Thursday, February 23, 2006

australia interview

1. What does the name 'Anberlin' mean? and where did you come up with it?
none of us are married, or have any children, but one day in the future i want to name my daughter anberlin. i don’t think that i can name her that now, because she would always assume that i named her after the band.
2. How did Anberlin begin?
three and a half years ago the 4 of us came together and decided that we wanted to pursue our dreams and passions and pursued music full time. i was still in college and we went to atlanta, georgia and recorded our demo with matt goldman. we shipped it off to various labels and got amazing response. we assessed all the contracts offered and realized tooth and nail gave us the biggest opportunity and fighting chance.
strayer (guitarist) joined us may of ‘05 and has made such a positive impact on our live show.
3. What are some of your greatest achievements?
i could say the international touring, to austraila, new zealand, scotland, whales, england, etc. or the amazing stateside tours we have been on with fallout boy, hawthorne heights, story of the year, my chemical romance, etc. or the album sales, but the greatest achievement i believe is taking a chance to pursue my dreams even though there have been some of the toughest moments of my life. the other crowning achievement of this band has been to walk into this band with a couple of friends and when we walk away, we will walk away brothers.
4. Stephen, you have an awesome voice! Did you take singing lessons at an
early age or does that shit come naturally?
honestly i believe i am the least talented person in the band, think about it a singer is born with his talents, sure you can improve on what you have, and develop new or different ways to warm up or down, but honestly you can either sing or you can’t. i have taken a couple lessons with sandra babbel, an amazing opera singer that now resides in kalowna, canada. but honestly i attribute being raised around music as the contributing factor in developing my range and style.
5. Do you think that it is important for all self taught musicians that want

to make it big to take a few lessons to improve their skills?
ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!!!! when you think you have ‘made it’ or think you have all the talent you need you are preparing yourself to be in a box, and can no longer develop what you have. i think at one point or another we have all (in anberlin) received lessons. if i could i would go and get more but we are never in one place for more than a couple days, so i can’t. but i think it is imperative to improve, evolve, and mature in whatever instrument you are learning. and don’t stick to just one genre of music to learn from and immolate. their is amazing blues like muddy waters, jazz like john coltrane and nina simone, folk like blue merele or union station, etc. don’t just listen to your peers in one genre or you will end up sounding like them.

6. What is the best tour you guys have done? where did you go? who do you
tour with? and what was the best memory of it?
every tour is amazing in its own way,
our first tour was with further seems forever and movielife, they taught us how to survive on the road and movielife taught us about how brotherhood in the band is so important. every story of the year tour has been so much fun, that band has shown us more kindness than any other for sure. i think our first tooth and nail tour was our biggest learning ground as we had to headline for our first time. each one is amazing in its own right. each one i would not give up, even the hardest of times.
7. Who influences you guys and where does your u
niqueness come from?
i think all 5 of us like 5 different types of music.
deon likes punk rock, joey likes metallica and alice in chains, strayer only listens to hard core, nate loves the beatles and brit pop, and i am into the smiths and instrumental stuff like circle of birds and godspeed. i think the advantage to listening to so many types of music is that our music doesn't sound like everyone else’s. we pull from a more broad background of inspirations, so we don’t sound like everyone else in our same category.
8. What would you consider to be the best invention that we have today?
cell phones. for bands it keeps us in contact with the outside world, but on this tour it has been so cold that i think the best invention was the car heater. as far as things on the road you shouldn’t do with out is an IPOD because CD’s get lost or messed up, and an apple laptop doesn’t hurt either.
9. Are the type of guys to befriend your fans?.. If a fan wanted to party
with you guys how would he/she win you over?
yea for sure, i love hanging out with fans. the easiest way to win us over is to pretend that you don’t care that were in a band. we get a ton of people asking for our autograph, but not many people ask if we just want to get a drink and hang out. talk about anything but band stuff and were cool.
joey and deon love cartoons, strayer loves movies (he owns over 400 dvd’s cause he worked at a video store), nate young likes rock climbing and lord of the rings, i love fashion, the stock market, and books, so talk to us about other stuff than just band gear, or if this person from this band is cool.
10. Where do you want Anberlin to go from here?
if we stooped today chantaine, i would be so happy. it has been a wonderful and amazing road that we have journeyed on, and the people i have met have been more than brilliant. the places we have been able to see are more than most people get to see in a lifetime! i feel honored and humbled that people from all over the world sing along with something i helped create.
so in other words, anything more than what i have done is truly just ‘icing on the cake,’ because life doesn’t get much better than this...

Friday, February 03, 2006

metal edge

1. What is the worst thing that ever happened to you onstage?
it was in montreal, canada not sure exactly which club but i can remember the second story layout quite well. we were finishing up a tour with the band further seems forever and movielife (our first tour ever) and were the first band to play that evening. the 2 monitors onstage were in a v shape and for some reason during the end of a song i reasoned that i could walk up one and come down the other. well in mid flight i learned i couldn’t. i came down flat on my face, BAM! and there is no way in the world to play that off. so since it was at the end of the song i stood up and asked how they say ‘you suck’ in french. the entire audience obliged and yelled out whatever it is ‘you suck’ is in french. we have yet to be back to montreal. coincidence? maybe.
2. What is currently in your CD player? circa survive, as a vocalist im attracted by unique and original vocals, i think anthony is onto something with circa survive. there is always led zeplin, trail of dead, and at the drive in close at hand lately.
3. What is the first thing you do after returning home from tour? have sex with my wife. ok, so im not married so since im single i guess take a cold shower and then make up for the days of sleep i know i will have missed.
4. What is the first thing you think about when waking up in the morning?
on tour: what day is it? what city are we in? who is she? grandma?
at home: i wish i were out on tour.
5. What is your favorite web site? i have a couple that i frequent such as postsecret.com its a web site were people write their darkest secrets and they send it in on a post card anonymous. kinda creepy but makes me feel normal. lowercasepeople.com a justice/art page. then i spend the other time updating my opinion page modesty.blogspot.com
6. What is your favorite record store (anywhere)?
oh man, i was just in this amazing record store in sydney australia where our drummer nate found a mint beatles white album, all the pictures were still in perfect condition. we love vinyl so in every town i am searching any second hand shop. but my favorite record store ever has to be matt’s downtown comics in winter haven, fl. sure the selection sucks and they probably have nothing that you want but they are who got me into the entire underground scene.
7. What is your favorite venue? the social in orlando, florida, because those shows i saw there as a kid are what inspired me to do what i am doing today. but i love house of blues/chicago, showbox/seattle, annandale/australia, glasshouse/anaheim, roseland ballroom/nyc, etc. i just love playing shows honestly so stick me in a hole in the wall bar in the middle of north dakota and i’ll have the time of my life.
8. What is your favorite video you have done? well we really only have one to this point (daylate) but are about to shoot a second video for paperthin hymn out in LA. with a gentlemen by the name of chris sims. get back to me in a couple of weeks and ill have a less one sided opinion.
9. Over time, have you had one quote from the press that truly sticks out (positive or negative)? negative quotes keep me up all night, i do searches online for ‘anberlin sucks’ ‘anberlin singer blows’ etc. i know its psychologically unstable on my part but i do it anyway. fortunately there isn't much there (because i buy the web site and shut them down). but positive i think the biggest compliment from the music industry came from college music journal (cmj) and after reviewing our first record they remarked that my voice sounded like john bunch (sensefield) meets morrissey, two of my favorite vocalist’s of all time. i was floored.
10. What is your favorite alcoholic drink? i love trying new beers... i tried to like anything else but there is nothing better out there than a good dark or wheat beer. in the northwest you need to try a beer called fat tire, in the kansas area try boulevard. in the northeast try yuengling, and in the south try blue moon w/orange. give me any type of wheat beer and call it a night. i once heard that in england somewhere there is a beer so dark it pours like syrup, that is my alternate quest in life, to find that beer.
11. What is your favorite food? well on the road its anywhere the bus stops, but at home where i can enjoy the finer foods in life like taco bell and subway.
12. Have you ever had a run-in with censorship? yea actually i have, it was pretty internal though. it was nothing i couldn’t have fought and won but honestly with the make up of the band and our label you really really need to pick your battles. if something is really not a big deal then why waste breath over it. i think over time i have built up trust with the guys @ toothandnail and now they trust me with whatever lyrical/tittle expression i come up with.
13. Have you ever caught yourself sleep walking? If so, what were you doing? nope, but we once toured with a band from tennessee and the bass player had night terrors. his two band mates would have to sleep on either side because he would stand up in his sleep, start yelling and just start running, right into walls! the first time i experienced it i didn’t know whether to be scared, laugh, or run and get a towel for the blood.
14. If you could abolish one law, what would it be? i think i would move the age of enlistment from 18 to 21, i mean there is no logic in the fact that you can die for your country but you can’t try wheat beer.

15. What is your favorite movie? no doubt fight club. sure the acting is good and all but the deeper meaning was pretty intense. how men have to care about worthless stuff in our society. the most important things to us now are tangible and egotistical. enough social commentary, it was an incredible movie.
16. What has been THE best concert you have attended? i think as far as crowd participation and overall entertainment it would have been andrew w.k. at furnace fest a couple years ago. he put on such an amazing show with literally 200 people on stage.
  but as far as a rush it would be a local band here in central florida called dennison mars. they broke up some time ago but there last cd release party was unbelievable, they had such an intense connection with the crowd, everyone felt like they were apart of the band, and that is a goal for a band- to make everyone feel apart of what the band is doing on stage and off.