From Autumn To Ashes

Well, I missed most of From Autumn To Ashes' set, because I was upstairs interviewing Kevin from The Hope Conspiracy. But, from what I could hear, and the last three songs that I caught, it was incredible. They sound as good, if not better, than their record, and have great stage presence. After their set, I sat down with Fran, the drummer who does the melodic vocals for a short interview. Here is what he had to say...

How's the tour going so far?
The tour on one hand has been rather difficult, because the way it was routed, we drive a lot! Basically, we're trying to cover the whole United States in about two weeks, so we can get home in time for Christmas. So, it's been like overnight drives every night, which is really difficult, going through the mountains and the snow. It's scary. But on the other hand, it's been amazing. All the guys on the tour are good friends of ours. The guys in Hope Conspiracy have been so much fun to hang out with. Unearth, we've been friends with for a long time now, and Static is our new label-mates, so it's been a good time.

How long have you guys been together, and how did your name come about?
Fran: We've been together about two years... Ken: Fran eats corn the long way! Fran: (laughs) That's Ken from Unearth, making fun of me, that's ok though. The name is actually kind of a fictional story that we're writing, that hopefully it'll be published as a book one day, and then it will make sense to everybody.

What do you mean,
Well, I guess we're writing it collectively, as a band. Aside from writing music, we're also going to publish a book.

So, how long have you guys known each other?
Individually... I guess we've all been together, friends, for about three years now. I knew the bass player from back in high school. I knew Scott, one of the guitarists from a while ago. And basically, Brian, the second guitarist, is the newest guy; we just acquired him most recently.

You guys have a very unique sound, you almost sound like two different bands sometimes. Is that just because there's a different musical taste within the band?
Yeah, that's exactly right. Basically half of the band is into a lot of heavy stuff, a lot of metal. And then the other half of the band... basically me and Scott primarily write the music. He's into more heavy stuff, and I'm into more mellow stuff, so when our two tastes come together, that's what you get. Sometimes it comes off a little awkward, because we'll go from a super heavy part to a super light part, but I don't know... it's cool. I guess we try to give something for everybody.

Yeah, I think it's great. What's the funniest thing that's ever happened on a From Autumn To Ashes tour?
Oh man... Jesus, everyday I could tell you something. But for now, I'll just tell you the first thing that popped into my mind. We had a tour bus for about a week, until we realized we couldn't afford it, because it's about $1200 a day, it was Korn's tour bus. We were down in Orlando, Florida. And you know the Woman's NBA, WNBA? We had a bunch of WNBA players come on the bus and party with us.

(laughs) For real?
Yeah yeah yeah, for real! We had this little short dude on tour with us, and they stripped him naked, and these chicks were like, ya know, 7 feet tall. And they were passing him around like a basketball. It was awesome.

What is the best part about touring, and what is the worst part about touring?
Like I said before, the worst part about touring is the overnight drives, lack of sleep, and lack of a good diet, missing your family. A lot of us have girlfriends back at home. I've got a three-year-old nephew that is a lot cuter than my band mates. And ya know, the best part is just being able to get up here and put on display what we work to create. It's personal ya know? For me at least, it's not just getting up there and repeating songs that we recorded on our record. It's like trying to give something personal to the kids that came to the show. And I hope... I like to think that they take something away with it. Otherwise... because if you just want to listen to songs, you might as well stay home and listen to the record, I think.

What do you guys do in your van to pass the time? What kind of music do you listen to, and are there any kind of games that go around, or pranks or anything like that?
Yeah, there are all kinds of pranks. You try not to fall asleep. We listen to a lot... we've got a TV in there; we watch a lot of movies. We listen to a ton of CDs, a ton of everything, full spectrum ya know? You can't stick to one type of music when you're driving around all day and all night long, it's just constant rotation.

What's the best movie you've seen recently?
Um... . Starship Troopers.

If your house was burning down, and you could only grab three CDs, what would you grab?
The new Bright Eyes record – The Story is in the Soil, I love that record. The Doors – Morrison Hotel, and Aesop Rock – Labor Days.

If you could be anyone for one day, who would you be?
I'd be me I think. Not to sound like a total asshole. No, I'm not full of myself at all. But, I'm content, and I don't need anything that I don't have.

Right on. If you could get rid of one band, who would you get rid of?
Oh, this could get me in trouble. Let's see... . fuck. I don't want to get in trouble here. I don't want to talk bad about any bands. Um... . how about Avril Lavigne? She can't come back to haunt me, can she?

I don't think so. I think she's pretty harmless. If you won the lottery, and had $1 million, what would you do with it?
I would put my nephew through college, and... what would I do? I'm so sorry, my brain is fried right now. I probably wouldn't use it though, to tell you the honest truth. I don't really need too much.

My last question is, what do you think about MP3's, and people sharing your music on the Internet?
I think that's cool. People say that it takes money out of the artist's pocket, so, I suppose when you're a big band on a major label, an established band, that maybe it hurts your record sales. But, when you're an up and coming band... it helped us so much before we had our record out, kids trading our music over the internet. It's cool because even now, our record label doesn't have very good distribution overseas, in foreign countries, and kids can download the record on the Internet. It makes it easier for underground artists to get exposure.

Right on. Well, speaking of underground artists, if you could just give some shout outs to some other Long Island bands that are up and coming, or bands that you've played with on tour, that would be awesome.
Long Island bands would be, Taking Back Sunday, Glassjaw, Reunion Show, The Movielife, On The Might of Princes... Long Island's awesome right now, there's so many good bands coming off of there.

What about... are there any smaller bands that you've played with on tour that pretty rad?
Well, A Static Lullaby is just coming up, their record is coming out soon. I think they're going to make a big impact. Avenged Sevenfold, they're not too small, they're pretty established, especially over here on the West Coast, but I think they're a great band, they're going to do some good things. Oh! Funeral For A Friend actually, they're not from over here, they're from England. We just played with them when we were over there, and they were really nice kids. I think they're gonna make some... they're gonna be good.

Alright thank you.
Thank you.

BW