Last week in Santa Barbara, The Interrupters kicked off a lengthy US headlining tour — their first — that’ll keep them on the road for a total of seven-and-a-half weeks. This comes on the heels of the California-based four piece releasing their sophomore album, Say It Out Loud, earlier this summer; an album that, if you haven’t heard it, you should make sure you check out before you finish that “Best of 2016” list. The band have breathed new life — infectiously fun life — into a scene that had become a bit stale by injecting a lock-tight brand of ska-punk that hasn’t been played this well in a decade-and-a-half.
Dying Scene caught up with Aimee “Interrupter” Allen and Kevin Bivona, the frontwoman and guitar player respectively, for an engaging conversation a couple days prior to leaving for tour. If you’re even peripherally familiar with The Interrupters body of work, you’re no doubt familiar with how prevalent the themes of family and unity are in their work. Look no further than tracks like “Family” and “A Friend Like Me” from their self-titled debut album or “By My Side,” the lead single from Say It Out Loud, for first-hand proof of that.
It doesn’t take much in the way of conversation with any of the band members to realize just how genuine those themes are. When Aimee joined up with the three Bivona brothers (twins Justin and Jesse man the bass and drums, respectively), to form the band, what could have been a tricky-to-navigate situation felt, in fact, pretty natural. “Kevin and I had already been writing music together for a year when the twins came in,” says Aimee, before confirming that the twins do, in fact, seem to have their own language (which is fairly apparent if you’ve had conversations with the two): “the twins definitely have their own communication and chemistry far beyond anything you can imagine and are pretty much a single unit when it comes to the drums and bass.”
The hard work that the band spent on the road, particularly over the last year, paid off when it came time to record the follow-up to the self-titled debut. Say It Out Loud is more cohesive, more energetic and more instantly enjoyable than even their first album was. “I think that just playing together live, going out there and playing songs and just being together and figuring out who we are as a band really helped us have a really strong foundation of what we were about,” says Allen. The infectious, high-energy feel is by design, continues Bivona, as the band used the input gained from crowd reactions at their live performances as a barometer when it came time to fine-tune tracks for Say It Out Loud. “With the second record, we would always be like “let’s try this background vocal” or “it would be great if we could get the crowd to sing this with us.” Just trying to keep it high-energy and fun.”
As you’re no doubt aware, the band holed up in the studio with Tim Armstrong (as Allen calls him the Fifth Interrupter) and made the most of what, in hindsight, seems a very brief amount of time to piece the new album together. “Top to bottom, we only spent like maybe six days (recording the music for Say It Out Loud),” explains Bivona, eventually sounding amazed at his own words. “We did vocals over the course of the next two weeks maybe, including background vocals. And we mixed in a month. When I say it out loud, it seems like a long time, but it wasn’t that long in terms of the actual hours put in!”
Armstrong not only lent his professional expertise to the process, inspiring life and impromtu jam sessions when ideas seemed to have become stagnant, but he was also the consummate professional when it came time to take advice from the band. Armstrong contributes vocals to the Say It Out Loud track “Phantom City,” a bit of a darker, mysteriously gritty sound than has been the band’s proverbial bread-and-butter. “Once it comes down to him singing on an Interrupters song,” says Bivona of the inimitable Armstrong, “he is totally willing to take as much input from us as we’re willing to give. Obviously, when Tim’s going to sing on one of your songs, you’re like “dude, do whatever you want!” But he’ll be like “lyrically, what do you think of how I’m doing it?” He wants it to be good and he wants us to be happy in the end.”
Armstrong’s involvement with the band has not only sparked a slew of “what’s it like to work with Tim” questions from reporters and fans not unlike myself, but has spawned a fairly noticeable number of people who write the band off as a project, or, as a follow up to the similarly composed Distillers of the late 1990s. Whether the band is mindful of that feedback (unfair feedback, in this writer’s opinion) depends on when you asked them about it. “I think that when we started out we paid more attention to it,” starts Bivona, before Allen quickly adds that she is not one to pay attention to the commentary. “I don’t know what the fuck anyone is saying about us, good or bad. I read the articles about us, but I don’t look at comments.” Instead, the band focus their energy on their family, which includes their ever-growing fanbase, seeking to keep the energy and the audience participation at live shows high, creating an immensely enjoyable experience for all parties involved.
As should be fairly apparent, it’s not just four (five??) Interrupters that compose the band’s family. Guest appearances abound in the band’s videos (see above), on its albums and at live shows. Less Than Jake, for example, appear almost in their entirety on a track on the new album, the by-product of a seemingly chance four-hour jam session inspired by last year’s It’s Not Dead Fest. As Bivona tells it, “Less Than Jake was staying at a hotel literally a mile-and-a-half away from our house and we were working on the record. I hung out with a couple of the guys the night before, and I said “hey, do you think we can put something together and maybe have you guys come over and give a listen and see if you like it?” And next thing you know, they’re all at our house, and we worked on “You’re Gonna Find A Way Out” all in a night’s work.”
The band also lent their skills to the upcoming full-length from Washington-based street punk band Noi!se, specifically on “The War Inside,” a heart-breaker of a song that tackles the all-too-real issue of soldiers returning home from foreign battlefields only to be faced with a much scarier and more prolonged war of their own: PTSD. While Allen herself is not a former soldier, the issue of PTSD is still all-too real, and lead to perhaps her most haunting vocal duties to date. “I have PTSD, so I get it,” says Allen rather matter-of-factly. “I have all the love in the world for the United States military. Twenty-two soldiers kill themselves every day, and we’ve got to do something. Anything, really. We’ve got to help stop this shit, and the only tool that we have…or that I have…is music!”
The Interrupters tour kicked off last week in Santa Barbara and runs through November 26th in San Diego. Head here for the full rundown to see where you can catch them! In the meantime, check out our full three-person Q&A session below!
Editor’s note: We pick up the action part of the way through a conversation about the upcoming tour’s November 1st stop in Boston…
Kevin Bivona: I don’t know if you saw what’s going, but that’s a stacked lineup. There’s Mickey Rickshaw, who are a really rad punk band and the Doped Up Dollies, which is Big D’s side project. Then Bad Cop/Bad Cop and us. That’s one I’m really looking forward to.
Aimee Allen: That’s gonna be a barnburner.
Dying Scene (Jay Stone): I didn’t know about the local openers. I only knew about you guys and Bad Cop/Bad Cop and that’s an awesome tour in and of itself.
K: I know, right? Have you seen the Doped Up Dollies before?
No, I just missed them recently. I did just see Mickey Rickshaw for the first time, though. Those guys are insane.
K: Yeah, they’re a really good band. I don’t know what we were thinking putting all of these amazing bands before us. We’re going to have to follow all that!
Oh, I think you guys will do quite alright for yourselves. Thanks for taking some time out to talk about the new album and the tour and all that stuff. It’s been a long time coming.
K: Oh, thanks for having us!
A: We love Dying Scene. And I’m so glad we got to meet in person.
Yeah, and it was totally random too. Thank god for me having to charge my phone (after your set) I guess. Anyway, congrats on the new album; congrats on Say It Out Loud. I try to seek out people that I really like and respect about to talk to about music, and I keep saying to people that your album is one of my favorite albums of the year. It really really is one of my absolute favorites.
A: Awe, thank you so much!
It hasn’t left the CD player in my car — I still drive an old car so I use CDs — but I don’t think I’ve taken it out of the six-disc changer in my car for like three months. So congratulations.
K: Thanks!
I liked the first album a lot, and this one seems a couple of steps above the first album in a lot of levels. Were you guys mindful at all of a sophomore slump or trying not to just duplicate what you had already done?
A: Those thoughts crossed our minds, of course.
K: Yeah, for sure. The good thing is, they say you have your whole life to write your first album, and then you only have the time between your first album and your second album to write that next one. But we actually had a lot of time to write because Epitaph isn’t one of those labels that says “your first album cycle is done, you better have the second one out at this time.” It was really up to us. We came to them when we were ready. We came to Tim (Armstrong), played him the songs. He’s like “I like the songs, let’s write some more.” Then we we wrote some more with him in the studio. We had everything kind of ready to go. It wasn’t until we finished — and this is speaking for myself — that I thought it was better than the first album. I was worried the whole time, personally. But I think that once we finished it and it started to take shape and we put the songs in order, that’s when I kinda knew.
A: And also, I think that just playing together live, going out there and playing songs and just being together and figuring out who we are as a band really helped us have a really strong foundation of what we were about. So when we hit that second record, we knew how we worked together, we know how it is on stage and what we like.
K: And to add to that, the conversation that we didn’t have on the first record but we did have on the second record was “how is this going to translate live?” With the first record, we weren’t concerned with that at all. With the second record, we would always be like “let’s try this background vocal” or “it would be great if we could get the crowd to sing this with us.” Just trying to keep it high-energy and fun.
A: We paid attention to what it was like live more, because our fans have things they really love.
K: Yeah, you can kinda see what the crowd response is, so we had a couple years to really figure all that out. That just kinda helped with the whole recording process.
A: And developing as a band, with each other.
K: Yeah, definitely.
Do you feel like in some ways, I don’t want to say that it’s more of an “Interrupters” album necessarily because it’s not radically different from the first album; you didn’t make an acoustic folk album this time out– but do you feel like because of the way it came together that it is more of a truly “Interrupters” album than the first one was?
K: I think with that theory, every album will be an Interrupters album (*all laugh*). It touches upon more subjects. It’s definitely longer and has more songs. (*all laugh*)
A: We didn’t overthink that first record at all. We went in the studio for like, what, a week?
K: Yeah, the first record was pretty much just our first two 7-inches plus 5 songs. With this one, we definitely went in to write a record. We wanted to make it as cohesive as possible.
So how long did that take? Were you writing on the road while you were out or was most of it specifically from writing sessions?
K: A little bit of writing on the road, and then in between tours, we have a studio in our house and we would demo songs and send them to Tim to see what he thinks. It got to the point where we had a good amount of songs, but we didn’t have that much time to record. So it was in between our touring last summer and then our European tour in August, we went in the studio for like five days, which was all the time we had, and we just did as much as possible. Then we went on tour in Europe and came back and went back in the studio for one day because we had written a couple songs, and we figured out what was the best of the best. So top to bottom, we only spent like maybe six days. We did vocals over the course of the next two weeks maybe, including background vocals. And we mixed in a month. When I say it out loud, it seems like a long time, but it wasn’t that long in terms of the actual hours put in.
Do you have anything, any songs, that you’re most proud of from the album? There’s a few songs that are curveballs compared to the self-titled album. “Phantom City” is one that’s a little bit different… Or is there one that you wrote and thought “damn, that’s that really good one”?
K: For me, I like “The Valley.” When I wrote that one, or came up with the idea, I didn’t think it was good enough to be an Interrupters song. But then I played for Aimee and we worked on it some more and we made it into an Interrupters song. It was really exciting for me to get to talk about the area where I grew up.
A: And then Kevin presented that to Tim…
K: Oh yeah, and I sang it too! It was going to be the first song that I sang. I played it for Tim…
A: And Tim was like “noooope!” (*all laugh*)
K: Being the amazing producer that he is, Tim said “yeah, that’s good…but Aimee has to sing it.” He saved me from myself.
A: I tried to talk both of them out of that…
K: Yeah, but it was the right move.
So does that mean that on the third album, we’re going to have a Kevin song? I feel like that has to be a thing now.
A: I hope so. I’m always pushing for it.
K: You know what? A Japanese bonus track on this album has me doing half a verse.
A: I love that song.
K: It’s a song called “For No One.” We did two bonus tracks for the Japanese version, “Judgement Day” and “For No One.” We didn’t actually specifically do them for that release, they were two extra ones that didn’t make the final release, but they always ask for more tracks. But one day, yeah, maybe I’ll sing something. Maybe I’ll just make a solo record! (*all laugh*)
A: I love your voice!
K: What song are you most proud of, Aimee?
A: I like “The Valley.” I like “Good Things” a lot. But that’s such a fricking hard question for me to answer.
I know, and it’s such a terrible question to ask, really. It’s such a basic journalisty question, but I do get curious.
A: In thinking about it …each one I love for different reasons. And I know that’s such a standard interviewee answer, but it’s true! I love each one for their own reason because we worked so hard on each one. I’m proud of the whole record. “She Got Arrested”…”Good Things..” “By MY Side”… And I love “Phantom City”
Yeah, that song stuck out because it’s got such a dark and mysterious feel to it.
K: Yeah, that was one that definitely was borne of a jam in the studio. Sometimes you write songs and you bring them in and really get to work on them, and then after a while you lose the vibe. That was one of the cool things about working with Tim. If we ever lost the vibes, he’d be like “hey, let’s just go in and jam for a bit and make something up new.” Like hitting the reset button. That was one that was borne from that. He started singing that chorus and we were like “alright, this is going to be the one you sing on the record because…”
A: “…Because it sounds so cool!” A few of the songs on the record came from just getting in the room and playing and jamming and freestyling lyrics. Improvising until it became something and we could just put the lyrics over it, you know?
I was curious about how the Tim thing comes about, when it’s time for him to give input on a song that he wants to sing on. Do you guys go to him and say “hey, we’ve got this hook that we want you to sing?” Or is it up to him to say “yeah, that’s the one that I want”?
K: Well the cool thing is, and not just for songs that he sings on but working with him in general, that we always kinda reach a consensus. Even if we don’t agree on something in an early stage, it always ends up in a place where we all agree. It kinda happens organically in a way. Once it comes down to him singing on an Interrupters song, he is totally willing to take as much input from us as we’re willing to give. Obviously, when Tim’s going to sing on one of your songs, you’re like “dude, do whatever you want!” (*all laugh*) But he’ll be like “lyrically, what do you think of how I’m doing it?” He wants it to be good and he wants us to be happy in the end. But yeah, it’s definitely a big, collaborative thing.
A: He’s like the fifth Interrupter. He’s just like any other member of the band.
This is going to probably sound dickish, and I don’t mean for it to, but in what percent of interviews that you do does “the Tim Armstrong question” like second or third out of the gate?
K: Every single one! (*all laugh*) Sometimes it’ll be real bland, like “what’s it like working with Tim?” If you’re going to ask me that, I’m going to give you the same answer I give to everyone. But you asked a specific question about him singing on a track and I appreciate that.
(People should know that) you guys had known him for years before the Interrupters…You guys had all had other bands and had some modicum of success in other projects. What is it about The Interrupters that feels different or that when it all came together, it felt different or it felt like another level?
K: Speaking for myself, growing up and playing in bands, I feel like every mistake I made in every other band i was in, I didn’t want to make in this band. At the end of the day, I wanted to come up with a project that would be fun to play live, fun to plan for, fun to tour with, and to do it with people I really love. I think we’ve achieved that. And I think I can now speak for the whole band when I say that we have done a lot of different things, and with this one, it’s a really fun place that we’ve all kinda ended up finding ourselves in.
How mindful are you guys of some of the criticism…of the people (on message boards or wherever) that hate on the Interrupters simply because of the Tim Armstrong connection or view you as The Distillers – Part Two or whatever? Do you pay attention to that shit?
K: I think that when we started out we paid more attention to it.
A: I don’t look at comments and stuff. I don’t know what the fuck anyone is saying about us, good or bad. I read the articles about us, but I don’t look at comments.
Which is probably good as a general rule in everything.
K: You don’t want that stuff to seep into your head when you’re trying to be creative. That’s the worst part about it, and I think that a lot of people, no matter what kind of creative block of life you’re in,whether you’re an actor or musician or whatever, if you start to believe those things, it’s going to affect the way you work and you’re going to end up losing the thing that people liked about you in the first place. So we try not to do that.
So that “what are people going to say” thing isn’t something you’re mindful of at this point? You guys are pretty much writing and doing what you guys want to do.
A: No, that stuff will kill you.
K: We will say stuff like “oh, this is going to be perfect!” or “our fans are going to love this!”
A: So we concentrate on it in a more positive way.
Speaking of your fans, when does tour kickoff?
K: We leave next Wednesday! We start at home in Southern California, and we’re on the road until just after Thanksgiving, so we’re trying to get all of our ducks in a row right now.
Is this considered a co-headlining tour with Bad Cop/BadCop, or are you headlining the whole run?
K: It’s our first headlining tour and we reached out to Bad Cop/Bad Cop to see if they wanted to come with us and they were stoked. They’re our main support, and we couldn’t be happier to have them.
A: We’re fans or theirs too, so it’s going to be really fun!
Yeah, they’re such a rad band. You guys have all obviously toured a lot, and you just did the Warped Tour and you’ve done Europe a few times. Is there a different level of nervousness or anxiety about the first headlining tour? Like now it’s all on you guys?
K: There is now! (*all laugh*) We’ve done it a lot in Europe. This is our first time in the States, and we’re stoked to be able to go out on our own. We’ve never played a lot of these cities in terms of a full headline set. Usually we’re out there playing thirty or forty minutes, so this will be really cool, and we get to pretty much play both of our albums! (*all laugh*)
You guys have had some pretty cool guests on the albums so far…the Less Than Jake guys are on the new album, obviously. Are you going to try to bring your buddies out to do a song with you?
K: Oh man, it’s always awesome when we can do that. You were at the Boston show when Dave McWane came out, right?
Yeah, that was pretty rad!
K: Any time we can do that without asking too much of any one person we try to make it work out.
How did the Less Than Jake thing come about for the new album? Did they just happen to be in town while you recording or had you been working on that for a while?
K: We did the It’s Not Dead Fest last year, and Less Than Jake was staying at a hotel literally a mile-and-a-half away from our house and we were working on the record. I hung out with a couple of the guys the night before, and I said “hey, do you think we can put something together and maybe have you guys come over and give a listen and see if you like it?” And next thing you know, they’re all at our house, and we worked on “You’re Gonna Find A Way Out” all in a night’s work. They were probably over here for about four hours.
Really? That’s pretty impressive, actually.
K: Yeah, they’re a professional band.
Well, yeah, they’ve only been at it a couple weeks now…You guys also do some guiest work with your friends too. I’ve had the privilege of hearing the new Noi!se album…
K: Oh nice!
…and I can’t tell you how much I like the song, Aimee, that you did vocals on. I sorta forget that people haven’t heard it yet so they’re not going to get this discussion yet…
A: It’s awesome that you say that. I’ve only heard it once…
K: And I don’t even know if it was a final version that we heard…
A: Yeah. But I’m really excited. I’d love to hear it a couple times in a row!
I think that album is really good, it’s a big step forward. But then that song came on and it’s a total different feel from anything they’ve really done. Matt had told me that you guys had helped out with a song, and just from the first few notes I had it pegged that that was the one…
K: That was really cool for him to ask us to be involved with that, and the song itself, the subject matter…I’m really proud to be a part of that.
A: Yeah, definitely proud to be part of it.
And really, you nailed it. I know that he specifically wrote the song about people returning from war having PTSD, but Aimee, you totally nailed it. I can’t say enough good things about that song in particular.
A: Oh my god, thank you so much. I mean, I have PTSD, so I get it. I have all the love in the world for the United States military. Twenty-two soldiers kill themselves every day, and we’ve got to do something. Anything, really. We’ve got to help stop this shit, and the only tool that we have…or that I have…is music. I don’t know how else to do stuff! (*all laugh*)
I hope people hear it sooner rather than later, and I hope they pay attention. How did hooking up with Matt and the Noi!se guys come about? You’re not two bands that I’d have necessarily put together.
K: We first met when they opened for Rancid when Rancid was doing their 20th anniversary and Cock Sparrer was doing their 40th anniversary. Noi!se opened up the show at the Warfield. This was back in 2012, and we had just started The Interrupters and we were shooting the video for “Friend Like Me” at that time, and I remember Tim pulled Matt aside and said that he was working with this ska band. And Matt’s pretty funny and he’s really dry, and he said “I don’t like ska…the vocals get in the way.” And Tim’s like “well, listen to this band.” And Matt said that honestly the vocals is what did it for him. And we just stayed in touch through the years.
A: I didn’t know that story. I learned something too! That’s really nice!
K: Yeah! So we stayed in touch and we went on tour with Rancid and The Transplants. They opened the Seattle show one night and we opened it one night. We went to their night and they came to our night. And every time we go up to the Seattle / Tacoma area, some member of Noi!se will come down to the show.
A: Yeah, they’re a family too.
The Bivona boys obviously have a long history of working together and playing together. Was that a difficult dynamic to get used to, being the only non-Bivona brother in the group? How long did it take before you felt like you were on equal footing when it came to decisions about songwriting and arranging and things like that?
A: It was really easy. Kevin and I had already been writing music together for a year when the twins came in. The twins definitely have their own communication and chemistry far beyond anything you can imagine and are pretty much a single unit when it comes to the drums and bass. As far as the lyrics , melodies, and chords, it’s different depending on the song. Sometimes, Kevin and I come up with the songs and then bring them to the table with the twins and Tim when we get in the studio to record. Other times, we all just play and free style jam and see what comes out of it. It’s a really fun collaborative process, and it feels like we are only getting better at it!