A Brilliant Lie – In Their Own Words

Small interview with A Brilliant Lie

Interview Conducted during the month of July 2018

by Barry Nadler

 

Band members

Tara Lightfoot – Vocals/Guitar

• Matthew Movens – Guitar
• Jason Lemrod – Guitar
• Nick Scout – Bass
• Chris Lane – Drums

 

BARRY: How long have you been A Brilliant Lie?

TARA: A Brilliant Lie has been a brainchild since about 2010ish. But, there was a lot of sitting in a room and playing the same three songs we had written over and over again.

CHRIS: And in the middle of that, me and the previous bass player (Zack), were playing in another project. So, it was like the thing we did when we weren’t doing other things. So, we would have a practice like once every two weeks. I would smoke like 35,000 cigarettes with Zack, and we would wander in and play the three songs. Then, we would sit and talk about those three songs. We couldn’t really write the stupid riff for “Kitchen Light.” I remember that! It took forever. “

TARA: We finally found the proper members that lasted for a while that could get us off the ground and playing out live. That was really cool.  We had an original lineup, and then that dissolved. With any band, you have people that come and go. But, I think the actual representation of what we are doing now is only about three to four years old. So, maybe 2015?

MATTHEW: Yeah. So, it was around that time when all the people here right now kind of collectively committed and figured out what the band’s style and sound was and where we wanted it to go. That’s really where we consider us starting. If you look at everything up until that point, there’s a lot of stuff that happened, but it never started doing what it is doing until we hit that point where all the people currently here came together.

CHRIS: I always like to think the band really started like five years ago. We were getting our feet wet with the original lineup. And, it kind of blew up because of life. When that happened and we regrouped, I think there was like an “All right, what are we really doing? If we are going to do this thing, let’s do the thing!” I think that whenever that happened is when this band really started.

Obviously you are all not original members. Who are the original members?

TARA: I remember sitting at a bar with you (Chris) and Zack and you all were like “Let’s start a band!” And, then you moved away…and came back.

MATTHEW:  Tara and Chris were the only original members. Tara is the longest running member since Chris disappeared and came back.

MATTHEW: And then, later, as the band was expanding the sound and trying to figure out what was what, I came to the band.

TARA: That was when we decided to expand to a five-piece.

CHRIS: We were in the studio and were like “Well, we’ll have to figure that out later. Hmmm…how are we going to play all these parts?”

MATTHEW: So, the band expanded to a five-piece. And, it helps with the whole dynamic of the band. Tara needing to play guitar all the time became unnecessary. Nick joined us about a year after I came in. We put a bottle of whisky and a bunch of beer next to a box with a stick in it (LAUGHS).

NICK: I went under to drink the shot and they just pulled the string. I was done!

MATTHEW: I met Tara about 12 or 13 years ago. I would see her in different bands. Chris, I met, but didn’t know him well enough.

TARA: The three of us were in different local bands. We all kind of hung in the same circles.

MATTHEW: I met Nick when I was working a show. Nick was playing bass in a band called Cover Story. His bass string broke on stage. I was helping him fix it while they were playing a song. Literally, it was like I had enough gaff tape to fix it. I got him back and running. And, we have been friends since then.

CHRIS: I remember I met Tara somewhere in the blur of alcohol that was the local scene. The first time we really talked, it was me and Zack. We were playing in that other band. We were like “We have to do something bigger. This isn’t working. We wanted to start a band fresh. For me, my career has been a lot of like “Hey, they need a drummer!” and I would be like “Yeah, I can learn songs really quick.” You just kind of dive into these projects. So, we wanted to start something from the ground up. That’s when we actually started to talk to Tara. I know Zack had talked to her at some point. I called her on the phone. We talked for like hours.

TARA: We had a huge conversation at the bar. They had those drinks for like $2.00. We were like “Let’s…start…a…band…” (LAUGHS)

CHRIS: Fun story about this. When we left my other friends were like “Man, you were like totally jiving on that that girl!” and I was like “No, we’re going to start a band together.” They were like bummed out like “Aw man!” (LAUGHS)

TARA: Fast forward like eight years and here…we…are.”

MATTHEW: We found Jason on CraigsList, because we were looking for a couch.

JASON: Yup. I came with the couch.

TARA: But, Jason was really great friends with the folks in Anyone’s Guess (EDITOR NOTE: a band that is no longer together) and Leaving Haven. So, it was like “OK, you’re good people. Can I come play guitar?” We were like “You’re pretty cool.” (LAUGHS) “Let’s do it!”

CHRIS: I met Nick at Matt’s birthday party, I think.

NICK: I didn’t know anyone, except for Matt. I was standing there awkwardly, with my drink. These two together (Chris and Jason) came up and were like “Hey!” and they introduced themselves.

CHRIS: I remember Zack was drunk and in the living room. We were trying to get Nick to do bass tricks. “Show them that thing I have been telling them about!” Zack just pulls out his bass and we were standing in the living room, which was our rehearsal space. Nick was like “Are you sure?” He was so NOT cool with it. It was Zack’s Fender 5-string.

NICK: Not a scratch on it! He hands it to me. “Throw this around!” I was like “I just met you, man. You’re pretty big. I don’t think this is a good idea.” A few more drinks later, I was all “Give me that fucking thing!”

What do you think makes A Brilliant Lie unique in the music scene?

CHRIS: I think the people, more than anything. I think musically, we are one of the few real rock bands rolling around town. There are a few bands that you might call “rock,” but it’s only really us and a handful of people.

When you say “rock band,” what does that mean to you?

CHRIS: Straight up rock and roll.

MATTHEW: Modern rock

CHRIS: Loud. Straight-forward. Fun.

MATTHEW: Not metal.  Not indie. Not prog.

TARA: Its kind of hard when you are trying to make a lineup for a show, for example. “Well, where do we actually fit?” We are just straight rock. I think people enjoy it.

CHRIS: When I think of straight up rock bands, I think of bands like Foo Fighters or Eagles of Death Metal. It’s just rock…fucking rock! It’s not tons of frills. They have really neat moments, but at the end of the day, it’s loud guitars and dudes hitting cymbals.

NICK: If you like indie, you’ll like what we do. If you like punk, you’ll like what we do. There are so many things we take from them and just make what our version of rock is. You can listen to us and go “Oh, there is so much about this that I like!” and not feel like “Oh, its too much this or too much of that.” There are so many sub-categories. “This has a part from every single piece of these sub-genres” and that is what makes it what it is. It’s tangible. It’s easy to digest.

TARA: And, it’s relatable to a lot of people. At the end of the day, there are a multitude of moments in our songs, whether its musical or lyrical. When we have the ability to play in front of new audiences, its kind of neat when some people come up and they love the energy or they love that meticulous guitar part or they go back and listen to your CDs and read the lyrics. They say “This was really thoughtful.” They appreciate the moments regardless of what they were. It doesn’t have to appease a certain genre or audience.

NICK: Whether the melody is catchy or the guitar is heavy or the drums beat intricately…or a combination of all three.

TARA: So, what we are saying is that everyone should love us!

JASON: If you like music, you should maybe go to Spotify and type in “A Brilliant Lie.”

MATTHEW: The quickest example is a song we have called “Pieces.” If you listen to it, up to the bridge, you are like “Oh, this is a straight up kind of punky rock song.” And, then the bridge goes “Hey, what’s time? What’s this? What’s that?”  It’s the weird moment that gets thrown in there, but people get it and think it’s cool because it’s a different element to the music. It creates this unique thing.

CHRIS: I think the other half that makes this band cool is that I think we are all such different people. Sometimes its even to our own demise and it’s hard to move forward. Without this set of people, I don’t think this band would sound the way it does.

Who would you say, as a band, are the influences of the band?

CHRIS: I think Thrice is pretty heavy in the mix.

NICK: Yeah, I think Thrice and Foo Fighters are the two main things that everyone in this band listens to. Everyone in this band can draw influence from them.

MATTHEW: I think we all listen to very different stuff. I listen to stuff from 311, Deathcab for Cutie, and bands like Amberlin. Even with Amberlin, some of the guitar stuff. Even when you listen to it, you can go “Oh, I was influenced by that bit or that thought or that rhythm thing.” So, its different for everybody.

TARA: Thrice and Foo Fighters are a good start. I think Amberlin. It’s funny, because we say these things and between the five of us, if we made a Venn diagram of all the things, there would be a couple of things as far as influences. But, I think that’s why it turns out to be this unique baby and there’s like “Oh! Ok. Well, that kind of works.”

NICK: On tour, what would someone put on the van radio and no one would heckle? If Matt put on Amberlin, everyone else would be like “This is DUMB!” What would someone put on and everyone would be like “Alright!” and we would start singing. That’s something we can all get behind. We all would really dig it enough to draw influence from it. Would Chris be like “Play something heavier!”?

TARA: We do this thing in the van, where, if we have a seven-hour drive or something like that, we pass around a phone and make a playlist. Everyone picks like ten songs. We play a game and we have to figure out whose song it was. I feel like I have had moments like when you’re driving and it’s like three in the morning…and everyone is just chilling…and you have these bands, like Deathcab or Band of Horses, or something like that. Everyone’s listening to it and the entire band is jiving on it. Nobody dislikes it. But, do we sound like that…No. (LAUGHS).

MATTHEW: We’re all very different influences, so its hard to put your finger on it. But, when someone says Foo Fighters, I always say “Yeah, I can agree with that. For sure.”

JASON: The three bands I always go with are Thrice, Foo Fighters, and Paramore…old Paramore, because new Paramore is very different.

TARA: Someone at Rocklahoma said “If Thrice, Foo Fighters, and Paramore had a baby…

So, individually, what are your influences?

CHRIS: Super easy, man! Thrice is a big one. Foo Fighters. Closure to Moscow – They are a crazy awesome band. I am really into them. I am super into Manchester Orchestra. I love that freaking band! The Ocean, which is a killer band.

NICK: I like a bunch of stuff. I listen to a lot of accordion music. Like from the 1930’s. I hear stuff in there that I would never think to do. When I come to the bass, or guitar, when I’m writing, I ask “What’s going to make this completely different? Can I throw in a curveball that no one will guess would happen?” They did it in the 30’s and either it didn’t work out for them there or it wasn’t good enough to continue to work. But, you know…I can throw this cord in there…and we will look at each other and go “that DEFINITELY does not work.” Or, you throw it in there and because it’s so odd it works. You’re like “FUCK! Where did that come from?” and you’re like “Oh…not from a punk band or a metalcore band. But, its from some 1930’s French accordion-playing woman.” I think there’s a lot of stuff I listen to, be it accordion music or fast, dumb punk music that I really like. All those things influence me. Pretty much, everything that doesn’t sound like what we sound like influences me to help us sound like what we sound like. Obviously, we don’t play everything in double-time, like a punk band. But, I want to bring what I like of those bands here. Obviously, we don’t play accordion, but I think that’s really cool – some of the progressions they used, or the chords in Jazz. I think its more like cherry-picking from Jazz or classic gypsy jazz or metal or hard-core punk, and even hip hop. I like saying “We might be able to get away with this” or “what if I use what I like about punk music and what Jason likes about jazz music” and we put those together and all of a sudden, we have something that’s very ABL (A Brilliant Lie). So, I don’t think there is a single answer on what influences me the most. I feel like its just this amalgamation of a 600-song playlist on shuffle.

Musicals rule my life! Whether it be Disney or anything on Broadway right now. 90’s Disney! A lot of that is “Well, if they can get away with it, why can’t we?”

MATTHEW: Movie soundtracks too. You hear it and go “Whoa! That was cool! What if we did that, but as a band?”

NICK: Today, I fell asleep to the Interstellar soundtrack.

JASON: The major influences for me, when I was first learning to play guitar were Taking Back Sunday, Coheed and Cambria, and John Mayer. Now, I kind of reference a lot of bands like Manchester Orchestra, My Chemical Romance, along with my original influences.

CHRIS: And to be fair…all three of us have sat in a room and had a discussion like “What would Manchester do right now?” That’s a real thing that happens.

NICK: The bridge to “War.” That’s what we did!

MATTHEW: The first rock CD I had was Aerosmith’s “Pump.” So, I got influenced by guys like Joe Perry and Brad Whitford. Right after that was 311’s Blue album. Old 311, like the tone. It would go from rock to ska to punk. But, also Carlos Santana-like solos. “How does this all work?” I don’t care, but I like it. Later on, Joseph Milligan, who is with Amberlin. He would write guitar parts for two people and it would be this other guitar player going in and out for a little bit. Until the guy from Acceptance joined the band. I always loved the fact that he would write left-brain/right-brain and write two different parts and track them. You would be like “Oh! I would never do that.” That comes back to another influence, Taking Back Sunday, when Fred was in the band. Just the way he would write the counter melodies. One more would be Collective Soul. They are a three-guitar band. Somehow they would weave three guitars together and you would be like “How? Ok, cool.” There was some neat stuff. Their first major label record, with “Shine” on it, was a demo. The drums weren’t even real. Drum pads and stuff. The label was so excited to get it out, they didn’t get to re-record it. Bands that are really guitar driven. Not just the musical part, but the way the guitar sounded.

JASON: What Matt’s trying to say is that “drums don’t matter”

CHRIS: It’s true. With each show, it becomes more and more true. (LAUGHS) “You guys are really good! I love your bass player!” DAMMIT!

NICK: One time we played this show and someone was like “Can we get a picture with the band?” They gave Chris the camera and were all “Can you take a photo for us?”

CHRIS: I just took it, too! I didn’t even think about it. “Yeah, alright! This band’s great!” We were in the van later and Jason was like “Dude? Why weren’t you in the photo?” “Oh…yeah….MAN! You’re right! I wasn’t in that photo!”

TARA: I am embarrassed by one of my initial influences, because it was Metallica. The other one is Michael Jackson. As a pre-teen, a tween… Bands that I thought lyrically, as far as the composition of the entire song, that challenged what I liked, and knew about – where I was like “What the hell are you guys doing?” – are At the Drive-In and Be Without You. That’s some of the most poetic stuff I have ever heard. It’s AMAZING! But, I think, moving forward with A Brilliant Lie, when it comes to writing melodies and stuff, it would have to be AFI. Like older AFI. If I could do a duet with anybody, it would be Davey Havoc. It’s thoughtful. It’s dark. It’s anthemic. Everything sounds big. He makes all his feelings sound big. That’s something I try to do too.

How many albums do you have out now?

CHRIS: Oh, man…there are four. Technically there is a fifth that exists out there in the world. We have a three-song EP that is under a rock.

JASON: I have not heard this, by the way!

CHRIS: There’s a picture of another guy, on the record, but I played most of the drums on it. We were recording it right before I left.

JASON: There are a couple of songs that me, as a band member, have actually not heard…because I am not allowed to. (LAUGHS) If there are any aspiring artists out there, and you want to be like ABL, and you suck…it gets better! (LAUGHS) So, just keep sucking! And eventually, you will be like “This is almost listenable.”

MATTHEW: There are four that are out. There’s one called the Guarding Area Line that is pre-this version and there is another one called Waking Vessels, which is kind of when things started making a little more sense.

TARA: That’s when we started to work with James Paul Wisner, who was the producer of Paramore, Hands Like Houses, Underoath, Dashboard Confessional.

JASON: He is a better musician than the five of us combined.

MATTHEW: Waking Vessels was kind of like where the band was still starting to find it’s point. That’s when the big lineup shift happened. Then, we put out two Eps after that, with the new lineup shift. Those two EPs are part of a three-part series, consisting of Threads: Cutter, Threads: Spinner, and then there is a third one that we can’t put out yet because of “reasons.” But, its really good! Trust me!

Who were the writers on the albums? Is there a primary writing team or is it everybody?A Brilliant Lie (credit: Barry Nadler)

MATTHEW: It’s everybody!

TARA: We are a democracy…to a fault.

JASON: For better or for worse, all five people in this band can be the primary writer in any other band. And, we are all trying to be the primary writer for this band.

MATTHEW:  With the writing process, it’s different for like every song. Sometimes some stuff will happen in the room. Sometimes someone will do a demo – verse/chorus – and we are like “Oh, we just need to figure out a bridge.” It really just depends on the song. But, everyone contributes to it. It’s just battles over what we think need to be in there. And sometimes, we are like “No, that really doesn’t need to be in there.” Sometimes, you have your sixth member, James, say “Nope!” or “Yep!”

TARA: It really helps to have an outside perspective. It’s nice.

MATTHEW: For us, its really democratic. Sometimes it happens in the room, sometimes someone has a crazy idea, or one of us will walk in on two people playing a part together and we’re like “Wait! I have an idea for that!”

CHRIS: Around the meeting of James Wisner, he changed our perspective on how you write a song. What’s the purpose of the whole thing? He kind of opened up this whole bag where I was like “Oh man! I never really thought of any of that stuff.” When we regrouped from there, and started this three-EP set, we took everything we had learned from him and that’s kind of where this whole thing started. That’s really where the band begins – on the EPs. That was the point of the three EPs. We wanted to put out multiple CDs in a row, over a short period of time. The idea was to show how we grow as a band. There’s meaning behind that. The first record, which is Cutter, is us cutting away the old and starting fresh. That’s ABL, like “Here it is! Here’s the band!” This lineup was mostly there.

TARA: It’s a rebirth.

MATTHEW: It shows our growth and how we write together. The third album we have that’s done, that’s not yet out there, it’s the culmination of the first two EPs. When you listen to it, it’s like “Oh! OK. I see how it got there. I’m glad we’re here. I can’t wait to see where we’re going next.” For me, the album that we have finished, just kind of rocks and kicks butt. I am proud of what we did on it. It goes from a point in time where we all connected as a band.  It’s like a relationship with four other people to create a five-person band. You have to learn how that works and how other people write. Everyone writes differently. It’s all encompassing. Just hearing it is unique, when you go back to square one. “Oh, this was the first one. Here we are now.”

TARA: One of the initial intentions of doing the trilogy was so the audience could grow with us. I remember it being me and Chris and Zack sitting in the room and being like “Well, do we just stop?” We knew we had something that we felt was bigger than ourselves. It was growing into an entity. It was exciting and cool. But, it meant something to other people, besides the three of us. How do you not spend a gajillion dollars making multiple albums? “Gosh, we are doing this ourselves, so why don’t we do a collection of EPs?” If we change sound slightly, if we change members…it’s OK, because the whole point is that we are supposed to grow. You can be part of the process. You can listen along with us. That was kind of the whole thing. But, it took a little longer than we thought it would (LAUGHS)

CHRIS: We were so ambitious. If you could see the charts…We were like “18 months! We will be standing on top of a mountain!” We were so full of it! We didn’t really do the math very well. “We’re going to release this record! We’re going to tour on it. Go right back to the studio. Record. Tour again!” On paper, it made total sense. At the time, we all agreed it was going to work. We thought “Oh yeah! We can totally do this!” When we started recording the first record, me and Jason had a time when we were like “This is never going to fucking work!” We are like halfway through drums and we’re like “Nope.” It takes a long time to write and record a record. Then, you have to go and tour behind it. And then, to start that process all over again…we were like “CRAP!” By the time we got to the second record, we were like “AHHHHHH!!!!” So, it got pushed back.

TARA: We were on tour and in the back of the van, they would be just playing acoustic guitar, trying to record stuff. We would be like “OK! We have to do it!” We did get some good stuff though.

JASON: In total fairness, the original idea was to do four songs per EP. At some point we changed it to five, which is an even worse idea. Then, the idea was that we would write over the course of a year. We would continue to write the songs that we sort of wrote for the first EP and put that on the second EP. That didn’t work out. As soon as we finished the first record, we trashed all the extra songs we had been working on.

CHRIS: Nothing ever works out as you planned it would be. EVER.We released three CDs, but we wrote like 50 songs altogether. For every five songs you hear, there are at least 20 dead ones rolling around somewhere.

NICK: That’s pretty accurate. For every one song, there were five ideas that did not make it. We will each put something out and one of those will get worked on and one will get pushed because those were the best. That whole thing gets moved over and we are like “Well, those are all OK” and we will work on another group. This time, Tara’s will be the best, so let’s work on that. Then, if something really sticks out from round 2, that will become round 3. But, round 3 will also have four other contenders. So, its definitely a back and forth on things like that.

JASON: Eventually, we all end up here…arguing about which song we should put on the record. It’s a lot of fun.

What’s your favorite tour story? Or, we can go the other way and tell your worst tour story.

NICK: So, I have a lot of stories about touring that I remember. This is really memorable. For me, one of my most interesting stories. We had played this show and I was very drunk (Pick a show!). I am peeing in this bathroom and these two people barge in. They come in and are like “Whoa! Hey!” I am standing there “dick in hand” and these people come. They are all like “You aren’t using the bathroom, are you?” They close the door. I am all like “Nah!” They pull out this bag and they make these lines of blow on the sink. “You cool, dude?” Weiner still in hand, I am like drip…drip…drip “Yeah, man…I’m cool with it.” They were like “You want one?” and they proceeded to snort it up. “Nah, man. I’m just gonna pee.” While this is happening, I take my phone out and take a selfie. It’s just me (no dick…well, I’m a dick) and I am like “What’s happening?” There is this guy and girl snorting blow like they were mowing a lawn behind me. I’m like “OK, I pissed on my hands, so I am just going to slide in here and wash them over here…away from your noses.”

NICK: Another time, me and Matt got really drunk in Murphysboro, TN. It’s raining. The show is not going well. There’s a lot of assholes there. This guy is standing in the doorway. We are loading in and out in this pouring rain. Each time we pass by, we are like “Excuse me. Pardon me.” We are going in and out and this guy is still standing in the fucking doorway.  We come out with one or two loads of gear. We had finished playing. This guy was just sitting there, wearing these high tops (I really remember this guy!) and a leather jacket. He’s smoking a cigarette. He says “I’m probably in the way, huh?” “No fucking shit! Dude! You’re in the FUCKING WAY!” He says that and moves out of the way. We go to go back in when we are done. Guess who’s in the fucking way again. The same fucking dude! He just didn’t get that he was in the way! He knew he was in the way!

MATTHEW: I felt like every time he looked at me, he was giving me this look like I was inconveniencing him being able to stand in the doorway. I just wanted to put the stuff in the van. “It’s monsooning in Tennessee…OK?”

NICK: I just think of Scott Pilgram – “This club sucks! You’re pretentious! I got beef!” That night, I stepped in a puddle, I cried like there was no tomorrow. We tried to get a hotel. It’s weird!

CHRIS: We got this house party. We were playing there, and we were loading in. Basically, no one gave a crap that we were playing. We were the most pop band there. We finished playing and there is like one guy clapping. We were supposed to stay at that house. We were like “We do not want to stay here! There is no way.” Then, these two get super loaded in the van, where it wasn’t raining. We drove to some hotel room. It was a weird show.

MATTHEW: The thing about the hotel room, is the stairs. In Florida, we are all used to flat surfaces and hotels being first floor, second floor, etc. The lobby and the first floor, at the backside of the hotel, is like the third floor.

NICK: It made no sense! Hearing him tell that still makes no sense! So, floor 1 was actually floor 3. But where we parked, should have been floor 1.

MATTHEW: So, we were trying to find our room and Nick had a little too much to drink.

JASON: I got no stories.

CHRIS: The one we always tell is in South Carolina, and we had a blast there. But, there were cords all over the place. It was kind of like a big event. There was a great crowd there. There were more photographers than I think I have ever seen in a small club. I mean that! There were like four or five photographers and two guys doing videography. Nick, at some point, gets twisted up in the lines and goes backwards onto me. He lands on my kit and looks over at me. He could see the rage in my eyes. I reached down and grabbed him and threw him off my kit. I try to assemble the kit in mid-song.

MATTHEW: We are all still playing!

CHRIS: The song doesn’t stop. This all happens in an instant. Not a single photographer got a photo of it. No one got video of it. Nothing!

NICK: It was like it never happened.

CHRIS: I have no idea how that is even humanly possible.

NICK: But, they got all the photos of Matt making stupid faces. And, Tara being dumb. And, Jason being like “I hit the wrong note.” Every fucking photo! If your face was looking wrong…nailed it! But, any photo of me dive-bombing on Chris’ expensive, new drum set…just happened to miss it.

JASON: I just remember that I was standing at the front of the stage and suddenly the entire rhythm section just drops out. Chris stopped playing drums, obviously, because he had a bass player laying on his kit. The three of us are playing guitar and I turn to look at these two (Tara and Matthew) and we just shrugged at each other and kept playing. “Allright! We got this!”

TARA: Jason, you have a vest story!

JASON: I do have a vest story. So, this is my very first adventure with ABL. My first shows. They were out of state. We were in Atlanta and we had some time to kill before the show. So, we went shopping. Tara brings this vest up to me. “I think this is going to fit you! And, it’s really cool!” She knew all about the brand and everything., I was like “Um…Cool! I’ll get the vest…apparently, it’s cool…” So, I buy the vest. We throw it in the van. Then, the next day, we were in Birmingham. Our other bass player at the time, Zack, gets on the mic “Everyone, I would like to introduce our new guitarist, Jason Lemrod. Everybody buy him a shot!” During the set, shots just start showing up on stage. I’m like “OK. Here we go!” After the show, shots just keep coming my way. At this point, I’m done. We get in the van and the vehicle starts moving. I’m like “Nope! This is not staying down.” I need to throw up and the van is going. Zack just grabs a bag, hands it to me, and I throw up in the bag.

CHRIS: (LAUGHS) He just opens the door to the van, while we’re moving, and sails it out onto the street. This is just what Zack does. He’s like “Whatever!” Then, he closes the door.

JASON: Then, the next day, we’re driving back to Orlando. I’m starting to pack things up. I’m getting my stuff organized because we are going home. “Where’s my vest? Hmmm. Where’s my vest?” And it hit me… My vest is in Birmingham…covered in vomit…on the side of the road!”

CHRIS: I always wondered if some homeless guy was like “Worth it!” (LAUGHS) “This is nice!”

Is there anything where you look at it and go “That was really cool! I can’t believe we did that!”?

MATTHEW: We were direct support for Our Lady Peace. For a few of us, they are an influence. They were a band we really looked up to and they were outside the box of regular rock, at the time.

TARA: They were bad ass dudes, too!

CHRIS: Yeah, we got to hang out and eat pizza with them. That was rad! When you go to the House of Blues, sometime you hear “Oh, you finished your set? Don’t go up the stairs. Don’t go anywhere near the green rooms.” We’ve heard a lot of stories around packing your stuff up and don’t go upstairs.

JASON: When a certain local band played with some bigger bands, they were told that they had to use the public bathroom to get ready. They weren’t allowed to go upstairs or talk to the band or do anything.

CHRIS: When we played with Our Lady Peace, they let us have one of the other green rooms. “Oh, that’s kind of cool!” When we finished, and then they finished, they were like “Hey, come back and have some pizzas with us.” “Really? Cool!” We sat there, while they told us way cooler stories than we will ever have. “On our first tour, with Van Halen…blah blah blah”

MATTHEW: It was interesting because they were asking us stuff like “How do you do this stuff now? Like, how do you get into that?” They came out when we still had radio, records and tapes. Now, it’s a different field and they are still in it. “That’s really cool because you’ve already been there and you’re still curious about what works today.” It was really fun because they were all just super nice.

CHRIS: I think, with that question, you have to throw Rocklahoma out there. It was a really cool show!

MATTHEW: Rocklahoma was rad!

CHRIS: Just to get put on a show in a city that shows up every year for a festival…that’s really rad! You go there, and you’re seeing these huge bands, like Underoath, play…or A Perfect Circle….Ghost…and you’re like “holy crap! I’m playing this festival.” You’re playing the next stage over and people legitimately came and watched us. People legitimately came to the meet and greet. A shocking amount of people paid attention to us.

MATTHEW: It was cool because people came and started camping out a week before when the show starts. People set up these camps. You kind of have to. It’s in Oklahoma, in the middle of nowhere. These are elaborate camps that have AC and all this crazy nonsense. This is their vacation. People come from all these different states, like Texas and Arkansas for this thing. But, playing the festival…first…you’re on with big bands, like Chris said…Underoath…Ghost…The Used…Vince Neil…Poison…Stone Temple Pilots…and you’re all sharing the same space. Everyone there was super cool! Every person we met was super genuine. We’re 1,500 miles from home. We play this stage, we play our set, and you do a meet and greet afterwards. We’re all dying because it was hot as “who knows what.” We are all just panting.

JASON: We’re playing on the sun, basically.

MATTHEW: We were like having heat stroke of some form. I walked over to the merch area and there is a line of people just waiting to say hello or whatever. They want to get a photo. I walk back and was like “Guys!” I was trying to say words between dying. “People!” “Meet and Greet!” “C’mon!” We played a 30-minute set and spent an hour in the meet and greet booth talking to people, taking photos, signing posters, signing CDs, and just having conversations with people we had never met…and we were thousands of miles from home. That was a really unique experience, for sure.

CHRIS: It was cool to meet so many people and have them genuinely connect with it. We talked with the guy running the stage. He talked about our set with us because he legitimately sat and watched us. He gave us a few tips. It’s always neat when someone like that takes the time and gives you feedback about what they liked about your set and what they didn’t. It was just kind of a shock. “Man! This is how things run! This is kind of cool! It didn’t feel like it was slapped together. It felt like it was a well-oiled machine. People seemed to enjoy what we did, which made it even better. Even if they hadn’t, the whole experience was really neat.

MATTHEW: We played the third day of the festival. But, we had VIP camping for the entire thing. We camped out, in tents, and watched all the bands. We got to meet people. By Day 2 or Day 3, they were all like “Hey! You’re playing Sunday!” People actually remembered and we aren’t even from anywhere near here.

TARA: Basically, they just recognize his beard.

JASON: Yeah, I don’t get any of that…They ask me to get them water.

MATTHEW: Having people genuinely come see you and they don’t even know what you sound like…and then, after, wait to talk to you and tell you what they thought about your music and how cool it was is definitely awesome! “You didn’t know anything about us, you watched us, and you actually came over and talked, and wanted photos, and bought CDs to learn more about it.”

NICK: It’s very fair to say that we were just as excited to talk to these people as they were to talk to us. We spent two other days at this festival promoting and talking to, and networking, and all of a sudden we were the people that everyone wanted to do that with. We were just like “What? You want to talk to us? Fuck, man! We have been wanting to talk to you this whole time!”

MATTHEW: You could feel the community vibe of it, which was big! It just felt like there were people that have gone to the show for 8, 9, 10 years. They all know each other. This is their deal.

TARA: We have been lucky to open up for bigger bands and festivals and blah blah blah. But, I think one of the coolest things is even like when we were in DC, on one of our last tours. We played this show and people we didn’t even know were singing along to our songs. That was really humbling and cool. I was just like “Whoooo are you?” They were like “I’ve been watching you on YouTube!” You’re like “THANK YOU! OH MY GOD!” It’s so kind and so welcoming. You come into a different city, while you are touring, and you have spent a couple of weeks feeling kind of alone, outside of having each other. And then, you see people singing along to your songs…and it’s not a cover.

MATTHEW: It’s definitely more rewarding when you go and play places that are farther from home and people know the singles you put out and you see them singing and getting into those songs…or sometimes even more. You’re like “how do you know that song? I don’t even know that song and I’m playing it.”

TARA: But, why? Why does that song mean something to them. What do they take from it?

MATTHEW: As musicians, we all have songs that mean something to us. To have people make a Facebook comment or say something like “This song means whatever reason…it could be anything” That moment is the most rewarding. It’s the highlight of it all. That’s why you do it.

Let’s talk about Toto and your current cover song (“Africa”)

MATTHEW:. Instead of just covering it verbatim, like Weezer does, it is a much more rock/punk version. We have fun with it. In the middle, we do a manual fade out.

JASON: This is Chris’ brain-child, so we will let him answer the question.

CHRIS: I don’t know…I like Toto. I think when you do a cover, you want to do something that everyone knows, so it always lands. And, that’s a tough thing because you think of a song and you’re like “Everyone knows that song!” but then you start talking to people about it and no, they don’t. Toto, “Africa” – everyone knows that freaking song. It’s tough to find a cover like that and then trying to think of a way to do it in a way that doesn’t sound like the same song. We’ve done a lot of covers, but I still think Toto is our best cover.

NICK: I think we’ve put a lot of ourselves into that cover. When you hear the Toto cover, you’re like “This is obviously something ABL would do.” We changed it enough where you can see Toto, but you can also see ABL. We aren’t doing fucking Toto karaoke. I think that’s what makes it cool. When you hear a really good cover that’s different enough, but at the same time, it’s still understandable…You hear it and you are like “Oh, this is like the original…well, at least the words are like the original…and its really fun to listen to. I get the idea and I remember it after hearing it.” As soon as the chorus kicks in, everyone always grabs it. “FUCK! That’s what they’re doing!” I think that’s a really big thing. You hear it and go “Oh, this is fucking cool! It’s familiar. It’s fun!” Then you hit the chorus and they are like “You guys!” and everyone wants to shake your hand.

MATTHEW: During the intro, everyone is like “I know that pattern” and its usually like the first verse or line or two in and everyone is like “Oh!” That’s where you see people connect with what’s happening on stage.

CHRIS: There’s always one guy who gets it right when we start. That’s my favorite guy. He’s tapping his friend and doing the thing! Everyone else is like “What the fuck are you talking about?”

MATTHEW: It’s a fun cover and hopefully, at some point, we put out our own version of it. We’ll see.

Is there anything about the music industry that surprised you, now that you are starting to get some traction?

CHRIS: Nobody has any idea how they did anything. No one! It’s crazy. You talk to a guy who’s a millionaire and has had a bunch of gold records – “How’d you do it?” “I don’t know…I don’t know how this happened.”

NICK: There’s no algorithm.

MATT: There’s no right way to do it. You have people tell you that. “So, what do you do?” “Oh, you can do this…or that…or that…or that…” An hour and a half later, you are like “So, there is no answer. OK. Good to know.”

CHRIS: We are in the wild west of the music world right now. Nobody knows exactly how to monetize streaming completely. All the artists are getting boned. Physical record sales have gone off the map. LPs or actual records have come back a little bit, but its still not enough to level the playing field. I always thought you write a really great record and people buy it, and we buy Ferraris. That’s supposed to be how it works. Now, there’s bands out there who are huge names but they have second jobs. It’s crazy town.

MATT: I know there is legislature from 1972, where it describes how much you get per record…the standards. But, there’s no standard for streaming. That’s where it shifted. You don’t get anything from that. But then the RIAA has a standard where X amount of streams equals a gold record now. But, you aren’t selling that many records. You aren’t making that.

NICK: There’s so many variables now. Not only does music popularity come in waves, but how music is consumed has come in bigger waves. There’s a really interesting book called Wired. It talks about how the internet changed the music industry. Eventually, as a band, when we consider how we create music, we start having discussions about what to do with the next record. “Should it be on USB? Should it be for free download? Should it be on CD? Should it be an LP?

MATT: Should it be a single, single, single, single…

NICK: The majority of music is consumed in the world of singles now. That’s what Apple has done to the industry, through iTunes and stuff like that. On top of that, you have to consider the kind of music you are making. It has a huge contribution to that equation. If you are making music that was popular five years ago, it’s completely different. In another two years, it will be completely different again. It might even be completely different in six months. To say that anyone has a thumb down on the industry at this point… Who thought we would be having these crazy dub step moments between metal core Korn style stuff? Who saw that coming? Who saw rap/metal and EDM combining at this point, based on where we were ten years ago? So, it’s really hard to say “Oh, yeah, we have this totally pegged. This is how you make it these days. You fucking don’t! No one does.

CHRIS: I just thought more people would know what’s up. We would get to this level, there would be an office we walk into, and this guy named Brian would be sitting there. “Alight, you guys have made it to that point! Sign here and we’ll take care of the rest.” You just go “Oh! That’s how this works! We’ve done all the work. Here you go.” We would then walk through this other door and some dude puts a guitar on Jason, I get like a leopard suit, my kit immediately has extra kick drums and toms on it for no fucking reason, and there’s just a crowd waiting outside our first arena show, which happens right after we walk out of Brian’s office. Then, it’s just smooth sailing and I go buy my gold-plated Lamborghini. Tara owns her harem of cats. Jason starts his drug addiction. That’s how I imagined the whole thing worked. Until recently, when I realized that’s not how it worked. That was a surprise to me. That even at the top, it’s a crap shoot.

MATT: With rock music, I think it’s different. Pop is something they know how to market really well. They single-handedly create this person, at least it seems to be that way. You can’t do that with rock bands. No one really knows how that works.

Knowing all that, is there anything you would have done differently?

JASON: Honest answer? I would have gotten these five people together and said “Instead of putting a band together, let’s put together some weird business and the five of us can put that much time into it and actually make money.

CHRIS: I think I would have skipped a couple of lineups. Like, if that was a reality, I could have gone “Alright, here’s the perfect band!” If I had known what we would be, I would have tried to pull that off. I’m glad it happened the way it did. I don’t know if we would have ended up being the same band that we did, but I wish we had met each other sooner. I don’t know that age is a thing in it. We’re all young, spry people…because that’s what young people say. How much further along could we have been, if we were another 3-4 years in at this point?

MATT: For me, I see people starting music way younger than I did.

NICK: And they’re better than we were at that age. At least I feel that way.

MATT: I see 10-year olds that slay people on guitar and I’m like “I didn’t start playing guitar at 10. That wasn’t even a thing I cared about.” You didn’t know you wanted to do that. It’s like “You’re how old? You’re 12? Ok…cool!”

TARA: I think I would be unabashed, in the sense of what we post and how we present ourselves in this social media climate. It’s very naked, but curated too. I think everyone gets really hung up on “Oh, make your feed look beautiful. Don’t post anything unless its perfect.” I think people are craving authenticity. So, maybe being one of those people that never really fed into that crap from the get-go would have been cool.

CHRIS: I think I would have learned to be more selfish, too. I know that sounds really terrible. But, for a long time, I think we were trying to please everybody else and also try to move ourselves forward. I think its ok, as a project, that we be selfish. We need to make decisions that are going to help us out and then, if it helps other people, it’s great. I don’t think we were necessarily hurt by it, but, we might have gotten places quicker if we were more selfish in the past.

MATT: You try to be a team player amongst each other and “Well, you know what? We didn’t need to do that. We wasted time on that.” We’ve done stuff where nobody else was involved and we didn’t need to waste our own time on that. It’s across the board. But, you learn. Once again, nobody has the answer to do it. So, you learn a little from everything you do.

What’s on your playlist in heavy rotation?

MATT: Palini and Made Cities. The new Ghost album. The new Palini, which just came out a few days ago. That’s really it…and Meliora, by Ghost. Palini is all instrumental and proggy and Ghost is…Ghost. Very cinematic. For me, it’s like those two vast differences of bands is really cool. I thrive on both those things. All the bands I grew up with have put out stuff lately and I have been like “Ummm…I don’t think I’m really into that anymore.” Also, I am looking forward to the new Death Cab for Cutie that’s coming out. That band always kind of sticks in my eyesight. They evolve, but in a weird way. I am kind of excited to hear their new album.

JASON: I’ve been listening to a lot of Manchester Orchestra lately. I’m really stoked about the new Hands Like Houses album. Our good buddy, James Paul Wisner mixed it.

CHRIS: I never stop listening to Closure in Moscow. Been listening to a lot of Palini lately. I’ve also been listening to a ton of Manchester Orchestra.

TARA: Bones, by Sunlux. The last Woodkid album. But then, I always listen to my Less Than Jake, Hello Rockview, and stuff like that.

MATT: Woodkid is really cool. I always forget about that. It’s just really unique sounding.

One thing you do that’s different, in your live show, is Chris plays drums sideways, rather than facing the crowd. Why did you make that choice?

CHRIS: The reason I play that way is, I think, visually, it offers a lot more. As a drummer, you get stuck behind the cymbals and you’re just like a weird, floating head. I think it adds more to the live show because people can see what you’re doing. By seeing that, people hear more of what you’re doing. A lot of people hear what they see. When they can’t see you doing a lot, they don’t hear all the little things you add into the music. Plus, when I do backup vocals, it’s nice to face the audience, rather than facing my hi-hat.

MATT: Honestly, I like it. I always look at Chris for certain moments or parts. For me, it’s fun. Like, in “Pieces” at the very end. I change my pattern to match his pattern. Also, it’s fun when one of us messes up. We can easily just scowl at each other.

Are there any other interesting facts or fun stories you want to share?

MATT: We are on tour with Rookie of the Year, from the middle of September all the way through the middle of October. We are going up the eastern coast, over to the Midwest states,

TARA: I would say that playing the Warped tour has been a life goal.

JASON: And we managed to just sneak it in! Barely!

CHRIS: We are on the last day of the Vans Warped Tour. We expect it to be great!

MATT: At the end of Warped Tour, they were like “A Brilliant Lie…OK. I guess you can play just one.”

CHRIS: The crazy part is that the only way it could be any closer to the line would be if we were playing after whoever was the closing band. “Yeah, you guys can jump on stage after everyone’s done.” They would be cleaning up to us playing. That’s the only way we could play any later.

JASON: We did actually play a show in Daytona, where they were literally closing the bar down around us. “No, guys! You’re good! Just keep playing.”

CHRIS: There were like these storm gates they were closing. “No, you guys are fine!”

NICK: We asked multiple times “Are you sure? There’s no one here.”

MATT: We played at The Windjammer, in the Carolinas. It was the night before Halloween and nobody’s there.  But, they paid us to play for two hours.

CHRIS: We played two hours to this empty fucking room!

MATT: But there was like random rich dudes giving us big tips. During the second half of the set, the bartenders are cleaning and we were like “Do you just want us to stop so you can go home?” “Nah! Keep going!” “OK! For you and the seven other people here.

CHRIS: The Windjammer is this two-story building and up above all that is this sound booth. It’s way up. We couldn’t see him. He would just yell stuff down at us. It was like the Wizard of Oz. “Yeah, OK dude! Whatever you need us to do. Where the fuck are you, man?” But, yeah, there was nobody there. It started off with just a few people there and it was like a Halloween costume party. Those people slowly went away. It was just two people and one of our friends. We just did countless covers.

CHRIS: We had to do this crazy, two-hour set. We thought the place would be packed. Every cover we knew.

NICK: One time, I ordered a hot dog while we were playing. It was in Georgia. There was a window behind us. I got my wireless and just walked out into the street. Chris was so mad. I came back and was like “What’s the fucking problem? I was just getting some food!”

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