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| ::Interviews:: |
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| review & interview content, as well as web site graphics & design, copywrite 2003-2004 Euphonia Online. use of materials granted only with reasonable purposes. |
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| interviewed by robby sumner |
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| Interview with Jeff August 19th, 2005 |
Connor Lovat-Fraser - Vocals Jeff Davis - Guitar, Vocals Shawn Butchart - Guitar Dave Costa - Bass, Vocals Kara Dupuy - Keyboards, Synth, Vocals Brian Southall- Drums |
| E: Boys Night Out has a new album, Trainwreck, which came out late July... your last Ferret Records release was 2003's Make Yourself Sick. Having had a successful debut album, did you feel like you had a good solid scene footing to relax and handle Trainwreck with less stress and more attention to detail? Jeff: It's never really been a stressful thing for us, making music. We write the songs for us, and we're always happy with what we're writing, so it's a very positive process. We definitely paid quite a lot more attention to detail in every aspect of writing and recording Trainwreck, infinitely more so than with Make Yourself Sick. E: Do you think your band could in any way become stuck creatively in a stagnant public opinion of what your typical sound? Do you feel the need to cater to the reputation you've created for your musical style? Jeff: Obviously not. Trainwreck was definitely not what people were expecting to follow Make Yourself Sick. We've lost fans because of it. But that's the choice we made when we were writing it, and we're very happy with the decision. I think as soon as we hear that we have some sort of reputation, we'll do everything in our power to do something totally different to stray away from that. Gotta keep kids on their toes, even if it means 80% of those kids are going to hate us. Stay poor, stay happy. E: With all the intense highs and lows a listener experiences when listening to a collection of BNO songs, does it become difficult for you to keep up a consistent mood when you're performing your music live? Jeff: No, we tend to choose our songs and structure our set in a way that sort of flows, with energy building towards the end. Plus, drinking 70 beers before playing makes it fairly easy to not even care or know what song we're playing at the time. E: Boys Night Out works hard on tour with a lot of high quality bands... is the road almost always a positive experience? Or are there ever times where you'd just rather be home? Jeff: 90% of the time, I'd rather be home. The other 10% is the time we spend onstage, and I wouldn't trade that for anything, but all the other bullshit that goes along with touring can be exhausting. E: When you interact with some of the more devoted BNO fans, are you ever intimidated by their admiration for you? Do you feel pressured to retain that fan's opinion, or are they only a positive side effect of what you're achieving for yourselves? Jeff: I don't ever feel pressured by anyone's opinion of the band. It's always just a very positive thing to see kids responding so well to our music. E: Does the band work at an even pace year in and year out? Or do things become more pressured or more work-required when it's close to a special occasion for the group like July's new album release? Jeff: We're the laziest band in rock. We do as little as possible at all times. The more time we can spend sleeping and drinking with friends, the better. We wrote the bulk of Trainwreck in two months. We just procrastinate until we know we absolutely have to go to work, then we bust our asses. E: Were all the songs for Trainwreck written around the same time? Jeff: More or less. I wrote "Introducing" and "Dying" first, and that was midway through 2004. And then bits of "Dreaming" and "Sentencing" came towards the end of that year, but the majority of the record was written in the two months prior to recording. E: With two years having passed since your last release, are some of the musical evolutions or changes that can be found in your newest album attributable to simple taste changes that have occurred since 2003? Jeff: Partly, yes. Also, we're almost a new band. New drummer, new guitar player, new keyboard player, female vocals... that's a lot of changes for a band. We all just learned to play with each other really well, and really fine-tuned our writing skills. Also, we were disgusted with the scene we were involved with, and wanted to do something different to distance ourselves from it slightly. E: In what ways have you tried to emulate the vibes and ethics that were created by musical influences you all have? Jeff: By not taking ourselves seriously at all costs, and not caring about anything but trying to have fun. E: Are there any qualities of the music you make that you think remain fairly timeless? Jeff: I hope so. It would be pretentious of me to say so, though. I think that's up to people outside of the band to determine. E: Thanks a lot! |