Interviews

See You Next Tuesday

Interview with The Band on Mar 20, 2007 by Archive Bot

While See You Next Tuesday was heading up the east coast with The Acacia Strain and Job for a Cowboy, I had a chance to sit down with the entire band in the sanctuary of the church they were playing that night in Philadelphia.  We had the chance to talk about them recently being signed, their new singer, Fox, their new album and many other random and odd things.
 
By: Wade Rice
 
Could you guys introduce yourselves?
 
Andy Dalton: I’m Andy, I’m the drummer
 
Drew Slavik: Drew, guitar.
 
Travis Martin: Travis, I play bass.
 
Chris Fox: Fox, I do vocals
 
You guys recently added Fox to the band.  How did this transition from your old singer, Bear, to your new singer, Fox come about?
 
AD: Well, I’ve told this story a million times. (Laughs)
 
TM: I feel so bad guys.
 
AD: No, no basically our old singer, Bear, he did inward screams for the last three years.
 
He did all inward screams?
 
AD: All inwards, all inwards; all his lows, all his highs, everything inward.  At the end of the last tour he started to get really sick, and when we got home he went to the doctor and they told him that he had chronic bronchitis, like all this shit, and his lungs were actually collapsing.
 
TM: Your in a Church. (Laughs)
 
AD: Yes, I’m in a church.  His lungs collapsed and he had to decide, you know, can he keep doing this, and it was up to his health.  So, I told him it’s up to you, you can kill yourself doing it or for the sake of you health you can bow out, and we gotta keep going.
 
DS: A lot of it, just being on the road and stuff too, I’m sure had to do with it.  Like you know not just being able to get proper health care, you know that kind of stuff.  We’re always sick but we kinda just deal with it, but I guess it started to get serious with him.  The funny thing is how he joined the band (pointing to Fox).  We get back [from tour] and we had like three weeks to prepare before we got into the studio, so we had a couple of practices and he [Bear] was unavailable to come to practice.  During that time, we were all kinda worried about what’s going on with Bear.  Then he [Fox] just happened to send us a message like, “Hey dude, I’m really bored, my band just broke up and I really wanna tour again.”  He was like, “You should take me on tour with you as a merch dude.”  When Bear gave us the final word that it was over and done with, I was just like, “Uh..uh. Let’s just call Fox.”
 
So Fox just fell into you guys?
 
AD: Fox was actually the only person that he woulda felt comfortable with. Bear wanted Fox to replace him before anyone even talked about it.  So it was kinda like a mutual, we all wanted Fox, because we knew him from Flesh and Blood Robot and we knew that he was just an awesome stage presence and a hilarious dude.
 
DS: Yeah the best part is that I called him up and I got his voice mail, I was like “Hey, how serious are you about like coming on tour with us?”  He called me back and he was like, “Yeah dude, I’m so serious.”  I was like, “Well how about as our vocalist?” (Laughs)  “But first we have to go into the studio in five days.” (Laughs)  So he was like, “Well, I got a bunch of stuff.  I’ve got like three albums worth of lyrics.”  So we just went to the studio, and as we were recording he was writing the lyrics to the songs.
 
Oh, okay so you did all the lyrics for the new record, sweet.
 
DS: We kept all of the song titles because all of the song titles have nothing to do with the songs themselves; like they’re all just big jokes from movies and stupid stuff like that.  But yea he re-did all the lyrics, just so… I mean obviously…….. (Laughs)
 
AD: Fox contributes, yea. (Laughs)
 
All right, well talking about the new record, can you guess just explain to me what we can expect?  I mean I know that the three songs on the myspace page, but is it gonna be along those lines?  Or are you guys gonna through us some curve balls?
 
DS: There are a lot of curve balls.  We re-did the three songs that are on myspace, just because I’m really slow at writing songs (Laughs) and with all the line-up changes and stuff, we didn’t have as much time as we wanted.  So we re-did those, obviously we wanted him [Fox] to be on them too.  Then we have a lot of what you heard tonight, and then have like two kinda like……..
 
AD: Two, one of them is split up into two parts, like the track number.
 
DS: There’s two like experimental tracks.
 
Oh okay so it’s kinda like an A and B almost track?
 
DS: Yeah, Part 1, Part 2.
 
AD: “The Hunter” and “The Parasite.”
 
DS: The way the CD goes is like, six um…5 or 6 tracks and then there is like this break.  It’s almost like an intermission to the CD, were it’s like um…
 
AD: More like Cave-In, like early Converge that isn’t crazy type stuff.
 
DS: Like Deftones, almost like.  Then like just really melodic and really repetitive kinda thing and then that goes right out, right back into more chaos stuff.  Then at the end of the CD it’s more like this kinda like Doomie really sludgey slow thing, with like this big chant thing at the end and stuff.
 
That’s sweet.
 
DS: We just wanted to break up the CD because it doesn’t have a lot of length, I mean it’s still longer than a lot of grind albums out there.  We didn’t want something that was like you put it in and it’s just chaos the whole way through.  You know what I mean?
 
Yeah kinda like stretch the dynamics out.
 
DS: Like having a few different things.  We’re not even sure if the experimental stuff we’re even gonna play live yet, it’s up in the air whether or not we’ll do it; I’m sure eventually we will sometime. But like…
 
On a regular basis.
 
DS: Yeah.
 
AD: The one in the middle of the CD, that we pretty much wrote five hours before we recorded it. So it’s kinda that thing.
 
Yeah so it’s not over-produced.  Well I’m sure you guys have been asked this a million times, but could you explain the reasoning behind See You Next Tuesday?
 
AD: It came from an episode of Sex and the City.
 
DS: Yeah.
 
TM: Despite the fact that we’re in a church, (Laughs) but it’s a naughty word.
 
Yeah, I figured that, but did it just come up one day and did it just stick?
 
DS: No, I… before this band was, all right (Laughs).  I started the band, and um it was just like a joke, I literally picked up the guitar because I started goofing around with a whammy bar at work. I’m a bass player.  Then I just wanted to start it as a joke. I had this band before this that was really serious and it never went anywhere, so I was just like “Screw this, I’m gonna start a joke band.” (Laughs)  I was watching an episode of Sex and the City, and they said, “See you next Tuesday”, pointing out some girls’ crotch and I was like “Yeah, that’s really funny, and really cliché.”  The best part too, for the first few months of being in a band, and even to this day like people mistake our name and think that we’re like an emo, screamo kind of band.
 
Yeah, like Taking Back Sunday.
 
DS: Our very first show, we played in the basement of our friend’s house in Detroit.  We should up all early and stuff, we weren’t friends with them at the time; we had just met them and none of them would talk to us.  After we played, they all came up and were like “Man, you guys are sweet, we didn’t want to talk to you guys we thought you were some wussy emo band.” (Laughs)  But then, yeah one day, eventually, it became serious, so…(Laughs)
 
So the name just kept along with it?
 
DS: Yeah, I mean by the time we got to something serious, we had the name for so long.
 
AD: It’s catchy.  It’s got a ring to it.
 
DS: Yeah, yeah.
 
Yeah, with the genre that you guys are in, there is nothing really like that out there.  Usually it’s about gore and that stuff.
 
DS: Yeah, and we just started marketing that thing now, like we have hoodies now and shirts and stuff now that just have the word on it.  So, I mean it’s just something that we can just run with. (Laughs)  It’s a great word. (Laughs)
 
All right, I just wanted to know what your plans are for the like the summer, spring.  What are you guys gonna do after this, like more big tours… or?
 
DS: Um…
 
Just tour like crazy right?
 
DS: Well as soon as our CD comes out, pretty much.
 
AD:  We’re on the road for the rest of the year.  Through August, I think we’ve got like a month and a half total at home.
 
So, just supporting the hell out of the album?
 
AD: Yeah.
 
Well, with that are there any certain bands that you guys want to tour with this summer?  Like you know, if you could do anything this summer, you would want to tour with this band?
 
DS: I don’t know, we’ve made friends with a lot of bands on the road.
 
AD: I’d love to tour with Number 12 [Looks like You] and Ed Gein together because that would be a riot.
 
DS: Basically, any band that’s cool dudes.  I mean every time we do a tour with a new band, we find out how cool they are.  The guys in The Acacia Strain are fantastic people, the guys in Job for a Cowboy are awesome dudes, and you know so…
 
AD: Psyopus have become brothers. (Laughs)
 
DS: Yeah, this is our second tour with Psyopus.  Yeah, we want to kidnap their drummer and keep him forever. (Laughs)
 
You guys talked a little bit about the writing process.  How does it develop, does it come from all sides?
 
DS: Well, um, with this line up, we haven’t actually really written anything.  Prior, a lot of it I just came up with personally.  I do a lot of writing on the toilet.  (Laughs)  I heard Van Halen did that. (Laughs)  No I just…
 
AD: He’ll basically write everything in his head, and have everything mapped out and ready to go, or at least, you know, like the rough ideas.  He works in themes, he’s not like I want to this riff to go into this riff, blah blah blah.  He’s got it set so that things have to work in a certain order because of the way the song flows.  Really he brings ideas to the table, I mean we’ll all have something to say about it, but for the most part…
 
DS: Like a lot of our songs, despite the fact that they sound like a bunch of craziness (Laughs).  I try to maintain an emotion within the whole song, like when I start writing a riff of a song, whatever I’m feeling or whatever I’m trying to get with that song, everything that goes around that riff has to be like, I don’t even care if they sound good next to each other as long as they feel good next to each other.  I don’t even know if that makes sense.
 
It makes sense; yeah I understand what you’re saying.  I agree.
 
DS: The biggest thing to is…the reason why our songs are short is not because we just want to have short songs; the thing I wanted to do was write songs for content, not length.  So one thing we never do is repeat a riff and it’s not to be like pretentious or anything like that, we’re not riff machines (Laughs).
 
AD: It’s all linear.
 
DS: Yeah, it’s all just linear writing.  I think that is just what we wanted to do, like if I wanted write a four minute song, I could do that with all of our songs.  I’d rather..
 
Get it out there.
 
AD: Short and sweet, to the point.
 
DS: Yeah, exactly.
 
All right, this is a joke question.  You guys have talked about the influence of Nu-Metal, in just like everything. (Laughs)
 
DS: Totally. (Laughs)
 
I was just wandering, it just seems like its great; to be honest with you there are a lot of bands, especially in this genre that aren’t gonna say that.
 
AD: Dude, everyone grew up listening to that stuff.  Everyone grew up listening to Slipknot.
 
I agree.
 
DS: Honestly, you’d be surprised; none of us listen to anything remotely close to us.  None of us in this band even like metal, minus Fox maybe a little.  I pretty much listen to rap and Radiohead and Primus.  He [pointing to Andy] likes indie rock and stuff like that.  None of us like what were doing, I mean we enjoy what were doing, obviously.
 
But you don’t listen to what you are doing?
 
DS: Some of my favorite bands to this day are like Korn and Limp Bizkit and Slipknot and stuff. (Laughs)  I don’t care.
 
Oh… yea did you guys see that thing on TV where Korn was singing with that chick from Evanescene, I forget her name?
 
TM: [talking to Drew] I forgot to tell you they did an unplugged album.
 
Yeah they did, did they do a whole album?
 
DS: Yeah.
 
Yeah I was flipping through channels and I passed by MTV, and I say it and I was like “What the hell is this?”
 
DS: All respects to Korn, it’s one of the worst things I’ve ever heard.
 
Yeah dude at first I was like, “What’s this?” and then I was like… “I don’t know about this, man.”
 
AD: Wait, did you say with respect to Korn? (Laughs)
 
DS: You have to respect the one band that will make everyone in the band happy. (Laughs)  But yea no it’s not a joke, we all do love nu-metal.
 
AD: We all don’t love nu-metal, I used to listen to nu-metal. (Laughs)
 
So you all like grew up on it?
 
All: Yeah.
 
AD: It’s in the melting pot, put it that way.
 
It seems like there has been an increase in death metal and grind bands these days and popularity in them.  Do you think that is because there is just more opportunity because people are getting tired of other genres like, you know, straight-up hardcore?
 
AD: I think it’s because Myspace makes it really easy to do what you want.
 
DS: Every band that is touring in the U.S. right now.  I mean, if it wasn’t for Myspace we wouldn’t be where we are, I don’t want to seem cliché and lame.
 
AD: Myspace has helped us more than anything.
 
I mean, that is how I heard about you guys.
 
DS: For the past two years, prior to getting on Ferret, we’ve only been on Ferret since like October.  We’ve toured the nation like three times, as small as four day tours to as long as like 40 day tours, by ourselves, that we booked by ourselves.  You know I’d get on Myspace and I’d find a band and then whatever city were trying to find, I’d be like “Hey dude, we’re this band from Michigan, we’re gonna be on the road and were looking for a show in your state.  Do you have any buddies that have a house that we can play at, or a hall or blah blah blah?”  Just going through that process for everyday of our tour is how we go there.
 
TM: It’s more than advertising, its networking.
 
DS: Yeah, that’s what it is.
 
TM: It’s one of those things.  I was talking to one of the guys on the tour package, it’s almost like the death metal grind is just the next thing for the kids to have their parents hate them.  It’s one of those always evolving things; nu-metal kids got it, and then metalcore kids got it, now deathgrind got it.  Tastes are constantly evolving.
 
AD: Our old singer definitely put it best, it’s either metal or it’s not metal. (Laughs)
 
Pretty much, I mean nothing else really matters.
 
AD: Yeah.
 
DS: There are just a lot of heavy bands out there and a lot of bands are doing something right now and that is the only reason it’s getting popular.  Even if all of those small bands aren’t getting big, then all like the Suicide Silence and the Job for a Cowboy are doing something. So, even in their town, they’re turning the kids to that, so when the bigger bands come through, they know.
 
AD: I think part of it is like, with indie rock and stuff, you can’t go crazy but with metal, the type of stuff we do, kids are always just getting pumped up on caffeine or whatever and just throw down in the pit or do whatever.  They come to the shows to get crazy, to have fun a put out a lot of energy.  A lot of the shoe-gazer music and indie rock droney crap that I listen to (Laughs), you can’t do anything to it except stand there and enjoy it.
 
There is definitely some good indie rock out there.
 
AD: I mean definitely, that is what I’m into, but you can’t just like necessarily do a whole lot of moshing to say, like Smashing Pumpkins. (Laughs)
 
You guys should totally like throw in a curve ball and put an indie track on the new CD.
 
DS: We pretty much do.
 
That would be awesome.
 
AD: Next album, we’ll have some sweet nu-metal stomp riffs. (Laughs)
 
DS: We almost wrote one into the album.
 
AD: No, we have nu-metal in this album; he’s got that bass riff.
 
Dude man, I can’t wait.  I just wanted to talk about you guys getting signed to Ferret and how that all came about?
 
TM: I think I can take the credit on this one. (Laughs)
 
DS: Travis joined the band and Ferret got a hold of us and that’s basically what happened.  He is just the man, the aura of his being.  No, mainly the biggest thing was uh..
 
AD: Dirtfest.
 
DS: Uh… yeah Dirfest and Frank Corva, the tour manager for The Number 12 [Looks like You] are both two things that helped us out.  Obviously all the touring we’ve been doing.
 
AD: That kinda helped. (Laughs)
 
DS: I mean, we’re not just a Myspace band that sat around; we literally worked our asses off for two years.  So, I mean, we got out there, we got a decent buzz around us and then um... we played this big festival in Michigan that actually Andy’s brother put on, called Dirtfest.  A lot of bigger name bands came and played at that.  Prior to that, we had made good friends with the guys in The Number 12 and Frank Corva had just got hired in as Ferret Management, so he was working with the Ferret Management group and he sort of just mentioned us to Mart Sharpiro, who works for them.  I guess they got pumped about it and Frank sent me a message asking me if he could give my phone number to Carl from Ferret, “He wants to talk to you.”  I was just like “Uh… yea.” (Laughs) He said he would get a hold of me in a few days and Carl called like two hours later, and was like hey “We wanna send you a contract and blah blah blah.”  I was like “Oh.. Okay.” (Laughs)  We were all about it.  I mean why not?  Ferret is an amazing label.
 
Yeah and they’re starting to sign bands like you guys like Heavy Heavy Low Low I think is on….
 
AD: New Weatherman, which is an imprint of Ferret.
 
Is it a part of Ferret?
 
AD: It’s Nick Storch, who is a booking agent who deals a lot of with Ferret bands.  Carl kinda gave him a helping hand.  So it’s actually New Weatherman Records, which is an imprint of Ferret.
 
I’m glad you guys are on that label.  Like you guys said earlier, movies are a big influence for the band and the song titles.  Can you guys just name some of your favorite movies?  I mean I love movies too.
 
AD: Tommy Boy. (Laughs)
 
TM: Mallrats.
 
DS: Anything affiliated with David Cross.
 
AD: Mr. Show, definitely.
 
DS: Run Ronnie Run is a show movie.  It’s awesome, if you haven’t seen it you should.
 
AD: Six Feet Under and Arrested Development.
 
TM: Those are exclusively Andy, and we do not support them. (Laughs)  Um…Wayne’s World
 
DS: Wayne’s World we’re gonna start cashing in on.
 
You guys should cover the theme song.
 
TM: We thought about that but were gonna stick to the merch.
 
DS: We’re gonna have a shirt that’s just like “Party On” and then on the back it will have our logo.
 
That’s beautiful.  That is really about it, is there anything that you guys want to say, promote, or something like that?
 
TM: Has Fox said anything?
 
Yeah Fox back there has been mad quiet.
 
Fox: Uh… No. (Laughs)
 
AD: One of the main reasons why we got into this band was to get sponsors from like Quizno’s.  (Laughs)  Hungry Holly’s and Domino’s; anybody who wants to bring us food, cigarettes.
 
DS: We love cookies.
 
AD: Any baked goods, really.
 
Fox: Beer.
 
TM: Any non-diary products as well.
 
Fox Beer! (Laughs)
 
AD: Despite the fact that we’re in a church.
 
Fox: Yeah I just said that really loud.
 
But they give wine.
 
DS: I think it’s a little different than beer.  They usually give you like a sip and he drinks like a case.
 
Fox: I like beer.
 
So the number one thing would be beer?
 
DS: Well, on his list, but I don’t drink.  So no beer, but food, I like food.
 
AD: Free beer, free food, free cigarettes and free clothing.  That is what life is all about.
 
Fox: I like to look good. (Laughs)
 
www.myspace.com/seeyounexttuesday
www.seeyount.com
www.ferretstyle.com
 
I just want to thank Judy at Warm Fuzzy Publicity and Ian for helping set up the interview.  Most importantly, I want to thank the band for taking the time to sit down with me after their set and do the interview and for just being all-round cool dudes.