Push to Fire: Four Year Strong Interview

Push to Fire Interview: Four Year Strong
by Steve O'Gallagher

Since Push To Fire last caught up with the Four Year Strong lads they’ve released their new record “Enemy of the World” and have been touring hard which has finally led to their return to the shores. After a successful weekend of the Slam Dunk Festival gigs north and south of the UK, guitarist and co-lead vocalist Alan Day had a quick chat with Steve before their headline show back at the O2 Islington Academy.
You know it’s a sign of the times when the conversation opens up with a reference to the bands Twitter profile, but one of their recent “tweets” stated that the Leeds portion of the Slam Dunk Festival was “one of the best shows (if not the best show)” they’ve ever played. “Yeah, that Leeds shows was just incredible. Definitely our best show in the uk to date because there were so many people there who all knew the words to our songs. It seemed like the whole crowd was there with their hands in the air singing every word. We always have great shows in the UK because the kids are amazing to us; they’re always packed with energy and just nuts the whole time, but Leeds was just that to the 10th power.” Although their latest album is still fairly new to the fans’ ears, Alan has noticed that in the UK the new songs are being as well received live as some of the older and better known anthems. “It’s actually hard to tell which are getting the better responses live. For a while the older songs would go down a little better, but over here the new songs have been received very well.”
Four Year Strong have always been a band for whom their live performances are noteworthy as they clearly put a lot of effort into them, but they put an equal amount of effort into the writing and recording process for the records. “The recording process is extremely important because that’s what lives on after. You play a live show and you hope that the kids will remember that show for the rest of their lives if it’s good enough, but really that show isn’t forever whereas a record is so we definitely try really hard to make sure that it’s perfect to what FYS is. We want to make sure the live show is a awesome as possible though. Even if we’re sick with flu we’ll still get up on stage and give it our all no matter what. We don’t cancel shows."
The day after their Islington show the band were due to film a couple of new music videos in London for songs “It Must Really Suck to be Four Year Strong Right Now” and “Wasting Time”. “We did shoot a video for Wasting Time over in the states,” Alan reveals, “but things happen and it just hasn’t actually come out yet.” One ‘video’ for Wasting Time that did come out, at least on YouTube, in the form of a mime video of the track courtesy of YouTube ce-web-rity nicholifavs which featured Decadence label owner Pete Wentz as well as other rock stars before the record was released. “I didn’t even know about that until I saw it on YouTube. Pete owns the label we’re on and we’re friends with the other musicians that were in that video as we’ve toured with them all, so it was funny for us to see them do that. It was great.”
American fans will have the chance to see Four Year Strong on the famous Warped Tour this summer: a tour which the band did for the first time two years ago and which for Alan was “probably the best summer of my life.” The Warped Tour is a notoriously long ordeal for bands doing the whole stretch however, something which can really take its toll. “Touring gets pretty hard. The hardest tour I’ve ever done was actually the last time we were over here with Anti-Flag, Alexisonfire and Ghost of a Thousand. I mean, the tour was amazing but it was just so long away from home without being able to have much contact with home. It sucks to be away from girlfriends or family for a long time, but we knew what we were getting into. It’s been our dream and to get to do it now, we can’t really complain.” The band don’t come across as taking their situation for granted and express relish for their chance to tour the world over. “It’s so crazy that we managed to take this far enough to be able to travel the world and get paid to do it. We don’t even need to pay to go on these massive vacations. Really no words can describe how it feels to be able to do this and live out our dreams.” The biggest surprise they’ve found touring the world as been in Japan as the fans have a unique way of enjoying their live shows over there. “In Japan they go absolutely nuts throughout the song, like jumping around and going crazy, and then when the songs is over they all stand still just politely clapping, and then go perfectly quiet. It’s odd but it’s awesome.”
Many bands pass over a precipice between working day jobs and deciding to ditch them in favour of trying to do the band full time, but this hasn’t been the experience for Alan. “I never really had a job. I’ve kinda been doing this full time since I can remember because I’ve been doing it since around 2001 when I was a freshman in high school. I actually missed the majority of my senior year from touring the states. I did work a few weeks at a grocery store though but it sucked. I quit and didn’t tell them about it, I just stopped showing up. I had a pretty hard time getting my last paycheck (laughs). The band is something I’ve always wanted to do so I’ve always taken it really seriously. Any chance to play shows or tour, I took it. All I really wanted money for was to buy guitars.” Now that they finally earning enough money for much than just new guitars, Four Year Strong are closer to being able to move out of their parents’ houses as they mentioned in the previous Push To Fire interview. “I am still living in my parents house right now, which isn’t too bad really. I mean I save a lot of money by not having to pay rent in a place that I’m not actually going to be in for most of the year. I like the idea of being able to be my own person and support myself but living at home really isn’t that bad. I’m at the point where I could move out now, but it doesn’t make sense to do so right now.”
According the Alan, Four Year Strong are united in their aspirations to take the band as far and wide as possible for as long as possible and aren’t putting a cap on how successful they’d like to be. “We’d like to take this band as far as it can go. We don’t have this idea of “we want to stay underground”. We want to stay FYS, we don’t want to change and become something else, but we want FYS to naturally progress to whatever that will be. If we could be as big as, say, Aerosmith and still play shows around the world then sure, we’d love to do that. If it doesn’t work out like that though, we still want to be Four Year Strong for as long as possible.”

Thanks to Chris for organising this for us and to Alan from Four Year Strong for speaking to Steve. Photo supplied by PR. Find more info and music clips on their MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/fouryearstrong.

Push to Fire Interview: Four Year Strong by Steve O'Gallagher Since Push To Fire last caught up with the Four Year Strong lads they’ve released their new record “Enemy of the World” and have been touring hard which has finally led to their return to the shores. After a successful weekend of the Slam Dunk Festival gigs north and south of the UK, guitarist and co-lead vocalist Alan Day had a quick chat with Steve before their headline show back at the O2 Islington Academy. You know it’s a sign of the times when the conversation opens up with a reference to the bands Twitter profile, but one of their recent “tweets” stated that the Leeds portion of the Slam Dunk Festival was “one of the best shows (if not the best show)” they’ve ever played. “Yeah, that Leeds shows was just incredible. Definitely our best show in the uk to date because there were so many people there who all knew the words to our songs. It seemed like the whole crowd was there with their hands in the air singing every word. We always have great shows in the UK because the kids are amazing to us; they’re always packed with energy and just nuts the whole time, but Leeds was just that to the 10th power.” Although their latest album is still fairly new to the fans’ ears, Alan has noticed that in the UK the new songs are being as well received live as some of the older and better known anthems. “It’s actually hard to tell which are getting the better responses live. For a while the older songs would go down a little better, but over here the new songs have been received very well.” Four Year Strong have always been a band for whom their live performances are noteworthy as they clearly put a lot of effort into them, but they put an equal amount of effort into the writing and recording process for the records. “The recording process is extremely important because that’s what lives on after. You play a live show and you hope that the kids will remember that show for the rest of their lives if it’s good enough, but really that show isn’t forever whereas a record is so we definitely try really hard to make sure that it’s perfect to what FYS is. We want to make sure the live show is a awesome as possible though. Even if we’re sick with flu we’ll still get up on stage and give it our all no matter what. We don’t cancel shows." The day after their Islington show the band were due to film a couple of new music videos in London for songs “It Must Really Suck to be Four Year Strong Right Now” and “Wasting Time”. “We did shoot a video for Wasting Time over in the states,” Alan reveals, “but things happen and it just hasn’t actually come out yet.” One ‘video’ for Wasting Time that did come out, at least on YouTube, in the form of a mime video of the track courtesy of YouTube ce-web-rity nicholifavs which featured Decadence label owner Pete Wentz as well as other rock stars before the record was released. “I didn’t even know about that until I saw it on YouTube. Pete owns the label we’re on and we’re friends with the other musicians that were in that video as we’ve toured with them all, so it was funny for us to see them do that. It was great.” American fans will have the chance to see Four Year Strong on the famous Warped Tour this summer: a tour which the band did for the first time two years ago and which for Alan was “probably the best summer of my life.” The Warped Tour is a notoriously long ordeal for bands doing the whole stretch however, something which can really take its toll. “Touring gets pretty hard. The hardest tour I’ve ever done was actually the last time we were over here with Anti-Flag, Alexisonfire and Ghost of a Thousand. I mean, the tour was amazing but it was just so long away from home without being able to have much contact with home. It sucks to be away from girlfriends or family for a long time, but we knew what we were getting into. It’s been our dream and to get to do it now, we can’t really complain.” The band don’t come across as taking their situation for granted and express relish for their chance to tour the world over. “It’s so crazy that we managed to take this far enough to be able to travel the world and get paid to do it. We don’t even need to pay to go on these massive vacations. Really no words can describe how it feels to be able to do this and live out our dreams.” The biggest surprise they’ve found touring the world as been in Japan as the fans have a unique way of enjoying their live shows over there. “In Japan they go absolutely nuts throughout the song, like jumping around and going crazy, and then when the songs is over they all stand still just politely clapping, and then go perfectly quiet. It’s odd but it’s awesome.” Many bands pass over a precipice between working day jobs and deciding to ditch them in favour of trying to do the band full time, but this hasn’t been the experience for Alan. “I never really had a job. I’ve kinda been doing this full time since I can remember because I’ve been doing it since around 2001 when I was a freshman in high school. I actually missed the majority of my senior year from touring the states. I did work a few weeks at a grocery store though but it sucked. I quit and didn’t tell them about it, I just stopped showing up. I had a pretty hard time getting my last paycheck (laughs). The band is something I’ve always wanted to do so I’ve always taken it really seriously. Any chance to play shows or tour, I took it. All I really wanted money for was to buy guitars.” Now that they finally earning enough money for much than just new guitars, Four Year Strong are closer to being able to move out of their parents’ houses as they mentioned in the previous Push To Fire interview. “I am still living in my parents house right now, which isn’t too bad really. I mean I save a lot of money by not having to pay rent in a place that I’m not actually going to be in for most of the year. I like the idea of being able to be my own person and support myself but living at home really isn’t that bad. I’m at the point where I could move out now, but it doesn’t make sense to do so right now.” According the Alan, Four Year Strong are united in their aspirations to take the band as far and wide as possible for as long as possible and aren’t putting a cap on how successful they’d like to be. “We’d like to take this band as far as it can go. We don’t have this idea of “we want to stay underground”. We want to stay FYS, we don’t want to change and become something else, but we want FYS to naturally progress to whatever that will be. If we could be as big as, say, Aerosmith and still play shows around the world then sure, we’d love to do that. If it doesn’t work out like that though, we still want to be Four Year Strong for as long as possible.”
Thanks to Chris for organising this for us and to Alan from Four Year Strong for speaking to Steve. Photo supplied by PR. Find more info and music clips on their MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/fouryearstrong.