Interviews

Against Me!

Interview with The Band on Aug 13, 2005 by Archive Bot

Currently being stalked by major labels everywhere, Against Me! are gearing up to release their new album, “Searching For A Former Clarity,” on Fat Wreck Chords. The band recently played a benefit concert at New York punk rock club, CBGB’s, where Katie Ellsweig met with Tom, Andrew and Warren in front of the men’s room during World Inferno Friendship Society’s sound check. The environment made for some interesting conversation and a few superb dance moves.
 
Katie: On the “Never Going Home” DVD, a lot of major labels were after you, taking you out and giving you free stuff. After all that, you chose Fat. At what point did you come to the decision that staying with Fat Wreck Chords was the right thing to do?
 
Tom: It was something that definitely started out as a joke and then became something that we were actually considering. It was actually about a year ago that we decided to stay with Fat. It got to a point where it got to be too confusing, there were too many variables that we couldn’t keep control over. We didn’t feel like making the decision to move anywhere. We were happy with Fat and they’ve done a great job and always given us a lot of freedom to basically do what we want.
 
Andrew: It started out kind of fun, we were like “yeah, yeah take us out for drinks and all that,” and then after a while it became a headache and like you said, we just decided to stick.
 
Katie: Were the major labels reps cool to hang out with or were they a just a bunch of tools?
 
Andrew: Fuckin’ Tom Machiah is an awesome dude. He’ll be at the show tonight. He would just hang out, he’s cool.
 
Katie:  Every Fat Wreck band that I’ve had the chance to talk to has always said great things about the label and about what a community it is. How do you think Fat Wreck Chords reflects the punk community?
 
Andrew: I feel like it’s a very good example of the punk community and what can happen with punk rockers and when punk kids get together and try to make something work. They’re a self-sustaining label, they make money and they pay their employees and their bands fairly and it works.
 
Tom: Yeah, that was pretty good.
 
Katie: I read somewhere Tom, what one of your favorite books is Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. The book is a collaboration of a lot of topics that Against Me happens to make music about including life, death, war and politics. In a way, would you compare AM’s music to a novel or perhaps just literature and music in general?
 
Tom: I don’t think I would compare it, but I’d be alright with someone else making that comparison. How does music compare to literature? I don’t know, I mean there’s obviously literary elements involved in writing songs and lyrics. You can approach it in the same way as trying to tell a story and you can do that not only with just one single song but you can approach writing records as making whole stories and making every song be coherent and tell a story so I think that story telling is very similar in writing music and literature.
 
Andrew: I think it could be any record. Like the new album from The Streets. It’s a story. Or even Mountain Goats. You know, it could be a book. Or maybe it is a book!
 
Katie: What about some other books you’re into?
 
Tom: Well we just got back from Europe, so we all did an excessive amount of reading. I think the books that were going around were “Hell’s Angels” by Hunter S. Thompson, “A Race To Live” by John O’Hara, “Travels Of Charlie” by John Steinbeck, and some Chuck Palahniuk.
 
Warren: It was kind of like a van book club.
 
Katie: So you’re guys are here tonight obviously for the benefit of CBGB’s, or maybe just to play a show. Was this the bands’ idea to do this show, and why is it important to conserve a place like CBGB’s?
 
Tom: Well, I mean, it’s a music venue that’s been around for so many years. It’s probably one of the only all ages venues here in New York City, if not the only one.
 
Katie: I think it’s 16 plus. That’s what the website says.
 
Tom: I was told it was one of the only all ages venues here in the city. Maybe they lied! Now we’re not playing. A lot of historical bands have played here and I don’t see the wrong in trying to save any music venue unless it’s a horrible place but this doesn’t appear to be a horrible place, so I don’t know. We’re from Florida and we’ve never played here before. I’ve never even been to a show here before.
 
Katie: What do you think will ultimately happen with the place?
 
Tom: I have no idea, hopefully they save it, you know.
 
Katie: So, the new album will be out in a couple weeks, on September 6th. What’s the most exciting part of getting ready to release an album?
 
Andrew: [Dancing] I would say the most exciting part is when it actually comes out. The time before it comes out is fucking hell on earth. You just want it to come out.
 
Tom: We actually just saw a copy of the CD, Vanessa brought it with her. It seems like it’s some other bands’ CD, in my mind it will not click that it’s what we spent the last X amount of months working on and I don’t know if that will happen once it comes out or if it will take up until a year afterwards.
 
Katie: Do you normally feel like that with every album, or is it just this one in particular?
 
Tom: Well this is the one that took the longest.
 
Andrew: I think also it’s that we’re more proud of this than anything we’ve done and that’s why it’s also so hard to just sit on it for a little while.
 
Katie: Do you think the fans will like this one?
 
Tom: I don’t know. If they’re the kids who think they’re too cool for our new stuff than probably no, they won’t appreciate it because it is new stuff. People like what they like and if they don’t like it they don’t like it. We’re still going to be breathing.
 
Warren: And rocking.
 
Andrew: Yeaaah! [Dancing again]
 
Katie: What are the strong points of the record?
 
Andrew: Well, strong points I think you know…
 
Warren: The drums! [Laughs}
 
Tom: The guitars are wicked! It’s solid. It’s strong all around. The song writing, the recording, the production. I’m fuckin’ happy with it. The whole process was really great, and working with Jay was really awesome, the whole process just has a positive association with it. I’ll never hear it like the rest of the world does but I loved the process of making it.
 
Andrew: I don’t find any fault with it like you would normally go back and be like “shit I could have done this differently,”
 
Katie: I read that one of you went to school for music business. You said that it made you “hate” the industry.
 
Andrew: Maybe I didn’t say…
 
Katie: No, no, you said that.
 
Andrew: Okay, I did.
Tom: Damn you for doing research!
 
Andrew: Damnit. My name’s Ted. No, when I was there, I kind of just went through the motions of getting out. I had that mentality where I just wanted to get it done. Just looking back on it, there were so many people so serious about how they were going to do it and looking back I would probably not go again. I would just kind of go see if I could work at a record label and just intern or something and skip the school with. I got a job working at a publishing company after I graduated and then I was like “fuck this” and I started booking shows at a coffee shop. That’s how I met these guys.
 
Katie: Thanks guys, this has been great.
 
Tom: Thank you! We’ll probably see you later at some point during the show.
 
**Post Script: Thanks Vanessa at Fat Wreck for setting this up!