The Alternative Star.com

Underoath

During their current Canadian tour with Norma Jean and Innerpartysystem, I had the chance to sit down with Underoath guitarist James Smith and discuss video games, P.O.S, Warped Tour and lots more. Special thanks go out to their tour manager Brent as well as Ron Harding for making this possible!

Underoath is a band from the States that always makes sure to put Canada on their touring schedule. What do you guys like most about touring here?

Smith: Not the weather! (Laughs) The shows here are just always great and the kids here always seem a little extra stoked, since shows don’t really come here all that often. It’s totally fun to play for kids who just want to see a good show. Yeah, we’ve never had a bad time here!

Is there anything you look forward to when you make the trip up here?

I don’t know, I was actually just thinking about that the other day. I’m a big food guy and I’m trying to think of what is the traditional Canadian food item but I have no idea.  The Corn Pops here are pretty good though, a little different from back home. Pita Pit is better here than in the States, in the States it sucks pretty bad.

You’ll be playing the Warped Tour again this summer. Do you have any favourite memories of playing that tour in the past?

It’s just a good time! We just hang out with all these bands at once so all your friends are on tour together. You sit in lawn chairs and enjoy the nice warm weather and the shows are always good. They’re easy; they’re 30 minutes so you’re in and out. There’s just so much going on and it’s fun to be a part of.

Are there any bands you’re looking forward to this year?

I haven’t heard the full line up yet but I heard Thrice is on it and they’re really good live. I think Flogging Molly might be on it, I like them too!

Also recently the band has traveled to some more exotic places like South America. Do you ever get to do anything touristy?

Yeah, but not really in South America. Most of the places were more dangerous so they weren’t too keen on the idea of us taking off and going wandering. In Australia though, we had a couple of days off where we went to a couple of different beaches the city areas. In New Zealand, we were taken to places where you could jump off cliffs. Whenever there is the opportunity, we try and do something.

Your single “Desperate Times, Desperate Measures” is on Madden NFL and Rock Band. Was that a big deal for you guys?

I was really excited, we had a song on Madden once before and I was really pumped on that so to have it again is double awesome. And this time, like with the first one, I got the game and I started playing it looking for the song. I went into songs and preferences and stuff and it was turned off! You had to manually turn it on but this time around it was actually on so I was pretty pumped on that! With the Rock Band song it’s a free Internet download thing so it wasn’t as good as being on the regular game. Kids who like Underoath have to go off and download it themselves but it’s still cool. We actually tried to play it once but I failed.

You aren’t good at that game?

No, not at all! (Laughs) I play Halo because all the other guys play it so I got into it too. I play baseball; I have a PSP that I play baseball on. I just really like the sports games; I’m not really a fan of the fantasy games.

Underoath released a few different versions of Lost in the Sound of Separation. Which one is your favourite and how did you come up with the concept for it?

As fans of music, we like getting the extra bonus things, like limited edition kind of stuff so for the people that like our band and are into that, we wanted to give them something. The deluxe super immaculate edition, I don’t know what you call it, but that’s my favourite. It was just really cool for us to have a canvas box set with vinyl, DVD, CD, actual hardbound book with pictures of the recording process and all that stuff.

Going back further, I remembered reading all about the Septembeard contest you guys had.

Yeah! The people at our own label came up with it, since Tim always has a beard. They thought it would be fun for people to grow up beards and we went along with it so it’s all cool. I did participate but I can’t grow facial hair! (Laughs)

Something else a bit older. Back in August MTV did an interview with Demi Lovato, have you heard about it?

No. Never.

From what I understand, she’s a part of that whole Disney High School Musical/Jonas Brothers franchise. She said that she liked metal and if she could collaborate with any band, it would be Underoath.

Oh yeah? I really don’t know what I think of that. I don’t really think we do anything Disney channel friendly. But honestly, I have no idea what to say.

Fair enough. It also leads into my next question. Who would you personally like to collaborate with?

Actually there’s a rapper from Minneapolis by the name of P.O.S. He is supposed to remix some of our stuff and do his thing on it and I’m really excited to hear that!

Cool! Do you know when that will be released?

We don’t know. It was meant to be done awhile ago but everyone is so busy doing their own thing.

Underoath is a band that has had some time tough times but you guys pulled through. What advice would you give younger band in the same sort of situation you were in?

Just to take friendship first, not anything else. You have to be friends with everyone in the band first then it will work out. Always take your friendship first and take your time to work through that because it is more important.

Which song of yours do you think best represents what Underoath is about?

I think for me, my favourite song is track 4 on the new record, “Emergency Broadcast : The End is Near” I believe is the correct title. I just think it’s the best song we wrote as a band, we wrote it all together.

Lastly, how did it all start for you? What made you pick up the guitar?

When I was in seventh grade. I was a big Nirvana fan at the time and wanted to play Nirvana songs. One of my friends knew how to play guitar and it went from there. I just really enjoyed it!

What was your first show?

The first scene show I went to was a band called Five Iron Frenzy from Colorado. Me and our bass player Grant, we went together.

Interview by: Deborah Remus

Check out a review of the show here!