Interviews

Underoath

Interview with Tim on May 24, 2004 by Archive Bot

Nina: First and foremost, I want to talk about the new music you guys have been releasing. In comparison to your old style, a lot of your fans believe you are now changing just to hit it big and create music that is popular in today’s scene. How do you support yourselves in defense of such statements? How can you possibly begin to explain how important it is for a band to have such diverse sounds and not stick to one specific genre?  
 
Tim: Well for us, we’ve grown up together. I mean, when the band first started I think that Aaron was around the age of 14, so we’ve been together for awhile. It’s only natural for people to go through changes with their opinions and their tastes, and music is no different. If you were to look at your CD collection from ten years ago, you would probably be surprised to see half of what was in there. Music is always evolving, and bands are always out there trying to do something different. It’s really inevitable with all of our member changes, so we really just do what we want with the music. We like to jump around and try different things out just to find something that works. We could mess around on a song for weeks and not find something we like. I think if you were to stick with the same sound, the band wouldn’t improve at all. If you try new things out and experiment with the band, then you can grow together and evolve together. In my opinion, bands that don’t change are just repeating what they’ve already produced. Who wants to listen to the same sounding songs on each album? There are some bands that just stay the same and remain where they’ve always been, and never really go anywhere. I think that change is vital if you want to be successful and appeal to the masses. Throughout everything, you just need to remain true to yourself. It seems like people want us to play metal, but we really don’t want to play that anymore. It’s not who we are right now. With all of the member changes, honestly, no one even knows how to play that stuff anymore. We would have to go back and re-teach it all, and I would even have to re-learn it. It’s especially hard to stick to the same sound when the people that influenced the metal sound aren’t in the group anymore, because I don’t know how to write metal music, and I don’t think anyone else in the band does either. We could throw something together I’m sure, but it definitely wouldn’t be as good as what these kids are looking for. As far as selling out goes, if we were to play metal, I would say we were selling out. We would just be playing what the kids want to hear, and not that that’s a bad thing, but you also need to do things for yourself sometimes, and just stick to your instincts, and sometimes you just need to stop caring about what everyone else thinks. If kids don’t like us because we’re not putting out the metal sound anymore, that’s just fine, but I think a lot of kids might still stick around even with the changes that are happening.      
 
Nina: Again, with the ever changing line up and sound, do you ever consider it to be dangerous for the band? Obviously you have managed to survive, but what are some of the difficulties you’ve come across through all the changes? Do you just do what feels right and hope it works out, or do you contemplate your actions for a long time before they’re put into effect? What dangers do you face in making these changes?    
 
Tim: Again, this sort of relates to the idea of us selling out and filling in necessary changes. Whenever a band introduces a change, people are automatically bummed about it. There’s no going around that. People don’t like change it seems. It’s almost as if they’re afraid of it. But, we like taking risks, and we like not having any idea where we’re going. It’s half the fun of being in a band. You can’t possibly predict what’s going to happen next or where you’re going to see yourselves in a year, or even five months. If all of your plans are laid out right in front of you, there’s no mystery to it. There’s nothing to look forward to, and nothing to pursue, or even expect. Of course there are always dangers in making dramatic changes in a band’s line-up or sound, but if the kids don’t like it, then they don’t like it. We write what want to write, and express how we feel through our songs and if for some reason people all of a sudden can’t relate, or if our sound just doesn’t appeal to them anymore, there really isn’t anything we can do about it. We’re still the same band, but we’re growing up in each record that we produce. It’s tough with the changes, and we’re always afraid of the outcome, but they’re definitely necessary in some circumstances. Some changes just can’t be avoided, and there’s nothing you can do but hope the band stays together, and continues to make music. We’ve developed so much lyrically, that I’m just excited to see what happens in the future of the band. We’re all like a family, and we definitely express it through our actions. But, this is by far the most solid line up in the history of Underoath, so I can’t wait to see what comes out of it.  
 
Nina: Unfortunately Dallas has left the band for reasons disclosed to the public, but immediately following his departure, what was going on through everyone’s minds? Losing a vocalist can have a huge impact on a band, and finding a replacement can have an even bigger one. Did you ever wonder how you would make it through? How did you imagine the fans would respond?  
 
Tim: Well first off, I’ve read a lot of rumors that have been going around, and I speak on the band as a whole when I say that we actually asked Dallas to leave Underoath . I’ve read a million different stories, but we want to make that clear. Dallas was a really awesome guy, and he still is, but it wasn’t working out for him and the band at this point in his life. There were so many other things going on that he couldn’t focus on the band as much as we would have liked him to. I  mean, he couldn’t go on tour, and that’s definitely a big part of being in a band. We felt really bad about the whole situation though, because the band was all that Dallas knew. He was in the band since it all started, and he was used to waking up everyday and having the band there, and going out and singing, and doing the same thing the next day, the next week, whatever it was. But things weren’t working out and we finally decided it was time to part ways. The band was miserable with him being in the band and not being able to go anywhere, and I think he was becoming miserable realizing how he was holding us back, but at the same time he just couldn’t let go of us, and it was really hard to let go of him too. So, we had to ask him to leave. But I heard that he’s doing really great now. He’s living in Birmingham and him and his girlfriend are actually getting married later this year, so from what I hear, he’s definitely better off now. In fact, he’s better than he ever was so that makes us really happy. When he first left though, for five days there was no such thing as Underoath. We didn’t know what to do. We couldn’t be in a band without a singer, and there was no one to replace him. So, we all just headed home and dropped off the tour and for five days we just    contemplated everything that was going on. It was definitely tough, and an extremely hard time. All we could really do was think hard about everything and just pray that in the end it would all work out. It required a lot of faith for us to   hold on, but somehow we managed to.  
 
Nina: Now, the vocalist of Winter Solstice has taken Dallas’ place. Is he a temporary substitute, or can we expect to see him around for awhile? What were you looking for when you were searching for a replacement? I mean, what were some things that were definitely necessary to take Dallas’ place? How do you think the band as a whole as been in response to the change? Have you seen a big difference as far as maturity goes?  
 
Tim: Actually, Matt from a Winter Solstice did fill in for Dallas for awhile, because we needed someone that could go on tour with us as soon as possible, but   he was just that…a fill in. Winter Solstice recently got signed to Metal Blade Records, so Matt is going to be paying full attention to his band. He was mostly just doing us a favor. Spencer, who was in This Runs Through, is now our singer. He’s actually engaged to Chris’ girlfriends’ roommate, so it’s sort of weird how we’re all connected in that long chain of relationships. It was definitely hard finding a new vocalist though, because Dallas’ voice was so unique, and his style was so unique that it was tough trying to find someone to fit the same mold. He was an overall unique individual. The thing is, we weren’t trying to find a replacement for Dallas. If I were to refer to it as a replacement, I would feel as if I was putting Dallas down as a human being, and that’s not what I want to do. We don’t replace people. In no means are we trying to do that with each and every member we lose or gain. It’s not like we went out and said “Oh, we need to find someone who is better than Dallas but at the same time sounds exactly like him!” That’s not how it was at all. We were just simply trying to find someone who fit the mold of the band. Spencer came in to work with us, and right away we all realized he had such an awesome voice. He fit the band really well, and when we worked on songs as a group it all just mixed together great. I guess you can say everything meshed the way we hoped it would, and that’s how we came about getting Spencer to join us.   
 
Nina: With the changes the band has undergone both music and member wise, do you tend to see the same fans sticking around, or are there a lot of different followings being formed? Has the idea of simply changing the bands name ever crossed your mind, or do you consider that as being too dramatic? Either way, you still are, and always will be Underoath no matter who is and isn’t in the band, but do you still see old fans responding to the new music? What are the reactions you’ve been receiving?   
 
Tim: Uhm..I see a lot of the same kids sticking around, but at the same time it’s sort of hard to tell. Of course there’s always that one group of kids that cling onto the band no matter what they do, and they just stick it out and see what happens in the long run, so I definitely expect to see some familiar faces out there this time around. It would be nice to see fans supporting our changes, and supporting the decisions the band has made and realize they’re for the best, but it’s hard to explain to your fans without getting too personal. I hope we don’t lose a lot of people, but we might. It’s always a chance that we risk. I know there will be a select group of kids, who don’t like us because we aren’t metal enough, and we   don’t sound like the “old Underoath” but we aren’t the same band anymore. We are, and we aren’t. We can’t play metal anymore. It’s just not us. I think a lot of people will be upset about that, but it’s all a part of growing up. I think we’ll gain a lot of new fans off of this record as well. I’m actually looking forward to seeing what happens. We talked about changing the band name…we talked about it a lot actually, but it’s really not our main priority right now. We realized there was a lot of other stuff that needs to be worked out before we think about changing our name. Besides, a name isn’t a huge deal. It’s sort of the staple that holds us together though. We’ve changed so much but Underoath is still the label we go by. We’re always going to be Underoath. If we went ahead and changed the name of the band, everything would still be exactly the same, so I’m not sure if there is really a point in going ahead and doing that. I think a lot more confusion would come out of changing the band’s name so far into our career, and we don’t really want to do that right now. So, we’re going to stick with who we are.  
 
Nina: Working with James Wisner on the album must have been a great experience. What were your reasons for choosing him to produce the album? How did he help the band to achieve the new sound you were striving for? What advice, if any, did he offer to help you through the process? Also, what is with all of the catchy choruses and melodies? How important is it for a band to combine these elements into their work? How does it help the music and fan interaction? What made you decide to combine them into your work now, and not in previous records?  
 
Tim: James is actually close to us as far as location goes, and we’ve worked with him in the past on two of our previous records, so we were familiar with his style,  and how he works, and what he can do for a band in producing them. We had a couple of other names in mind though as far as producers go, but scheduling conflicts made it impossible to meet up and get anything worked out. James’ interest was there, he was available, we loved working with him in the past, so we figured, hey, why not. Let’s do this again. We all worked really hard on the album, and it went extremely well. We definitely have a lot of respect for James. When it comes to recording, he’s such a strong asset that’s almost required on the album. As far as the choruses and melodies go, there’s actually a funny story to go along with it. Honestly, the truth is that back three years ago, we had two members leave Underoath. Corey and Matt were the ones who were super into metal so everything was put out the exact way it was heard in their heads. No one else really got a chance to understand what they were thinking, or how they wrote, so we could never combine those melodies into the songs because these guys were really into working to produce a more metal sound. Now, myself and Grant wrote a lot of songs on this album, and neither of us were really into playing death metal anymore. It just wasn’t our thing. In writing the last record, we actually re- learned a lot of what we thought we already knew. We learned how to work   together as band again. When I first joined Underoath, I thought I was joining a metal band, and now to see where we are today just sort of makes me laugh. In writing songs, we just played around with a bunch of different genres and tested things out to see where it would go, and I think the songs are a lot more structured than what’s on our previous albums. There’s a lot of Indie-rock type of songs, and those are really our strongest. We came accustomed to writing that way, so we integrated a lot of the melodies and choruses into our work from there. We threw a lot of different stuff into the album. There’s a lot of drum loops here and there, a  lot of diverse sounds being created. A lot of our backgrounds can be seen, so it’s more oriented in that way too. It really turned out great though, and we mostly have James to thank for that.    
 
Nina: A lot of your lyrics are very honest, open-minded, and inspirational. Why do you think it is so important to show people exactly how its done through your work, as opposed to going out and preaching about it? Do you see a lot of people responding to the beliefs you openly express? How do you think being so honest both helps and hurts the band?  
 
Tim: As far as trying to sing our views as opposed to preaching about them, I think it mainly has a lot to do with what we believe in. We’ve all grown up in Christian backgrounds, going to church every Sunday, joining a band that is strong in the faith and having to tour away from church…It’s been tough, but we try to carry out Christ’s ways by setting examples, and not shoving things down people’s throats. We could stand on a stage to 300 kids, 800 kids, and if we just stood up there and said “You should do this, you know this is wrong! Join me and sing out against this cause!” it would be as if we were standing up there and saying “If you don’t support what we do, go to hell!” or else “Go to hell if you don’t love Jesus!” And that’s not how we are at all. In my opinion, that’s really not the way to go. Our music and our lyrics testify what we’re about more than we ever could. At this point, everyone knows that we’re a Christian band. It’s fairly obvious that we are, so we’re not out there trying to prove who we are and what we’re about. Again, we don’t want to shove useless words down people’s throats. We’re more about living our lives the way we want to, and having conversations one-on-one with people about certain topics. We can’t express our beliefs on stage as well as we’d like to, and we don’t get a chance to talks to kids about their own beliefs up there either. On stage there isn’t really enough room to talk about things. We’ve come to notice that a lot of kids have questions and opinions to talk to us about so we always try to be available at our shows to talk to people, and to pray with people whenever it’s needed. I think that’s way more effective than going out there and screaming a bunch of words to people and   trying to get them to join some sort of revolution. Instead of massively confronting people, we like to be honest, and be friends. We’re open to talk to anyone about anything, and our fans know that if they ever need to talk, they can contact us or talk to us at a show and we’ll be more than happy to sit down with them and spend time talking over things. That’s more what Underoath is all about.  
 
Nina: Change of topic, but what is the significance of the numbers 814 in one of your songs? It is simply an area code, or is there more to it than just that?  
 
Tim: Hah, I saw a lot of kids arguing about this on the message board, it was so ridiculous, so it’s about time someone has finally asked to find out the truth. 814 is actually a specific date that was important to Underoath… 8 being the month, and 14 being the date, so August 14th. It was the day we unfortunately parted with our bass player. It was the day we had asked him to leave. It was during the “Changing of Times” record. We were all right there and close with him when it happened, so it hade a huge impact on us, and the band. I’m pretty sure that’s where those numbers came from. I honestly can’t tell you the truth, but I’m pretty sure that’s it…Yeah, I think so…But either way, it’s a lot more creative than just an area code.  
 
Nina: What is the main difference between the messages portrayed in the lyrics of "Changing of Times" and "They’re Only Chasing Safety"? What different thoughts are being brought out through your music? Have you mostly stuck to the same topics, or have you progressed to another subject matter?  
 
Tim: We’ve progressed a lot in that aspect of the band. Dallas was the main lyric writer. I mean, on “Changing of Times” he literally wrote every single word on that record. Every word was completely from his heart and his head. With this record though, everyone came to the table and put down subject matter, and we all talked over things and decided upon suggestions. All of the lyrics and melodies were arranged in a different way than they previously were. I think that our new stuff is way more personal then it ever has been in the past. Some members invested more than others, but we all threw our ideas together and worked from there. Right now, we’re mostly writing about struggles that we’re trying to overcome with the band itself, being depressed and finding a way out of your misery…You always want to find a way out, but you can never see your way out. Underoath has always been vocal about it. Also, we actually have one song that refers to sexual morality in church and in friends, but in the non-offensive way. It’s basically about how we see kids messing up and making the wrong decisions, and how they know they aren’t making the right choices but how they go ahead and make them anyways, and they go out and do things they shouldn’t yet be involved with. Things that people don’t talk about, we wrote about. It’s all the things people should be talking about too. It’s so important to voice your feelings and opinions, I couldn’t stress that enough.   
 
Nina: Okay, so we all know the band practices religion on a regular basis, and puts a lot of faith into their beliefs. This question is mainly out of curiosity, but did you get a chance to check out the Passion of Christ? What did you think of it? I myself follow the Catholic faith, and after seeing the film I honestly didn’t know how to respond to it, so I was wondering if you had any reaction and what you thought of it overall?  
 
Tim: Oh you know what, I haven’t gotten a chance to see that yet, but I really  want to. I probably won’t get to see it while it’s still in the theatres, but that’s okay. I’ve heard really great things about that movie from friends and family, so hopefully I’ll get to see it sometime in the near future. I’m actually looking forward to seeing how it portrays everything. It seems really interesting, but I’ve also heard that it was tough to watch and sit through at times, so I just have to find out for myself. I’ll have to get back to you on that one though and let you know what I thought of it.  
 
Nina: In June, you’re actually going to be going on tour with Eighteen Visions and Fear Before the March of Flames…both excellent bands. I’m actually going to be checking both bands out in Albany on June 2nd. What are you most looking forward to about being given the chance to go out and perform again? Is there anything you’re hoping to achieve with the release of the new album, and the tour to follow it? Maybe not on this tour, but Warped Tour as well. Is it better to play large festivals like Warped Tour, or smaller venue shows? Are you nervous at all about how the audience may respond?    
 
Tim: We’re so psyched about going back on tour. We actually haven’t toured for the new record at all yet, so I can’t wait to just get out there and start playing things off of it. We haven’t gotten a chance to show off our new songs. It’s been two and a half years since we’ve last put out a record, and when the record came out, I believe we were on tour for about 15-16 months just promoting it, and playing a ton of shows everywhere you can imagine. The set list for that record has been played way too many times. It’s time for a new set, and a new sound. Eighteen Visions is really good friends with us, so I’m sure good times will be had by all. We would love to be successful, but every band says that, so I just hope kids come and check us out and are into the new music that we’re putting out there. In reference to Warped Tour, we’ve never really done a long term festival like that. I mean we’ve played Hellfest and Skate and Surf, but we’ve never played a festival that went on for more than one or two days, and definitely not one that last over two months. I honestly don’t know what to expect from it. There are a lot of pros and cons that go along with playing club shows, but the same goes for festivals. We like both types of shows for different reasons, and the mostly have to do with crowd interaction. After Warped Tour we’re hoping to get out and play some club shows as well, so we’ll be getting the best of both worlds by becoming a part of the two.    
 
Nina: What do you hope to uncover in the future of Underoath? There must be more the band has in store to unleash to the public, it’s only a matter of time until it’s all said and done. What else would you like to try and stress to your listeners through your work?  
 
Tim: We had to write an extra song for http://www.smartpunk.com/ which is actually the stage we’re playing at, or the organization that is hosting the stage we’re playing at on Warped Tour, but they had contacted us and said they were doing a Warped Tour compilation, and asked if we would be interested in doing a song for it. Of course we were into the idea, so we had to write a song just for the comp. I’m definitely excited about being able to write new songs with the band, and I’m anticipating the progression of the new record. It’s really super, so I can’t wait to see who’s into it.    
 
Nina: Okay, well that unfortunately concludes our interview, but it was really great talking to you, Tim. So I hope we’ll meet up again sometime in the future.   
 
Tim: Oh, definitely. Thank you so much for taking the time out to talk to us as well. It was a really great time. I apologize since we kept missing one another, but I’m glad we were able to finally get in touch again and finish off the interview. Again, thank you so much, Nina.