What made this album different from all the other records?
Parker – Just growing man, I think the last record we (the band and Dan) had just met. About half the last record was pretty much written before Dan joined the band, plus when Dan joined the band, we really didn’t know Dan. He didn’t know us.
Dan – Just the distance thing too. The changeover too, so we wanted to see what it was like to write songs, so it wasn’t necessary to be in the same room at first. Then “Erase My Scars” got added to the record.
Parker – That was the catalyst for our new sound, was “Erase My Scars” and BOM this is what were suppose to sound like.
Dan – We found something that felt right, then we kind of just rolled with it. All we were doing was just writing songs that meant something a lot to us, things that people can relate too, but were still honest, just saying things everyone thinks of and putting them into a song.
Now, speaking of you (Dan) coming into the band, and losing Howard, how have all the challenges built the band up?
Parker – Shit happens and when stuff starts to impede on band progress there has to be a change and you know some people say change is bad, some people fear change, change is good and especially if it’s for the better. In this case it’s definitely for the better.
Speaking on that, what is going on with the drummer situation, do you have a permanent drummer?
Parker – We do not, we have a very, very talented drummer in Dusty Saxton, who is touring with us right now, he will be touring with us for the rest of the year and beyond that we are just focusing on the new album, the tour and putting together a kick ass rock show. He’s definitely part of that right now. We aren’t thinking about signing him yet.
Dan – It’s got to happen naturally, we do love the guy, but it also depends on his plans and his future too. If it’s working we are just going to keep it working.
This question is more geared to Dan, hope this is not an insult, is it hard performing the old songs that you didn’t write and weren’t apart of?
Dan – It’s not hard to do, I’m playing with the band, they are covers to me really, but obviously would I like to be playing stuff I wrote? Do I really want to be singing other people songs? Not really, but I know it’s part of it, people out there do want to hear them, so I think my job is to just do them as good as I possibly can for the people. Some people do want to hear the old stuff and I’m willing to do that.
You kicked off this tour with style, you recorded a video for “Halo,” what went into planning that?
Parker – Not so sure how it became to be a single, a lot of songs slated to pick from which is not a problem, but I’m very happy that “Halo” was the one to be picked, because it is my favorite song of the album, it’s aggressive. But, the live performance, it’s just that we put so much into this live show now that it was just like let’s get a camera crew out. Personally, music videos are a very necessary evil because a lot of bands don’t like doing them; it’s very uncomfortable to be with the cameras in your face and stuff. This was just, there’s a bunch of cameras here, just perform. Just play your show.
Dan – We did absolutely nothing (laughing), I just remember playing and there be a camera in my face for a second then it would be gone.
Do you have to do multiple takes, or was it just go?
Parker – No it was just a part of the concert, here “Halo’s” about to start, everyone was set and ready and we just played, we didn’t do anything differently.
You have been touring with this new album since the kick of the tour in the beginning of July, how has the reaction been to the new songs and the crowd?
Dan – Really good man, surprisingly, it’s new material, you wouldn’t know how they would react. If they would just look at you be like I don’t know. Surprisingly a lot of people can sing this album front to back man. Just looking at them, it’s pretty awesome.
Parker – You going to have to except some lack of movement for the first half of the set, because it’s the new album from beginning to end, so people who haven’t heard it, they’re listening but they’re not rocking out. You have to understand that they’re listening; they are trying to hear it. Some shows are weird and sometimes the whole crowd knows the whole album and that’s really cool. But both shows are really cool because we’re out supporting the new album why not play the whole freaking thing.
Dan – We come out and play the favorites too.
Parker – We come back out, it’s a really long set, it’s killing us. (Laughing)
If you could tell someone about your music without them listening to it, how would you describe it?
Parker – Good honest, hard rock, not trying to…
Dan – Relatable.
Parker – Yea, relatable, not trying to be something else, we just write songs for ourselves and hopefully it recites with other people. We write songs we like, were not trying to appeal to a mass group of people. We just want to sit back and listen and be like, I like this album.
I keep hearing rock is dead, so what do you guys have to say about that?
Parker – Rock isn’t dead. The music industry would like to tell you that because it doesn’t sell as much as pop music does. People still want to hear rock music. The media wants to make money so, it’s like this doesn’t make as much money as this, why don’t we just shove more of this down people’s throats. It’s not the way it is, people are going to find rock music, no matter what. It makes us work harder, but in the end it makes us feel better when putting that hard work in, when something happens from it. It will never go away, you can’t kill rock music, there’s no way.
Dan – I think it’s just phase’s man, sometimes it goes to this fad and it makes its way back around. I think that’s why the rock industry is so hard you have to last for so long, you got to have the longevity, put out good songs for a long time, it’s tough, but like I said it’s always going to be there.
What’s next for this band after this tour, it ends in August?
Parker – It ends in the middle of August, August 18th, we go home for a couple of weeks, spend some time with family. Then we go back out in the middle of September for another six, seven weeks. Then I just heard we will be back out again after that, so pretty much until the end of the year we’re going to be out, which is great. It’s better to be out, then to not be, to be out in people’s faces, keep the music out there, keep this long ass set. No it’s cool, it’s fun, I love playing shows, I love being on tour, so why not, it’s our job right, keep it going.
Anything else you want to tell you fans or anything else you would like to talk about?
Parker – Just come to our Facebook page, our Twitter page, it’s us there replying sitting on the bus doing nothing, say hi, we always reply.
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