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abrclub · 8 years ago

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ABR Club Exclusive: Interview with JB Brubaker – Messengers Anniversary Tour, New Album, and Vainglory

On June 10th, I flew down to Charlotte, NC for the Carolina leg of August Burns Red's Messengers 10-Year Anniversary Tour. I saw two of the three shows, one at the Neighborhood Theater in Charlotte, NC and the other at Music Farm in Charleston, SC. JB was kind enough to meet up with me before the show at the Neighborhood Theater to give me a sneak peak of their new album as well as sit down for an interview where we discussed the tour, the new album, his iPhone and Apple Watch setup, and Vainglory. The following is an edited transcript of our recorded audio interview.

David: Did you guys do many interviews on the Messengers 10-Year Anniversary Tour?

JB: Nope, hardly any. There's no controversy about ABR, so no one wants to cover us, or since we're not a new band they just ask what our new album sounds like [laughs].

David: How was the Messengers 10-Year Anniversary Tour? I know it was my favorite tour, but I might be slightly biased.

JB: It was awesome! If you really like Messengers, it would probably be a fun tour. It was well-attended, and there was a lot of hype behind it. We really liked the package that we had for it, and we put together what we thought was a pretty cool show, like the set was long, lights were cool, the drum solo was cool, and all the dudes on the tour were cool.

David: How did you select the bands on the tour?

JB: We originally contacted Josh Scogin about trying to get The Chariot to do a reunion and play main support, because we thought people would be stoked on that since they were a popular band around the same time as Messengers. We wanted that nostalgic vibe for people who might not be coming out to see ABR play. If you didn't keep up with us, you probably haven't kept up with the genre. People grow in to other tastes and music. The goal was we wanted our main support to be a band that could be somewhat nostalgic with the time period of ten years ago. Protest The Hero happened to have some of their biggest albums from that time period as well, so when Josh from 68 said The Chariot reuniting isn't going to happen, he said he would love to do the tour with 68. We thought that would still be cool. We love Josh and their drummer, Mike. It might not be the kind of music that people are expecting at an August Burns Red show, but it's not hard to have fun with them. In Hearts Wake are good friends of ours because we shared a bus with them in Europe in 2015. We became really tight with them, and they're one of our favorite bands to ever tour with, so we really wanted to bring them over. They were fortunately kind enough to travel from the Australian summer to the American winter and drive in a van for six or seven weeks. It was awesome to have them around and to get to hang out with them.

David: I hadn't seen Protest The Hero touring until the Messengers tour.

JB: They said they hadn't supported in many years when they took our tour and that they needed to start supporting again to begin touring more regularly. We thought it was a shot in the dark when we hit them up about the main support slot, but they were down. Those dudes are really cool too, and they’re obviously amazing musicians. Their guitar players are ridiculous shredders.

David: Was the age group for the crowd different this tour?

JB: I feel like the age group for our shows has been getting older progressively as we've gotten older, which is cool because it speaks to the loyalty of the fan base. People have stuck with us for a long time, and there's a lot of people who have been coming out since Thrill Seeker, and they're still coming out to our shows which is awesome. You can't maintain a career if you don't have people who stick around. We see younger kids getting in to it as well, which is obviously important too, otherwise people will fall off as you get older. If you're 33 years-old now and have a family and kids, it's harder to go out to a metal show on a Tuesday night, especially if you have to drive two hours to get there. Life comes at you as you get older. I feel like people show up later for our shows now than they used to. For the first day of the tour in Philadelphia, I remember the doors were open and there was no line.

David: Did you have any memorable moments from the tour, whether specific shows or fan stories?

JB: The fan stories thing is hard because we met so many people every day through the VIP Meet & Greet. We did a ton of meeting and greeting on that tour. It seemed like every day was really busy. Not to say every one blends together, but it gets hard, obviously, to remember everyone. We saw a lot of familiar faces who we see in select cities who come out every time, people like yourself I'd say [laughs]. Everyone was coming out of the woodwork, which was rad, especially to spring for the VIP ticket. That's obviously an expensive item.

David: The photo book you did for VIP was definitely awesome. With the photo book and the Messengers vinyl re-release, you were obviously planning this tour for quite a while. When did the band decide you were going to do this tour, and when was everything finalized before you announced the tour on October 18th?

JB: We announced as soon as we had our video announcement together that we did on our tour bus on a previous tour we had been doing. Jarrod Alonge shot that for us. We had planned on doing the tour for a long time. We knew we were going to be doing a 10-year anniversary tour for Messengers when it came around. I'm sure we had our package together well before then. You have to build your packages early nowadays, like six months out minimum. Otherwise, bands get booked up, and it's harder to get who you want to get, especially when you want to get a band who could go headline on their own because they're planning far out as well. Package building is tricky. It's always a relief to get that phase of the tour planning done so you can move on to artwork and production.

David: Everything you did for the tour was awesome. I know the vinyl was a big hit.

JB: Yeah, we should have made more of the tour pressing. They went so quick, I feel like the first night in Philly, we sold a whole slew of 'em. After that Philly show, we realized we needed to ration our vinyl for the tour because we weren't going to have enough for every show. After Philly, it was kept at 12 per show for the rest of the tour, and we immediately ordered the rest of vinyl stock because we knew we were going to sell through it on the tour. It was only 500 copies, which over 40 shows, is not a lot.

David: What were your Top 3 songs to play live from Messengers?

JB: I'll say, hmm, definitely not Vital Signs [laughs]. Which is funny actually because I do like playing Vital Signs once I have the intro locked in. It's fun.

Editor's Note: Chris Pollock, August Burns Red's front of house engineer, was in the greenroom during the interview and added some bonus humor to our conversation.

Chris: You got it last night.

JB: Eh, it was alright.

Chris: I mean, it wasn't, you know, Philly.

Editor's note: I attended the Philly show, and it was not JB's best performance of Vital Signs.

JB: Yeah, it wasn't Philly. Most of them haven't been Philly [laughs]. David, what's funny is I did it even worse one night.

Chris: It was the next night, or two nights later.

JB: I did it pretty bad in Maryland the second night as well, but the worst one was in the middle of the mid-west, during that ice storm. Where did we play?

Chris and JB: Nebraska.

JB: Do you remember that night?

Chris: Is that where you just stopped?

JB: No, that was Philly. In Nebraska, it was just like [sings discording notes] by myself and I'm just like ooo thank God there's an ice storm and the show is a little late tonight. Everyone was just like [JB cringes] [JB, Chris, and David all laughing]. Nah, I'm not too worried about playing Vital Signs at this point. But I'll definitely run through it before the set [laughs]. My three favorite songs to play off Messengers I'll say are… I like playing Up Against The Ropes. That song's fun, and it's pretty easy. I always enjoy playing Redemption. That song's fun to play.

David: I like the solo you added during the end, it adds to the live show experience.

JB: Yeah, it's fun to do things a little bit different live. And I like playing The Blinding Light, because we didn't really play that song, it was a newer song for us. It was fresh because we hadn't been playing it for the last ten years. My least favorites to play are, I'm kind of sick of playing The Eleventh Hour. I don't like playing that song very much right now. I don't like playing The Balance. It's not a very comfortable song to play. Looking back, I don't think it's very well-written either.

David: The Blinding Light is one of my favorites that you've never played live before, so I was glad that on this tour you get to hear it live.

JB: I'm glad that we got to play it too for people who had been waiting to hear it. I like playing most of the songs.

David: Were there any songs that you've never played live before, ever? I know you played Black Sheep because I saw that at the Chameleon Club, I'm pretty sure it was for a Christmas show.

JB: Yeah, The Balance was one. We did play Black Sheep, that is also one of my favorite songs to play off of Messengers. We only played The Blinding Light once ever before this tour, and Vital Signs we had never played. The Balance and Vital Signs were two songs that had never been played live until this tour. Everything else we had done at some point.

David: Did the band ever discuss any additional plans like playing Lost Messengers or making a DVD?

JB: The DVD thing never came up. We briefly discussed doing Mosley and Chasing The Dragon. I guess it would have been cool for die-hard fans such as yourself. They are B-sides that a lot of people might not know, and we wanted to have time for an encore that had songs that would appeal to everybody. At the same time, we're supposed to be pushing Found In Far Away Places still. We're still on that album cycle, so we needed to play some stuff off of that, while still having time to play Empire and White Washed, the staples. So we didn't really consider the B-sides very long, plus it was two more songs that we had never played that would be completely learned from scratch.

David: Before your set, you guys always played Chop Suey by System of a Down, during the set change. Did every tour date react the same way? That was always a highlight of the pre-show experience on that tour for me.

JB: That's something we started doing on that tour. It is fun, it gets the crowd hyped. You get active in the changeover, which is usually a lull.

David: I know Adam Gray posted a video of it at a show where there was actual mosh pit going on.

JB: Oh yeah, that was in Montreal. The Canadians go off up there in French Canada [laughs]. I mean, that's like Europe up there. That was a very European reaction, but it's awesome [laughs]. Yeah, the Chop Suey thing is cool, and it also gives us a "okay guys when this song is over, we're starting, make sure you're ready".

David: I'm glad you brought back the Everybody's Free intro. That's my favorite intro. It was really cool when the venues had a disco ball.

JB: Yeah, I love Everybody's Free. It's ridiculous, it's like the complete antithesis of what the rest of the set is like [laughs].

David: So what can you tell us about the new album at this point?

JB: I will say it's done. We have a title, the track list is done, the whole artwork isn't done, but we have a cover. Now we have to get the rest of the booklet together, figure out what we're doing for pre-orders, vinyl, I mean there's a lot of things to sort now, so now we're hardcore in the planning phase. But it's nice to have the music side of it wrapped up.

David: For the artwork, are you using the same artist who has always done your artwork?

JB: Yes. Ryan Clark from Invisible Creature, who's done all of our album artwork ever.

David: I know you can't tell me, but do you have a release date planned?

JB: The release date is known. I can't say anything else about that. As far as the album goes, it's our longest album ever. I can say that much without revealing too much. It's long and it's dense. I feel like it's going to be one of those albums where if you spend some time with it, it's going to really grow on you and be a really sick album. If you are not patient, I think it will take more time to click than some of our other albums have, just because of how much material is on it. There's just a lot to it, but I think that's what's going to make it have more lasting value, in my opinion. Speaking from personal experience, most of my favorite albums are albums that grew on me, the first time I put them on, I wasn't amazed by everything. It takes time to understand what you're hearing. Once you start to learn what's coming next, you start to put the songs together.

David: Can we expect any studio video blogs like you've done in the past for previous albums?

JB: Yes. I guess everyone knows Jarrod Alonge was in the studio with us. Jarrod was with us for a few days and shot some stuff.

David: With Found In Far Away Places, almost every song had a unique, non-metal part. How does the new album compare to that?

JB: I think that the new record doesn't have as many oddball parts. There's chill moments, but I don't think they're as wacky. That's the word I've been using to describe it [laughs]. If there's an interlude, it's not a wacky interlude. I don't know exactly what to say it sounds like. There's lots of dynamic moments on the album.

David: From what you showed me, the new songs flowed well. In Separating The Seas, that's a wacky part, which is still a cool part.

JB: That was a wacky part for sure. The bluegrass section or whatever in Majoring In The Minors is what I would consider to be a wacky part.

David: That's also one of my favorite songs though, and I think the crowd loves when you play it live.

JB: Same! Yeah, that song is one of my favorite songs on the album too. It's not like we tried not to write wacky parts, and it's not like we tried to write wacky parts for Found In Far Away Places. We wrote what we wrote, and we did the same thing on the new album.

David: Will there be a mostly instrumental track similar to Meridian, Carpe Diem, or Creative Captivity? It was a change that you didn't have a track like that on Found In Far Away Places.

JB: Yeah, there is a track like that. It's a really awesome song. Dustin wrote it.

David: Can you say how many tracks?

JB: I don't want to say. You can probably guess if you look at all of our previous album catalog approximately how many songs are going to be on the new album.

David: Lyrically, did you take the same approach of everyone in the band contributing lyrics?

JB: Yes, the process was the same. Brent did the bulk of the writing this time. I know he had most of the material to submit, and he had most of the material that was selected.

David: That sounds similar to Found In Far Away Places, 7 out of the 12 tracks were written by Brent.

JB: Yeah, he did a lot of the writing again.

David: Did you write any lyrics for the new album?

JB: I didn't write any, and I had no interest in writing them. I was very focused on the music side, as I always am, and I was writing music up until we went in to the studio. That isn't entirely true, I took off on the Messengers tour. I didn't write anything on the Messengers tour for the new album. But when I got home, we had ten days between the tour and starting the record, and I wrote a song during that time. Dustin wrote a couple songs. He wrote three songs total, and he was writing into while I was tracking guitars. He must have spent about eight months on his three songs. He hasn't done a ton of writing as far as finishing complete songs goes, so he's still feeling that whole process out. It just takes him a little bit longer right now. His songs are super complex as well.

David: Are there any touring plans for the fall?

JB: I can't say yet. We have some festivals that are announced for the fall.

David: What new albums are you looking forward to from other bands?

JB: I'm really excited for the new The National record that comes out in a couple months. I'm very much anticipating that. Matt Pond is putting out a new record this summer that I'm excited for. This is a hard question, I know there's more. I'm excited for the new Arcade Fire.

David: Would you mind sharing what you have on your iPhone home screen and what your favorite apps are?

JB: Sure. My bottom row [iPhone Dock] is Mail, Messages, Instagram, and Safari. My go-to's are my ESPN Fantasy app, crucial. I use the Podcast app all the time, that's lower-right. Camera, upper-right. Phone, upper-left. I seldom use Phone to be honest with you. I use Calendar all the time. The bottom three rows are definitely my most commonly used. I don't use the DraftKings app very often. I seldom use Facebook, I only use it for ABR. I use Notes a lot. If I want to use anything on my second page, I'll search for it [laughs].

David: Do you use any apps specifically for ABR? I know you guys use Dropbox.

JB: I use Dropbox, sure, but I find that I do most of my Dropboxing from my MacBook. I feel like it's kind of slow to upload from my phone. I also feel like it's kind of annoying downloading from Dropbox. I feel like it doesn't work in the background, I have to leave it open. I don't like that, so I don't use Dropbox a whole heck of a lot from my phone. As far as stuff I would use for just ABR, I don't know. Mail, a lot. A lot of emailing. That's the biggest one I can think of.

David: What about your Apple Watch? What do you have on your Watch Face? What do you use it for the most?

JB: I have Mail, Messages, Music, Weather, and Activity. I don't change Faces very often. If I'm going to work out, I'll switch it, but I feel like this one is a good summary of everything. I use it most for checking the weather and reading a text message real quick without having to pull my phone out, like if I'm watching TV with my wife, Kate. I'll just be like [raises wrist to look at his Apple Watch]. But she feels like I'm too attached to my devices, so sometimes I have to be a little bit sly, like a little side glance [laughs].

David: I don't play Vainglory, but I know you're all about it, so I wanted to ask what's your favorite character, and what do you like about Vainglory as opposed to other games, either on mobile or on a console?

JB: I actually want to play like, right now [laughs]. [Looking at Chris] This is our Vainglory time [laughs]. I'm a terrible person to ask about games, because I literally don't play anything except Vainglory. I don't know why I got so into it. I used to play games. I loved video games for a really long time. I stopped playing them probably when I wasn't single anymore. I got a PlayStation 3 years ago, I played through the Ratchet and Clanks. I was a Crash Bandicoot guy, and they don't make those kinds of games anymore. They don't make platform games anymore. That was my thing, platform jumpers [laughs]. I don't get in to Call of Duty. I loved Metal Gear Solid on the original PlayStation, and I got the PlayStation 3 game when it came out, but I found it to be over my head, like it was too complicated and I just didn't get into it. I guess I like simple games at this point.

Chris: I think people play Vainglory because it's like a sport too.

JB: Oh yeah, it's so sporty!

Chris: Cause JB likes sports, so he comes at it like… well, cause I like role-playing games and stuff like that because I'm a nerd, but JB likes it because it's like a sport.

JB: It's competitive!

Chris: You talk about it like it's football or something [JB and David laughing]. I've really noticed that, you think about it like it's a sport.

JB: It is an eSport, Chris!

David: Maybe we'll see you on an eSport team playing Vainglory on ESPN someday?

JB: I have played Vainglory a lot, and I am nowhere near good enough to be a professional, and I'm super one-dimensional. You asked about my favorite characters, I almost exclusively play the roam role. I'm not sure if you're familiar with MOBAs?

David: I've only played League of Legends, I know they're the same genre.

JB: Yeah, they're exactly the same, and I hear that they're getting more and more similar as Vainglory updates. Except it's not 5-on-5, but they're developing 5-on-5, which is gonna be crazy. I can't wait for that. I think I can't wait for that? We'll see.

David: So how did you even hear about it or download it? It's a pretty big download, so it's not like you downloaded it when you were bored and wanted something quick to play.

JB: It was featured in the iPhone 6 announcement to showcase the power of the iPhone 6. So I checked it out on my iPad. I remember I was playing it during the recording of Found In Far Away Places. I was dabbling. While Matt was tracking drums, I was trying to figure out how to play Vainglory, and then I just kind of got into it, and now I really understand it [laughs], and I've played it A LOT.

David: I downloaded it and played it, but I'm not a MOBA guy. You need teamwork, and I don't have patience for teamwork [laughs].

JB: It can be frustrating. They're improving the communication system for the game.

David: I see you "like" Vainglory's posts on Twitter and Instagram, and it always cracks me up that you're all about Vainglory because you're not a video game person.

JB: Yeah, I play it all the time. It's for sure a sport. It's like my pastime at this point. I have sports, and then I have Vainglory. Those are my hobbies, and according to Chris, they're one-in-the-same [laughs]. Vainglory's sick. My favorite characters are Phinn, I'm really into Grumpjaw, he's a newer character, and I love him. He's OP right now, I know they're gonna nerf him in the next update. I like Catherine, Fortress, Krul is my original character - he's a jungler, and I like Flicker a lot. Flicker's fun, he's another support character.

David: That's pretty much all the questions I have. Congratulations on Beckett Roads Brubaker! That's very exciting!

JB: Yes! That's the reason I will be playing less Vainglory this fall [laughs].

David: [laughs] Hopefully, right?

JB: Yes. I'm sure. Well… maybe I'll have more time, who knows?

#August Burns Red #JB Brubaker #interview #new album #ABR Club Exclusive #Messengers Anniversary Tour

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