Interview mit Comeback Kid (Oktober 2010)

 Hi Andrew, how are you doing?

Andrew: I´m doing good. Hope you are well…

You recently were on a promo tour in Germany. How exhausting was giving interviews all day long?

Andrew: I was in Germany a while back but I’m not in the US. COMEBACK KID has just did a tour with MADBALL in Canada and now we are with FOUR YEAR STRONG in America. I wasn’t really on a „promo tour“. CBK had just played a couple festivals in Germany and I came to Berlin with some friends to hang out, and I knew it would be a good opportunity to do some press, it wasn’t tiring at all. It was pretty fun.

At least, did you have the chance to see the sights of Berlin?

Andrew: Definitely! I got to know the city finally. Learn the train routes and check out some good places to eat. It was a great time, I can’t wait to come back.

Is travelling around and seeing the world a nice benefit to the musical career?

Andrew: It’s a huge benefit. I’m hungry to see more of the world and that is definitely the best part of being in the band. Travel, seeing new places, getting in the mix and meeting new people. It is amazing to get different vibes in every city that we play. I hope to be doing this for a long time to come.

Recently the fourth COMEBACK KID record „Symptoms + Cures“ was released in Europe. What can you tell us about the working process on the album?

Andrew: The writing process I would say took about 6-7 months. Jeremy or I would have song ideas. We would practice in Winnipeg, Canada for a month straight, then go on tour for 3 months, then come back and jam every day for 3 weeks, then go on tour for another couple months.
Demo, re-write, and think about the songs, then we got together one last time in Australia to practice for 2 weeks before a tour out there was about to start. Straight after the tour, we flew to Toronto, did a bit of pre-production and were in the studio for about 4 weeks. Left for another tour, then came back to Toronto to mix the album.

In my opinion „Symptoms + Cures“ is the perfect combination of the rough and gloomy sound of „Broadcasting…“ and the melodic catchyness of „Wake the Dead“. How would you describe the musical development over the last years?

Andrew: I would say that „Symptoms + Cures“ musically is a bit of a throwback to the „Wake the Dead” style, in the sense that the songs sonically have a brighter sound to them. It is more of a punk tinged hardcore album musically. The vocals are heavier, which is more my natural style but there is still a lot of melody hidden in the mix.
I used to play guitar when CBK first started so when I switched over to vocals on „Broadcasting…” I was trying to find the balance between making it sound like the same band after Scott our old singer left, and still doing my own thing. On „Symptoms…” I really just went full on doing my own thing, because the change in sound still seems congruent with what CBK has always been, and the concept stays true for the band since day one.

How have the reactions on the record been so far?

Andrew: It´s been awesome! And really fucking fun to play the new songs live. We have been practicing a bunch of them and rotating some new songs in the set. We usually play a few songs from every album.

To me the tone of the record seems to be more frustrated and aggressive. What are your lyrics dealing with? Are there any main topics?

Andrew: I would say the quite opposite. It is an honest record and a lot of realistic questions being asked, but to me it is a more fun sounding album. Though we really wanted this album to tear through the speakers more and have a more intense raw vibe to the album.

Lyrics talk about balance, where we are at in our lives getting older. One song is called „GM, Vincent and I”, and it´s about a van accident I was involved in while riding along with the band GRAVE MAKER. My friend Matt (M. Vincent) from my other band SIGHTS AND SOUNDS was in shotgun and he ended up stuck under the van for an hour and we had to wait for the fire trucks to come save him. It was one of the most real and frightening experiences of my life, and the song talks about how we should be gone after that van rolled down the hill but we are alive and still passing the same place where that happened. Time and time again.

 With your side project SIGHTS AND SOUNDS you explore more progressive sound spheres. Is this stylistic contrast helpful when it comes to widen the horizons for COMEBACK KID?

Andrew: I think it just allows me to be more focused when writing with CBK. I have a certain freedom to experiment a lot more with S&S and we really go all out doing that and get a little crazy with it. I want to put focus in a different direction with CBK. I want to keep on the same path that we have gone and expand on that. Try to do some interesting things with our brand of Hardcore. The separation is definitely good and I’m usually in a different headspace when going between the two bands, live and recording.

This fall you will tour Europe as a part of the „Never Say Die“-Tour. What do you think about those indoor festivals?

Andrew: It will be cool to play to a lot of new people and reach out to some people who have maybe never heard us before. We always have a great time in Europe and we’re gonna tear it up the same way we always do. It may be weird being the only Hardcore band on a metal tour but we’re on a pop punk tour now in America so same difference. We just do our thing and we kind of like the challenge of playing with different kinds of bands and in different kinds of scenarios.

Do you have plans for another headlining tour in Europe?

Andrew: Yes we plan to come to Europe and headline in April/ May.

What are your plans for the near future?

Andrew: „Never Say Die” in Europe straight from here, and then head to Australia. In 2011 we have US, Canada, Japan, and Europe tours lined up. We are really psyched to go down to South America with SICK OF IT ALL though!

Any last words you would like to spread?

Andrew: Thanks for the interview!
www.comeback-kid.com
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