My interview with Pat Brown from The Semester is finally here. We talked on aim while The Semester drove home from Chicago and Pat fought bad service on his sidekick. I want to thank Pat again for doing this and for being a really rad guy.
Curt Baker: Well, first of all Iwant to thank you for doing this.
Pat Brown: Yea anytime man
CB: First, let's talk about the new cd, Happy Endings and New Beginnings. How do you feel about it, are all of you pleased with how it turned out?
PB: Yea were very happy with how it turned out. It was a very last minute descision to put out a full length, and we're especially happy with how things played out in such a small time frame. We've also gotten some great feedback about it, so I am happy
CB: Did anything change during the recording process this time around?
PB: I changed and re-wrote a lot of vocal patterns and lyrics to the new songs on the record in the studio as I was layin down the tracks. Other than that, everyone knew exactly what they needed to do and when they needed to come in and do it.
CB: Well you guys obviously did. Speaking of vocal patterns, a fan wanted me to ask whether or not the growl during the "OONNN" in "Is That Bad?" was done on purpose, or it just happened and you decided to leave it there?
PB: Well I did it on the first take on accident, and I almost decided to take it out and redo that part, but Eric heard it and was like "Dude no keep it in man!" and I was like alright, so it stayed in! Haha
CB: Haha thats awesome, it's actually one of my favorite parts of the cd, seriously.
PB: Haha that's awesome man, thank you very much.
CB: Is there any special symbolism behind the album's title New Beginnings and Happy Endings?
PB: Yes there is actually. Eric and Pukes thought of the name. Around the time we were writing for the cd, it was a really rough time for us, a lot of stuff was going wrong for our band and we were all really really bummed about certain things, and putting out the cd was kind of like a "new beginning" for us. And hopefully a happy ending will come from it.
CB: Is there a story behind the title "Who Needs Reverse When You're In a Gang?"
PB: Haha yes. We were leaving for December tour, and Ray gets in the van to start driving at my dads house at 8 a.m., and he puts the van into reverse, but for some reason, the reverse didn't work, it was broken. And Pukes said "Dude we should probly get that fixed" and Ray goes "Who needs reverse when your in a gang?" And we all thought it was funny so we decided to name a song that.
CB: That's awesome. And what about "Dont You Dare Close Your Eyes?" Is that from Aladdin? That's the first thing I thought.
PB: You're a genious! That's exactly where its from. Haha. After we recorded the song, Eric mentioned that the song reminded him of being on a magic carpet ride so we named it after an Aladdin line.
CB: I dont know if you knew, but you guys were in smartpunk.com's top 100 a few weeks ago, ahead of Cartel's Chroma and Hellogoodbye's pre-order. How do you feel about that?
PB: I feel very good about it, it was a huge suprise. Eric called me and he was like "Dude were in the 40s in the top 100 on smartpunk!" and I thought he was kidding. It's very cool that that many people ordered the cd in the opening weeks
CB: Since this album is obviously doing so well, what about labels? I know you guys have been in talks, but why have you waited?
PB: We don't want to sell ourselves short with a record deal, we want something that will benefit us in the future, and if you continue to build your fan base nationally and get as popular as you possibly can independently, it will make your band worth a lot more to labels than if you don't tour and just record demos in your hometown. Were just building what we have as much as we can independently until the right thing comes, and when/if it does, we will take it
CB: You guys have obviously been touring a lot lately in order to do exactly what you just said, how has that been?
PB: It’s been amazing, especially in the last 2 months since New Beginnings and Happy Endings has been out. We were on the west coast all of July, and the east coast all August, in those 2 months we sold 1,000 cds at those shows, so were definitely excited about that. Tour is the best thing an independent band can do, its so good for exposure and gaining popularity, and on top of all that, its basically like a 2 month long sleepover/party with 5 of your best friends, so ya can't go wrong
CB: Where is your favorite place to tour east/west coast? Midwest?
PB: On the east, DEFINITLEY Long Island,
CB: What are your favorite venues, Minneapolis and elsewhere.
PB: In
CB: Awesome...oh Jonny from Cue The Doves says hi and that you should have sang on their demos.
PB: Tell him I say yo and I'm glad he's back
CB: Back to touring, you guys have a new van. How has it been treatin ya?
PB: It's great. We named it Jaws because its blue and grey and reminds us of a shark.
CB: Haha nice. Do you have any particular touring stories youd like to share? Give me your worst.
PB: Oh wow, this is a bad one. So we decided we needed a new van when we were driving overnight from LA to MN at the end of our July west coast tour 2006. We were driving, and its 2 a.m., and our muffler no joke falls out of our van, and we pull over, and our merch guy Will ties it up to the bottom of our van with string. So we're driving and 2 hours later, it happens again. SO, we pull up to this hills have eyes style gas station in Nevada, and this woman with a mullet was working, to make a long story short she was a huge prick, so Will being very angry at this woman, sneaks in to the gas station auto shop and steals a saw. We ended up sawing off the muffler at 6 a.m. on the side of the freeway. Then we proceeded to get stuck in a national forest fire in
CB: Ouch. You guys are troopers though, I'm sure you made it. You played a show at The Garage after driving all night from
PB: Haha yes we did. We're road warriors man, we love it.
CB: Does tour ever get old though?
PB: Yea of course I miss my family and my bed, but touring doesn't really ever get old, when your on tour it's kinda like you're in a fantasy world where you have no rules and nothing but yourselves.
PB: At home, definitely Small Towns Burn A Little Slower, Four Letter Lie, Gloria, The Drive Back, and Crashing By Design. We’re all very good friends, so it's fun to get to play with them. As far as out of town bands, a band from LA called Enblessin, Race The Sun from Virginia, and Patent Pending from
CB: Do you or any of your bandmates have any pre-show rituals?
PB: Ummmmmmm not so much. Just the usual, Jason warms up with a click and his sticks on a table or a chair or something, and I just kinda pace around, but other than that we just get up and play.
CB: If you could play with any bands who would they be? Your all-star line-up.
PB: If we had the choice, we would want to open for Saves The Day, Copeland, Circa Survive, Minus The Bear, and The Deftones. Each of those bands is one of our individual favorite bands, so to play with them would make all 5 of us happy haha.
CB: While we're on the topic of influences, what are your influences lyrically? A lot of your songs seem to be about strained relationships. Are these from your own experiences or just things you’ve seen happen to people?
PB: All our songs are about things that have happened to me, or how I feel about certain things. Songs on the new record range from being about a strained relationship, to being in the moment with someone, to hating the way that people are. I just write about what I feel that exact moment
CB: Another fan question, what are the most memorable things fans have done for you?
PB: Definitely the people that let us stay at their houses and buy us food and rent movies and stuff, that is unbelievable and so much fun. Or one girl made us brownies and brought it to us before a show, that was awesome also
CB: Love for food is universal, especially brownies
PB: Definitley man.
CB: Well, any thing else you would like to say?
PB: Yes there is
PB: That was one of the best interviews I've done. Very good questions. Most of the people I get interviewed by ask me bland questions that don't give me much room to give interesting answers to. So good work!
CB: Awesome, thanks a ton man. Oh, one last thing, my girlfriend wants me to tell you you have very nice teeth.
PB: Haha oh thank you.
CB: Well, thanks again for the interview, you're a totally rad guy. I'll see you at your next show?
PB: Yea for sure
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