The Word Alive @ Slam Dunk 2013

Shortly before The Word Alive took to the stage at Slam Dunk North, Ben Tipple caught up with Telle Smith and Daniel Shapiro to discuss what the band had in store.

HOW ARE YOU DOING TODAY?

TS: Good thanks, how are you doing?

GREAT – I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING THE FESTIVAL GOING. HAVE YOU HAD MUCH CHANCE TO TAKE THINGS IN?

DS: We got in yesterday, so we’ve had some time to walk down the malls and get some drinks.

TS: We got in early which we’ve never been able to do it really in Europe. We’ve never had a day off.

SO YOU MANAGED TO EXPLORE LEEDS?

TS: Yeah, it’s nice.

DS: We loved it. It’s cold as hell though.

TS: Yeah, the weather was not nice. Today is perfect though. Last year was nice and warm too.

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT DIFFERENTLY THIS YEAR COMPARED TO LAST?

DS: More new songs.

TS: Yeah, more new songs. Last year was insane. This is our fourth or fifth time playing Leeds so we’re hoping there will be even more dedicated fans and more crowd reaction than the last three times.

YOU’VE HAD A LOT OF TIME TO PLAY ‘LIFE CYCLES’ LIVE SINCE ITS RELEASE LAST YEAR. HOW HAS THE REACTION BEEN?

DS: Great, especially because the last time we’ve been in Europe we’ve been with Parkway Drive. It’s been great exposure for us because they’re such an established band out here. We got to play to a lot of new fans. On this tour [with Sleeping With Sirens] especially. There are two dynamics; Parkway are really metal and Sleeping With Sirens is a little more poppy. We get the best of both worlds, which is kind of what we are as a style. It’s been working out a lot.

HOW HAS THE TOUR WITH SLEEPING WITH SIRENS BEEN GOING?

TS: It’s such an honour to play with the bands every day. We wake up and play to a lot of kids every day.

DS: We hear screaming fans in the middle of the morning, just waking up to twelve year olds slobbering all over our pictures.

THE NEW ALBUM IS COMING OUT LATER THIS YEAR?

TS: We are going to do a new full length. After this tour we go out with Killswitch Engage, Miss May I and Darkest Hour. After that we are going to take a little bit more time to finish writing the record. Then we are going to go into the studio to record our third full-length.

DS: Hopefully our best yet!

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT ON THE NEW ALBUM?

DS: With every album we have definitely progressed. This one is not only going to progress vocally from Telle’s side, but with all of us as musicians, programmers and instrumentalists. It’s going to be something we wanted from ‘Life Cycles’, but more. We are going to do all the things we couldn’t do.

TS: We were really rushed when it came to our last CD. Even though we spent quite a bit of time writing it, it was more loosely writing it.

DS: We were on tour…

TS: It wasn’t like, “let’s sit down and make sure this is the best song”, it was like, “I have a song, and it’s cool” and that’s that.

DS: A lot of the songs we played for the first time live. At least this time around we don’t only get to have the songs to jam to and see how they sound, we will also be ready to play them live. They will have just as much intensity as our old songs, but we will have less to worry about really. The process is going to be more comfortable.

THE WRITING PROCESS MUST BE VERY DIFFERENT THEN?

TS: So far the biggest thing has been the approach and understanding of what we do as a band. Before it was kind of like everyone was doing their own thing and we realised that doesn’t work. We are better when we are all entertaining each other’s ideas and bringing something to the table. There are five of us in the band that are all, I think, really good at what we do. We take each of those elements instead of one person doing the other person’s work. I think you get more of the true The Word Alive sound.

DS: The dynamic that we all bring.

TS: I’m really excited about it. I think this record is going to be everything our old fans wanted from ‘Life Cycles’, and everything that our new fans loved.

DS: You can expect some different things from us because not only do we have a new drummer, but we’re coming from a place where we get to jam. We hear something during sound checking and think that could definitely be a song. It doesn’t sound like something yet but it has potential. It’s all going to be a lot heavier without it being typically what you’d expect from a heavy metalcore band. We’re trying to move away from that. We are trying to be a more metal and rock all-round band rather than just a subgenre.

TRYING TO LOSE THE “CORE” LABEL…

DS: Trying to stay away from cliques. Trying to be what we want to be as musicians. We are all eclectic music fans; I know our fans are too.

TS: We’ve never really been that band – a couple of songs have just happened to do well. We’ve never set out to plan a breakdown. It’s never how we have written songs. A couple of our songs may have come across that way, but we don’t want to misrepresent who we are as a band. We are trying to push the envelope. This is going to be the album where we prove the people right who have said The World Alive are a band who can definitely break out of the box.

ARE YOU READY TO PLAY ANY MATERIAL FROM THE FORTHCOMING ALBUM?

DS: No, no. Just new songs from ‘Life Cycles’. Last year we played a really old song called ‘Casanova’ and a couple of songs from ‘Deceiver’. This time around we are going to play five songs from ‘Life Cycles’. Those fans who came out to see new stuff are going to get that. We are also going to play some of our old, good classic songs that people came out to see.

ANY OTHER BANDS ON TODAY’S LINE-UP THAT YOU ARE EXCITED ABOUT SEEING?

TS: We have a ton of friends here! We’re actually going up against Sleeping With Sirens today.

DO YOU FIND SLAM DUNK LIKE A BIT OF REUNION?

DS: Last year was kind of the same with the proportionality of bands we know and bands we don’t know. It’s always good to meet new bands – it’s how you branch out.

TS: We are going to wonder around and if we hear something we like check in and see what it’s like. I wouldn’t only want to see the bands I have seen a million times. I want to walk around and discover new bands. This isn’t like your average tour.

DS: There’s a festival vibe.

TS: You can go and discover a completely different genre that you love. I think that’s what’s great about all the Slam Dunk festivals.

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BEN TIPPLE