MAR 2012

THE Q & A ISSUE:The first of 2012

LA DISPUTEDIRECT HIT!THE COPYRIGHTSLAURA STEVENSON

DEAD TO MEI AM THE AVALANCHEMURDER BY DEATHTHE BOMBPOPSJA

CKKN

IFE ZI

NE

Jackknife Zine alumni include Tigers Jaw, The

Menzingers, Bomb The Music Industry, Defiance Ohio,

Against Me!, Teenage Bottlerocket, Frank Turner, Off With

Their Heads, Cobra Skulls, Lucero, Set Your Goals, The

Story So Far, Bridge And Tunnel, Make Do And Mend.

If you would like to contribute to the zine or be interviewed

email new_noise04@yahoo.com.au

Brendan Hitchens

Domesplitter doubles as both a ‘best-of album’ and a debut record. Do you think re-recording older songs rejuvenated not just the songs, but also the band, particularly given the various line up changes?I guess the songs were probably rejuvenated for everyone who had been listening to DH#1-5. But to be honest, it wasn't that big of a change for us. We'd been playing those tunes the way they ended up on Domesplitter with that lineup for probably the previous year and a half. We re-recorded them because they'd evolved since we had originally laid them down because Danny and Robbie joined the band.

Direct Hit! seem to be a real fans band. By that I mean the fans chose the track listing of Domesplitter and funded the album via donations through the kick-starter website. Your YouTube clips are brilliant and your music is so accessible because of digital releases. Have you found through this you have a greater connection to fans across the world and aren’t limited by geography?Oh, for sure. I don't think we'd have any connection to anyone outside of the Midwest if we hadn't done stuff that way. We don't tour much because all of us have real-life shit to take care of at home like career-jobs and fiancees. So we can't really do the same stuff yet that most other bands do, just climb in a van and meet people on the road. I think that helps us focus on writing good music though, instead of putting gas in a tank and making money.

On that, you ultimately let fans choose the track listing of the album. Where there any songs that were out of bounds?Nah, not really. We were ready to re-record anything that people wanted.

I’m really fascinated with the idea of digital releases where fans can pay as little or much as they want for a recording. It must risk being counterproductive though, where - say for the sake of an example, people in Europe hear your music and want you to tour there, but conversely the record hasn’t made enough money to get you there...Nobody interested in our band wants to pay money for digital versions of our music, so we'll pretty much take whatever someone wants to give us for that stuff. The way I see it, people are smart enough to know that if we aren't making enough cash to buy plane tickets or put gas in our tank, they won't get to see us play. And sometimes, that's enough for someone to tell all of their friends to download our record and donate a few bucks so we know that it's worth driving 10 hours to go hang out. In the meantime, we don't turn anyone away that isn't as excited - We're psyched there are people that even give half a shit. Keeping a band rolling in 2011 means not being picky. The beauty of a split release is that it provides a gateway to other similar and like minded bands. Take your split with Mixtapes for example. That was the first time I had heard of them, and since then I have gone back and discovered their previous albums. Have you found that teaming up with bands like Mixtapes, Tit Patrol and Jetty Boys has exposed you to a whole new audience? Oh of course. That split with Mixtapes especially, because they're a lot more popular than us, and work a lot harder. But that's not really our mentality when we put out a record with another band - We do it because we like releasing music with our friends better than just on our own. It gives us an excuse to get people to listen to the folks we care about, in a way that proves we aren't just kissing another group's ass for scene cred or something.

The Ramones is an obvious influence, but what kind of inspiration do you draw from The Thermals and Andrew WK?Pretty much our whole attitude is ripped off from Andrew WK, and I'm constantly trying to figure out ways to make our songs sound as big and heavy and overwhelming as his.

"I Get Wet" is probably my favourite album. The Thermals, at least for a period, I think managed to match that same kind of energy without all of the production that AWK has though, which has always really impressed me. Both of those bands make me just wanna get up and do everything. I want Direct Hit to do the same thing for people that listen to us.

I read that tours for the band are sparse because you all hold down full time jobs including an Emergency Medical Technician. Given that Direct Hit! are such a fun band, would you say it operates as almost an outlet from your 9-5. Absolutely! We play music because we like playing music, and that's pretty much it. DH doesn't pay the bills. Like, at all. We're no different than any other small band that doesn't have investors and backing and shit like that. It's pretty much the opposite of what we all do for a living.

Direct Hit! don’t exist as a business, and almost operate outside of the music industry and any kind of scene. I’ve heard you say that as soon as it becomes a job, the band will cease. Looking to the future, or 2012 at least, what are the ambitions for the band? When can we expect a follow up to Domesplitter? We have a couple of splits coming out in the late winter and spring. So we'll be busy with that, and then we're going to Europe for three weeks once those are all set. Not real sure when the next album's coming out though... We're demoing a bunch of new songs in a couple weeks, but half of them will probably end up sounding like shit, and we'll have to write a lot more. We're not going to put out anything that sucks. So it might be in 6 months, it might be in 10 years. Who knows.

interview with Nick

The name of the band comes from a movie, and your sound is often described as cinematic. Recently Tarantino even used your song in a trailer for Inglorious Bastards. How much does film and literature influence the music and song writing of Murder By Death?More that other musicians do, really. We have always tried to take an approach to writing songs that's similar to how you'd do a short story or film. We put our records together to have definite arcs, so that you can listen to the whole record and get a sense of completion when its done. I'm a pretty avid reader and like to write songs that take the listener somewhere. I love to travel, and travel and movement are definitely themes that crop up in the songs.

There’s almost a world-music vibe to Murder By Death, particularly the instrumentation.  Having visited places like Alaska, Greece, Norway and Italy, do the cultures of those destinations motivate you to experiment further with new sounds? Funny, i guess i was just starting to talk about that. I guess we just love much of what the world has to offer, and if there's a way to work in a cool rhythm from a different country without making the song suffer, its fun to do! Having been playing together for 11 years we want to keep it interesting for us as well as the listener and if there's a way to utilize unique sounds that makes it more fun for us.  I read on the Internet that Geoff Rickly of Thursday discovered Murder By Death- accidentally when you played at an

anarchist bookstore in Bloomington. He then hooked you up with Eyeball records, who then put out your first few albums. How much of that story is true?Yeah that's pretty much it. We were playing a show at a bookstore in our hometown in Bloomington, and there was a small band from New Jersey that had a cancelled gig. I got a call asking if they could jump on the bill, and I said sure why not? They were nice guys, and though our music was very different, Geoff seemed to like us! They came back to town 6 months later and were super famous, and offered to finance our making a record. At the time, we hadn't even considered trying to be a real band, but they basically gave us the confidence, label, and initial $2000 bucks to make a record!  Scott Brackett, formerly of Okkervil River, has been added to the line up. What does he bring to the band?Scott is a really talented dude, and in MBD he is playing piano, accordion, percussion, trumpet, mandolin, theramin and singing backups. It has opened a ton of doors for us, and the songs we have all written together for the record we are about to record (starting in two days!) are much better for it. He is also a great songwriter and has been good to have around to help with opinions on the songs.

The song writing for Good Morning, Magpie saw you journey to the woods of the Tennessee Mountains to write in solitude. How has the song writing process worked for the upcoming album?I write best when I'm alone, so the songs were all started in that context, some when I

was working on the cabin I built in my yard. Then, starting in May, we got together in the basement and started rehearsing. We have never worked so many hours, written so many songs, or tried so damn hard as for this one.  You have announced that John Congleton will be producing the new record. Given that he was worked with artists including Explosions In The Sky, The Polyphonic Spree, Mountain Goats and Astronautalis, is there a particular record of his that will guide the sound and direction you’re after?What I like about Congleton is the way he mixes. Its very adventurous. I want him to do dramatic sweeps where one instrument is buried during the verse and then leaps out during the bridge or chorus. Despite some bands he works with having different sounds than us, I figured he will shine with our eclectic style. For our heavier moments bands he was worked with like Black Mountain make some sense production wise, for our sadder-dreamier moments the St Vincent records are a good reference. For our bass player Matt's style, the Explosions in the Sky records. Also it doesn't hurt that he is excited about the project. 

The band has existed for over a decade and there’s even a box set out with 105 songs in it. How will you approach coming up with the Australian set list?The first night will be interesting. I imagine we need to play a couple songs from each of our records. There are people who have waited a long time for this tour (us too!) and we wanna give em a big show!

interview with Adam

Growing up in Southern California in the 90’s, how much did the sounds of Fat Wreck and Epitaph bands, and particularly the ‘skate-punk’ movement, have in inspiring you to take up music?Fat and Epitaph bands have inspired all of us individually, and every one of us brings that influence to the band, which is perfect! We're all So Cal natives, so I think for us that sound naturally comes into play when we write songs. On that, you will soon be doing an extensive tour with NOFX. Having already supported the likes of Bad Religion and The Adolescents, how do you approach such a massive show?Before we arrive at these shows the anticipation is pretty intense! And by anticipation I mean excitement. These are bands that have been around before we were even born. It's a crazy feeling knowing that you're going to be opening for your favourite band of all time, but it truly feels like it is something we are meant to do. When we approach it in that sense, like it is something we were destined for, it's the best feeling in the world. And these shows mean so much to us that we really live it up, just be ourselves and try to embrace it all. Musically pop-punk is at the core of The Bombpops sound and what I find fascinating is how you manage to flawlessly blend the many generations of the genre into a definitive and relevant sound. By that I mean incorporating influences of everything from The Ramones to The Descendents to Saves The Day. Do you find you have a wide audience because of this cross-appeal?I think we have a cross appeal to a certain extent and a lot people that like

our band definitely find a little bit of that in our music. As far as shows go, we are able to play for a broad audience and have played along side old school punk bands, pop punk bands, hardcore bands, ska bands and even metal bands. We are a punk band but it's really fun to be able to appeal to other audiences as well. The band formed in 2008 when some of you were still in high school. Four years on, do you have time to hold down jobs and study between band commitments? At the time Poli was still in High School, and I had graduated a few years prior and was going to college. We have always worked hard to fund the band. Anyone who plays in a band, knows it's expensive. I would say we work to live and play in this band. Both us work for companies that value us as employees and we've been really fortunate with that. I mean they've let us take off lots of time to tour. We've pretty much made this band our main commitment over the past few years and it will always come first for us. You've recently released your second EP, Stole the TV on Red Scare. At just four tracks, what can you tell us about the release? What was the song writing process like? It's fast! Really fast. In a nutshell the songs are about growing up, relationships gone wrong and the eagerness to set out and break free from the everyday routine. Poli and I both contribute equally to the song writing. Either I'll write the majority of a song and she'll add to it, or she'll write the majority of a song and I'll add to it. Sometimes we'll sit down together and write a whole song together and come up with lyrics together. Once we have most of the song written we show them

to the guys and we go from there with the bass and drums. The EP was recorded at Double Time Studios in San Diego, the same place that Blink 182 recorded their debut album Buddha. Was that a reference point to the sound you were after? That album wasn't exactly a reference point to the sound we were after, but growing up in San Diego Blink 182 has definitely been influential. Jeff Forrest, the engineer at Double Time Studios, has done some incredible work with a lot of San Diego bands that have done well. He is pretty much the go-to guy for a great sounding record in San Diego. You alluded to it with a post on your facebook page, but how do you react to inane comments that write you off for being a female fronted band in a male dominated industry?We just find it funny. We have a perverted, disgusting sense of humor anyways so we always get a laugh out of it. If you read an outlet like PunkNews.org, you’ll find all of those ridiculous/sexist/ignorant comments posted about female fronted bands. We get a kick out of it because in the real life, on the road, playing shows with other touring bands as well as playing shows with punk rock legends like Bad Religion and NOFX, we’ve gotten to meet the real people behind the music. And they don’t talk that way or interact with us that way; they respect us and treat us like equals because we are equal. But all the nerds at home on their computers commenting on our appearance or bra size, via their jizz-encrusted keyboards because they don’t have girlfriends and their bands don’t do shit, seem to think differently...so we just find it funny.

!

For the entire first month after

its release, you made Sit Resist, a free download on your website.

How come?We wanted to celebrate its release; let our fans enjoy it for free for a month, not having to worry about obtaining it illegally if they couldn't afford to buy it. We did that with our first record A Record, and it was important to us to do it again. If people want it, they'll download it. Simple as that. But if they want to support you, they'll come to a show or buy a copy of your record or even spread the word to their friends. Our fans are awesome and really want to help us keep making music so, they get it.

Bomb The Music Industry are one of the most forward

thinking and progressive bands going around. What have you

taken away from your time in the band and used in this project?

Jeff's point-of-view on a lot of things (not even just making music) has influenced my life so much. But he definitely taught me about what it was to be in a band and how to do it so that everyone is happy and fans are happy and no one gets shit on.

Your album has featured in countless magazine and website

end of year lists, including that of punknews.org. What is it, do

you think, that connects you to the punk scene?We don't sound like a punk band but that's where we all come from. We're all really close friends with a lot of the other bands that punknews covers who ARE actually punk bands, and we play a lot of shows with those bands and go on tours with them, so... I guess it was easy to squeeze us in.

How did you initially assemble

the line up that is now known as The Cans? (Were you a fan of Latterman?)

Well, Alex and I met in Boston in like, 2004 or 2005 or something likethat. And Mike and I worked at a rock summer camp in 2007 so, we kind of got together there and the 3 of us would play together and work on arranging songs that I had written. Then we decided to make a record and assembled a rag-tag group. That had several permutations and then... we ended up getting Peter to fill in for a tour on guitar and he became a permanent Can. Dave, the drummer, joined about a year agoand that's the line-up we have now. I had known of Latterman and went to a house show out east on Long Island where I probably met Mike several years earlier... like, 2001 or 2002 or something. So, yeah I knew of them but I was still going to nerdy ska shows primarily at the time. I just went to all their reunion shows last month and, I'm bummed I missed out on seeing them all the time as a teenager. Theywere amazing.

!

You list bands like The Weakerthans,

Built to Spill and Beirut as influences, but listening to the

instrumentation and structure of the songs the music seems to transcend most contemporary bands. To me it’s

everything from early folk, to Americana to 60’s bands like The

Ronettes. I know you come from a musical background, so what kind of artists and genres filled your

formative years?Let's see... my formative years were spent playing classical music and listening to The Beatles as a little kid, I started listening toGreenday and Nirvana in 5th grade, then I moved on to ska and punk bands in middle school and high school. It was kind of a normal progression for a kid growing up in the 90's. It wasn't until late high school/early college that I started moving past that and listening to quieter, more introspective music.

Lyrically the album follows a first person narrative that is at timesjoyous whilst other times sad and

despondent, something that QuoteUnquote records summed up

perfectly when they said, “the band will.. make you smile or crush your soul depending on your current level

of sadness.” What state of mind do

you need to be in to write best?I'm always alone and usually depressed when I'm writing. That's just the time that I feel the most creative energy, when I have no energy to do anything else. I can write when I'm feeling happy or feeling nothing but sad usually makes for better work... which sucks but at least something good comes out of it. I just read a review of Sit Resist the other day and the reviewer thought that the record was a concept album about a relationship that was falling apart. They interpreted every song as if I was writing about my dependency on arelationship with a man which really pissed me off. The songs are always written as me speaking directly to someone else but many of them are me speaking to myself, or my mother, or my father, or afriend... they're not all love songs.

Do you get the same cathartic feeling

performing a song live as youget writing it?Maybe not the same exact feeling but it is definitely cathartic to play it live. When I play a song it doesn't transport me right back to the moment when it was written and exactly how I felt because everyday you're a different person. It does make me think about where Iwas and how I've changed since then... for better or for worse.

You toured the record extensively last year, playing shows in farreaching destinations as Hamburg, Berlin, Zeurich, Prague, Amsterdamand Vienna. What was it like taking the band outside of America forthe first time?It was really exciting being able to do it full band. The year before, Mike and I went over with two acoustic guitars and played abunch of shows in the UK and mainland Europe, but it was great to get everyone over there, fly on a plane together (they all got to see how terrified I get), and drive a van with a stick-shift (which none of us could do) as far east as Slovakia. The last day we were there we werealready making plans to come back.

How did the writing process for North Sentinel Island come about? Given it was a few years in the making did it start with the title and samples and then the songs or vice versa? No I wrote the songs first, but while in the songwriting process, I started becoming interested in uncontacted tribes and came across North Sentinel Island.  I thought it was really interesting, the dichotomy of living isolated on a beautiful tropical island, while at the same time not knowing anything about the world outside of those few square miles.  There's good and bad in it, and I realized a lot of the songs I'd been writing fit into applicable general themes, like isolation, discouragement with the modern world, and looking for the last bit of wilderness, in the world or in your life.

North Sentinel Island has a real cohesiveness to it. Do you approach writing for an album any differently to writing songs for an EP or a split release? Yeah I definitely think of the LP as the ultimate form of music still.  It's probably an outdated medium now in this digital age, but that's what I grew up listening to, and so when I write for an album I definitely have cohesiveness in the back or front of my mind always.  EPs and splits, that's sometimes not the case.

The album s press release sums it up nicely when it says, they continue to define and redefine the genre with each successive album. You’ve been lauded for your consistency, but is it challenging to create something consistent, without being repetitive?  Of course, and we'll always have criticisms of songs being repetitive or "they all sound the same," because, in the grand scheme of things, they do!  They're all melodic punk-rock songs, mostly major-key, with guitar, drum, and bass instrumentation.  However,

as with anything else, wine, cigars, or symphonies, the more time you spend with a genre, the more discerning tastes you develop.  We all really like the challenge of trying to develop fresh and exciting songs in a genre with such tight and constrained aesthetic boundaries, and we like trying to push those boundaries a little too.  Hopefully we succeed sometimes.

I read that you did three different sessions of demos for the album yourselves, using four track recorders and laptops. Have you ever considered self recording or producing a release?Yeah, I actually did self-record and produce Learn The Hard Way, Mutiny Pop, and We Didn't Come Here to Die.  Adam always co-produces too.  It's always fun to record it myself, but it's always a lot more stress.  Second-guessing every decision.  

Matt Allison who also produced the album did a great job on not just this album but Dead To Me sMoscow Penny Ante, The Menzinger s Chamberlain Waits and This Sinking Ship by Smoke Or Fire to name only a few. Being your fifth full-length now, does the recording process becoming easier, particularly knowing the sound you are after?Yeah it's always easy with Matt.  He always gets great tones, and one of his best qualities is really putting the band at ease in the recording environment.  It's a pretty stressful thing by nature, but it's really easy to record with Matt.  We're really lucky that he buddied up to us.  Great guy.  I also have to say that Mass Giorgini taught us a lot about the recording process too.  We recorded 3 records at his Sonic Iguana studios, and I actually worked there for 3 years too.  He's also an amazing producer and a great friend. When the band started out the premise was simple; to play Screeching Weasel inspired music. How much of an influence did they play on The Copyrights, especially because you re both from Illinois? I would say Screeching Weasel were me and Adam's favorite band when we were in high school.  I loved that the songs were catchy, with familiar chords and progression, but also that the lyrics were introspective and clever, and the spin that Ben put on punk rock was new and energetic and exciting.  As time went on and the circles of friends between Ben and us got smaller, we sort of had a few run-ins online and, I would say we are definitely not on friendly terms now,

but yeah, you can't deny the songs he wrote and the influence he had on tons of punk rock bands, a lot of which are better than us.

With two members being in both Dear Landlord and The Copyrights how do you find time to tour, perform and above all write songs?  I think with both Dear Landlord and the Copyrights, songs are kind of written by one person and then introduced to the band, so writing isn't that big of challenge.  As far as touring, me and Jeff from the Copys have full-time regular jobs, but we're lucky enough to be able to tour at points throughout the year.  So, we usually try to either tour the US and Canada or Europe at least once a year.  The two bands just have to make sure the other isn't touring at the same time.  Actually, we probably should tour at the same time.  It would make more sense, haha.

Red Scare is and has been the home to so many great bands, including Teenage Bottlerocket, The Menzingers and Cobra Skulls. Since the release of North Sentinel Island have there been any approaches from other labels?A few labels showed interest in North Sentinel Island, but none that we would have picked over Red Scare.  It would have had to have been a huge label (or huge in our minds) like Fat or Epitaph for us to not do it with Toby.  He's a good friend and has supported us for many years.  We're also lucky that bigger bands like TBR and the Zingers and Cobra Skulls actually MAKE Toby money so he can afford to lose money on our dumb asses!

You recently played at Riot Fest in Chicago with bands like The Descendants, Social Distortion, Weezer and Danzig. If there was one current band you could share the stage with, who would it be?Well, Dillinger Four comes to mind, but we already played The Triple Rock with them, which was definitely one of my highlights of playing music ever.  As far as bands we've never played with, I would say maybe Fucked Up?

The overall theme of the record seems to be that of travel. Are there plans to tour this record overseas? Perhaps Australia?We're going to Europe in April-May 2012.  Australia would be AWESOME.  Make it happen dude!

S E Q U O I A C L U B

Fat Wreck have referred to Dead To Me as an inspired art collective, listing influences  as Brit rock, graffiti, Slavic prison tattoos, Midwestern punk, reggae, Day of the Dead iconography, old school hip-hop and modern American History. Aside from visually, how does this inspire the music of the band?We are influenced by the spirit of the above mentioned in may ways, but I think the one thread they have in common is a sense of Do It Yourself ethics. When people make a decision to create and exchange their own art/music/ideas, it is far more inspiring to us than people that complain and whine about how terrible things are and do absolutely nothing about it. We believe in creating a culture of creativity and positivity.

The newest incarnation of Dead To Me features members of New Mexican Disaster Squad and Western Addiction. Are those two bands still active?They aren't active, but they never broke up either. NMDS will play some shows in the future, I'm sure of it. Western Addiction would love to play some shows, but our singer Jason is raising two kids right now and our drummer Chad works at Fat Wreck Chords, and Ken and I are touring in Dead To Me constantly. So it's hard for us to all make time and get it together, but here's to hoping!

Bringing in two new members in to the band for the recording what were your initial instructions and expectations? Was it to avoid simply mirroring what had been done in the past?It's impossible to mirror what we have done in the past when you get two new dudes in the band, so I wasn't worried about that at all. I just let them be themselves and contribute to the songs and direction of our band. I have no interest in running a totalitarian regime as it were, which is one of the reasons it was such a gift to get two awesome guitar players that just happened to be some of my best homies. 

You worked at Fat Wrecks for six years. Do you think that has shaped the way you view the music industry?It definitely has. I've seen how a label is run, how it operates and works with it's bands, and I've also been in bands on a label(still am, actually). It's interesting to see how the music industry itself is run, like how CDs and

LP's are made, how merch gets made, and even like how bands get paid, how bands get promoted, how bands get on the radio and tv, how bands go on tour. All those things. So it is really cool to get a varying perspective on a very respected, well run punk rock record label. 

You’ve described Moscow Penne Ante as more straight forward and cohesive than African Elephants. Do you think the reggae/ska influences will creep back into future songs?For sure! We love reggae music and it is a huge influence on us. We also love that fact that fans can't pinpoint our sound, so throwing in some different sounding songs is a good way to accomplish that we've noticed.

Moscow Penny Ante has been met with rave reviews, particularly from the folk at Punknews.org. It must be validating knowing that the efforts and being somewhat rewarded?It's flattering for sure when people say nice things about our band, but we never pay too much attention it. We write the songs for us, and as long we like them we keep them. It's great that it turns out that other people like them as well, but I can't write music with their opinion in mind. My brain doesn't work like that.

The band will be coming to Australia for the first time shortly. What kind of set list can fans expect?We play a mix of all the records, we might throw in a cover song here and there... I'm really hoping Cobra Skulls and Dead To Me can do a collaboration song or two on that tour as well. That would be awesome.

What are you looking forward to most about visiting Australia? Have you heard any Australian bands?We played with Death In The Family here in the states and they are a great band, and very good dudes. I'm really looking forward to experiencing your culture and seeing as much as possible while we are there. I never thought I would be able to go to Australia, so I'm super excited. I can't wait to touch the Indian Ocean, thats a big deal to me and I'm also looking forward to eating lots of Aussie food. Whatever that may be.

Avalanche United came out six years after its predecessor, due in part to touring solidly for three years. Is the plan to tour this record as relentlessly? Yes our entire life will be touring from here to the foreseeable future. We will break next winter to record a new record and do it all over again.

When you first came to Australia in 2009 you debuted many of the songs that since went on to be recorded for Avalanche United. Does crowd reaction play a role in selecting what tracks make your albums? Yes, but our crowd and our band generally agree and know what songs are weaker and stronger. We will probably not play as many new songs before we record the next record. We would like for some things to remain a surprise.

It must be exciting to now play those songs again, and having the audience more familiar with them? The crowd reaction for the new record is already stronger than that of the old record. It's really catching on, and it gives us confidence that we're going in the right direction.

I’ll Be Back Around addresses anxiety disorders. How hard is it to cope with such an illness, especially spending so much time on the road and in foreign places? Sleeping is extremely important. When I'm deprived of sleep is when I seem more likely to have an attack. So sometimes it's very difficult for me to tour, but playing a show every single night is extremely helpful in leveling me out.

Having fronted late 90s band The Movielife, how do you rate the current influx of pop-punk bands, many of whom will be playing at Soundwave?

It's nice to hear these bands say they were influenced by bands I've been a part of. I think that's really cool. As long as your music means something and there's a level of sincerity on stage, then I respect you.

There’s a definite nostalgic factor to this year’s Soundwave line up, with artists like Limp Bizkit, Bush and Marilyn Manson. It seems to be a trend from promoters to book older bands these days, or even have bands reform to play at festivals. I know The Movilelife played at the Bamboozle festival last year, but do you still get offers from festivals asking you to play? There have been offers for The Movielife to play more shows, but The Movielife will never play another show ever again. Money isn't everything. I Am The Avalanche means everything.

You often play acoustic shows where you sing and play guitar. Do you ever play guitar with the full band and do you play on the recordings?I write a lot of the music for I Am The Avalanche, so I play guitar when we're jamming on the new music. Once the band has a hold of one of my songs, then I put the guitar down. I played guitar on the first record but have since bowed out to concentrate on singing in the stuido. I haven't played guitar on stage with I Am The Avalanche in years. 

I noticed in the press shots a few of you wearing Fred Perrys. The band logo is derived from a football emblem and of course the word United is in the album’s title. Are you guys fans of football(soccer)?I've played my entire life and love it with all my heart. I support Liverpool FC but generally watch as much English football as I can on TV regardless of the team. 

You first toured Australia in 2009 playing mostly all ages shows in warehouses and rehearsal studios. Two years later you returned playing slightly larger venues and to larger crowds. Skip to 2012 and you’re now selling out shows. It must feel rewarding knowing that you’ve built a fan base on the other side of the world from the ground up, and done so organically?

Absolutely. The fact that we've been able to come here at all and to play for anybody is incredibly rewarding, and to see exponential growth each time we've returned is a pretty astounding and encouraging thing for us, without a doubt, especially considering the manner in which we've been able to tour here. In a lot of ways, the terms on which this tour came about aren't so far off from the ones present during the first tour with did in 2009 with To The North, even if the venues have grown and the attendance has gone up. We've still been able to do all ages shows, we've still been able to keep ticket prices reasonable and venues intimate, and we've still been able to play with bands we enjoy and respect (thanks Resist, for making that all possible, of course). To tour successfully on the opposite side of the world is a fantastic and humbling thing, and to be able to do so without compromising your values makes it that much more satisfying.

Your music resonates worldwide, but it seems Australian fans were amongst the first to catch on. Is that a fair observation?

I think so, yeah, but it's a little difficult to discern. When we first came here it was very DIY, kind of on a whim, and set up exclusively through the internet, but To The North really went above and beyond the call of duty booking and promoting the tour, and it definitely showed. They sent out records, flyers, printed shirts, got a hold of radio stations, etc. and it paid off. In some ways I still think it's that groundwork that has made Australia what it is to us. In the States, of course, we had already been touring for a bit, but as far as international 'markets', Australia was definitely the first to start really paying attention to us. Germany, second.

With the influx in popularity obviously comes record labels, publicists and promoters. Is it hard sometimes not getting caught up in the ‘industry’ side of things?

Not for us, at least not to this point. If you stand hard by what you believe and surround yourself with people who appreciate and respect that it's easy to filter out those with ulterior motives and less-than-ideal intentions. And the more you exist in this world the more you realize that not every 'industry' person is out to get you. In point of fact, some function on the exact same level as you. The trick is to be careful and discerning, and to keep everything as close to

you as possible. We've been fortunate enough to work with people that value the same things, and that work with us to stay true to those things.

I watched the live clip from a show in Michigan where you covered Repeater. How much have Fugazi inspired La Dispute, not just musically but the ethos of how the band operates?

Up until about a year or two ago I don't think anyone but a couple of us listened to Fugazi, really, and some of us still don't except for maybe casually (which I don't say in a negative way). I only mention that because it segues into my actual answer. One of my favorite things about our band is that for the most part we all listen to very different things. There's crossover, for sure, and when you spend as much time together as we do you share things, but we're all pretty different people with pretty different tastes who grew up all in pretty different environments. It's part of what makes our band our band, or at least I like to think so. We've never sat down and tried to make our band sound a specific way, it's always just came together this way, as a combination of our 5 personalities. As for the ethical side of it, Fugazi in a lot of ways set the standard for punk and hardcore bands who care about their music as more than just music and I think there's a lasting influence in the community at large, but we've never sat down to follow the handbook, so to speak. More than anything, I think, we're just a product of our environment and of our upbringing as a band. If Fugazi impacted either of those things in anyway, than I guess we've been affected too, but it was never deliberate.

The day after Christmas the bands entire discography, Wildlife included, was made available online as a pay-as-you-feel download for 24 hours, with all proceeds going to your chosen charity, 826 Michigan. What was the outcome of this great endeavour?

Fantastic, although I don't have the numbers at hand. People gave generously to a great cause and the record ended up on a lot of people's hard drives in a quality format. And it's not the end of our partnership, we've got another thing with 826 coming up very shortly. Of course, we're excited. Details to come.

826 is a non-profit organisation supporting young people with writing skills. On that topic, it seems literature, poetry and indeed words make up such a large dimension of what the band is about. When did you first become interested in writing, be it for self expression, an art form or both?

I would expand literature and words to art in general. The writing is only one fraction of the band as a whole, and my bandmates are as much as committed to the integrity of their branch of our band as I am to mine. As for my part of it, I've been interested in writing since I was a little kid and first fell in love with reading. It's never really left me since and I don't suspect it ever will. As a general rule, I write more often for the art form than for personal expression, although the two intersect at times inevitably. My favorite part about writing is the ordering of words, the aesthetic appeal of it when done just the right way, but again, it's more than one thing.

Wildlife is a thematic record, separating its stories/songs into four monologues. Is it a struggle to merge something so honest and personal with something conceptual?

Not really, no. The concept of the record itself allowed for it, in some ways. By which I mean that part of the initial reasoning for the concept itself was to allow for both things to coexist. We wanted it to be personal and emotional, and we wanted it to take a step outside of that to tell other people's stories. Any place where they intersected was natural and in large part unintentional.

How much of your song writing is built upon real life stories and experiences and how much is fictionalised?

I would say the bulk of it is based on real life even when it's fictionalised. Which is to say a lot of the songs on this record are based very specifically on true events, and the ones that aren't were fabricated deliberately to capture a true emotion or idea, something that I felt or we felt or the character felt at the time of writing.

There’s a real haunting beauty to your lyricism, particularly the track King Park and the line, ‘how senseless death, how precious life.’ It’s full of pain and reads like a eulogy, yet oddly there’s something underlying that makes it so captivating. Is it hard performing songs like this live?

Sometimes, but in this instance I can't really say because we haven't yet played 'King Park' live. Generally, it's harder writing and recording the songs than it is playing them live because you really have to step into the songs to capture them effectively, but some nights playing live can be difficult as well, depending a number of things.

You’re part of a close knit group of bands dubbed The Wave which includes Make Do And Mend, Pianos Become The Teeth, Defeater and Touche Amore. I know that there are people here in Australia who are now aware of those bands simply because of your affiliation with them, so who are some other bands people in Australia should become familiar with?

The Wave was an inside joke among friends that got taken way too far, at times by people involved and oftentimes by the internet and press. I guess if there are people that heard those bands through us than it hasn't been all bad, but for the most part it's gotten completely misinterpreted. If we belong to any group it's a much larger and much more diverse network of friends than just us and the four bands listed, which I guess is what you want me to list, which I'll gladly do. Just a few: Former Thieves, Native, Loma Prieta, Hostage Calm, All Teeth, Radiator Hospital, Death Is Not Glamorous, the list is endless. Also, there's a lot of Australian bands that we're friends with that people may unfortunately be unaware of, so here's my second list: Quiet Steps, Hira Hira, Infinite Void, Mere Women, Make More, Little Shadow, Palisades, etc. I could make a longer list. There are so many talented people alive.

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