So you guys have a new album out - Disambiguation - what are your thoughts about it?
We all feel like it’s our best album so far. We feel that way every time we record a record. I feel like if we don’t feel that way, there’s really no reason to put it out. We’re all stoked and excited!
What would you say your main musical influences were in the writing of the new album, Disambiguation?
I think it’s different for everyone in Underoath, and that’s what makes Underoath kind
of special, everyone likes different things. But for me, Nine Inch Nails and the Deftones
were big influences on me.
What’s Underoath’s favorite song to play live out of all the years you guys have
been together as one of the “founding father” hardcore bands?
It depends really. I think now anything off of the new record is our favorite, since we
haven’t played it a million times, you know, and we’re most proud of our newer stuff, so
it’s tough to say. Paper Lung is really fun to play, Who Will Guard The Guardians really
fun to play because there’s a lot of stuff happening in that song. Basically anything off
the new record is more fun.
If you could tour with any bands, dead or alive, what would your ‘dream tour’ be?
There’s the obvious ones, like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, obviously we wouldn’t fit in
at all [laughs]. But dead or alive, Nirvana would have been awesome. We really want to
tour with the Deftones actually, which is very feasible but we just haven’t done it yet.
How has Aaron Gillespie leaving Underoath affected you guys?
It was just a mutual decision on all members’ parts, and I think it would have been either
been the band stops or we’d have just parted ways. So I think it’s the best change we’ve
ever had, we’re a stronger unit now and way happier. He writes better music on his own
and we write better music without him so I think it’s an all-around win-win situation. So
yeah, it’s definitely effected us in a very positive way.
Where do you see yourselves in five years? Where do you want to be and what do
you see your self doing?
Realistically, hopefully still touring. It’s a scary world out there for the whole music
industry as it is. It’s getting harder to sell records and it’s getting even harder to get
people to come out to the shows because of the economy, no one wants to spend
money. As long as we can maintain and hopefully – I mean, obviously the goal isn’t to become bigger just because it’s better to be bigger – we want to play for as many
people as possible so the goal is to just surpass where we are right now. We’ll be happy
if we can just stay on the road, really.
What is Underoath’s mission statement, so to speak; what do you guys try to
communicate with your music?
Just honesty, really. We try to be honest people, and we try to write honest music, not
for any other reason besides the artistic reason of what music should be. I feel like
that’s what our goal as a band is, just to be honest people and to write honest music.
Do you guys have any other upcoming releases that fans should know about?
Yeah, we have a video for Paper Lung that should be out within the next couple weeks
[as of January 26, 2011]. We shot it and it was supposed to be out now but I think it’s
still in postproduction area right now so I’d say it’ll be out in anywhere from a week to
two or three weeks. The sooner the better, obviously, but that’ll be the next video.
Do you have any shout-outs to fans or anyone who might come across this
interview?
Yeah! Come out to this tour, Animals As Leaders is a must-see, Thursday’s doing the
Full Collapse thing and we’re doing an hour and fifteen-minute set full of all sorts of
material, from old stuff we haven’t played in a while to stuff off the new record. I just tell
fans to basically just support the bands that they love because supporting live music
is what keeps the bands alive and allows them to come back to these cities that the
fans live in. So if a band’s coming through that you like, you should go watch them and
support them because that’s really how they maintain themselves and survive!
