Brad West of AGAINST THE SUN: THE NAMM SHOW 2022 INTERVIEWS
Interview by Ken Morton Photo by Vivian Ortega of So Finch Photography
Against The Sun is an alternative rock band from Orange County who are really beginning to make a name for themselves all across Southern California and beyond. When Highwire Daze found out their vocalist Brad West would be attending The NAMM Show, we invited him over to the booth to play a three-song acoustic set, which included Chelsea Said, Search To Find, and a cover of Wait So Long by Trampled by Turtles. Right after his set, Brad West sat down with Highwire Daze for an interview. Read on.... We’re here with Brad West of Against The Sun. First of all, what are you looking forward to the most about The NAMM Show this year? First of all, the performance we just did was really fun. Now I get to say I performed at NAMM technically, which is now very fun. I am just so excited to play all kinds of frickin’ guitars and learn so much about gear. Again, I’m going to learn so much today. I’m really excited. Let’s talk about the new song Back To Ruin and the meaning behind it. Absolutely! We just dropped this track last week. It’s super metal – it’s super hardcore which is really fun. It’s probably the heaviest song we’ve done. The song is basically just like your worst demon personified – it’s like that worst vice that you’re ashamed of, beckoning you back to be that worst version of yourself. When we wrote the song, the riff sounded so sinister – so kind if evil. So, I was like alright – in this one I’m going to play the villain here. I’m going to write like it’s the devil on your shoulder. It was really fun to do. Let’s talk about Chelsea Said – which you actually played acoustic here today. It’s a much older song that I wrote back in college – and 22
we wanted to redo it, because back then we didn’t have a recording budget – so we wanted to redo it modern production style. It’s a really fun song. It’s like a weird mixture of hard rock and metalcore – but also pop punk and emo – so it’s really fun. That song is basically from personal experience. It’s about watching someone you love fall back into – for me it was like addiction – it’s like falling back into their addiction and you not being able to help them. So, it’s telling that story – it’s a painful story. July/August 2022
HIGHWIRE DAZE
