Interviews

Stretch Arm Strong

Interview with Chris McLane on Sep 17, 2005 by Archive Bot

Stretch Arm Strong have been pioneers of hardcore punk for over a decade now, and while most of them have settled down into the married life, they still know how to rock. "Free At Last," is their newest collaboration of life experiences, motivational anthems and breakdowns.  The band is more than proud of this work, as it is truly an example of the things that keep these people together over the years doing what it is they do best.  Chris McLane (vocals) spoke to writer, Katie Ellsweig last night about the album, about hardcore and everything in between.
 
 
Katie: Lets talk about the new album a little bit first. How does the title, “Free At Last” bear significance on your life?
 
Chris: Well, the concept came about when we were in Europe this past October. We got to play a lot of shows in Eastern Europe and we saw a lot of remains of WWII as well as some of the destruction in the Soviet Union and we saw all these symbols spray painted around towns with the slogan, “Free At Last.” It dawned on us that through all this destruction and through all this, they were making a joke like here we’re free at last thanks to Americans and then back at home, all the stuff that’s going on here and in the middle east in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s just the idea that we’re free at last but what are we really free from. It seemed like an appropriate thing at the time.
 
Katie: One thing that really struck me about the record was the artwork. Whose concept was that and how does it sort of tie into the overall message of the album?
 
Chris: A friend of ours, Kevin Ray did the artwork and he and I kind of had this idea with the people holding masks. It’s the idea that we all kind of hold that mask and we live behind our lives and we live behind the truth until we take those masks off. Until we do take them off, there’s no real honesty and no real truth and some people spend their whole lives hiding and unless you pull those masks off and come clean then there’s no freedom, there’s no peace and no rest.  When the mask finally comes off, you’re free then.
 
Katie: Obviously this record was going to be a lot different than something you may have put out ten years ago.  How did you try to make sure that you were doing something new and interesting but still staying true to who you were before?
 
Chris: That’s a good question. Like you said, our first record was something people seemed to be really fond of and take very personally and that’s great. People say they wish our new stuff sounded the same, but it came out almost ten years ago and we as people have changed. We’ve been around the world and seen different places, met different people, gotten better at our instruments and gotten better as a band. I think we stayed true to ourselves because we write the same as we’ve always written, we write music as it moves us. Our experiences have changed and the way we live our lives have changed and so have the people that come in and out of our lives.  We’ve been a band for a long time and we had to write a record that literally made people step back and look at our whole career so to speak.  We wrote some songs that are some of the best we’ve ever written and while everyone was so sure what kind of record we were going to write, I think we shut those people up.  This is a great record with some great songs and we stayed true to who we really are.  We’ve always had breakdowns and melodies and this is a collaboration of all of this.
 
 
Katie: Have the original messages behind all of Stretch Armstrong’s music changed?
 
Chris: I think that we try to write about things that are real to us; stuff that we know or we’ve experienced because that’s what’s real for us. The idea of self empowerment no matter what your color is or your sex, gender or sexual preference, the idea is that you’re worth something and you can be a force for change and if society is telling you one thing you can stick to your guns and stick to yourself no matter how tiring or difficult it may be.  However, I think now we’re able to write a little more personally about it because we’ve been able to experience these things.
 
Katie: Having been around for so long, you pretty much escaped the whole hardcore punk explosion. What was is like to see all of a sudden these young kids popping up out of nowhere and getting famous for what you’ve been doing all along?
 
Chris: To be honest, it’s kind of frustrating. I feel like we’ve been doing this for so long. There are a lot of bands that are real old and jaded but I hope we’re not one of those bands. I see a lot of really good new bands that are really talented, but I also see a lot of these young bands that are really, really bad and have nothing to say and are really terrible people but they came along at the right time and followed the formula to success. When the substance is lacking, it’s plain to see and those bands will fade away and wash out but the bands that are real with what they’re doing and write songs that matter will always be around.  For us, we try to do what we do as honestly and passionately as we can and maybe with this record we’ll get to a level that’s above what we’ve been doing.
 
Katie: Someone in the band once said that hardcore seems to be losing what is once was. What was it then as opposed to what it is now?
 
Chris: I don’t know. I mean, I’m 32 years old and I went to my first show when I was 11 or 12 because I had an older brother who took me to shows. I always heard people back then saying that it’s not like it used to be and I remember when I was a teenager, I said that same thing. Then, it’s like hardcore went into this real violent stage and now you see all these bands like Hatebreed and Thrice selling tons of records and writing all these good songs. I think it’s become more acceptable to people and you can hear more of these bands on the radio and maybe a lot of people are real upset and mad about that but if you’re not from a cool city or have a real cool record store in town or an older brother or sister to take you to shows then I don’t care how you find out about this kind of music, I’m just glad it’s out there for people to be aware of.
 
Katie: Where is the future of hardcore headed?
 
Chris: I honestly think it continues to grow and get bigger. It’s like with Green Day: I didn’t think they would continue to grow after “Dookie” but their new album has gotten so big and then there are all these bands like Underoath and Hawthorne Heights and they’ve all gotten so big.  I hope it stays around. People need something other than pop rock and mindless, degrading rock n’ roll. People need to hear something aggressive.
 
Katie: In an interview, you said that reading reviews is a personal thing for you. Why is it so personal and how do you feel when you hear some critic tearing apart your record?
 
Chris: It’s personal because they’re taking something and making an opinion about a collection of songs and granted they don’t know what all went into those songs and what they mean to us and with a stroke of a pin and because they work for some magazine or whatever, they’re able to rip it apart based on one or two listens. I think it just seems so arrogant to think that you can listen to something you get in the mail and write about it without even interviewing the people or talking to the people who wrote it.  I’ve read some reviews where they rip us apart as people and I think that some of these journalists are failed musicians or just miserable people and they tend to take it out on albums or books or whatever and they just write from a personal standpoint. I stopped reading reviews for a long time. I just have a hard time with someone taking something we worked so hard on and then trying to paraphrase it into a bunch of words. It’s hard for me to swallow.
 
Katie: Now that most of the band is settled down, and some of you have families, how has the attitude towards touring and being in a band in general changed?
 
Chris: I think it’s definitely harder. Four of us are married and two of us have kids. When we tour, it’s about supporting the record.  We have people at home that we truly love and care about but being away from those people and being gone for so long is very difficult. It makes for a lot of long nights and a lot of frustrating days. There’s nothing like coming home and seeing the people you love, sleeping in your own bed, eating at your favorite restaurant etc… Those are the things you take for granted and you miss them when you’re done. It becomes harder because there’s more obligations and more things required of us.
 
Katie: What is it about music and this music in particular that keeps you going?
 
Chris: I think a lot of times it’s the lyrics and where they came from and the punk rock attitude and the punk rock set of ethics. It’s very important to me and there are certain bands that I listened to back when I was a kid that still make me feel the way I did back then. I don’t just listen to hardcore, I listen to all different kinds of music but hardcore is what I grew up on and sometimes it just takes one of those old records to really put me back and help me get through a lot of those tough times.