Well in regars to Matt comments, it's been a very long tour. He has been touring basically since the spring and that can be very draining. Add that to the fact that he wants to do some human rights things and you have a desire for a long break. I think the break will be about a year or so and then go in and record the album so we'll see how long it is before the album actually comes out.
A break makes sense because you look at it and he has yet to really have a long break. Astronauts was 1995, Raygun 1996, Underdogs 1997, Beautiful Midnight 1999, Loser Anthems 2001, Audio of Being 2001, Avalanche 2003, White Light 2004. Not much time for himself I'd say.
As for Pat. Me and my roommate hung out with him until about 2:30am after the show and he was telling us he's going to be doing some recording in December (I forget with whom). He does a lot of work with other artists so he should be busy. Rich and Christian I'm not sure about.