FEATURED INTERVIEWS                          

Underoath

One thing's for sure, no one's lost and there's no seperation in the sound.
By: Gian Erguiza - - November 24th, 2008 - 2:49 pm PST



Underoath has been relentlessly carving out their own niche since day one. Breaking barriers and delivering their message through countless touring and formidable records, Underoath have made quite a name for themselves throughout the years. Their latest offering 'Lost In The Sound Of Seperation' is a magnificent opus and sees the band in their best form to date, bound and determined. I got a chance to chat with Mr. Grant Brandell of Underoath hours before show time about the new album and what he really thinks of Barack Obama and Prop 8. The chat is as follows.

Hey Grant, give me an update of where you are right now and what you are up to at this moment?

I’m at the Bren Center in Irvine California on the last two weeks of the headline tour, it’s going great.

Cool man. You guys aren’t in the way of these fires are you?

We’re actually really close to them. There were actually people that had to leave early to go evacuate so we’re definitely close.

That sucks to hear. Anyhow, here we go. Lost in the Sound of Seperation has a much harder edge than your previous efforts. What prompted the shift to go heavier? This one sounds the most aggressive to me.

I think it’s not really a planned out thing for us you know? It’s never like ‘This is what we need to do or this is what needs to happen’ but more of like what we’re into. I think we were all pretty happy with how the last record came out and still into it so we wanted to up the bar and make a better record than last time and that’s what we tried to do!

How do you guys approach songwriting? Do you guys go in there with the attitude of making hit songs or do you guys even care about making hit songs? How do you guys approach it?

"We’re one of those bands that’s pretty much convinced that we’ll never be on the radio. That’s the kind of band we are and we’re cool with that. We never really try to make a hit but we try to write good songs or what we think is good."

We’re one of those bands that’s pretty much convinced that we’ll never be on the radio. That’s the kind of band we are and we’re cool with that. We never really try to make a hit but we try to write good songs or what we think is good. Usually, honestly, it’s different for every song like some songs can take two years and sometimes some songs take just two weeks. We’ll kind of start with some guitar riffs, put some drums to it and basically, the vocals come last and that’s kind of the in-studio type of thing with the keyboards but yeah, that’s how we roll!

So tell Grant, when someone listens to ‘Lost in the Sound of Seperation,’ what should they be feeling?

Hopefully listen to the whole thing. That would be the best thing if they could listen to the whole thing through? I think you get a real feel for the record or what we’re trying to go for by listening to all the songs and not just here and there. We tried to make it a more live sounding record, more organic. Like the last record was more polished and this time we wanted it to be more raw, kind of what we we’re going for and a little bit more experimental, tried new things.

Awesome. So what time are you guys coming on tonight?

We’re going on at around 10 O’ clock.

Speaking of your live shows, how much do you guys take pride in your live shows? How do you guys capture the attitude?

We love playing live. It’s the reason why we started playing music in the first place cause we love playing and performing so....we try and step up as much as possible and give the most that we got. It’s funny how back in the day, it was all about going as crazy as possible. Now, we want still want to get into it but we also want to play good and get in with the production and projection. Our guitar player Tim knows a lot of the projection stuff that we use. We’re definitely involved with every aspect of it like the use of lights on the songs and writing interludes in between songs, pretty much every aspect that you can think of.

That’s good to hear man since you know some bands just kind of get up there and wing it.

Yeah, we have this lighting guy that’s been with us forever and he’ll make this whole lighting set up and he always inputs on what would be really cool so we work together on all of the stuff.

With all of this hijacking of albums and songs online, please explain to me why I should fork up the $1 per song or $10 to buy your latest?

Um, if you love music like I do, that’s the smart way of keeping it around. At the same time, if you download it and not pay for it, I’m not going to hate on you like everyone else does these days. If you still appreciate music getting out there, it’s no the end of the world but I think that we work on a lot of stuff for the record like the artwork. Something that seems to be overlooked now but we definitely take a long time to pick out like what artwork we like to use and how the whole layout is set up and everything. We did a deluxe package where it’s like a box set where they were a lot of special things like vinyl so we definitely try. If you’re in a band nowadays, you kind of have to realize that stuff happens and goes on so you can’t really like avoid it. The people that go out and actually buy the records and support the bands by buying the typical merchandise and stuff take pride with it and do the best they can with it. Hopefully that will shine through and if it doesn’t, kids just get it from their friends you know and cool, at least they like the music. I’m not really hating on it either way!

Good to know. Give me the most interesting gig you guys have played so far and why?

We played in this giant field in South Africa last tour, that was pretty crazy. We were like in this shed in the middle of like a big giant sahara field and it was awesome! Giant bonfires all around and people just hangin….we were literally in the middle of nowhere. Well, we also have our horror stories where we’ve shown up at places and god…..we played this place in Europe and I couldn’t even stand up straight onstage cause the ceiling was so low that if I stood up I would hit the ceiling but we make it work.

That is good times man! So Grant, If given superhuman powers, which superhuman power would you love to acquire?

I think it would be that I could read people’s minds. But only if I can turn it off and on! That would be my thing.

Great answer!

It would be great, but yeah, you wouldn’t want that to be going on all the time!

Definitely, that can get kind of weird after while. What are the benefits of being a member of Underoath?

Making music for a living, that’s pretty sweet! To see the world and do what you want to do and share the message that we have. It’s kind of a ridiculous kind of thing. We’ve been doing this for about seven years now and being able to do it, it’s a total blessing! The fact that I can do what I love to do…I don’t think there’s any better benefits in the world at any job than being able to do what you love to do!

Man, a lot of people have them dreams of being a working musician and the reality of it bites.

Yeah, I’ve got a friend that goes to work everyday and totally hates his job so I feel blessed and lucky, fortunate to have the opportunity to do what I do.

Let’s conversate about the economy. I’m sure you’ve heard of the bailout plan in which the federal government purchases certain types of troubled assets for the purpose of providing stability and preventing disruption in the economy. What are your thoughts on this subject?

Well I can’t blame it all on the government. I think that we as consumers have not been responsible? I think everyone has been irresponsible with purchasing and consuming in general and the government hasn’t stepped up to do their job but the people should’ve taken a stand. Even Barack Obama being elected is the first step in doing something and making a change into hopefully something better, something different. Personally I think that it sucks. It’s really bad right now and I think people are almost hitting rock bottom and people are now saying ‘Whoah, what are we doing right now?’ We need to step up before we’re completely screwed. Hopefully the whole change thing is the start of something different. With the president now, he hasn’t done a great job and our guardian of the country is on to something so hopefully fresh new ideas and a fresh new way of thinking will come in and change for the better.

Which brings me to my next question. What do you think of Barack Obama and did we make the right decision in your opinion?

I personally do. I know it’s not considered the Christian way to think since a lot of Christians aren’t into it? I actually have been on tour so I didn’t get to do my absentee ballot and didn’t get to vote but voting for Barack Obama, he seems to be the man and he seems to be independent and would’ve won anyways? I would’ve voted for Barack just for the pure fact that John Mccain, aside from his great speeches and stuff, pretty much is saying the same thing that’s been happening. It’s was pretty much going to be a George Bush equal. I’m not saying that Barack Obama is the answer to everything but I think that we needed a change and I can’t tell you that he’s going to work but if we don’t do something to take a chance or take a risk, it’s basically not going to get any better.

I totally agree! It’s a whole change thing that we need. I myself felt that if we would’ve voted for John Mccain, it would’ve been Bush no.3. To me, you could’ve put anybody against John Mccain and they would’ve won.

I also personally don’t like Palin at all. I watched the debate and kind of thought that she was an idiot so there was definitely a real chance of Mccain not being able to fulfill duties as president by having Palin in office as Vice President, she kind of scares the crap out of me.

Oh yeah, I think she scares the crap out of a lot of people. To me, she is 50% of his downfall, sad to say.

Well, you know, that’s just my personal opinion.

I hear ya. Help me out here. There’s a bit of controversy with Prop 8 and I’m sure you’ve heard of it or have you? As you know or might not know, Proposition 8 is a proposition that would amend the state Constitution to restrict the definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman meaning it would restrict the marriage between gay and lesbian period.

Yeah yeah, there’s actually people outside the venue protesting that.

No shit? They’re actually out there? So what do you think about this? Do you feel that it’s right for a man to marry a man or a woman to marry a woman?

It’s funny that you ask that question cause I’ve had two in-depth conversations about being a Christian and homosexuality lately. I feel like when it comes to that kind of thing, it’s the same aspect of government and church, the seperation of them. I feel like….personally even though I don’t agree with it, I feel like the government shouldn’t have the right to tell people that they can’t be in love and what not so that’s how I feel about the government side. It’s a real tricky subject. As a Christian, I’m not going to B.S. around. I think homosexuality’s a sin. People nowadays hate the fact that I say that. I’m not the type of person that puts my beliefs on people or pushes that kind of thing on anyone so I try my best not to be judgmental and stuff. I think if that’s what people want to do, it’s cool but at the same time, by the government being able to say that you cannot do this, I don’t think that’s fair to people’s rights. It’s definitely a tricky subject, especially from my stance on it. I live in Florida so I’m kind of okay with it….

Hey, I’m close enough to West Hollywood man!

Either way, if a dude and a dude want to get married and are in love and stuff and that’s their thing, It’s not going to affect my life. It’s their choice. Do I support it personally? No but I also don’t go out there picketing for it not to happen, you know what I’m saying? So I guess that’s kind of my stance on it.

Oh I feel you man, it’s definitely tricky and we could talk about this subject all night long. So for all of our Christian readers out there, what does the word of god teach us about this?

That’s funny how this came out in the same conversation with the bible being relevant today. Although you read the bible and all of the biblical stories, obviously, society is not the same as it was 2000 years ago and things are going to change. I think the overall point of what is portrayed in the bible is still there and it’s still valid 100%. It’s funny, as Christians, we take the bible and we look at the context of the word and the words are there for a reason but you miss the story, you miss the point because you’re so focused on the word while praying. I think that as Christian, the overall understanding is what’s being Christian? Loving. Loving yourself and others and having a personal relationship with God. That’s what being a Christian is and doing your best to be rightful. So what about homosexuality? What about this? What about that? Obviously, that stuff has a place and time but Christians and non-Christians don’t say that anymore.

Being a Christian is almost the reality of being a stereotype. Cause if you’re not Christian…….Here’s an example. Two summers ago when we were on the Warped Tour, Fat Mike from NOFX heard that we were a Christian band and instantly hated uscause his perspective on Christians was that we’re all gay-bashing haters and blah blah blah blah blah. As much as that’s not true, I can totally vouch for how he sees that because there are types of Christians that are like that. That defeats the purpose of what being a Christian is. The best thing that I do is just to try and live my life to where I think is right and by talking to people who challenge your actions you know, you can change their negative aspect into a positive one.

That’s all there is to it really. You just have to love yourself and live your life the way you want it. What is Underoath going to be doing in the next 24 hours from now?

We’re going to be playing a show in an hour, going to San Diego to play another show tomorrow night. Hopefully get some rest for tomorrow night and yeah, that’s pretty much the whole day right there.

Cool! So what else can we expect from Underoath going into 2009?

More touring. We’re going to be doing a lot more National touring I think. Rumor has it that we’re going to be doing a tour here and……..that’s it. A bunch of overseas tour, going to the Soundwave Festival, going to South Africa in december. It’s going to be busy but it’s going to be awesome!

Any shameless promotion or plug before we go?

Oh yeah, go check out the Famine, go to their website and check them out cause they freakin’ rule! They’re on tour with us right now. Actually go check out POS(?), Bird from Hell And The Famine.

Alright! Grant, you’re a gentleman and scholar, kick some fucking ass for me out there!

Thank you, have a good night!



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