People say that Hollywood is a bubble. But after spending 20 days in a real glass bubble, the guys of Cartel will know what it's really like. On May 24, 2007, the band's five members -- Will Pugh, Jeff Lett, Kevin Sanders, Nic Hudson, and Joseph Pepper -- were sealed into a 2,000-square-foot, 55,000-pound glass structure on New York's Hudson River with the mission of recording their sophomore album, the follow-up to 2005's Chroma. We dropped by the bubble on day 12 -- and it was a pretty crazy one. Not only was it pouring rain, but the previous night's wild wind gusts had burst, er, shattered the front of the bubble! Thankfully, no one was hurt, but it definitely set a wacked-out tone for our interview…

So you guys had an exciting night last night!
Will: Yeah -- we had a big storm. The glass started to deflect a little bit from the wind. We were eating dinner here with our mothers [who came to visit], and it just broke. Shattered glass everywhere! We had about two or three hours of fresh air and a nice breeze. We had freedom for a second -- just enough to get wet and breathe the nice stinky Hudson air.

Did your Moms flip out?
Jeff: They were surprisingly calm. One of the Moms, she was just chasing me around, and I was like "Get here! You leave me alone, devil woman!"

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