relax a touch. We really do try and give [the audience] a concert experience, and for us it’s huge because we’re going to do a bunch of different things, but there isn’t a single song on the set list that I don’t love. We could play for three hours straight and people would let us. I love all of our songs.

TCC:With your busy schedules, how do you find time to play?

GG: We end up getting together when we have to get together, and we do it in shifts pretty much. Like, Bob and I will be at rehearsal tonight, Hugh [Laurie] can’t make rehearsal tonight, but then we’re rehearsing next week…and then we only booked gigs. We get everyone’s approval before we agree to play one of these shows. We turn down ten times the shows we end up playing because of that. All of our schedules are so crazy. I’m going over to shoot a movie for a week, and during that week we can’t play a gig. We’re doing the best we can with what we’ve got.

TCC: How did the members come to be a part of the band? They’re all actors right?

GG: Yeah, I met these guys in different situations, like guest starring on a show. Bob and I did a charity event in Dallas together. And just along the way I kind of was just driving along in this van and I was like ‘guys get in this van it’s gonna be a great time, we’re gonna do some great things.’ This is the result of it.

Hoggin’ All the Covers Unleashed!, that happened because a friend of mine decided to put up the money to be able to have a product out there that people can buy. Not everyone can make it to these shows--private shows, private parties. We just played in San Antonio for 15,000 people; no one could get in except for these people. But for people to buy Hoggin’ All the Covers Unleashed!, they get to see the band, they get a DVD, they get to download on iTunes; it’s really exciting. It’s a great way to donate to the charities but also get something in return.

TCC:What is different between the re-release of Hoggin’ All the Covers Unleashed! and the original?

GG: There’s bonus footage, there is some additional songs, behind the scenes stuff that wasn’t on the original. This is really for us, this is really our release. Prior to this it was just through Amazon, and we did okay, but we truly needed to have this be distributed around the world [which it] now is. It is available for download on iTunes. This is basically the first release. I consider it even though it was out there before.

TCC: Are you currently working on any new projects?

GG: We talked about [a new album]. We definitely have a few things in the works. We’re going to shoot a music video very soon, which I think will be a lot of fun. You can imagine these actors and their egos, and how funny the video is going to be. I think we have a long way to go with this, Hoggin’ All the Covers Unleashed! We wanna make sure that runs its course. Everything we do is cover songs, so it’s basically people looking at familiar faces playing familiar music. We have yet to incorporate [original tunes] into what we do.

BG: The beauty of what we do is we take ourselves seriously enough that we want to sound good, but we don’t take ourselves so serious to [have a] song with a hit-you-over-the-head-message type of thing. It’s just fun and dance and have a good time. A few moments we’ll bring it down so you can relax [then] kick it right back off again.

TCC: Is there anything I didn’t ask that you would like people to know?

GG: I would encourage people to go to www.bandfromtv.org. It’s really about giving attention to the charities. Go to www.talkaboutit.org.

BG: If anyone is interested, the album is available at Best Buy, Barnes and Noble, and online.