Interview – Every Time I Die

Even if you’re not a fan, a live performance by Every Time I Die will kick you in the ear. With a new record, the band’s looking to get louder and as guitarist Andy Williams told us, a new label and a new tour is just the start.

Every Time I Die1Photos Cred: Jeff Parsons

How has the Epitaph tour been so far?

The tour has been going awesome. I guess it’s going better than the Metallica tour. I gotta say touring with Bring Me the Horizon makes me feel really old. It’s the crowds. Like I look around and say to myself, “Hmm…one of these days I’m gonna have one of these.” But yeah, the crowds have been great. No complaints, other than the old factor.
 
It’s been noted Every Time I Die will be on the European Taste of Chaos tour later on in the year. What are the European crowds are like compared to North American crowds?

I think they are more appreciative actually. I’m not talking shit about the U.S., but they just seem more appreciative because it’s a lot easier for kids here to come to shows. We’re kinda spoiled in North America but when you go to Europe, you’re usually going there because you haven’t been there in a long time.

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New Junk Aesthetic was released just under a month ago. How has the response been?

It’s been really cool man. I think the only bad review was in Decibel magazine. But whatever man, some people just want us to write the next Last Night In Town.
 
This is your debut record for Epitaph, how do you like label so far? Why the switch from Ferret to Epitaph?

I mean, one day you’re gonna grow up and start shaving your balls. Ferret was our pubes, and now we’re shaving our balls to try to get laid a bit. Good analogy right? We did everything we could do with Ferret for nine years so it was time to give something else a shot.
 
Jordan handled all the artwork on New Junk Aesthetic. How did you come to the decision to use his artwork for the new album?

I think confidence influenced him totally. He was showing us his art and finally we we’re just like, “Dude this shit is gnarly. You gotta get this stuff out there.” So I think confidence really motivated him to do it.
 
Every Time I Die is known for having guest vocals since Hot Damn!. How did you go about choosing the three guest vocalists for this new album?

I think they were just there. Jordan and I were working out with Greg (Dillinger Escape Plan) the whole time and we got back from the gym one day and asked him to do some vocals. Matt (The Bronx) was like ten minutes from where we recorded, and he came to hang out one day and we were like, “Alright do this part.” And Pete (Fall Out Boy) and Keith both wrote the lyrics to “After One Quarter of a Revolution” together so that just made sense.

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Did the song writing differ at all on this record?

Not really, no. Other than having Josh Newton there. It was cool having a vocal member and solid bass player in the mix.
 
The new CD seems to be a lot more raw and at points, heavier. Was this transition intentional?

Yea it was totally intentional. We wanted to do it for a long time. I don’t wanna talk shit on Mike (Ratboy) or anything, but he never really wanted to overplay. So it was hard sometimes when someone wants to go in a “rock” direction when we wanted to get heavier. The dude busted his ass and is a great drummer though. Just another path he wanted to take, so it was never an argument when we talked about him leaving the band.
 
How is playing with Ryan “Legs” Leger behind the kit?

It’s been great so far. Just because he’s sitting right here, I kinda have to be nice haha. The refreshing thing about it is playing shows. We’re playing f*cking gnarly shows and were walking off stage with a dude saying, “Hey man that was a great show”, instead of a guy saying, “You f*cking missed a note that no one paid attention to.” Mike was very critical. If things didn’t go his way, he’d let you know. Having that insecurity sucks man, but now I’m walking offstage from playing shows and saying, “Holy f*ck 1500 people just went f*cking crazy. Sick show”. I’m not discrediting Mike at all, it’s just he was very machine like while the rest of us just wanted to go off.
 
Any plans to play Warped Tour 2010?

No plans just yet but if they ask us to do it, we’re in. I love Warped.

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Have you guys ever considered making a live record?

A live record?! Hmmm. Maybe if we could mesh a bunch of the songs off of every record at a show or something. It would be cool. Never really thought about it dude! It’s just live records are very touchy. Sometimes they’re great, but most of them suck haha.
 
Do you guys have any plans for Shit Happens 2?

We are actually recording stuff right now. We are gonna try to get the whole Shit theory down. It’s gonna be pretty cool.

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