|
|
|
By John B. Moore Irony Men The road between Crimson and Agony & Irony has not been without its bumps and pit stops for goth punks Alkaline Trio. The Chicago natives left their long-time label Vagrant for V2 Records, only to see their new home close up shop almost overnight. While looking for a new label, the band wrote a new record, scrapped the songs and started over again. For a guy not exactly known for bursts of cheerfulness, frontman Matt Skiba is pretty sanguine about the new songs and almost grateful for all the band — which also includes bassist Dan Andriano and drummer Derek Grant — has gone through. He took time recently to speak with Mean Street about the new record. Let’s start out by talking about your new record. We’re really excited about it. There were definitely some bumps in the road making it. It took us basically about two and a half years to write the record, but it only took us about six weeks to record it. We had a record written and done and ready to go and we had some label complications, but we also knew in the back of our minds that we weren’t making the best record that we could make. Though the label sh*t and all the pitfalls we had to go through were actually a real blessing in disguise because we now have a record that all three of us are really proud of. We feel pretty strongly that this is our best record. You mentioned your label troubles early on. When V2 shut down, did you consider going back to Vagrant or another indie label or just releasing this one on your own? Yeah, we kind of went through every option. Going back to Vagrant wasn’t one because we wanted to take a step forward and that’s what V2 was supposed to be. We didn’t really have a rule that we needed to go with an indie or a major, we always just wanted to work with people that we liked and that we trust and be on a label that puts out records. We considered putting it out ourselves, but because we’d never done that it felt like we were biting off a little more than we could chew. Writing a good record was the A-No. 1 priority for us and I felt like if we started getting ourselves a little too heavy into the business side of things it might get too distracting. So obviously it’s not the greatest time for the music industry, but when you have someone that you trust and that you know is a genuine fan of the band and a friend, it feels a whole lot better. Luckily we found out that our friend Andy Gershon was going over to Epic and he invited us along. In an interview with Against Me! they said one of the reasons they went to Sire was that more people would have the opportunity to hear their music. Was that a factor in signing with Epic? I definitely think that’s a plus. I really feel like — and maybe I’m jinxing myself saying this — we started this band because we wanted this to be our career. There are bands like Social Distortion and Rancid, that as long as they keep making great records, people will keep coming to their shows. I feel like as long as we keep throwing down, we’re going to keep having people who come to our shows and maybe a few people picking up our records. But with Epic, we now have the potential to reach a lot more people and for the band to take the next step. I am more than thrilled and thankful for where I am in my career, but certainly the more the merrier and having that chance to grow is very inviting. So our buddy went over to this label and we knew he knew what he was doing and everyone we worked with on the business side had great relationships with the label, so everything was sort of in place for us. It’s been really un-scary for us. Not having that glass ceiling that a lot of indies have is nice. On the web: alkalinetrio.com |
|||||||||||||||||
|
Copyright © 2002 Mean Street Magazine, LLC |
||||||||||||||||||
