IOP : Questions and Answers (Victory Records, 2006) is inspired by a lot of tragedy, loss and heartache. The drive behind the concept was apparent in Q&A with the loss of Beatz [John “Beatz” Holohan, Bayside]. In the wake of Casey’s [Calvert, Hawthorne Heights] passing, has the perseverance behind such dark music and lyrics been recharged? Will you be leading towards a similar sound or might you be going for something completely different?
DR : Well, the way I have been writing…it’s weird. I’ve had a lot of weird things happen. People move away from me and I have been put in spots I really don’t feel comfortable being in. A lot of stuff has happened to me with an ex; who actually, a lot of the other record is about.
IOP : The artwork for that album is awesome, by the way.
DR : Oh, thank you! It actually got nominated for some art thing. |
|
|
IOP : Did it?
DR : Yeah. Not even bragging ‘cause it’s one of those things that you don’t hear about. I don’t know if it won or not, but it was definitely nominated for ‘Best Art Layout’ or ‘Best Layout’ or some weird shit like that. It’s cool. Our friend Jeremy did it. Everything is so DIY. Almost everything we still do is always do it yourself. And that whole layout of that record, all the pictures, it was all done by some of our close friends. So it’s cool to know that I open that and…you know the dude sitting on the couch on the cover of the record? |
IOP : Yeah
DR : That’s Sal [Mignano, Bass] just drawn over by our friend who’s an artist. So it’s really cool, you know? Every time I look at that I see all kinds of crazy shit. The room Sal is sitting in? That’s Joe’s [Zizzo, Drums] grandma’s house. One of her son’s is an antique collector, so she has all antique everything. So when you look at it, it looks like a really, really old house. We did that about a month or two before we started recording.
IOP : You guys recorded [Q&A] in Woodstock right?
DR : Yup! Actually, it’s the tourist town of Woodstock. It’s kinda crazy.
IOP : You were holed up there for a while, weren’t you?
DR : Yeah. Well, that one was a few weeks…about a month.
IOP : What was it like though? Not to get too personal…
DR : No, no. Please, go ahead. |
|
IOP : People say that you go through stages with such a loss and I am wondering if it ever got to the point where with the emotions felt, both individually and collectively, that not only was it hard to record Questions and Answers, but also to perform the songs night after night? ‘Heart Beatz’ gives me chills no matter how many times I listen to it, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Have you ever found yourself at the point of “I don’t know if I can perform this one tonight”?
|
DR : It’s weird. You get older and you realize that it’s not always about grief, you know what I mean? And even though we were fucking destroyed when all that shit happened, we wrote that for Beatz. We want him to hear it. I don’t believe in religion or anything, but I know my friend and his spirit, and I know he’s here. He’s with me, inside of me all the time. When we wrote it we were all just like “This is for Beatz and when we play it, we’re gonna fucking play it!” Yeah, it’s really fucking emotional, but we want him to hear it. He was one of our best friends and we want him to know that. He’s here with us no matter what. |
So, whenever we have played [Heart Beatz] it wasn’t ever like “Fuck, this is really hard to play”, it was more like “Yo, this shit’s for Beatz” and we get pumped and want to do our best with it, every time. We want him to hear it in its entirety, as fucking good as we can play. It makes me happy when we play it. We get to shout him out, and it just makes me so happy that in such a shitty situation, people learned to realize who he was. All the people that met him, all of his close friends, we were able to spread how nice of a person he was and it made him almost immortal…it made him like a martyr. |
|
He lives through everyone, and everyone knows who he is. The crowds always cheer for him a loud as they can and that’s what we want to do; we want people to know who Beatz was. I love hearing about how people learned of how amazing of a person he was. You never want anything like that to happen, but the good that came out of it is that people now know how much of a good soul he was. He would always meet fans, and he always had the people that he wanted to be, standing right beside him. He was an all around good friend and it was really cool to pay homage to him.
IOP : People like Beatz and Casey passing so early on in their lives, they epitomize the phrase “only the good die young.” It’s nice to see the recognition carried on. To see you guys step up night after night and basically say “You will not forget, because we never will...”
|
DR : Yeah. Hell yeah. We never will. Same with Casey. It’s new, it just happened and it’s the worst thing ever, but people are going to know about it. People are going to hear that he was such a good person, too. Music is a message and it doesn’t always have to be about a girlfriend or boyfriend breaking up with you, or some weird typical lyrical motive. People go through the most fucked up shit and everybody writes about it in their own way. We don’t really want to sugarcoat anything. We want people to relate, word for word. I’m not here to write as if, like, “Ok, we have to record the next record? Here are some lyrics.” Shit like that gets in your head, and you learn that writing. Not so much in a negative way, but more in a hopeful way, you know what I mean? |
IOP : Yeah, absolutely.
DR : It’s not as typical and it’s true. I write about a lot of negative stuff, but in a lot of my lyrics its like “the worst of the worst can happen to you, but no matter what, you’re always gonna be okay”. You gotta fucking hold on. Whether it’s about that, or…’Dearest Mistake’ is about how my ex girlfriend and I were just done with. Four and a half years of a relationship, and its all over. That whole song is about how you can love someone but sometimes it’s not right. I’m not here to sugarcoat it and write about a girl who broke my heart…whatever. Yeah, she broke my heart, but I’m gonna fucking get over it, because obviously it’s not meant to be. I show people the logical side of what’s going on before you end up breaking down. Everybody’s gotta keep their head up in some way. I’m not the most positive dude, trust me. I have a lot of fucked up issues. But, when I write, I want to know that I am in that spot where I can be okay. ‘Cause if you don’t, well, then you’re fucked. |
|
IOP : ‘If Your Heart Was Broken, You Would Be Dead’ has become somewhat of an anthem for you guys. To witness the fan reaction from that song…they get this glazed over look in their eyes that I can only describe as “fixed fists up and a “fuck you.” I’m just wondering how you guys see that song; as well as the fans reaction to it?
|
DR : It’s sick. I love the crowd reaction to that song. The best part about it is that it was kind of a joke song, which makes me so happy because a lot of it was…okay, this is why we love this song. It’s sort of a hidden message to typical bands that just write shit. Like, “If your heart was broken, you would be dead.” People sometimes write the most typical lyrics, like “I love you, you broke my heart. My black eyes no longer bleed for you.” You know, shit where you can tell kids are just writing it just to write it? I give props to anyone for being in a band, but be in a band for the right reasons. So that song was kind of like our “fuck you” to people who write songs about shit like that, to people who write in the most typical form. |
| And, you know, it’s all for a reason. Sal had a girlfriend for a very long time, a long time ago when the band first started. They ended up breaking up and he was kind of bumming, but he said one day when he woke up “If your heart was broken, you would be dead. Fuck it.” That’s where it holds its severity, too, because it’s right. Quit fucking crying about it. Things fucking happen and it’s the worst shit ever and it could bum you out for days; you could be stuck in a room collapsed on the floor, but things are going to get better and you have to believe that. If your heart was broken you would be dead. Like, what the fuck? Obviously you’re not fucking physically dead. Yeah, you’re mentally and emotionally fucked up, and that’s good because it fuels processes like writing or creating, and that shit should be able to get most any one out of the most fucked up situations. It’s you and it’s your hope that can help you realize that you don’t need a certain something or someone to fuck you over, and for you to dwell on that? You don’t need any of that shit. Once it happens you can focus on what you love and it just balloons into the sickest shit. |
|
IOP : Safe to say that song is a statement of: You can move on, and we are going to be here to back you?
|
DR : Hell yeah. That’s all it’s about. You have friends that will always back you. I love playing the most deep, emotional shit, because I fucking feel like shit every day at one point. That’s what I love. I love being there for people in any way that I can, because I know how it feels. I’ve been depressed and I’ve had a lot of fucked up things happen, just like everyone else. I’ve been at the point of my absolute lowest, and I am not going to do anything that I would ever regret, but I just sit at home and I’m like “I can’t do any of this…I can’t feel anything…I don’t feel right.” But then I write about something I’m feeling, but more of a hopeful side. I’ve always had friends tell me “You’re the life of the party” and that I’m “always hanging out with everyone”, but I know that something’s wrong and that’s how I have always been. |
| I always want to make people feel better so that, in my situation, I’m ok with it and I’m not freaking out. Someone else is feeling better and I’m there. I realize now, that [with writing and performing] I can feel better with writing for people and trying to make them feel better, and that makes me really happy. Like I said, every day there are hours, minutes, whatever, that I get this fucked up feeling, but what happens at the end of the night when I see these kids, whether it’s one kid or a million kids, just seeing them understanding and feeling it; they’re not just listening, but soaking everything in. That’s what I want to do with for the rest of my life. I’ll play in a bar with only a guitar, so long as people understand it. To be able to be with a band of friends that you love more than anything, as such a tight unit? To see a fucking floor packed with kids either moving or singing along? That makes me feel like a good person. It’s how I get in my good deed for the day. Even if it’s just one kid, it’s the best feeling ever. I feel like an honest person who tries so hard to let other kids know I’ve been there, and it’s gonna be fucking fine. |
|
|
You have any problems, listen to this and I’ll tell you again. Everybody in the band, as far as instrumentation…it’s just awesome to be in a band with three other people who do just that, but with their instrument(s). Some people don’t get us and we don’t care. Whether we do a lot at once or it’s not of a certain style, we go over a lot of people’s heads. I would honestly rather have it be 50, 100, or even 10 people who understood. I would rather have them feeling it more than they have ever felt any other band, than the kid in the corner like “Yeah, that’s sick…whatever.” I’ll take the 10 fans that freak out. |
IOP : When Robg presented me with Icons of Punk and told me to roll with it, one of the first bands that I thought of to spotlight was you guys. You really have stayed true to DIY. Before Victory, before One Day Savior, before any of that, you guys just said “fuck it”. You got in a van and you haven’t been back, since.
DR : Yeah, it’s kinda crazy.
IOP : With that, this tour is coming to an end and I saw that you have no other tours planned? I know that you’re planning on recording your third album, your second off of Victory. After touring relentlessly for so long, do you somewhat fear the break, or do you love the idea of your newest challenge?
| DR : I love it, but it makes me nervous. We are going to have a lot of time off after this record. We have been touring non stop so we’re going to take a few months off and that’s what’s scaring me. We are so used to being non stop that once we actually have a proper amount of time off we’re just gonna be like “What the fuck?” Someone is going to be in a room jamming or on vacation with a loved one, and it’s just calling each other being like, “Yo, this is what we gotta do…This’ll work, but let’s try this.” It’s never like we just stop, someone is always doing at least one thing. We all want our time off and we’re going to do our best, especially now because we need to; we haven’t had a break in so long. |
|
We love each other, but it’s time to chill the fuck out. I’m gonna go eat with my family! But, I know that’s not how we are going to be. We’re gonna wait like, 2 weeks - its always 2 to 3 weeks when we are off for a long period of time, which is never - so it will be about 2 weeks, and then we have about a week straight before we go back out where no one is home, everyone is at practice or grabbing merch, editing the MySpace or talking to someone; it never stops. It’s kinda like Jenga, you know what I mean?
|
IOP : That’s a great way to describe it. Holding your breath, hoping that the pieces don’t fall?
DR : Yeah, exactly. We gotta fucking make sure everything is connected. If not, we’re gonna go out and that one thing is going to be fucked up and we’re just gonna be like “Fuck!”
IOP : In a recent interview you stated that you hadn’t decided yet where you would be recording the new album. Have you guys since decided?
DR : Well, we’re probably going to go back to the same people to record, Mike Birnbaum and Chris Bittner. We’ve done every record with them, so far, and we just love them. They were in Woodstock when we did the first record, and they’re just about the best people, ever. They’re producers that have feel, they’re not just trying to make the next big thing. They want to do what we do and create a unique sound. |
| They’ve done all of the Coheed records except for the last two, and they have done codeseven, as well. We want to go back to them, ‘cause they’re just the best dudes. We have had offers from other people, which we always check out, just to see what they have to offer us, but our hearts always go with Mike and Chris. They’re dudes who just know what music is, and they appreciate it. They’re not just trying to fucking cut a record. With them it’s like “Alright, let’s get some sick tones…Let’s get some feel in this part” or “This part doesn’t dig in enough” and that’s what we want, we want to fucking dig in. |
|
IOP : So I guess you won’t be heading any place warmer than New York in the winter time?
DR : [laughs] It is fucking freezing every time we go there. You’re right, it’s fucking freezing in Woodstock. It’s cold, it’s shitty and there really is, like, no heat. But, when we are all in the log cabin together and we’re all partying or whatever we are doing, writing, cooking…just fucking sitting there waiting in line for the oven.
IOP : Misery provokes good music?
DR : Yeah, you know? We are all fucking shitty, but we look at each other and we’re just like, “Fuck it”. We are all just retarded in a room together.
IOP : Have you come up with a title for the new record?
|
DR : We haven’t come up with anything. We’re just a hippie band that jams, and if we remember something we’ll try to make a song out of it, live, in the room. We don’t have formations or anything until we start jamming together; nothing is set in stone. What’s the point of naming our title now, when you don’t feel anything? There’s no writing process for you to feel. We make albums, and every time we’re done with a record, that’s when we’re like, “Alright, what do we want to call this?” What are you going to do? You’re gonna write this entire record and call it something like “The Lighthouse Down the Road”, and you’re gonna write the most retarded shit about like fucking murder and shit like that? |
Or you’re going to write about your girlfriend leaving you on a New Jersey Parkway…you can’t really plan stuff out like that because it’s all about what you’re feeling at that moment. You take every song and you listen to, every vibe, and you feel where it’s going. You get a vibe of how you want to name what you’re creating. ‘Questions and Answers’ was strongly due to that. With the first record, ‘Believe What We Tell You’ [One Day Savior, 2004 - Re-released by Victory records, 2007] we kind of knew what we wanted right away, but that’s because of everything we wrote, before even recording. We had so much time to write that record because nobody knew who we were, yet. So, we wrote that whole record and everything wound up being about some type of media, and even though we didn’t record it and thing’s changed in the studio, the overall vibe was like, “Alright, let’s call it something really snappy…something that has to do media in any type of way.” It has to do with not believing everything that you read or hear or see. So, we called it ‘Believe What We Tell You’ and every song is what we’re going through and you’re listening to it, and listening to all the stories and believing it, but that’s what we wanted to do.
| We wanted to have that “Should you believe media or not?” And every story and song is true, but a lot of the songs have to do with doing your own thing and not being restricted by the media, not being restricted by certain things. ‘Sunday Matinee’ has to do with media in the sense that it’s about a friend of mine who passed away. He died in his shower and, like, no deaths ever happened where he lived…well, hardly. He wound up being the talk of the town and everybody when it happened…at the crime scene there were just millions of people, all around. And it’s fucked up, ‘cause you hear one thing and you’re out there in your fucking bare feet or with no shirt on, like “Oh, I heard what’s going on.” That’s fucked up. You don’t care enough about someone until something like that happens, and thats kinda where the [concept of] media came in. Don’t follow bullshit. “Oh, we heard an accident, let’s run outside.” That’s the point I am getting at now. You didn’t care about that person before people told you to, in a way, until there were sirens. You’re supposed to feel things for yourself and not let yourself be consumed by bullshit media or any type of dictatorship. ‘Believe What We Tell You’ is like, “Do what the fuck you want to do.” |
|
IOP : When ‘Believe’ came out…I can’t remember the name of the place (the Venue where The Sleeping held their album release for Believe What We Tell You)…
DR : Oh fuck. Uh…ah, what was the name of that fucking place? Uh…fuck.
|
IOP : Was it in Merrick? I keep going to say “ Irish Temple” something or other.
DR : No, not Merrick. Yeah, it was “ Irish American Temple or something like that. It starts with an “M”…I gotta fucking figure this out. I have to figure it out now, or I’m gonna lose my mind. Wait, what’s a “P” town? It’s pretty much right when you get onto Long Island. Oh my god. Fuck! I have to remember it, or I’m gonna freak out. You remember Christian from Skycamefalling?
IOP : With Sal and Cameron, [Keym, Guitar] right?
DR : Yeah. His Dad ran a diner right across the street from that place.
IOP : I did not know that.
DR : Oh! Mineola! I got it! Holy shit, I would have lost my mind. |
IOP : That was such an awesome show.
DR : That show was sick.
IOP : It is probably one of the best shows, to date, that I have ever been to.
DR : Really?
IOP : Yeah. There was so much heart in that show. Between the bands playing and the fans there supporting you guys…
DR : I will never forget that show
IOP : Year of Confession played, also, which was great. They’re a really good group of guys.
DR : Yeah they are, they’re great. That show was…I’ll never forget it. That show was one of the most important shows of my life.
IOP : I got a tank top at that show that I still have.
DR : The Bear?
IOP : Yeah! That design was awesome. What’s not awesome is the fact that you guys don’t offer it anymore. It devastates me a little bit, because mine is so tattered…I just really need a new one at this point.
DR : [laughs] If we still had it, I would definitely go get you one, just for still having yours.
IOP : Thank you for that. Alright, I am going to keep the last of the questions more fan based, because we have to keep the kids happy.
DR : Alright, cool, go for it.
IOP : What are you listening to, lately?
DR : I love The Deftones, and I love At the Drive-In. Lately I have been listening to non stop Minus the Bear’s ‘Planet of Ice’, and ‘Menos [El Oso]’.
IOP : This next is actually a two part question, but I’m sure you can roll with it. Let’s say you get to host your dream concert. Who would you want to play this show, past or present, and where?
DR : What’s the bill? Five band bill?
IOP : There are no rules.
DR : Ok, it would be us opening, ‘cause I would want to see the rest of the show. In order it would be: Minus the Bear and then Elvis Costello. After Elvis Costello it would be The Deftones and after The Deftones would be At the Drive-In. And, maybe a special guest appearance by Mars Volta - with one full record, straight through. |
|
IOP : Wow. Can I get passes to this show, or…?
DR : Yeah. Hell yeah, you’re definitely getting passes. That would be awesome to have all of my friends just hanging out there watching.
|
IOP : Where would you want it to be held? How about the new Wembley?
DR : God, that would be amazing. Maybe Brixton Academy, like, 10 nights in a row.
IOP : 10 nights in a row? Impressive.
DR : Yeah, or Roseland. Roseland? Yeah, Roseland. That’s what I want to use.
IOP : Someone said to me that this place is like Roseland and I kind of scoffed at the notion. Like, “I highly doubt it.” Don’t get me wrong, this place is cool but, it’s no Roseland.
DR : It’s got a vibe to it. When you look up, you can see the similarities. |
IOP : Yeah, that’s exactly what I was saying. It has a balcony and those really fucking high ceilings…but, it’s no Roseland.
DR : Nothing can be Roseland except Roseland.
IOP : True story. Well, I guess that’s about it. Thanks, Doug!
DR : Awesome. You’re welcome!
|
