Altsounds caught up with Senses Fail in the basement of Cardiff’s tiny Barfly venue on a cold snowy day in early February. The band has been touring the UK for the past week or so in the company of The Sleeping. We asked guitarist Heath Saraceno a few quick questions prior to the show, on how the band thought things were going so far; their expectations for the rest of the year and just how happy they are with their current album ‘Still Searching’, here are the results.
Altsounds: Your first UK headlining tour, how’s it going so far?
Heath Saraceno: It’s going great, this is the fourth of five shows and they’ve all been really good. This one I think has been sold out for a couple of weeks and we wanted to keep it nice and small instead of moving it up to another venue we just wanted to have this one packed.
A couple of years ago we did a bunch of shows like this around our area; like little, they weren’t even bars most of them, in like elk lodges. We kind of miss playing really small shows like that really intimate that’s why we kept them like this and we’re really looking forward to tonight because it’s going to be a sweaty f***ing mess
AS: You also played Taste of Chaos in November just down the road, there were big crowds how was that for you guys?
HS: It’s great I love playing on big stages ‘cause you just get to run around, be an *******. I don’t have to worry about Buddy hitting me with the microphone as much. Tonight, I’m sure he’ll bump into me a couple of times on purpose, so I don’t have to worry about it as much on a big stage. And big stages usually sound a little better, you have more control over everything but you’re missing that intimate vibe.
AS: On the tour, you got to play with bands like Anti-Flag, Taking Back Sunday. Do you think that’s been a boost to your UK fan base? Maybe got some people listening that weren’t listening before?
HS: Absolutely that’s why we wanted to do that tour because all the bands were within that general scene but there’s a lot…if you take Taking Back Sunday and Anti-Flag and put them back to back you’ll notice there are some similarities but there fans are totally different so we just wanted to try and steal everyone’s fans from them.
AS: Have you noticed that being back in the UK?
HS: Yeah a bunch of people who’ve been coming to these shows hadn’t heard of us ‘til Taste of Chaos and saw of us there and are coming back for more.
AS: You’re back in the US next week for Taste of Chaos 2007, are you looking forward to the next 2 months on the road?
HS: I’m looking forward to it, it’s a long tour; it’s really nice. It’s a great opportunity. The shows are going to be ****ing disgusting, they’re going to be crazy. I’m going to have to find someway to stay sane during the day because their all in arenas and it’s the same thing every day. So I might get a bike and ride it, but no it’s going to be winter, so you can’t ride a bike to town in the winter. Maybe I’ll get a rocket pack; I’ll fly into the towns. Or play football in the arenas, that’ll be pretty cool.
AS: How big are the arenas that you’ll be playing?
HS: I’m not sure; I think they’re all between 8,000 and 15,000
AS: You’ll be back in the UK of course for Give it a Name, big arenas there, are you looking forward to that?
HS: Yeah The Sleeping will be back for that; it’ll be good to see them and hang. I know they all look like their assholes but their not, their pretty nice guys. It’ll be cool to hang out with them again. Jimmy Eat World is playing a bunch of shows and Brand New is playing a bunch of shows it’s going to be awesome to see those bands.
AS: I read online you guys are a bit scared of flying, is that getting easier now?
HS: Yes and no, when I’m on a plane I just zone out and pretend that I’m dead already, that usually helps. I just listen to really calm music and try to read books about inane shit. You just have to realise if it’s going to go down, it’s going to go down, you’re going to die, nothing you can do about it. It’s just kind of uncomfortable; on the way over here we had a really good flight. We had a really nice flight attendant who kept supplying is with drinks. For some reason, you have to play for drinks on American airlines when you fly internationally, what the **** is that about? So after the first 7 drinks or so we made friends with her and she just kept giving us bottles, like 3 bottles at a time. I think she got in trouble that night.
AS: What are the plans for the rest of the year, after the shows in April?
HS: After the shows in April we’re going to go home and we’re going to chill out for a couple of weeks. We will have been away from home since pretty much May, almost a year away without much time at home, like a couple of weeks in there. So we’re going to relax for a couple of weeks, not do anything.
Mike Glita is going to build a monster truck, he’s been talking about it for a little while now, he’s waiting for the frame to arrive; the frame should arrive in March
Mike Glita: The wheels unfortunately take up my whole living room, their 64 inches
Dan Trapp: That’s how long my dick is
HS: Dan’s going to get a penis reduction surgery. We’re just going to hang out with our families and all that for a couple of weeks, and probably start writing more. We’re going to also start writing a little on Taste of Chaos, get ready to do a new record.
AS: Expect a new record early next year?
HS: I would say hopefully by next summer.
AS: The current album has been out in the UK for 4 months now, are you happy with how that turned out?
HS: Yeah very happy with it; our label is pretty behind and all the industry bull shit talk most of the time. It’s really cool when they tell you this record shipped more in the first week than the last one sold all together. That’s really cool to hear, so we’re just trying to get the word out, spread the word.
AS: You’re a band that offers substance as well as style, do you see lots of people in the UK, there is a big thing with this music scene, lots of people doing it ‘cause it’s fashion, because it’s cool, does that bother you guys?
HS: I don’t give a shit why people do it, I mean if their making good music then their making good music. But if they look awesome and their music sucks then they should probably not be doing it. There are a bunch of bands out there who do make good music and do have a great fashion sense, that doesn’t bother me. I don’t really get bothered by that too much.
AS: With respect to the fans, if the fans are just listening because of that does that bother you?
HS: If they just listen to it because their friends are?
AS: Yeah.
HS: I wouldn’t say that bothers me at all, even for that short amount of time for them to listen to our band maybe they’d hear something they didn’t hear in another before or maybe from their friends liking it and giving it a chance they turn into a real lifelong fan. Or they’ll just leave, that’s fine, we don’t really have strict rules for people who want to listen to our band, you can’t be exclusive.
AS: Are you happy that if this scene implodes, that you do have a loyal fan base to fall back on?
HS: I would hope so, you can never, but I think people will come out who really care.
AS: Now you’re beginning to get more recognition is the motivation for making music and touring still be the same as when you started out?
HS: Yeah totally, the whole reason for touring is to just be seen and heard by people who have your record. If those people who have the record drag someone to the show who doesn’t have the record and they get it, it’s all about getting the music out there.
AS: Does it get harder to stay focussed?
HS: It does, the more you do it the harder it gets. I guess you just have to deconstruct it a little bit, wow, I get to tour the world and play the shows and today I’m in Wales and I probably would never go to Wales.
AS: Do you think there’s ever been a time when it’s been too much and any of you have considered walking away?
HS: I don’t think so. There are times on tour when it gets tough and things will get to and every once in a while you’ll blow up. But that’s good, it’s good to let off steam, if you keep shit bottled up all the time you will explode and you’ll freak out and you won’t be able to deal with it. There have been some situations that have come up where we’ve had to talk to each other about shit that’s bothering us, but that’s what you do when you’re in a relationship with people and that’s also what you do when you’re friends. If we’re friends and I’m bummed out about something I can talk to you about it.
AS: There’s definitely a close relationship within the band?
HS: Definitely
AS: You all look out for each other?
HS: Absolutely
AS: With regards to a new album, any changes musically, do you see yourselves progressing in any way?
HS: Yeah, it’s going to be a different record. We’re not going to go out and write a Dragonforce record. We’re not going to go out and write a Pantera record, but we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing.
AS: What’s it been like touring with The Sleeping?
HS: I don’t know, their all pretty annoying, their good dudes, it’s great being from the East Coast and touring with other people from the East Coast, there just seems to be a general understanding of how to deal with each other (asks Douglas Robinson of The Sleeping) do you know what I mean?
Douglas Robinson: Yeah, it’s like a huge sense of camaraderie. It’s weird to say, and not joshing any West Coast bands, the East Coast has such a different work ethic, you meet friends, you meet East Coast bands, you see them again, and you know you’ve been pretty much been touring you’re asses off or what not. A lot of West Coast bands don’t talk to each other all the time they’re very to themselves and people only like those types bands for what their wearing. Here, I’ll see this dick heads down the road, and I’ll know, I should remember the times we had together, especially touring this country prior to the states and what not.
HS: There’s a similar sense of humour; that people from other parts of the country, the world don’t get. You can bust each other’s balls relentlessly and there’s going to be nothing wrong with it, pretty much.
AS: Any tricks worth mentioning?
HS: No tricks, no we’ll see. Tomorrow’s the last day so we’ll see what happens.
The Sleeping: We just get drunk a lot and laugh at each other.
Heath: We have a good time.
AS: Are you looking forward to playing in London for the last show?
HS: I’m really looking forward to it; I know it’s a really shitty reason to look forward to it but there’s a bookstore right next to it and I’ve always gone in there and bought shit, and there’s a good shoe store and there’s a decent bar, it’s in like a mall. It’s in like a shopping mall.
Not to different from hear, we’re more in a city centre here, there’s a lot of good shit to do around there.
AS: When can we expect to see you in the UK next?
HS: I’m not too sure; Give It A Name is in April, maybe if we can get out here again in the fall.
AS: Do you definitely see it happening before the next record?
HS: I think we would all like, it would just be a matter of circumstance.
AS: It’s obvious it would be bigger venues; will you be going all out or just slightly bigger venues?
HS: We’ll see what happens, we’ll see what our booking agent thinks, what formulas he’s devised, but we’ll see.
AS: Well that’s it thanks.
HS: Hey it’s a pleasure, thanks for the interview.
Altsounds: Your first UK headlining tour, how’s it going so far?
Heath Saraceno: It’s going great, this is the fourth of five shows and they’ve all been really good. This one I think has been sold out for a couple of weeks and we wanted to keep it nice and small instead of moving it up to another venue we just wanted to have this one packed.
A couple of years ago we did a bunch of shows like this around our area; like little, they weren’t even bars most of them, in like elk lodges. We kind of miss playing really small shows like that really intimate that’s why we kept them like this and we’re really looking forward to tonight because it’s going to be a sweaty f***ing mess
AS: You also played Taste of Chaos in November just down the road, there were big crowds how was that for you guys?
HS: It’s great I love playing on big stages ‘cause you just get to run around, be an *******. I don’t have to worry about Buddy hitting me with the microphone as much. Tonight, I’m sure he’ll bump into me a couple of times on purpose, so I don’t have to worry about it as much on a big stage. And big stages usually sound a little better, you have more control over everything but you’re missing that intimate vibe.
AS: On the tour, you got to play with bands like Anti-Flag, Taking Back Sunday. Do you think that’s been a boost to your UK fan base? Maybe got some people listening that weren’t listening before?
HS: Absolutely that’s why we wanted to do that tour because all the bands were within that general scene but there’s a lot…if you take Taking Back Sunday and Anti-Flag and put them back to back you’ll notice there are some similarities but there fans are totally different so we just wanted to try and steal everyone’s fans from them.
AS: Have you noticed that being back in the UK?
HS: Yeah a bunch of people who’ve been coming to these shows hadn’t heard of us ‘til Taste of Chaos and saw of us there and are coming back for more.
AS: You’re back in the US next week for Taste of Chaos 2007, are you looking forward to the next 2 months on the road?
HS: I’m looking forward to it, it’s a long tour; it’s really nice. It’s a great opportunity. The shows are going to be ****ing disgusting, they’re going to be crazy. I’m going to have to find someway to stay sane during the day because their all in arenas and it’s the same thing every day. So I might get a bike and ride it, but no it’s going to be winter, so you can’t ride a bike to town in the winter. Maybe I’ll get a rocket pack; I’ll fly into the towns. Or play football in the arenas, that’ll be pretty cool.
AS: How big are the arenas that you’ll be playing?
HS: I’m not sure; I think they’re all between 8,000 and 15,000
AS: You’ll be back in the UK of course for Give it a Name, big arenas there, are you looking forward to that?
HS: Yeah The Sleeping will be back for that; it’ll be good to see them and hang. I know they all look like their assholes but their not, their pretty nice guys. It’ll be cool to hang out with them again. Jimmy Eat World is playing a bunch of shows and Brand New is playing a bunch of shows it’s going to be awesome to see those bands.
AS: I read online you guys are a bit scared of flying, is that getting easier now?
HS: Yes and no, when I’m on a plane I just zone out and pretend that I’m dead already, that usually helps. I just listen to really calm music and try to read books about inane shit. You just have to realise if it’s going to go down, it’s going to go down, you’re going to die, nothing you can do about it. It’s just kind of uncomfortable; on the way over here we had a really good flight. We had a really nice flight attendant who kept supplying is with drinks. For some reason, you have to play for drinks on American airlines when you fly internationally, what the **** is that about? So after the first 7 drinks or so we made friends with her and she just kept giving us bottles, like 3 bottles at a time. I think she got in trouble that night.
AS: What are the plans for the rest of the year, after the shows in April?
HS: After the shows in April we’re going to go home and we’re going to chill out for a couple of weeks. We will have been away from home since pretty much May, almost a year away without much time at home, like a couple of weeks in there. So we’re going to relax for a couple of weeks, not do anything.
Mike Glita is going to build a monster truck, he’s been talking about it for a little while now, he’s waiting for the frame to arrive; the frame should arrive in March
Mike Glita: The wheels unfortunately take up my whole living room, their 64 inches
Dan Trapp: That’s how long my dick is
HS: Dan’s going to get a penis reduction surgery. We’re just going to hang out with our families and all that for a couple of weeks, and probably start writing more. We’re going to also start writing a little on Taste of Chaos, get ready to do a new record.
AS: Expect a new record early next year?
HS: I would say hopefully by next summer.
AS: The current album has been out in the UK for 4 months now, are you happy with how that turned out?
HS: Yeah very happy with it; our label is pretty behind and all the industry bull shit talk most of the time. It’s really cool when they tell you this record shipped more in the first week than the last one sold all together. That’s really cool to hear, so we’re just trying to get the word out, spread the word.
AS: You’re a band that offers substance as well as style, do you see lots of people in the UK, there is a big thing with this music scene, lots of people doing it ‘cause it’s fashion, because it’s cool, does that bother you guys?
HS: I don’t give a shit why people do it, I mean if their making good music then their making good music. But if they look awesome and their music sucks then they should probably not be doing it. There are a bunch of bands out there who do make good music and do have a great fashion sense, that doesn’t bother me. I don’t really get bothered by that too much.
AS: With respect to the fans, if the fans are just listening because of that does that bother you?
HS: If they just listen to it because their friends are?
AS: Yeah.
HS: I wouldn’t say that bothers me at all, even for that short amount of time for them to listen to our band maybe they’d hear something they didn’t hear in another before or maybe from their friends liking it and giving it a chance they turn into a real lifelong fan. Or they’ll just leave, that’s fine, we don’t really have strict rules for people who want to listen to our band, you can’t be exclusive.
AS: Are you happy that if this scene implodes, that you do have a loyal fan base to fall back on?
HS: I would hope so, you can never, but I think people will come out who really care.
AS: Now you’re beginning to get more recognition is the motivation for making music and touring still be the same as when you started out?
HS: Yeah totally, the whole reason for touring is to just be seen and heard by people who have your record. If those people who have the record drag someone to the show who doesn’t have the record and they get it, it’s all about getting the music out there.
AS: Does it get harder to stay focussed?
HS: It does, the more you do it the harder it gets. I guess you just have to deconstruct it a little bit, wow, I get to tour the world and play the shows and today I’m in Wales and I probably would never go to Wales.
AS: Do you think there’s ever been a time when it’s been too much and any of you have considered walking away?
HS: I don’t think so. There are times on tour when it gets tough and things will get to and every once in a while you’ll blow up. But that’s good, it’s good to let off steam, if you keep shit bottled up all the time you will explode and you’ll freak out and you won’t be able to deal with it. There have been some situations that have come up where we’ve had to talk to each other about shit that’s bothering us, but that’s what you do when you’re in a relationship with people and that’s also what you do when you’re friends. If we’re friends and I’m bummed out about something I can talk to you about it.
AS: There’s definitely a close relationship within the band?
HS: Definitely
AS: You all look out for each other?
HS: Absolutely
AS: With regards to a new album, any changes musically, do you see yourselves progressing in any way?
HS: Yeah, it’s going to be a different record. We’re not going to go out and write a Dragonforce record. We’re not going to go out and write a Pantera record, but we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing.
AS: What’s it been like touring with The Sleeping?
HS: I don’t know, their all pretty annoying, their good dudes, it’s great being from the East Coast and touring with other people from the East Coast, there just seems to be a general understanding of how to deal with each other (asks Douglas Robinson of The Sleeping) do you know what I mean?
Douglas Robinson: Yeah, it’s like a huge sense of camaraderie. It’s weird to say, and not joshing any West Coast bands, the East Coast has such a different work ethic, you meet friends, you meet East Coast bands, you see them again, and you know you’ve been pretty much been touring you’re asses off or what not. A lot of West Coast bands don’t talk to each other all the time they’re very to themselves and people only like those types bands for what their wearing. Here, I’ll see this dick heads down the road, and I’ll know, I should remember the times we had together, especially touring this country prior to the states and what not.
HS: There’s a similar sense of humour; that people from other parts of the country, the world don’t get. You can bust each other’s balls relentlessly and there’s going to be nothing wrong with it, pretty much.
AS: Any tricks worth mentioning?
HS: No tricks, no we’ll see. Tomorrow’s the last day so we’ll see what happens.
The Sleeping: We just get drunk a lot and laugh at each other.
Heath: We have a good time.
AS: Are you looking forward to playing in London for the last show?
HS: I’m really looking forward to it; I know it’s a really shitty reason to look forward to it but there’s a bookstore right next to it and I’ve always gone in there and bought shit, and there’s a good shoe store and there’s a decent bar, it’s in like a mall. It’s in like a shopping mall.
Not to different from hear, we’re more in a city centre here, there’s a lot of good shit to do around there.
AS: When can we expect to see you in the UK next?
HS: I’m not too sure; Give It A Name is in April, maybe if we can get out here again in the fall.
AS: Do you definitely see it happening before the next record?
HS: I think we would all like, it would just be a matter of circumstance.
AS: It’s obvious it would be bigger venues; will you be going all out or just slightly bigger venues?
HS: We’ll see what happens, we’ll see what our booking agent thinks, what formulas he’s devised, but we’ll see.
AS: Well that’s it thanks.
HS: Hey it’s a pleasure, thanks for the interview.
