Copyright ©2007 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved.
Posted:
October 28, 2007.
You may have thought that you were catching something brand
new when the passionate anti-domestic violence song “Face Down” started
taking the music world by storm this summer. With its disgusted and angry
lyrics (“Do you feel like a man when you push her around? Do you feel
better as she falls to the ground?”) the song struck a huge chord. Red
Jumpsuit Apparatus became that most rare of animals in today’s music world –
a true grass-roots phenomenon.
However, just because they just have popped onto the big-time
music radar doesn’t mean that RJA are an overnight success. The band –
featuring lead singer Ronnie Winter, guitarists Duke Kitchens and Elias
Reedy, bassist Joey Westwood and drummer Jon Wilkes – has been working the
Florida bar scene for years. Much of the music on their hit debut album
Don’t You Fake It dates back to their original 2004 demos.
Now that the world has caught up with Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, the band is
ready for a long ride. They are releasing a new single – the lovely ballad
“Your Guardian Angel” – and plan to start recording the follow-up album
after they get off of the road.
On the opening night of the band’s first national headlining
tour, lead singer Ronnie Winter sat down with us in the group’s tour bus to
discuss the long, strange road that had led him
here.
How did you originally get into music?
For me it’s just something I’ve always
done. Most of the guys in the band are the same way. I started playing
tuba in junior high orchestra. I played various instruments until I
graduated. I went to college at UNF – University of Northern Florida – and
basically ran out of money, so at that point I started working fulltime at
construction and doing the rock and roll thing – to pay the bills, and also
still be doing music. I had my musical side fed as well.
I was reading that early on when the band got together, you really weren’t
looking to do it as a living. It was just for fun. When did you realize
that this was something you could really do? career?
It’s weird. The way it was – like I said,
at that point we were all working fulltime. I had another band – two other
bands – one before this one. So did Duke. We actually kind of started the
whole thing together. It was just a scenario where this band just – for
some reason, people responded to it. When we played live, they came to the
shows. They bought CDs. They bought T-shirts. They liked the music. It
was just that obvious to us. We were like; this is easy. We just sold out
our third show ever. It was like, how is it possible from word of mouth?
The kids were just going around everywhere saying, ‘Man, you’ve got to check
out this new band, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. They’re local, but they sound
awesome. Listen to the demo.’ That was the thing. We had a demo good
enough that competed with national products, basically – that we recorded
for dirt-cheap. Next to nothing. If you can pull that off… if you can make
a really good demo and you can back it up live, honestly, I feel that any
band has a shot. That’s how we did it. The real way. But, yeah, in the
beginning it was basically… this was just another band – between me and
Duke’s bands. This was our band together, but I had my thing and he had his
thing.
I’m sure you’re tired of this question, but what exactly is a Red Jumpsuit
Apparatus? Or is it just something you made up?
It’s definitely not anything solid. I guess
we were just tired of making up new band names at that point and we just
picked a really stupid, silly one that didn’t mean anything. That was
completely arbitrary. That basically stood for the absence of a name. And
we were like, well, that’s cool. I can see the coolness in that. Let’s
roll with it.
Well like you said, you were a local band. “Face Down” has been all over
radio and TV for the last few months nationally. How crazy was it like to
break so big with your first single?
Well, the great thing about our hometown is
– we actually released and have been playing “Face Down” since 2004. So
this song has been going strong for three and a half years now. So, as
opposed to some people who just didn’t really know about the band, who just
thought it was an overnight success – they’re just wrong. The people in our
hometown were actually happy for us. We’re getting phone calls from our
friends, our family members: ‘Holy crap, dude, you’re getting played on the
pop and rock station and your video is on MTV. I can’t believe it.’ [They
were] so happy for us. It was basically done from support. Why? Because
all of our friends and family who knew how long we worked at this… not just
in the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, just years of trying to make it as a
musician. That’s really what it was. It was the culmination of everything
that we’ve done thus far in our lives. I’m 24. A lot of people think I’m
seventeen. I’m not. Never claimed to be. Believe it or not, we’ve been
doing this for a while. So, for us, honestly it was just nothing but
awesomeness. And when it did happen, when it did explode, I will say that
when the explosion happens, that does happen relatively quick. Even for
bands to kind of understand. We knew we were getting big, because everybody
was just like, ‘Dude, you’re getting huge.’ Our friends. ‘You understand
that, you guys are getting huge.’ And we’re like, all right…. Cool.
That’s cool to hear. When your friends still think your band is cool, first
of all, and second of all they’re telling you you’re huge – that’s when you
know, I think. Your real friends.
How does the band handle writing the songs – is it all a big collaborative
thing or do certain people do certain things?
Writing is… it’s funny, because there’s a
lot of different ways to do it. And there’s a lot of different ways it’s
been done in this band. But, essentially, the way it works is very simple.
I’m the singer, so I write the lyrics and the melodies. So I claim the
song, per se. The band writes the
music. Anything from me and Elias working on guitar riff and the drum part
together and then showing it to the band and everybody working it, or John
and Elias doing it on their own without me in the room. Or maybe Joey and
John are together working on the bass drum groove. They show it to us
later, like, ‘what do you guys think about this?’ Basically, we all just
listen to everything, so everyone feels like they have a say. Because they
do and that’s important. It’s really important in a band. Everybody has to
have a say, regardless. Technically, even over everybody else’s
instrument. And that’s when it gets funny, and that’s when feelings get
hurt, but if you’re friends, you get over that crap. You also get over the
fact that you don’t want to hurt your friend’s feelings, because you get to
the point where you want what is good for the song. Just from playing
together for years, we’ve developed to write together. That’s how we do
it. Everybody respectively does their own job, but we all have opinions on
each other’s instruments. But it wasn’t always like that.
“Face Down” obviously tells a very personal story of abuse. Was it based on
something in real life?
‘Face Down’ is exactly the same as every
other song I’ve ever written. All written in the same vein. The album is
entitled Don’t You Fake It. All of
the lyrics were taken from life experiences for me. Specifically me or
anybody in the band. It’s basically me talking about my life, or somebody
in the band’s life, or somebody that we know. Basically, a situation that
we experienced together. For instance, ‘Face Down’ is a little bit more
geared towards me. I grew up in a pretty bad home. My parents got divorced
when I was really young. There was a lot of drugs and alcohol and domestic
violence. A lot of things happened. Not just one. It kind of all goes
together. It’s rare that you just experience one of those things. It’s
really, usually, that classic story. One day, sitting there, the song came
out. Complete thought – from start to finish. It was definitely not
anything we tried to do. You can’t try to make a song like that. You can’t
try to make a song ever, or you’re going to drive yourself crazy. When
you’re inspired, you’re inspired. That is probably the most hard thing to
explain to anybody unless you’ve felt it before. Basically it just came out
and the band understood it. That’s kind of what we do, it was just always –
we always want to keep a very honest lyrical content, because we all agree
that the music that meant the most to us was when you really believed what
the singer was saying. What better to do to make you believe than to tell
the truth? Which was what we came up with. So that’s what I do.
It seems like on the new CD, when the songs turn to relationships – and not
necessarily love relationships, though of course those are there, but also
friendships, etc. – like “Misery Loves Company,” “Cat & Mouse” and “False
Pretenses” the relationships seem to be in trouble or dying. As a
songwriter, do you find troubled relationships more interesting than happy
ones?
I think that we live in a real world and
nobody’s perfect. Even people with great relationships have ups and downs.
You know, I’m married. I’ve been married a year now. Basically, I’ve
learned more in one year than I ever thought I knew when I was even
recording these songs. But it’s proven me even more right in my own mind.
It’s a team. You’ve got to work. So there is good and there is bad. As
far as the negative connotation being more popular – I think it just strikes
a chord with people a little more. It makes them feel like they felt when
that happened. It’s more of a sense that I’m relating to them. They’re
like, ‘oh, wow, that’s exactly how I felt. The way he said that is exactly
the way I felt with this person.’ So it’s just me basically, in yet another
way, saying I’ve been through this, too. I’m all right. I figured it out.
If I figured it out, you can figure it out. So don’t worry about it.
Nothing is really a big deal.
One thing I like about the band is
that you are hard, but you aren’t afraid to have a tune. A few years ago it
was something of a sell-out for a rock band to have a melody. Why do you
think the world is so ready for more melodic rock?
I honestly think it’s
because people want… I don’t know. That’s a debatable question for a long
time. I know exactly what you’re talking about. When Green Day first
started getting big, a lot of punks were talking trash about them. I was
twelve years old, a skater punk with a blue Mohawk. Believe it or not, I
was pretty rock and roll. I was definitely one of the kids who was in the
conflict of ‘Is Green Day punk rock or not?’ Because you can sing their
songs. I was always basically blown away by the fact
that people were even arguing about it. There was a cool band that
supported basically all the ideals – everything I believed in – but they
were just catchy enough to get on the radio. So at least they were
representing our genre. At least there’s somebody there in the classroom
putting their hand up, saying ‘present.’ If not, you’re not even being
discovered. You’re not being talked about. If you really care about a
style of music as much as some people say, then they shouldn’t hate on it.
They should embrace everything about it. If you think it’s too poppy, then
don’t listen to it. Find something that’s more your taste.
That’s what great about now. Everybody in this society has grown up knowing
that they are individuals. I remember when I was a kid in school, that’s
all they ever used to say: “Be yourself. Be yourself.” So all of these
people of my generation and younger are – they’re being themselves. They’re
going to shop wherever they want. They don’t care what people think
anymore. There’s not as many… I mean, there are cliques and stuff like
that. It’s never going to go away. But there’s not nearly as many as when
I was going to high school. And [the time] my parents [were young] was even
worse. It was basically Side A/Side B. With me there was five or six
cliques. Now it’s just – there’s like twelve. There’s still twelve
cliques, but there’s a lot more options. Everybody’s being themselves and
digging into their own little categories. I think the reason that
songwriting is coming back… long-winded answer… is because people aren’t
afraid to express their opinions. They don’t care what everybody else
thinks. They care what they think. Which is good, because like they say,
two heads is better than one. And I expect 5,000 heads are better than
one. Or five million….
Like you said, it’s been a while since you wrote a lot of these songs. I
know you guys have been touring a lot, but any plans for a follow-up album
yet? How do you think that one will be different?
Yeah. It’s a constant process. We’ve never
really stopped writing. But, we actually for the first time in our career
since we’ve been signed, got a break. This is our first show in a long
time. So it’s nice, we’re kind of rejuvenated. Just ready to go out there
and have a good time. Basically, we did a lot of writing [during the time
off]. We all sat around and whether it was recording guitar onto your cell
phone and sending that via voicemail to the other guy across the country or
I use my MacBook a lot. Digital recording or whether it’s just jamming in
the back [of the tour bus]. They’re not there now, but before you walked in
there was two little baby Taylor acoustic guitars, which we always keep
around, because everyone in my band can play guitar – all five of us. Jon,
me, Joey, Elias, Duke – everyone plays guitar. So if you just leave two
around [someone will pick it up]. So, yeah, we’ve been working on it. We
have quite a few new songs. We are slated to go into the studio next year.
I think it’s going to be full guns ahead, so it’s possible that we might
have the record out by the end of next year. We’ll see. A lot of that
depends on the label. How fast they can get their stuff together.
“False Pretense” was the second single, but it kind of got overshadowed by
the long life “Face Down” has had. It seems like they just kept playing the
older song. “Your Guardian Angel” is the third. Do you have an input on
what is going to be the singles, or does the label decide that?
It’s funny. It’s so funny. It’s so weird
the way it really actually works. When “Face Down” came out, nobody wanted
to play it. It’s that simple. We did insist on that being the first single
before we signed. We said, “We want ‘Face Down’ to be our first single. If
not, we’re not signing.” Luckily, there was no argument. The label was
like, “Great, we love ‘Face Down.’ Let’s make that happen and we’ll talk
about the second single when it’s time.” So we really didn’t push the
issue. When “Face Down”… before it broke on pop the label made the decision
to move on, because radio had responded, but not ridiculously. So,
basically, people started calling in. Once people started calling in and
asking for the song more – because radio stations weren’t playing it enough
– that happened all over the country simultaneously. That then equaled
simultaneous adds all over the country, which equaled blowing up overnight.
So really the only people you can thank are real human beings who picked up
a phone – which they say doesn’t count, but they’re wrong. It does. I’m
living proof of it. They just tell you that because they don’t want
everyone calling every day. It does matter. People do listen. Even
executives, heads of companies for Clear Channel and everybody else, all
those radio stations – they listen. When that many people call in, they
listen. Then it came to the fact where, all right, the song’s on the radio,
now they don’t want to let it go. They feel like they’ve found something,
but they didn’t find anything. The people gave it to them – as usual.
So if you’ve been into the band and
following, that’s how it worked. “False Pretense” came out. Everybody on
the band’s side loved it. Everybody on the fan’s side… we got a huge
response. Anytime we play it overseas everyone knows the video. They come
dressed up in video outfits, with the logos on their hands. The video was
great, it went over great, it wasn’t pushed to radio. Honestly, there were
still quite a few awesome rock stations that picked it up anyway – just
because they loved the band. And I pretty much know all of them. And that
was it. It was that simple. That was the second single. Then we came out
with “Guardian Angel.” Literally, the video came out yesterday, so this is
brand new, still fresh. We’ll see what happens. Honestly, it’s not
something you need to over-think. If your song breaks on the radio, it’s
cool, but it’s not necessarily… you don’t need it. We never needed it
before. We were selling out venues before “Face Down” broke on the radio.
We’ve been playing the song for two and a half years. So, you don’t need
it, but it does help. It’s one heck of a boost. You’re like, oh wow; we
didn’t have to work so hard on that song. So if it doesn’t work, we work
hard and we work the single ourselves. I’m already confident everybody
likes “Guardian Angel” anyway. Why? Because we asked our fans: what do you
want our third single to be? You decide. That simple. We made a MySpace
post about it. Our fans voted – there was literally a click vote. All the
votes were tallied up, without cheating or anything like that. And they got
what they wanted. They got a video for “Guardian Angel.”
Well, speaking of MySpace, now musicians have so many different options to
get their music out – not just traditional radio. Things like MySpace, the
Internet, your website. I believe you guys were just on
The Hills…
Yes, we were. That was interesting.
How much do you think all the options can help a band to break?
Some of that is actually pretty dangerous,
because people are just opinionated. But other than that, I’m just a firm
believer that the bands that broke… It’s funny; there are so many bands that
get signed with labels every year. Hundreds – if not thousands. Less than
ten usually break a year. That’s it. That’s a staggering number when you
think about it. I’ve seen a lot of these bands come and go – just since
I’ve been here. It’s interesting, the ones who make it are the ones who
bust their ass. They’re the ones who go on MySpace and make posts, talk to
people. They’re the ones who call fans back on phones through their
companies, like we do – brand new cutting edge technology. You stay on top
of what’s modern. Why? Because the kids are what’s modern. They’re always
going to be on top of it. You’re keeping up with them. That does keep you
modern.
On top of that, work hard. Work as hard as
you want them to work for you. Every band that I’ve seen do that has become
successful. So if they use – well we were talking about MySpace, or Pure
Volume or just a handful of crazy websites that are out there now. I can’t
even keep up with all of them out there to get their music out. And they
are consistent. You know, if you just throw up a MySpace page with a couple
of cool looking pictures and a crappy demo, you’re not going to make it,
dude. Sorry. There are thousands of other bands that did the same thing
that day; who are going to have another band next week… and probably another
one three weeks after that. All being treated the same way by the average
listener because of bands like that. They are setting up their own failure
when they are doing that. There are so many of these bands looking for the
instant glory, which doesn’t happen. They’re like, “Oh, this worked for
this band or that band….” Honestly, I don’t know one band that threw a
MySpace page up and got signed off of it. I don’t. Supposedly they are out
there. I have never met this band. I think that everyone I ever met has
been doing it for years, got a deal, toured in a band like we did. Did a
whole bunch of crazy stuff that took forever – and then finally got their
break. But when they got their break is when everybody else heard about
them. So to them it’s blowing up.
You ended up recording “Face Down” in an acoustic version as well as the
full-on band version.
How do you think the two versions bring different things out in the song
for different people?
I’m glad you asked about that. No one has
actually asked me about that before. It was really just something we
decided to do on the fly. “Face Down” was out on radio. We didn’t record
[the acoustic version] until quite a bit later. It came out on our bonus
re-release. Basically, we just did a lot of in-stores, where you show up at
a CD store in a town. All the sudden everybody hears – on MySpace or
whatever – Red Jumpsuit Apparatus is playing at Blah-Blah-Blah CD store down
the street. Be there at three o’clock. Four or five hundred kids show up.
It’s awesome. We play a little acoustic set. We started doing that. We
did three or four of those a week while we were also doing our show that
night. People were just mailing us and going, “Man, I really like ‘Face
Down’ acoustic. Where can I get a recording of that?” The best way to
figure out anything is to listen to your fans. We called our manager – hey,
everyone’s really digging this “Face Down” acoustic jam thing that we’re
doing. The other songs, too, but specifically “Face Down” was definitely
the one we noticed the most response to. Moms were coming up to me, “Wow,
I’d really like it when you play it this way. I wish I could get a copy of
that.” So talked to our manager, said we want to do it. Hooked back up
with [producer] Dave [Bendeth]. Went back in the studio when we had a day
off in our tour. Banged it out in one night. Took eight hours, start to
finish. Had him mix it. Send it to us. And there you go.
You recently did the
Warped Tour. What was that like? Pretty crazy?
It was rough, man. Well, it’s just – it was 104 in Phoenix. There you go.
Enough said. It’s just a hot, long tour. We were on nineteen shows in
eighteen days. We were the only band that was on every single show, from
start to finish. There was probably about twenty of us out of the fifty
bands that are advertised. So, it’s just – if you’re one of the bands that
does the whole thing, it’s rough. But, it’s also one of the most gratifying
experiences, because – number one, there’s just so many amazing bands
playing. For us, we don’t take that for granted. Every day we were out
watching Underoath. We were out watching Bad Religion. We were out watching
Pennywise. We were out watching Coheed and Cambria. We were out watching
Circa Survive. Every day. Why? Because they are playing and I’m here and I
don’t have to pay to see it. And they’re awesome. Why not watch them? That
was probably the best part for us, because we did grow up going to Warped
Tour. Waking up every day at a carnival is pretty cool. But, then again,
it’s just so much easier to really talk to people when there’s not so much
noise and just random craziness.
So you ruin a little bit of the intimacy… a lot of it, actually… as opposed
to tonight, where we’ve basically been walking around town all day, just
running into random people. Talking to them as they come and go. If they
notice you, cool, if they don’t, whatever. That to me is really awesome. I
remember the first time I ever ran into somebody in our hometown in a show
was a singer from a band called Spineshank. They’re a little older and kind
of heavy, but they were awesome. I just remembered him standing there,
talking on his cell phone, and I couldn’t believe the fact that it was
really him. But it was him. It looked like he was out in a movie or
something. I just remember him being really cool to me. He was on the phone,
but he could see me freaking out. Like, oh, is that him? I was talking to my
friend. We weren’t really sure if it was him. Afterwards, he talked to me,
shook my hand, took a picture – and I don’t know, ever since then, if anyone
ever said anything bad about that band I am like, no, they’re cool. For me,
it worked on me, so we just try to reciprocate that to other people. We like
to be involved. And on Warped Tour you can’t really do that, because there’s
thousands of people. If you talk to one person then fifteen see you and they
come up – which isn’t a big deal, until that turns into 500. Then people
just start pushing. And then they start getting crazy. There’s actually been
people who’ve fought over getting to us. That just makes you feel bad and
weird. Dude, I don’t want to see that. Like a twelve-year-old girl with our
band shirt on just got trampled by sixteen other twelve-year-old girls who
didn’t see her. There are just things that happen that aren’t cool. It
becomes a different situation. That’s why it’s not good to do [one of those]
tours. You lose intimacy, but you gain mass crowds. It’s a give and take.
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