silver lining to the whole pandemic, I guess. Another guest on the album was Travis Barker from Blink 182. Tell me about that song Not My Problem and how Travis became involved. So Not My Problem – the inspiration behind that was actually somebody’s roommate – like hey, do you ever have somebody in your life or a roommate or what have you that’s just kind of like a Debbie Downer – just always in the dumps? And that was inspiration behind that track. And Feldy works with Travis a lot with the new Blink stuff and same thing – he was just hanging around the studio and working on a bunch of stuff – and everybody’s trying to figure out what’s going on with the Covid thing. And Feldy’s like “I’ve got Escape The Fate in here if you want to listen to a few of the tracks.” And he’s like, “Yeah, let me hear it.” And he’s like “I love that one. I’d love to drum on it.” And everybody’s that’s asked about Travis, I just tell ‘em “If Travis Barker tells you he’s down to play drums on your song, you let Travis Barker play drums on your song!” And that’s what you do. The opening song Lightning Strikes is a big burst of energy and definitely a great way to kick off the album. Tell me a little about that song. So that one is kind of like when I envision what I want for rock anthemic songs to sound like – I didn’t really know how to explain it until we finished Lightning Strikes and I heard it front to back. And I was like “This is what’s up! This is what some of the older songs should have sounded like.” It really embodied what I thought where a lot of the past songs should have gone. So, this has got to be the track that kicks off the record 100 percent! What has it been like to record and release new music in the middle of a pandemic? I kind of like it more than I liked before. It’s weird – I don’t know. I feel like I can get more involved in it – I can focus on it a little more – your head’s not getting through the show day and what city are we going to tomorrow and how many tickets were sold tonight and what are we doing in merch and how long is the drive. None of that. It’s just in the comfort of your home really getting involved in the music – working on it – talking to each other because you’re not like spending every second of the day around each other. So, it’s like “Hey man, how are you doing? How is your work going? I’m really pumped to release this song.” I don’t know man – I kind of like it more… Of course, you mentioned John Feldman of Goldfinger produced this new album. What was it like working with John this time around and what does he contribute to the overall recording process? You know, I would say that John IS a member of Escape The Fate – or he always should have been. Not playing with us live, but in the studio for sure. He was a huge helping hand in helping us find our new sound which was when I joined the band in 2007 and when we worked on This War Is Ours. So back in the studio with him – it felt like I was getting back to my roots – I felt comfortable, and I was back at home. Feldy is literally family to me HIGHWIRE DAZE
April/May 2021
now. So, it just felt really good, and I felt like I could open up and really get involved. In addition to the new Escape The Fate album, you released a solo song called Never Be. Tell me about that song and will there be any other solo material? Yeah, so that’s something I worked on just randomly. I had someone hit me up wanting me to do some guest vocals – and so they got me a plane ticket and I flew out to Staten Island and kind of did the guest vocals for him. And the guy who put the song together – he wanted to show me some other things that he had. And I’m like, “Oh that’s sick! I’ll sing on that!” And I put that song together and it just got kind of put on the backburner. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with it. I’ve always wanted to do solo music, but I never really knew what I wanted it to sound like. And when the pandemic happened and when I started streaming on Twitch literally every day, I’m like “You know, this might be cool to drop. I’ll just put it up on Soundcloud and put like a download link.” It’s not like it had an official release or anything, but I just put it out there and people seemed to like it – so now I’m even more interested in getting involved with some solo stuff and really working on it and releasing an album. I got all the free time in the world right now and nobody’s talking about getting back on the road for at least another year – so that year is going to see Chemical Warfare drop and it’s probably going to see another ETF album at least being promoted – we’re probably going to track another album. I’ve got new Dead Rabbitts stuff coming out – and probably a solo album as well. And what is going on with Dead Rabbitts right now? So right now, I have the ability to work on more music. I write with Eric who plays guitar in that band – and he also plays bass with us in ETF. He’s got a studio that he’s built in this house and he lives like 20 minutes down the 27
