Interview with Chris Dudley from Underoath

band: Underoath . city: Cologne . venue: Luxor . germany . date: 10/17/08. interviewer: Oliver . links: label . myspace . website

Oliver: How should we start this interview—what’s a good question?
Chris: A good question is: “What did you had for eat today” (laughing)...that´s a good question. I think more people should ask that. That opens up the door for a lot more.

Oliver: Ok, what did you had for diner?
Chris: Me, I had a Subway sandwich, I had three cookies from backstage – those nice wheat cookies with chocolate – and I had another sandwich backstage and five bottles of water. (laughing)

Oliver: Well, thanks for the interview – I guess that is enough information for our readers (laughing).

Oliver: I’ve got a couple of Underoath CD´s here. Hope you can sign them – not for Ebay; just for me.
Chris: (laughing) You can always spot the Ebay guys. There was two of them outside of our bus yesterday. They had no idea who we was. They was standing outside of the bus before we even got off and it was really nice, like lemonaded pictures.

Oliver: Sir, may you sign my pictures please, it is for my son.
Chris: (laughing) We just always write “NO EBAY” on their pictures.

Oliver: About your band. How did you all come together to form Underoath?
Chris: It was a long time ago. We´ve been in the band for about ten years now. We started when we all were in High School.

Oliver: (interrupts) How old are you now?
Chris: I was 25. We started when we were young, anywhere between 14, 15 we used to be friends in High School. And we was like: “Hey, you wanna start a band?”.

Oliver: Have you been in the band since the very beginning?
Chris: Pretty much. I joined about 8 months after the band has started.

Oliver: I think Aaron was the one who started the band?
Chris: Yes.

Oliver: And how did you end up at Toothandnail/Solidstate records?
Chris: That was honestly just a co-incidence. We were on a very small label from Alabama, called Takehold Records.

Oliver: Yes, I know about this label. I have a FSF/Recess Theory split record at home.
Chris: That is awesome! A couple of great records came out on that label. For example 238..

Oliver: (moaning) I recently bought a 238 record, called “Regulate the chemicals”.
Chris: That was actually a Takehold record. But they got bought by Toothandnail. It´s definitely weird, because we were actually on Takehold records. Tooth bought Takehold records and the asked us and 238 to sign with Toothandnail and we said “Yeah!”

Oliver: Are you satisfied with your deal on Solid/Toothandnail records? I am just asking because I once did an interview with Stretch Arm Strong, who were really dissapointed.
Chris: How long was this?

Oliver: Probably about four years ago. Do you feel lucky to be on Solid/Tooth today?
Chris: The thing is that there was definitely a lot of change that has happened between four – five years ago. If you would ask me that like four years ago I would have said “No, not at all”.

Oliver: But what has changed?
Chris: Pretty much everyone who works there, except for Brandon (label owner), everyone is different. And I think that any label you have you always have issues. There is problems that we had with our label but...

Oliver: If you do not want to talk about it, it’s no problem...
Chris: Not particulary. You know, we just had a new record coming out and there is just things that we not done the way we want it to. Just little things like that. But the issues that we have with our label it seems are a lot smaller then most bands have with their label. On our label we have a lot of freedom to do what we want.

Oliver: Well, the new record really proves that.
Chris: Yeah. Cause the thing is we´ve proofen to them that we not gonna put out something that´s not good. So they just pretty much say: “Were do you wanna record, who do you want to record your record, how much money do you need?”

Oliver: Who recorded your record, by the way?
Chris: Adam D. (note: Adam Dutkiewicz) and Matt Goldman, the same two guys that recorded Define The Great Line.

Oliver: Define The Great Line was a pretty hard record in my opinion...
Chris: In a good way?

Oliver: Not really...
Chris: (laughing)

Oliver: If you want to beat me up, it is ok!
Chris: (laughing)

Oliver: I mean I really love hard music. But I was so pleased with “They were only chasing safety”, that came out in 2004. Since then it was the standart on your music for me. And when Define The Great Line came out I was pretty dissapointed...
Chris: Oh! (laughing..)

Oliver: But the new record has turned out better again.
Chris: Oh, thank you!

Oliver: I definitely like your passages with the synthesizers a lot.
Chris: Thanks!

Oliver: I finally find better and more charismatic melodies again. On Define the Great Line I just figured out metal music and pretty hard screamo-parts.

Oliver: What about the Press media. How did they react to your newest effort “Lost In The Sound Of Seperation”?
Chris: Good, I think. We´ve been out of the States pretty much every day since the record came out. So we´ve been out of the loop. But all the reviews I have seen been pretty good.

Oliver: I saw that it was quoted as the very best record that came out in 2008.
Chris: The only thing I have seen is what our publicity sends us. She sends us all those long emails with all these different reviews.

Oliver: Do you still care about reviews? Do they matter to you?
Chris: For me it matters to an extent. But somebody writing a review in the magazine doesn´t mean any more to me than a kid coming up to me after the show telling me what he thinks. It´s weird because we worked on the record for such a long time

Oliver: - For about how long? –
Chris: About two years.

Oliver: - That is a lot of time –
Chris: Yes. It´s very interesting to put it out and then see what people think of it. Not that we write our music to appeal to anyone. We work hard to do the best that we can and it´s really interesting to hear what other people think about it but it does not necessarily make me concerned if someone dislikes it.

Oliver: You don´t need to answer if my questions are too personal, but is anyone in the band already married?
Chris: Yeah, I´m married. Tim is married, James is married and Aaron is married.

Oliver: It must be difficult to tour and maintain a relationship with your wives—and exhausting!
Chris: It can be. The thing is we´re out on the road for 8-9-10 months out in the year. It can be hard sometimes but we know this is what we are supposed to be doing and we know that this is what God has us. Our wifes are very supportive and they know that this is what we´re gonna do and they know when this is done it´s just gonna be us. It is a lot more different here (note: Europe) because when we are in the States if our wifes want to see us, they just get on a plane and visit us.
(Interruption: Suddenly a Jimmy Eat World song is playing. Chris interrupts the interview and honors the band. He tells us how much he loves the band and this very special song. He also discovers a signed The Dissociatives poster. He honors Daniel Jones, who sings in Silverchair and The Dissociatives. He asked the venue owner for the poster, but the owner said no).

Oliver: Is Underoath a political band? What are your lyrics about?
Chris: Each individual has different believes like politically and personal beliefs. As a whole we´re all Christians – we all believe in God and I think that´s the main thing that we are all able to agree on. We all have a different musical taste and – like I said – view points but as a band we´re all Christians. I think that comes trough in our lyrics.

Oliver: America is soon gonna vote for a new president. What does the election means to you?
Chris: I don´t really like either candidates. It pretty much ends up coming down to voting for one or the other. In communist China there is just one person, meanwhile in our country--the “freest nation on the planet”—you only have two choices, both of which are not much of a choice. Have you ever seen South Park, when the kids go to lunch and they have to choose between two meals?

Oliver: I know South Park, but I haven’t seen that episode.
Chris: The whole episode just says how funny it is when you just have a choice betwenn these two “people” who aren´t really good for the job. There are a couple of people for president I would vote for. As for now neither of them mean anything for me. To me this is such a backwards system.

Oliver: On the internet I read a lot of good critique about Underoath, for example that you earned a lot of prizes; also a Grammy for beeing the best Rock artist.
Chris: No, we got nominated for a Grammy which is pretty cool.

Oliver: How can I imagine a Grammy nomination? Is it a huge hall with important Press people sitting there?
Chris: I didn´t go! It´s just a big theater. And we didn´t win.

Oliver: Would you like to win?
Chris: It would be cool. But it´s not something that I´m like really going for. It´s not really important for me.

Oliver: I´ll guess the new record will cause a lot of attention now. I can think of major labels convincing you to sign with them.
Chris: We actually kind of went trough all that stuff already after Define The Great Line came out. Our contract with Toothandnail went out and all these major labels came and talked to us but we actually resigned with Toothandnail again.

Oliver: Why?
Chris: A lot of reasons. Most part is for the people that work there. They all really believe in what we do and it´s not just their job. We have lot of freedom to write and to produce the music we want. I think that´s the most important thing.

Oliver: Can you get rich through your music? I mean that´s a stupid question, but you sold so many CD´s.
Chris: I mean it depends on what you consider rich. We are able to pay our bills, we can live in houses – and we have houses and stuff but we´re not like Rappers or anything with all the jewelry. My wife does not have to work – I just do this – so I´m thankful for that.

Oliver: What does belief in God mean to you? Do you go every Sunday to church if you can make the time?
Chris: Honestly I haven´t been to Church in a really long time. To me it is really hard to find a Church that really speaks to me and that I really agree with. Especially in Amerika there is such so many backwards things that happen in the Church. There is just like so much stuff that has gone away from what has Jesus teached us. Church is now really concentrating on having those big white buildings and having this grant light production and all this stuff has nothing to do with God. These money that you spend on these multi-million buildings would gonna fed so many poor people. I just really wanna try to find a Church that goes on what Jesus has teached us. Jesus teached us to love everyone as much as yourself and help anyone. I just try to find a Church that I agree with a hundret procent. Everyone has different times in their lives and everyone has their own problems but I think God makes them knowing. I had a couple of moments in my life where I just went “Wow!”. Some things have happened to me and since then I know that God is there and I know that this is supposed to be doing.

Oliver: How can you be so sure?
Chris: Just certain things in my life that have happened. It´s just been so clear to me. It is not something that I could tell you, because you have to be sure. I could go on with all kinds of different stories with things that have happened but it´s like a personal experience.

Oliver: But what if I argue, that everything that I have reached in my life is made with own strength and willpower?
Chris: A lot of people feel that way and it is NOT like I am sitting here saying that you should believe because I do. You are your own person, I am my own person. The most important thing for me is to be honest about how much God has changed my life, and what I was before.

Oliver: Can I ask you what you were before?
Chris: Just not the same person. Not to say that “I Want you to become a Christian” and “I Want you to accept Jesus in your life”. It´s not like beeing Christian means beeing happy all the time. You still have problems, and things still suck a lot of times, but I am able to cure those things and I have a drive to love people. That is such a huge thing for me.

Oliver: You mention that you try to love people, but when I go down the streets and look around I see so many dumb idiots. I am not sure, if I could stand and love such people.
Chris: I think that that is where the real challange comes. I always say, that it is very easy to love people who are loving to you, like us sitting here and hanging out – were having a good conversation – but there is gonna be someone, maybe later tonight, who could be a complete jerk. But I don´t want to be a complete jerk back and so I stay still beeing loving to that person.

Oliver: I´ll guess I wouldn´t be able to act like you. I couldn´t be nice to them, if they behave real shitty towards me.
Chris: I think that this is a very valid point. You know people in your life that were just ugly to other people. And sometimes you look at that person and you may ask: “Why are you like this?” What I found in those situations is that those people are acting that way towards other people because of a hurt that they have. Whether it´s on the surface or not. The thing is everybody want´s to be happy at the end of the day but there is a reason why people don´t! In my belief Jesus loves everyone the same. I´m gonna do whatever I can to love everyone, no matter how they treat me. It´s hard sometimes when somebody else is saying something to me – but that´s human and a part of life I think.

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