An Interview With Joe Weiss of Four Year Strong
Alicia: Please introduce yourself and the part you play in Four Year Strong.
Joe: Hello, I am Joe. I play bass and do back up vocals in Four Year Strong.
Alicia: You guys are set to release your fourth full length, In Some Way, Shape, or Form, on November 8th. What can fans expect to hear from this album?
Joe: This album is definitely different from anything we've done before. It's definitely the most diverse sounding record we've ever done, it's got a lot of heavier stuff but it has a lot of chilled out songs. I don't know, it's not so 100% full blast the entire time. It actually has some breaks and ridiculousness. It's definitely the best record, I think we've ever written. Sonically, it's probably the best one as well.
Alicia: Is there anything that you did differently for this album than for your previously releases like the recording or writing aspect?
Joe: The whole studio experience was completely different for this one. We went in and usually, I don't want this to sound like I'm trashing on anyone that we've recorded with in the past because that's not the case, but typically in the past we would take whatever songs we had written and bring them in and they would be like 'okay, here's the record and this is what we recorded'. We went in this time and he [Producer, David Bendeth] was like 'okay, ten of these are garbage and you're going to start over' and we were like 'what?' So he just pushed us really hard to, I guess, become better writers and players as well. For this record we didn't really rely too much on computer editing, it's mostly what you hear is what was played. So, he really pushed us at getting better at playing in general and writing. It was a pretty intense experience, but it was good.
Alicia: How was it working with David Bendeth?
Joe: It was definitely an awesome experience and everyone that was working at his studio was the best at what they do. It was so cool to work with all of them. It was nice because, I guess we had sort of gotten comfortable with where we were at with our playing and where we were at with our writing and, like I was just saying, he pushed us. It was almost like a new start to the band. It was a good life experience aside from just recording.
Alicia: For this album, Did you feel any pressure to make a certain kind of album?
Joe: Exactly the opposite. I think that everyone wanted us to put out Rise or Die Trying again or put out Enemy again, exactly. This was the first time that we were like 'we do not care, we're not going to avoid doing certain parts because it sounds too much like not what people would be expecting'. If we thought it was cool, we did it. So we went into it completely open minded and we're all super happy with it so we'll see what the reaction is like towards it.
Alicia: What do you think is the greatest issue in the music industry today?
Joe: Alright, I think that MP3s, I do not care about illegal downloading that does not concern me at all, it's that iPods have created a generation of people that have no attention span and cannot listen to a record from front to back. You listen song by song and jump from song to song and not ever finish a record. So I think the biggest problem is the people have no attention span anymore and it's dramatically affecting record sales in general and just band's success. Not to say monetarily but, people get over stuff so quickly and just move on to the next thing and now that everyone's got a computer at their house they can sort of make music on a computer and it's changed the whole game.
Alicia: If a zombie apocalypse were to occur while you were on stage, which instrument would you want to be closest to and why?
Joe: I guess the drums because there's a lot of metal stands and sort of crazy things you can throw. Cymbals are pretty crazy, you could probably cut someone's head off if you threw it. I'm going to go with the drums.
Alicia: What does the rest of the year have in store for Four Year Strong?
Joe: We're gonna finish up the AP Tour, then we have two weeks off, and then we're pretty much out of the country for the next few months. We're doing South America and we've got Soundwave in Australia and we're going to do New Zealand as well I think and we might be doing Singapore and Thailand. Then back to the UK and Europe. So we're going to be out for a while. It'll be a blast, it's always fun getting to travel and we've never been to South America and we've never been to Singapore so it should be sweet.
Alicia: Is there anything that you would like to conclude this interview with?
Joe: Give the new record a shot. Even though it might sound slightly different, that's okay. We are ten years older than when we started putting out our first records. I guess, attempt to grow up with us. We're not abandoning the old songs, this is just a new phase in our life and the new record after this one will probably sound completely different from that one, who knows. Give it a shot, come out to the shows, and hopefully enjoy it.
Check out Four Year Strong on the following sites: Website Facebook Twitter Myspace
Joe: Hello, I am Joe. I play bass and do back up vocals in Four Year Strong.
Alicia: You guys are set to release your fourth full length, In Some Way, Shape, or Form, on November 8th. What can fans expect to hear from this album?
Joe: This album is definitely different from anything we've done before. It's definitely the most diverse sounding record we've ever done, it's got a lot of heavier stuff but it has a lot of chilled out songs. I don't know, it's not so 100% full blast the entire time. It actually has some breaks and ridiculousness. It's definitely the best record, I think we've ever written. Sonically, it's probably the best one as well.
Alicia: Is there anything that you did differently for this album than for your previously releases like the recording or writing aspect?
Joe: The whole studio experience was completely different for this one. We went in and usually, I don't want this to sound like I'm trashing on anyone that we've recorded with in the past because that's not the case, but typically in the past we would take whatever songs we had written and bring them in and they would be like 'okay, here's the record and this is what we recorded'. We went in this time and he [Producer, David Bendeth] was like 'okay, ten of these are garbage and you're going to start over' and we were like 'what?' So he just pushed us really hard to, I guess, become better writers and players as well. For this record we didn't really rely too much on computer editing, it's mostly what you hear is what was played. So, he really pushed us at getting better at playing in general and writing. It was a pretty intense experience, but it was good.
Alicia: How was it working with David Bendeth?
Joe: It was definitely an awesome experience and everyone that was working at his studio was the best at what they do. It was so cool to work with all of them. It was nice because, I guess we had sort of gotten comfortable with where we were at with our playing and where we were at with our writing and, like I was just saying, he pushed us. It was almost like a new start to the band. It was a good life experience aside from just recording.
Alicia: For this album, Did you feel any pressure to make a certain kind of album?
Joe: Exactly the opposite. I think that everyone wanted us to put out Rise or Die Trying again or put out Enemy again, exactly. This was the first time that we were like 'we do not care, we're not going to avoid doing certain parts because it sounds too much like not what people would be expecting'. If we thought it was cool, we did it. So we went into it completely open minded and we're all super happy with it so we'll see what the reaction is like towards it.
Alicia: What do you think is the greatest issue in the music industry today?
Joe: Alright, I think that MP3s, I do not care about illegal downloading that does not concern me at all, it's that iPods have created a generation of people that have no attention span and cannot listen to a record from front to back. You listen song by song and jump from song to song and not ever finish a record. So I think the biggest problem is the people have no attention span anymore and it's dramatically affecting record sales in general and just band's success. Not to say monetarily but, people get over stuff so quickly and just move on to the next thing and now that everyone's got a computer at their house they can sort of make music on a computer and it's changed the whole game.
Alicia: If a zombie apocalypse were to occur while you were on stage, which instrument would you want to be closest to and why?
Joe: I guess the drums because there's a lot of metal stands and sort of crazy things you can throw. Cymbals are pretty crazy, you could probably cut someone's head off if you threw it. I'm going to go with the drums.
Alicia: What does the rest of the year have in store for Four Year Strong?
Joe: We're gonna finish up the AP Tour, then we have two weeks off, and then we're pretty much out of the country for the next few months. We're doing South America and we've got Soundwave in Australia and we're going to do New Zealand as well I think and we might be doing Singapore and Thailand. Then back to the UK and Europe. So we're going to be out for a while. It'll be a blast, it's always fun getting to travel and we've never been to South America and we've never been to Singapore so it should be sweet.
Alicia: Is there anything that you would like to conclude this interview with?
Joe: Give the new record a shot. Even though it might sound slightly different, that's okay. We are ten years older than when we started putting out our first records. I guess, attempt to grow up with us. We're not abandoning the old songs, this is just a new phase in our life and the new record after this one will probably sound completely different from that one, who knows. Give it a shot, come out to the shows, and hopefully enjoy it.
Check out Four Year Strong on the following sites: Website Facebook Twitter Myspace
