Interview With All Get Out (4/9/13)

All Get Out has quite the reputation as a band that can deliver a crushing live set. Due to that, they've gained quite a devoted following across a wide range of fans, and more and more people are noticing. The band is in the middle of a long tour supporting Transit, and they took some time out of their incredibly busy schedule to speak to us about the diversity of bands they have recently supported, catering their music to specific crowds, the progression of old songs to current live forms, upcoming new material that may feature some special guests, and much more that you can read below.

Firstly, can you introduce yourself?

I’m Nathan, and I play guitar and sing in All Get Out.

You just finished a tour as main support with Anberlin. How was that experience?

It was awesome. We haven’t had too many tours on that level. I think we’ve only had one other really. It was definitely the biggest tour we’ve ever been on. It’s nice to be on a big stage and kind of feel that out and learn to play to a bigger crowd, which I’m not sure we’re the best at, but we had fun nonetheless. It was a good tour. Good guys, and Paper Route is incredible. Incredible.

It took until that tour ended to be announced on the Transit tour, even while pretty much everyone was announcing that you were in it. How tough was it for you guys to hold that back and not make an official announcement about it until it was done?

I think we announced it on like the 24^th or 25^th of March. There are reasons if you’re playing the same city not to announce it because it will ruin the show, allegedly. It really wouldn’t have hurt anything for us because we’re a smaller band but it was hard to contain. We would tell a few people and shush them, but it was nice to see the speculation. It was kind of funny, because that’s the kind of stuff I would do before this. It kind of got a little hype I guess. That’s cool. It was fun to watch nonetheless.

You also opened a few dates for fun. How did that happen?

Andrew McMahon dropped off for whatever reason and I guess they called some friends of ours. They were on the road and suggested us. It wasn’t very well deserved but it was awesome. They just asked some people who to have and some of them probably knew who we were and we played Atlanta a lot, so why not? It was a great experience and it was awesome. Now that was a BIG crowd. It sold out the Tabernacle in Atlanta, which holds like 2600 people. You don’t get nervous after playing a long time, but at the beginning of a tour you have some anxiety because you hope everything works, and that was one hell of a way to have a first show.

Is it weird playing for that “mainstream aimed” crowd of kids that only know maybe three songs that any band on the whole show is playing and have probably never been exposed for anything like you guys? How do you tailor your show to that crowd?

It’s kind of hard to tailor that. I can’t yell like I usually do on the first day anyways, so I sing a little cleaner. I don’t know how to tailor that to that crowd. It’s one opener, they could have played the show without one. It was more for my pride. I don’t know how well the crowd liked it, because as you said, they’re a different crowd and they’re a large crowd that’s all there to see fun. But they were respectful nonetheless and they gave us a shot. It was definitely different because we’re a harder band and we have a lot of pop elements buried underneath the heavier stuff. It was fun and it was an honor.

Based on those last few tours, it's been quite a diverse crowd you've had to play for. From the mainstream pop crowd of fun., to the pop punk crowd of the Transit tour, to probably the best fit with the alt rock Anberlin crowd, how has it changed the way you have played?

It is weird. I can never quite find where we fit in the most. I feel like sometimes we feel like a damn hardcore band and at the same time we sound like a pop rock band like you said. It’s hard to find a good fit for us. Like Transit, they’re a cleaner, poppier band but their fans come from harder stuff. We try to pull on what they like, not necessarily what the other bands sound like, in the hopes that it’ll click with them. I don’t know if that always works but it’s all we’ve got.

You've been touring almost nonstop for recent past. Is it tough going totally all out for the same period of time?

It is. It is man. You think about it, and you think, “they sit in a van all day and they get here and they load in and then they wait to play.” It’s exhausting, and not to complain, but you don’t have the comforts of home, and I’m married and I’m away from my wife and they’re away from their girlfriends and you go and you play and throw it all in there while you’re exhausted mentally and physically. It is hard. This is a lot of touring. A lot of bands have done a lot harder. I like to do about 100 dates a year but we’re going to approach on that real soon and it’s not even half the year. But yeah, it’s tough. The goal is to get fans from it. People learn bands by watching them, so hopefully all this touring pays off. I really hope so.

It's also been nearly two years since the album has been released, meaning you play mostly the same groups of songs for every tour. Does it ever feel monotonous at all playing all those same tracks over and over?

Absolutely. That’s why they sound so different live. Before we first started playing them before we recorded them, they sounded a lot different. Then we recorded it and tried to play it like that but we got tired of it, so you start changing things. We don’t set out to change it, it just happens live. You don’t practice it, it just does it. Obviously I sing a lot different live than on the recording. It definitely gets super monotonous, but you try to make do it with it. If you’re in a better position such as direct support for a tour or you’re headlining, then you try and throw in some new stuff. Not really for the fans, they’re not going to respond to it, they’ll just be like “what the hell is this,” but just more so you can start developing the songs and how they actually work.

You posted that you have 10 demos recorded. Can we get some insight into what you guys are going for on this upcoming record?

I’m glad you said that, because that’s what’s most on our mind as we’re approaching the end of a record cycle. The Season’s done basically everything it can do at this point. People are still buying it, which is awesome, and it’s spreading, but regardless it’s time to do a new one. There’s less production. If you do vocals, you usually do them piece by piece or copy it, but we’re not doing that, it’s just straight vocal takes all the way through the full thing so it sounds more natural. We’re not trying to make it perfect. It sounds like we do live. No clean vocals. Very heavy. A little groove actually. We haven’t grooved before. It definitely sounds more like a rock record, and dirtier. Less clean. Maybe a little funny to the ears at first but nonetheless what we sound like live. That’s the biggest complaint we get from people. “Why are you so different? What are you angry about.” I’m not angry, I just like yelling.

Do you have any plan for when you plan to finish the tracks in studio?

Well the demos are almost wrapped up. We don’t have studio plans yet that I can really talk about. Hopefully some familiar faces to fans of All Get Out will be helping us with the record. Speculate where you may. Hopefully. I don’t know. I don’t really know what’s going to happen but it’d be nice.

I know you guys went through some member changes in the middle part of last year. How do you feel that’s changed you guys as a band?

It was definitely a dark period when we turned the band in half. We were looking for people and trying out people and it takes a lot of time to develop. If you had heard us in January it didn’t sound like this, but we’ve grown together and it sounds a lot more wholesome. It’s good now. It was definitely really hard then. We’re okay now.

Apparently there was supposed to be a vinyl reissue but that went awry. What happened with that?

It’s all just speculation. No reissue at the moment. We’re trying to focus on doing a new record, because as you said, it’s been two years. But for me, it’s been three years. It took a year for us to put out. It’s a lot of time and money to sink into it. We will do the next record first and then if we have a way to do it then we will. A lot of people ask about it. There are only about 500 out there. A part of me kind of likes that, it’s pretty cool. They’re all gone but it’s a cool vinyl to have and maybe we can do it in a different way. But as of now there’s no actual plan. I think that was all just rumor. It’s funny. If there was a preorder, I don’t know who gave money for it, but they’re in trouble.

I think it was something having to do with Cinderblock.

Ah. They sold out but kept the preorder open I think. But if you tried to buy it, it was like “oh actually, nope.” We sold out on La Dispute and it happened real quick. In the first week or so they were gone. Which is a good thing.

What are your plans for after this tour?

Not sure yet. I want to add some more songs to the demos. We have about 15 to 20. We have about 10 that are done full band and some other that are just home stuff. So I’d like to do that next. There might be some stuff coming up but we’ve had a long half a year, so I wouldn’t really bank on that.

Any last words?

Thanks for supporting us over the last two years. It’s been good, especially by the time June hits, the last six months. Hell, you can even count December. And there was another run before that. Thank you.

I'd like to thank the Nathan and the band again for taking some time to speak with me. They absolutely blew me away even as part of a stacked tour, and made me far more of a fan than I was before. The Season is a fantastic record that is far catchier than one may think while still carrying an extremely heavy emotional impact. If you haven't listened yet, you better check that out, and you can stay caught up on the band's recording and touring progress on their Facebook page.