Author: "EmilyCassel"

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus‘ anti-abuse single “Face Down” essentially launched the Florida natives’ career back in 2003, earning them a slot on the Take Action Tour as it helped their fans deal with depression. But since then, things have been a little tough—the band left Virgin after just two records, and are independently releasing their upcoming album I Am the Enemy. We got a chance to catch up with Red Jumpsuit Apparatus frontman Ronnie Winter to talk about the impact of “Face Down,” the band’s genre-jumping abilities and how their split from Virgin just might be the best thing that could have happened to them.

OS: The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus was really popular in your home state long before you blew up everywhere else—what was it like to grow as a band in that Florida scene?

RW: It was pretty awesome. There’s quite a few bands, actually, from our local area. So just growing up there was a lot of really good music to look up to that came from our local town. I feel like that had a lot to do with it. Red Night Scare is basically from our hometown, so is .38 Special. Also Yellowcard is basically from the same hometown that we are. So a lot of bands have become successful from the area. When we were in high school we really felt if you do good enough, you have a shot. I think that’s cool. Lots of kids kind of get that idea in their head, that if it’s not you it’s somebody else, you know what I mean? Then we just started writing songs… And I don’t know, eventually we just decided to play a show, and it was one of those things where literally right after the first show we just had a lot of really great responses. Everybody wanted the CD, and we hadn’t made one yet. We didn’t even have tee shirts, everybody was asking for tee shirts. We had other bands who were there that had CDs and shirts and nobody wanted them, and we didn’t have CDs or shirts and everybody wanted them. So we were like, “Okay, well maybe we’ll put our other bands on the back burner, we’ll focus on this thing for a while.” And literally less than a year later we’re selling out big venues and selling a lot of CDs on our own… we made enough money to quit our jobs and live off the band almost a year and a half before we even tried to get signed, so that was really cool.

OS: A lot of that early success was thanks to your first single “Face Down,” which was a very personal, vivid description of abuse. How did it feel to hear that all over the radio?

RW: It was definitely weird, especially, you know, when my Mom and Dad heard it. [Laughs] That was weirder. But I don’t know. When you write a song, you don’t think about what this is going to sound like on the radio, you know? You just write what you’re thinking, and on that particular day, that’s what I was thinking about. I wrote it, I showed it to Duke and the rest of the guys in the band, and I was like, “You know, I feel like this is a pretty good song, what do you guys think?” It wasn’t really that big of a deal to us at the time, we were just writing a lot of honest songs like that. There’s another song called “Getting By,” which is almost to the same beat that I wrote “Face Down” in, talking about basically after you graduate high school, realizing how shitty the world really is. Everyone goes through a little bit of a depression phase, I think. Either you shoot into college, you get straight A’s, full scholarship or someone helps you out with money, or you’re working full time, so that’s hard to get by. It’s the same kind of scenario. We were just writing from the heart. It was a little interesting to hear it on the radio, but it definitely is a true story, so I’m glad people were able to relate to it. I have thousands, literally thousands, tens of thousands of emails of people thanking me for writing the song, saying that helped them get through a difficult time. That wasn’t the intention, the intention was just to describe what I was feeling, but something positive came out of it.

OS: After that single, you guys did a lot of positive stuff—you joined the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and participated in the Take Action Tour. Do you feel like there’s pressure there because of that—that there are certain themes you have to cover?

RW: Well, not really, because most of the stuff that we’ve done has always been really fan-driven. You mentioned NCADV—they actually approached us and said that they’d had some kids calling in and saying that the song made them want to call in and talk about their problems and change their lives. So they reached out to us and just said, “Hey, we really like your song ‘Face Down,’ would you be willing to do something with us?” And we were like, “Yeah, that sounds awesome.” So they actually initiated, you know what I mean? That’s not us. We didn’t like, decide to go grab them. Same thing with the Take Action Tour. As I said earlier, we have a lot of songs that deal with depression and teen suicide because we believe that’s a topic that needs to be talked about. Teen suicide is still happening all over the place, and people talk about it like it’s not a big deal, but it is. It is to us. And we believe that a lot of the time, you can save a life if you just talk to somebody. The Take Action Tour knew that that was kind of our vibe, they addressed us and asked us if we wanted to do the tour even though it’s a charity tour. There’s not really any pressure because a lot of times there’s not anything to be pressured about. People just come to us and ask us to do stuff, and if we think it’s cool and a cool vibe, then we do it.

OS: Speaking of tours, you’ve been with everyone from poppy acts like Amber Pacific to hard rock bands like Shinedown to the current tour with hardcore band Yashin. Why do you think you’ve been able to mesh well with so many different types of bands and fans?

RW: We actually have a lot of really different sounding songs. We definitely don’t try to stick to one genre with our music. Both of our first two records, if you put one song next to the other a lot of people say they don’t even believe that it’s the same band… Everybody in my band has completely different taste in music, which is cool. We all sort of bring that into the mix when we write. Some of our guys are really big into hip hop, some of the guys are really into country, I’m mainly into post-hardcore and punk rock, and some of our guys are straight up alternative and old-school rock. I think that helps, the fact that we have enough different style songs that we can mold our set list to whatever band we’re playing with to where it sounds cohesive. Or not! Sometimes we’ll do the opposite, and we’ll want to stand out. If we’re playing with a bunch of hardcore bands, we’ll play a really poppy set so we totally stand out and don’t sound anything like anybody else. One time we played with Fergie at an arena in New York, and we played every song that we have that was all screaming and barely any singing. So we stood out in that scenario. I don’t know, it’s just kind of fun. We do what we want I guess. We’ll find a way to make it work.

OS: You guys went through some tough times after Lonely Road was released, and you ended up firing your manager, Steve Tramposch. Do you think having a manager was important or did you do okay on your own?

RW: Now we have a management company called the Collective. The thing is, we had a guy who was just one guy in his office. When everything started, it really wasn’t that much work. He could totally handle it, and he was a good manager for sure. He worked 24/7 for us, and that’s what we needed. That’s what we always wanted was to pay somebody money to open doors for you. It’s that simple. It’s nothing personal, it’s business… After we had a couple records out, when the workload got to the point to where it’s more than what one person could actually handle, he just wasn’t able to keep up, and we had some conversations, and we parted ways. It’s that simple. We partnered with Collective, which is actually a management firm, so instead of one guy we have an entire team of people behind us. Everybody’s got their own job, nobody gets overworked, and your band is taken care of 100% of the time. I think we just grew as a band out of that situation and into where we are now. Nothing personal, it just is what it is. It wasn’t a lot of drama or anything… we were with him a long time, and we parted ways, and that was that.

OS: In the video for “Choke“, you guys are killing what look to be some record label execs. Was that inspired by your split from Virgin?

RW: [Laughs] I get a lot of questions about that video. The first thing I want to say is it’s actually part one of a three-part series. A lot of people don’t know that, and we did our best to try to explain that, but a lot of kids will throw up one video on YouTube—once they see it, they’ll throw it back up. It’s impossible to embed in their YouTube stream, “Hey, this is part one of three.” But if you go to our page, it explains that in detail. The actual story is a string of characters who are just basically criminals… They go into this place and they kill a bunch of people. In the second video, they go to a little hideout. They’re drinking booze, they’re smoking cigarettes, they’ve got money on the table. Basically it’s a robbery, but you never see the robbery scene. And then in the third scene, it’s them being chased down by the cops and there being like a showdown at the end. We all get shot because we won’t turn ourselves in, we fight the cops. When you look at it from that perspective, it’s just a story like any other video. We wanted to stretch it out and make it three parts because we thought it would be cool. We’d never had an opportunity to do that with Virgin. So we’re like, “Hey, now that we’re independent we can do whatever we want. Let’s do one long story in three songs.” If you look at the video in context, it’s clearly not about a record label. But if you just watch that one video, for sure, it obviously looks like it, because we actually shot it in our management firm’s office. So you can see, like, gold records on the walls and stuff. And we thought that would be fine, because we thought that some people would pick up on that. But obviously, who cares? It’s rubber guns, you know what I mean? And yeah, it was a little bit of a message to Virgin. But the real message was, “We can do whatever we want now.” Not, “We’re gonna come kill you.” Anybody who thought that is basically just out of their mind. It’s stupid. First of all, if you’re gonna kill somebody, don’t make a video of you killing them first and then send it to them. That’s pretty dumb. Basically it was just showing them that we don’t have any kind of restrictions as far as graphic or artistic—we can literally do whatever we imagine now.

OS: So it’s been a positive thing, the split from Virgin?

RW: Absolutely. 100%. You can believe it or not—we’re not going to put a bunch of our personal files online—but in the beginning there was a lot of people who were like, “Oh, Red Jumpsuit got dropped.” And a lot of bands say that they didn’t, but we 100% didn’t. It’s very simple. We actually signed a deal with them that was three solid, two optional. That was the deal. So what that means is we absolutely had to make three records for them, and then if they still wanted to make records with us, then we had to make another two for them. But we only made two for them, because when the third record came around, basically they couldn’t honor their contract. They sent us a new contract with all these weird, additional things in the contract, like “Okay, we can’t honor the contract because we didn’t sign the musician. I’m a new guy, and we don’t have the budget we had back when we signed you, and everything’s changed, and blah blah blah.” And we were like, “Guess what? We don’t give a shit. We had a contract. You’ve been doing this to us for four years, saying, ‘Follow the contract, follow the contract, follow the contract.’ And now that the contract’s in our favor, you don’t want us to follow the contract? I don’t think so. Follow the contract. Take your own advice.” They didn’t want to do that, so there was an option in our contract that said if they didn’t follow their contract, we could get out. So we got out. Bam. It’s pretty rad, actually. Doesn’t usually happen that way. It’s pretty rare.

Check out the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus on tour with Yashin, and give their new single “Reap” a listen below!

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• Oops. Someone at Apple is in biiiig trouble.
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He’s been attacked by gay and women’s rights groups, defended by music bloggers, edited by writers who would presume to tell an artist how to create their work. He’s incited riots on rooftops and been arrested for disturbing the peace. He’s been described as a visionary, an obnoxious teen, a genius and a sexist homophobe. Only one thing is certain—Tyler, the Creator is a phenomenon. Still, we find ourselves wondering what exactly is it about this guy and the rest of the Odd Future collective that gets everyone so riled up. Isn’t he using the same schtick that catapulted Wu Tang Clan into stardom in the nineties? Aren’t his rape fantasies oddly reminiscent of Eminem’s murder fantasies circa 2000? What’s going on here?

The most important element of Tyler’s popularity is undoubtedly his charisma, and he has it in spades. His devil-may-care attitude towards what he says is oddly endearing, and he can get away with being completely ridiculous and spontaneous because he knows that the critics will love him no matter what. After all, when you can use the line, “Rape a pregnant b***h and tell my friends I had a threesome/You got a f*****g death wish, I’m a genie it’ll get done,” you can pretty much get away with anything. He’s also clever when it comes to marketing—actually running his Thurnis Haley Golf Wang spoof on the Golf Channel. In spite of ourselves, we find that we’re amused more and more by each Odd Future meme and video clip that pops up. (Have you seen “Grandma Reads Tyler, The Creator’s Tweets”? Gold.)

Tyler is also highly offensive, and that’s historically been a great way to drum up some chatter. (We’d include some more of his lyrics here, but we’d rather not repulse you and there’s only a certain amount of asterisks a person can use in a blog post without looking stupid.) Sara Quin of the indie folk duo Tegan and Sara was the first person of note to call him out on this last week. “The more I think about it, the more I think people don’t actually want to go up against this particular bully because he’s popular,” she writes. “Who sticks up for women and gay people now? It seems entirely uncool to do so in the indie rock world, and I’ll argue that point with ANYONE.” You can read her full letter here; it’s wordy but incredibly well-written—much more so than Tyler’s Twitter response: “If Tegan And Sara Need Some Hard Dick, Hit Me Up!” Wow. Homophobic and sexist in less than 140 characters.

Sara has a point when she writes that critics don’t take on Tyler because he’s well-liked. And we agree that it kind of sucks that he rose to fame thanks to sexism and homophobia. But to be clear, his act is just that: an act. He’s not the first artist to write horrorcore songs, and he won’t be the last. It may seem like a lame defense, but it’s an important distinction. Tyler is—or at least claims to be—straight edge, so even his raps about drug use are just part of the fantasy. Plus he’s only twenty, and last time we checked twenty-year-olds are notorious for disregarding consequences and speaking without thinking.

And putting out this kind of letter less than a week after the release of Goblin? That’s only going to help the album surpass the 50,000 mark it reached in its first seven days. Because there’s one other reason Tyler is blowing up right now: he’s talented. Very talented. Like, we’ll find ourselves unabashedly putting “Yonkers” on repeat. The album-spanning conversation with his therapist packs a punch despite their lack of fanfare, laid over beats that are simple, often almost barren. We’d argue that he isn’t on par with most of the members of Wu Tang Clan; in fact, he may not even be the most talented rapper in Odd Future. But Tyler is the group’s obvious leader, and with Earl Sweatshirt hidden away at boarding school, he’s stepped into the role with more than enough swag. Despite a few similarities to those rappers who paved the way for his collective, he maintains that aura of being an original, something fresh, something we haven’t quite seen before.

So what’s the consensus here? It’s tough to wade through all the B.S. since every blogger with a keyboard and a set of speakers has an opinion—often a very strong one—regarding Tyler and the rest of the Odd Future gang. But whether he’s just a flash in the pan or busy carving out a permanent role in the scene, we guarantee you’ll be hearing a lot about him for a while. For now, we’re content to sit back and enjoy the chaos that surrounds these Californians and their crazy music. And we’ll continue to justify Odd Future’s place on our iPods with the NPR feature “Why You Should Listen to the Rap Group Odd Future, Even Though It’s Hard.”

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• … we would not spend it on this ridiculous hat.
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We’re a fan of a good, brain-melting paradox, especially that one about the famous lying puppet Pinoccio: What would happen if he said “My nose will grow”? It’s just impossible to figure out! That’s probably why we’re so intrigued by the track “Paradox” from Serbian metal band Forever Storm. Although it’s far from as playful as the Pinocchio paradox, it’s also quite the brain teaser, exploring both deeply personal and universal themes ranging from vanity to the destruction of the world. Epic stuff, and a lot to cover in a track that clocks in at just under five minutes, but Forever Storm weave it all together beautifully with a soaring chorus and screaming guitars.

If you find yourself thinking that a lyrically-driven metal song is a paradox in itself, Forever Storm bassist and songwriter Vladimir Nestorovic has a few things to say. “The lyrics should be the center point of any metal song, as they should always tell a story about a certain emotion, event or a thought,” he says. Of course, he adds that artists have the right to do whatever they want with their songs. “It is only my opinion that the music and the lyrics should, in most cases, have a hormonal bondage with some kind of subject and with each other as well.”

“Paradox” does meld music and lyrics in a seamless fashion, although as is fitting for a song with that title, its vocals tend to be ambiguous. The track opens with the line, “The night falls around my heart/The dark engraves another scar.” Nestorovic says that was inspired after he thought he was betrayed by someone he loved, but he later found out that he was the one to blame. Hence the chorus: “I’m losing you, losing myself to this demon called vanity/Every day more I die/Killing what keeps me alive.” According to Nestorovic, that’s the central figure of the song, as it “describes the moral paradox that I was in resulting in vanity.”

The paradoxes aren’t limited to emotions. Perhaps the most thought-provoking conundrum is the one frontman Stefan Kovacevic belts out during the song’s final stanza. “Amazingly you see the future while you’re destroying it,” he wails. It’s both true and depressing; in order to obtain the future we desire, we find ourselves destroying it with pollution and destruction. But the very pollution that will destroy us is a necessary byproduct of having the things we want. Whoa. Paradoxical indeed. But if you find yourself gleaning a different message from this metal mindgame, Nestorovic says you needn’t worry. “I think that it is for the listener to decide what he wants from the song, which is the beauty of art; you experience the lyrics in a way that suits your thoughts.”

If you’re ready for a song that makes you mosh as it makes you think, check out “Paradox” below— it’s heavy in more ways than one.

Have an interesting story behind your lyrics? Let us know at pr@ourstage.com!

There are plenty of ways to commemorate a successful career: compilation albums, tribute concerts, limited-edition merch…and if you aren’t a musician, probably an office party with ice cream cake. But the Bouncing Souls are one-upping everyone this summer, playing through their entire collection of studio albums in a slew of four-night punk extravaganzas in cities around the world. We sat down with Souls frontman Greg Attonito to talk about why the time was right for this eight-city tour, the ability to stay relevant for more than twenty years and how even in the digital age, the Jersey-based four piece is still repping the DIY lifestyle.

OS: While a lot of bands who have been together as long as the Souls would choose to commemorate their career with a retrospective album, you guys decided to do a tour where you played through all of your albums. What was the inspiration behind that?

GA: We have been talking about playing all our records live for years so it was just a matter of time. This year at our Home for the Holidays shows in Asbury Park, we decided it was time. It was a lot of memory work re-learning a lot of songs we haven’t played in years, but it really paid off. It ended up going over really well for us and for the audience I think. So…Why not take it on the road! So that’s what we decided to do.

OS: You’re playing in just eight cities, but the tour is taking you all over the world. What determined the lucky eight tour destinations— were they places that held some significance to the band?

GA: We chose cities that we have had consistently good shows in over the years. We also wanted to work with promoters that were enthusiastic about the idea. So… those are the Lucky eight cities!

OS: The Souls and Chunksaah have always had a very DIY attitude—you had to be resourceful and creative about touring in the pre-Internet age. What does that DIY attitude translate to in 2011?

GA: In more difficult economic times I think we are forced to become more DIY in all parts of our lives from the food we eat to the music we make. Most of us are working more and earning less so we really have to be more practical than ever…but I think its good for all of us because most of us have been living pretty wasteful lifestyles. So I’m glad we as the BS family have learned how to be as DIY as we can. We need that knowledge and attitude now more than ever.

OS: How do you feel about the industry now? Did you prefer the days when you got the word out about shows through flyers in record store windows, or are you a fan of doing that online through social networking?

GA: It feels like industry is in labor right now about to give birth to a new way of doing things, so it’s a trying time. I don’t want to repeat the past but I do sometimes miss how simple things were when we first started. The challenge is to carry that spirit on! I’m not a fan of social networking but I do have a Facebook page and I appreciate how convenient it is to inform people about new music/live shows etc. I’m not into it enough to Twitter and I’m also not interested in posting my every life movement. Overall though the Internet is a great thing for all of us to communicate quickly and for free!

OS: What about your fan base? It seems like you’ve stayed relevant to fans who span several generations. Why do you think your music is as popular with forty-somethings as it is with pre-teens?

GA: It’s a cliche, but we “strike a chord” that goes beyond age I think. Our music is for the heart, and it helps us all remember we are not alone and we are here in life to enjoy ourselves and live for each other. Why wouldn’t people come back for that? That’s why all of us band members keep coming back.

OS: You guys don’t reinvent yourselves as often as some musicians do, but there have been some significant changes in The Souls’ music over your career. What are some of the biggest changes you’ve gone through over the last two decades?

GA: We have intentionally tinkered with our writing styles over the years by including producers in the process. It has been great in some ways and not so great in some ways but we have learned a lot throughout. All that we have learned we are putting into the new songs we have been writing. The main focus is to enjoy ourselves every step of the way.

Since you mentioned re-inventing ourselves it might be a good time to let you know about my new solo record! Its called Natural Disaster and will be coming out on Chunksaah records this summer. It was fun for me to get completely out of the Bouncing Souls writing dynamic, get a fresh perspective and see what happens. The record sounds great and I have a renewed attitude toward creating new BS music. It will be fun to see how people respond to it because its not like BS music.

OS: Now that you’ve been together more than twenty years, do you have any advice you wish you could give your teenage selves? Anything you wish you did differently?

GA: No. I wouldn’t do anything differently. I would probably tell me teenage self not to be so stressed out, be honest with yourself and take the time to learn how to be comfortable with just being myself…Thats probably it. But my teenage self probably wouldn’t have listened to my forty-year-old self! [Laughs]

Interested in catching the Souls as they play through all their albums this summer? Check out the band’s Web site for a list of the upcoming tour dates.

Recently, MTV launched NextMovie.com—a “movie site for the next generation” featuring celebrity interviews, movie news and video reviews from rappers and rockers. And naturally, since we have no shortage of talented rhymesayers or rock-and-rollers on OurStage, we got in on the action with the “NextMovie Review” Competition to offer one lucky rap, hip hop or rock artist a chance to have their own video review posted on the NextMovie site!

Well, a winner has been chosen: Nikki Lynette’s fierce track “Love U Crazy,” earned her the prize. This Chi-town native is no stranger to success on OurStage. In fact, Nikki regularly kicks ass and takes names in the urban charts. “Love U Crazy” is a genre-bending hip-shaker that combines equal parts rock and rap in one tasty alternative hip hop package guaranteed to get you on your feet. If you’re ready to jam out to spiky guitars and sultry vocals check out “Love U Crazy” below, and keep an eye out for Nikki’s NextMovie review when it airs on OurStage! You can also head on over to nextmovie.com to see Lego versions of summer blockbusters and hear what MC Hammer thought about Thor.

Apparently, David Guetta isn’t a guy you want to cross. Despite his seemingly laid-back nature and endearingly awkward dance moves, Guetta reacted strongly last week when hackers leaked his new single with Nicki Minaj and Flo Rida “Where Them Girls At,” hiring an ex-Pentagon investigator to track down the culprits. It’s a totally badass move for sure, but we don’t think we’re the only ones who consider it a little over the top. That’s why we’re compiling evidence our own OurStage Investigation (sans Pentagon help) to figure out why, exactly, the 43-year-old beatsmith responded so strongly to the thievery and determine if he’s guilty of overreacting.

Exhibit A: Hackers suck, the track wasn’t finished and the thieves added their own finishing touches.

First, the obvious: leaking music is completely and 100 percent illegal. And not only that, it’s just kind of a crappy thing to do. While fans appreciate hearing a new record a few weeks in advance, the pleasure of rolling out new material should go to the artist who toiled to create it. Guetta’s case is even worse, as the track that was leaked was still an unfinished cut and not a representation of his best work. These hackers even went so far as to change parts of the song and say it was Guetta’s. So yeah. Maybe a little rage is justifiable.

Exhibit B: Guetta isn’t the only artist fighting back.

Earlier this month, the California man who violated federal copyright law by uploading Kanye West’s Graduation before it was released pleaded guilty to distributing pirated music. The  Beverly Hills Courier reports that 29-year-old Richard Franco Montejano could “face up to five years imprisonment, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000 when he is sentenced July 25.” Looks like Guetta isn’t alone it wanting a little justice.

So far, all evidence points to Guetta’s reaction being a realistic one. But then again…

Exhibit C: This happens to everyone. And we mean everyone.

There’s no arguing that it totally sucks when someone leaks your music online. But to be honest, albums leak more often than not these days. The Beastie Boys saw the clean version of Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 leak in late April. Tyler, the Creator leaked about three fake versions of the highly anticipated Goblin before the thing actually leaked a week before its scheduled release. Hell, Skrillex had two laptops with his new album on it stolen from his Milan hotel, and you don’t see him bringing in the National Guard.

Exhibit D: There are ways to combat leaks without hunting down the uploader.

When Hot Sauce’s clean version leaked, Mike D and co. didn’t waste time finding the culprit. They just slapped the album up on their Web site, saying, “as a hostile and retaliatory measure with great hubris we are making the full explicit aka filthy dirty nasty version available for streaming on our site.” The last two albums from Jersey pop-punks Man Overboard have leaked early, and the band responded by immediately putting them for sale on their BandCamp page. Maybe there’s a message for Guetta hidden in there—just save the cash you were going to use on pentagon investigators or fancy lawyers and start selling the album early.

Guetta Verdict: Guilty. If not of overreacting, then definitely of executing a clever publicity stunt to drum up some chatter regarding the new single. And with the combined star power of Nicki Minaj and Flo Rida, we’re pretty sure “Where Them Girls At” will still do just fine.

• Last Rebecca Black meme, we swear.
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• Danger Mouse, you’ve done it again!
• Tom Morello: still raging.