Against Me!

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Against Me!

© Against Me!

Question: We're here with Andrew of "Against Me!", we are interviewing him for punkrocknews.de, so we will just start!

And it is a lovely day in the park!

Question: It's the first lovely day this year, sitting in this park is very nice. How is your tour going so far?

I will tell you in six to seven hours. Hopefully very good! It's the very first show, very quick European tour. Just four German shows, then five shows in the UK and then we go back to the States and tour for three months straight. But I think we will be coming back to Europe for a full tour.

Question: The album is not out yet, so it kind of does make sense.

Well kind of, it doesn't even matter if the record is out, we just tour all the time. For "New Wave" I remember we left mixing the record, the record was mixed in New York and we were there for maybe a week and then we left on touring. We toured like five or six months straight before the record came out. So it's no wonder we burnt ourselves out.

Question: How would you describe your new record for fans of "New Wave"?

I don't know. I know that's no good answer. It's weird, I heard people coming to me and talking to me about the record and to them it seems like a huge sonic difference. I would say it is different because of the fact that there is more melody and harmonies. But for us being in the band the question is always very hard to answer, because you practice the songs for so long and you play them, you don't even think of them being different. It's just your songs and your band, you keep playing and you don't notice it. But that's a horrible answer, sorry!

Question: Which kind of impact had the change of your drummer for the songs of the new album?

A major change. Not even just the music, but the dynamic of the band changed. I mean I played with Warren for eight years; he had played with them for nine years. He was in the band a year before I joined them. You know, George is definitely not Warren at all. Obvious, I know. Number one, Warren left to open a Mexican restaurant, there is no bad blood between us. He is doing his thing, we are doing our thing. George was the first person that we thought of and called. He is a friend of ours, he is not a stranger. And we are all fans of our music. Hopefully he won't check this but George is always kind of been one of my favorite drummers, so when he said "I want to be in the band" I was like "Fuck Yeah!". Being a bass player it is very good for me. I'm answering the questions in the most roundabout way, I'm sorry. George is just a super steady awesome drummer and him and Warren have completely different styles. It didn't take long, maybe two weeks or a week of practice. I had to pretty much learn, I had to change the way I was playing. Because Warren and I have always been like buttheads on tempos. You know like: "Fuck man, go! Play faster!". And then he played faster and sometimes he played too fast. "Fucking slow down!". George is just like a human metronome. He is a good guy too.

Question: Hopefully!

He is nice!

Question: Would you agree that the new songs are more cheerful than the old ones?

Cheerful? I don't know. The subject material of some of the songs on the record is very depressing. So I wouldn't say it's cheerful!

Question: But from the instrumental side, the melodies?

I could see that. It's definitely more hooky. I would also say, I give you an example. Have you guys heard the record?

Question: I've heard it two times.

Alright. There is this song "Spanish Moss". Which I think is the second to last song, or the third to last song. That song is to me not really cheerful, but to me it reminds me of a summertime song. I think it is a good thing. The imaginary of the lyrics is: I can just picture myself in Florida. Like driving down the county road with Spanish moss hanging on the trees and stuff. I kind of like that, It's cheerful; yeah fuck it is a cheerful song!

Question: Wouldn't you say that this is a contradiction to the very serious and sad title of the album "White crosses"?

I don't know if it is a contradiction. "White crosses" is just named after the song "White crosses".

Question: Yeah, but still it evokes certain feelings. I mean, fallen soldiers is the first picture you get.

I could see that. But do you know the story of the song? I can tell you right now. The purpose of an interview! Tom is living in St. Augustine in Florida, I'll give you a little history of the town. They found the fountain of youth, it is supposed to be in St. Augustine. It is about an hour away from Gainesville. It is a beach town on the Atlantic. And Tom is living there with his wife in his neighborhood just outside downtown right at the fountain of youth. That's why he looks so young! There is this church right close to his house on the main street, which just has 4000 white crosses in the ground, representing every abortion that happens every day in America. So it is an ugly eyesore. So the song is actually about him driving by all the white crosses every day and wanting just to take his car and go in the lawn and just drive over them all. So that's part of the story of "White crosses". It's a song for all those who have never been to the city of St. Augustine. If you listen to it you just kind of picture the town. I mean I would say it is not a cheerful song. What was your original question? Does it contradict?

Question: Does it contradict with the sad title?

I don't think so. I think it is eclectic. You know, there is some super depressing songs and some very cheerful ones. I'd say it's a mixed bag of emotions.

Question: If you made a new DVD similar to "We're never going home", what would be the main difference between the two movies?

It probably wouldn't be as entertaining as we are older. And I don't think we drink as much anymore. I don't know. There would be some hijacks on there, because it pretty much the same exact people from that DVD. Jordan is with us, Angry Jon/Black Armed Jon is still with us. I don't know, the one thing about "We're never going home" is that some people felt they knew the band after the DVD, but the DVD is just a documentary of one moment. It shouldn't represent the band as a whole like this. This is how it is always, blablabla. You know it's one month.

Question: But still I think touring pretty much always was the essence of your band, because you were like eleven months a year on tour. It was everyday life for you.

If we made another DVD right now, it would be the same thing. What's that guy doing? Oh he is picking up bottles. I'm sorry, I'm totally lost now. Still all we do is touring. The longest break we ever had was at the end of 2008. When things kind of got rocky with the band, we were burnt out. Tom made a solo record and went on a revival tour with Chuck and Ben. I think I was home for three and a half months. And that to me was a very long time. So now it's back and all we do is just tour, tour, and tour. So a month long DVD would probably be just us touring and sleeping a lot. I don't think we gotten boring. It would be just as entertaining.

Question: Warren has his Mexican Restaurant; do you have any plan B? Just in case you don't get to do music anymore?

No I don't.

Question: Probably a German restaurant?

Maybe not. I would not open a restaurant. It is a very hard business. You have to be there all the time. Maybe I'd open a daycare. Andrews Kindergarten. No plan B, I mean if you have a plan B in the back of your head you're not really enjoying what's going on right now. I want to do this, I don't care if I'm 60 years old. I look at people like as inspiration if you think of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers or something like that. They are still going and the new albums are still good. And they still kill it, blank knife! When I'm older I might not move around that much, but that's acceptable. My bones would break.

Question: Speaking about inspirations, what were your personal main inspirations during the compositions of the songs? Any bands? Special styles of music?

Let me think back. That was last fall. I have no idea. The only inspiration I ever really have is to not fuck up. I know that's not a person, a place or a thing, it's just an idea. But it really is my inspiration, it's just to be as good and open-minded as possible. Because when you are recording something you easily get frustrated, because we are all of kind of in this cave, a dark cave. It's very low-lit, the lights are very low, it makes you want to sleep. There is usually someone lighting incense. I fucking hate incense. I hate the smell of it. You are sitting there, trying to play bass parts, you play something wrong and there might be somebody in the back who is not recording something and just being like: "Hurry the fuck up!". You just dust it off, don't fuck up and just do your best.

Question: Thank you for your interview.

Thank you.

Question: That's it for today. Have a nice show, have a nice tour!

I hope you have a nice show. We have a good time if you have a good time!

Eingetragen von mo am 07.06.2010.

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