Chad Bowar: This is your last album for Century Media. You've signed a deal with Atlantic Records, a major label. What led you to make the switch?
Brian Fair: We've been doing things on the do it yourself level so long. We've learned a lot of the business side of things, mostly because we had to on the fly. We really knew what we wanted going into a record deal. That right away narrowed the playing field. Some labels didn't want to work within our framework of creative control and allotting money for specific marketing. It was more about feeling comfortable. We got to know all the people at Century Media as friends before we signed with them, just by hanging out at shows. It was the same thing with Atlantic. We got to know them throughout the past few years and realized it would definitely work out. That was a huge thing for us, having a comfort level knowing there's a support system that's not just looking to sell records and get out. They know we're not a pop band. We're going to take a slow build career. We don't want to be a flash in the pan, we want to be around for a while. They understood that we're not going to change what we do, and it worked out. It really felt similar to the building of our relationship with Century Media.
Atlantic understands how we built our foundation and we don't want to lose touch with that. This type of music is not going to suddenly be all over, blowing up on TV. They know that this is heavy metal. To lose sight of your audience would be silly. To ignore those things wouldn't make any sense. We built our audience by touring and getting in front of as many people and word of mouth, and that will continue.
There are three cover songs on your new album Fallout From The War. One of them is the Dangerous Toys song "Teasn' Pleasn'." Is it the same version as the Japanese bonus track?
It's a totally different version. We re-recorded some of the music and I went in and did some vocals along with Jason McMaster. The original one was the band with just Jason's vocals, so this one is a little bit different. I had to go and get my glam metal on a little bit and try to hit some high notes. It was a good time.
How did you decide on the other two cover songs (Only Living Witness' "December" and Leeway's "Mark Of The Squealer")?
Instead of covering some familiar tunes, we figured we'd take the opportunity to shine some light on two great bands that were influences on us. Leeway was a New York hardcore band that really tipped the scales toward the metal spectrum with a lot of thrash riffs, a lot of great guitar solos and melodic vocals. That was an influence on us. When we started out we were doing a lot of the same type of stuff. They were one of those bands that I thought was going to get huge and never really did.
Only Living Witness were a Boston band that was mixing Kyuss rock riffs and real big vocal melodies, but they came out of the hardcore scene and still had that heavy vibe and sick drumbeats. It was a cool way for us to pay tribute to two bands that got us to where we are musically and were big influences and may not have been known by some of our younger fans and even some of the people who have been around for a while. The people that do know those groups are psyched, and the people who don't know should know, so it works both ways. I talked to the singers of both of the bands and they were stoked we were doing it. It's cool to know the original bands are psyched.
One of the standout songs on the album is "Will To Rebuild." Usually your lyrics are fairly obscure, but this one is pretty clear.
Some of those riffs were created back in the day, but the lyrics were written this past fall after the constant onslaught of national disasters, not just in the US, but around the world. There was the tsunami and then the hurricanes here. It was just crazy. It inspired me to see these people overcome whatever obstacles and it's a testament to human survival and human perseverance. Usually I don't write about something that specific, but it really hit home, having a lot of friends from the New Orleans area who were displaced and had to start fresh. It definitely inspired me.
