Stereoboard Talk To Asking Alexandria Ahead Of Their Tour Show At Nottingham's Rock City (Interview)
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Written by Marcus Colley
Asking Alexandria are taking over, they've just returned from a gigantic US tour and kicked-off their UK tour on Friday 13th January in Ireland. Here I am in Rock City, Nottingham, while outside thousands of fans clad in the band's t-shirts squirm and chant, "Let us in", for more than an hour. Ahead of their show, Stereoboard speak to Ben Bruce, guitarist and songwriter. Topics include 'fucking metal' and 'metal'.
You just got back in the UK on Friday, how is it to be back?
I'm not too sure, I've lost track of time. I actually came back a little bit before the tour started so I could see my sister. But I think Friday the tour started, Ireland was the first place!
Is it awesome?
It's just amazing so far, it's unreal man. So hopefully tonight it will hold it's own with the rest of the tour. We've been looking forward to coming back to the UK for a very long time, it's been a very long time.
How are fans here different from the US?
The shows we play in the US are a lot bigger because we've been touring there a lot longer so we're more established. Due to the fact that we're here much less often than the states, when we come here I just feel the shows are just way more intense. People are just so much more into it simply because we're never here which is really nice. I prefer it that way.
Well you guys are all English aren't you?
Yeah exactly so we do miss home while we're away. America is just so big, it takes so much longer to tour around the states than it does the UK. But hopefully we'll be coming back more often and get more established around here.
You're latest album (Reckless and Relentless) was very good, do you know what the next single is going to be?
We've actually just shot the music videos for the next two singles which are 'Dear Insanity' and 'Reckless and Relentless'. And I think you're the first person that's going to here this but instead of releasing the two videos separately because one's a prequel to the 'To The Stage' video and one's a sequel. We're actually releasing all three of them as one long video as a short movie to tell the whole story. I'm pretty excited about that, it shouldn't be too long now hopefully, about two or three weeks.
When can we expect to see your third album?
I'm actually already writing it, I've started writing it. We're on tour so much.. because I write all the music obviously....
You write all the lyrics?
Danny writes on 'Stand Up and Scream' it was like 50/50, and then on 'Reckless and Relentless' it was like 60/40. On this new album Danny's taken the reigns basically for the lyrics, I'll still write some lyrics, give my ideas but I'm really concentrating really hard on the music making it as good as I possibly can because I write all the music as well so I've been sat locked away in a room for a few months now writing the next album but just with our schedule always on tour and they expect me to write an album I got sick of it so I actually bought a tour bus! Ripped it out completely and turned it into a recording studio and then when we're on tour obviously all the guys will sleep on the tour bus and then I've got my own bus that’s just a studio now so I can just be writing and recording all the time.
So you're a multi-instrumentalist, you can play drums, bass, guitar, piano?
Yeah, but James is obviously a much better drummer than I am, so I'll write the drum lines and stuff and then I'll take it to James and say, “OK, do what you do!” He'll play and change it and make it a lot better so yeah it's a long process but it's worth it. We're really spending a lot of time on it trying to surpass everything we've ever done before but hopefully it'll be worth it, fingers crossed.
So when do reckon, end of this year? Next year?
I'll be in the studio in April and we're looking at a August – September release for the album. I can't fucking wait, I'm stoked!
Is there anyone you're going to be collaborating with, or anyone you'd like to collaborate with in general?
We haven't decided yet, obviously our last album we've paid homage our fucking passion and love of the 80's. We've done that now and we want to still keep that in our new album, catchy sing-along choruses . Given what age we are, we're all between 20 and 23, we were hugely influenced by Slipknot and all the old nu-metal stuff like Limp Biskit so we're going to try and incorporate a little bit of nu-metal into it as well but not so much that it's completely changed our style. So we were thinking of maybe approaching Corey Taylor to do some tracks with us, hopefully Sid Wilson maybe do some turntable shit in it but we'll see. We're just going to try and push the fucking boundaries. Everyone wants their next album to be bigger and they tend to go softer because they think that’s the way to get bigger, more radio play, more mainstream. We're just sat there like fuck that man, Slipknot at one point in time were one of the biggest bands in the fucking world and they're heavy as fuck. So we're getting into the mindset of fuck you, going to do the heaviest shit ever. We're not going to sell out and become a mainstream piece of shit like a lot of bands do.
What process do you go through for song-writing?
It's pretty natural to me, I love writing. I write in a funny way though, I start with the drums, rather than having a guitar riff set and then doing everything to that which a lot of people do. I'll start with the drums because then even if it's like a rhythm on the drums it doesn't necessarily mean you can't rhythm over it. I could play chords, I could play a riff over it. There's so many different possibilities I could throw over a drum beat, I can mix and match and experiment to find something I like. So I'll start with the drums then I'll move on to the guitar then I'll normally move onto strings and synth and electronic sounds and then the vocals will come in. So it's a bit more weird touchy feely way of writing a song but it's just what sounds cool to me.
So are we likely to see more electro in the new album?
It's going to be there but its not going to be in the same way. If you remember Stand Up and Scream it was very like, “Oh we're heavy, we're heavy... STOP” and there'd be a synth break and then we'd go back into the heavy stuff. And then Reckless and Relentless it was still about but not as much, Closure probably had the biggest, it's great. But there's still a lot of electronic sounds and influences in there just in a different way. And then this album again, we're going to use a lot of electronics but it's going to be intertwined with the music rather than just straight metal and then hear the techno break and then metal again. We're trying to find a way to combine it.
What kind of advice would you give to anyone looking to break into the music industry?
Honestly, I've been in a million fucking bands obviously I started this band about 4 years ago but I've been in bands before that. I honestly think the hardest part is finding members that think the same as you. Some people say, “I'm not going to get to practice because I've got to study for school.” That's fair enough, that's completely fine but you need to find 5 members that all have the same dream, the same goal, the same passion and drive otherwise it's just never going to work. I was lucky to find all these guys because once we formed this everyone was like, “Fuck it, we're going to take the risk!” and we all dropped out of school. I'm not saying dropping out of school is a good idea, it was a huge huge risk. It paid off, and it may not always pay off for everyone but at least I found 4 other guys that had the same drive and passion and mentality, all willing to take that risk with me, I think that's really important because otherwise you start getting into arguments and missing shows.
Do you get nervous before performing?
Fuck no! No way, I love it, it's the best high ever dude. It's like if you've ever done coke or speed or ecstasy or anything like that, that all goes to shit, fuck that. The best high ever is walking out on that stage and seeing all those people love what you're doing.
Do you perform sober?
Yeah, I do it completely sober. I used to go out on stage fucked as a fucking fart mate, just... ruined and so did Danny obviously and we got that reputation of just being drunk. We woke up one day and thought, “This is our career, this is what we want to do forever” and sure this is sweet now but we'll die out soon because we won't sound as good as we can. So I don't touch a drop of alcohol before I go on stage, I don't drink until well after I'm done playing. Danny doesn't drink on tour at all any more and the other lads will maybe have one beer before they go on stage.
Can we expect to see you at any UK festivals this year?
I'm not too sure, I'm hoping we have time for it. That's something we're discussing with out booking agent at the moment, just trying to work it into our schedule. We've got a massive tour opportunity for the summer in America, just one that is one of our biggest influences, one of our favourite bands. I can't mention who it is yet, but you'll understand when we announce it, it's just stupid! We're trying to work in so that we can fly back and forth to hit some UK festivals and Europe festivals so we'll see see but hopefully. But if not then we definitely want to be back here towards the end of the year rather than just once a year we want to hit the UK twice.
Do you have a message for all the fans?
Well just thank you man! I just recently realised how fucking amazing my life is and the more I travel around the world and meet people who genuinely love what we're doing. I know every band says this but I'm pretty sure every other band can fuck themselves because they drop off the face of the earth. I genuinely think our fans have some sort of real relationship with us because we spend a lot of time talking with them and they talk back. I've seen so many Asking Alexandria tattoo's and so many people are supporting us through all our fucking shit times, all our hard times when we've been dickheads. Just people genuinely loving and supporting us through. Yeah I could never have dreamed, it was always my dream and I never imagined it would come true. So, yeah just a huge thank you. And hopefully they'll stick around.
Are there any rumours you'd like to clear up?
Ermm.............No.
I like all the rumours that are out there. They keep me giggling when I wake up in the morning. Me and Danny did an interview and he had a broken leg and the guy asked how he broke his leg. We told him that we'd had sex. Me and Danny had sex. And people genuinely believe it, they'll believe anything.
Thu January 19th 2012 - Cardiff University Students Union, Cardiff
Fri January 20th 2012 - Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton
Sat January 21st 2012 - HMV Forum, London
Sun January 22nd 2012 - O2 Academy Bristol, Bristol
Mon January 23rd 2012 - Portsmouth Pyramids, Portsmouth
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It's pretty natural to me, I love writing. I write in a funny way though, I start with the drums, rather than having a guitar riff set and then doing everything to that which a lot of people do. I'll start with the drums because then even if it's like a rhythm on the drums it doesn't necessarily mean you can't rhythm over it. I could play chords, I could play a riff over it. There's so many different possibilities I could throw over a drum beat, I can mix and match and experiment to find something I like. So I'll start with the drums then I'll move on to the guitar then I'll normally move onto strings and synth and electronic sounds and then the vocals will come in. So it's a bit more weird touchy feely way of writing a song but it's just what sounds cool to me. 
