An interview with Crossfade
by
Renee Clark
Static Noise
"I don’t think any of us set out to be trendsetters as far as a new style of music. We wanted to play the music we wanted to play and it’s a lot of the people we took from." - Mitch
Crossfade is currently on the road on a headlining tour and re releasing their self-titled debut album in celebration of going gold.
Crossfade will be a dual disc release that features a CD audio side and a DVD side.
The DVD will include in-depth interviews, their acoustic performances of songs such as "cold, " so far away," and "colors."
The dualdisc will drop in stores this Tuesday May 29th. Their headlining tour began last week with Strata and they are hitting cities all over the US until the end of April.
I recently had the opportunity to sit down with the entire band to talk with them about the tour and everything in between. This band is a truly humble, talented and honest group and I suggest you head out to a show near you. Their live shows are amazing. You WILL NOT BE disappointed!
SN: What was your first instrument and how did
you get it?
Ed: My first instrument was a nylon string classic guitar and my mother bought it for me.
Mitch: My first instrument was a B.C. Rich warlock pearl bass and I bought it with my own money because my mom wouldn’t buy me crap like that (laughs)
James: My first instrument was a set of used vintage ludwick drums that I found in a little rags paper back home called the Carolina trader they were gold and I had to work odd jobs to save up allowance and bought them, paid $200 for them and found out years after I had gotten rid of them that they were worth a lot more than that because they were vintage sparkle like a 1967 ludwick kit. I wish I still had it.
Mitch: That was when you were a man whore it only took you six months to make that $200 (laughs)
James: yeah back in the day
Tony: My fist instrument was actually a set of drums too. Yeah I started out playing the drums when I was very small. And they were given to me (laughs)
How did you guys learn to play
were you self-taught or did you take lessons?
Ed: I started on piano. Took lessons on piano played for about four years… yeah lessons (laughs)
Mitch: I took guitar lessons for like two weeks one time when I was 12 then I didn’t touch anything until I was like 14 and picked up a bass and actually joined a band the same day and learned from the guitarist in the band pretty much everything.
James: I actually took drum lessons for about two months and also was in the bands in school in the performing bands, jazz bands. I had a little bit of formal training but nothing past high school.
Tony: Vocal training. Chorus all the way through high school and middle school and a vocal coach.
What bands or musicians has been a
big influence on you guys?
Ed: The biggest influence on me are Metallica, Soundgarden and Yngwie Malmsteen.
SN: Who?
Ed: Don’t worry about him (laughs) who? (jokingly repeating my response) Metallica, Soundgarden and Faith No More.
Mitch: Kiss is my all time. I saw Kiss I knew that’s what I was going to do. They just blew me away. Their show and production was just incredible.
James: Gordon Lightfoot.
Tony: Nazareth, Thin Lizzy. I’m old school man. Zeppelin
Mitch: Pink Floyd
Tony: Three Dog Night. No not that old but I do like Three Dog Night (Starts singing) One is the loneliest number (laughs)
SN: When did you decide when to make music a career and not just a hobby and what made you want to do it….to take that dive?
Ed: To make it a career instead of a hobby…..I guess we were like sixteen seventeen years old we decided to get out of Columbia and go to Atlanta and start to learn more about music and be a band.
Mitch: That’s when we actually tried to start getting a record deal or at least start playing out and start making money at it as opposed to just sitting in our living rooms and jamming together and stuff like that.
Tony: Always knew it. By the time I was three years old I knew I was going to be a rock superstar. Living large, big house, five cars, with my rent charge.
SN: Someday you can be on MTV Cribs (laughing)
SN: Did all of you always know that you wanted to be musicians? Like when you were three or five for example what did you want to be?
Mitch:
I wanted to be a dentist for a little while then I threw that out of the
window and knew it after that so pretty much all of my life.
Tony:
That explains your beautiful pearly teeth.
Ed:
I wanted to be a veterinarian but my uncle took me out doing some goat scooping
SN: Goat scoaping? (Mitch laughing)
Ed:
I decided that day I wasn’t going to be a veterinarian any longer and probably
a year later when I was about 12 when I picked up a guitar thought that was what
I might want to do.
SN: I grew up on a farm and I still don’t know what goat scoping is (laughing) What do you think you would be doing right now if your music career didn’t take off? Do you still think you would be trying to make it happen?
James:
I would still be a landscaper for one that’s what I would be doing.
Mitch:
I think we would all be doing menial jobs we would be disgusted by
Tony:
Still trying just as hard though to make it in music
SN: People think that when you have a record deal you are rich and have made it but it’s not true.
Tony: not
even close…nah now if this was 1982 maybe.
Usher or Nelly or one of those cats they usually get huge advances to
start a career.
SN: Have your goals as an artist changed since you first started performing?
Mitch:
I think they change everyday. Every
new thing that pops up that’s like wow I can’t believe we did that! Then it becomes what’s the next step. What’s the next thing to look forward to?
It’s never ending. You don’t ever see the light at the end of the tunnel.
You just kind of see the next horizon to get to.
Tony:
We played Conan then we played Kimmel then Leno.
So of course our next goal would be Letterman and SNL.
Ed:
Then the Grammy’s.
Tony and Mitch
(repeating the Grammy’s and laughing)
SN: Hey you never know!
Tony:
Yeah that’s right!
SN: What was the hardest track to write or lay down on Crossfade?
Tony:
That would be
Mitch:
Starless
Ed:
yeah probably starless
Tony:
I remember you spent a long time on that song.
It was like three different songs wasn’t it and then you put it
together into one?
Ed:
(The) chorus was all kinds of crap man.
(laughs) It was the hardest part of
the song.
Tony:
It turned out to be an excellent song though.
SN: Do your lyrics reflect personal experiences or those of your friends and family?
Ed:
Personal experiences.
Ed: My favorite song to perform would be “Death Trend Setta.” It’s our heaviest song; it’s a lot of energy above. Kids dance around like maniacs and that’s when all of the 15-year-olds chicks get thrown over the barrier. (The rest of the band laughs) They are nuts!
Mitch: (laughs) nuts. Oh their nuts….
Ed: Not their nuts. They are already nuts. (Band laughs)
Tony: Good one Eddy!
Mitch: He’s so funny.
Tony: My favorite song to perform is “Disco.” Its heavy song and it has a hooky chorus to it.
SN:
What do you want your fans or people to take away from your music?
Any certain message that you’re trying to send out?
Ed: just that there is always something good in everything that’s bad. And that no matter how bad it gets it always gets better because things can get pretty damn hard.
Tony: One song says well its not so bad y’all together we all fall, just at long as we get up we’ll stand tall we shouldn’t waste another day thinking about the things we forgot to say.
SN: No giving up now (the name of the song)
Tony: Yeah that’s about getting something good in something bad. Eddie is a pretty good lyricist for stuff like that.
James: He’s got lyricosis.
Tony: He’s got lyricosis and Gingivite…no (they all laugh)
SN:
How do you think you have grown as a performer and musician since
first started playing?
Mitch: Just from playing everyday especially since we have been on tour for almost eight months in a row of nothing but playing music almost every night. Six nights a week you have to get better. If you don’t get better than something’s wrong. That in turn makes the tech guys better makes the sound guys better. So just everyday is just an improvement on the day before. You know there is a few days here and there that things might go right but that seems to be about it.
Ed: Also learning before we played people didn’t really know our songs or who we were. So we kind of had to not really be something that we weren’t but you know we couldn’t just be what we were and (have) people accept that. We had to win the crowd over and do crazy things to get their attention. But now I have found that they know us and that they love the music and have come for that we have changed in a way. We play the music and they help us with the show. You know what I am saying…..we instead of us doing all of the work.
SN: What do you think sets you apart from all of the other up and coming rock bands?
Ed: We don’t really
Mitch: We are just like any other band out there you know.
Tony: Well maybe the whole thing that does set us apart is our drive. I mean a lot of bands have drives but our drive is extra special.
James: I think the fact that you’ve got three vocalists that can sing so well together and so clearly and distinctively that you can listen to the record and understand every lyric. A lot of bands out there you listen to their stuff and have to go hunting for the insert on the inside to read the lyrics. So for me I think the one thing that sets us apart is the fact we have three vocalist that sing so very well together.
Tony: and separately.
Mitch: I don’t think any of us set out to be trendsetters as far as a new style of music. We wanted to play the music we wanted to play and it’s a lot of the people we took from. It’s got its Metallica and who ever in it. We weren’t out there to make some kind of album that was something completely different. We wanted to be out here making music that people liked. That’s not necessarily something that you get form a new style of music. So we just wanted to play music that we love and hope people will love it too.
Tony: (jokingly) plus we are all really hot too. (Laughs)
SN: I agree (laughing)
James: I thought he said we were all really high!
Tony: I can’t have a little fun?
Mitch: NO! No fun for you! Write just kidding right beside that.
SN: OK I will!
SN: What has been the best thing
about being in a band in general?
Ed, Mitch and Tony (all together): the girls!
Mitch: The hot chicks!
James: The traveling meeting all the new people
Ed: (in-between James sentence) The Girls!
James: seeing all these new
exciting cities around the country
Ed: and all these new exciting girls! (Whole band laughing) and to be 2500 miles from home and three hundred people in the crowd know every word of your album
Tony: 300? Like, 3,000!
Mitch: come on now!
Tony: Well I’m just trying to exaggerate a little….
Ed: OK 300 people in the crowd know all of our lyrics…..all our lyrics!
Tony: at the House of Blues last night I guarantee there were more than 300 people singing cold
Ed: ohhh yeah! I’m talking about all the songs. (Jokingly) Let me finish my sentence!
Tony: ohh I am trying to rebuttal sorry! I am not supposed to be talking at interviews am I?
Ed: Sit in the back Tony! Go to your room!
Tony: (repeating) go to your room!
Mitch: Go to your spot in the corner!
Ed: Your going to be fined! (Laughing) Retribution!
Tony: Retribution!
Ed: We are fining your salary! (Laughing)
Tony: I’ve had too much coffee or coke or something! Or cola….
SN: Looking back now on the first record what do you think you will do differently on when you record your next album?
James: For one thing I will be on it and that will be possibly! (Laughing)
SN: We will just see how it works out (laughing)
Ed: Well we are definitely going to record at a major studio for sure. You know that’s probably the only thing that I hope is going change. Hopefully we will produce the album and record the entire thing ourselves. Then take that into a studio and have a technical producer help us get the sounds down. But that is probably the only thing that I hope will change.
Mitch: and musically I think you know a lot of things will be very different and a lot of things will be like this album. Like a lot of heavy stuff and a lot of stuff that we couldn’t really explore on the first album just because its not what the record industry wanted to hear. Stuff will be a little different this time than before on our musical side.
Ed: On the last record I did a lot of lyrical writing without influence. Then it will be our professional band it will be what we do for a living. Its what we can all concentrate on. (For example) For someone to say, “Johnson couldn’t be there at a certain time” and stuff like that. Now that we do this for a living we can actually do everything together.
Mitch: It’s a lot easier to create as a (whole) band.
SN: What is currently your favorite band what are you listening to right now?
Ed: Thornly
Mitch: big thornly fans, big clutch fans, monster magnet, Disturbed. Disturbed rocks!
James:
and a plethora of unsolicited CDs we get in every city we go from young
up and coming bands wanting us to hear their stuff.
Sometimes its great, sometimes it rocks but a lot of times it sucks
really bad. But we still listen to
it and give (it a chance)
Mitch: I don’t think we should ever answer that because we might end up on tour with them at some point.
Tony: The only band….I guess we can’t really say that….
Ed: No we should never talk like that about other bands.
Tony: we would definitely be reattributed for that!
Ed: Well you know I would probably never go buy tickets to a Billy Ray Cyrus concert but you know.
Tony: He’s already gone bro. He had an achy breaky heart that broke all the way to the bank. He’s got money.
Ed: I don’t own any of the Hootie and the Blowfish records but you have to admire what they’ve done.
Tony: I love Hootie and the Blowfish.
Ed: Great guys, nice guys
Tony: Most of them we wouldn’t buy nobody we wished that would die!
SN: Right that’s a good way to be (a good attitude)
Tony: We want all of them to live on and on and let them send their message out. Whether it sucks or its good or whatever.
SN: Is there anything you know now about the music business that you wished you would have known when your first started out? (Any lessons learned the hard way).
Mitch:
One of our lessons is about money and
rules.
SN: What kind of rules?
Mitch:
Having to run a business out of a moving vehicle is something you can’t
just learn you have to just do it everyday and learn form your mistakes.
Tony:
Its all been very informative. We
have learned a lot. I mean I
didn’t know much about the music business at all.
I saw bands getting signed and then all of a sudden you think they are
rich and I always thought that too until you actually get into it.
Then you realize that you have to build it up.
James:
Just because you see a video on VH1 or MTV doesn’t mean that those guys
are rich by ANY means. (Band laughs)
Ed:
They can’t even pay their bills.
James:
A lot of bands struggle and have two or three videos out.
SN: I have about $15 to my name right now so I know what that is all about… I work for a corporation myself!
Tony:
I just bought a loaf of bread and pound of bologna!
SN: I always feel bad when people think bands are rich just because they are on a label. My friends Greenwheel had their gear stolen and these kids at a show were all like Its OK you guys don’t have to worry about it you have a record deal you can go buy new instruments. Its just not true people just don’t understand. They had to take out a loan from the label I do believe…
James:
Yeah it doesn’t work like that. We
have to watch every penny out here on tour.
We have to really keep…Thankfully, we have a tour manager that does it
for us but I mean he really has to keep his eyes on every penny.
Where it goes, how its being spent is it a worth while expense, is it
something we can do without.
Ed:
We have realized that taxes suck! (laughs)
James:
Way worse than they ever did before.
Tony:
No doubt and they’ll get worse. The
more money you make the more they take bro.
James:
The man will get his. See
your still working for the man.
Tony:
You make a little bit of money off the first record but your second
record is when you start to know you’ve done well.
When you start to really see profits from it.
Different things like bigger advances on the record and that kind of
thing. We took a real small advance
on the first record. I don’t want
to get into too much detail you know. We
have been struggling for a while but we still get out there still kick that ass
every night. We say our prayers at
night. We all pray before we play.
Guide us in the right way take this boot (points at his boot) and put it
right up whatever town’s ass we are in. (laughs)
SN: That’s a good attitude!
SN:
You have been compared to a lot of bands what do you think is the
weirdest you have been compared to?
Ed:
P.O.D was kind of weird. Nickelback. Not
that I think our music sounds like Nickelback at all.
It was just a big roar about us that was what we sound like.
SN: I cannot stand Nickelback at all and I love you guys so I do not see that comparison being true!
Ed:
Well we appreciate that! Not that that’s not cool (being compared to them)….
SN: ummm No….(its not)
Mitch: In a big fat ass house, on a fat ass lake….retired (laughs) sitting on my fat ass!
Ed: I see us right here in a longer bus.
Tony: If we are all getting along. If we are not getting along we will be like brothers and will be on four busses.
James: and the crew….the underlying peasant crew guys…we are going to get them on a little bus.
Tony: yeah get ‘em an RV!
Ed: I just see ourselves continue to grow musically and be on our third album by then.
Mitch: There is no end in sight for us. We don’t have a master plan of what will happen in five years. I think its just making the business bigger and better and more profitable and doing it in walkers.
SN: Like The Rollingstones
Ed: Yeah still on the climb up and hopefully have a little money in the bank. Not going out MC Hammer style. I can’t really see doing anybody doing that maybe except Tony.
Tony: Gee Thanks but no. I have learned my lesson about money. You get a little bit don’t spend it all.
Ed: (interrupting Tony) SAVE IT! In case you don’t get more for a while.
Tony: I leaned my lesson the hard way about that. But I ain’t going to say if I have 50 million dollars I ain’t going to have some bling!
SN:
Keep it all in rotation!
James: Buy our stuff cuz we ain’t got no money! (laughing and the rest of the band laughs) Merchandise on sale now!
Ed: Just look for the headlining tour coming your way soon.
James: Spring of 2005 yeah we will be headlining.
Tony: Kicks off March 24th. Crossfade headline tour.
Ed: March 23rd actually
Tony: 23rd ….We’ve got Strata.
James: We are taking Strata with us we are very excited about that those guys are a great band.
Tony: They deserve to be a direct support band.
Ed: Colors…..if there is another single.
Mitch: Ohh yeah there will be another three or….
Ed: Hopfully there will be a five and a six
Tony: I wouldn’t doubt three or four singles off this record. I think colors is going to shoot straight up quicker than cold or so far away.
Ed: I think Dead Skin too.
Tony: Our popularity is growing and plus the song is just so bad ass. When it hits airwaves and goes national people are going to really relate to that song.
SN:
Yeah my sister says that whenever she hears it she wants to find you
and give you all hugs and say its OK (laughing)
Mitch: Well tell her to come by anytime!