popwreckoning

For those of you unfamiliar with Butch Walker, you may recognize him from his recent Grammy performance with muilt-Grammy winner Taylor Swift and Stevie Nicks. This, of course, is only one feat from the notorious song-writer and producer who has worked with the likes of Avril Lavigne, Pete Yorn, The Donnas, Weezer, All Time Low, Hot Hot Heat and so many more.

I Liked You Better When You Had No Heart is his seventh solo album that you can now stream in its entirety on ThinkIndie. Also, thanks to ThinkIndie and their team of independent music stores, you can buy the album a week early starting February 9th. You can either download the album through ThinkIndie or go down to your local indie store to purchase the 180 gram gatefold vinyl complete with bonus CD and poster. Find a store near you.

With several albums, a song in the trailer for a popular motion picture and even a nomination for the upcoming Grammys, Red has had a good few years and the future only looks brighter. PopWreckoning’s Andrew caught up with guitarist Anthony Armstrong to see what life is like for these rising stars.

Andrew Dunlap, PopWreckoning: This last tour (Class of ’09 Tour) that you were on came to an abrupt end. Something happened with one of the other bands?
Anthony Armstrong, Red: Jared, [lead singer of Saving Abel] got really sick. He has diabetes, I guess, and none of us really knew about that. He started having flu symptoms and they were afraid he had swine flu. We had actually dropped off the tour a few days before that for our own reasons…People getting sick; just trying to be as safe as possible. If one of our guys gets sick and ends up in the hospital, it puts our tour on a standstill. We actually had to cancel a few shows in Michigan for a similar situation. To cut our losses, we decided to end the tour.

PW: Was anyone from your band sick while on the tour?
AA: Our lead singer is prone to sickness, we don’t know why, but he is. It’s like he has no immune system whatsoever. All of us were fine, but if one of us were to get sick, we could still stand there and play the guitar. But if he gets sick, it’s obviously a whole different ball game. We actually kept our distance from Jared and those guys just to avoid catching anything, you know? We have some big tour plans coming up and we didn’t want to take any chances.

PW: You guys are going to start touring in 2010 and you will be headlining?
AA: Yes, it’s called The Nothing and Everything Tour.
PW: And is this your first headlining tour?
AA: It’s our first headlining tour with this record and a full touring package. We’re playing with a band called Me in Motion. They’re an unsigned band. We always like taking out at least one unsigned band to give them a chance to get some exposure. We’re also playing with The Wedding, some good friends of ours, and a band called Pillar.

PW: The title of the tour comes from the title of one of your songs. What’s the story by taking this song or song title to name the tour?
AA: We’re a very theme-based band and we like to stick systematically to things. Doing this headlining run, the first song, “The Fight Inside,” off our new record is basically the entire meaning behind the whole project and there’s a lyric in that song “It’s nothing it’s everything.” It’s in the bridge actually. It’s like a chant that we do back and fourth with the audience. Just thought it was a perfect title to go along with the whole tour.
PW: There is also a song titled “Nothing and Everything” that is basically an acoustic version of “Fight Inside.”
AA: The very last track on the Deluxe Edition is called “Nothing and Everything.” It’s basically the song “Fight Inside” done acoustically in different tuning. It’s actually in standard tuning key. There’s another very very melodic string orchestra part in there. It also has the same nothing and everything lyric in it.

PW: You guys did something similar on your first album with the song “Already Over.” You had “Already Over,” then “Already Over Part 2,” which was more down and acoustic sounding. Is this something we can come to expect from you, a reoccurring thing to have a harder song and then a more acoustic version of the same song?
AA: All of our songs originate on the acoustic guitar. Believe it or not, even the heavier stuff is done on the acoustic guitar. When you hear a song acoustically without all the programming – a really stripped down version you get a sense of, as far as the vocals are concerned, what exactly you are hearing underneath all the craziness. It’s just something we have always liked to do, but not necessarily something we will continue to do on future projects. We’ve talked about doing acoustic CD’s for that reason. You know anyone can get in there with ProTools and make it sound huge and epic, but when you can strip it down and still pull it off that’s what we think is really cool.
PW: You also put out an acoustic version of your first single from your first album, “Breath Your Life into Me.”
AA: You hear such a heavy version of this song on the record and it’s like “how can they pull this off acoustically?” so it was just our way of saying, “here, this is how we do it.” We do acoustic sets every so often and we love to pull those songs out. You can really pick out the different notes, the vocals, chord progressions and harmonies- when we get requests for it we try to as much as we can because there is such an interest for it.

PW: The song “Pieces” off your first album was featured in the preview for the film “The Blind Side.” How did you guys get involved with that?
AA: We were actually approached by people out in LA to feature some songs in several different movies. That one was one that actually got put on the back burner for awhile and we were surprised when it actually happened. There were a couple other movies and there was talk about being part of the new “Twilight” movie soundtrack, but the song ended up being placed with this movie (“The Blind Side”). We were very excited when we got the news and heard it in context. We saw it all pieced together with the trailer and it just fit so well. You know the song was written three years before this movie was even a twinkle in anyone’s eye and to see it work so well with the theme behind that movie is pretty awesome.
PW: Is your song actually featured in the film at some point or strictly the trailer?
AA: There is no part of the track in the movie whatsoever- it’s just a part of the official trailer. It didn’t make any part of the movie, which is unfortunate. But many songs that are in trailers don’t actually make it in the movie or as part of the soundtrack. But we were so excited just to be involved at all.
There are so many bands out there and songs being pitched for everything. It’s just another medium to get your music exposed and the labels work really hard to make that happen. It’s something that were always been interested in, our music has such a cinematic sound, there are just so many movies out there that we would love for our music to be in but its not something that we set out to do when we are making a record it just kind of leans that way sometimes.

PW: So I take it that you have gotten a chance to see “The Blind Side”?
AA: Oh ya! I think they did an incredible job and if you know anything about Michael Oher, it’s a pretty amazing story, and to see him out there in the NFL right now as a rookie for the Baltimore Ravens, it was pretty amazing. To be a part of any experience with that whole movie has just and honor and they did a great job. TWO THUMBS UP!

PW: Speaking of honor, Red was just nominated for another Grammy?
AA: Yes, we are once again completely excited and very, very surprised. It’s a great category to be a part of and there’s just such a broad range of artists out there that we’re always up against for any type of an award. It’s funny because we know four of the five bands that are nominated, so it’s neat to share that experience with peers. A couple of them we have actually toured with so we call ‘em up to congratulate them and play games back and fourth with each other like “well, we’re going to win; we’re going to win!”
It’s definitely an honor; it’s the biggest night in music. It’s a very prestigious honor to win and to even be nominated- there’s guys who’ve been nominated 21 times and have only won a few times- so it’s an honor to even be nominated.
Did I say we’re excited? Just keep your fingers crossed. We’re going to be down there on the 31st and if we win we will be on cloud 9 and will probably never come down from there. We always would joke around saying that if we ever won a Grammy, we would just quit because it’s just such a huge accomplishment in a musical career but you definitely need to try to keep your head on the ground for the most part.

PW: This album Innocence and Instinct is themed. Could you explain a little bit about that?
AA: Starting with first album- to answer completely the question- The End of Silence, was about getting out of those ruts that a lot of people get into, like all of the vices that we are held by. Speaking out about those things and not being quiet about the problems that we have because we all share very similar things in life regardless of what our nationality is, what our religion is what our belief structure is.
We’re all universal and tied in some way and we chose to use music, because music lets you get out there and touch anyone. It’s basically our therapy -getting out there and playing those songs every night. Because we remember exactly where we were when we wrote the songs. Now, going into Innocence and Instinct we didn’t want to focus on the same things we really wanted to dissect the struggles themselves. Innocence and Instinct has a duality of man. We’re all born with the innocence of life and the instinctual side. It’s also positive, when we typically find and the negative side.
It’s like you’re constantly battling those things in your life, and trying to overcome them. That was basically the entire theme of the record.

PW: So with your theme in mind, how did covering the Duran Duran song “Ordinary World” come to make it on your album?
AA: We wanted something to continue on with the theme behind the record. If you know anything about that song, “Ordinary World” just talks about Utopia: the perfect life. If it exists, let’s find it. You know what I mean? Let’s get back to it. It’s getting away from the vices we have in our lives and finding that perfect place. It’s the perfect song for the record.
It’s such a classic early 90s song. It was a top 40s hit and everybody knows Duran Duran. It was neat to find a song that fit our record and we think we pulled it of pretty well.
It’s a very fun song to play live too. A lot of people don’t realize what it is at first until that first chorus hits because it’s the most familiar part of the song, and then the solo. People are just like “oh yea!!!” We’ve had people ask us if we wrote that song. They probably just heard it on our record and didn’t make the connection, they just liked the song. So we are like “ummm that’s actually a cover song.”

PW: It’s the beginning of a new decade, 2010. What is your favorite musical memory of the past ten years?
AA: My favorite memory… we’ve been on the road for the last 4 years, we’re a very young band and I think my favorite memory is just the experience itself. It’s nothing like we thought it was going to be. We get out there and it’s so much more hard work than anybody realized and there’s just so much that goes into being in a touring act: when you’re young and you’re like “I want to be in a band, I want to tour, I want to do this and I want to do that” and then when you actually get out there and you actually make it out of the thousands of bands who will never ever see a record deal or the exposure.
We’ve had an incredible four years of touring, of honors and accolades. You know, it’s something that you hold close because it’s something that we pour everything that we’ve got into, our heart and soul. It’s everything that we’ve got inside and poured into our music. And to have the experiences that we’ve had out on the road so far, hopefully it will continue for another ten our twelve years or whatever is the most memorable thing to me because it’s not just one instance. I think I would just add it all up and say it’s been an amazing ride so far. To have all the experiences we’ve had with all the bands we’ve toured with, at all of the venues we’ve played, and just the good times we have as a group of guys out on the road on a bus just traveling around and see what all the world has to offer is the most memorable thing for me.