Melody And The Beast; An Interview With Alexisonfire

Standing on the periphery of trend and popularity shifts within the emo, hardcore and screamo music scenes over the last decade plus has been harrowing, frustrating and maddening experience. While a few of the pop/punk crossovers of the last few years have earned their rightful place in the spotlight through blood, sweat and tears, and exponentially greater number of bands have just gotten lucky. This phenomenon has borne countless bands who hone their crafts in practice spaces around the country, pitch their demos to large indie labels, and take the fast track straight to music television without ever paying their dues or even playing an out of town show. Though I’m not willing to point fingers, I have to give it up to bands who weathered those memorable, and sweaty nights in basements around the country, who played to meager crowds for years before finally crossing over. I also want to give it up to those bands who’ve stayed in the van, played the all-ages shows, and who can recognize their fans by face and name.

After spending part of a Summer morning with Dallas Green, guitarist and vocalist of Equal Vision’s Alexisonfire, I can say with some certainty that AOF is one of those tireless bands, with a strong work ethic, and who aren’t afraid to pay their dues. Touring relentlessly this year in support of their latest record, Watch Out!, and with no really significant break in sight, though AOF aren’t making huge waves (they’re still largely ignored or outright dissed by media in the states), they’re winning over fans one all-ages show, or mid-afternoon Warped Tour set at a time.

Perhaps most importantly, their latest record isn’t of the phoned in, half-assed variety music critics (and I can say this from experience) are getting all too used to hearing these days. As someone who’s listened to countless screamo and hardcore records this year, and who was disappointed over and over with the direction in which these efforts are going (do we really need another high school dropout with a diary and a cute haircut screaming out of tune about the girl that dumped him?), Watch Out! nearly single-handedly renewed my faith in an entire genre that I was nearly certain I’d outgrown. Though the screaming, aggressive riffing, and big, tumultuous rhythms are still here, the strong, Sunny Day-worthy melodies, and thoughtful lyrics immediately separate AOF from their peers. Their live show isn’t to be missed either.

Bettawreckonize recently had the opportunity to sit down with Alexisonfire guitarist Dallas before one of a handful of the band’s Warped Tour dates. Among the topics discussed were contortionist pron stars, Canada’s drinking age, and French-speaking bands.

Interview conducted in person by Tim Anderl. Pictures provided by Clark.

Name: Dallas Green
Band: Alexisonfire

BW: Do a lot of people confuse Alexis-on-fire and call you Alex-is-on-fire?

D: Yes.

BW: Is there a significance behind the name?

D: We’re named after a lactating contortionist porn star.

BW: Really?

D: From Nevada. Her name is Alexis Onfire.

BW: How did you choose that name?

D: I just saw it one night while I was watching a show on the Discovery Channel. It was a show on contortionism, and there was this segment on a stripper who’d added contortionism to her stage act. I thought, “This is crazy.” This was before we started the band. Anyway, I thought, “That would be a cool name for a band.” Here we are today.

BW: Where are you guys from in Canada?

D: We’re from a place called St. Catherine’s Ontario and it is about an hour south of Toronto.

BW: What other bands are from around that area?

D: There are a lot, like Moneen, Silverstein and Boys Night Out. All those bands are from pretty much the same area that we’re from.

BW: Have you toured with those bands?

D: Yeah, we’ve toured with Silverstein, we’ve toured with Boys Night Out, we’ve toured with Moneen. Yeah, we’re friends with all those guys.

BW: You also toured with a band from our area, Hawthorne Heights.

D: Yep, they were good. They opened for the Silverstein tour actually. They are doing really well for being a relatively new band. They’re all nice guys.

BW: How many dates of the Warped Tour are you on?

D: We’re only on eight. The last eight. We started last Wednesday.

BW: And then you’re doing another tour right after this?

D: Yeah, we’re going to Europe, the United Kingdom for two weeks.

BW: Have you been there before?

D: Yeah, we went in June. We went for a week and it was awesome.

BW: How does touring in Europe differ from touring in the states.

D: Well, it is on the other side of the world I guess, but it is really not that different. The kids look the same, they just speak with a different accent.

BW: How do you guys eat when you’re over there?

D: We ate gas station food constantly. McDonald’s.

BW: We’ll, one of the things I really liked about your new record, Watch Out!, is a song toward the end of the record that is about not taking fashion so seriously and enjoying music for music. Why do you think that is an important message to get across?

D :We didn’t write that song to like take a shot at all the bands that dig the fashion stuff. In fact, a lot of the bands that I like wear make up and stuff like that. We just wrote it for kids to realize that they shouldn’t be afraid….they don’t have to….even if they like those bands, they don’t have to look like them. They shouldn’t have to worry about what the person next to them is wearing, or what they look like, ya know? If they want to dig those bands they should like them for the music, not for what they look like, you know what I mean? I mean all of us….I guess I look kind of fashionable, I’ve got lots of tattoos and stuff. But we want to let people know that they should be themselves and have fun with it, if you like fashion or if you don’t, or if you like hardcore or punk rock or whatever. Just have fun you know?

BW: Is one of the reasons why you like participating in the Warped Tour, because everyone is a little different?

D: Yeah, we really like that aspect of it. But we’ve also noticed a lot of segregation. There are a lot of kids that hate everything, the punk rock kids hate everything, and the emo kids hate the punk rock. It is really disheartening. We just wish that everybody was getting along, you know what I mean?

BW: How old are you Dallas?

D: 24.

BW: OK. It is a relatively weird phenomenon I think that the punk and emo and hardcore kids can break off into these segregated groups. I mean, I’m 28 and when I was in high school, the one kid with the NOFX t-shirt hung out with the one kid with the Nine Inch Nails t-shirt, who bro-ed down with the girl in the Souixsie and the Banshees t-shirt. We were forced to mix….

D: I think kids just have a lot more choices now. There are so many bands in punk rock….I don’t know. What is funny is that bands like ours combine tons of different styles of music, right? And there are a lot of kids who will be like, “I like screamo.” But what they don’t realize is that screamo draws from tons of different styles of music. I don’t know….

BW: What are some of the albums that drew you in and made you a fan of punk rock or metal or whatever?

D: Just the counter culture that comes along with punk rock….I mean, I don’t even really listen to a lot of punk rock. I am like the melody guy. My favorite of all-time is Jeff Buckley or something like that. Bands like Sunny Day Real Estate made me really want to be in a band. I don’t know….I’ve always liked metal. I’m a guitarist and I’ve been playing guitar almost all of my life so I appreciate the technical ability you need to play metal. I don’t even know though what specific records really got me into playing aggressive music. I guess I just like the energy involved in it. You know what I mean?

BW: From a songwriter’s standpoint, would you say that when you’re to be creative and to write music that you’re listening to less music? Or are you constantly drawing from all those influences out there and trying to draw parallels?

D: I guess it depend what kind of mood I’m in. I sometimes find that if I’m listening to a lot of records, and I pick up my guitar that subconsciously I start trying to emulate them. I really hate that. I hate the idea of sounding like other people. That’s just the way I am. And that’s not like a shot at anyone or anything like that. I guess I just really hate writing songs that sound like songs that someone else has already written.

I think our records are all over the place and that we experiment with a lot of different musical concepts. If I think we’re writing too many parts that sound the same, then we have to write something else. I guess it is the fear of monotony or something, I don’t know…

BW: What is your relationship like with the other guys in the band? How long have you known those guys?

D: We get along great. We’ve all known each other for about four years now and we’ve been a band for three of those. Obviously we will get in fights and stuff like that because we live together while we’re on the road. But I guess it is a similar relationship you would have with a brother or sister. I mean, we’ve never come to blows or anything like that, it is always just, “eff you,” “no, eff you,” and that’s it.

BW: How did your relationship with Equal Vision come about?

D: We sent them a copy of our old record. We were trying to get some distribution in the states and not just in Canada. They just dug it and came down to see us. The liked us and asked us if they could put a record out. We said yes.

BW: So then after your European tour, you’re back on the road again, right?

D: Yeah, we go back to Canada, then back to the states, then back to the U.K.

(Editor’s Note: Our photographer for the day, Matthew “Clark” Clark asks if he can jump in with a question.)

Clark: I’ve been waiting to meet a band from St. Catherine’s so I could ask them about this: here in the states we go to a lot of bar shows, and we have a drinking age that is 21. When I was in St. Catherine’s we were at this punk rock bar and I noticed a lot of kids there. Then I remembered that the drinking age was what? 18?

D: 19.

C: Because people can drink at a younger age in Canada, are there more bar venues in and around Canada where bands can play?

D: In St. Catherine’s there is not really anywhere at all to play because most of the bars are dance bars and a lot of them won’t let you do all-ages shows. I don’t know, I mean…. Fake I.D.s are…. It is a lot easier to look like you’re 19. I guess I don’t think drinking is that big a part of it, so I guess it doesn’t allow a lot more kids to come out.

There aren’t a lot of bands that go through Canada, so when you find a place where you can do an all-ages show, all the kids from that town will come. They’re starving for stuff to happen. I think that’s pretty awesome. I love doing all-ages shows.

D: What was the name of the bar?

C: I can’t remember?

D: How long ago was it?

C: A couple of years ago. It was downtown.

D: Was it the Mind Bomb?

C: Yeah, that was a pretty cool bar.

D: My old band used to play there all the time before it closed down. We never got to play there with this band, which was sort of disappointing since it is sort of a legendary bar.

BW: Are there places in Canada that you like playing better than others. Are there places you go where everybody is there, and they’re all really psyched, and you just love to go back there?

D: That is like every place in Canada for us. We do a lot better in Canada. Our first record came out in Canada a full year before it ever did in the states, and we get played on Much Music and stuff. So we can do sold-out headlining shows in Canada. Like did this show called Edgefest in Toronto in July and there were 17,000 people there. Everywhere in Canada is amazing for us.

BW: Do you ever play with French Canadian bands?

D: Sometimes when we play in Quebec City. We don’t really go there that often. There are a lot of people there who are really into this separatist thing. I don’t know if you know, but Quebec the province wants to be their own country, they don’t want to be a part of Canada. So they don’t really like English speaking people.

BW: That is weird because we’ve gotten CDs from bands who used to sing in French, but who are trying to make a go of things now in English, I guess in an attempt to cross over.

D: The shows there are good, I mean….

BW: I’ve noticed there has been a lot more attention to Canadian bands in recent years, bands like Broken Social Scene and Radio Berlin, Hot Hot Heat and stuff like that. Do you guys ever do shows together….how do those two scenes work together?

D: Yeah, those bands do really well. I guess the difference is that a band like Broken Social Scene is a 19+ band. They play to an older audience whereas we play to a younger audience. That’s just the way it is. I think older people are afraid of aggressive music now. There are metal heads and stuff like that, but a lot of people will write us off because they’re like, “There is too much screaming,” or whatever. I guess there is a level of immaturity in the whole screaming thing, but it is….I think it just adds a lot of energy.

BW: I’ve been thinking that you see a lot of younger bands that look like they’re choreographed now. I guess it was the same way in the mid-nineties though when the Louisville hardcore scene was going on and bands in just about every other city were crying on stage and stuff. I guess at the time it seemed genuine to me, but I was younger too, so….

D: I think that is just what happens. A few bands get big and other bands start to copy them. I don’t know if everyone means to copy them, but….I guess look at us, look at how many other bands have screaming and singing.

BW: Do you think that it is strange that bands can actually live, eat, and not work jobs now, be on the road full-time? That wasn’t something that was happening to too many bands like five years ago. I guess NOFX and Fugazi did it, but you couldn’t really be a mid-level independent artist and make a living.

D: I guess it is kind of like grunge. If a sound stays around for long enough, the mainstream is going to pick up on it. I guess that is what happened. Look at a band like Taking Back Sunday, their new record has been out for a couple of weeks and it has already sold 200,000 copies. They were number 3 on the Billboard charts the first week it came out. And they’re an independent band.

BW: Does screamo, like in the most generic sense of the word, have a shelf-life?

D: I don’t know if it has a shelf-life. You can tell which bands are doing it genuinely and which bands are taking parts from other bands and just piecing them together and are making songs with them….that has a shelf-life. That is why when we are writing songs we’re not trying to copy other bands, we’re just trying to write good songs. I think we do it….

We don’t get a lot of press in the states and maybe it’s because we don’t look as cool as a lot of the other bands in our genre, we don’t champion the idea of the haircuts and stuff like that. We get a lot of shit for it. Like our new record got a 1 out of 5 in the new Alternative Press.

BW: Really?

D: Yeah, it was the same guy who reviewed our last record when we got a two. But like the new Underoath, which I think is a great record, got a five out of five.

BW: Taking Back Sunday got a five I think….

D: I couldn’t believe that we got a one when it is the same kind of quality and caliber of music. I don’t know….

BW: Does that kind of stuff bother you?

D: Not really, I think it is easier to critique than create.

BW: Absolutely.

D: It isn’t going to make me stop playing guitar, so….

BW: What would it take to make Alexisonfire break up?

D: Drug addiction. If anyone got addicted to coke or anything like that they’d be kicked out immediately. Or I guess if someone just quit taking it seriously we might kick them out. Not showing up for sound check and missing practices and stuff like that…. I guess if they were just being lacksidasical about it…. We take this seriously, we’re trying to make this our career. I’d much rather play guitar and be in a van than work at McDonald’s.