EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH UNDEROATH BASSIST GRANT BRANDELL
MetalSucks recently had the opportunity to have an all-too-brief chat with Underoath bassist Grant Brandell at the Rockstar Mayhem Festival’s stop at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. Brandell had some interesting things to say about the tour, hanging out with other bands at the fest, and the band’s plans for the future. Check out the full transcript after the jump, then read David Bee Roth’s review of Underoath’s new album, Lost in the Sound of Separation, which was released earlier this week!
Did you see Ladder Up an Ass?
It’s pretty ridiculous, huh?
“Ridiculous” isn’t the word for it.
I thought that they had the potential to make it bad but good, but they just went straight for bad. It was bad on top of bad. It was cool.
So how is the tour going?
It’s been awesome. It’s been really good, very unexpectedly. I thought it would be a good tour, obviously with big bands and big crowds. The people on tour have been really cool and everyone has been super chill. It’s really fun. It’s kind of like the Warped Tour. The Warped Tour is like five times as many bands and people on it. So the fact that this is still a really big show but low key with people on the tour, you get a chance to just hang more and become friends.
You guys have your night when you are in charge of the barbecue yet?
No, [in] Chicago.
Chicago?
Big plans. We got some big plans going on. I’m not going to say it’s going to be the best one because I don’t want to put that out there, but…
You’d be the first band that didn’t say that their night was going to be the best.
Really?
Mastodon said that tonight’s going to be the best because it’s their night. Every band said their night is going to be the best, except for Airbourne who said 36 Crazyfists’ night was by far the best.
Really? It’ll be cool. I don’t want to give it away. There are things that are going to go down, hopefully. We’re more of an activity kind of a band. It won’t be just drinking and talking, we’ll be doing stuff.
Got it. So you were talking about doing big shows like these. As a performer do you approach it differently than you would a smaller gig or is every show kind of the same mindset?
The only thing we’ve ever approached differently is you have a shorter set time, and obviously we’re not playing to the same kids in the same crowds like a Warped Tour or something like that. It’s a metal crowd, so you kind of put your heavier songs in there, which for us is awesome. It’s a thirty minute power set with all our most heavy and brutal songs. It’s high impact, which is what we love to play anyway. So it works out awesome. That’s about the only difference. It’s not like anything extreme where you would say anything different. Not for us at least.
So what’s next for you guys after that? You got a couple of more weeks on this.
We got about two more weeks on this, and then we’re doing our first show in Mexico City right after this. We’re doing a CD release show in New York City at Irving Plaza. Then we start a world tour right after that: Europe, South Africa – we’ve never played there before so it should be cool – Australia, Hawaii, and then we come back home for a week and we start a full U.S. headliner in the fall.
That’s exciting, man.
Yeah, so it’s going to be busy. I think we get back around Thanksgiving and then in December we’re going to Central and South America for like ten days.
Cool.
It’s going to be a busy rest of the year, but it’s going to be good.
-AR & VN
