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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 Anthony July 20th, 2005 |
Anthony Green - Vocals Colin Frangicetto - Guitar Brendan Ekstrom - Guitar Nick Beard - Bass Steve Clifford - Drums |
| E: Anthony, you and your current band just recently released your latest full-length Juturna on Equal Vision, to great appreciation. Why don't we start with a brief summary of how the concept of Circa Survive first came into play.
Anthony: Well, I mean, I think everybody that's involved in the project right now is on the same page as far as that we all wanted to be in a band where we could all share the same amount of creative exploration and support each other during different experimental sounds. Me and Colin wanted to start a band together really bad, because we had jammed together and both of us had been jamming with the same people for a little while, and we were like... "Dude, this feels so good. We gotta do this together." You know what I mean? It's kind of like if you have a really good friend, and you start, like, making out, and you realize, "Wow, we should have been getting it on this whole time." That's kind of what it was like. And then it went from that on to become more and more about an opportunity for all of us to be able to do whatever we wanted creatively, artistically, with the sound and with the performance. I don't know, it's kind of selfish in a way. This band is really self-gratifying. *Laughs* E: With all the members of the band having formerly been part of other prominent groups, were you worried at all about all the fans of your previous bands having serious expectations for what your releases would sound like? Or did you simply decide not to stress about that and write whatever music you felt like? Anthony: It wasn't really "screw them." I just do whatever I want to do. It's not about making anybody else happy, you know what I mean? I just wanna do whatever the fuck I wanna do, and not have people breathe down my neck. Just being able to do or say whatever you wanna do, you know? That's what it was all about. It wasn't really about trying to impress anybody but the guys in the band. E: Do you think that there was a high risk of fans having misconceptions about Circa based on your previous material with other bands? Anthony: There's always gonna be shit like that, so I try not to worry about it, because you can't control it, you know? I try not to worry about things I can't control. E: You personally have been involved in a lot of groups with very different sounds, ranging from heavy material with Saosin and poppier work for Zolof the Rock and Roll Destroyer... do you believe you have a versatile singing voice fit for a variety of styles? Or have you simply done a lot of experimentation and realized that what you do with Circa is the best match for you? Anthony: I'm really still new at all this. I've been learning the whole process... with any project I've ever been with, it's been all about trying to learn how to do what you're doing better. But I don't think I ever had as much creativity as we do now. E: You've put out two releases so far--the Inuit Sessions EP and your full-length Juturna. When the band first got going, did new material flow quickly from jam sessions? Or was the writing process slow and drawn out? Anthony: A lot of it came from just jamming, and a lot of it came from everybody taking time apart from each other and just focusing on their instrument a little bit. Half of it was inspired by everybody being together, and I think a lot of it was just each individual trying to come up with shit to impress each other. Everybody wanted to top each other during the jam session, you know what I mean? Everybody wanted to be doing something equally as unique and adding to the sound. So it kind of turned out like that. I think we want to experiment with different kinds of writing with the newer shit that we're doing. I just had this idea the other day... to take, like, an awesome book that I really like, and take a page out of it, and instead of taking a blank piece of paper and writing words on it, taking a pre-existing piece of paper with words... and just fucking crossing shit out. Like, crossing shit out in every sentence, and making sentences together to make a completely different theme, a completely different sense. And I'm still not even sure or not that's even a cool idea, but at this point and time, nobody can tell us we can't try shit out, so that's kind of cool. E: So do you believe that the lyrical content you work with and the instrumentation directly impact one another? Anthony: Yeah, absolutely. We all contribute to everything that's going on, even the drums and the bass and the guitars. Everybody is trying to achieve the same vibe as each other. When I write, if somebody's like... "I have this idea for a line," or if I had this idea for this song, and this was how I want it to feel, we'll all talk about it. Most of the time, I end up writing most of the lyrics and they end up writing the majority of the music, but there's way more of a give-and-take than I've ever had, at least since I was in high school. E: Do you feel like your life has been completely transformed into that of an artist and musician, one different from what most people experience? Anthony: Yeah dude, like... this is actually the most focused and intense I've ever really been. I can definitely say for me that this is the most I've ever felt like a full-time musician in my entire life. And it's especially the most appreciated I've ever felt for doing anything. People have been so kind since the record came out, and everybody's really supportive, and it's just really fucking gratifying. Unbelievably gratifying. E: Lately you've been playing a lot of live shows... is performing for you a very consistent experience, or is it a lot different now that you have a new band and a new record out? Anthony: The live show, for me, has always been about just being able to let go of all the bullshit that's going on in your life and just be part of the sound. Like, physically instead of recording. With this band, the live show is like fucking spiritual for me. I always try to bring intensity to a live show, but with this band... I just feel intense, I feel the intensity when I hear the music, and the kids bring such positive energy to the show that it's overwhelming sometimes. I dunno. It's definitely way better than it's ever been. E: With your live as a whole right now, is everything still pretty high-energy and frenzied, or have things become more relaxed? Anthony: There's a great balance going on right now in our little system... of being able to give each other enough to space to relax, and being able to stimulate each other enough mentally. I am more balanced now than I have ever been in my life, physically and spiritually. E: What would you say was the first real accomplishment you had as a band? Anthony: The first thing I think we accomplished as a band...? Fuck. I mean, I don't know. Just the whole relationship from the very beginning is one of total openness and honesty, and that's definitely better than anything I've accomplished in any relationship in my life. Just the kind of openness and trust I have with these dudes is a fucking amazing accomplishment. There's the record... we have these jam tapes that are like fifty minutes of just jamming, coming up with the coolest shit and not even thinking about it... and all this shit going off and coming together in synchronicity. I mean, that's a huge accomplishment, and I have things like that to listen back on and be inspired. So much shit, man! I could go on! E: Do you think you've been pretty open and out there with your fans, or have you retained a sense of mystery and secrecy in terms of the band's workings and your personal lives? Anthony: I'm kind of just trying to figure that kind of shit out right now. Like where I draw the line between that kind of shit. But I definitely like to keep things in my personal life, personal, and have any kind of relationship that I have with anyone who I don't know whose into the music, whether they're a fan or a member... I'd like to keep that all based on the art, and not have it be too much of a personal thing. Like, if I really dug what somebody was doing, I would always want to find shit out about them, you know? But I don't really see the sense in that anymore. It makes me feel a little uncomfortable sometimes. But for the most part, everybody that's been coming out and everybody that I've met has been really amazing and really supportive. E: With how successful the band is being now, do you ever see yourself fading from the music scene or retiring to another career? Or are you expecting to still be rocking out on stage when you're 65 years old? Anthony: I wanna be doing this until I'm, like, dead. I also want to do a bunch of other shit, too. Like I would love to some day be able to put out records. You know what I mean? I would love to some day be able to publish books, or even write books... write poetry, and stuff like that. I love to paint. I'd like to see this expand into all fashions of creativity. I think a lot of us would. And I think it's a good starting point, you know? But I definitely don't ever want to stop rocking. *Laughs* E: You've already had a poem published in the little pink book "Revolution On Canvas"... is this sort of writing the same process you use to write lyrics? Anthony: I pretty much write the same all the time... the way I write is kind of weird and linear, and some of it's really bland, and I end up sticking different pieces out and tossing it. But the way that I sing is totally different, so I will be looking at something I've written and sing it completely different, because the way you read words in your head sometimes doesn't match up with the same kind of rhythm or alliteration and flow as it does when you're singing in a certain time pattern or you're singing a certain mood. They're kind of related, but writing for just poetry--just sitting and writing--and singing the words, are totally different. E: Do you expect to ever have to take a break entirely from music in order to focus on releasing a collection of poems or maybe artwork one day? Anthony: No. I don't really want to take time off music, I just want to be able to do all that shit. And right now, I have the time to read and write and paint and play shows, so I don't see how I couldn't keep doing that. At some point I'm probably going to need a little break, but I don't really see the point in taking too many breaks. I can do it all together--I don't have anything else to do. This is pretty amazing. E: While you go about doing all this, is it at all difficult to grasp that there are so many people out there who are so many people out there completely fixated on what you're doing right now? Anthony: I'm not really too aware of any of that shit. Like, every once in a while I hear something like that, and it's like... "Okay. That's... weird." But I honestly totally block shit like that out if I feel that it's going to affect the way I feel and the way I'm doing shit. I really appreciate that there are people that are into the music, and that are really supportive of us--I've said that probably a thousand times this interview--but it's difficult to grasp there being a whole lot of people. I don't know why, but it's definitely something that I have a difficult time grasping, you know? It's pretty overwhelming sometimes. And a lot of times when I get overwhelmed by stuff like that, I just end up being like... uh, all right, that didn't just happen. *Laughs* You know what I mean? So it doesn't trip me up. E: So you don't let it impact your writing at all? Anthony: I mean, I try not to. It definitely doesn't, really... I've never really considered other people too much when I write, unless I'm writing for someone. I don't feel any pressure to do anything more or less than what I'm doing or what I'm gonna do. E: Well thanks so much for doing this interview. Anthony: Hey, no problem, dude. I wish I could write that question better--the last one... but I don't really know. It's difficult, man. It's difficult? I don't even want to be sitting on the point where I'm admitting that there are a lot of into our band, because... it's like, there are a lot of people into our band? Wow! That's fucking crazy! E: I've even seen people who have painted portraits of you in their spare time. Anthony: Yeah, I received a couple in the mail recently. And I've gotten them at shows and stuff... and I give them to my parents. And I think that's awesome. That means that people are paying attention. But it's really not about me, or any of us individually, you know? It's about us as a group. It's funny how that happens with the singer or with the focal point of anything. It's funny how people do that to singers or to people in bands in general. But we're just like everybody else, you know? We were just given the opportunity to do it, and we took the ability to do it. I think that's what people idolize--anyone who gets to do what they want. People realize that they can do this if they want to. They can do anything. They don't have to be restricted at all by any kind of boundaries. You can change pretty much anything in your life at any time if you want. You can make it better, or you can make it worse. E: Wow. That's awesome--thanks a lot. Anthony: No problem, man. I hope you got what you needed, and I can't thank you enough for taking the time to do it. |