Interview

Pictures

With the sun cooking all that it can see alive, one cannot imagine wanting to be out in it for a whole day to watch bands play. But the bands do their part and, most, put on amazing live shows. This is the Warped Tour in short. While I attended the tour, I was able to catch up with We Are the Fury and hop aboard their bus and share some laughs, feelings, and good times with them. I wanted to capture the sights, the sounds, the smells, of a hard working rock band on the road. But I got more, a lot more.

EP: So what was it like recording the new album?

Chris: The new album is called “Venus” and the recording was absolutely amazing.

Jeremy: It was the best experience and learning experience as well.

Chris: Cause what was it like 2 months? And we did it out on Tim Patalan’s property, our producer, and it’s a horse farm. We were just totally isolated out in the country.

Jeremy: Yeah, like horses and peacocks.

Chris: We were stuck in for pre-production and he didn’t even like say more than twenty words to us for the first week. He just told us to be in the studio, in the production room, which used to be a sheep-shearing room, a tiny little room, for like eight hours a day. This was for every day of the week too, just jamming all day long. Then he came in for like two weeks and we did pre-production with him. He’s just great because he knows exactly what we’re talking about. Then once we got into the studio to record, it just rolled; hanging out with Daryl and Jarvis from Head Automatica was great and Daryl has some appearances on the record and having barbeques with them and just getting stoned and drunk and shooting fireworks off with them…

Jeremy: We went to a baseball game.

Chris: Oh yeah and I hadn’t been to a baseball game in forever.

Jeremy: We had a blast from start to finish.

EP: So how did Daryl come into the picture?

Chris: Uh, his mom and dad met…

Jeremy: (laughs) …actually it was probably when I was in Las Vegas with my parents between tours when we first started touring around and our manager then was managing a band that was on tour with Head Automatica. So he gave Daryl a CD and he was immediately all about the music, and this is like our first demo, and so we basically kept in touch for the past two or three years and he said he wanted to work with us from the moment he heard our stuff and so we finally got to make that happen.

EP: So how have your songs evolved from “Infinite Jest” up to “Venus”? What are some styles you threw in and what kind of stuff did you experiment with?

Chris: It seems like “Infinite Jest” was like us saying who we are and “Venus” is who we are now; just a better version of that type of music. They are some amazingly written songs, we think, and it’s just kind of the grown up version of the EP.

Jeremy: It’s a little more, well, it is pushing it more in all different directions. It is more pop sounding; everything that rocked about “Infinite Jest” rocks harder. Everything that was interesting about the EP is more interesting now. It is a step up in every direction.

EP: What are some of your favorite songs that you recorded on the album?

Jeremy: Everything.

Chris: You know every song. It’s like when you put on one of your favorite CD’s and you’re like, “God I love this song!” Then the next song comes on and you think the same way; just every single track has something special about it.

Jeremy: I think we wanted to make an album, like not to duplicate, but in the same fashion as “A Night at the Opera” by Queen. Every song is something different and it keeps your attention and some bands today just try and write the big single over and over again, and the problem is that you have one big single and eleven shitty songs and fans aren’t going to care about that. Or else you can just make awesome music.

Chris: Every record I’ve bought in the past three years, I’ve hated. The only music I’ve liked is classics that I’ve bought in the past or on vinyl. Seriously, like there are so many songs from bands today that are trying to be singles but there is only one that is. So then they get big but the rest of the record is just like that one song. You can tell when you listen to them; and it’s scary to be doing our first big album where we’re kind of getting introduced to the world and not having an album that is totally radio friendly. This is who we are and I think that is why people dig us.

EP: So who are your biggest influences?

Jeremy: T. Rex, Bowie, Mott the Hoople, and all that 70’s glam stuff. But I think growing up, everything influences you and I think just as musicians we’re influenced by all sorts of things so that whys it doesn’t just sound like 70’s glam rock. It sounds like us, being influenced.

Chris: It’s not like we’re coming out of the gate saying that you’ve never heard rock and roll like this before. We’re a glam band. I mean obviously we’re influenced by all that stuff, but then again it is obviously us. We aren’t covering a David Bowie record. This is our music. You can put that music in whenever you want and it’s great. You can’t put in the record of the summer, whatever record hits the top charts and have a year go by and still be interested because it’s like, popular music now has more cowbell. It’s that simple.

EP: Yeah, I know what you're saying. I can definitely hear some Lou Reed in there as well.

Chris: Oh yeah man; this live Lou Reed song with a guy playing the cello; oh, what’s that song that goes, “Shiny boots of leather…”?

EP: Venus in Furs.

Chris: Yeah so it’s that live, with that cello and it sounds like the musician’s soul is like breaking on the cello. You can’t fuck with that. You can’t pop-punk chorus that.

EP: Although some will try.

Chris: Oh yeah probably; I mean there are some really good bands out there like that; they're just not my thing. I think there are a lot of kids out there that listen to what is cool because it is what is cool. I think we are a lot of people’s “secret” band that they like but it’s not for sure cool to say that we’re fucking rad yet. I mean that is something that I’ve seen on the internet kind of. I think what it’s going to take is putting this record out and touring a lot and gaining a bunch of fans and people will realize that our rock and roll is just straight up rock and roll. I mean its pop music, but all rock is pop in one way or another.

EP: It’d almost have to be.

Chris: I mean how could it not be, unless you’re Radiohead which they only got big because they were pop in the beginning. I think it’ll let people know that you don’t have to come out to pop-punk shows and hardcore shows when really, in the “scene”, I think out of every one hundred bands there is like ten that are amazing and the rest are kind of just like the singles on a record; one amazing single and the rest is reproducing it.

EP: Yes I notice that a lot.

Chris: Yeah, a lot of generic stuff; a lot of rewriting of the same album.

Jeremy: It’s got me thinking like, the fans come and here you but when they see you, they have to say they like the Senses Fail stuff but they hear your stuff and think it is really catchy but what will people think if it isn’t…

Chris: Yeah if it isn’t a clique or scene thing; and to me, that is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of.

EP: So you’re saying you aren’t trying to completely distance yourself from “the scene”, you just want nothing to do with it.

Chris: In a way.

Jeremy: Well we’re our own scene. We’re making our scene and I don’t even know what that is yet.

Chris: It’s weird that you say that because that is totally the vibe. I mean, we’re doing Warped Tour right now and that rules because kids that come dig us but not as much as they dig the main bands and that’s cool. But we can go and play a hardcore show and people might like us if it is like The Blood Brothers because there is some glam in that. But nobody just comes out and says it and does what they want to do. I think we’re definitely trying to do something that’s new in terms of popular music. There is no reason that music that is really good and really well written can’t have catchy “pop-punk” choruses and stuff; or catchy nu-metal music bullshit can’t be one of the dominant sounds of the modern world.

EP: So of all the bands you’ve met here, who have been some of the most down to earth guys or gals?

Jeremy: We’ve been friends with Scary Kids Scaring Kids forever; every band here is just cool, especially the ones we’ve toured with.

Chris: You know how insanely rich people only hang out with insanely rich people? Well we draw around five hundred, so others bands that draw around the same, you just hang out and become bros and what not. I ran into Geoff from Thursday and the bass player from Every Time I Die, and they were all so cool and the bass player from Every Time I Die actually came up and shot the shit with us just to hang out; and that band are mutual friends with Head Automatica’s bass player Jarvis so we kind of know each other. Everybody has been great; and I mean even with all the heat, all the fucking heat, all the hard work; we get here at 7 A.M. and work all day long and then play your show, sweat your ass off and we don’t have like any food because we can’t pay for catering on this thing. So we’re starving and we get in the van and we don’t get any fucking sleep and run totally on empty and shit. So you’re thinking this sucks but then you realize it is kind of like a summer camp because you’re hanging with all of your friends.

Alan: Yeah like summer camp on Mercury.

Chris: Yeah, it’s really hot.

Alan: I think the sun has even gotten brighter in the last two hours.

Chris: It probably has.

EP: So going all the way back, how’d you all form?

Alan: Chris and I started playing together our sophomore year; we wanted to start a band instead of just fuck around with our guitars. So we run into Jeremy and I knew him since junior high and asked him if he wanted to be in a band and be the singer and he sounded really good and we asked his brother, Stephan, to play drums and he was really good.

Chris: I mean this band formed within like four days and this was back in the day when I couldn’t name more than three bands in every high school in our area, because everybody was not part of some band. We got lucky and we’re still together since sixteen and we all like different types and the same types of stuff so it works.

Alan: Then Todd, the other guy in our band joined about four or five days after.

EP: So do you like being on the road and what do you do off the road?

Jeremy: We love it.

Alan: Even on this hell of a tour it still is fun.

Jeremy: We’re fun guys that like to hang out, play games, and get loose…

EP: I heard the way of showering is bad, like in way of huge lines.

Alan: It’s not that bad. I’ve seen the line have like fifteen to twenty people in it.

Jeremy: We get here early.

Chris: I’m not a fan of all the dude’s asses and balls you see. I’m just not a fan of naked guys. But if baseball players can do it, then so can we.

Make sure to catch We Are the Fury on the Warped Tour or their upcoming tour with Head Automatica and be ready for September, because I have a feeling their debut album is going to drop harder than any fusion bomb.