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You can also find them on Facebook by searching Bookies Chicago. This podcast is being brought to you by WXAV 88.3 FM and WXAV.com. WXAV, bringing the best podcasts to you. Hello, this is Jake.
Yes, how's it going? Good, good. How about yourself? Yeah, I'm doing great.
Just, you know, hanging out at home and it's a really beautiful day here in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And, yeah, hanging out with my dog, Winston. He's my best friend, so we're just relaxing in the house at the moment. Nice.
How about you? I'm doing okay. I'm doing okay. Awesome.
Yeah, for sure. All right, well, the first thing I want to ask you about is the new single that you dropped, Bones and Defender. What has the songwriting process been like for these new songs? I hear that you guys have been able to collaborate musically more closely than you ever have before.
Yeah, yeah. Brent and Matt basically wrote the lyrics for this album, and it's been really, I mean, they're just really good lyricists. And so it's been really cool. I mean, Brent was definitely a big part in helping on this record with the lyrics and, you know, vocal patterns and things like that.
Matt, Dustin really got his hands dirty with a lot of the songwriting with JB. And Matt, Matt's a machine, so you kind of just let Matt, you know, do his thing. But there's a lot of times where, you know, I think it's understanding and recognizing that this is team effort, right, teamwork, right? So, you know, it's not always going to be someone's one way or the highway type of thing.
So, you know, the fact that we're all flexible and as year after year we become more and more flexible, more comfortable with each other's critiques and things like that. So it just makes a better product, in our opinion, when we can take all of our art and all of our gifts and really be accepting to change, right? And usually we come out with a better song that way. So we were like, hey, if this is how we need to operate or should operate to make better music, let's really go for it this time.
And that's what we did. Definitely. Yeah, I also have read that you guys were going for, like, an approach where it'll be easier to understand for listeners. Is it more like a less-is-more approach?
Kind of because, like, you're kind of moving away from, like, the more proggy side of things, right? Yeah, we definitely, on this album, kind of stepped a little further away from the proggy stuff. But I will say it's a heavy record. It's like, you know, you're running, like, 90 miles per hour.
So it's aggressive. But, yeah, I think it is a little toned down as far as the prog, but still carries the roots of ABR. And, you know, one of the things that I think that we always say is, you know, is, like, we don't want to write the same record. We want to continue to grow.
And so we're just going down a different path that we haven't necessarily gone down. But we're still, you know, we're still carrying the same equipment on our back. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, have you had any gear change up, per se?
As a vocalist, it might be, you know, not your field, but... Yeah. No, I don't know much about the guitars because I try to stay out of the way when it comes to recording, getting the tones and all that kind of thing. That's definitely more of a JV question or, like, a Carson Slovak, who's, you know, the engineer, one of the engineers that we work with for the production of this album.
And vocally, you know, it's just trying to, you know, grab the lyrics and give them a feeling. So there's, on this record, I did a lot of stuff where maybe something sounds really breathy or gritty, or, like, you know, I maybe kind of scream, like, kind of through my teeth at times to give, like, an aggressive feeling. Or, so there's a lot of, like, little details within the songs to just kind of add or elevate the emotion. But as far as, like, a pedal or, you know, a certain type of tone, I do know that we're tuned differently for different songs to give them different feelings.
There's a song called Blood Letter that's really, really heavy and kind of, for myself personally as a vocalist, needed to go to a heavy vocal and kind of try to get to, like, a darker, more aggressive, maybe more evil type of place to really match the sound. So that's a good example of the band, you know, maybe tuning down and me also having to change my vocal style to be able to execute and perform to my best abilities to deliver the best song, right? So things like that. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
The next thing I want to ask about is the music videos that you guys, well, the one that you put out for Defender. And I know that Brent is, like, a huge fan of comic books and, like, the comic style. And I want to know, how much artistic input did you guys have on the music video? Right.
Actually, the directors and the producers and, you know, the team that we work with to do this video, they came up with the concept. That wasn't, yeah, that wasn't ours. So, basically, they sent us this concept and said, look, you know, what do you guys think of this idea? You know, to have all these superheroes and you guys are the superheroes and then you ultimately end up giving your, you know, your superpowers to this young man, you know, and he takes on evil and win.
We're like, yeah, that's super cool. And obviously, Brent's like, oh, man, you know. We kind of thought it would be fun and something different. We've never done anything like that before, like, comic book theme.
We thought it made, obviously, really good sense with I Need a Defender, like, someone to defend me, protect me. And it really came out really well. I mean, they basically just showed us everything. We're like, holy crap, this is legit comic book.
Because, you know, when somebody's like, yeah, we're going to make you into a comic book, it's like, oh, okay, let's see where this really goes. But the product that they ended up getting us was just unbelievable. And we loved it. I think it's probably one of our favorite music videos to date just because of how interesting and unique it is.
And who doesn't want to see themselves as a superhero? I mean, I wish I looked remotely close to my superhero character in the music video because he's jacked out in mine. But it was just a cool time. It was a fun experience.
We didn't really have to put a lot of effort and time as far as the band because obviously there's less of us in the video. But it was a cool concept, unique video, turned out really, really well. And, you know, the single defender got a lot of great response. And I think that the video was definitely a big part of, you know, helping present this new album, Guardians, to the world.
So we're very thankful for those guys and all the hard work that they did as a team. I think it was a pretty good success. Absolutely, absolutely. Next question I want to ask you about, since Vinyl Thon is coming out April 18th, are you more of a consumer of, like, physical or digital media?
I guess in terms of music. Like, do you collect CDs and tapes and vinyl records or are you, like, mainly digital or, like, a little bit of both? Yeah. I don't have a Spotify account.
I've never had a Spotify account. I guess it would make sense that I would as a musician, maybe, or maybe wouldn't. I don't know. So I get, like, $10 a month.
But I don't have a Spotify account. I like to buy my albums on Apple iTunes, you know, just because I understand what it's like being an artist. I understand, you know, that, you know, touring is one of the main ways to be financially secure. But, you know, there's just so many ways to get music.
And I would prefer to, you know, spend $10 support, you know, In Heart's Wake, you know, or Polaris or, you know, my peers. And just to me, it's a respect thing. You know, I want to respect my peers. And so if they come out with a new piece of art and I want it, I'm going to buy it, right?
I'm going to buy your album on iTunes. Now, for the ones that I'm a fanboy of or, you know, whatever, I'll buy the vinyl. Yeah, or some limited, you know, package of some sort. And that's just for me, you know.
It's very rare. I'm not, like, a vinyl head. But if there's a band that I really respect or that I really appreciate or the record really, really touched me in a way, then I'll buy it. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Next thing I want to ask you about is the tour that you were supposed to have with Killswitch and Light the Torch. And I know that you had to postpone those dates. How has, like, the coronavirus and all the health concerns that come with it affect you as a musician? Sure.
Well, I mean, you know, it's never fun to cancel a tour. We've never had to cancel a tour. But, you know, I think right now what the world needs is, you know, acts of selflessness. You know, we have to really just be more concerned about the people around us rather than ourselves.
And I'm speaking to, you know, the healthy young people. You know, just that, you know, the world's in a tight line. And so, you know, I think, I mean, obviously we wanted to tour. We love our fans.
We're releasing a new record April 3rd. It's like, obviously the coronavirus is not helpful to any of our, you know, desires. But at the same time, you know, people are more important, right, than money or fans or touring or TV releases. So obviously we needed to cancel and postpone it, which is great.
You know, Killswitch Engage, those guys didn't want to stop the tour either. And they're like, look, this tour is going to be a banger. We really have enjoyed our time with you guys, even though it's been brief. Let's reschedule this thing.
And, of course, KBR was like, yeah, like that's not even a question, right? So now we're home. You know, I'm going to go and just, you know, be with my neighbors and see if I can do anything to help them. A lot of my neighbors in my area are older people.
So I'm going to see about maybe, you know, just going to get them groceries or something like that, you know. I'm with my dog. He's the man. I love him.
He's, you know, he's raised with us next to a little French bulldog. So we're just going to hang out in the yard. It's nice to hang out here. And I think, you know, there's a lot of fear.
There's a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress in the air. But I think that if we just focus and try to make rational decisions and logical ones, we'll all be in a really good place. So I'm not too, too concerned. And I think that our government, even though, you know, some people may be a little upset with the decisions that they're making, it's like, hey, look, you know, let's just, you know, have faith that they're taking the right precautions and making the right decisions and just submitting to that and helping your neighbor, you know, and just looking out for each other, I think is really what we should be doing.
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. While you have time off from touring, are there any, like, musician range things that you're going to be focusing on? Like, now that you have all this time, are you going to be focusing more on songwriting or more on, like, I don't know, extra time to, like, practice vocally or anything of that nature? I think that we'll probably, you know, be practicing at home, all of us individually, depending on what, you know, what we need to practice on.
But, you know, it's also, you know, for us, we want to try to take whatever is handed to us and make the best out of it. So for a lot of these guys, you know, they're going home to their families, you know, with their wives and their children. And so, you know, they're probably their main focus is like, hey, this is a time that I usually do not have with my family. So I'm just going to spend a lot of time with them and make memories and, you know, love them.
So, yes, we will probably be doing some, you know, rehearsing and practice individually, but most of us will probably just try to soak up this time home with our loved ones because of the situation, but also because we know, you know, half a year we're gone from them. So, you know what I mean? Absolutely. Well, I don't have a whole lot left, so I'm going to leave you with one last question since I'm interviewing from WXAP, a college radio station out of Chicago.
How has college radio impacted you or your career? Well, you know, it's definitely impacted our career, especially when we were, a lot of our guys were, you know, the age of going to college and everything. It's cool. I personally appreciate college radio because it's kind of like this underground thing.
It's a great way for us still to stay connected musically to our younger fans. And we're thankful for anyone who is willing to press play, you know, on one of our tracks. I mean, that's just, you know, it's my dream, man. It's been my dream since I was 16 years old, and I get to live it because of people like you, you know, so I'm appreciative.
Of course, of course. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you calling in and doing the interview. I hope it's running to you soon.
Sounds good, man. Have a good day. Thanks, bro. You too, of course.
Bye. Bye. Bye.