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June 24, 2003
Interview by Grayson McDiarmid
Interview
with Brian Deneeve at the Embassy Hotel in London, ON June
24, 2003 .
G:
This is the last show on the Canadian leg of your tour. What
do you think of Canada?
B:
Um, Canada's fun. Playing isn't any different. The money's
different.
G:
Are the crowds different?
B:
In places like Quebec City, or where we played yesterday,
Sudbury, it was definitely different. It's still cool though.
All the shows have been sold out which is surprising cause
we had no idea that that would happen.
G:
You've been getting a lot of press lately. How did you get
people to start talking about you? I know you guys did that
yourself so how do you do that?
B:
We basically just quit school, got rid of our girlfriends
and went on tour. I guess it works sometimes and sometimes
it doesn't. It's just a risk, you know. I guess just playing
as many shows as we could. We played a lot of shitty shows
before they started getting good. We were starving and all
sorts of terrible things so I guess just after a while.
G:
Is it all worth it?
B:
Sometimes. I'm not going to say it's all worth it because
right now I'm really looking forward to going home and going
to my bed tomorrow. When it's good it's worth it.
G:
You guys have said before that there's no such thing as bad
press. Do you really not care when someone puts down something
you've devoted your life to or is that just your gameface?
B:
It's just funny. Either way, if it's good or bad its just
..that girl has great breasts (referring
to a young lady pedestrian)
Do you know her?
G:
No I don't know her.
B:
Those things are great. You can put that in the interview.
G:
Ok, girl walks by with great breasts.
B:
There you go! Ok where were we, oh yeah, well it's just funny.
Hold on a second. (pausing to look at
breasts) Those things are marvelous! Scott!
(calls
over Scott Gross, other guitarist)
B:
You missed them!
Scott:
What?
B:
That girl right there in the blue tube top. You just missed
her, she just walked into the bar.
Scott:
I'm taking care of bigger things right now.
B:
Like what?
Scott:
I've gotta take a shit!
B:
(turning back to me) That's another thing, we shit a lot.
G:
Is it hard to find places to do that?
Scott:
I'm gonna go in the bar.
B:
See. There you go. That's the epitome of finding places to
do it. Um, bad press. No, press is press either way. If people
are talking about you its not all that bad. We've done a lot
of funny things in interviews. At one point people would interview
us and be like "we've heard that interviewing you guys is
hard" because we'd be stupid and wouldn't answer anything
but you know, whatever, people liked reading them so I guess
more people wanted to interview us. Bad reviews, you laugh
at them. Because sometimes we just say "yeah, whatever". We
can't make everybody happy, you know, but at least if everybody
knows about you then you're doing something right.
G:
What was the response like in Europe.
B:
Awesome. The first time we went with Finch we went in December
and it was amazing because they're just tremendous over there,
well they're tremendous here too but, it was good going over
there for the first time with a really big band like that
and we just got back from a European tour with The Starting
Line and it was really good to see that a lot of kids saw
us at the Finch shows and kids over there are really cool
so this time we actually felt responsible for some of the
people going to the shows as opposed to the first time when
no one really knew who we were.
G:
Any interesting stories?
B:
In Europe they sell this stuff called absinthe that's illegal
where I live and um, yes there were lots of funny things happening
with that stuff. Um, nobody really got naked or anything,
it was pretty much just me getting pretty drunk all the time
but nothing too crazy. We've toned it down a little bit.
G:
You guys got a pretty high profile spot in April's AP [Alternative
Press] with a pretty funny photoshoot and everything. One
of the things they touched on and something often mentioned
is the bipolar and manic depressive element of your band.
Is that just something different to talk about or does it
really have an effect on your sound?
B:
What the funny thing is, is that three or four out of five
of us are on medication for our mental states which is pretty
funny because ideally you shouldn't have to be on medication
for anything but I guess it just has an effect on things.
One of the guys, who I won't mention his name, is thoroughly
crazy. Like, out of his mind so it has a lot to do with it.
G:
Does that explain the stop/start sound in your music? Is that
why in some songs it gets really soft all of a sudden?
B:
Probably, I don't know. It just kinda happens. No one really
thinks about it too much. The new record which you haven't
heard yet is a little bit more um, I don't want to say structured,
but it's a little better put together. Things go more smoothly,
we've grown up a little bit from the last record.
G:
Your lyrics are so dark and sad but looking into you guys
and meeting you now you're pretty cool guys, you seem happy.
How does that work?
B:
It's the medication, man! (laughs) Everyone's like that I
think. Me personally, I've given interviews where I'll be
like "fuck this, I hate this, I want to go home, this is stupid,
don't ever do this". There was a point in my career with this
band where I was just so tired and burnt out from doing it
and everyone seems to always ask "what advice would you give
to some kid who wants to start a band?" and I would just say
"don't do it!, whatever you do stay in school, do whatever
you can to avoid this kind of life" then there are other times
where things are funny and I think my band are pretty funny,
at least we are when we're all sitting around together. That's
the bipolar thing, you know. Everyone's fucking crazy. You
get a few in me and I'm good to go.
G:
So who's your new label? I won't tell anybody.
B:
No, no, no.
G:
Do you have anything to say about that, aside from what's
on your website?
B:
What's on our website?
G:
The whole "don't gossip, we'll let you know when we're ready"
B:
Ok yeah, you'll probably hear about it by the end of this
week. It's good though, we're happy. We have a brand new record
and it's done and an amazing producer did it and it sounds
cool and we like it and the new label likes it and they are
apparently behind it 100%.
G:
You guys never say anything bad about Ferret. Why the new
label?
B:
There's nothing bad about Ferret. Ferret's a great label.
Carl is an amazing, amazing person. It just comes to a point
where you can only do so much on that level. If you want to
get to another level, financially and distribution wise and
all the legal nonsense, a guy working out of his apartment
in New Jersey just can't do that, you know.
G:
Are there any bad feelings with him?
B:
Absolutely not. No, we still talk to him all the time. I'll
go home and we'll all go out and hang out and stuff. He's
an amazing person and he helps out a lot of bands and he has
a really great label and he does everything he can for the
bands and it just so happens that this is a time in this kind
of music where things are getting bigger and he just can't
financially do what he needs to do for us. But for a band
putting out their first record, like look what he did for
us and Static Lullaby is getting big and.
G:
Every Time I Die.
B:
Yeah exactly. He has all these great bands that are all doing
these bigger things and that's what he wants to do. He's not
one of those guys that thinks " I want to see my bands stay
small", he's not like that at all, he said " I want to get
you guys off the ground and get you as big as possible" which
is awesome and which I think is the point of that kind of
label if that's what you're in it for, you know.
G:
Anyone you want to plug? Anyone you've toured with lately
or anything?
B:
Just listen to The Starting Line because they're funny, they're
a bunch of cute pop punkers. Everyone gives a shit for touring
with bands like that or like, we've done two tours with Taking
Back Sunday, and we've toured with Finch, and Cursive, and
Thursday and all these bands that don't really have anything
to do with the kind of music that we play but it's better
that way and those kids are way cooler than the hardcore kids.
Not to put down hardcore kids or anything but it makes for
a really fun show, like, it's so much better. Those kids are
so much fun, like, they don't care. They're 14 year olds coming
to the show and they just love the fact that someone's coming
to play music for them and they'll just bounce around and
be all giggly and everything but it's awesome. A lot of hardcore
kids have to be cool and stand in the back and say "I used
to go see these guys when there were two people in the room".
Fuck that, I like the kids that are going to have a good time
no matter what and always appreciate the fact that you showed
up. So yeah listen to the Starting Line and Finch and every
little cute pop punk band out there.
G:
That's how I got into it.
B:
Yeah, I don't know anyone that didn't own Green Day's first
record, or anyone my age anyway. So yeah, all those kids,
that's where it's at.
G:
Who was that guy you called over?
B:
Scott. Yeah he's the crazy one I was talking about.
G:
I like how starving musicians can afford Heineken (referring
to the beer in Brian's hand). Those are premium up here.
B: They give it to me for free. We
have it on our rider, I'm really the only one who drinks so
I get 24 Heinekens to myself every night and a bottle of Jack
Daniels so it works out pretty well.
G:
Well, that's about it so thanks a lot! From Autumn To Ashes
have just announced that they have signed with Vagrant Records.
Their new album is due out in early fall. Their website is
www.fromautumntoashes.com. Check them out!
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