Fans of the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus usually don't associate the band with particularly mello music or with relatively calm concerts. However, that's what fans are getting on their latest tour, which just so happens to be entirely acoustic. This isn't the only thing the band has been up to, either: what with struggling to get into the studio to record their latest record, and working with their Guardian Angel Foundation, the band's boys have been pretty busy lately. I recently got to talking with lead singer Ronnie Winter, and we discussed all these topics as well as musical influences, the supposed genius that is Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox Story, and shampoo.Hey, Ronnie. How are you?
Good.
So, I just wanted to start off by asking you to tell us about the tour you’re on right now.
The tour that we’re on right now? We are on the Unplugged and Unaffected acoustic tour, which is something that we actually came up with and booked and created on our own so we’re pretty excited about that. So far it's been pretty amazing. We've had a really good time and we took a lot of our songs that we thought would swap well to acoustic versions and restructured them and change some things around and have been performing them as well as our Unplugged and Unaffected EP on the road and it's going really well for us and basically, you know, it’s been amazing. What can I say? We've been in smaller venues as opposed to playing in the larger venues we've been playing in for the past year, so we could really hang out after the show, and actually had it built in with the promoters that afterwards the venue had to be kept open for an hour. That’s one of the problems that we ran into as far as having to come out of the dressing rooms when all the security guards had run everybody out and made everyone leave the building a lot of the time. So we absolutely hate that. So it's been built into our contract that these places have to leave it open, and that's been really great for us.
It sounds like this tour is definitely you know more about relating to the fans more than you’ve gotten an opportunity to do in the past.
Yeah, definitely, because a lot of times people just don’t realize how sometimes it is difficult even if the band really wants to, to hang out with people because there are other powers-that-be. So at this point we were able to make sure we were able to do that wherever we wanted.
What's prompted your decision to go so entirely acoustic for this?
Well, it wasn’t a huge decision, really. It just kind of came naturally. We actually write a lot of our songs acoustically or at least they originate from acoustic guitars around a camp fire. So I mean we’re on our couch in our living room or wherever in our house, but we have quite a few, I would say honestly we have like nine acoustic guitars between the five of us, just playing all around our band house and our studio and just everywhere. So, it’s cool because everyone in our band plays guitar, even Jon, our drummer. Like, we all just sort of sit around and play and whenever you hear something cool that develops into a song. So the band playing acoustically like I said is always a natural source of fun and something that we’ve always enjoyed so doing an acoustic tour serves two purposes: it proves, number one, that we are able to do it, and that it's fun, and that we can make it sound awesome, which we definitely have been doing thus far, and number two, it proves that we're not afraid to go back to playing small venues and hanging out with the people who actually helped us get where we are.
Good.
So, I just wanted to start off by asking you to tell us about the tour you’re on right now.
The tour that we’re on right now? We are on the Unplugged and Unaffected acoustic tour, which is something that we actually came up with and booked and created on our own so we’re pretty excited about that. So far it's been pretty amazing. We've had a really good time and we took a lot of our songs that we thought would swap well to acoustic versions and restructured them and change some things around and have been performing them as well as our Unplugged and Unaffected EP on the road and it's going really well for us and basically, you know, it’s been amazing. What can I say? We've been in smaller venues as opposed to playing in the larger venues we've been playing in for the past year, so we could really hang out after the show, and actually had it built in with the promoters that afterwards the venue had to be kept open for an hour. That’s one of the problems that we ran into as far as having to come out of the dressing rooms when all the security guards had run everybody out and made everyone leave the building a lot of the time. So we absolutely hate that. So it's been built into our contract that these places have to leave it open, and that's been really great for us.
It sounds like this tour is definitely you know more about relating to the fans more than you’ve gotten an opportunity to do in the past.
Yeah, definitely, because a lot of times people just don’t realize how sometimes it is difficult even if the band really wants to, to hang out with people because there are other powers-that-be. So at this point we were able to make sure we were able to do that wherever we wanted.
What's prompted your decision to go so entirely acoustic for this?
Well, it wasn’t a huge decision, really. It just kind of came naturally. We actually write a lot of our songs acoustically or at least they originate from acoustic guitars around a camp fire. So I mean we’re on our couch in our living room or wherever in our house, but we have quite a few, I would say honestly we have like nine acoustic guitars between the five of us, just playing all around our band house and our studio and just everywhere. So, it’s cool because everyone in our band plays guitar, even Jon, our drummer. Like, we all just sort of sit around and play and whenever you hear something cool that develops into a song. So the band playing acoustically like I said is always a natural source of fun and something that we’ve always enjoyed so doing an acoustic tour serves two purposes: it proves, number one, that we are able to do it, and that it's fun, and that we can make it sound awesome, which we definitely have been doing thus far, and number two, it proves that we're not afraid to go back to playing small venues and hanging out with the people who actually helped us get where we are.
You mentioned that you write a lot of your songs just from having a guitar in your hands with the rest of the band?
Yeah, definitely. I mean that’s how we do it. At that point, once we get cool riff or anything interesting we relocate to the jam room, which is located about 25 feet away from our camp fire. Luckily we converted our two car garage into a pretty state of the art studio.
Yeah, definitely. I mean that’s how we do it. At that point, once we get cool riff or anything interesting we relocate to the jam room, which is located about 25 feet away from our camp fire. Luckily we converted our two car garage into a pretty state of the art studio.
[laughs]
We just hang out at our house all day long, everyday and play around and when we find something we think is interesting we either gather whoever happens to be there at the moment or we call everybody up and we go and we jam it out, so it becomes an existing track, and once that happens is when I’ll usually kind of sit around and come up with lyrics and a melody and I’ll sing it to the band or I’ll sing it to the microphone or I’ll just write it down and I let them all read it and we decide collectively if to write and we proceed from there basically.
What have a lot of your musical influences been in writing songs and developing melodies?
I don’t know. You know, just anything rock and roll based. Everything from your early classic rock, like Pink Floyd, AC/DC, the Beatles. We like all the classics. We like 80’s stuff. I love Peter Gabriel. And then 90s grunge rock, I love Nirvana… but I like new stuff too… if we dig it, it's probably influenced us in some way or form.
We just hang out at our house all day long, everyday and play around and when we find something we think is interesting we either gather whoever happens to be there at the moment or we call everybody up and we go and we jam it out, so it becomes an existing track, and once that happens is when I’ll usually kind of sit around and come up with lyrics and a melody and I’ll sing it to the band or I’ll sing it to the microphone or I’ll just write it down and I let them all read it and we decide collectively if to write and we proceed from there basically.
What have a lot of your musical influences been in writing songs and developing melodies?
I don’t know. You know, just anything rock and roll based. Everything from your early classic rock, like Pink Floyd, AC/DC, the Beatles. We like all the classics. We like 80’s stuff. I love Peter Gabriel. And then 90s grunge rock, I love Nirvana… but I like new stuff too… if we dig it, it's probably influenced us in some way or form.
Do you find yourself incorporating elements into your music that you find in music that is not necessarily anything to do with your genre?
I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know how to answer that question. Let me think. Do I incorporate anything that’s not in our genre into our music? Um, I don’t really know what kind of genre we're in, so that would probably depend on what you considered us. We don’t really put ourselves in a genre and a lot of bands don’t. There’s a popular phrase and it’s kind of funny, it’s called "labels are for cans"—
Right, yeah. [laughs]
You can label certain things and certain things you can’t. The great thing about playing music it’s whatever’s on your head, it’s whatever you write. A lot of people, you know, if they heard some of our stuff they might even think we’re a country band. If you were to hear some of our longer screaming stuff, you might think we’re a screamer band. If you heard some of our more straightforward rock stuff you might think we’re an alt-rock band. So, with that being said, I don’t think that we’ve discovered any brand new instrumentation that’s never been used before. It would be awesome if we did. I’d love to take credit for it, but we didn’t. As a matter a fact, if anything we've just kept it simple. We’re five guys in a band. We have a very classic lineup. We have two guitar players, who play super loud, a drummer on the drums, a bass player, and I sing as loud and as high as I can.
You can label certain things and certain things you can’t. The great thing about playing music it’s whatever’s on your head, it’s whatever you write. A lot of people, you know, if they heard some of our stuff they might even think we’re a country band. If you were to hear some of our longer screaming stuff, you might think we’re a screamer band. If you heard some of our more straightforward rock stuff you might think we’re an alt-rock band. So, with that being said, I don’t think that we’ve discovered any brand new instrumentation that’s never been used before. It would be awesome if we did. I’d love to take credit for it, but we didn’t. As a matter a fact, if anything we've just kept it simple. We’re five guys in a band. We have a very classic lineup. We have two guitar players, who play super loud, a drummer on the drums, a bass player, and I sing as loud and as high as I can.
[laughs]
It’s just a classic rocking formula, nothing new, nothing fancy. A lot of bands today, I think that fans would really be surprised to find out how many musicians have secret backing tracks and this and that and all this crazy equipment onstage that helps their sound. If anything we don’t have that and that’s one of the reasons why we did this acoustic tour because you can see everything with your eyes. What you see is what you get.
It’s just a classic rocking formula, nothing new, nothing fancy. A lot of bands today, I think that fans would really be surprised to find out how many musicians have secret backing tracks and this and that and all this crazy equipment onstage that helps their sound. If anything we don’t have that and that’s one of the reasons why we did this acoustic tour because you can see everything with your eyes. What you see is what you get.
I was actually about to bring up the acoustic tour again since you were talking about that because it just seems like that is so much apart of your philosophy of keeping everything stripped down and it seems like you’ve especially been trying to do that and to keep things simple and as much of a direct link to fans as possible.
Well, I mean I think that you really have to be talented to play that way. Everybody knows it. Some people might not prefer it, but I think it’s a general known concept that if you can pull off an acoustic instrumentation with great vocals--you know, Elias is the other main singer in our band and I’m confident that with him and me singing together in harmony that those people when they hear it are literally, pretty much blown away or if not just happy to see that we can do what we say we can do, which is play our music.
Well, I mean I think that you really have to be talented to play that way. Everybody knows it. Some people might not prefer it, but I think it’s a general known concept that if you can pull off an acoustic instrumentation with great vocals--you know, Elias is the other main singer in our band and I’m confident that with him and me singing together in harmony that those people when they hear it are literally, pretty much blown away or if not just happy to see that we can do what we say we can do, which is play our music.
I also would like to know if you as a band find yourself ever influenced not necessarily by other music, but by simply other topics, like people or cinema or certain books.
Oh, okay, I gotcha. Yeah, we’re hugely, hugely—that’s the first time anyone’s ever asked me that. We’re big time influence by like movies and pop culture and stuff I mean it’s cool because there’s a pretty decent array of age in my band. I'm the old guy, 25. A lot of people don’t know that. They think that we’re a young band, like some of the bands out there. There’s no 18, 19 year-old, 17 year-old kids in my band; there haven't been for a long time—it’s a general misconception. We’re actually all mid 20’s. So, we are a little bit more of a mature band in that type of aspect compared to some of the bands from our genre if you will, but with that being said we pretty much just sit around and watch movies all the time. We always shared movies that somebody may or may not have seen a couple years before it just came out. Like, I remember telling the guys about Reservoir Dogs when they’d never heard of it because they were a little bit younger when that movie came out. You know, we all got to watch that together and that was pretty awesome. And we're pretty big Quentin fans. Pulp Fiction, I hadn’t really got into that movie, Elias got me into that movie a lot. So, we watched a lot of movies especially anything that we feel has a lot of good acting. We really appreciate acting and we consider it an art form and we think that actors who can act well portray a feeling or an emotion and make you feel something inside when you’re watching it. It’s kind of like a song, kind of like when you’re listening to a song, you literally feel and you can’t explain and you’re like, "Wow that song made me feel something." I see movies like that, you know? You feel an emotion. I think it’s possible we definitely are affected by it. I couldn’t say what our favorite movies ever are, but I guess right now the most popular movie on the bus is Walk Hard. Just because we’re musicians and it’s funny because he’s making fun of our sort of stuff so for us it’s very, very entertaining.
Oh, okay, I gotcha. Yeah, we’re hugely, hugely—that’s the first time anyone’s ever asked me that. We’re big time influence by like movies and pop culture and stuff I mean it’s cool because there’s a pretty decent array of age in my band. I'm the old guy, 25. A lot of people don’t know that. They think that we’re a young band, like some of the bands out there. There’s no 18, 19 year-old, 17 year-old kids in my band; there haven't been for a long time—it’s a general misconception. We’re actually all mid 20’s. So, we are a little bit more of a mature band in that type of aspect compared to some of the bands from our genre if you will, but with that being said we pretty much just sit around and watch movies all the time. We always shared movies that somebody may or may not have seen a couple years before it just came out. Like, I remember telling the guys about Reservoir Dogs when they’d never heard of it because they were a little bit younger when that movie came out. You know, we all got to watch that together and that was pretty awesome. And we're pretty big Quentin fans. Pulp Fiction, I hadn’t really got into that movie, Elias got me into that movie a lot. So, we watched a lot of movies especially anything that we feel has a lot of good acting. We really appreciate acting and we consider it an art form and we think that actors who can act well portray a feeling or an emotion and make you feel something inside when you’re watching it. It’s kind of like a song, kind of like when you’re listening to a song, you literally feel and you can’t explain and you’re like, "Wow that song made me feel something." I see movies like that, you know? You feel an emotion. I think it’s possible we definitely are affected by it. I couldn’t say what our favorite movies ever are, but I guess right now the most popular movie on the bus is Walk Hard. Just because we’re musicians and it’s funny because he’s making fun of our sort of stuff so for us it’s very, very entertaining.
I actually didn’t see that. I meant to see it. It’s good?
Oh my gosh, you need to go see it today. It’s incredible. So good and he actually sang really well; I was really blown away by it.
Oh my gosh, you need to go see it today. It’s incredible. So good and he actually sang really well; I was really blown away by it.
Who made the film? I forget.
I think it was the guy who made Knocked Up. I think, but I’m not entirely sure because I don’t have the DVD in front of me so I don’t want to give you the wrong information. But you should check it out.
I think it was the guy who made Knocked Up. I think, but I’m not entirely sure because I don’t have the DVD in front of me so I don’t want to give you the wrong information. But you should check it out.
Well, I don’t watch many movies, but I will! I'd like to reference what you were saying about movies being essentially like songwriting in their portrayal of emotions and stories. Do you find yourself regularly setting out to tell stories or more to portray emotions in your music?
I don’t know. I’ve always been very careful about the story telling for this band in particular. We just kind of decided a long time ago that every song was going to be real. Every song form our first single to right now, "Damn Regrets", is all true instances about me or somebody else in the band or somebody we know, so "Disconnected", "In Fate's Hands", "Your Guardian Angel", and "Damn Regrets", which were the four songs that we released off the record, as well as every track on the record and every song we’ve ever written in this project have all been on true stories so as far as storytelling goes it's more of a…
I don’t know. I’ve always been very careful about the story telling for this band in particular. We just kind of decided a long time ago that every song was going to be real. Every song form our first single to right now, "Damn Regrets", is all true instances about me or somebody else in the band or somebody we know, so "Disconnected", "In Fate's Hands", "Your Guardian Angel", and "Damn Regrets", which were the four songs that we released off the record, as well as every track on the record and every song we’ve ever written in this project have all been on true stories so as far as storytelling goes it's more of a…
Personal narrative?
Not a story; it’s like a relationship, it’s like an expression of understanding on a certain topic or certain category and that’s why we haven’t written songs about every topic because we haven’t experienced them yet and you know all the things that we have experienced will keep growing—that’s what our second CD is going to be about. It’s going to be about being called a sellout. It’s going to be about having success and how you deal with that. It’s going to be about real live things that we’ve experienced. People know that and they can’t wait to hear it because they already know what the record is going to be about. It’s going to be about our life. It always has been. But our own stuff is a little different. We all are individual song writers as well, so if I was to write a song or someone else in the band was to write a song not for this band then I would definitely say it’s more of a storytelling kind of vibe, like you were saying with the movies. So in that aspect, yeah. We can write those songs too, we just don’t for the band.
I want to go back to talking about the tour. How do you find yourself received in the different places that you’ve played?
I would say every show other than one has been an amazing success. Almost all of them have been sold out. The one show that wasn’t an amazing success, the local promoter failed to do his job properly and he put posters that were almost two years old up that didn't say anything about our acoustic performance. So what happened was that half the crowd came knowing it was an acoustic show and the other half of the crowd, who had just happened to walk up, had seen our old posters that hadn't said anything about our acoustic tour. So a lot of people thought they were coming to see the band, which is loud amplifiers and me jumping around like a crazy man, and our acoustic show is a lot more relaxed—your 12 year-old daughter is not going to get smashed into a mosh pit. So we handled it and everything was great but there was just that initial weirdness because somebody didn’t do their job. Other than that one show it’s absolutely amazing. But we've also been trying to do things in real life, not just like online or whatever, that would be different. So, one of the things we came up with is a live Q & A session. So we have a wireless microphone that we turn on and then we inform the audience, “Hello everybody; we know that we get emails from you all the time, so here's a time in real life right now for you to ask us some questions.” And then we have everyone in the crowd interested raise their hand and we pass the mic and answer on the spot, no censoring or anything, and so far we've had awesome responses. I’ve been asked everything from what shampoo I have to "When is the new record coming out?" It’s been a lot of different array of questions. I don’t think any other band has ever done that.
Not a story; it’s like a relationship, it’s like an expression of understanding on a certain topic or certain category and that’s why we haven’t written songs about every topic because we haven’t experienced them yet and you know all the things that we have experienced will keep growing—that’s what our second CD is going to be about. It’s going to be about being called a sellout. It’s going to be about having success and how you deal with that. It’s going to be about real live things that we’ve experienced. People know that and they can’t wait to hear it because they already know what the record is going to be about. It’s going to be about our life. It always has been. But our own stuff is a little different. We all are individual song writers as well, so if I was to write a song or someone else in the band was to write a song not for this band then I would definitely say it’s more of a storytelling kind of vibe, like you were saying with the movies. So in that aspect, yeah. We can write those songs too, we just don’t for the band.
I want to go back to talking about the tour. How do you find yourself received in the different places that you’ve played?
I would say every show other than one has been an amazing success. Almost all of them have been sold out. The one show that wasn’t an amazing success, the local promoter failed to do his job properly and he put posters that were almost two years old up that didn't say anything about our acoustic performance. So what happened was that half the crowd came knowing it was an acoustic show and the other half of the crowd, who had just happened to walk up, had seen our old posters that hadn't said anything about our acoustic tour. So a lot of people thought they were coming to see the band, which is loud amplifiers and me jumping around like a crazy man, and our acoustic show is a lot more relaxed—your 12 year-old daughter is not going to get smashed into a mosh pit. So we handled it and everything was great but there was just that initial weirdness because somebody didn’t do their job. Other than that one show it’s absolutely amazing. But we've also been trying to do things in real life, not just like online or whatever, that would be different. So, one of the things we came up with is a live Q & A session. So we have a wireless microphone that we turn on and then we inform the audience, “Hello everybody; we know that we get emails from you all the time, so here's a time in real life right now for you to ask us some questions.” And then we have everyone in the crowd interested raise their hand and we pass the mic and answer on the spot, no censoring or anything, and so far we've had awesome responses. I’ve been asked everything from what shampoo I have to "When is the new record coming out?" It’s been a lot of different array of questions. I don’t think any other band has ever done that.
Have you been asked any particularly odd questions?
Um, probably. The shampoo one was weird. What kind of shampoo do I use? I didn’t think it was that big a deal to some people. Apparently it is, so I let them know. I use oatmeal shampoo.
Um, probably. The shampoo one was weird. What kind of shampoo do I use? I didn’t think it was that big a deal to some people. Apparently it is, so I let them know. I use oatmeal shampoo.
You’ve been to so many places—on this tour, but also in the past. What are some of your favorite places to visit with your music?
Favorite places? Well, for us it’s always going to be based on show’s going to be, you know? I have to be honest. So if we play a show in a town where we know it's going to be huge, then we're going to like that area. So some of those areas are obviously pretty much anywhere in Florida, which is where we're from. Tampa, Orlando, Miami, it doesn’t matter. If we play Florida, we do well, which is awesome. Got a lot of love there.
Favorite places? Well, for us it’s always going to be based on show’s going to be, you know? I have to be honest. So if we play a show in a town where we know it's going to be huge, then we're going to like that area. So some of those areas are obviously pretty much anywhere in Florida, which is where we're from. Tampa, Orlando, Miami, it doesn’t matter. If we play Florida, we do well, which is awesome. Got a lot of love there.
Florida pride, of course.
Other than that, we did a Canadian tour, which a lot of bands don’t do on their own. We had our own Canadian tour. We do really well in Canada. Um, and then also just some US cities that we love to visit that are beautiful and we do well in are Salt Lake City, Denver, we do well in Arizona, anywhere in California. We have a lot of fans in California, which is amazing because we’re from Florida. A long time ago there was that whole East coast, West coast deal that obviously doesn’t exist anymore because we have a lot of fans on the West coast, which we were really happy to find out when we finally got over there. So, that’s cool. Um, let’s see what, else. We do really well in Alabama…
Other than that, we did a Canadian tour, which a lot of bands don’t do on their own. We had our own Canadian tour. We do really well in Canada. Um, and then also just some US cities that we love to visit that are beautiful and we do well in are Salt Lake City, Denver, we do well in Arizona, anywhere in California. We have a lot of fans in California, which is amazing because we’re from Florida. A long time ago there was that whole East coast, West coast deal that obviously doesn’t exist anymore because we have a lot of fans on the West coast, which we were really happy to find out when we finally got over there. So, that’s cool. Um, let’s see what, else. We do really well in Alabama…
Okay, I have to ask this because I’m a New Yorker. What do you think of New York?
I love New York. We made a record in Jersey. Half of it, and then be made the second half in Manhattan at a place called Right Track, which is right in Time Square. It’s literally in Time Square. So I mean, I was at a hotel a few blocks away and every morning I would walk X-amount of blocks over to the studio and start recording. So, I got the full experience. You know? I got to be there and really meet New Yorkers. They’re actually really nice people. They’re all really helpful. They’re just all driven. You know what I mean?
I love New York. We made a record in Jersey. Half of it, and then be made the second half in Manhattan at a place called Right Track, which is right in Time Square. It’s literally in Time Square. So I mean, I was at a hotel a few blocks away and every morning I would walk X-amount of blocks over to the studio and start recording. So, I got the full experience. You know? I got to be there and really meet New Yorkers. They’re actually really nice people. They’re all really helpful. They’re just all driven. You know what I mean?
Yeah. [laughs]
They just walk so fast and they’re all so like… I don’t know, they’re really driven and that’s what I like. I totally get along with that type of personality because they’re there to do what they gotta do and that’s all they’re into. So, I enjoyed it. I think that it’s definitely a melting pot of culture. It’s interesting if you’ve never been there especially being from a small town like Middleburg, where we’re from. We saw things we’d never seen before. Anywhere in New York, from going from section to section of the city, it’s amazing how different one side is compared to the other. So, I love New York. I don’t know what else to say other than that.
They just walk so fast and they’re all so like… I don’t know, they’re really driven and that’s what I like. I totally get along with that type of personality because they’re there to do what they gotta do and that’s all they’re into. So, I enjoyed it. I think that it’s definitely a melting pot of culture. It’s interesting if you’ve never been there especially being from a small town like Middleburg, where we’re from. We saw things we’d never seen before. Anywhere in New York, from going from section to section of the city, it’s amazing how different one side is compared to the other. So, I love New York. I don’t know what else to say other than that.
What was your favorite part of the city, then?
My favorite part is totally going to be… I really like museums and stuff, like specifically the one that we went to which was the space one, I guess you would call it? I don't know the name of it, because I can't remember it off the top of my head and I don't have it in front of me, but we're really into astronomy and all of that. There's that one area that's like a park and it has all these museums around it… I don't know what it's called, but that's my favorite area.
My favorite part is totally going to be… I really like museums and stuff, like specifically the one that we went to which was the space one, I guess you would call it? I don't know the name of it, because I can't remember it off the top of my head and I don't have it in front of me, but we're really into astronomy and all of that. There's that one area that's like a park and it has all these museums around it… I don't know what it's called, but that's my favorite area.
Did you go and visit Brooklyn?
Um—we stayed in Hoboken and in Manhattan, in Times Square. I've never really been to Brooklyn very much. I don't know much about Brooklyn.
Um—we stayed in Hoboken and in Manhattan, in Times Square. I've never really been to Brooklyn very much. I don't know much about Brooklyn.
You should visit Brooklyn!
No, I mean, there's definitely not anything I have against it! It's just I've never had any business there and I guess we've never had a chance to kind of go over there. I think one time I made a wrong turn and wound up there.
No, I mean, there's definitely not anything I have against it! It's just I've never had any business there and I guess we've never had a chance to kind of go over there. I think one time I made a wrong turn and wound up there.
Brooklyn's got a great music scene.
That's cool—we've never played any shows there. Maybe we should.
That's cool—we've never played any shows there. Maybe we should.
You mentioned that you came from Middleburg, FL. Did you all meet there?
Yeah. Me and Duke met in high school, and Joey and Elias met in high school, and Jon was the guy who'd played in every local band there was. I called him the band whore at the time. So it was kind of a situation where me and Duke had a band, Elias and Joey had a band, and our bands joined together, and then came Jon. And that was it. We just had a really good feeling about it.
Yeah. Me and Duke met in high school, and Joey and Elias met in high school, and Jon was the guy who'd played in every local band there was. I called him the band whore at the time. So it was kind of a situation where me and Duke had a band, Elias and Joey had a band, and our bands joined together, and then came Jon. And that was it. We just had a really good feeling about it.
How did being in small-town Florida help you develop as a band?
I think it was everything that we needed. I think we can attribute all of our success to that, because we did everything without anybody's help. We were from the middle of nowhere, and there wasn't anyone to help us. We didn't have money, we didn't have gear, we didn't have anything. Everything we had we worked our way up to from the bottom of the hill. Every time we played a show, we took all the money and recycled it back into the band. We just didn't have any other options other than to really do it ourselves, and I'm grateful that we did it that way. You know, nobody found us, I'm not a 14-year-old diva that others built a band around, and unfortunately a lot of other bands are like that. We're not like them; I'm proud of that.
I think it was everything that we needed. I think we can attribute all of our success to that, because we did everything without anybody's help. We were from the middle of nowhere, and there wasn't anyone to help us. We didn't have money, we didn't have gear, we didn't have anything. Everything we had we worked our way up to from the bottom of the hill. Every time we played a show, we took all the money and recycled it back into the band. We just didn't have any other options other than to really do it ourselves, and I'm grateful that we did it that way. You know, nobody found us, I'm not a 14-year-old diva that others built a band around, and unfortunately a lot of other bands are like that. We're not like them; I'm proud of that.
Could you talk about the album you're currently working on that's supposed to be released later this year?
Yeah, well, it's one of those situations where EMI, which is our actual label, is falling apart. There are many websites and articles all over the internet talking about how the state of the industry is pretty much chaos, and how EMI specifically is doing the worst out of everybody, so it's really a tough time for EMI. We're actually on the label of Capitol Music Group, which is owned by EMI, so basically we're one of the only bands to survive the actual merge. We were actually on Virgin Records, which doesn't even exist any more. A lot of people don't know that. So it's been causing a lot of problems in our career. We've done everything we could as far as the band is concerned to move forward, but because of our record contract, we can't record unless they allow us to, so all of our fans who want a new record and want to know why we haven't been working on us yet, that's because they haven't been giving us permission to. I don’t know what's going to happen. I don't even know if our label's going to exist in a year. We might have to wait a whole nother year before we can get into the studio. The record's written, we're ready to go into the studio, we wanted to go into the studio in January, but it couldn't be figured out. We'll see. You never really know what's going to happen. But hopefully what happens is we get into the studio and the album drops by the end of the year. That's extremely optimistic, though, because we've been dealing with this for a long time. We've been ready for a long time to get into the studio, all of our fans know that, they want to know why we're not in the studio, and most of them already know why, and there's nothing we can do about that. And a lot of bands are getting dropped by the label, really great bands, so we're lucky we still even exist. A lot of our friends don't even have jobs any more. But that doesn't affect my day-to-day life. I'm still in a band with my friends, and we're doing what we love.
Could you talk about your Guardian Angel Foundation?
Well, basically it's just something that we set up because we've done a lot of charity work throughout our career, and basically it's something that's pretty awesome. What we do now is anything we want, because we actually do control it now. This way we're actually helping individuals, as opposed to helping some gigantic organization, where a lot of the time it's also P.R.-based and you lose sight of what you were doing. So, what we did is started our own organization so that we can actually help real people, real families, throughout the country. We can do things that actually help people, themselves, rather than the middlemen getting all the money and laughing in the background.
Tell me a bit more about what your organization does.
Basically what we do is we use our music to raise money. There are a couple different things we've been raising awareness about. One was domestic violence, we've always been advocates against that; the other one was… basically, we find local volunteer fire departments that are underfunded and underprivileged, on an individual basis, and if we find one that we think needs help we do a concert or a theme show in the area and give them all the money, because they're volunteer firefighters and they deserve our support, and they're awesome. We also do—it's like VH1's Save the Music Foundation, only a lot more legitimate. What we've been doing is searching on the internet to find school orchestras, because most of our members were in orchestra—we're really big into orchestra and studying music in school, so we're searching right now for the first band that we're going to select and we're going to do a show in their town and they'll wind up getting thousands of dollars for new instruments and new band clothing that goes directly to the band department without even the school board being able to touch it.
Wow. Thank you so much for talking about that, and for talking about the tour and the band as well!
Thanks for the good questions. I appreciate it!
Yeah, well, it's one of those situations where EMI, which is our actual label, is falling apart. There are many websites and articles all over the internet talking about how the state of the industry is pretty much chaos, and how EMI specifically is doing the worst out of everybody, so it's really a tough time for EMI. We're actually on the label of Capitol Music Group, which is owned by EMI, so basically we're one of the only bands to survive the actual merge. We were actually on Virgin Records, which doesn't even exist any more. A lot of people don't know that. So it's been causing a lot of problems in our career. We've done everything we could as far as the band is concerned to move forward, but because of our record contract, we can't record unless they allow us to, so all of our fans who want a new record and want to know why we haven't been working on us yet, that's because they haven't been giving us permission to. I don’t know what's going to happen. I don't even know if our label's going to exist in a year. We might have to wait a whole nother year before we can get into the studio. The record's written, we're ready to go into the studio, we wanted to go into the studio in January, but it couldn't be figured out. We'll see. You never really know what's going to happen. But hopefully what happens is we get into the studio and the album drops by the end of the year. That's extremely optimistic, though, because we've been dealing with this for a long time. We've been ready for a long time to get into the studio, all of our fans know that, they want to know why we're not in the studio, and most of them already know why, and there's nothing we can do about that. And a lot of bands are getting dropped by the label, really great bands, so we're lucky we still even exist. A lot of our friends don't even have jobs any more. But that doesn't affect my day-to-day life. I'm still in a band with my friends, and we're doing what we love.
Could you talk about your Guardian Angel Foundation?
Well, basically it's just something that we set up because we've done a lot of charity work throughout our career, and basically it's something that's pretty awesome. What we do now is anything we want, because we actually do control it now. This way we're actually helping individuals, as opposed to helping some gigantic organization, where a lot of the time it's also P.R.-based and you lose sight of what you were doing. So, what we did is started our own organization so that we can actually help real people, real families, throughout the country. We can do things that actually help people, themselves, rather than the middlemen getting all the money and laughing in the background.
Tell me a bit more about what your organization does.
Basically what we do is we use our music to raise money. There are a couple different things we've been raising awareness about. One was domestic violence, we've always been advocates against that; the other one was… basically, we find local volunteer fire departments that are underfunded and underprivileged, on an individual basis, and if we find one that we think needs help we do a concert or a theme show in the area and give them all the money, because they're volunteer firefighters and they deserve our support, and they're awesome. We also do—it's like VH1's Save the Music Foundation, only a lot more legitimate. What we've been doing is searching on the internet to find school orchestras, because most of our members were in orchestra—we're really big into orchestra and studying music in school, so we're searching right now for the first band that we're going to select and we're going to do a show in their town and they'll wind up getting thousands of dollars for new instruments and new band clothing that goes directly to the band department without even the school board being able to touch it.
Wow. Thank you so much for talking about that, and for talking about the tour and the band as well!
Thanks for the good questions. I appreciate it!
Great stuff, no? I'll come clean: I still haven't rented Walk Hard (but I'm working on it!). I have, however, spent some time willing a NYC concert to spring up on their list of tour dates... to no avail, unfortunately. If the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus is making a tour stop near you, go ahead--take advantage of your location. In the meantime, check out their MySpace and their website.
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