Alexisonfire

Fri 19th Jun, 2009 in Features

“Obviously when you change anything you’re going to irritate certain people who like your band,” Wade MacNeil, guitarist and vocalist of Alexisonfire concedes to FasterLouder.

With new album Old Crows/Young Cardinals moving in different directions sonically, emotionally and lyrically, Alexisonfire have come to find that they just can’t please everyone. “One guy said, – œI got an Alexisonfire tattoo on my leg because I loved you guys so much. Now I’m going to have to carve it out with a cheese grater!’ The response has been overwhelmingly positive, but the people that are bummed, are just so bummed.”

The much beloved Canadian five-piece have tried to keep those negative comments pushed far in the back on their minds. Of course they will change, MacNeil insists. Progress – like a pantie-less pop-star – is inevitable.

“I think what we try and do with each record is get closer to more of a live sound; build on the things that define us as a band and at the same time try not to repeat ourselves,” he says. “This time we’ve actually spent time playing the songs live, and I feel like the songs are very much where they need to be.”

It’s hard to know what cheese grater man is complaining about. Old Crows/Young Cardinals feels like the band’s most complete album to date. The first noticeable difference is the change in screamer George Pettit’s vocals. Stepping away from the staccato feel of Crisis, Pettit employs a more melodic, rhythmic approach. The sound has moved from a give-and-take battle with vocalists MacNeil and Dallas Green to a brutal union of voices.

Want something else to make you quiver in your Alexis-loving boots? How about the seemingly-out-of-place inclusion of an organ on a handful of the album tracks? Another move by Pettit, the organ adds an almost ethereal mood to the recording. Where Crisis was a city shroud in dirt, OC/YC is a cityscape of ghostly hope.

”[George] bought the organ at a pawn shop a while ago,” MacNeil explains. “I very much like that tone on a lot of older records. It blew my mind because of that gritty organ noise, which is just so rock and roll. I think it’s something that’s taken the music in a new direction for us.”

With first single Young Cardinals currently floating around on radiowaves and bandwidth, the excitement of the imminent arrival of OC/YC makes me feel all Sandy and Danny like, “Tell me more, tell me more…”

“It’s not as introspective as some of our older stuff. It’s not so personal; it’s definitely more topical and not so abstract,” MacNeil muses. “On Crisis, there were a lot of songs where we were talking about being beaten down by the city you live in or feeling disillusioned by things. I think this record still kind of deals with those ideas, but talks more about – œwhat are you going to do about it?’ and – œhow are you going to change things?’”

Though the lyrical maturity of the band seems to have come on in leaps and bounds, MacNeil insists it isn’t because any of them are actually any more mature. “I don’t look at music and life the same way at 25 as I did when I was 17. I definitely think this is the best representation of the band so far. You know, I think it’s why people always ask me why we don’t play certain songs from our first record; I just feel odd about it. Some songs just don’t feel right anymore.”

Nor do some genre tags. Being quoted as wanting to “stick the knife into screamo” with their next release, Alexis as a band have drifted away from the scene they were once so tightly affiliated with. “We generally all feel very disenchanted with what – œscreamo’ has turned into and the way things are going,” MacNeil admits. “I kind of feel like it’s a lot like hair metal. Like there are all these metal bands that have started and it’s turned into this kind of glam nonsense. I don’t feel akin to the kind of newer bands that would call themselves a screamo band. Screamo has turned into a dirty word.”

The problem is, people love a good label. How else do we show off our uber-cool music knowledge to our friends? If you’re not screamo Alexis, what are you?

“I like it when someone calls us something really ridiculous; like we see a flyer and it says Extremo or something really stupid,” MacNeil chortles. “Or when people are like – œOh man, I don’t really listen to power violence, but you guys are all right.’ Power violence! What the fuck are you talking about?”

Last year, the Ontario power violence pioneers broke the hearts of thousands of gullible fans when MacNeil announced on Triple J’s Short Fast Loud that the band was O-V-E-R.

“I think I’d just done too many interviews that day and I was put in a foul mood by the guy who had done my previous interview. He just asked me endless questions about City and Color and – œWhat’s Dallas doing?’, and just really wanting me to say that we were breaking up. It put me in a foul enough mood that we were like, – œWell fuck it, who cares.’”

Alexisonfire, however, were not breaking up. So while we were all crying under our doona covers and scrawling the internet for confirmation, the band were dealing with a barrage of emails, phone calls and worried label executives. I find it hard to feel sympathy; my pillow case wouldn’t dry for a week. “You say something like, off the cuff, and a lot of people get really bummed out. I don’t want to do that – œcause I know how much a lot of bands mean to me,” MacNeil says, almost apologetically. “I promise I won’t do it again.”

MacNeil has hinted that a tour to Australia is on the cards, but that unless you have mad lung capacity, you shouldn’t hold your breath. “It’s going to be a little while, because Australia is, as much as we do love it, so very far away,” he said. “We’re going to be touring pretty much until December in North America in Europe and then hopefully get out sometime in the New Year.”

Old Crows/Young Cardinals is out Friday 26 June on Dine Alone through Shock Records.