The Revival Tour 2012

Daniel Andriano

The Revival Tour was created by singer/songwriter, Chuck Ragan, best known for his role in the punk rock band Hot Water Music. Now in its fifth year, the tour has really made its mark by showcasing songs in a raw, acoustic form and creating an atmosphere of camaraderie among musicians and audiences. The line-up is constantly changing, but this year Ragan is joined by Cory Branan, Dave Hause (of The Loved Ones), Tommy Gabel (of Against Me!), and Dan Andriano (of Alkaline Trio, The Emergency Room). I sat down with Dan Andriano and discussed the dynamic of the Revival Tour, what it’s like to be tied to such an influential band, and his current musical endeavors.

So you’ve been doing the Revival Tour. Did Chuck ask you to play this year or how did you end up on the tour?

Dan Andriano: Chuck asked me to join up with the Revival Tour that went to Europe and the UK last fall, he asked me a little over a year ago about that one and I was really exited. I was working on my solo record and the Revival Tour is something that I’ve been a fan of, just what Chuck is doing as far as creating a different kind of a tour and a different kind of touring atmosphere. When he asked me to do it I was very excited and then since I haven’t done Revival Tour in the states yet until now, while we were in Europe he asked me if I wanted to stay on board for this trip and fortunately I was able to do about 80% of it before I have to cut off in about 10 days, but it’s been great so far.

Everyone throughout this comes from really influential bands (How Water Music, Against Me!, Alkaline Trio). How has it been to cover each others songs together, including so many songs that have a lot of history attached to them?

Dan Andriano: It’s been great. Everyone is here for the same reasons. Chuck asks people that he knows who care about music and care about wanting to challenge themselves and do different things. So everyone is very open to playing each others songs and honestly I’m honored to be up there and play songs with Chuck, Tom, and Cory—it’s special.

There’s this incredible sense of friendship that surrounds this tour and I think essentially represents it overall. Did you ever think you’d get to tour the world and play music with some of your best friends? Can you even imagine doing anything else?

Dan Andriano: Luckily the band I’m in that tours here and there these days, we’re super close. I’ve seen bands that go on tour and they fight constantly and it’s a weird vibe and I’m very happy to say I’ve never experienced that. So this for me is a similar thing. The cool part about this is that it’s like I get to be in a different band for a little bit of time. I get to be in a different band with people that I love and respect and appreciate their songs, so it is a blessing. I can’t really imagine doing anything else as far as career. Sometimes when I’m home and I make really good delicious food, I think maybe I could do that for a living. But that would entail a whole lot of other things. Man, I like to make some good food, though.

You’ve been a part of so many bands and tours—it’s a huge part of your life. I’m sure you get uninspired at times and the traveling takes it’s toll. What motivates you to push through all of those negative feelings that are bound to exist?

Dan Andriano: I guess knowing how much I love music, knowing that’s never changed and that’s never wavered once. I don’t know how good at it I am, but I just know that I love to do it. Like you said, as hard as it is to be away from my family and as I get older to still try and make this work, it’s what I do. It’s what I need to do to be completely happy. I think my family appreciates it and they understand, as hard as it is on them. It’s better for everyone. I don’t know what I’d do if I was home. I don’t think I could open a restaurant, maybe I could. I might be happy doing that too. I love to cook those foods. But yeah, they get it and they want me to be happy and I want to come home to them after missing them like crazy knowing I did something good for myself and ultimately good for our family.

As for your solo stuff under the name The Emergency Room, you released Hurricane Season in 2011. Do you plan to release another solo record or even do a solo tour?

Dan Andriano: Fortunately for me this Revival Tour is going to suffice for a good part of the tour on Hurricane Season, at least on the east coast. I still have to get out west and do some things. I did some shows when the record first came out down in the southeast with Dave Hause,with me and him driving around in a rented minivan like maniacs. And I will make another record, but I’m not sure where the priority is right now. It’s kind of hard because I don’t consider it a side project, I consider it more like I’m in two different bands. I want to make this Emergency Room deal more like a band where I’m not playing every instrument on the record and driving myself crazy at home recording it. I want to find some different people, and I’m in no huge hurry since this record hasn’t even been out a year. I’m going to do a little more touring on this record and get busy with writing some Alkaline Trio songs and see where I’m at.

Alkaline Trio‘s lastest release was Damnesia, which was also in 2011. Will you guys be releasing another full length soon, or touring? 

Dan Andriano: I want to make a new record fairly soon, probably by the end of this year we’re going to be working on that. Fall of 2012 I think we’ll be working on a new record and in the studio recording it. At the same time, it’s got to be right. We’re in no huge rush to do that either. We’ve made a lot of records and we want to keep making them, but I want to make the next one we do amazing and make it special. Not just “Oh, Alkaline Trio is making another record. No big deal.” I want it to be a big deal.

Is your solo stuff more personal and exposing than the stuff you write for Alkaline Trio? How would you describe that difference for you when you write?

Dan Andriano: It’s funny because the songs come from a similar place, but I think it’s just the way I present them that makes them a little different. I don’t really write intentionally different styles. I’m not prolific enough or capable enough to really do that. I just kind of write a very raw, basic song and then build it in a different way. If I’m like “Alright, I’m going to write a song for The Emergency Room,” then I’ll kind of know, but I’m not trying to write it a different way. When I was getting ready for this tour I had this cover tune I wanted to try and get recorded. I started writing a new song and I wanted to get this seven-inch recorded going. I just sat down and recorded and I knew it was going to be for this tour. It turned out to be very simple, sloppy, and live, but I like it. It turned out cool. I have also been trying to actively write some Alkaline Trio demos at home.

We talked earlier about being in a band with a lot of influence and history. With the other music you make and side projects you pursue does the influence tied to Alkaline Trio ever affect them in a negative way? 

Dan Andriano: Yes, but I’m not complaining. It’s going to happen. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to play a show and not have someone yelling out Alkaline Trio songs. The thing that’s a little frustrating is that people can’t separate what I do from what Matt does, in terms of Alkaline Trio. I’ll play Alkaline Trio songs that I wrote and sing, but I feel really strange about singing a song that Matt wrote without him there. It’s not my place to do that. That’s not why I’m doing this, to capitalize on his songs. And that’s why I get a little confused why people would even ask me to do that. There are exceptions, like last night in New York we did two shows and the first show I played this old Alkaline Trio song “Bleeder” and the second show I played “Radio.” Both of those songs were covered by Hot Water Music and that’s why we did those two. I’ll do stuff like that; Chuck covered that song 10 years ago and sang it, so I got him up there and I said “Alright, I’ll do “Radio,” but Chuck is going to sing it.” And it was fun and cool, and I’m not against doing it. I do put a lot of effort and thought into this new thing, so honestly it’s a little frustrating, but I’m not complaining, I get it. In a perfect world it would be different, but I understand where people are coming from. I appreciate that they love Alkaline Trio and it’s still the most special thing. I just want to make songs—I want to make up words and sing them.

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Bomb The Music Industry!

Photo Credit: Holly Morrison

Bomb The Music Industry! is a band that definitely lives up to their name. They take DIY to a whole new level by writing, recording, producing, and distributing their own music. To top it all off, they offer downloads of their albums for free on their website here. Aside from bombing the music industry with their own approach, it’s also hard to categorize the band. With elements of punk, ska, hardcore, and even indie, BTMI! creates their own unique style that other bands can’t compare to. I had a chance to talk to the mastermind behind BTMI!, singer/guitarist Jeff Rosenstock, as he discussed the band’s new album Vacation, what it’s like to be vulnerable through music, and what BTMI! is all about.
 
You got to experience the Long Island ska scene. In what ways did that scene influence the music you make today?

Jeff: There was a show every weekend and a really great community around it. I wasn’t Mr. Cool Guy or anything in high school, but I had a great group of friends that I could play music with or I could go watch my friends play music. I had something fun to do every weekend with a bunch of people who were really nice and all had the same ideals, which was just treat each other good. We play shows now and people get really pushy and stuff like that sometimes, and it’s strange because in Long Island that didn’t happen at shows I went to as a kid. And I went to probably 200 shows. That influenced us in the way that we would like our shows to be a place where people who were not cool people could just go and everything is okay. You can not be the nerd or the weirdo for a second and be with a bunch of people who are also like you.
 
BTMI! has put out a lot of records, and people are bound to have their opinion about your music. Did the opinions of others affect the way you approached writing Vacation?

J: Yeah, a little. I think the fact that everybody doesn’t like us or that a lot of people just hate us makes me want to make a better record. It makes me want to try and do something that I think, “Alright, maybe we can make something that these people will like.” A lot of my singing on this record, I don’t know if it’s any better, but I tried really hard to sing a lot better. I tried different stuff this time around and I’m gonna keep doing that. I’m gonna try to make something interesting and make something better than the last thing we’ve done. So I think it affects it like that. We’ve never been the band that everybody likes. We’ve always been the band that the handful of people that like us really like us and the people that hate us really hate us. I guess it’s always about trying to write something that maybe the people that hate us that aren’t racist, homophobic assholes can get into.

BTMI! is a highly influential band. How does it feel to know you impact so many people through your music?

J: It’s weird. I usually just get freaked out by it because I don’t know what to ever say. As dorky as this is gonna sound, I express a lot of stuff through writing music, so when people come up to me and they’re like, “Hey man, I feel this way about this, too,” I don’t know what to say. Cool! That was really hard for me to say even once, I don’t know how to have this conversation. There was a kid in Oklahoma City who asked me point blank if I’ve ever tried to kill myself. It’s just like, dude, I don’t know you. I don’t talk to my fiancé, my parents, or my friends about that shit. I guess when you have really personal songs that will happen. So the next record we write is just gonna be all about animals. It’s gonna be great, it’s gonna be an animal record. Then people will be like, “Oh yeah man, I really like sea otters!” And I’ll be like “I really like sea otters too, we can talk about this. I’m plenty comfortable talking about sea otters with you.”

Do you think Vacation is completely different from other BTMI! records?

J: I think it’s more hopeful than the last few records. I think that the dark stuff on Vacation is really, really dark. The stuff that’s negative is stuff that I’ve been trying to think of a way to exorcise from my head for the past 10 years. A lot of that stuff hasn’t been in songs and are things that I needed to get out. At the same time, I think it’s being looked at from a different lens then, say, Goodbye Cool World or Scrambles. Both of those records are kind of like, “Ahhh, fuuuck, ahhh,” and this one is kind of like, “Okay, that happened. That shit’s crazy, it sucks, but okay let’s deal with it.” I think it’s more positive because of that. It’s very upbeat for a BTMI! record, but I don’t think any of our records are gonna be upbeat lyrically compared to anybody else’s records.

What’s your writing process like?

J: A lot of it is just kind of humming stuff. I used to just write shit down on my hand, then run home, try and play it on guitar, then record a quick demo. Like staff music on my hands and write out notes, and I still do that while I’m driving, which is insane. Now that I have a phone I can sing into when I come up with something—I just do that. And usually it’s at inopportune times, like “Hurricane Waves” for example, I wrote that while I was at the beach. I was actually really sick at the beach and hanging out with people doubled over on a blanket, and was just like, “I gotta go walk over there for a second guys,” (starts humming melody for “Hurricane Waves”). And they’re just like, “What are you doing?” That’s how a lot of stuff has been written, things just pop into my head. Sometimes I’ll write something down in my phone, or in a book, or on my hand, or something that’s sitting around in the van, and I’ll try to remember it. Like the song “Everybody That Loves You” (starts humming the song), I was on the beach again. A lot of these records were written on different beaches into a small phone. I was in California and that just came to me—I ran over to the side, sang it into my phone, and wrote down the words. Then it’s arranging it until it’s a wall of noise.

Is it weird that BTMI! seems to be a band that’s all about having a good time and making good music, yet people think your lyrics are rather dark and depressing?

J: I think all the bands I always liked have kind of dark lyrics, but they’re kind of upbeat. I think it’s good. I like playing those songs, because when we play and get that out it feels good. I think that people who come to shows who are feeling those things, when they’re singing along, they’re getting something out. And that’s cool, that’s really awesome. Like Against Me!, their record Searching For A Former Clarity, that record is dark and it’s awesome! Ted Leo is kind of like that, too, and bands like Future of the Left and They Might Be Giants. There’s a lot of bands that sing dark shit, but it just makes you feel good to sing along.

What’s your favorite song to play live?

J: My favorite songs to play live, we’re not very good at. I really like playing “Everybody That Loves You.” I think that ended up being my favorite song on the record, which is weird because it’s buried towards the end. I really like playing that one, but I can’t play the guitar part very well, so that’s that. I really like playing “Felt Just Like Vacation,” because there’s a lot more dynamic to it when we play it live, and we have a really fun build that we play at the end now. I like that, we’ve never really done anything like that before. I like that we kind of jam, which I can’t imagine anyone else likes because who wants to see a band jamming? Nobody but the band! So those are my two favorite songs to play live, the two songs that can’t be enjoyable for anybody.

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