FEATURED INTERVIEWS 07                         

blessthefall

This Phoenix, Arizona five piece is making a lot of noise. blessthefall is currently on tour with Escape The Fate on the Black on Black Tour and will be hitting the road with Silverstein starting in November into early next year. "His Last Walk," the succesful debut from blessthefall, is a brilliant start this young band's career. We got a hold of Craig from blessthefall to shed some light on the latest release, the fans and Pete Wentz.

By: Gian Erguiza

Gian: So how’s it going guys? Where are you guys coming from right now?

Craig: Um, were actually…where are we at right now? We’re at Universal Studios in Cahuenga, Citywalk.

Gian: Shit man, you’re like 10 blocks away from me, how bout that! Alright man, before we get cut off again, what you say we get this goin’?

Craig: Alright cool.

Gian: “His Last Walk,” is great album guys, How much work did you guys put into this record as far the writing, mixing, recording and production?

Craig: The album right now, as far as how much work we’ve put in it? It’s pretty much a collaboration of the band since it first got started so….the band started, I think, almost 3-31/2 years ago is when we first started writing music and there are songs on there that are from 31/2 years ago and up to just, maybe a year ago. So it’s just a collaboration of from when we first started writing to our most recent piece of work and its just all put together in album so as far as how much writing we put into it, everything we came up with up to this point, was all thrown into that record.

Gian: Sounds like some work alright….You guys picked an interesting title for your latest work, aptly titled, “His Last Walk,” why this title and what does it represent?

Craig: Pretty much the title is the very last song we wrote for the record, it’s one of the harder ones, it was just really short, straight to the point and everyone really liked the breakdown at the end of it so we just decided to loop the breakdown over and over until it faded out. It’s pretty much just about Jesus’ last walk with the cross, also why we named it “His Last Walk.” The whole album lyrically for me, there’s a lot of uplifting lyrics. I like to write about Origin and my family personally, and the love I have for everybody so…We just figured the “His Last Walk” would be a good name to kind of sum up the whole album.

Gian: That is interesting man, it’s actually pretty smart!

Craig: HaHa!

Gian: What is you guys’ favorite song off the album and why?

Craig: My favorite song of the album would be “Eyes Wide Shut,” which is just a piano track on the record. It’s pretty much my favorite track because it’s just really personal and about my own little family I have myself. It means the most to me that’s why it’s my favorite song on the record. I’d have to say for live performance wise, my favorite song playing live would probably be, “Guys like you make us look bad,” which is the second song off the album.

Gian: That is actually mine as well….it just has this nice feel to it….and the video kicks ass!

Craig: Yeah we all really love that track so that’s the direction we’re gonna go for the next album that we’re writing right now.

Gian: Very cool, so you guys are writing right now, are you guys constantly writing or do you guys just basically lay it down every time you guys come up with a riff do? Do you guys throw it all together or just put it down on a digital?

Craig: I’m always thinking of lyrics and melodies on my free time. Mike and Eric always think of ideas for the guitar and stuff. But as far as sitting downa and coming up with stuff, we don’t have much right now but we’re gonna have some time off after we tour the UK with Silverstein so we’re definitely gonna get a bunch of material together and hopefully record it all before next summer and release it next summer.

Gian: Very cool. Now you guys have this certain sound that definitely falls into the rock/screamo genre but of course with your own style to it. Where’s does this certain type of style come from and who’s the band’s biggest influence?

Craig: The band as a whole? I actually couldn’t say that we have this one influence that we take something from. I think the sounds comes from every single one of us liking a different genre of music and just trying to put it all together, which ends up sounding like one genre of music but when everybody tells us that we have our own little sound to it, I just think that, that’s where it comes from as every member likes a different kind of music and we try to put as much of that in the music as much as we can.

Gian: So let’s go back to the video. Your video for “Guys like you make us look bad,” is one cool ass video. Who came up with the idea and the concept for the video?

Craig: We shot it with a company called I Endeavor Media. We pretty much gave the guys an idea of what we were looking for based on what the song is about sort of. The director for I Endeavor Media came up with the whole concept and the spiel of the whole thing. As far as band performance for the video, we were supposed to play in just a big open field but when we got there, we just weren’t feelin’ it so the band and I when out and found an old school barn that looked pretty cool so we ended up building the set ourselves out of scraps or two that was just laying around and it actually came together and looked pretty cool, so we we’re stoked on it.

Gian: Yeah, I actually think it came out better and I love the upside down part while you guys we’re going at it.

Craig: It was awesome.

Gian: Most interesting for sure! Now that the Warped Tour is over, know you missing that, you guys are going out on the road again with Silverstein in December and then, Escape The Fate, LoveHateHero for the Black on Black tour.

Craig: Yeah, that’s actually starting tomorrow in Pomona at the Glass House.

Gian: How excited are you guys to be a part of this tour and how excited are you guys to be playing your new material for some possible new fans and your diehard fans alike?

Craig: We’re definitely really excited to see what the whole next year has for us. We’re stoked on the Black on Black Tour because we made really good friends with Escape The Fate on the Warped Tour and LoveHateHero has been good friends of ours for about the past year. We did a couple of tours with them last year so we’re excited to see those guys. I know all the other guys in the band are fans of the Stan’s got a Band Stand who’s actually opening the second half of it. So it just feels good to be on a tour with people we know and people we’re friends with and bands that we actually like so we don’t have to stand there and listen to bands that aren’t our cup of tea.

Gian: Speaking of touring, how are you guys keeping yourselves amused and rested while out on the road? I mean I know you guys put a lot of energy into your shows and I’m not sure if you guys are getting a lot of rest in between shows?

Craig: Rest wise, it just depends on what you consider rest. I guess some people consider sitting in a van rest but I just feel like I’m working all the time cause you can’t really be comfortable in a van with seven dudes that are loungin’ around so.

Gian: Definitely!

Craig: The people that do the most work is our Tour Manager, Doug and our Merch Guy, Zac, those guys are hardcore. Once we get the internet done, we just sit there!

Gian: I read on your purevolume site that you guys are younger than your counterparts. what do you guys think is the disadvantage or advantage of being a younger band on the circuit?

Craig: I think the advantage of being one of the younger bands on the circuit is, there is a lot of young bands out there that are not on the circuit per se, you know what I mean? I’d have to say, being able to tour and play these big shows and gain a lot of fans that might not know us yet or not know us from the Warped Tour. To be this young is a really great opportunity because we’re hoping to be around a longer than everyone else cause you know, sometimes you just get older, too old, and you just want to sit and settle down you know what I mean? I think all of us being at a young age and getting up there while we’re still young, we have the opportunity to just last longer.

Gian: Okay, let’s talk about a subject that a lot of musicians have different opinions about, how do you guys feel about Digital Downloading vs. Physical purchase?

Craig: Um, I don’t know. Obviously, downloading music hurts the bands because you don’t buy their album? But I don’t know, personally I think it helps cause I really don’t care how the kids get our music as long as they’re listening to us, liking it, and then come out and buy a ticket to our show and buy a t-shirt cause that ultimately helps us out so as far as getting the music, I really don’t care how they get it and that’s why we try to throw extra stuff on our CD’s. It’s an exclusive set you know when you can put the CD into your computer and go watch extra footage and just like that so the kids, the hardcore fans, if they want to see more about the bands then they can go out and buy the CD but as far as for the people that just want the music, whatever, go for it dude, download the track for free but just come to the show, that’s what I think personally.

Gian: Hey, those are some good points, good points. Since we’re on the subject of music, what do you guys like to listen to in your Ipod’s or Players? Who are you guys listening to right now?

Craig: Well if I had an Ipod, I would definitely put some bands in there! Lol!

Gian: Good answer!

Craig: As far as who do I like to listen to? Yeah, as far as who do you like to listen to, I’d have to say, I’m feelin’ Sean Kingston right now, if you know who Sean Kingston is?

Gian: Shut the Fuck Up! Lol!

Craig: Yeah he sings uh (starts singing enthusiastically)….”Beautiful Girls…..” That song’s tight dude, do you know that song?

Gian: I know you’re lovin’ that song man!

Craig: Yeah, me and my friend Alex, he’s in a band called Greeley Estates, while we have some time off, we actually played this show just in acoustic and we covered that song. It was great! We covered that and Rihanna’s “Umbrella.”

Gian: Aww hell, so am I going to fuckin’ see this at the Glass House tomorrow night? That’d be interesting as hell!

Craig: Ohh man, if I can play to the Glass House, I would do it but my band would probably shoot me in the face.

Gian: Well I triple dare you to get out there and do it! Anyways, so your live shows are full of energy and your fans really go off. Are there any plans of shooting a DVD maybe of one of your live shows or a compilation of videos with a live set to match?

Craig: Pretty much this whole year is planned out for us and I don’t know what I’m allowed to say on what we’re doing or not, but we have some really good things coming up and really big tours coming up so.....Our old Manager, who still lives in Arizona, Tim Harmon, and he takes most of our photos, well he hasn’t come out to put the little clips of us and it’s sits on a CD, so I know we all definitely want to have him come out and film a bunch of footage and just film, you know, a couple of live videos here and there. We had some people from Hurley come out and film the two live dates from Warped Tour, probably to put another like, live compilation video together. We’re just looking to do things like that and hopefully release a DVD someday because I’ve always wanted a DVD and I know that ‘s something that the other guys wanted to do too. I’m not sure when we’re going to come out or when we’ll start production on that but if it’s most likely if we’re going to do it, its going to probably be either a CD and DVD kind of combo, you know some DVD footage on a CD and just a DVD included within the CD package. It’ll probably just come out around the same time as the CD not too much sooner or not too much later.

Gian: Very cool. I bet your fans would go ape shit if they heard that you were coming out with one.

Craig: Yeah, I would!

Gian: Let’s talk about your fans. I was reading up on you guys and read somewhere that your fans went real nuts at a show and got the place closed down or in big trouble or sumthin’? How much do your fans mean to you guys?

Craig: Well fans, what the fans mean to us is the same thing as to what the fans mean to any band that tries to go out there and do it and that’s just pretty much, you know, obviously the band wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for us wanting to do music or for our families, pushing us to strive harder and work harder and get up there. But it ultimately comes to you that no band would be able to be out there playing music for a living if it wasn’t for the fans and the kids coming to the shows and singing along or anything like that so I mean, the fans are everything. It doesn’t have anything, the bands, the music, the labels, the managers, the producers, video grapher guys or who ever the hell you want to talk about, it’s got nothing to do with the kids that come to the show so if it wasn’t for them, there’d be nothing out there. There’d be no music. Period. The fans does mean everything and we just try to go out there and get to know each of them individually and you know, just be with them on a real level that they can relate to and I think we’ve gained a lot of real fans from that point where if Bless The Fall wanted to come out with a country CD, they’d still support it.

Gian: That would be real interesting.

Craig: It feels really good to have you know, fans, and I’d like to say , friends out there that come to our shows now and just check us out so……Fans pretty much owns everyone’s lives.

Gian: I hear that! So let me ask you guys, since you guys are one of the bands that are flying the flag for rock/screamo bands, what are you guys’ thoughts on the current rock/screamo scene or basically on the current rock scene?

Craig: We were actually talking about this yesterday, like I don’t think the screamo scene, the hardcore screamo scene is dying down. It just seems like it’s getting bigger and I feel like it’s going to stay around for a while. There’s just a lot of bands that are starting to come out that are just, a little poppier than the last screaming band and you know, they just get a little more fans than the last one and I think that it opens up a lot of doors for bands that have the chugga chugga breakdowns let me punch you in the face kind of sound to just you know, to have more kids come out and stuff like that. I’d personally like to say that a good example The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. They decided to take out a breakdown from one of their songs, make a video for it, just nothing but singing cockiness and it ended up being everywhere you know. If you watch their live show, they still scream and have breakdowns. They didn’t change the band, they just changed the sound for one song that got them out there and it opened the doors for kids that wanted to watch them. They still do the same thing live, scream, have the breakdowns or whatever so it kind of opens the door for people to start liking that a little bit more.

Gian: I guess we can’t hate on that right?

Craig: Yeah exactly. I mean the new Fall Out Boy record, I think Pete Wentz is in there screaming on one part which is really odd to me and it sounded really weird but at the same time, it still opens doors you know for the bands that actually do that.

Gian: Meh, I don’t know about Pete Wentz screaming, that’s just kind of like Ugh.

Craig: No?

Gian: No.

Craig: Pete Wentz screaming? Nah I don’t know man, not in Fall Out Boy! I don’t know, come be in a different band, come play keyboards for us Pete!

Gian: I’ll make sure he hears that!

Craig: Do it man, I’ll let you do it!

Gian: Alright man, it was damn good talking to you guys and before we go our separate ways do you guys have Any additional comments? Thanks for taking the time out to talk to us and giving us the opportunity for an interview and to answer some questions that people might want to know. Just keep your eye out for us and on the next record and …..Keep on keepin’ on.

Gian: There you go! Thank you for the interview and thank for doing this and….We’ll see you tomorrow!

Craig: Alright man, Thanks!

Gian: Thanks Craig!

Be sure to pick up a copy of "His Last Walk," out now on Science/Ferret International! To get more info about the Black on Black Tour and for more dates on their upcoming tour with Silverstein, check on www.myspace.com/blessthefall.