rebel La Dispute Connecting the dots Oli Sykes: “I wanted to die� Brandon Flowers Inside his head
Sleeping W i t h Sirens Hear the madness
Oliver Sykes La Dispute Brandon Flowers Sleeping With Sirens October Songs Tom Delonge Reviews
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A letter from the publisher I consider myself so fortunate to work in Rebel, an area that celebrates its history, yet remains vibrant and ever-changing. I step out in the morning and smell the ocean. In the evening, I am greeted with mouth-watering aromas from the halfdozen restaurants within walking distance. There is so much to enjoy here, both on land and sea. Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. James F. Amos Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Micheal P. Barrett Marine Corps News Editor–in–Chief
For this winter issue, we had to begin with the picturesque waterfront and a story on the growing boating community as well as a look at the more than 100-year-old American Yacht Club. We included stories about fashion (environmentally friendly, of course) and summer recipes as well as chats with some interesting neighbors in the community.
Lt. Col. Greg Reeder Managing Editor Gunnery Sgt. Robert Piper Editor Sgt. Michael S. Cifuentes Combat Correspondents
In this and future issues, we look forward to capturing the essence and vitality of the people and places in Rebel and the surrounding area. Our plan is to publish quarterly, with an interesting mix of regular features and seasonal topics. Going forward, we will also include letters and favorite photos from you, our readers.
Sgt. Priscilla Sneden Sgt. Jimmy D. Shea
We hope you get as much pleasure reading it as we did putting it all together!
Lance Cpl. Jacob D. Osborne Lance Cpl. Christofer P. Baines Lance Cpl. Daniel A. Wetzel Lance Cpl. Chelsea Flowers
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Hitting rock bottom
just how close to the bottom was he? “I was very close,” he shares. “I wanted to die.”
Bring Me The Horizon speak with contributing writer Tom Bryant on an array of topics, including frontman Oli Sykes’ recent battle with addiction— and how it almost cost him his life. “My issues stemmed from the fact that I was trying so hard to fight against what people were saying about me,” Sykes openly admits. “I wasn’t what people were saying I was. But at the same time, I wasn’t a good person, either. I felt so guilty about who I was.” Sometime following BMTH’s release of their third full-length
album, There Is A Hell, Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There Is A Heaven Let’s Keep It A Secret, Sykes fell into the vice grip of Ketamine—a drug that “disengages users from reality, causing hallucinations and distorted perception.” “It’s a scummy drug,” offers the singer. “It’s not cocaine. It’s cheap, easy and fast. It makes you disassociate. It disconnects your mind from your body. It took my ego away. It took away who I was.” Following Sykes’ first rehab stint, he hit his lowest of lows. When he was unable to refrain from using Ketamine, everything came to climax. “I nearly killed myself. I just didn’t care whether I lived or not.” But
He then sought out his parents, telling them, “Get me help.” After his second time in rehab, he reached a point of soberness and has remained there ever since. Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean he believes everything that he was fed in rehabilitation. “They helped me in there, but I didn’t believe had the stuff they told me,” he says. “They tell you ‘it’s a disease’— that’s bollocks. It’s not a disease; it’s a self-inflicted problem. It’s offensive to people with diseases to claim addiction is a disease. They said it would be a struggle every day, that you’re an addict for the rest of your life. Bollocks. It’s all bollocks. I’ve never looked back since I got clean. I got clean for my family, my friends and my band. I didn’t get clean for God.”
In 2014, at the first annual APMAs, Sykes admitted to his past addiction during his acceptance speech for Album Of The Year. “I wanna say something that I never thought I’d actually talk about. Before we wrote Sempiternal, I was fucked off my head. My band wanted to kill me. My parents wanted to kill me. My fucking brother wanted to kill me. Everyone wanted to kill me. But they didn’t—they stood by me. They supported me through all that shit, and we wrote Sempiternal because of it.” Next Friday, September 11, Bring Me The Horizon will release their highly anticipated follow-up to Sempiternal, That’s The Spirit. “It’s a celebration of depression,” Sykes recently explained. “A way of making light of it. That’s The Spirit—it’s quite a depressing phrase when you think about it—the sort of thing you only ever use when you know there’s no positive answer to the situation.”
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Connecti
L
Right under the nose of the mainstream, a local band from Grand Rapids, Michigan was growing one of underground music’s most loyal followings. From basements and VFW halls to sold out shows all over the world, La Dispute are a self-made enigma, making them anything but an overnight success. I chatted with the documentary director Niall Coffey, and La Dispute bassist Adam Vass about the new documentary, Tiny Dots, which gives the first inside look at the personal lives of the band and their fans. The project took over a year to complete, editing down three terabytes of filming including never before seen footage of writing the 2014 album Rooms Of The House in a northern Michigan cabin, tours from several continents and interviews with fans before and after shows. “We had started filming shortly after releasing the album, and we had some cool VHS footage from writing in the cabin, and the record itself seemed so unlikely to us at the time, the movie was almost a celebration of that accomplishment,” says Vass on the origins of Tiny Dots. “But like a lot of projects, the focus changes as you go and we ended up covering a lot more about the band and us as people.” The band hashed it out with Coffey and the story began to write itself. “What I wanted to try to do was make a story that’s interesting even if you weren’t already into the band,” says Coffey: “We wanted the interaction between fans and a band who are in their late twenties appealing to a much younger audience than their age group and the sort of conflicts that come along with that.” Beyond the canned answers in run-of-the-mill interviews and documentaries, we get to witness the band speaking from the
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heart. Some tough scenarios are explained, whether it be touring or even reacting to their own fans’ perceptions of them. Watching the live performances is the best way to witness the overwhelming crowd reaction and singalongs during each set, which has been going on since the early years of the band. Vass has his own explanation of the phenomenon. “Jordan ([Dreyer, vocalist] has a powerful skill of articulating a feeling, and while that feeling is often pretty bleak, it’s one that a lot of people can relate to.” “Your band saved my life.” Coffey claims that tagline gets dropped onto La Dispute all the time. “It became evident how uncomfortable they felt with that being said. Jordan touches on it a bit in the documentary, but they do truly shy away from being put on a pedestal. These guys like people appreciating their music, but they didn’t want to be idolized.” As gratifying as it can be to be face to face with fans explaining how they made it through their rough patches in life, it’s also a heavy thing to hear. “It’s challenging to hear things from some fans, personal tragedies especially,” says Vass. “I am exceptionally inept at handling those. I understand that it can help to discuss it, and oftentimes they’re told to us in a thankful way, like we helped them overcome or reframe that tragedy. It’s nice to be considered helpful, of course, but we certainly aren’t therapists or experts in anything.” The documentary also shows the harsh reality of touring, using the departure of guitarist Kevin Whittemore as tangible evidence. Coffey explains, “It’s just like having any other job. Sometimes it’s the best job in the world and some days you just want to go home. I wanted them to be able to communicate why it’s
ing the dots:
La Dispute not always amazing for them without hurting their fans’ feelings.” “People often say we’re lucky and we’re living a dream, and I’m sure that’s true sometimes, but it paints what we do in an unfair light. It imposes guilt when you’re not having a good day. When I’m depressed and can’t help but feel awful and can’t talk to the others, I’m expected to snap out of it because my job is a dream. It needed to be shared in the interest of being honest with fans and not wasting this platform to tell them things they already know.” What makes footage like Whittemore’s final show and talking about leaving the band so profound is the fact that there is no ill will among the other members of La Dispute. They recognize why he decided to end his tenure and, on film, he even sticks around to help the new guitarist learn the parts. Something keeps these guys close even after being stuck in vans, hotel rooms and planes for months on end. “We still have little tiffs, just like anybody,” says Vass: “We’ve had a foundational friendship for a long time, so usually the arguments are short-lived, but they happen. I think we’ve learned to appreciate our time apart from one another, after having spent so much time in close quarters. We’ve also learned as we’ve gotten older to be more comfortable with talking about how we feel without the brattiness of being an early twenty-something. Communication is key, the same is probably true of any friendship or relationship, which is effectively what being in a band is like.”
pletely keeping with that narrative,” says Coffey: “What was very helpful was being out with them for two weeks and them getting comfortable with me and realizing my main thing was presenting the band how they wanted to be presented. It’s easy to do with La Dispute because they are very genuine.” “None of us know what’s next,” says Vass, “and we are all comfortable with not knowing: We are going on this tour with Envy in a week or two, but we don’t have plans after that. There hasn’t been any work on a new record; we have to collectively decide what we want to accomplish before we can do so.” In retrospect, the DVD is for fans just as much as it is for the band. It shows how connected everyone is from something as simple as music. They all went through hell at one point in their lives, made it out and are now in a packed venue somewhere screaming together. Whether or not the band are responsible for saving lives, they gave confidence to their fans to save themselves—and Tiny Dots is the proof. “I personally think we will make another record, but such a thing doesn’t happen overnight,” says Vass, “especially with our group. We spend a lot of time in our own heads and projects can take us awhile, but we’d rather do them right than quickly. And if we decide to not do a record, then Tiny Dots is a fitting headstone.” Tiny Dots is screening in several cities November 1st as well as being sold in DVD format on the band’s tour with Envy later that month
“They’re very uncomfortable with the whole rockstar thing and having someone follow them around with a camera isn’t com-
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ALL TIME LOW
Panic! at the disco
Inside the mind of
Brandon Flowers The voice of Sam’s Town in his own words and by his own hand.
I would describe myself… Reluctantly Music changed me… By giving me a way out. At first it was mentally. I got hooked by The Cars when I was 12 or 13. Living in a cowboy town in the middle of nowhere, I loved how listening to them could transport me to some other place. It was like living a double life. Ten years later, music literally gave me a way out. My big goal in life was to get ‘juiced in’ to a big casino by one of my uncles and park cars for big tips. That was it. But when The Killers blasted off, all of that changed. When I’m not making music… I try to be the best dad I can be to my kids. Try to be the best husband I can be to my wife. And maybe get a hike in. My biggest vice is… Well, Las Vegas has no shortage of great Mexican food. But I have a desire for one dish at one particular joint in town that borders on sinful. It’s camarones zarandeados at Lindo Michoacan. The shrimp are cooked in some voodoo oil chili mayo magic magnificence, and I may or may not be guilty of stopping for a plate before returning home from the airport after a long tour. The last time I felt embarrassed was… Christmas time at a Vegas restaurant with my wife. There were carolers going from table to table singing standard festive tunes. It makes me uncomfortable when they sing to me so I thought I’d shut it down and request All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey. No way were they going to know it, much less belt it out at this swanky place. The joke was on me. One of the women in the group knew it and proceeded to belt it out from top to bottom. I wanted to hide under the table.
Self-portrait made by the artitst.
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My formal qualifications are… Piano lessons from age 7 to 11. When I was 5 or 6 we inherited an upright pia-
no from my great grandma Dixie. Dixie was her showbiz name. Her real name was Melinda. She wrote country songs and actually received royalty checks from one that ended up being recorded by Mel Tillis. No one else in my family was creative. I owe a lot to that handed-down piano. My mother took me to lessons from around age 7 to 11. I still use the fundamental techniques I acquired in those tender years to this day. The last time I cried was… I cry at church during the hymns all the time. Vinyl, CD or MP3?… You can’t expect everyone to have a record player. CDs aren’t so bad. MP3s do the job. I definitely don’t define myself by which medium I choose to listen to music.
“My big goal in life was to get ‘juiced in’ to a big casino...”
BRANDON FLOWERS
My most prized possession is… My wife. The best book I’ve ever read is… East Of Eden. I’m a Steinbeck man. We read The Pearl in elementary school and I guess that’s where he hooked me. But it wasn’t until East Of Eden that I fully understood what a master he was. I’ve never been so immersed in a story before or since. I’d go to bed early because I knew what was waiting on the nightstand. Perfection. Is the glass half full or half empty… The romantic answer is half full. The truth half empty. My biggest regret is… I’ve been lucky. I don’t really have anything looming over my head. However, if the right John Hughes movie comes on I do tend to feel like I missed out on something in high school.
When we die… Our spirit moves on and progresses until the Resurrection where it will be unified with a perfect body. We will have the opportunity to be with our families and friends. I’d like to be remembered… As a good man who never gave up.
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The ‘Madness’ rema Sleeping With Siren 14 REBEL
ains!: ns
There’s an overwhelming tendency toward self-seriousness in punk music, as if the easiest way to be considered worthy of discussion is to fixate on heavy topics: pain, war, love, loss. For Sleeping With Sirens, however, becoming “important” comes with staying true to one’s self, whatever that may be. With a handful of Top 20 releases under the group’s belt, including recent album Madness, the formula is clearly working.
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Rebel sat down with Kellin Quinn and Nick Martin of the Orlando band backstage at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium to talk about their evolution as a band, nostalgia, piehumping and everything in between. You’ve been on tour with All Time Low for a while now. Has anything wild happened? Even PG-13? Kellin: PG-13? In Nashville, we ended up going to this bar that Yelawolf was at. Some guy was drunk and obnoxious and kept
“Ahh! A Fight!” You get excited and scared at the same time. It’s funny that your tour story has nothing to do with the people you’re on tour with. Nick: We’re not so rowdy! You think it’d be crazier, but we’re pretty tame. K: That’s the only really exciting thing that’s happened so far, watching someone get in a fight. Madness has been out for a while and has done really well. How long have you been living with the record?
pulling on Yelawolf’s arm and
N: We released it in March but we
saying “Hey! You know so-and-
sat on it for a while. We recorded
so,” and Yelawolf is like “No, I
it the previous year so we sat on
don’t. I don’t know who that is,”
it for at least three or four months,
but really nice. He kept doing it
actually.
over and over and over again until Yelawolf’s security guy, this giant dude, comes out of nowhere and haymakers this guy, and this guy
Does it still feel true to who you are now? Or does it feel like a very specific moment in
just have such an energy to them
Then
that they’re just fun to go out and
year? You guys just crank ‘em
play...moreso than the other songs.
out.
N: It doesn’t feel old yet.
N: It’s a very feasible thing. I feel
is out cold. We were in such awe
time?
that that happened. You don’t see
K: I think it feels true to us. I have a
a lot of fights but when you do,
lot of fun playing those songs live
everyone has the same reaction.
the most. It’s not even that they’re Are you the kind of band the most relevant to us now--they that’s always writing?
another
record
like at this point in the state of the industry, to stay relevant, you’ve got to keep churning out more
N: I haven’t really gone through a
and more material unless you’re
writing spree yet. Kellin writes a
like Taylor Swift or Adele, [where]
bit more.
you can take like four years to
K: I’ve been writing for other people a lot lately. I haven’t written anything for us in a while. There’s
have a couple kids and write a record about an age you’re not anymore.
this band I’ve been working with
K: That’s why you write for other
from Canada. They’re this new,
people, who are like 14 and 15!
young band. I just wrote their entire EP. They’re called Chase Your Words. It’s not out yet. They’re
from
Vancouver
and
they’re cute. Cute little Canadian band. They’re really great. N: I’ll probably start writing new Sleeping stuff in December and January.
A lot of your audience is that age…there’s a huge young and female population. Do you feel a certain responsibility to them? You’re the kind of band that gets the “You saved my life” thing, a lot of heavy stuff. K: You just gotta kiss them. Don’t give them hope!
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next
the same way with music. I think
that are often maligned with
there’s a way to look for some
genre-signifiers
positivity at the end. I write like
punk”
the romantic-comedy way. I’m a
folks think the have a band’s
rom-com. I’m a John Hughes film
number before listening to the
in song.
music or going to the show.
That’s sweet and nostalgic. Do you find yourself writing nostalgic
songs?
You’re
song
with
the
original
for that song that’s going to be all these scenes from American Pie that we act out.
have three of you be Blink-182 in that one scene.
get through this” and “Hey, you saved my life” or “You’re my role model,” this and that. Which is kind of nice to hear but at the same time it’s like, “Kid, I’m not your role model.” I’m probably not a good role model to have. N: I always tell kids that they’re the ones that ultimately made the decision to do better. It’s nice that we’re that conduit to have you say
you have to always fulfill that. I’ve
N: And what does that even mean? “A Warped Tour Band”? There’s
We’ll get Tom to come back. Jack
stories…
[Fowler] is going to hump the pie.
There
are
bands
all
these
amazing
K: Less Than Jake! NOFX! Sum-41! All of that. N: It’s a compliment. That’s a
in
this
section of the music world
massive alumni of artists and bands.
N: You can’t help everybody. If we every single kid, we would.
songs that come from a place
think it’s important for kids to know
of
that, “Hey, you did this by seeking
always a positive spin.
K: I don’t like feeling like we’re
asses off to get where we are. No
could help every single person,
a really good job of writing
“Give yourself more credit.”
it-yourself world. We worked our
the time.
that you only have one to live, but I
for us to spread the message of
like that we come from that do-
pressure on my life anymore all
have an important life to live and
brought you down.” It’s important
you were a Warped Tour band.” I
you know what? I can’t have that
Sleeping With Sirens does
out of those experiences that
Tour bands.” But it’s like “Bitch,
gotten to a point in my life where,
that you can do this, and that you
help and getting better and getting
like “We won’t tour with Warped
K: Or just get Blink-182 to be in it!
We go through the same shit, too. humper, for sure. You get this pressure on you that
name any names, that have been
Eminem was on Warped Tour.
for a living. We’re all the same. N: He’s going to be the pieIt becomes a certain pressure.
about it at all?
one gave us a free pass.
You should get a monkey and
line between “Hey, you helped me
you guys? Are you concerned
we asked to tour with, we won’t
We’re going to do a music video
K: Yes and no. I think there’s a fine
Has that ever happened to
K: There’s a couple bands that
American Pie movie in mind.
we’re on stage and we play music
“popwhere
kids.
that
above anybody just because
like
“emo,”
effectively writing songs for
K: “Don’t Say Anything,” I wrote
N: Don’t make it worse!
and
darkness,
but
there’s
K: That’s how I’ve always written songs. Have you ever seen those movies where it’s just dark the entire time and it just never has a silver lining and you’re left feeling worse about yourself? I think it’s
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You guys left Rise Records for Epitaph for the last album. What
was
that
transition
about? K: Rise is one of those labels that has a sound and a look and I got tired of being pigeonholed into that Rise sound. Being the
the band a label sells out for.” N: Fuck it, we’ll take it!
records are very evolving. They
now
all sound different. I don’t think
would’ve known then, at the
it works as much. You can see
beginning of your career?
Your first record, With Ears to Weezer and Weezer sounds like See and Eyes to Hear, is five Weezer…every record sounds years old. Would you ever like Weezer. consider doing one of those full-album cycle tours?
that
you
wish
you
N: Mine is simple: To give less of a fuck. I grew up in a punk rock background, playing in punk rock
Evolution is good, though. You
bands, all that good stuff and I
don’t want to make the same
felt like at some point I strayed
metalcore band who “doesn’t
K: Not for that one. Maybe for record twice.
away from that attitude. I started
sound like themselves anymore.”
Let’s Cheers To This. The second
carrying too much about what
As soon as we went to Epitaph, I
one, not the first. I don’t think in the
think all of those comments went
middle of your career it’s smart to N: Some people don’t like that.
or what I should play. As I got older
away. Ever since we were on
go out and play one of your first Some people want us to sound
I learned that I was much happier
Epitaph, we don’t hear any of that
albums.
like we did five years ago. There’s
saying, “Fuck you. I don’t care if
no fun in that.
you don’t like it. This is who I am,
shit anymore.
N:
It depends on the band.
K: I can’t.
N: That’s what’s beautiful about
Weezer did it with Pinkerton and There are tons of Sleeping
Epitaph and their roster. Every
the Blue Album.
genre that you can think of, from
With Sirens copycat bands that they can go find.
old punk rock to reggae, are there.
K: Alkaline Trio.
K: There are the kids that love the
N: I think it solely depends on the
old bands that are like, “Fuck this
band.
band, Epitaph sold out” and it’s
K:
like, “Damn, I didn’t know we were
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K: I tell them that! I say, “Go listen to this band. They sound like us five years ago.”
Those
are
bands
that
constantly sound like them. Our
Is there anything you know
people thought I should look like
this is what I’m going to play. If you don’t like it, you can fuck off.” But in the nicest way possible. K: I’d probably kick my younger ass when I was like “Oh, I love flying on airplanes.” Now I fucking hate flying on airplanes. I never wanna fly on another airplane again.
OCTOBER SONGS
She Is We - “Boomerang” Rachel Taylor, former frontwoman of He Is We has returned with the infectiously catchy single “Boomerang” off her debut solo project, She Is We. A far descent from the chilled-back melodies of He Is We, “Boomerang” proves to be an empowering, heavy-hitting pop anthem that will leave you singing “Boom baby, hit you like a boomerang” all day long. —Jake Hanson
A Will Away - “My Sitter” While technically released independently back in March, A Will Away’s Bliss saw an official release through their new home on Triple Crown Records on October 23, making the lead single “My Sitter” one of the month’s best tracks. Featuring a characteristically knockout vocal performance from lead vocalist Matt Carlson and some tasteful guitar interplay from Carlson and lead guitarist Collin Waldron, the song’s relaxed pace allows the band to explore their refined sense of melody. Rounded out by the song’s hypnotic rhythm section, “My Sitter” is an expertly engineered alt-rock song that succinctly displays what A Will Away are all about. —John Bazley
Fearless Vampire Killers - “Keep Smiling” Fearless Vampire Killers finally released their highly anticipated mini-album Bruises last Friday. In our 4.5-star review and AP Recommends feature in our Mayday Parade issue, we praise track three, “Keep Smiling,” as a standout mixture of pop-punk and musical theatre that would make Queen proud. The band get uncomfortably real as they chronicle dismissal from clueless industry types, shout that they “don’t subscribe to the view that [they] hold dominion over [them],” and counter it all with a bitter smile. It’s shiver-inducing enough that we’re thinking certain somebodies who scoffed at the band’s past work are shaking in their boots about now. (Wink.)—Cassie Whitt
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Pictur It’s not are inf era), b Equal V trous T with p and vo would chez p
Foxing - “Weave” Much like the majority of Foxing’s newest alb a soothing, elegant cut with lush and intricat tion and a comforting, career-best vocal de phy, backed by a beautiful female accomp ment is stunning; the track, so easy to digest replaying it until life grabs you by the shoulde out of it. It’s hypnotizing and a mere fraction o Year” contender.—Brian Leak
5 Seconds of Summer - “Waste The Night” “Waste The Night” is an exercise in how to write s when you know they will be played in stadiums. Wi band departing on another world tour next year, s thing tells us this will be the new live anthem mad grabbing the pal next to you and clicking on your li (or, let’s be real, phone flashlight...) and sobbing alo every repetition of “I don’t wanna waste it/Don’t w waste it.” How dare you, Calum Hood…how dare y Mackenzie Hall
resque - “Unannounced” t shocking that Lexington, Kentucky’s Picturesque fluenced by hometown heroes Emarosa (Relativity but their own strengths earned them a scoop by Vision Records. Lifted from their upcoming MonsThings EP, “Unannounced” has plenty to take in, post-hardcore guitars tirelessly filling the space ocalist Kyle Hollis just crushing northern notes that have EVR alums Anthony Green and Claudio Sanpatting him on the back. —Brian Kraus
bum, Dealer, “Weave” is te, layered instrumentaelivery from Conor Murpaniment. The arranget that you’ll find yourself ers and tells you to snap of a real “Album Of The
songs ith the somede for ighter ong to wanna you. —
Hands Like Houses - “New Romantics” Australia’s post-hardcore powerhouse revved up their Dissonants album cycle with “New Romantics,” a punchy and pummeling lead single. Slappy bass shoves the funk in your face, while the scathing, hanging notes of the chorus are a throwback to Bush and Filter’s altrock reign. This natural progression from Unimagine should keep everyone onboard.—Brian Kraus
Petal - “Heaven” The newly released full-length from Pennsylvania’s Petal is a 2015 sleeper hit, one sure to catch on with fans of Tigers Jaw, Turnover and Allison Weiss, once they finally realize what they’ve been missing. “Heaven” is a heart-on-your-sleeve altrock paragon, succeeding in its simplicity; an impressive bar set for every bedroom singer-songwriter on a mission to put their emotion to song in the most effective way possible. Kiley Lotz has a hit on her hands—not just with “Heaven,” but the whole of her new LP, Shame. Don’t let it slip by you. —Brian Leak
Panic! At The Disco - “Emperor’s New Clothes” This month, the world was gifted with the new Panic! At The Disco single accompanied by a slightly disturbing music video, the official announcement of their new album, Death of A Bachelor and an added clip of Brendon Urie turning up to “Shots” while made up as a demon. In typical Panic! Fashion, the song is perfectly theatrical while showing off Urie’s vocal range. He might be the only founding member left, but he isn’t going to let that stop him from “taking back the crown.”—Heather Mulgannon
Adele - “Hello” Singer/songwriter superstar Adele has made her triumphant return with “Hello,” a take-no-prisoners ballad that builds before crescendoing over a climactic, glistening chorus. It may have been three years since we last heard from Adele, but it’s quite clear she hasn’t lost the signature edge that catapulted her into the atmosphere in 2011. With “Hello,” she has refined that sharpness and come out swinging harder than ever before. —Tyler Sharp
Sometimes the rock world can get noisy, and we don’t just mean in decibels or static. Often the signal-to-noise ratio is more noise than signal. But no worries: We read, listen to and watch everything so we can sort it for you. Here are some of our favorite new songs of October 2015, brought to you in partnership with our friends at CreativeLive.
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Tom Delonge Tom DeLonge wears many hats. From his adolescent obsessions with punk rock power chords and delinquent deviance to his fascination with space, atmosphere and demolishing boundaries of art and media, the founding member of Blink-182, current frontman of Angels & Airwaves and all-around music mogul has lived a lot of life. But he’ll be the first to tell you: This is only the beginning. We chatted with the guy about his upcoming sci-fi novel Poet Anderson: The Dream Walker, co-written by Suzanne Young, as well as his live-action short film, the whopping four franchises he’s in the midst of creating and, you know, just how he finds the time to do it all.
I thought was really interesting. I asked, “What if you had a guide?” That’s where it came from. It’s been many years in the making. ‘Poet Anderson: The Dream Walker’ is the first book in a trilogy. Is the full story already written?
Congratulations on the book!
It’s evolving. We knew what we wanted to do on the first one. We have an idea of where we want to end up on the third one. Like any art, you can’t jam it into a box. Even making an album, you write songs, you go to record them, you can’t go in there and expect it to be exactly as you thought. “I wrote it exactly this way, it’s going to be a ballad.” You go in there an have realizations like, “Wow, this sounds good, it would be better if it was louder.” You have to let the art pull you, what’s making sense along the way while you’re making it. We know where we want the story to go in macro brush strokes, but the details start getting worked out when you put your nose to the grindstone.
Tom: Isn’t that weird? My name is on a book. I didn’t even read books when I was in high school and now I have so many of them coming out. It’s pretty ironic. How did it come to be? T: I’ve built a few companies over the last 15 years and some of what I’ve done has been software for monetizing the arts. We built software that created the platform for Pearl Jam’s fan club to do pay-per-view events—for Nine Inch Nails and Kanye, too. A lot of big bands were using it. From that point forward I started to realize what the arts would look like [in the future,] a combination of music, books, movies, animation, everything. Multimedia is where it was going, so I started a company called To the Stars. We focused on developing four franchises and Poet Anderson was our first one. I want to tackle big subjects with each one. Dreams haven’t really been tackled in a cool way. Dreams were done in movies, like Inception, which is brilliant, but doing it in a way that’s very commercial and can live as a franchise that multiple demographics can get involved in the pieces, all that really excited me. Not too many years ago I came up with this character and didn’t really know what the storyline was. I saw a documentary on nightmares from Stanford University; they did this study that nightmares are preparing you for real world events.
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You co-authored the book. How did you get in contact with Suzanne Young? T: I reached out to an agency in New York. I found an agent whose bio said he had a fascination with the paranormal. I reached out to him and I’m not sure that he believed me or thought that I would execute it or what, but two weeks later he comes back five authors and one of them was Suzanne. I looked at what she was doing and thought, “This is huge.” This can be great. Now it’s looking it might be the biggest thing she’s ever done in terms of what’s going to happen with the movie and stuff. I’m so happy because I wanted to make sure that she did the right thing for her own career. She’s the writer, an author. For her to take a chance on this project for me, I really wanted it to work out for her.
What is it like working with another author? You have this vision and another voice comes in. Is it like a writer/editor dynamic? T: I’m much more of an architect and she’s the person who comes in and does the finishing materials, definitely not the one who’s pounding away every single detail. We would have conference calls every week and we’d work through major story points and she’d hit me up with emails like, “I don’t understand this, how should we do this?” Then I’d push her to make certain leaps with some things that she didn’t really believe and then she’d come back like, “Oh wait, that actually is cool.” I wrote two screenplays when this all started and we combined both of them into one. Suzanne worked off that as a guide but then we evolved it and changed it so much more. That influenced the [animated film we released] and the animation influenced her back. It was a really organic ebb and flow of our pieces. Do you ever sleep? T: It’s funny,this is only one project. There are four of them. I’m in Colorado Springs for another one. You’ll see another one come out at Christmas. There’s a lot that’s going to start happening. I’ve been really busy this year. You know, people will look and go, “Ahh, the guy doesn’t want to tour, what is he doing? Just sitting around?” That’s not how I work. I just want to create things and work with great artists. [The project coming out later in the year] is still under wraps but I will say this: There’s a novel that will be coming out, but before that novel, to launch the franchise, there’s going to be a rated-R children’s book. That will come out a Christmas. It’s not for children.
With this book, your protagonist is a young boy. The ‘Poet’ series started with the animated film. Who are you writing this for? Is there a particular attraction to youth? T: Poet Anderson is going to be for everybody. It’s going to have the same kind of art of Harry Potter or Twilight where youth get into the books but then adults get into them, too. It’s got the Twilight-like love story that people like. They’re going to find that here but the adventure and action parts of this franchise are like Star Wars. It’s really violent. There’s a lot of profanity. It’s action-packed. It’s really stylistic. Those are the type of elements that pull all the men to the table. Boys and men. The goal was to create something that appeals to everybody. It wasn’t easy doing that but I think we did. Before becoming ‘Poet Anderson,’ the lead is named Jonas, which is the name of your son. It seems like you’re writing from a personal, sentimental place, especially interesting because this is a work of fiction. T: That’s just how I’ve always been, even with songs. My son Jonas has the same haircut Poet has. He has really long bangs so he became a little bit of inspiration for me. The logo for Angels & Airwaves came from my daughter, Ava. I had to do something for my son. In another project I’m working on, the main female in the story is named Jennifer, for my wife.
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Let’s talk about this live-action film you have coming up. Tyler Posey of ‘Teen Wolf’ fame is starring in it. How’d you get involved with him? He must be a massive Blink-182 fan, I know he’s close with All Time Low and adores pop-punk. T: He’s an awesome guy. The short film that we’re doing is an art piece. I call it a modest look at what the Poet universe is supposed to be because it can’t really do what we will be doing in the feature film, obviously, because it’s a $100 million film. This is small. But what we’re able to do is something that’s really cool, something that’s really artistic and gives people another reason to huddle around what this is really about. You have so many mediums you’re playing with here. Is there a guide on how to navigate it? All the stories aren’t the same, but they all come together in this universe. T: I think the novel is the easiest way to understand everything, but if you follow the trajectory that we’ve kind of set in motion: Buy the record from Angels & Airwaves, go watch the animation, read the three comic books and then read the novel. Then watch the short film and brace yourself for the future. Just how intertwined are Angels & Airwaves and ‘Poet’? You have the EP, but when you’re writing with the other AVA guys, are you writing with this universe in mind? We are always writing with some type of visual inspiration. We did that on every album, but you still let the art do what it needs to do in the studio. You don’t force anything. We were always thinking about Poet, what it is,
what it feels like and where it can go. But Poet Anderson lives on its own. It’s not from the band. The band just did the music for it. As we go into the future, it’ll be interesting to see where else we
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take the soundtrack. I have some interesting ideas on that. I really appreciate that your co-author in this is female, because it can be difficult for young women readers and writers to identify with a young male protagonist, because there are so many. Will there be opportunities for young female leads in any of your other projects? T: Absolutely, it’s massive. This is the deal: Number one, most women read books. Number two: Our franchise was just full of science fiction boy toys, glowing motorcycles and all this shit. We wanted substance, we wanted this thing that’s real, a relationship. Having Suzanne come in and have a female point of view is what made it great. It’s one thing to read a bunch of action, but if you can’t feel the heart and feel the pain and love and even feel what you felt in high school, it’s not fun at all. Suzanne is all of that. That’s the female perspective. That’s the only reason that this will work as well as it will. If you’re recalling these emotions that are so personal—were there moments in the book that are drawn from real events in your life or hers? T: In a Pixar movie, animators will look in a mirror and growl and then paint their own growling face into the character. That always happens [to all art] on different levels. I don’t have anything specifically because the universe is pretty different, but Suzanne is a high school teacher. All of the moments in high school where Poet is in school with a girl, their interactions feel very, very real and I know that’s because Suzanne has been there for many years as a teacher working with kids. You can’t fake that. It’s crucial to have that authentic voice. What do you hope people get out of this world? How do you want them to react? T: I just want them to give it a shot. I want them to be entertained. I want them to think about the possibilities. I want them to have an escape. It’s hard for me to find escapes. If I can provide one, I would be very honored. People have tough lives and sometimes things like this get them to feel inspired and get them to be a little hopeful and to dream a little bit. That’s a good thing. I hope this is a good addition to people’s lives in some way.
Reviews Hypothetical situation: your band is a machine that cranks out sweetly romantic power-pop with robotic precision and consistency. Each of your last two outings — both assembled from the same formulaic blend of perky rockers and swoon-inducing ballads that have become your calling card — has debuted stronger than the one prior. With the most recent, you scored your first Top 10 album. Now, it’s time to record a new record. Okay, hotshot: What do you do? If you’re Mayday Parade, you lob a bomb into the gears, giddily watch it blow up and then build the best album of your career from the rubble. It’s a bomb you can actually hear exploding as Black Lines opens, a series of concussion waves blasting forth from Jake Bundrick’s drum kit while vocalist Derek Sanders snarls “I don’t know, man / I think I’m starting to feel” in a shockingly gnarly outburst of emotion. It’s bracing, passionate and bewildering — and if it weren’t for the massive, catchy chorus that follows, it wouldn’t be identifiable as Mayday Parade at all. The track (which also sports a cameo from Real Friends’ Dan Lambton) is titled “One Of Them Will Destroy The Other,” but by the time the second verse begins, it’s clear the destruction has already been wrought. From there, all that’s left to do is survey the damage, a scattered archipelago of ragged, smoldering metallic chunks and
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cleanly sheared struts. Clearly benefitting from the guidance of producer Mike Sapone, Black Lines is grittier, dirtier and more muscular than anything Mayday Parade have attempted before — for the first time, the band sound truly fearless. Better still, their gambles pay off over and over; for an album this experimental (at least in Mayday terms), it’s shocking just how much of this stuff works. That willingness to go there manifests itself in the strongest songs of Mayday Parade’s career. “Let’s Be Honest” leans on the Stone Temple Pilots riff (trust me, you know the one) to shift a lithe, propulsive rocker into overdrive and push Sanders to a throat-shredding yowl. “Underneath The Tide” discovers the fertile nexus of Jimmy Eat World and Balance And Composure. The strongest of all is the jagged “Hollow.” Driven by a raw, loping bassline cribbed from the early-90’s playbook, the track eschews a
chorus for churning guitars, a sky-scouring solo from guitarist Alex Garcia and a series of false endings. Even the ballads are inspired — the slow-burning “Letting Go” builds from acoustic guitars and airy falsetto to a gorgeous, warm sonic sunburst. Above anything else, Black Lines marks a new, uncompromising beginning for Mayday Parade. Freed from their past, the band seem free to do damned near anything next. The only certainty: it won’t be predictable.
GO DOWNLOAD: “Hollow”