|
|
|
ANOTHER BREATH
|
 |
This interview was conducted by Leo for www.saveyourscene.com in Europe on July 20th, 2005 during ANOTHER BREATH's European Summer tour with VERSE.
|
|
|
Leo: Hello there. First of all, please introduce yourself.
Ted: This is Ted and I sing for Another Breath.
Leo: How are you doing? How are things going lately? Been touring a lot?
Ted: Things have been going great lately. We just got done with 4 weeks through eastern and middle America with our friends This is Hell who actually just got back from a 5 week Euro tour and a new band from near us called How We Are who has been writing some amazing stuff.
Leo: Since you’re about to land to Europe with Verse, I wanted to ask you: Do you guys know each other since a long time? Played many shows together? What do you think about them?
Ted: We’ve known each other about a year now and we played together a handful of times on our US tour in January. Verse has also been to our hometown a couple of times. These dudes are a total mess. For example, the last time they played here their bassist Matt got lost on the way so they had one of their friends fill in for their set. The only thing is that he didn’t know the songs so he learned as he went while Eric yelled out notes during the songs. Haha, honestly though, they pulled it off anyway. I don’t think anyone cared since everyone was jumping on each other and screaming. And I’m kidding about them being a mess, they are all super nice and talented dudes . Everyone in the AB camp is looking forward to sharing this tour with them.
Leo: One thing that both your bands share surely is the positive attitude. That’s what I’ve come to conclusion by reading your lyrics, sincere and passionate. What can you tell me about that? How important is for your band, having a positive attitude?
Ted: I think seeing the positive side of things is always better than dwelling on the negative and we’ve kind of forged our ideals around that central value. I really look up to bands like Modern Life Is War who can have lyrics about the most morbid topics but still manage to talk about how important it is to keep your head up regardless of life’s hardships. For a lot of us hardcore is an outlet as well as a safe haven from outside bullshit so keeping a forward thinking attitude is important if for nothing else than to keep us from giving up.
Leo: Do you think this positive thinking thing got a little lost in the current hc scene?
Ted: It’s still there if you want to look for it. There’s also negativity there if you want to look for it. There’s also bareknuckle boxing if you want to look for that. That’s what’s great about hardcore. There’s something for everyone.
Leo: Another Breath is into the roster of Rival Record. What do you think about this label? Are you happy with how they’re promoting you? How did you end up signing for them?
Ted: Kyle Whitlow is the hardest working man in hardcore. He could possibly be the hardest working man in North America. He has this amazing double life where during the day he has a girlfriend and a house and a dog and a job that he goes to for 50+ hours a week and at night he’s writing checks and answering a bazillion emails and shipping orders. In the meantime he also has to deal with whatever person/group we happen to have pissed off this week and try to keep them from kicking my ass. Bottom line he does an awesome job and we couldn’t be happier. We ended up signing up with them by accident. Last winter we were playing shows and shopping our demo and we met an awesome band called Our Turn who passed along the word to Kyle.. Things just kind of worked from there.
Leo:What are the bands the mainly influenced your music? And if you had to define it, what would you say? I think your sound is predominantly old school but there are also some other influences attached and not to forget, a pinch of melody. What do you think about it?
Ted: Talking about influences is hard because it’s impossible to say what bands or songs we’ve listened to that have gotten stuck and influenced us in some way. We try to listen to everything. Not for the sake of influence but more for the sake of appreciation. And if I listed all of the bands we have actively ripped off it would be impossible to make a sane connection because they span all the way from Isis to American Nightmare to Green Day to Motley Crue. We get the old school thing every now and again and most of the time we are billed on old school shows but I really don’t see that connection at all. If anything I’d say we’re more of a rock band. We try to write good songs with good lyrics regardless of the style or genre.
Leo: What about sXe? If I’m not wrong, Ted is the only sxe in Another Breath. Vegans, Vegetarians?
Ted: Who told you I was Straight Edge? I got off the sauce about 8 months ago and have since been practicing a drug free lifestyle but it’s kind of a trial thing and I won’t be claiming Edge if I decide to stick with it. Steve is the same way but for different reasons. The other 3 guys drink. So none of us are straight edge, 4 out of 5 of us are vegetarian for various reasons.
Leo: Of all your songs, which is the one that, according to you, better represent the spirit of your band?
Ted: For the people involved I think 17 ,Minutes is our anthem. We tortured ourselves to write and record the last album just so we could put it out and tour. We just like getting out of town and seeing new things and playing rock and roll. I spent the better part of 7 years staring at clocks and thinking about all the places I would have rather been. I don’t do that anymore. If we’re talking about Another Breath as its own entity I would say token is a good representation. Almost all of our songs end up at least mentioning the topic of thinking for yourself and not buying into pre-packaged ideals. It’s just a central theme to our music and to us. It’s why we’re involved in hardcore.
Leo: And which one is the one you prefer playing live right now?
Ted: I can’t speak for anyone else but my favorite right now is a new one called New City. It’s about robbing convenience stores. Seriously.
Leo: What is the thing you strive to achieve by playing in Another Breath?
Ted: We all just want to have fun and go on tour and play music with our friends. Personally, I need this to stay sane and I think everyone else does to a certain degree. We are all neurotic in one way or another so when one of us is having an especially bad day we take it out on our instruments and our bodies. If you see us play more than once in the span of a week or two I think you’d be seeing more than one band. Some nights we play the songs and that’s that but some nights something just happens and we all snap. Either we’re all really emotionally unstable or we’re all feeling really good but some nights there is a lot of emotion and we start playing off of each other and I end up having a religious experience. It clears my head and reminds me what’s important. Without that I don’t know where I’d be right now. I don’t know where any of us would be.
Leo:You guys can live off your music or you all have regular works? Is anybody married or got kids?
Ted: We definitely can’t live off of our music. I really don’t understand how any hardcore band can. But we all have jobs. Well, I had a job. It’s hard to find places to work where you can leave for months at a time and still have a job waiting for you when you come home. And if you find a job like that it’s probably one that you will hate while you are there. It’s a shitty trade off but in the end it’s worthwhile.
Leo: “Not now, not Ever” came out a while ago. Are you working on new material already? Do you already have a tentative release date?
Ted: We are dead set on recording in December. We have a lot more to write but we’re going to be pulling out some of the new stuff on tour this summer. Then when we get home we’re going to write a ton and hopefully have a record out by February or March.
Leo: Once again, you’re gonna land to Europe for an extensive tour. Are you excited about the idea? Do you know/ appreciate any euro hc bands? I’m sure you Ted do, since you were here also last summer. What are your expectations about this tour?
Ted: I’ve been thinking about this tour every day for the last 7 months. We are all really looking forward to sharing a bill with Verse because they are doing something really emotionally charged and really really good. It’s always fun to tour with friends but when your friends happen to be in a band that you can go off for every night it makes things so much better. And yeah I’m really looking forward to running into some of the friends we met last year. Especially Strength Approach, Rise and Fall, and The Legacy. Those bands are all great and all have such great kids in them. I’m expecting a great time. I’ve already talked to so many of our friends that we’ll be meeting in different cities and I can’t wait to play in some of the cities we’ve never been to.
Leo: Any last words?
Ted: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable” – John F. Kennedy. My heart goes out to anyone who lost a loved one in recents bombings in London. Please realize that these attacks were provoked by the actions of countries such as the United States and United Kingdom and that they should be opening our eyes to wrongs done rather than opening our wallets to bombs dropped. After September 11th a war was waged on terrorism. Yesterday proved that it has accomplished nothing except the murders of thousands of innocent people in the middle east and ensuring that these attacks will continue.
Leo: Thanks guys. I will see you August 7th in Italy. Can’t wait for that.
|
|
|
|
|
|
