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Alexisonfire Is Still Burning Hot
August 20, 2009
(bum) - Within its first week on the music shelves, Old Crows/Young Cardinals, the fourth album by post-hardcore quintet Alixisonfire, placed at number two on the Top 200 Soundscan chart. It was beaten by the new Black Eyed Peas album by only 1500 units. For their new album, members of the St. Catharines, Ontario group returned to producer Nick Blagona (Cat Stevens, The Bee Gees), who engineered their hit 2006 album, Crisis. BE! Interactive interviewed guitarist Dallas Green during the 2009 Vans Warped Tour, which is still going on.
Thanks to Old Crows/Young Cardinals, you have certified quadruple gold in Canada. Are you astounded by your success or are you getting used to it?
I think we’re still surprised. The fact that people are still behind us is a nice surprise. Maybe we’ve lost some people on the way, but it seems that we’ve gained people with every release. It’s great!
You recently signed a contract with Roadrunner Records in the United Kingdom. What was your first reaction when you heard the good news?
Oh, we’ve just been looking for a new label, I guess, to sort of like help us try to move forward in the UK and in Europe. Roadrunner was just very interested, and they just seemed very excited about the record and about the band. It’s always nice to have a label that seems interested!
If you had to define your fourth album Old Crows/Young Cardinals in one sentence, what would it be?
I guess it would just be, “It’s different but it’s still Alexisonfire.” We just always try to make a different record. We just don’t want to repeat ourselves. That’s all. We never really try to say, “OK, let’s do this so it will be different,” or, “let’s do that,” but we know that we’ll probably do something different for every album, even though we’re going on the 18th record.
Which one of your songs do you really love?
I still don’t have a favourite song yet. Well, I really like the song Midnight Regulations, which is number 7 on our record Old Crows/Young Cardinals. I just really like the groove of it, and I really like the singing on it. It just makes sense to me. But as I said, I really like the whole record.
For the first time, you had too many songs to put on the album. Did it break your heart to push aside some songs?
No… I mean, it’s okay. We had a whole bunch of songs, and we picked the best ones for the record. We released B sides on a bonus version of the record, and I’m sure we’ll try to rework the other ones and they’ll make it into the next record.
Would you like to add something about Old Crows/Young Cardinals?
Well, if you’re looking for something good and a little bit different, then pick it up. And if not, then don’t worry.
You’re touring with a billion artists on the Vans Warped Tour. Have you met any other performers that you now call your friends and that you would love to work with?
Yeah, we’re friends with this band called Gallows who are from England. There’s also this really good rapper called P.O.S. on the tour. We’ve become friends with them. We also have old friends on tour, so that’s a good thing. I’m sure we’ll tour with them again, but I don’t know about collaboration. We’ll have to see where that goes.
Did something odd or funny happen on the road?
There’ve been things here and there, but nothing too funny yet. Well, we’ve just kind of been playing in the parking lot everyday. It’s sort of like… we gotta wake up here in the parking lot, and then you go and play outside. Today we woke up and it was pouring rain, but we just have to go and play. It’s just the way it goes. But mostly, it’s just been sort of a standard tour.
At the end of August, you are going to perform at the Reading and Leeds Festivals in the UK, alongside Kings of Leon and Kaiser Chiefs. What would you like to say to those bands?
I don’t even know if we’ll actually even get to meet them, but we’re definitely playing along with them. You know, sometimes those big bands don’t like to walk around the venues with the little bands. I probably would just say, “Hello, nice to meet you. How are you? How’s your day going?” I’m not really a huge fan of any of those bands, so I don’t think I would be too starstruck or anything like that.
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Alexisonfire is currently performing as part of the Vans Warped Tour in the United States. On September 5, the fivesome will be giving a concert at the Sonic Boom Modern Rock Festival in Edmonton, and then they will be doing several international shows. To listen to songs by the group, click here.
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