I know that bands tend to blend together and pretty soon it seems like they are all the same. The Fold is a band that is not the same. The band just released their 3rd album titled ‘Dear Future, Come Get Me’. Check out a few questions I asked Daniel Castady [lead singer] that he was kind enough to answer them.

TAP: What happened with the record label situation? Tooth & Nail for the first 2 records and now independent, how come?

TF: We were lost in a sea of bands at a time where being “on a label” just doesn’t mean anything anymore. In my eyes, staying with our label would have just been a compromise – and we’re not getting any younger. So we asked out of our contract, and the label was cool about it. Being independent is just an attractive thing for us right now, we want to get our hands dirty, feel the pulse of what we’re doing, and connect with the fans again.

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Surrogate released their second full length record, ‘Popular Mechanics’ on Tooth & Nail Records a little bit ago [July 14th] and so we wanted to talk about it a little bit. Here is a short and sweet interview with Chris Keene. If you have not given the newest album a listen yet, you really should.

TAP: Could you give a brief history of the band up to this point. [By Brief I mean the length of 1, maybe 2, twitter posts]

Jordan (Drums) and I were in a full time touring band that played a very different kind of music. I wasn’t really involved with the creative process for my old band, so I decided to try my hand at writing and recorded some demos when we had time off. I ended up showing the demos to Jordan and he expressed interest in playing them with me. When our original band broke up, we demo-ed about 20 songs, got signed to Tooth and Nail and made two records.

From a listeners point of view there is a lot different when comparing ‘Love Is For The Rich’ and ‘Popular Mechanics’, but from the band’s point of view, what has changed between the 2 albums?

With LIFTR we incorporated a ton of different styles into our record… we had our country song, our folk song, our dance song, our 60’s pop rock song. And I’m still really proud of all those songs, but they affected to co-hesiveness of record in a negative way, I don’t think we gave the listener a feel for who we are as a band. With ‘PM’, we really tried to tie the record together stylistically while still retaining the range of influences from the last record. On top of that, ‘PM’ was recorded in an actual studio as opposed to my bedroom, so the recording it self in much higher quality.

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Photo Credit: Jered Scott

[TAP] The thing I’ve noticed most about ‘Felt’ is how different it sounds. It’s a completely different sound than Anberlin which is at least a little surprising. It feels, or comes across to me almost as an audible diary, would that be an accurate assumption?

[SC] An audible diary, wow. That my friend is more than a fair assessment. I designed the music to be absolutely the antithesis of Anberlin, why start another project if it mirrors what your currently doing? The point with a&b is to expand my horizons, my tastes, my musical abilities etc. so far it feels like it is working.

[TAP] How was writing process different. I think everyone wants to know how someone writes songs for two different bands and which ones go to which?

[SC] Songs talk to me. They tell me who they are for and sometimes what they are about. People think I am talking about spiritually or something of that nature, but honestly its just logic. If you have a fast paced/ happy song you can’t write ominous lyrics. If you have a slower/minor song you can’t exactly talk about how everything ‘turns up roses’.

a&b are more piano/instrument driven songs, whereas Anberlin is more fast paced, high intensity songs. as soon as I get done writing a song on piano/guitar I know what band they are for.

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Not all the time, but most of the time a show’s headlining band is the reason you spent the money, they are why you fought the lines, because you wanted to sing along with them. It’s probably not fair to call Anberlin an up and coming band but, ‘New Surrender’, is the first real introduction to a mainstream audience. After the first single caught fire topping the charts it’s probably safe to say that a lot of people came out to this tour for them.

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Here is our interview with Mike Herrera from Tumbledown [as well as from MxPx]. Tumbledown’s first full length album will be out and in stores May 19th.

Why this style of music? Going back in time most people would not have guessed the next major project [band] to take a lot of your time and effort would be something country, so why has it become so important to go for it and put out a CD with Tumbledown?

I’ve been writing these style songs since 1999, so basically 10 years. That’s a long time to be writing but not recording or playing shows. So I finally decided that I would make Tumbledown a priority this year and release a full length. I got the band together the summer of 2007 to do some demos. We didn’t play our first show till that fall when we did a 2-week run to Southern California and back. Our first hometown show was the last show on that tour. Our first show ever was in Portland, Oregon.

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By the way, it’s pronounced “Dan-You”, you know like “Can You”. That wasn’t the first, but definitely one of the many questions I asked Phil Danyew when I sat down with him for coffee in San Diego. He explained that using only his last name gave some mystery as to whether it was a band or solo act, and that in the future if he did want to have a backing band, it would work that way too.

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Name, (band, if applicable), age, and voting state

Ryan Morgan of Seabird. From Kentucky. Independent.

What kind of political background do you have? How did you become interested?

Been interested since high school. My parents were always committed to researching the candidates and voting for the one that most represented their views. Beyond that they weren’t into politics much. A friend of mine from Northern Ireland was very concerned when he moved here. His passion inspired me because he comes from a country where people are more fed up with corruption and want change. They know change won’t happen unless it comes from them. I worked with him and he got me hooked on Rush Limbaugh. Rush made politics interesting for me because of his commitment to truth and ability to entertain at the same time.

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Name, (band, if applicable), age, and voting state

Obi Best, age: 26, CA

What kind of political background do you have? How did you become interested?

My grandparents are borderline communists… just kidding but they’re very liberal. They were always very involved in civil rights. I went to a few protests with my aunt when I was ten — it was a blast partly due to the fact that I like shouting.

My grandmother and I are both obsessed with preventing old buildings from being destroyed. And there’s a huge tree in their Portland neighborhood that is still there because twenty years ago my grandma chained herself to it when it was about to be cut down. Everyone loves that tree. To me that’s partly what being a Democrat is about — caring about the common good, keeping things beautiful, being aware.

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Name, (band, if applicable), age, and voting state

Stephen James Gomez, The Summer Set, 19, Arizona

What kind of political background do you have? How did you become interested?

I became interested through watching the news growing up and through history classes as a student.

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Name, (band, if applicable), age, and voting state

Sonya Kitchell, 19, New York

What kind of political background do you have? How did you become interested?

I was born in Western Massachusetts with liberal, artist parents, and an abortion rights activist grandmother. The people surrounding me as a child always expressed their views and showed an interest in my own. An awareness of politics has been in my life since I can remember. Whether it was going to rallies, conventions, or talking around the dinner table, striving for a better world has always been an integral part of who I am.

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Name, (band, if applicable), age, and voting state

Stephan Jenkins, Third Eye Blind, CA

What kind of political background do you have? How did you become interested?

Life long interest and involvement in politics. My father was a poli-sci professor so our table was a policy think tank.

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Name, (band, if applicable), age, and voting state

Daniel Ingala, Plushgun; 25 years old, New York.

What kind of political background do you have? How did you become interested?

I’ve always been interested in politics, I remember getting into debates in elementary school. At NYU , I became a bit of an anti-war activist, while getting a degree in political science.

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At this years Warped Tour in San Diego, I was able to chat with Chris Youngblood (how’s that for a last name?) about what To Write Love On Her Arms is up to along with a few other things. I recorded the conversation and was planning on simply typing it out for everyone to read but unfortunately due to some technical difficulties (i.e. I forgot to hit “save”) the recording was lost. This will be a more story like, and paraphrased version of the conversation I had with Chris.

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John, who will be doing interviews for The Album Project had a chance to chat with Justin from Brighten. You can stream, or download the audio interview at the link below.

Listen to the Brighten Interview

Check out the band on Myspace

For our first ever interview we had a chance to breifly chat with Daniel Hunter from PlayRadioPlay!. Check out the interview below.

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