|
Push to Fire Interview: Four Year Strong
Upon entering the small, dark dressing room where all five members of Four Year Strong were patiently waiting, the conversation was in mid-flow with Josh (synthesizer/vocals) attempting to explain the injury on his shin. ”I ate shit”, he ventures. Dan (guitar/vocals) chips in with the explanation, “he eats shit all the time” before Josh clarifies with “oh, I mean I fell. Do you guys say ‘eat shit’ over here for falling? I’m not, like, hungry for turds.” This sets the tone for the rest of the interview as they discuss their thoughts on touring the UK and crack jokes fairly relentlessly.
The following that Four Year Strong has gained in the UK is made all the more impressive by the fact that they haven’t been playing gigs over here for very long at all. Alan (guitar/vocals) explains, “The first time we came over here was in 2008 for the Give It a Name arena gigs. I think it was in Sheffield and London or something”. “Yeah”, Dan confirms, “the London show was in Earl’s Court. We did the follow-up Give It a Name tour as well through a bunch of smaller venues.” Alan continues, “That first tour was awesome. Kids were going crazy the entire time. The UK fans have always been awesome.” “The girls are better dressed over here”, adds Dan.
Joining the line-up of this particular tour that includes frequent visitors to the UK Alexisonfire and punk veterans Anti-Flag indicates just how well respected this band are already. This is highlighted by the fact that it was Anti-Flag who asked FYS to join the tour in the first place. “Anti-flag had asked us to tour with them a few times in the past but we never could for one reason or another,” Dan explains, “so when Fall of Troy dropped off the tour, they put our name forward and we luckily had nothing planned so we could do it.” In response to such serious discussion, Josh chimes in with “every time I see the Famous Stars and Straps ‘F’, I think of Futurama for some reason. I don’t know why, there’s no reason to it, that’s the end of that story… Just saying…” Clearly this is not a band that gets bogged down with the business side of band life if they can help it and keep a healthy injection of madness at any possible interval.
After this tour the band’s tour schedule shows a two month gap with no gigs booked at all, but the time off from tour is not set aside to record the highly anticipated next album. “Recording’s done,” says Dan. “We finished recording the new record the day before we came to the UK. We won’t be playing any new songs on this tour though because we haven’t had time to actually learn them yet. We literally left the studio, went home, did laundry, and came here.” “I didn’t do laundry,” comments Alan, “well, I didn’t personally do my laundry, my Mom did it.” “I wish I did laundry,” adds Jake (drums) with a wistful expression. He perks up when explaining that the two month gap in touring is set aside for “time off. Time, the fuck, off.” “We’re gonna do a holiday show at home,” Dan reveals, “but mostly we’re just gonna take time off and practice new songs and get ready to start touring our new record.” “And look at internet porn once my parents go to bed” says Josh with a serious expression. “My three cats are waiting for me too, I can’t wait.”
Four Year Strong’s records are teeming with ever-changing song structure and hundreds of pounding riffs and beats. It’s as if each song has a dozen choruses. The band members aren’t giving away any secrets about how these unique songs come about in the writing process however as Alan starts, “one of us usually dreams it up and then we just create it out of thin air. One of us dreams up the structure, and then another one shits out the lyrics.” “Yeah, we’ll just, like, huff some light bulbs and go from there,” adds Dan with a grin. Joe (bass) speaks up for the first time that their slogan, if they had one, would be “bridging the gap between ass to ass.” Josh simplifies this by declaring “we are the double-sided dildo.” “Our next record should totally be called “We Are the Double-Sided Dildo,” laughs Dan.
Talking about what makes a Four Year Strong show great brings the conversation to a more serious level with Dan offering that for him “the best shows are the ones where everyone in the crowd knows all our songs, but also when the security are cool with letting the kids do whatever they want. Like, last night a kid climbed up onto a big speaker and jumped off of it. That stuff always makes a show cool. That Underworld show that we played last time we were in London was fuckin’ awesome.“ “I loved that show,” adds Joe. “I wish there were way less barriers on this tour, way less. Hopefully the kids will break through it tonight or something.”
For a band inciting rock fans all over the world, their hopes for progression are rather humble as they don’t mind what happens over the next few years in the band, as long as they can do well enough to move out of their parents’ houses. “If I could get a dog and not be living in my parents’ house, that’d be great,” says Josh with his most serious response yet. Joe pounces on this by adding “so, you could be homeless and just have a dog though, right?” Giving in to the tone of the conversation, the final question asked them to describe their weapon of choice in the event of a zombie apocalypse, to which Josh lets out an “oh my God” with Jake explaining that “you just gave Josh a boner by asking that question.” “I would be happier than a pig in shit if there were a zombie apocalypse right now,” explains Josh. “I’d probably go for a shotgun… or just a shark tooth.” Alan chimes in with “chainsaw” before Dan muses that “a sickle would be cool.” “Sure, as long as it had like, the two handles,” notes Josh seriously, “So, basically, agricultural tools.” Alan rounds it off by adding “a weed-wacker. Have you seen that Peter Jackson movie? Brain Dead?” Is that a weapon of choice? “Haha! Peter Jackson,” exclaims Josh. “Peter Jackson would be my weapon of choice.”
| |||
| |||