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Interviews Q&A

Army of Me

It’s hard to believe a few years ago drummer Dennis Manuel of Army of Me never picked up a drumstick and singer/songwriter Vince Scheuerman never wrote a lyric, “But it didn’t matter, because we were going to take over the world,” frontman Vince Scheuerman said. Army of Me started out playing in a friend’s basement, eventually recording a demo and touring up and down the East Coast before expanding their tour to the mid-West, getting signed on label Doghouse Records and releasing their first full-length album, Citizen, back in April.

Vince was nice enough to sit down with me last Thursday and answer all my questions about the band, the inspiration behind his writing and the stories behind some of his songs.

How could you afford to do all those tours? Did you guys have steady jobs?
It’s tough because anything that you love to do is hard to make money out of and there’s a lot of other people that are trying to do it too because it’s the cool thing to do. What you’re doing, what other artists are doing, musicians, photographers. It’s really hard.And it never pays you enough anyway. It’s underappreciated. We used to work jobs. I went to college for mechanical engineering so I worked a job at the National Institute of Standards and Technology inGaithersburg,Maryland, for a while. NIST set standards of measurements of length and time and weight. I was dealing with really small lengths, like atomic lengths. So we had microscopes that could see atoms. It was pretty insane. I’d sit in the basement, in the dungeon, working on these microscopes and then as soon as I was out of there I’d be playing music, practicing. I’m just always in the dungeon. What’s up with that? I didn’t see the daylight very much. I lived in a basement apartment. There’s a theme here.

Tell me a little bit about your writing process.
The weird thing about songwriting is it’s hard to describe how it happens. I’ve heard other people describe it and I can kind of relate to how they describe it as something that you don’t really have any control over, it just happens. And when it happens you’re like, ‘Holy shit, that was awesome, but how did I do that?’ you get a feeling like you didn’t do that. It’s hard to explain. Inspiration can strike at any moment. But then I have to make myself sit down and try to work on it, try to come up with something. When I finish a song or come up with a cool thing, the feeling is amazing. It’s a really powerful feeling, like ‘Oh my God I created that, that’s pretty cool.’ But at the same moment, I think how did I write that?

I really like the songs on our new record, Citizen. I’m really proud of what I was feeling and going through during the writing of that record and how I said it. I don’t know how it comes off to other people, but when I look at how I said what I was feeling I’m like, wow that was beautiful. With Citizen, I’m like how did I do that? Where did that come from? Could I duplicate it? Could I do it again? I don’t know. It’s almost like channeling something, like a grace given to you. I still don’t know how to write songs. People are like how do you write songs? I don’t know. But it happens.

Definitely feeling upset about something or wanting something, desiring something triggers a strong emotion. There’s definitely inspiration for a song. I think a lot of songs come from a place of desire, of yearning for something to satisfy you and you’re not feeling that thirst or hunger or quench. And you write about it. Whatever form it may be. It can be a relationship, anything. It is for me. I’m a pretty passionate person. I get hungry a lot, not necessarily for food. I think that’s the human condition, the feeling of looking for something and asking questions about what does it all mean. For me, songwriting is about looking for the meaning, asking for questions, searching for those desires, searching for that thing, whatever it is.

Do you ever want to hold back when writing a song?
I’m a pretty open person. When it comes to songs I don’t really think about that. It’s not that hard for me to be personal with songs, it’s hard for me to be personal with a friend, somebody I know. Maybe you’re more afraid of the judgment that a friend may have, to care what that person thinks. Songwriting for me is my way of searching – documenting my life and what’s going on inside of me.

I really like “Better Run.” When you listen to it, it just seems so honest. What inspired it, or what were you thinking about when you were writing it?
I’m always kind of hesitant to tell specific stories behind songs because I like to leave it up to people’s interpretation. When someone has an idea of what a song’s about to them, it usually has to relate to their life. When I tell them what it’s about they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s not what I thought.’ It takes away the message.

“Better Run” comes from . . . I was in a relationship for 6 years with someone. To be honest, she was really great – a beautiful person inside and outside. I never really experienced that much love from another human being, maybe my mom, but that’s about it. If there was one thing that I could bet on in this entire world, it would be that she would always love me. And I took her for granted. I was just always focused on myself and self-absorbed and I was kind of an asshole. She started to lose faith in our relationship and that woke me up to how it was and it devastated me. Not only did she not want to be in a relationship, I had been totally oblivious. I realized that I had hurt her and so. . . it fucked me up big time. It was rough. I was devastated.

So that song is kind of like, for the first time looking at someone with love, real love. The love is expressed as the desire for the best interest of the person I was singing to! If it’s not me, go find whatever that is. Even if it’s not what I wanted, it’s easy to be that person in a song. All you have to do is write the lyrics. It’s a whole other thing to actually really feel and mean that in real life, when everything inside you is screaming, “NOOO!!” It’s a very tortured song. There’s that tension there. I don’t really want this, you know? So the song hopefully captures part of that battle.

How would you explain your music to someone who has never heard it before?
The music is about the experiences you have in life and the feelings and the wants and the desires and the hopes and the dreams that I think we all have. It’s about asking questions and searching and trying to find myself and trying to find the answers. Maybe a couple of people have the answers, but everyone has the questions. I believe in hope and I believe that going through rough times, there is also growth and healing and that’s something I talk about in music too. So it’s kind of a mix of all that.

What’s your favorite song to perform?
I think “Perfect” may be my favorite. When we play “Perfect” live, it’s like a journey. Perfect might be my favorite song on the record, it’s a song about wanting to accomplish something great, wanting to prove that you’re worth something to somebody. And when we play it live, it feels powerful, and I feel like I can do something great. In the middle of the song, we do a section that is improvised. Brad, our guitarist, does a solo which is always great. I like to get lost in the moment.

I was wondering about the story behind “Rise.” I read that it was inspired by the tsunami in 2005, how so?
I heard this story about these children inSri Lanka, maybe 7 or 8 years old, who had lost everything in the tsunami. Their families – mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters swept away, their houses completely destroyed. They were literally left alone and abandoned.They were afraid of the water, which in a small fishing village, had been the source of life. Now it was a big monster who took everything. I can’t imagine the devastation, fear, and confusion they must have felt.

There was an American psychologist there, working with the kids, having them draw four pictures. The first picture was what their houses looked like before the wave came. The second picture was what the wave looked like as it was coming – big and gnarly. The third picture was what their house looked like after the wave had hit – completely demolished . . . and the fourth picture was what they wanted their house to look like after the wave had hit. The kids were drawing that fourth picture of a new house that was bigger than the old house. They were fixing things they didn’t like in the old house, maybe a swing set in the front yard. It blew me away that in the face of such an unthinkable tragedy, when all was lost, that here was a spark, a little ray of hope shining through. How resilient is the human spirit?

And as I related it to my life, it was the idea that maybe you were happy and content or complacent in that old house. And then something comes and just knocks you off your feet. That thing you were holding onto gets ripped right out of your hands. And although you could never, ever forget what had happened to you, that somehow, mysteriously, this was now an opportunity for growth, for a bigger, improved house – a mansion.

What’s the premise behind your album Citizen?
When we went to record this record we threw out all the notions of trying to appeal to one particular scene or group of people. Instead, we wanted to make a record that could communicate with everyone. We were living in a little secluded beach house on the coast inVirginia for about two months, where we got to escape the world that we were used to, and just concentrate on making the record.

When it came to the lyrics, I took a new approach to these songs, something I’d never done before. I wrote about how I felt. That sounds kind of obvious, like, what else do you write about?! But in the past, I had attempted to be clever or ironic, witty, etc. in my songs. Not that there’s anything wrong with clever lyrics, but this time around, it was almost like I didn’t have the energy or the desire to do that. This time, my world was turned upside down and I couldn’t do anything but write out exactly what I was feeling, no irony. I was making myself naked. And I was scared! I worried that people might think that the lyrics were dumb or too obvious, but it was all I could do at the time. I remember telling another musician friend of mine that I couldn’t be ironic or sarcastic about subject matter that I cared so much about. And he assured me that it would be ok.

And in hindsight, I believe it was ok. Because I think in music and in art, when you speak from the heart, it’s more powerful than when you speak only from the mind. You can’t escape a purely gut reaction to something. It’s real. In artistic expression, for every cynical person that thinks something is silly or stupid, that same expression might change another person’s life. Citizen is a record about being a human being. It talks about the struggles, the pain, the questions, the searching. But it also talks about the other side of that struggle, where I believe there can be healing and hope, strength – like in the song “Rise.”

For more on Army of Me check out their MySpace.
Feel free to check out the concert review on MTV here.

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Interviews

Jon Foreman

Singer/songwriter/guitarist Jon Foreman has a busy year approaching. On Nov. 27th he will be releasing the first of four solo acoustic EP’s. Fans can purchase it on his website, jonforeman.com. Since Switchfoot has broke with Columbia Records, the band has more freedom to release what they want when they want, giving more back to their fans. Jon was nice enough to sit down with me after his concert at Hammerstein Ballroom as the “Appetite for Construction” tour hit NYC Saturday night to answer a few questions about the inspiration behind his music, as well as the many side-projects he’s been working on.

What is your inspiration behind each song you write?
My inspiration for each song is the specific place where I’m at in life. I’ve heard that books come from locations and I think songs are the same way. Songs can be a little bit more ethereal. So maybe it’s a little bit more of an emotional, spiritual place than a physical location. For me, most of my songs come from the problems in my life. When I’m happy I hang out with my friends and go surfing. That’s not when you write a song. You write a song when you’re depressed, angry and bitter and you’re trying to figure out the world.

Tell me a little bit about your solo EP’s.
One’s coming out next week and that one is called Fall. They’re all six songs a pop, they’re coming out on my Website jonforeman.com. It’s pretty amazing to think that I can put them out. I’ve spent a lot of time on them. A lot of these songs are the more personal songs that don’t really belong on a band record. So now I can put out six songs on an EP. I’ll be doing four EP’s. It’s going to be called Fall, Winter, Summer and Spring. I’m working on Winter now, I haven’t even thought about Spring yet, I’ll think about Spring when it starts getting warmer out. I’m doing all the album art myself. I’m handwriting all the lyrics. It’s really fun.

What can be expected for the next Switchfoot album?
I think we’ve learned a lot the past year. It’s been a time of really finding who we are. I think every record kind of has to reinvent itself. The most dangerous place for a band to be is doing something that they’re good at. I think it’s much better as a band to do something that you could actually fail at. We’ve always tried really hard to push ourselves. I think that the difference with this new record is that in the past we were a little afraid of the success that we had achieved with The Beautiful Letdown. There’s just this weird fear that you feel.

Will Botwin, President of ATO Records, stopped by to talk to Jon for a bit during the interview. He’s foreseeing the upcoming year for Switchfoot as a big one.
It’s going to be a beautiful, daring, different, comfortable, fantastic year. It’s going be great. There’s going be a lot of activity next year. They’re one of the hardest working bands in the world and are some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, on and off the stage.

Jon explained the relationship Switchfoot has with Will.
A little history on Will, he’s just a great guy. He’s currently the president of ATO Records, they put out the Radiohead record and all that. The history is, he was president of Columbia when we were there. So we’ve got a lot of history with him. He’s just a great guy. You don’t meet good people that often in the music industry. We like to work with good people. And that was the thing, we had so many great relationships over at Columbia. It’s not like anti- it’s more like when all those people leave, there’s no trust. And that’s what music is built on. It’s a relationship, its trust. The moment the trust goes away, then it’s really hard to make music that you feel comfortable with. Any relationship. Marriage, girlfriends, dogs. It’s all like, well, can I trust you. And for us, I feel like it comes to a point that we’re surrounding ourselves with people that we trust so that’s the best place to move from.

Can you tell me about The Real SeanJon project?
Yeah. The Real SeanJon. Puffy hasn’t sued us yet. Which is good. Maybe. I don’t know. Maybe Puffy suing us would be the best thing that I’ve ever been a part of. For record. We started out kind of just joking around. It was one of those projects that was just like, “Yeah, let’s do it, it’ll be fun.” And then four months into it we had 4 or 5 songs and they started sounding really good. And it was this type of thing that we started thinking, “Man this is actually a legitimate project that we’re both really proud of.” And so, that’s kind of where it’s at now. I mixed it myself, basically in my bedroom back in San Diego. So we’re going to try to get somebody else to kind of, remix it. Bring it a little bit more to life than my ears can. I stand in front of guitar amps all day, how good of a mixer can I be?

Are you ever afraid to write a song? I mean, maybe at Columbia you were held back a bit?
I mean everyone does the whole big, bad record company thing where they blame the big, bad record company for all of their problems. And I don’t see it that way. I think we had some great years over there. There’s a lot of the things that I think happened over there that were really wrong, that even they would regret, like putting Spyware on our C.D., putting the copy protection, pulling all of our product off right before Christmas. Those are the things that they regret too. But, ultimately, when you’re writing a song…I think the biggest thing that we were afraid of was that we got to a point that we sold more records than any of our heroes. Like back in San Diego, we grew up listening to Rocket from the Crypt, No Knife, Heavy Vegetable, these are people, who big to us was selling 30,000 records. So then you sell almost 3 million records and it’s just a weird thing, like what does a band that sells 3 million records do? You know. I think that was the only time I’ve been afraid as a songwriter. Just kind of, almost afraid of writing something too big. You want to kind of bring it down a little bit. I don’t know. But, I don’t even know that that fear is justified because I’m sure honest music can happen at a big level too.

A lot of songs on The Beautiful Letdown so many people can relate to and your whole world-view is very open to everyone. That honesty – I think that’s why people are so drawn to it.
Yeah. I think it is too. I feel like with the solo EP, that’s kind of the beginning of a different way of communicating that. You can go use a megaphone and talk to an arena, or you can kind of bring it in and do like, what I’ve b
een doing lately which is an
after show, where I just play down the street. I might even be doing one tonight if there’s kids out there. It’s just fun. And I think that’s the beauty of music. It’s a communication where it’s going back and forth.

Everytime I’ve seen you perform, it’s been this type of venue, size-wise, it’s kind of medium. Do you see yourselves playing at Madison Square Garden or Continental Airlines Arena? Because you don’t get that interaction, you don’t get to see faces that you get to see at these venues.
I don’t know. I think we’d have to write songs that belong there. I think we’ve got a few songs that might translate, but I think for us . . . I didn’t grow up going to big shows. I grew up going to Soma. The first incarnation, it’s been basically established in two different places since then. The Ché Café, Soma, The Casbah I’d sneak in. The Belly Up. I played there before I was 21, we’d get kicked out after we played. We played with Phantom Planet back in the day at the Viper Room and we both were underage.

When you guys first started out, you were labeled as being a Christian band. How do you feel your music and lyrics have evolved throughout the years to what it is now?
Well, you know it’s funny. When we signed to Re:think Records it was because Charlie Peacock was the guy running it. It was because he was a believer. Ultimately when you start out you’re just playing wherever anyone will let you play. We’ve played coffee shops, we played bars, we played churches, we played everywhere. To us, it never was a big difference. We didn’t see it as a genre. And then you go to Nashville and you realize there’s a whole music section that’s devoted to Christian music and you realize there’s lines drawn and there are all sorts of “we are this, they are that.” And so that’s where we got really nervous. We’ve never called ourselves a Christian band. We’ve always kind of felt that somebody should stay at my house for a week, see how I treat people, and then if you want to call me a believer after that by the way I live my life and treat people, then that’s an honor. That’s like the biggest honor we can receive. But for us to fly our own flag and say, “Yeah, we’re into feeding the homeless and loving people and that’s what we do,” it comes across kind of tacky.

How would you describe your music to people who’ve never heard it before?
We’ve always called it music for thinking people. That and guitar-driven pop. Rock. You know, rock ‘n’ roll whatever that means. I feel like, the bottom line is back in the 60’s and 70’s, being a rebel meant sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. And when that becomes the norm, then what is the rebel voice for the kids? What’s the rebel voice for today? For me, I feel like the most icono-classic person I could think of, beyond Bob Dylan, beyond whoever, Marilyn Manson would be Christ himself. I feel like his position in society is, in many cases, they pegged him into a role . . . the way I understand the Scriptures; they’re exactly against who he was. The idea that he was for the underdog, he was for the poor, he was furious with the religious right for his time. For us to put words in his mouth is a really dangerous place. I feel like rock ‘n’ roll is a good outlet to be able to kind of, speak that rebel voice through 2,000 years later. Even the religious right need to hear the gospel. All the way through the Pharisees. It’s a matter of saying I’m the problem. I guess it’s a matter of saying I’m not pointing the fingers and drawing that we-they line. Saying, no, we’re all in this together. Let’s not try and say there’s a Christian section because it’s not true. It’s false. It’s a lie to some extent.

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Interviews

Switchfoot

 

San Diego natives, Switchfoot, are about halfway into their “Appetite for Construction” tour, where $1 from every concert ticket goes to Habitat for Humanity. With a new album in the works for next year as well as a solo EP from singer Jon Foreman hitting shelves later this month, Switchfoot has been keeping busy. Drummer Chad Butler took some time out from the tour for a phone interview and talked to me about helping out on Habitat builds throughout the tour, being away from home while theCalifornia fires were raging, the recent split with record labelColumbia, and his favorite venue to play at. Catch them in concert at Hammerstein Ballroom this Saturday, Nov. 17 with Relient K and Ruth.

 

How is your tour going so far?
It’s excellent. It’s halfway over now and kind of a bittersweet thing to be thinking about the end of the tour. It’s been so great – the band, crew, a really great unity.

 

$1 from every ticket sold on the tour is going to Habitat for Humanity. What made you decide to choose this organization over another?
Several of the guys in our band had been involved in Habit builds inNew Orleans andKentucky. It’s an incredible organization nationwide, and has a chapter in almost every city. Our goal is to encourage people to donate time locally in their own city. We’ve gone out and built alongside people in the community. One of most amazing things about Habitat for Humanity is you don’t need to have any prior experience or expertise…they’ll put you to work and you make a difference. I’ve been really excited to see our audience to come down the sites.

 

I’ve seen you several times in concert and you always have so much energy. How do you keep up with each show every night after years of touring?
Gosh I wish I had some secret recipe for staying healthy! Really, for us the motivation is connecting with people. I think for so much of the importance we put on bands on stage, it’s a false reality. The hour we spend on stage is less important than the rest of the day and how we interact with people. To hang out with fans after the show and talk about life is one of the most important parts for me. In our live show there’s a conversation, it’s a two-way dialogue. To have the audience singing it back is amazing, to have people after each show come up and say how much a song means to them, that’s motivating. Our motto has always been “life is short, live it well.” It comes to have a significance. Each day that I wake up and get to play music that I love and get to travel the world with my best friends is great and I don’t take it for granted…each breath is a gift.

 

At first you guys were known more as a Christian-based band. After 6 albums you’ve greatly expanded your music and fan base. Was there a process at all or goal to grow out of being known more as a Christian band?
We’ve always been very up-front about what we believe and who we are. Faith is just as important to me now as it was 10 years ago. Only other people will call you what they will. For us it’s always been about making honest music. For me, I don’t see a significant change in who we are at all…I think hopefully there’s a broader, wider audience. I think it’s a wonderful thing to have more people listening to the music. For me it’s about thinking people. I think it’s to make honest music for thinking people.

 

Are there plans in the works for your next album?
Yes. We started this summer. By August we recorded 14 new songs.We’ve been recording on the road a little bit. When we get done with this tour we’re going into the studio and will be putting that out probably a year from now.

 

What kind of sound can fans expect with the new album?
I think we’re definitely experimenting. We’re in a mode of trying new sounds and so far it’s been really exciting. In the mean time we’re pretty excited. Jon’s finally getting to put out his solo acoustic EP’s. As a newly independent band we’re getting more of a creative outlet; being able to put out music whenever we want, and put our music out more directly to our audience whenever we could. Jon’s EP comes out later this month titled Fall.

 

You guys have your own record label now, right?
Yes, it’s called Lowercase People Records. It’s something we started as a vehicle to get our music out more directly to our audience. Jon also has a side-project with Sean Watkins from Nickel Creek, called The Real SeanJon. He’s working on putting that out early 2008. We’re just excited to finally hear some of these songs Jon’s been playing late at night at coffee shops down the street after our concerts. Those are finally getting the light of day. It’s an exciting time for us as a band. This is our first tour as independent band. We’re doing something much bigger than selling records. It’s playing music with the people you love and a much bigger cause than Switchfoot. We’re changing people’s lives around the country and the world.

You guys seem a lot happier since the break with Columbia Records.
It works best for us. We’re a band that likes to communicate directly with people one-on-one. We’ve always tried to break down audience and band. Taking out the middle man is a way to communicate more directly.

What does the writing process typically involve for the band?
Most of the songs start with Jon and an acoustic guitar and we build upon that – simple lyric and melody. It’ll expand and take place as we build it as a team. It’s a daily thing; we’re always working on music. Everyday in the dressing room. We’ve got computers and microphones and guitars. We’re always recording and working on new ideas. There’s a constant flow of music.

It must have been a rough time for you being on the road with the fires in San Diego. How did you deal with being on the road and away from home when all of that was going on?
It’s surreal to look at the streets where you grew up on CNN from the back of a tour bus. It’s very surreal. I’m really grateful that our families are okay. I really feel for the people that lost so much – homes and all of those memories. When it was happening you have that desire to help in some way. We felt we were helping in the best way we could – in light of the fact that this tour was about rebuilding and working in Habitat for Humanity. I’m sure Habitat will be helpful in aiding those families. It’s a reminder that you’re not guaranteed tomorrow. Those things that we hang on for sometimes, the things around us are meaningless in the scheme of life.

What’s a typical day like for you on tour?
On this tour, in a lot of ways, we’re doing tangible work. We’re able to go out to a job site, meet with familie
s that are working with Habitat and encourage local heroes -volunteers spending their hours helping their neighbors. This tour has been much more tangible and exciting to me than just talking about the band or our latest single. It feels like there’s much more of a human element for this tour, it feels really good.

I read that you’re planning on doing a tour for the troops in Iraq. Can you tell me a little more about it?
We’ve been trying to get over there for a while, being from San Diego and having Camp Pendleton being so close and people we’ve grown up with in the Middle East serving our country. Regardless of how you feel about the politics and the war, these are our friends and family. To give back in some small way will be a really exciting thing. We’ve been trying to coordinate that. It’s kind of a volatile situation there right now. If there’s a way to do that we’ll make it work.

Do you have a favorite song you love to play on tour?
Well, right now the new song, “Rebuild,” that’s been released on this tour is fun to play. “Rebuild” was written by Jon Foreman of Switchfoot and Matt from Relient K. The song is inspired by the idea that we’re a generation that has time to kill and put our hands to good use…it’s a song we’ve been playing every night at the show where all the bands come out to the stage and it’s a great part of the evening.

For the Switchfoot set, for me it’s a really exciting thing to be halfway around the world and have someone singing along. There’s a song “Dare You to Move,” that we wrote many years ago and it’s the highlight of the night. No matter where we go the audience is singing along. There’s a unity that exists inside a rock club that rarely exists anywhere else where you have strangers putting their arms around each other singing along. It’s a connection that I rarely see anywhere else. Music is a powerful thing. It brings people together.

Do you have a favorite venue to play at?
Soma in San Diego. That’s always a fun place to come back to, sort of homecoming whenever we get to play in San Diego. The club has lots of memories. I grew up going to rock shows there. When we play there it seems fitting, a natural you know, sort of full circle completion of a musical journey that started in San Diego and continues every time we come home.

What inspires your music?
For me, finding hope in dark places. We’ve had the opportunity to travel and see a lot of the world in the last few years. I’m still learning so much about the world and myself. Few experiences we’ve had in dark parts of the world…there was a trip to South Africa a couple years ago. Just seeing the light in the kids’ eyes and joy that they have surrounded by poverty and disease and they’re living in a way that I could only hope to in terms of real joy in the midst of pain. I feel we’re so sheltered here in the Western world. The more I travel the more I realize there’s hope. It has redefined what I view as hope…the experiences like that shape your world view. I’m very much a student still. Music has always been asking questions, talking about things in a song we’re not comfortable talking about in other situations. Songs are vehicles of exploring the world. I grew up listening to Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. They’re not afraid to wear their heart on their sleeves and talk about things no one else is talking about. With music you can talk about things that are taboo and have deeper conversations, dialogue that you wouldn’t in everyday life. For me, music is a very powerful thing.

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Q&A

3 Questions with Tyson Ritter from the All-American Rejects

I’ve been a fan of the All-American Rejects since their first single, “Swing, Swing” came out when I was in high school. Since then, I have been to various concerts of theirs at completely different venues. Everywhere from an intimate concert at Starland Ballroom to a crowd of hundreds, maybe even thousands, at Giants Stadium for the Bamboozle Festival a few years ago. So when my friend invited me along to help cover a concert at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton last summer, naturally I went. She was working on a piece for the Trenton Times about the venue and how it’s trying to attract a younger crowd. Hence, the concert, entitled Popfest, was put on by local radio station WPST 94.5 attracting many of its younger listeners. In addition to the All-American Rejects, performers included Nick Lachey, The Fray, Bo Bice, and The Click Five.

My friend was promised a press pass to interview some of the bands, but for some reason it fell through. This is where my ingenious Plan B came in. “Let’s just go find their tour buses,” I remember telling her matter-of-factly. And to preface the interview below let me just tell you once again, I am not a groupie, despite the fact that I did take a picture with some of the guys from AAR. They were really short on time, so we only got to do probably less than a 5-minute impromptu interview. But hey, I’ll take what I can get!

How is it for you playing a show like Popfest at a smaller venue vs. your bigger arena shows?
Our first time to step out in an arena was with Fall Out Boy two months ago and we just got off that tour. So I guess coming off that tour this might seem smaller, but this is still a large show to us. Definitely a different energy though. At a pop show, people don’t move as much.

Do you enjoy playing shows like Bamboozle more?
Oh yeah. That’s like [Bamboozle] the voice of a generation all in one spot at the same time. They’re the future leaders of America. Even though they may listen to music that’s not contemporary or run of the mill, those people are a lot different when they go to Bamboozle. The people who go to Bamboozle are definitely…I don’t know, more cerebral than normal people, I find. Whereas at these shows people scream and go crazy like five seconds after they see us. At Bamboozle a kid will be like ‘What’s up Tyson?’ and try to talk to you, as opposed to try to bombard you or scream until you give into some weird wish that they want. But it’s all fun.

Would you consider coming back to Trenton?
Oh yeah. It was great, the kids were loud, girls were giggly. The next time we come here we’d like to come and play a proper show. We had the option to headline but we wanted to make The Click Five look bad. We don’t like bands that don’t rock their instruments. There’s a difference between playing your instrument and rocking it. I don’t play my instrument. It’s really kind of, I like to call it ho-hum music because after one song you kind of go ‘ahhhh’ [referring to bands who don’t rock their instruments].

Gotta love the honesty…here’s some pics with lead singer/bass Tyson and drummer Chris.


Categories
Interviews

Sugarcult

I was lucky enough to interview Sugarcult guitarist Marko DeSantis after a concert at Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey last year. You can check out the article I wrote in the link above. Below is the entire interview. Enjoy!

What bands inspire you and who do you listen to?
I always say, taking history is just as important as making history; in that I mean that it’s great to go back and rediscover music from the past, but you can’t discount the music being made in your own generation. I like bands that are rooted in the tradition of rock n roll, but update it and push it forward; that’s what Sugarcult is about. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of new bands: The Adored, TV on the Radio, The Strays, Maxeen, Against Me; and always diggin’ old jams by Tom Petty, Smashing Pumpkins, The Clash, Superdrag, The Cars…

Where do you find out about new bands if the radio is too commercialized for you?
Truth be told, I’ve never really listened to commercial radio; growing up it was all about going to shows, word of mouth, mix-tapes, magazines, hanging out in indie record shops and digging through the racks. Today it’s not much different, but things like iTunes, websites and file sharing just make it easier to get turned on to stuff. My favorite way to discover a band is to see them play live and unexpectedly be blown away by undeniable greatness!


What inspires your music?
There’s an old quote attributed to John Lennon, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” I think the same thing can be said about creating music; you set out to document your experiences and what’s in your head and then it becomes something else bigger than the sum of it’s parts.

What is the main theme of your new album, Lights Out?
Escapism and the guilty pleasures people indulge in that bring temporary happiness but are ultimately self destructive; casual sex, drugs, pop-culture, etc.

How is this album different from your last two albums?
Each of our records stands up on it’s own; we like it that way, we don’t want to be redundant and puke up the same old same old. On Lights Out, we broke new sonic ground, we nearly killed ourselves in the studio trying to make sure the music and lyrics were the best they could be; Tim practically had a nervous breakdown, he grew a beard, never changed his clothes, the whole nine yards!

This album seems to take on more of an anti-radio argument, how so and why?
I guess after 5 years of doing this professionally we’ve had our hearts broken enough times to see that there’s a reason it’s called the “music business” and not the “music friends”. It’s all so political, but at the same time we can look on the bright side and be happy that good music is getting a fair shake: the White Stripes, the Killers, U2, Tool, etc. It’s just sad when places like Philadelphia and New York City don’t even have a station that plays rock music anymore.

Are there any venues or audiences you’ve hated playing for?
We’ve been lucky so far, no real horror stories; but there are some shit-holes out there; but we celebrate the shitiness!

You’ve played on tour for Green Day, Warped Tour, and your own headlining tours, how is each of these different or the same?
Green Day was just surreal; getting to play huge sports arenas, it’s a total fantasy world! Warped is always a fun communal vibe, they keep it real and the crowd’s always insane; personal hygiene is a real challenge though! Our own tours are the best ’cause we get to play as long as we want and bring out new bands we believe in.

Do you ever get tired of performing any songs?
Not really, because you’re feeding off the energy of the crowd and it’s either a new song or an old song that brings back fond memories of the old days. Hearing 1000 people scream along to a song we wrote 6 years ago in a tiny practice space in our hometown when nobody cared about us is always a thrill.

What’s your favorite song to perform and why/least favorite?
I’ve always loved playing the song Pretty Girl (the Way); it’s been in our set for almost 7 years and still feels fresh. I don’t like playing our really slow songs ’cause it’s hard to mellow out and get into it when you’ve got so much adrenaline going on, plus they scare me.

What are you doing after this tour?
Laundry and then getting ready for the next tour! We’re going back to Japan soon; we’ve been there 9 times already. I have a few side projects with new records too: The Lapdancers (record came out in Aug.) and Bad Astronaut (new record out in Nov.) so I’ll probably be busy promoting those as well.

How would you describe your music to someone who’s never heard it before?
Loud and sexy!!!

How is Lights Out the turning point for the band, as Pagnotta says?
I hope so, we want to always move forward and keep taking chances, while still staying true to our vision. This album is more sophisticated, the arrangements are less conventional, we kind of tore up the rule book and started fresh. It’s a new beginning, so forget what you think you know.

What are your hopes for the future with the band?
I want to play in all the countries we haven’t yet been to; I’d love to play in China, Brazil, Eastern Europe, Australia, etc. Basically keep making good music, becoming a better band, and chasing new adventures…Fuck it, while we’re at it why not sell a million records too!