Post by Heather on Mar 11, 2011 13:41:10 GMT -5
VMusic Interviews Cone
Sum 41 bassist Jason "Cone" McCaslin talks about the band's heavier new direction, not sticking to new year's resolutions and getting back on the road.
Your new single 'Screaming Bloody Murder' has a harder edge to it than your previous work, is it representative of the upcoming album?
Yeah, pretty much. The new album's a bit more intense and dark and heavy than some of the stuff we've done in the past. So yeah, this single's pretty reminiscent of the record.
What inspired the new direction?
I think it's just not wanting to re-record things we've done in the past. Album to album, we've always done something different. It's also a lot of listening to what fans want. Now that we've done the whole garage music thing - we've done tons of different styles of music - you talk to your fans and find out what they want to hear. And we just naturally wanted to go a little heavier as well, so it was kind of 'oh well, this is obviously what we're gonna do now'. All of the fans that are still around, that come to our shows, they love the heavier side of us.
You guys seem to be pretty interactive with your fans, posting videos and blogs online.
I think you have to be nowadays. That's just the way everything is now. When we were starting out, the internet wasn't a big thing for a band. I remember making our own website, but no-one ever went on it so we never updated it much. But now, with music stations like MTV not playing videos, you can control that yourself and make videos that aren't censored. There's a whole bunch of stuff you can do now. I think it's opened the door for you to be able to do whatever you want really.
So you find the internet gives bands more freedom?
Yeah, it's just a necessary thing nowadays. If you're in band, you have to be doing stuff online. That's how you promote your band now.
Do you go online to read what people are saying about you and your music?
I try not to read comments too much because you don't want to let it get to your head. If people are saying "Oh it sucks, blah, blah, blah..." or "I wish they did this..." or even the other way, if people are saying how awesome it is. They can say whatever they want to say, but I don't like to look. It's the same with music reviews for me. I don't really like to read them either.
You don't want to try to live up to a reviewer's standards?
Exactly. And in the end it's one person's opinion. Whether they love it or hate it, it's still just one person's opinion.
One of the videos you posted on your site is about the band's new year's resolutions, which were inspired by a letter you received from your management, suggesting you break less stuff, drink less, wake up earlier and eat better. How are you doing with these resolutions so far?
I don't think any of us have been keeping those resolutions! That was actually really funny when it all went down, I don't know where that letter came from!
Do you often get given rules like that?
No. Actually they're our new management. This is the first album we've worked with them on, so we shall see. They seem great so I don't know where that letter came from!
Speaking of new things, you have a new guitarist, Tom Thacker. Is he a permanent fixture in the band?
Yeah. He was our tour guitarist from the last album, around 2007. He's the lead singer of a Canadian band called Gob, and we've known him since, I guess, 1998, when we opened for Gob. When Dave quit the band we had try-outs for guitar players and we asked him to come, because he's also a singer and he's a great guitar player. It's just a really good fit. Actually, he co-wrote the first single with Deryck, 'Screaming Bloody Murder'.
So he has a lot of input in the band?
Yeah. He didn't actually play guitar on the album, but he co-wrote the first single. He had that lying around and he was like, "Hey, I have some music here," and he sent it over and we were like "wow, it's amazing". Then Deryck wrote the melody and the lyrics for it.
You started working on this new album a while ago now, in 2009, right?
Um, we started pre-production in... yeah '09! Oh wow, holy shhh...
Why has it taken so long to complete?
Um, a couple things. It's more of a record label thing. Like, when you hand in your album, they have to sit there and think about when is the best time for it to come out. They have to put a whole plan together once you've delivered it. So the ball was in their court for a couple months, and now they've finally given us a release date - I think in Australia it's going to be March 25th - and everywhere else it'll be the 29th. This album did feel like a bit of a longer process although I'm not really sure why... I think because a couple new songs kept popping up. We recorded 12 or 13 songs and were getting close to the end of the album and then Deryck was like, "Oh, I've got 2 more!" That happened like 2 or 3 times.
How did you narrow it down to the final 14 tracks?
By the end, you have like 18 songs and you sit down and start piecing the album together. Some songs, it's just obvious that they're not going to fit, because all of these songs have the same theme or same sound basically. There were a couple of songs we recorded that sound like they should be on another album.
Will those tracks ever pop up again?
The ones that didn't make it, they might be bonus tracks or imports, I'm not really sure. But they're recorded, so you never know. They might surface somewhere.
You're getting back on the road to promote the new album, do you still enjoy being on tour?
Yeah! For sure. It's one of those things that if you tour for a year, or a year and a half, you end up wanting to go home for a while, but then when you're at home, you wanna go back on tour. I think all of us really love playing live more than being in the studio. We view the studio as a necessary evil. We love playing live, and that's why we're in a band.
Is your side project The Operation M.D. still going?
Yeah, yeah that's still going. We just released an album a few months ago called Birds + Bee Stings. It's me and Todd, who's in H2O, and we do it whenever we have time because he's also a touring guitarist for The Offspring now. So just whenever we get the time. We actually played a show in December in Toronto.
Why a side project?
Because I've always written songs but they were never in the same style as Sum 41. And I knew they were never gonna be on a Sum 41 album. So we had some down time a few years ago and I just said, "I'm gonna do an album with Todd". It kind of keeps me busy when I'm off the road too.
Sum 41 bassist Jason "Cone" McCaslin talks about the band's heavier new direction, not sticking to new year's resolutions and getting back on the road.
Your new single 'Screaming Bloody Murder' has a harder edge to it than your previous work, is it representative of the upcoming album?
Yeah, pretty much. The new album's a bit more intense and dark and heavy than some of the stuff we've done in the past. So yeah, this single's pretty reminiscent of the record.
What inspired the new direction?
I think it's just not wanting to re-record things we've done in the past. Album to album, we've always done something different. It's also a lot of listening to what fans want. Now that we've done the whole garage music thing - we've done tons of different styles of music - you talk to your fans and find out what they want to hear. And we just naturally wanted to go a little heavier as well, so it was kind of 'oh well, this is obviously what we're gonna do now'. All of the fans that are still around, that come to our shows, they love the heavier side of us.
You guys seem to be pretty interactive with your fans, posting videos and blogs online.
I think you have to be nowadays. That's just the way everything is now. When we were starting out, the internet wasn't a big thing for a band. I remember making our own website, but no-one ever went on it so we never updated it much. But now, with music stations like MTV not playing videos, you can control that yourself and make videos that aren't censored. There's a whole bunch of stuff you can do now. I think it's opened the door for you to be able to do whatever you want really.
So you find the internet gives bands more freedom?
Yeah, it's just a necessary thing nowadays. If you're in band, you have to be doing stuff online. That's how you promote your band now.
Do you go online to read what people are saying about you and your music?
I try not to read comments too much because you don't want to let it get to your head. If people are saying "Oh it sucks, blah, blah, blah..." or "I wish they did this..." or even the other way, if people are saying how awesome it is. They can say whatever they want to say, but I don't like to look. It's the same with music reviews for me. I don't really like to read them either.
You don't want to try to live up to a reviewer's standards?
Exactly. And in the end it's one person's opinion. Whether they love it or hate it, it's still just one person's opinion.
One of the videos you posted on your site is about the band's new year's resolutions, which were inspired by a letter you received from your management, suggesting you break less stuff, drink less, wake up earlier and eat better. How are you doing with these resolutions so far?
I don't think any of us have been keeping those resolutions! That was actually really funny when it all went down, I don't know where that letter came from!
Do you often get given rules like that?
No. Actually they're our new management. This is the first album we've worked with them on, so we shall see. They seem great so I don't know where that letter came from!
Speaking of new things, you have a new guitarist, Tom Thacker. Is he a permanent fixture in the band?
Yeah. He was our tour guitarist from the last album, around 2007. He's the lead singer of a Canadian band called Gob, and we've known him since, I guess, 1998, when we opened for Gob. When Dave quit the band we had try-outs for guitar players and we asked him to come, because he's also a singer and he's a great guitar player. It's just a really good fit. Actually, he co-wrote the first single with Deryck, 'Screaming Bloody Murder'.
So he has a lot of input in the band?
Yeah. He didn't actually play guitar on the album, but he co-wrote the first single. He had that lying around and he was like, "Hey, I have some music here," and he sent it over and we were like "wow, it's amazing". Then Deryck wrote the melody and the lyrics for it.
You started working on this new album a while ago now, in 2009, right?
Um, we started pre-production in... yeah '09! Oh wow, holy shhh...
Why has it taken so long to complete?
Um, a couple things. It's more of a record label thing. Like, when you hand in your album, they have to sit there and think about when is the best time for it to come out. They have to put a whole plan together once you've delivered it. So the ball was in their court for a couple months, and now they've finally given us a release date - I think in Australia it's going to be March 25th - and everywhere else it'll be the 29th. This album did feel like a bit of a longer process although I'm not really sure why... I think because a couple new songs kept popping up. We recorded 12 or 13 songs and were getting close to the end of the album and then Deryck was like, "Oh, I've got 2 more!" That happened like 2 or 3 times.
How did you narrow it down to the final 14 tracks?
By the end, you have like 18 songs and you sit down and start piecing the album together. Some songs, it's just obvious that they're not going to fit, because all of these songs have the same theme or same sound basically. There were a couple of songs we recorded that sound like they should be on another album.
Will those tracks ever pop up again?
The ones that didn't make it, they might be bonus tracks or imports, I'm not really sure. But they're recorded, so you never know. They might surface somewhere.
You're getting back on the road to promote the new album, do you still enjoy being on tour?
Yeah! For sure. It's one of those things that if you tour for a year, or a year and a half, you end up wanting to go home for a while, but then when you're at home, you wanna go back on tour. I think all of us really love playing live more than being in the studio. We view the studio as a necessary evil. We love playing live, and that's why we're in a band.
Is your side project The Operation M.D. still going?
Yeah, yeah that's still going. We just released an album a few months ago called Birds + Bee Stings. It's me and Todd, who's in H2O, and we do it whenever we have time because he's also a touring guitarist for The Offspring now. So just whenever we get the time. We actually played a show in December in Toronto.
Why a side project?
Because I've always written songs but they were never in the same style as Sum 41. And I knew they were never gonna be on a Sum 41 album. So we had some down time a few years ago and I just said, "I'm gonna do an album with Todd". It kind of keeps me busy when I'm off the road too.