Interview

On Saturday, November 10th at Philly's Trocadero Theater, I was able to sit down and have a little chat with two members of Fueled By Ramen's next up-and-coming super group:

EP: First of all, please introduce yourselves, and tell me what you do in the band.

Alec: My name is Alec, I sing, and for the record: nobody likes Powerspace.

EP: Aw, don’t say that.

Kevin: And my name is Kevin, I play drums.

EP: Have you been to Philly before?

Alec: Nah, this is our first time.

EP: Anyway, you guys play a catchy blend of power pop infused with electro - how did you end up in this direction, rather than, say, playing harder music? And how do you deal with the haters who say that power pop is for pussies?

Alec: Well, we actually have a hardcore song we play on occasion. And you know, we enjoy it too. We enjoy getting crazy.

Kevin: ‘Cause who doesn’t enjoy a good scream?

Alec: Yeah, totally.

EP: Yeah, everyone needs to scream every once and a while.

Alec: Dan has been getting us to work on screaming a little bit better.

EP: So, how has this tour with Madina Lake, Mayday Parade and Meriweather been going?

Alec: It’s been going great actually. The crowds have been great, it’s been a lot of fun. Everybody on the tour’s dudes… Except for Mayday Parade. Mayday Parade is the worst band on this tour.

Kevin: And Monty Are I (laughs).

Alec: For the record.

EP: How long have you been on this tour?

Kevin: About a month now, I think.

EP: Have you been overseas yet as a band?

Alec: Nah not yet. But hopefully we will be soon.

EP: Any interesting stories or weird shit happen on tour that you’d like to mention?

Kevin: Oh boy, I’m sure there’s something.

EP: I’m sure you guys must have a bunch of crazy girls after you guys…

Kevin: Yeah…

EP: Or do you?

Kevin: Well, I don’t which is great. I’m the obscure one, way in the back. But this guy over here. (motions to Alec)

Alec: Nobody likes me!

EP: How do you deal with all those girls, who like -

Alec: Who molest me?

EP: Yeah, pretty much.

Kevin: He jumps right into them.

Alec: I just, you know, kinda roll with it. (laughs)

Kevin: They grab his butt and other areas. He just takes it like a man.

EP: I saw one of the tour videos that you posted online of you guys hanging out -

Alec: Oh yeah, all the videos that we do, we’re not like trying to film anything exactly, it’s just real life on tour.

Kevin: I think we’re one of the few bands who posts those kinds of videos on the internet.

EP: That’s cool because you’re more accessible to your fans.

Alec: Yeah, we try to be at least.

Kevin: At least we don’t just stand against the wall for 15 seconds and say, “Hey, Merry Christmas.”

EP: Who did that?

Alec: Disregard the last comment.

EP: Ok moving on, what was it like working with producer Mark McClusky (Hit The Lights Scenes From A Movie)? You guys had a good relationship with him?

Kevin: He’s the funniest dude in the world.

Alec: He’s literally the funniest man on the planet, it was great. Except well, towards the end we all kind of sunk into crippling depression. And hated each others guts.

EP: Why?

Kevin: Well, that’s a bit of a hyperbole.

Alec: That’s just the way it is when you’re recording and everything.

Kevin: Ideally when you record, you want to hate each others guts.

Alec: We sat in his basement recording, and everyone was smoking cigarettes, and just being down about the world.

Kevin: I was buying him a pack of cigarettes and a Coca Cola like every three hours. That was fun.

EP: Did you ever get so angry at each other that you thought that you’d breakup?

Kevin: No.

Alec: No, not really - we’re all really good friends.

Kevin: We take everything with a grain of salt. And sometimes five grains of salt.

Alec: And if like shit goes crazy, you just gotta like, fight - and then everything’s fine.

EP: I read that you guys started out by not taking things too seriously, like when you were looking for a singer -

Alec: Oh yeah, well the band wasn’t serious at all in the beginning, it wasn’t even like a real band.

Kevin: It’s not even serious now!

Alec: Yeah we’re still not even a real band.

EP: You got picked up by Fueled by Ramen, so what’s it been like working with them?

Alec: It’s been great. Everybody there is like great friends with us already.

EP: You guys buddies with Pete Wentz?

Alec: Well yeah, we see him here and there. Everybody who works for the label is really cool.

EP: Fueled By Ramen is part of Atlantic - so is the plan to end up on Atlantic someday?

Alec: Hmm I don’t know. I mean Fueled By Ramen is great, and Atlantic is obviously a major. I probably shouldn’t comment on this too much yet but…

Kevin: We don’t know yet. (crosses fingers)

EP: Fueled By Ramen definitely puts you on the right track for gaining a big fan base and really getting your faces out there.

Kevin: Right, Right.

Alec: Yeah, Fueled By Ramen is a great place to be.

Kevin: I cant imagine any other place.

EP: How did you choose them over other labels that were pursuing you?

Alec: Well, we kind of wanted Fueled By Ramen the whole time. A lot of our members love all of their bands, so we were very excited about them.

Kevin: And we have some history - like Dan used to go to all these Fall Out Boy shows way back when they were playing for like five people.

Alec: Yeah so, it was pretty much our choice from the beginning.

EP: I also read that early on during your writing process, the record started out as a concept album. Can you explain a little about that?

Alec: Yeah, Dan had a dream about the world ending -

Kevin: About the sun crashing into the sea.

Alec: He wrote a concept around it, and wrote a bunch of songs around it. You know…

EP: Does he do most of the song writing?

Alec: Not really, I mean we all pretty much write different parts. Tom and Dan do all the music, and Kevin does the drums, obviously. And we all sat down and wrote lyrics, so its pretty equal between everybody.

Kevin: We build the lyrics around my drum parts.

Alec: Yeah, that’s exactly what we did.

EP: So as you guys continued writing, it became more about your actual lives, rather than a concept album. How did that happen?

Alec: Right, yeah.

Kevin: Yeah, it kind of morphed into just a party album.

Alec: We were in college at the time and everything, you know, so our lives were kind of going nuts. And you cant really start out of the gate with a concept album -

EP: Unless you want to pull a Coheed.

Alec: Right unless your doing a Coheed kind of thing. And a lot of the songs weren’t really working well together, so instead, we came together and wrote a bunch of songs that related more to what was going on at that time in our lives.

Kevin: But our next album will be part three of a seven album cycle, based on a comic book

EP: When are you going to start working on your next album?

Alec: We have been actually writing on the road and everything. But when we’re actually going to sit down and do it for real? I’m not even sure. We’re still like early on in this cycle anyway.

Kevin: We’re gonna wait until we have enough money to buy a computer where all we have to do is push a few buttons and then it spits out a song for us.

Alec: I mean we’re still working on the formulas and calculations, but uh -

EP: Is it going to be in the same vein as your latest album?

Alec: It’ll be much harder I think.

Kevin: A lot harder, a lot more double kick drum -

Alec: Hopefully some more screams -

Kevin: Yeah, about a million more screams.

EP: How has the feedback from “The Kicks of Passions” been?

Kevin: There was no feedback when we recorded the album - we tried to keep that to a minimum.

Alec: Yeah, feedback’s the sort of thing that happens live - so minimum on the album. But you know, people have been receiving it well. Hmm, we had some demos where some of the songs were faster - but we slowed them down because we had to keep them right in the pocket -

Kevin: Yeah, the pocket.

EP: What’s the pocket?

Kevin: The pocket is like when you’re grooving and it just feels right with the song - not too fast but not too slow.

Alec: Like, “Right On” was slowed down just a little tiny bit.

EP: Did you want to slow them down, or did Fueled By Ramen want you to do it?

Alec: Oh we wanted to. I mean, it works better for the songs - but people kind of freaked out.

Kevin: So we realized that what we have to do next time is record demos at like seven beats a minute.

Alec: The slowest demos possible.

Kevin: And then speed them up to like 300.

Alec: And then people will freak.

EP: So your lives changed a lot once you left college and started touring all the time. How have you dealt with all those changes?

Alec: Well personally, I like it better now. In college you’re kinda stuck in a rut, like, “Ugh school blows.” And, you know, now we’re in a different city every day. And it gets hard sometimes, but we’re all good friends -

Kevin: All I did in college was do my homework and play Tetris.

Alec: Literally, all I did in college was sit and watch Sex And The City.

EP: Seriously?

Alec: Yeah, I love Sex And The City.

Kevin: He loves SJP.

Alec: Yeah, I looove SJP. She was just voted one of the most unsexiest women of all time -

Kevin: Yeah, and he’s outraged by it.

EP: Oh yeah by Maxim, right?

Alec: It’s not true!

EP: Some of your songs are also about homesickness, which you guys have had some experience with…

Alec: Yeah, well I mean, with college there’s homesickness, and same with touring, but -

EP: You’re probably having more fun now, anyway.

Alec: Yeah, definitely.

EP: What was it like touring with some of those bigger name bands, like From First To Last and Hawthorne Heights?

Alec: It was awesome. Those guys are great.

EP: Were you ever intimidated by them or nervous at all - especially when you first started playing the bigger shows?

Alec: Yeah, the first couple of shows I guess.

Kevin: But not after we started to chill with them though - they’re like the nicest guys.

Alec: Yeah, once we’d become friends with them, then everybody was just hanging out all the time.

EP: Yeah, they’re just regular people too.

Kevin: Yeah, it’s pretty cool.

Alec: Huge bands like Madina Lake. (laughs) At first I was really scared to play the first couple of shows with them. But now we just mess around all the time.

Kevin: At first we were really nervous to talk to Madina Lake. But then we realized it was no big deal.

Alec: No big deal at all. For the record, Madina Lake is standing right behind me…

EP: How many dates do you have left on this tour?

Alec: 10 or 11, I think.

EP: How’s your van treating you?

Alec: It's good, we all live together in our little van.

Kevin: We say that we live in the van, although we always find a place to stay. Although I did sleep in the van last night…

Alec: Don’t worry Mom! We're all healthy…

EP: Oh yeah, how do your parents feel about you guys leaving school to go tour?

Alec: They’re fine with it.

Kevin: They’re stoked - although they’re worried about hygiene… which they should be.

EP: (laughing) Are you eating enough?

Alec: We just recently found out that beer is considered food because its got barley and hops in it - so I would say that we’re eating pretty well!

Kevin: That’s a high five!

EP: You guys have received some pretty positive responses from music magazines like Alternative Press and Spin, so how does that feel?

Alec: It’s great - although Kevin doesn’t care about magazines - but for the rest of us, it’s like unreal still, just being mentioned in the magazines.

Kevin: I care about -

Alec: Oh hey it’s Dan, “enter, Dan.”

Dan: I’m Dan.

EP: Hey, I’m Carolyn.

Dan: Nice to meet you Carolyn…. (stands awkwardly) Ok… continue guys (walks away).

Kevin: Alright we’ll see you then… anyway I care about “Dog Fancy” and “Dog Monthly” - that’s my magazine. And “Parrot Fancy” -

EP: Ferret?

Kevin: No, parrot.

EP: Oh yeah, cause one time I was watching this show on PBS about crazy people who own ferrets, and they’ll buy like 40 of them at a time and devote whole rooms in their houses to them…

Kevin: Yeah, that’s why I stopped doing that.

EP: So, what’s your stance on illegal downloading, and the internet’s involvement in the spread of music?

Kevin: I’m all for it - but my policy is kind of like the common man’s policy - which is: if you really dig the album that you stole, then at least buy a copy later.

Alec: Yo, I don’t care if you steal music: buy Powerspace’s record.

Kevin: I don’t care if you steal music: steal our record… and then come to a show.

EP: What music have you been listening to lately?

Alec: Jeff Buckley… hmmm Hanson, a lot of Hanson actually.

Kevin: He’s serious, he’s not joking.

Alec: Yeah I’m serious… Silver Chair…“Deja Entendu” -

Kevin: DJ Nintendo by Brand New.

Alec: Yeah.

EP: What about you?

Kevin: DJ Nintendo.

Alec: A lot of Pink Floyd, “The Dark Side.”

Kevin: If I had my own music… Pink Floyd and Rush, and Genesis.

EP: What else influenced you guys when you were writing the album? Besides INXS, Squarepusher and The Darkness?

Alec: Hmm… alcohol.

Kevin: And coffee beans.

Alec: And girls… and crippling depression… and tiny animals.

Kevin: And “the man.”

Alec: Oh, and sunshine.

EP: Did you guys dress up for Halloween?

Alec: Yes.

Kevin: I dressed up as nothing.

Alec: Yeah, he dressed up as nothing.

Kevin: And I didn’t hear the end of it.

Alec: I was a skeleton, but the suit was four sizes to small for me. Tom was “Thomas the Tank Engine” and Dan just covered himself with blood.

Kevin: Which is how he normally is.

EP: That’s awesome.

Alec: Yeah it’s how he normally rolls anyway.

EP: Anyway, that’s about it.

Alec: Cool!

EP: Do you have any final words you’d like to say to your fans?

Kevin: Oh boy…

Alec: You’re like a black cat with a black back pack full of fireworks and you’re gonna burn the city down right now…

Kevin: Whoa, whoa…

Alec: Totes inapropes, totes inapropes.

EP: Well, thanks so much for doing the interview.

Kevin: Sure.

Alec: Yeah no problem, thank you.