Worldwide hardcore phenomenon, A Day To Remember, have just announced their highly-anticipated sixth studio album Bad Vibrations. The Floridian five-piece have spent the three years since their critically acclaimed Common Courtesy (2013) touring relentlessly around the globe, including the recent Big Ass Tour Australian tour. We caught up with guitarist Kevin Skaff to chat about the making of the album.
How’s the US tour with Blink 182 and All Time Low been going so far?
Oh, it’s been amazing. Big Crowds. All Time Low are great; we’ve toured a lot with them before and they’re great to hang with and Blink’s are the nicest people ever and their live show’s insane, so it’s been an awesome tour.
How do you go keeping the energy up for a big tour? Is it hard or does it kind of feed itself?
I think it does feed itself; as long as the crowd is into it and the crowds on this tour have been awesome.
Is touring hard or do you manage to have some downtime?
We never used to have downtime, but lately we’ve been giving ourselves a little bit, which is nice. It also helps to remember tours, because they used to just run all together.
How hard is it to translate that live energy into a recorded album?
I think with our new record it was easier to do it because we were just in a room playing live, so we knew how it would feel live right away. With our last couple of records we didn’t do that, so those are kinda harder to judge. Definitely the new record, that was created 100% in the room so we know that those songs are gonna be good live.
Bad Vibrations is your sixth album. Does it get easier or harder to create music as time goes on?
I dunno man, you just kinda get inspiration from different things. The style of song might change. You’re not the same person you were back in 2007 or 2009, 2011, shit not even 2013. It’s just taking influences from different stuff and hopefully you still love writing music at the end of the day, which we all do.
Do you have any ideas in your head of what you are going to write before you go into the studio?
Nah, we just go in and pound out some songs and we just pick the best ones at the end of the day. If it was an opera song and we all just loved it, it would probably make it on the record. This album we wrote as a real band. Other albums, we were split up in studios and stuff so it was a bit disconnected, so this one we were like “No – fuck that shit, we’re gonna write it as a band.”
The last song on the album, “Forgive and Forget” is almost a lullaby. So there must be a whole range of influences when you write?
Yeah, that’s just what happens when we get in a room. Depending what mood we’re in, one day we’ll do two heavy songs and two pop songs, you just don’t know with us.
At what point do you say a song’s done? Do you have a defining moment or do you keep working on it?
Usually we keep working on it until we can’t find anything else to do with it. Usually that’s when somebody goes, “Alright, we gotta stop working on it”. (Laughs)
You must have stories from fans about how your music has helped them through a difficult moment. Is it therapeutic for you as well?
Yeah, 100%. It’s our music before anybody else’s. I got a bunch of songs that have a lot of meaning for me. I don’t know if I can go into any detail about that, but yeah there are definitely a bunch of songs that hit home for me. Not close to home, but hit home. Probably my favorite song that I like a lot on this album is “Same About You”. I don’t know why, I just do.
How does it feel playing them in front of an audience?
I’m just excited for ADTR to be playing a lot of new stuff. These songs have been ours for so long, I can’t wait for them to be our fans. So far the feedback has all been really good.
I really like “Bullfight” actually.
That was really different for us, putting out that song. We were like, “I hope people like this.”
What do you think is behind the power of music?
I dunno man, I think music’s just a universal thing. There’s so many different styles, so many different voices, that it connects to memories, a time and a place, so I think that people latch onto that. I have songs were I think, “Oh shit, this reminds me of December 2015,” I’ll listen to it and remember the entire month. I think that’s what I love about music. Or I heard the band for the first time with this person and you’ll be like, “I haven’t heard from that person forever, so I’m gonna text them.”
I’m sure you have seen people crying in the audience.
Yeah, or showing their boobs.
A Day To Remember won “Best Live Band” in the Alternative Music Awards in 2015; is getting awards something that drives the band?
We don’t really care for awards; we want people to be able to connect to our music. It’s cool that you get recognised by the industry, but it’s not like if we didn’t get the award we would just stop being a band. We don’t put out a music video to try to win Music Video of the Year, we just wanna put out a good music video. I dunno, it’s just a piece of metal at the end of the day.
I’ve seen the videos of “Bad Vibrations” and “Paranoia” and it seems that the band have a lot of control over what goes into the clip.
We have some videos where the director has taken it just where he wants, but sometimes we feel so strong about it, most videos on Bad Vibrations have been us.
The market for music has changed so much in the last few years, with streaming and the resurgence of vinyl. Is that something that ADTR has to think about?
We like the whole vinyl thing because it’s cool to have an actual physical copy of it. I think vinyl is like an art piece; it’s big, whereas a CD, yeah it’s cool but it’s small. We did the Shark Attack Australian vinyl last year or two years ago, that was huge for us and the fans totally liked it. We like coming up with ideas for new vinyl.
And how are you looking forward to touring Australia later this year?
We love Australia. There are so many awesome memories from past tours. Looking forward to it.
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A DAY TO REMEMBER AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES
December 10th | Red Hill Auditorium, PERTH
December 13th | Entertainment Centre, ADELAIDE
December 14th | Festival Hall, MELBOURNE
December 16th | Hordern Pavilion, SYDNEY
December 18th | Riverstage, BRISBANE
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