“Kill the Headlights” is a great song about taking risks and just going for it, which sounds like a mantra you had for making the album.
Most of the songs on this record, with the exception of “Broken Bones,” were written way later in the process. And “Headlights” was definitely one of them. And you hit the nail right on the head with that one – it’s about taking a chance and not worrying about getting hurt. You know, sometimes you gotta take a risk for the reward.
What was it about the later songs that you wrote that made you guys want to ditch the earlier stuff you’d worked on for this album?
I think overall it was just finding your groove. Once you find the groove of writing and everything starts flowing, songs kinda weed themselves out. Songs that you wrote a little bit earlier that had a different feel, you find yourself saying, “Well, you know what, that’s not exactly the same sound and same feel that we have right now, so let’s keep going this route.” But what it comes down to is once you hit your groove and get in your comfort zone of writing – and you really figure out what it is that you want to do and you’re trying to do – that’s when it really starts rolling.
“Favorite Disease,” about a love-hate relationship, feels like it’s based on personal experience.
It’s definitely based on personal experience. I think each one of us kinda delved into our own personal relationships – relationships that we’ve either been in, friends of ours have been in, or parents that we’ve grown up seeing. And it is that love-hate relationship – a lot of times, people end up staying in something because they feel comfortable in it, and they’re not really sure how to get out of it. All the things that you love to hate about that person engulf you and fuel you, but at the end of the day it’s really not healthy.
You’ve teamed up with the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) for some events to promote the album. Were you guys wrestling fans when you were younger?
We were pretty much all fans of it when we were kids. And then you kinda lose it as you get older, but when we started working with them and got to go to the events, we came back around to appreciating it again. You don’t realize how big it is and how many people it really does affect. Being on a rock tour, going across the country, we play, you know, clubs and small arenas. And these guys are doing arena tours three to four nights a week, all over the country, selling out. So you don’t realize how big it is – you really begin to appreciate it as a business and a company and what it can do for a band like us. It opened us up to a huge demographic and really helped us out a lot.
It doesn’t seem that there are many bands like Rev Theory that make such high-energy rock music. Do you feel you have any contemporaries?
I mean, it just sucks because everybody wants to put everybody in a class, and everybody wants to compare everybody to everybody. But, the bottom line is we’re all out here just trying to do the same thing. We’re trying to write songs that people want to hear. We’re trying to set ourselves apart. We want to reach a large majority of people. I don’t know if there’s a ton of bands out there doing what we’re doing, but we’re trying to give people a good time. I want people to know that when they come to see a Rev Theory show that they can forget about their problems, leave their ugly lives at home, and just come down and listen to some music that’s gonna make them feel good and rock out for an hour.
Since the shows require a lot of energy from you, how do you get psyched up before a show if you’re not feeling it?
I think about the worst job I ever had and I remember I don’t want to go back there. [laughs]
What was the job?
I worked a whole summer in a 32-degree freezer from midnight until 9 o’clock in the morning working with pallets. It sucked – all my friends were going out and I had to work in a freezer.
That would definitely help you appreciate what you have now.
I’m not gonna mention the band, but I can remember being a kid and going to see a show, saving all my money for this ticket, and the band looked like they were just not having a good time. They were just going through the motions. It was probably one of the worst experiences of my life. And I remember thinking, “Man, I really don’t like this band that much anymore.” And from that point on, I always said to myself and the guys in our band that we want to give people a show and give people a reason to spend their money to come see us. You know, anybody can go through the motions – if I wanted to, I could stick the CD on in my living room and do the same thing.
What are you doing for the holiday?
I will be spending the Fourth of July with my family in New Jersey and just hanging out and relaxing.
Are there any misconceptions people have about you since you’re part of Rev Theory?
What people don’t realize is that ... you’re out on the road and you’re performing five, six days a week. And every single night the party is brought to you. So my friends that I grew up with, when I come home, they think they have to be extra crazy to hang out with me because that’s what it is on the road. But when you get off the road, the last thing you want is the road. When you get off the road, you’re so physically and emotionally drained you just want to relax and kinda chill out and recharge the batteries so that when you get back out there, it’s full swing again.
Now that you’re relaxing at home, is there anything non-musical you’re enjoying? Any good books or DVDs?
You know what? I’ve just been trying to do domestic stuff. Like, learn how to keep a house up and stuff like that. [laughs]
And how’s that going?
It’s OK. [laughs] It takes me twice as long to get something done, but that’s all right.
