Alexisonfire Interview with George

Alexisonfire :: Cologne :: Prime Club . 05/16/05 :: Interviewer: Oliver

Maybe this was the funniest interview, that I have ever done. We met George from Alexisonfire and asked him, if he is interested to do an interview with us. We walked trough the streets of Cologne and found out about an Bowling court, pretty near to the venue. The Bowling court was totally great, cuz there was only three alleys. This was the smallest court, that I ever played on. Well, we had not enough money and the owner gave us three pairs of shoes and some beers for free. The battle started and it was a lot of fun to play with George and to interview him at the same time. You can view the pics [here].

Oliver: George, since when does Alexisonfire now exists?
George: We´ve been around for four years now.

Oliver: I saw, that many label distribute your record- to be honest, I don´t know, to which company you are signed, cause it is so confusing.
George: Ok, we have Disort Entertainment in Canada, where we are from. In Germany we have Defiance records, who distribute us. In the UK we have Sorepoint and in Japan we have Imperial and in Australia we have Shock records. Oh, and in the United States we have Equal Vision records. We also was distributed by EMI Canada, but now we are distributed by Universal-Canada. That´s a good alternative to have a distribution on a major, without necessarily beeing on a major.

Oliver: I checked out your site and I found out about three videos.
George: It´s just about three, we actually have five music videos. We worked with a video-servicing agency. This is a great providing service- they give you money to make music videos!

Oliver: I like those videos, cause most of them are really pretty funny!
George: I like them very much!

Oliver: In your video "Counter parts and number them" the whole band wears pink shirts and plays in front of a bunch of kids. This is so funny! You play with all those kids and sometimes you trick them. So, how did that idea grew, to shot such a video?
George: We were kind of tired, that everyone were just thinking, we´re that scary kind of angry band and so we made that really kind of friendly video. [smiling]

Oliver: Would you say, that Alexisonfire is a real job for you?
George: Yes! I don´t work anywhere else. It was funny, when we first started; we all had jobs. But the band developed more and more by time and so we got fired from our jobs, cause there was a big conflict between touring and working.

Oliver: May you tell me, where you worked before you started the band?
George: I worked at a several video-stores.
[while I am going to take a shot, is George talking into the recorder and commends my shot. In the end he repeats:"I love Germany!", "I love Germany!"...]

Oliver: I only know about your latest release, which is called "Watch Out". Did you made any other records before?
George: Yeah, we made a self-titled record first.

Oliver: Did you already had a record deal for that release?
George: Yeah, we had a record deal for that. International labels only came around for the second record. I would say, our second record is more up-to-date.

Oliver: May you tell me about the lyrics on your latest release "Watch out"
George: It was a lot more collaborativ, then on our last record. I wrote a lot of lyrics together with Dallas [the normal voice in AIOF]. It´s a lot more personal...

Oliver: Is it even a political based record?
George: No,not at all. We all kind of have our political believes. We are not down for political lyrics. There are so many policital bands out there and even on tour there are many political bands. The new record just reveals a lot about personal experiences, that we made in the past.

Oliver: Did any bands, like Boy Set´s Fire, influenced the new record?
George: I am not shure. We all listen to different kind of music. Dallas likes the singer-songwriter stuff very much, while Jesse is more into Punkrock and Steele is into a lot of different things, like Hip-Hop. So the release is like a reflection of our music taste.

Oliver: That´s an interesting aspect, that you mentioned Hip-Hop. Have you ever heard of Weerd Science? This is a Hip-Hop project featuring the Coheed and Cambria drummer on Equal Vision records. I think it´s funny somehow, cause you even find a Hip-Hop release on Fueled By Ramen records [Gym Class Hereos].
George: Yeah, it´s a great collaboration somehow.

Oliver: Something else: Did you ever played at the Vans Warped Tour?
George: We already played that tour once, but not that year.

Oliver: Would you say, that the Warped Tour was helpful for your band?
George: Yeah, definitely. And the tour is so great- you see so many good bands. I was so stocked last year, when Flogging Molly entered the stage.

Oliver: Haha, everyone likes Flogging Molly, it doesn´t matter, whom I ask!
George: That´s because everyone likes The Poges, and they are like The Poges!Watching The Poges live is just pure fun, they are so great live! Sideonedummy records is really signing cool and totally different bands. I mean they sign like straight-up punk stuff, like 7-seconds, but they also signed Bendouin Soundclash- a kind of Reggie band. So they sign a lot of bands and I think Flogging Molly is the best!Last time, that we played on the Warped tour, I watched bands like Grouvie Ghoulies [Lookout rec.], Lars Frederikson And The Bastards [Hellcat], The Bouncing Souls...

Oliver: That´s totally strange, cause you are a singer of a Emo/Screamo band but you refer all those street punk bands here. That´s funny somehow.
George: I mean I play Screamo for a living, but I don´t go home necessarily listen to it! I mean I own a lot of Screamo records, but I have so many different influences. I like Dub, Reggie or singer songwriter stuff like Tom Waits. I never really grew up listening to Screamo. It´s one of those things you kind of like watered down...

Oliver: I think so too!
George: There are still a lot of pretty good screamo bands out there, but it is fading out slowly.

Oliver: It´s intersted that you as a singer of a typical screamo band say that.
George: Ok, but I keep doing it, as long as we have fun with it, cause I love playing music so much- that´s why I love this band so much! Alexisonfire is so much combined with history- I really love doing it.

Oliver: I am so sick and tired of all those screaming bands. There are only a few, that I still like and your band definitely belongs to it. And I like the fact, that your second singer [Dallas] sounds sometimes like Nathan Grey from Boy Set´s Fire. He has an outragious voice.
George: Oh yeah!

Oliver: But I have the impression, that Screamo is going down the drain..
George: Well, I would not say, that it is going down the drain. Screamo is still very popular in the US, but I don´t listen to it any more. I find degrassing back to the roots and listening to hardcore again. You know, now with 22 years I can relate more on the things, that I was listening to with 16, like Dead Kennedys, you know- all these old punk bands!I can relate on this much more, than these new kind of Screamo bands. I am not saying, that those are bad bands- they are good in their own way and they are fantastic musicians, but I just don´t listen to it.

Oliver: When you say, that Screamo is fading out, what do you think, would your next record sound like?
George: Oh, I don´t know. The new record will probably... hm.. I don´t know. We will go home and write and see, what happens. None of us would put the same record twice. Who knows? We probably have a more rock based album. It will be as different as the first from the second record. You know, our first record is a very straight-up screamo record. The second record is much more melodic and we all got better in writing songs and playing/singing them.

Oliver: I once tooked a listen to some of your old songs and after a few minutes I put those songs away again.
George: Hahah... ok! Those we´re our first experiences. At this time we was still in high-school and we all wrote those songs. But now we are assured as musicians, collecting experiences. We´ve been on the road and we slept in the worst places, that you possible could think of. And all those experiences are definitely an influence from the actual release. You know, we did not made any of these experiences, when we was back in school. We have seen a lot more from the world now. We are not necessarily a lot smarter but we´re not stupid either!

Oliver: Thank you for that nice interview. This was a nice conclusion!
George: You´re welcome.

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