_Alan Day - Four Year Strong (04/01/2012)
_
After
the release of Four Year Strong’s fourth studio album In Some Way, Shape or
Form in November 2011, The 59th Sound’s Claire Foster chatted with
guitarist, and vocalist Alan Day about their new album, live shows and their
trademark beards.
What’s the story with the beards?
No story really, we all just don’t really like to shave so we grew beards, that’s it.
Next month, you’re doing “It's a Wonderful Gig Life” and $1 from each pre-sale ticket goes to the Leukaemia and Lymphoma Society. The charity is really important for you guys to suppor - why is that?
Back in 2004, Dan's brother passed away of leukaemia. It's in the holidays so we'd like to do everything we can.
I’ve heard that the name of your band, Four Year Strong, is a lyric from The Get Up Kids.
Yes it is. We're huge fans, that’s who we grew up listening to and I mean we only started as a band at 14 years old, well I was [14 years old], so we thought it would be cool to name the band after the song. So we did and we just never changed it. But we did change the number, the actual Get Up Kids lyric was 'five year strong' and we changed it to four.
You were here last year with Soundwave and you’ve said that Soundwave is “one of the most fun festivals” that you guys have played. Is there a reason you love Australia so much?
Well Australia's just great in general, we always have a blast when we're there but the reason Soundwave specifically is so much fun is because, I don’t know if fans know this, but all the bands all stay in the same hotel, so the entire show, like, we go back and forth from the hotel to the festival. So the entire week of shows is basically just a huge party. Like everyone just hanging out the entire time. It's just a real blast.
I had no idea about that, that’s pretty awesome for you guys.
Yeah, it’s great
You guys have toured with a whole heap of massive bands, do you ever stop and think about how you got to where you are right now?
Oh all the time. All the time, yeah, particularly while we're on stage it happens a lot, because it's really - that’s what I was saying, I was 14 and we just started a band for fun, just like any other kid does, you know. The fact that we've made it this far is great.
Now your live shows; it's a huge thing for fans to get to see you guys because usually your shows are heaps of fun. Your album is a little different this time, so will your shows be any different?
No, I mean, we just got off tour yesterday actually, we got home, but we were playing a bunch of the new songs on tour. It was actually going really well, I mean the mix of these new songs and old songs just worked amazingly and that, I think kids were realising that, you know, the shock of the different sound is a little much at first, but at the end of the day we're still the same old band and you can really see that live because we have the same energy you know.
So you guys are getting a good response to the new music?
Yes we have. Very good.
There's a massive amount of bands that are going to be playing at Soundwave next year, is there anyone that you’re really looking forward to seeing?
Well one of the best parts about playing festivals like that is getting to see bands that you thought you’d never see, so the band for me is System of a Down. It would be Slipknot and Limp Bizkit too, and I am excited to see them, but we already played a festival with both of those bands this year. So not as excited, still very excited to see Slipknot and Limp Bizkit, but System of a Down will be really cool to see because I used to be a big fan when I was younger, so that’ll be nice a nostalgic moment. It’ll be cool. Plus I Am The Avalanche is playing so, those are some of our best friends and they’re a great band.
Back to the new album - there’s been quite a few negative reviews about the slight shift in your music to being a little more dark and aggressive than your previous albums. How do you feel when you hear bad reviews about your music?
It's kind of inevitable so we try not to get too hung up on it. We just keep doing things the way we want to do it, have fun. We just don’t let that stuff bring us down.
I’ve also heard that the band’s lost some fans due to the music change. How do you feel about that?
Well the way we look at it is just, you can't please everyone. It's just, I guess as much as we love our fans and we care and care about doing, you know, what they love, at the end of the day, this is our life. This isn’t just, Four Year Strong isn’t just an album we put on our iPod and listen to every once-in-a-while, this is something we have to live with for our whole entire lives,you know, when we record the record, that lasts for eternity, that’ll last forever. And you know when we play a show, it's what we have to do so at the end of the day, we just want to do the things that we like, that’s the reason we started this band in the first place, because we didn’t know of any bands that were pop punk with hardcore influences like that. We didn’t hear a lot going on so we started a band that we would want to listen to, we would want to play.
You’ve mentioned that you’re the pop punk band with hardcore influences – how does it feel having helped to pioneer the 'happycore’ or 'easycore' genre?
I mean it's definitely cool having influenced so many bands and so many people but, you know, that was never really our intention. We're just doing, like I said, what we like, what we want to do. So it's definitely, definitely very flattering.
Your keyboardist Josh left the band earlier this year; did that influence the change in sound on the new album?
No not at all. He never had any part of the writing process. Yeah he was never really involved in any of the creative side of it, so that doesn’t have anything to do with the way it sounds at all. I mean the same songs that have been written this year are still in the band too because he wasn’t doing the writing.
Just to finish, do you have anything to say to your fans that are going to come and see you at Soundwave 2012?
We just want kids to come hang out, to see us play at Soundwave because we just, every time we play a show we have the same mentality and that’s probably the best show that we could possibly play, and what we feed off of is the kids' energy, so if there is tonnes of people, then it’s great so yeah, just come and we can have a big party together.
Four Year Strong will be tearing up stages across the country as a part of the Soundwave Festival throughout February/ March 2012.
Claire Foster
What’s the story with the beards?
No story really, we all just don’t really like to shave so we grew beards, that’s it.
Next month, you’re doing “It's a Wonderful Gig Life” and $1 from each pre-sale ticket goes to the Leukaemia and Lymphoma Society. The charity is really important for you guys to suppor - why is that?
Back in 2004, Dan's brother passed away of leukaemia. It's in the holidays so we'd like to do everything we can.
I’ve heard that the name of your band, Four Year Strong, is a lyric from The Get Up Kids.
Yes it is. We're huge fans, that’s who we grew up listening to and I mean we only started as a band at 14 years old, well I was [14 years old], so we thought it would be cool to name the band after the song. So we did and we just never changed it. But we did change the number, the actual Get Up Kids lyric was 'five year strong' and we changed it to four.
You were here last year with Soundwave and you’ve said that Soundwave is “one of the most fun festivals” that you guys have played. Is there a reason you love Australia so much?
Well Australia's just great in general, we always have a blast when we're there but the reason Soundwave specifically is so much fun is because, I don’t know if fans know this, but all the bands all stay in the same hotel, so the entire show, like, we go back and forth from the hotel to the festival. So the entire week of shows is basically just a huge party. Like everyone just hanging out the entire time. It's just a real blast.
I had no idea about that, that’s pretty awesome for you guys.
Yeah, it’s great
You guys have toured with a whole heap of massive bands, do you ever stop and think about how you got to where you are right now?
Oh all the time. All the time, yeah, particularly while we're on stage it happens a lot, because it's really - that’s what I was saying, I was 14 and we just started a band for fun, just like any other kid does, you know. The fact that we've made it this far is great.
Now your live shows; it's a huge thing for fans to get to see you guys because usually your shows are heaps of fun. Your album is a little different this time, so will your shows be any different?
No, I mean, we just got off tour yesterday actually, we got home, but we were playing a bunch of the new songs on tour. It was actually going really well, I mean the mix of these new songs and old songs just worked amazingly and that, I think kids were realising that, you know, the shock of the different sound is a little much at first, but at the end of the day we're still the same old band and you can really see that live because we have the same energy you know.
So you guys are getting a good response to the new music?
Yes we have. Very good.
There's a massive amount of bands that are going to be playing at Soundwave next year, is there anyone that you’re really looking forward to seeing?
Well one of the best parts about playing festivals like that is getting to see bands that you thought you’d never see, so the band for me is System of a Down. It would be Slipknot and Limp Bizkit too, and I am excited to see them, but we already played a festival with both of those bands this year. So not as excited, still very excited to see Slipknot and Limp Bizkit, but System of a Down will be really cool to see because I used to be a big fan when I was younger, so that’ll be nice a nostalgic moment. It’ll be cool. Plus I Am The Avalanche is playing so, those are some of our best friends and they’re a great band.
Back to the new album - there’s been quite a few negative reviews about the slight shift in your music to being a little more dark and aggressive than your previous albums. How do you feel when you hear bad reviews about your music?
It's kind of inevitable so we try not to get too hung up on it. We just keep doing things the way we want to do it, have fun. We just don’t let that stuff bring us down.
I’ve also heard that the band’s lost some fans due to the music change. How do you feel about that?
Well the way we look at it is just, you can't please everyone. It's just, I guess as much as we love our fans and we care and care about doing, you know, what they love, at the end of the day, this is our life. This isn’t just, Four Year Strong isn’t just an album we put on our iPod and listen to every once-in-a-while, this is something we have to live with for our whole entire lives,you know, when we record the record, that lasts for eternity, that’ll last forever. And you know when we play a show, it's what we have to do so at the end of the day, we just want to do the things that we like, that’s the reason we started this band in the first place, because we didn’t know of any bands that were pop punk with hardcore influences like that. We didn’t hear a lot going on so we started a band that we would want to listen to, we would want to play.
You’ve mentioned that you’re the pop punk band with hardcore influences – how does it feel having helped to pioneer the 'happycore’ or 'easycore' genre?
I mean it's definitely cool having influenced so many bands and so many people but, you know, that was never really our intention. We're just doing, like I said, what we like, what we want to do. So it's definitely, definitely very flattering.
Your keyboardist Josh left the band earlier this year; did that influence the change in sound on the new album?
No not at all. He never had any part of the writing process. Yeah he was never really involved in any of the creative side of it, so that doesn’t have anything to do with the way it sounds at all. I mean the same songs that have been written this year are still in the band too because he wasn’t doing the writing.
Just to finish, do you have anything to say to your fans that are going to come and see you at Soundwave 2012?
We just want kids to come hang out, to see us play at Soundwave because we just, every time we play a show we have the same mentality and that’s probably the best show that we could possibly play, and what we feed off of is the kids' energy, so if there is tonnes of people, then it’s great so yeah, just come and we can have a big party together.
Four Year Strong will be tearing up stages across the country as a part of the Soundwave Festival throughout February/ March 2012.
Claire Foster