Prepare The Masses: The A Change of Pace Interview

I interviewed Torry Jasper, singer of Phoenix natives A Change of Pace, at their show this past Sunday at Station 4. We talked about their newest record Prepare The Masses, their changes musically, The Beatles reunion tour, and even had a Dashboard Confessional sing-a-long afterwards. Enjoy.

Curt Baker: Since this blog is on the Minneapolis music scene, what do you think of the city and how have your shows here gone in the past?

Torry Jasper: It’s cold, haha. Warped tour was really good for us here, we met some really cool people. We played in the Ascot Room for the Myspace Tour with Greeley Estates, My American Heart, and The Confession. Hawthorne Heights sold out the room below so we were playing shows at like the same time, but it was still a good show.

CB: You guys just released a new album Prepare the Masses, what is the reaction you have gotten so far, and how do you feel about the album?

TJ: I really think it’s been awesome. It’s good, it feels like we’ve gone away from the screamo and it feels good and have reacted well to it. Even if they didn’t we still would have gone along with it. It’s good to know you can change your ideals and people will still go along with it. It just gives a chance to broaden our fanbase.

CB: One major difference I noticed between Prepare the Masses and An Offer You Can’t Refuse is that while it was poppy, An Offer You Can’t Refuse had more of an edge, even breakdowns. Why did you decide to change this?

TJ: I think we wrote our last album in terms that we wanted to be a part of a scene and we wrote this album to first please us aesthetically and also to please the fans you know?

CB: How has it been being on Immortal Records with bands like Scary Kids Scaring Kids and such?

TJ: It’s awesome. I like everyone over there, they’re really hard workers. I mean it’s a label things are always hard but you know they’ve done a good job, they’ve worked really hard and made everything possible for us.

CB: I was looking at your tour schedule and you guys are playing pretty much day in day out. How has being on the road so much been?

TJ: Right now it’s kinda like getting back in to the game. With An Offer You Can’t Refuse we tour pretty much straight then we took 5 to 6 months off to record our new record. Now we’re back on and just getting on our feet you know? It’s kinda tough getting back on there but soon we’ll be back again as good as ever. We love touring, this is what we love, this is all we got. This is what we were born to do. We make it work. None of us are going to school, I know Johnny’s not going to school he’s too dumb.

Johnny Abdullah: I'm too smart!

CB: How much do you think touring on the Warped Tour has helped you? TJ: I think our first time was a lot more beneficial than the last time. Just the fact that the main bands in 2005 were Fall Out Boy, Hawthorne Heights, Senses Fail, bands more keen towards our genre. This year was harder because there were bands like The Casualties, NOFX, more punk bands like that. So it was harder, but I mean Warped Tour can never do anything bad for you, you work hard at it and you get what you want out of it

CB: A lot of people think Warped Tour is one big party, but it’s pretty tough doing that.

TJ: It’s so hard. Especially when we played almost every California date and it was hot for the most part, we played Arizona too and it was bad.

CB: Any good tour stories you’d like to share?

TJ: Yeah I’ve got one for ya. We were in California and we have some friends and we all went to a bar and they bought us this thing called the blackout. It’s basically a steel bucket with a handle and it’s filled with 27 different types of alcohol and pineapple juice. We all went to town on it and finished it in 25 minutes. Then on the way back to our hotel me and Johnny prank called people, making complete asses out of ourselves. And then later I was still trashed and I woke up completely not coherent and started pissing on everything.

JA: You pissed on our gear, you pissed on my leg.

TJ: Not one of my better days. It’s called the blackout because you pretty much blackout.

CB: What are your favorite cities to play in?

TJ:First and foremost Phoenix, Tempe, just Phoenix metropolitain area. Out of state, Texas is always good for us. What’s a good city boys?

JA: Chicago. What’s that place in Delaware?

TJ: Whatever, just Delaware man. There’s a lot of random places. We played Madison a few days ago it was fucking awesome. They were louder than us for the most part.

CB: Who are your favorite bands to tour with?

TJ: Greeley Estates because we’ve toured with them so many times and they’re just awesome guys. And honestly Showbread, they were just such nice guys. Lorene Drive, Classic Crime, love those guys. I feel bad, we’ve been on so many tours it’s hard to pick out bands.

CB: Who are your major influences?

TJ: Mine vocally and lyrically, I’ve always been a really big fan of Sting and The Police and Elton John and things like that you know. It’s just the stuff I grew up on, my mom was just into easy listening. I’ve been getting in to The Smiths now and Morrisey. Musically I think we’re more influenced by New Found Glory and Taking Back Sunday you know guys like that. Blink 182 first band I ever fell in love with, which is why I think this record went into a different direction because we wanted to write a rock record not a screamo record.

CB: What cd’s are you listening to now, well obviously The Smiths, but what else?

TJ: Yeah, I’ve been listening a lot of that. I can never put down Death Cab for Cutie, I always listen to that, every cd is just amazing. But, my ipod just broke so I try to steal other people’s ipods to listen to music. Whenever I’m home and my cd player is broken or whatever I just try to find a classic rock station and listen to that, you know Zeppelin, ZZ Top and stuff.

CB: In “How To Rape A Country” there are some pretty intense depictions of war, does any of this have any deeper meaning, or is it a strictly anti-war song?

TJ: You know I think that song, it’s not necessarily anti war, it’s just war is not a good thing man. It’s not against Iraq, it’s not against Bush. It’s just war is never a good thing man. People are dying, people are getting shot man, it’s never a good thing. I’m not gonna say it was the wrong thing, I mean personally I think it was the wrong thing, but I’m not gonna say that. I don’t know where he was at, what choices he had to make. I try to be as open minded as possible with politics.

CB: Most of your lyrics are pretty intense, do you get your ideas from events that happen to you, or are you inspired by other things?

TJ: An Offer You Can’t Refuse was based basically around my friends and their lives and I was writing about was what I was seeing from the outside. And on Prepare The Masses it’s more what was happening to me, it’s a lot more personal.

CB: You guys recently shot a video for “Shoot From The Hip,” what is the symbolism behind the video?

TJ: It’s basically jus Darwin’s theory, survival of the fittest that was going on in that song. It’s just what was in the video, the best is gonna win and come out on top.

CB: What are your plans for the future?

TJ: In the future we are going on tour with Alexisonfire and Moneen and from there we’ll be going on a reunion tour with The Beatles, just kidding. And then we’ll be staying down south in the winter because we want to stay out of the snow, like Texas and California and shit. We don’t know who we’re going out with. Then we’ll be going out again in the spring, but just check the myspace stay on top of that shit.