Interviews

Against Me!

Interview with Tom Gabel on Jun 25, 2007 by Archive Bot

On the Verge of New Wave, An Interview with Tom Gabel of Against Me!
 
I've had two previous opportunities to sit down with Tom Gabel, singer/guitarist of Against Me, for interviews. Both instances have been a pleasure. The first was in Chicago on the band's tour with Alkaline Trio, shortly after the announcement of AM's signing to Sire, and shortly before the release of Americans Abroad Against Me! Live in London. The second was in the midst of the band's first stint on Warped Tour, last summer. Before doing these, I'd read earlier interviews with Gabel, where arguments seemed to ensue between the interviewer and the interviewee. Every time, the hostility seemed provoked by an interviewer trying to challenge the convictions of the band.
 
I bring this up only because my experience has been the polar-opposite. Only in this third-encounter did Gabel seem to get mildly upset, and, I think, rightfully so, at the comment of how many articles have brought up the band's "branching out" from the folk-punk sound on New Wave, Against Me's most recent album, which will drop on July 10, 2007. Critics and fans have tried to pigeon-hole the band as something it's not for years now. After releasing Crime as Forgiven By with Plan-It-X, fans took it as a harsh blow that AM! moved on to that monolith of a record label known as…um…No Idea. Don't even get old fans started on how severely the band sold out when they moved on to the apparent corporate world that is Fat Wreck Chords. So, it's no wonder when the band made the official announcement of signing to Sire (Warner), it was tagged with, "For Your Message Board Disapproval."
 
The fact is that Against Me, in terms of their goals, is like most other bands out there. They are four talented guys that love to play music. They want the opportunity to do more with said music and want to see that music reach a larger audience, and they want to find this success without compromising what it is that got them started in the first place. So really, New Wave is just the next step in a series of moves that have helped evolved the career of a great band from Gainesville, FL. And to say more and try to label their style would be a discredit to the band, so I'll stop fighting for their cause. In the end, it's the ten songs on the new album that are going to make that point or turn people away.
 
In the most recent interview, this time facing the joys of reception over a phone interview, I spoke with Tom Gabel about the past, the present, and the future of Against Me!
 
 
By: William Jones
 
 
When we spoke a few months before the release of Americans Abroad, you said you weren't really fond of live albums, but recorded the one you guys did as a sort of going away gift to Fat. How do you think it turned out?
 
Tom Gabel: Actually, I was really happy with the way it ended up turning out. It was definitely a gamble doing it all in one shot. Most bands do a live record that consists of the best takes of songs from many shows. So, doing one show and putting all your eggs in one basket was really kind of nerve-wracking, but I was happy with the way it turned out. And actually, I wasn't necessarily expecting it, but it gave a little bit of closure on some songs, in a weird way. I feel some songs that we recorded don't actually sound like they do when we play them live. And I was always kind of disappointed with the recorded version of them. Doing a live record gave a weird chance to revisit those songs without doing something ridiculous like going back into the studio and re-recording them.
 
And how was the first Warped Tour experience for you guys last summer?
 
TG: Well, it was a very long summer. I don't know. You would definitely get different answers out of every single one of us if you were to ask that question. For me, I had a really good time. I really enjoyed it, but I don't know if that was necessarily just because of the company I was in, and if it would all be different should we do the Warped Tour another time. I had a great time. It was really fun. It was cool hanging out all summer, and it was definitely an adventure. It took me a good month and a half to recover from the whole tour after it was over [laughs].
 
Also during our previous interview, you mentioned your reasoning for choosing Sire over other majors—the bands that the label has previously worked with—and at the time, you said they were keeping mostly hands-off. Now that the record-cycle is moving into full-swing, are you still happy with the relationship between the band and label?
 
TG: Completely happy. I'm trying not to be naïve about anything, but I think we're in a good place where people at the label seem to be happy with the record we've made, and we're happy with the record we've made. So, hopefully, both side's expectations of what should happen with the record will be met, and we can continue having a good, working relationship. So far, they've been nothing but supportive. Any time we've been like, "Hey, we need some help with this," they totally obliged and have been great. I can't say enough about the label so far.
 
Awesome! And as far as the recording of New Wave goes—I think this is something many old fans may be concerned about—did Sire have a presence, or any sort of input while the record was being recorded?
 
TG: You know, that was definitely something we were worried about, too, especially because we ended up recording in LA, and Warner's offices are out there. So we were like, "Shit! They're going to be able to stop by whenever they want." But, I feel like we went into the whole process with a really open mind. We were willing to listen to people's suggestions, hear what people had to say about things and not closed-off and guarded. We made the record that we wanted to make, and at the same time, we're able to feel like other people were a part of making the record as well. I think that's only a good thing, really. We also had the advantage that Butch Vig was the producer … [phone reception bad for a few moments].
 
What was the experience of working with Butch Vig like?
 
TG: Within the first five minutes of hanging out with him, you're completely over the fact that he has made the records he has made, and he plays in the band he plays in, or whatever. You're just like, "yeah, I'm hanging out with Butch. My friend, Butch. We're going to make a record. It's going to be fun." He was rad. We were recording in Hollywood, and we were staying in Burbank at this weird place called The Oakwood, which, apparently, every band stays at when they're recording there because it's cheap and it's kind of a nice living accommodation. We’re out there for three months. It's such a weird place 'cause it's this gated, compound community that's all these condos. It's either bands, pornstars, or child actors that are living in them. So, the people walking around and hanging out by the pool are just total weirdos. [Laughs] Basically, we'd record six days a week. We'd wake up at 11 or noon, kind of at a leisurely pace, examined every song—really thought-out and methodical about the process. We had so much at our disposal, which was rad—so many amps and guitars and drum sets to figure out what sounds really complemented each song. It was great—couldn't have made a better record.
 
Against Me! just wrapped up a headlining tour with Fake Problems and Riverboat Gamblers for support. How are the new tracks going over live so far?
 
TG: It's always weird, 'cause we're a band, when we play, people tend to sing along and get into it. So, then when you throw the new song in, people just kind of stop and stare at you. So, for us, we're like, [timidly] "Do you like it? Is it cool? Are we still rockin?" [Laughs] We've had some people be like, "The song is awesome!" and we've had some people be like, "The song sucks!" That would be the expected response we thought we'd get from people, and so far, people are being just as we thought they would.
 
What is the significance of the album's title, New Wave?
 
TG: The record's named after a song on the record. The song on the record was almost a mission statement for how we were feeling about the record and what we wanted to come out of it. I feel like I wanted a fresh start, in a lot of ways. I like the idea—as opposed to sitting around and talking about all the things that have been done in the past, not even just for us as a band, but music in general, in politics, whatever, just sitting back and being complacent with the place you're at—[of] just getting re-energized and being optimistic about things, and coming out swinging.
 
Does this new start include the sound of the band? Everything I've read about the album has talked about AM! branching out from the folk-punk roots.
 
TG: Yeah, well, you know [laughs, not happily]. We've been kind of branching out from the folk-punk sound for awhile, just because I felt really limited by that…I don't know…Sometimes, it's like a running joke in the band—how many electric guitars can you put on the record until they stop calling you a folk-punk band? We didn't name the record first and then write the songs on it. We wrote the record, and then we're like, "Okay, the name of the record is New Wave." All the sounds on the record are just more of a natural progression of where we've been going as a band.
 
While the album still clocks in around 40 minutes, there are only ten tracks on New Wave? Why the shorter approach to the album this time around, and was there more material written and recorded?
 
TG: Yeah, actually, I wrote about 25 songs for the record. The amazing thing about working with Butch was that he pushed me. If we had written a record on our own, we would have written 14-15 songs and been like, "We're done. Let's record 'em." At a couple points, we were almost like, "all right, this is ridiculous. Let's just record."  [Reception lost, but Gabel makes comment on Butch Vig pushing him to do more.] I said at the beginning of the recording process, "I want to make a solid, ten-song record. I want to make a record that, front to back, is no filler—every single song is good. I feel ten songs is a good amount of songs for a record. It keeps your attention; you don't get bored. Hopefully, you want to listen to it again the second it's over. Some of my favorite records are ten songs. Shit, some of my favorite records are nine or eight songs long. We have ten songs on the record, and on the Mastodon tour we're about to do, we're releasing a 7". It's one of the songs off the record and a b-side that's not on the record. [Reception in and out, but Gabel mentions other songs that were recorded quickly, and that the band hopes to get them out one way or another].
 
How did the tour with Mastodon come about? Obviously, an interesting lineup.
 
TG: We're fans of them. They're fans of us. We have the same booking agent. [Laughs] It was suggested. The idea was thrown around, and we're like, "yeah, that sounds awesome." Everybody's really looking forward to the tour.
 
Are you worried at all that fans of theirs might not go for what you guys do, and it could just be a big disaster?
 
TG: We've had a bunch of people say stuff like that and ask that question—friends even. It's kind of boring just playing to an easy crowd every night—people that you know like you or whatever. The idea of going out there and playing in front of a crowd that maybe doesn’t necessarily like you or doesn't even know anything about you is cool; that's a challenge. You have to win that crowd over. You have to put on a good show and play your hardest. It's exciting. It's a challenge. I'm really into it.
 
Between signing to Fat, signing to Sire, etc., etc.—obviously, you guys have to make your own decisions and do what you feel is best for the band, but is that hard sometimes, when you seemed to be picked as one of those band's where everyone scrutinizes every move you make?
 
TG: No. I mean, it's not hard. The decisions we make are the decisions that are made because they're the best decisions. What weighs in on what makes a decision good is not…one of the factors is not, "Will this make message boards happy?" [Laughs] There are much more important things.
 
Do you guys have any follow-up plans for the songs on New Wave, such as the acoustic versions or remixes that you've done with past albums?
 
TG: We're hoping to get a couple more remixes done. We're also hoping to maybe do a couple more acoustic versions of songs. I like to do as much as possible. I like to take songs and examine them from as many different angles as you can—just deconstruct them and reconstruct them. With the remix thing, it's really cool because you can have other people examine your songs from different angles, and deconstruct them and reconstruct them.
 
One of the questions from a Punkbands.com reader—What do you think is the most influential band, for you, coming from Gainesville, either now, or when you were starting in the music scene there?
 
TG: It's hard to say, because Gainesville has such a history of really amazing bands. Definitely, when we were starting out and first starting to tour a lot, Hot Water Music is the obvious band that was—they're out there, they're doing it, they're touring all the time, they get to travel all over the place, it would be amazing to be at a level like that, they put on an awesome live show and they have great bands. So, they were definitely an influence in the beginning, not just musically, but as a model of a band, of what to aspire to be like. Again, so many bands that we've been friends with and toured with from Gainesville over the years…I don't know. A lot of bands.
 
For fans that don't know, you're a bit of a movie-buff. What's the last thing you've seen?
 
TG: The last movie I watched was Dune, the other night. [Laughs] I've seen it before, but that was the last movie I've watched. Recently, me and my girlfriend, we've been watching the Twin Peaks TV series DVDs. David Lynch made Dune, so we were into that. It's so weird watching Dune, just to see how many people from Dune go on to be in Twin Peaks. Dune's a good movie. It sucks; I haven't had the chance to go to the theatre and see any movies lately. I'm so behind. I want to see 300 really bad. I want to see the TMNT movie really bad.
 
Are there any bands you haven't toured with that would be sort of a dream tour for Against Me?
 
TG: We've actually been talking about this question lately, because we're going to do a headlining tour to support the record, obviously, when it comes out, and we're trying to figure out what bands we want to tour with. We've always wanted to tour with The Constantines. I think that would be fun. I'm a fan of their band. We've thrown around the idea before of the possibility of a tour with Ted Leo. I don't know; we've been really lucky and have gotten to tour with a lot of the bands we've wanted to tour with, so at this point it's kind of like, "shit, we're running out of bands."
 
Now that we've spent the last fifteen minutes doing this, something just came to mind. Every time I've seen Against Me! live, the focus always seems to be the music, rather than stage banter or anything like that. I'm wondering now, what you think of interviews. Do they defeat the purpose of letting the music speak for itself, or do you enjoy doing these?
 
TG: I feel like I'm really bad at interviews, so I get really nervous about them. When I usually get off the phone or finish talking to whoever is doing the interview, I feel really stupid about the answers I gave. I think of a bunch of stuff I wish I would have said.  I wish I was good at interviews. I wish I was a funny guy and could get up on stage and say things where people would be like, "Oh, he's hilarious. Look at him." [Laughs] But, I'm just not, so I've kind of got to work with what I've got.
 
Thanks to Tom for his time and Renee at Warner for hookin’ everything up.
 
www.againstme.net
www.myspace.com/againstme
www.sirerecords.com