| ANBERLIN - breathing in a 'New Surrender'. |
| Written by Shahlin Graves | |
| Sunday, 04 October 2009 13:33 | |
 ANBERLIN are the kind of band that will promise every under-eighteen fan attending their only 2009 New Zealand date, hang-times after the show; to make up for the venue's licensing which confines underagers upstairs, away from the stage... but Anberlin are the kind of band, who actually run the walk to back up their talk, making good on their promises. Drummer Nate Young, genuinely enthused upon their return to New Zealand; "It's great! We love it. We haven't been back here since early 2006, so it's awesome to be back. We love it here for sure. We do [ tour Australia a lot ]. That's one of our other favourite places, for sure." Although absent from the New Zealand leg of the tour, Anberlin partnered with Fueled By Ramen favourites The Academy Is... for the Australian dates, explained bassist Deon Rexroat. "We were trying to figure out who to come over here with, 'cuz we wanted to tour with a U.S. band over here. We were trying to think of one that we both liked and thought would be a good fit for the bill. We had just done Warped Tour with them last year, decided that it would be cool to ask them and see if they would be into it. And they were, which was awesome!" Despite their latest offering 'New Surrender', debuting in their homeland's Billboard Top 20 ("That was crazy. Didn't expect that for sure!"), Anberlin continue to keep their feet firmly on the ground, with the same instrumental things ever-close to their hearts, same as always. Lead guitarist Joey Milligan sheds light on their new albums title; "Stephen [ Christian, Anberlin frontman ] came up with the title. He mentioned - finding new things, constantly re-evaluating your life, finding new things to get rid of to make yourself a better person... Constantly changing and better-ing yourself; as the overlying theme". Rexroat concludes that personal revolution begins with "inward looking in yourself. Making that personal decision to change".  COUP DE MAIN: 'New Surrender' begins with 'The Resistance', which encourages listeners to "speak for yourself"... Why do people find it so hard to voice minority opinions? ANBERLIN - DEON REXROAT: I think that's with everything in life. Everybody wants to be accepted and attached to one group, so they have that identity. So it's hard for people to speak their minds sometimes when they [ already ] feel safe in a group. ANBERLIN - NATE YOUNG: Definitely. CDM: Track three 'Blame Me! Blame Me!', is another well-versed social convention, referencing well-worn thoughts we have all fallen into; "blame me, for mistakes you make but can't own". Why is it easier to blame others, than accept your own faults? DEON: Because that's the easiest thing in the entire world, to not have to take responsibility. ANBERLIN - JOEY MILLIGAN: It takes a lot of pride or acceptance, to defeat your own pride. Small on your pride; is what I'm thinking. CDM: What was it like writing songs with (new, rhythm) guitarist Christian McAlhaney? DEON: Different. NATE: We'd never have another guitar player really write. It wasn't like a huge challenge, it was just different. With anything like that, it's going to be a different process. But overall, the learning process was great. Learning how someone else writes and the way he communicates... Overall, I thought it was great. He's a great writer. He's a great musician, for sure. JOEY: We definitely got the hard stuff out of the way now and it's going to be super smooth sailing from now on. CDM: Does it ever get confusing or annoying with Stephen sharing his last-name with Christian's, errr... Christian-name? NATE: Definitely. It gets really annoying. DEON: For us, it's not very confusing. It's when we read interviews; a lot of times they'll refer to Christian by his first name and refer to Stephen by his last-name... So it'll say Christian said this and Christain said this... and we won't know who's talking about what! CDM: Why did you decide to re-record 'Feel Good Drag' for the new album? JOEY: That was something that was brought up when we were just talking about doing a new record. What was a song that maybe got lost in the shuffle a little bit on one of our older records, that would be cool to re-think and re-do? That's really the only one style-wise that lines up with what we're doing now. I guess it ended up being the right decision. It had nothing to do with the single, it had nothing to do with radio. It was all just like; man it would be kinda cool to give this song another shot on the record. It was actually going to be a B-side. It wasn't even [ originally ] going to go on the record.
CDM: Anberlin recently toured with Taking Back Sunday... What's the craziest thing that happened on that tour? NATE: I missed this, I was in the back watching a movie... But in Philly, late at night some punk kid came and in a roundabout way started a fight. He punched Adam Lazzara from Taking Back Sunday in the face and then ran off. Then cops came and got him, but there was still some other dudes still there and our guitar player Christian, chased them down and got into a fight. DEON: I was asleep. NATE: But I missed the whole thing. I was super bummed. I didn't help my friends out at all. I was watching a chick flick, or something. CDM: Deon, you first met Stephen in high-school? How did Anberlin form around that friendship? DEON: Joey, Stephen and I are all from the same hometown [ Winter Haven, Florida ]. We started playing together in '96, when we were in high-school. I knew Joey and Stephen separately... and then I was playing with Stephen in another band at the time. Also playing around here and there with Joey, so it kind of made sense to get my two friends together; who are both very talented. It kinda just happened one night... Joey called me at the same time as I was thinking this, and asked me if he could jam with us. And everything, just really worked out. CDM: Anberlin has now been signed to Universal Republic Records since 2007. What's changed for you all as a band, since your days of Tooth & Nail Records? JOEY: It felt like when we were making the records in Seattle, we were getting a lot done but we needed to change things up a bit... and maybe try on a different fit, as far as producers and stuff like that. We felt like we were making progress, but we felt like we weren't making enough changes. So, we met up with Neal Avron and we went in and started working with him. It ended up being a really cool fit. He definitely made us work a ton and made us really think in completely different ways about song-writing, and how to make everything as best it can possibly be. It was a learning experience for sure. But, we felt like we got past that whole thing of not feeling like we had anywhere else to go. CDM: Now! You must solemnly swear to tell me the truth, the whole truth... and nothing but the truth. What is the real origin behind your band-name? NATE: Make up something real quick! CDM: Do not lie to me... DEON: What have you heard? CDM: I've heard everything. DEON: What haven't you heard? NATE: This one time... DEON: Stephen was doing an interview, it was when we were in our old band. Someone had asked him where would you like to go; like if you could go anywhere, backpacking, or anything like that. He named a bunch of places... and he said,"and Berlin?" The guy asked; "and where?" And he [Stephen ] was like; "and Berlin!" So it kinda stuck with him... and he thought; if I ever have a daughter, that'd be a cool name. But the band came before the daughter did, obviously. NATE: So basically it's all the stories. But that is the real one. JOEY: Basically in short form it would be - that it was a misunderstanding and we liked the way it sounded.  CDM: Stephen has a degree in psychology; what would you personally have liked to study if the opportunity arose? DEON: I was going to go to culinary school actually. NATE: Really? I didn't know that. DEON: I started playing music when I was fourteen... and started playing with Joey and Stephen when I was sixteen. So those plans kinda went away after a few years. But yeah, I was going to go to school to be a chef actually. JOEY: I would have loved to have studied psychology. I always thought that was really interesting. NATE: Nice! When I was younger I always wanted to be an architect. Obviously, I'm not good at drawing... But I took a couple of classes when I was younger for that. But it never really happened. I started doing this and all my dreams were lost. Just kidding! DEON: Are you going to call Anberlin; the dream killer?! CDM: Do you prefer to separate your faith from your music? Or do the two go hand-in-hand for you? NATE: I think that when you have faith, it should show through in everything, not just music. It's one of those things where with everyday life, it's gonna affect it. So I think that in a way, it would affect our music because it would with everything. I think that trying to seperate it would be the opposite of what we believe in. But as far as being known as a Christian band, we don't... It's a personal thing, so we don't separate it from our own lives and from making music. But as far as as the band goes... CDM: It's such an important part of you, that it ties in with your music naturally? NATE: Exactly. It would show through, no matter what. For me, it's the most important thing in my life. So it's going to show through no matter what I do; music, or just everyday living. DEON: We don't try to write music specifically for one group of people. We want everybody to be able to listen to our music and gain something from it... and not just have one specific message going out, only applying to a certain group of people. CDM: There seems to be a real strong sense of Anberlin always striving to connect with your fans on a mutual, personal level. Why is that so important to you as a band? DEON: It's pretty much how we built our fanbase. Just connecting with people. We have fans that have been coming to see us since 2002, when we did our first few tours. One of the reasons is, it's not just because they like our music... But actually, because a few of them are people we actually met. And over the years, one thing they've liked about us is that we didn't change, and start treating people differently. We've always treated people the same. Because let's face it: we wouldn't be here without any of our fans. So treating anybody less than us, or just poorly, would be very bad for our band. Plus, we've all been on tour with a few bands that haven't been very nice to their fans... We're just like; how could you do that? When you find out that some of those bands end up alienating their fans, and then nobody buys their albums anymore... Nobody comes to see them play... It's a good way to end your career I guess; is to be mean and ungrateful.  CDM: Having been blessed with a vocalist who has such a unique voice... What are your thoughts on the use of auto-tune in modern music? JOEY: Hate it. DEON: It's one thing to fine-tune something, but it's another thing to completely manipulate and fix... JOEY: Depends on the use style-wise... DEON: Like a Chris Brown thing? Or like T-Pain? Or actually fixing some-one's voice? NATE: I think that's what separates... CDM: Like ridiculous over-use? DEON: That's just annoying to me. NATE: I liked it when I first started hearing it. But now every band does it. Like, pop-punk bands do it. I think on Kanye West's last record, he does it on every song... and I think that record's genius. It can be done in a good way. But a lot of people over-use it because a lot of people can't sing at all. CDM: 'Haight Street' from 'New Surrender', describes an age of being "old enough to know, but too young to care"... At what exact age, do you think this is? DEON: I think that's all of us. Everything pertaining to what we do, the places we get to go, it definitely keeps you in a slightly Arrested Development state. We're not kids... NATE: But we're also not grown-ups. JOEY: You can be mature. But you can still be a kid and have fun. You don't have to act like an adult all the time. Click HERE for a review of Anberlin's Auckland show and live photos. Or HERE, for the full Anberlin concert gallery.  |
