The Almost interview

This band began as a solo project by Aaron Gillespie, so how did you get involved with The Almost?

I think from the beginning he always anticipated that he’d need to and want to play it live and he needed a band, so that’s where I came in. He was like “look man, I gotta put together this band” and I really liked the songs, I thought they spoke for themselves. He was like “do you know anybody else that will be around?” So we put our heads together and picked a few guys who were likeminded and who dug the material. It was just like starting a band from scratch; it was literally the same. There were times where we would hire a guy and he didn’t work out or a person would change their mind, but once we got a lineup it was no different in a lot of ways from saying “hey I want to start a band.”

I can imagine there must be some special difficulties with having the material already there. But you already knew Aaron before joining up with him?

Yes, in fact the only person who didn’t know Aaron was Alex our bass player. He’s a friend of mine. I told him I was going to get this band together and he knew who Aaron was, he just didn’t know him. So Alex is another dude who was there from the first second of the band’s conception.

Your new album [Monster, Monster] was just recently released. What was the recording process like?

It was really interesting. We decided we wanted to capture a vibe and really just go for it on this record. It was an opportunity that we didn’t know if it would present itself again in the way that it did so we decided that we would go and make the best record we knew how to make. And that included starting with a studio that set the right mood for us. And that mean Nashville and Nashville meant Dark Horse Studios. We talked about a couple of producers but when it came down to it the guy whose work speaks for itself and the guy who recorded the first record that we loved so much, Aaron Sprinkle. He’s a guy who’s afraid of flying and I don’t know if he has a phobia of traveling necessarily, but he doesn’t fly. And we asked him to leave his studio in Seattle, which he’d never previously done. I don’t know if he’d ever do it again, but he said yeah, and he drove from Seattle to Nashville. So we got him and the process itself was awesome. It was real collaborative, so much so that we wound up with 17 songs, which these days is pretty incredible. We were able to just make it happen. And it was cool in the sense that if we recorded an entire song with guitars and the next day decided to switch up gear and that tone was better, then we’d go back and record it again. We just wanted to make sure that we got the greatest sound. There was a lot of cookouts and being in the country because it’s kind of a horse ranch too, literally just a barn in the middle of nowhere that has a living compound. So living in Nashville for two months did a number on us in a good way. We definitely started feeling as if we lived there and that really reflected in the songs.

I was looking on your website doing some pre-interview research and I stumbled across a quote that was interesting. It said the album didn’t start out as a concept album, but by accident became one. Would you care to elaborate on that?

I agree with that. I think that we use the term “concept record” loosely. It’s nothing like a Dark Side of the Moon or a Mastodon record, but we knew we wanted to call it Monster, Monster because we knew that we wanted to focus on this part of everybody. Especially being dudes who are, Christian, the part that of people that they may not like or want to improve. And just being able to relate to people through that. In our line of work you tend to get compared or related to people because of how great they think you are or how great you think they are. I think in life, at least in my life, I don’t want to be one of those people that people think they can’t relate too because they don’t think I’m normal. I think in the Christian community you’d say that I’m not perfect, I have my struggles. What wound up happening was that Aaron started writing the lyrics and we organized it so that if you listen to it start to finish it starts off with the title track “Monster, Monster”, and basically saying “hey I’m noticing that I have this problem and it’s an issue.” Throughout the record he changes his tune and his attitude changes till finally you get to the last song which is simply called “Monster,” you realize that he is upset about it and finally a little bit of redemption. In that regard it kind of became a concept record. And then the monster masks [on the cover of the album] got made and it became about the human condition, which we were really excited about and we really related to.

It’s interesting too to see how something takes on a life of its own and becomes something you might not have planned on. As a writer I have that happen a lot. I have something mapped out and the finished product is not what I had in my mind.

Totally. And if you let it do that, I think that’s when the awesome moments come out when you take your hands off the steering wheel and let the car do what it does.

Did you bring any particular musical influences to this album?

When I was coming up as a guitar player I had this list of influences, but anymore? I started to realize what my style is and it has nothing to do with what I listened to. I’m probably more influenced by singers, and I don’t’ have any off the top of my head, but I can say I like guitar work, I like stuff that’s fun to listen to, stuff that gets in and gets out and makes its point. I don’t need a four minute intro. I think we’re all like-minded in that regard. When I set down to write a song I thought “get in, get out, make your point and move on.” My thing is just a driving rock vibe, cause that’s what I like most. That’s what I get stoked about when I listen to music. I always liked metal cause it was angry and anger is honest. A lot of the love songs on the radio are not even written by the people singing them, yet they get heralded as these romantic people. I was influenced by music that was as true as it could be.

I saw that you were recently on tour. How were the new songs received?

I didn’t think the new songs would be received, even if they were the best songs in the whole world, but I guess what happened that as a result of being on tour with The Used, that Used fans didn’t know who we were, so we were drawing the kids that would come out regardless of who we were playing with. I think the majority of them had no idea who we were, so for them old is new also. What we found was playing “Monster, Monster,” “Lonely Wheel,” and “Hands,” was that kids went off even more for the new stuff which was really encouraging. It was a pleasant surprise. We had the old album and the new one for sale and the new one was selling a lot. In my mind that speaks to the solidarity of the new stuff.

If people are responding to it and purchasing the albums based on the concert, I’d imagine they are responding well. Speaking of concerts, what is your approach when doing a live show? Do you try to recreate the songs as you recorded them or experiment with them on stage?

We try to stay as faithful as possible because we have so much production on our records. The songs are recorded in a complex way with a lot of guitar tracks, because we have three guitar players. With vocals three of us sing. The songs are 100% true to the record except for songs that fade out or flow into one another on the record. Other than that we don’t deviate. But we’re very much a live band because we come from a school of bands that bled for it on stage. I hope that translates. Honestly that kind of pisses me off when you want to hear “Hotel California” and the Eagles do a greatest hits medley and you’re like “Dude, where’s my song?” It’s rare for me to hear a different rendition of a song that’s better. The same with covers. It happens, but it’s rare when you hear it and say “that’s how it should have been played.” There is one time, you know that song “Wonderwall”? Ryan Adams did a cover that now Oasis plays.

I’ve heard the Ryan Adams version but I didn’t know Oasis had picked up his rendition of it.

That’s the rumor cause it’s so good. I don’t know how often they do it, but I’ve heard a recording of it.

As a musician, what role do you think the internet and online music stores have helped in getting your music out? Or have they?

First of all, the internet is unmatched as far as any kind of marketing tool. There are bands that are massive because of MySpace and Facebook. They’re not even signed some of them. But the internet’s a total double-edged sword because while my band wouldn’t be a commodity without the internet, if my band was a commodity we’d sell a bunch more records without the internet. If we were still as big without the internet somehow, I’m playing Devil’s Advocate here, but kids would have to buy it because the other side of the internet begin a marketing tool is that kids get it for free. But it’s a chicken or an egg thing because labels don’t make as much money as they did–not even close–so they’re putting out a ton of bands. I hear records so bad that you delete it – you steal it and you don’t even want it. Have you ever done that? Is file sharing wrong? Absolutely, it’s against the law, and I don’t care about these arguments people make about freedom of information, but right now it is illegal and that means you’re stealing. So I don’t condone it and I don’t file share, but I do download a majority of my music and I get that from iTunes and Amazon. So what role does the internet play? iTunes makes up a really good amount of records that we sell. It’s substantial. While iTunes is great and I’m a customer, but iTunes is only there because there’s a legal version of what people discovered on there own to do illegally. At the same time I’ll also say there’s so many crappy bands that you shouldn’t have to buy the records for the one decent song and the rest of the record be a waste of time and money. But the bands who are working hard and deserve the sale are getting lost in the process. But I’ll never stand up against my fans who all they want is my music and still come to shows. But it’s ruining the industry. Even though I understand why people do it, I just feel like I can’t stand up and tell people not to do it other than it being illegal. Even though it’s ruining my lifeblood, it’s one of those situations where CDs don’t need to be $13 and they don’t even need to be $7. So maybe the internet is great for marketing, but it’s also killing the industry. But maybe it’ll restructure itself. I think the only thing they’re dong wrong is that records are too expensive and until they make them cheaper kids aren’t going to buy them.

So what’s next for The Almost?

Well the record’s relatively new, about a month old, and we just got off of tour so we’re going to enjoy the holidays at home and then head back out again. We’re looking for all the opportunities, and our plans for 2010 is we’re going to Australia for the Soundwaves festival and we’re going to do the entire festival. For summer there’s talk of the Warped Tour, hopefully we’ll be able to negotiate that. Other than that, constant writing and refining what we do.