Anti-Flag

23.01.2008 | Cam | 2 Comments

Proving that punk rock and politics can co-exist within mainstream culture, Anti Flag are here to get you thinking... and maybe have a little bit of fun along the way.

Drummer Pat spoke with us about major labels, major shit talkers and opening for the most dangerous band on the planet...

Interview w/ Pat (Drums) of Anti Flag

By Cameron Chambers 

Hey Pat, how are you today man? 

Good man, how are you? 

I’m doing well mate. Where are you guys at the moment? 

We are in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, so we’re not quite home yet. Tonight’s our last show on this tour and then we’re going home tomorrow which will be nice! 

Where are you at man? 

Melbourne, Australia.  

Nice! What time is it over there? 

10:30am man, so it could be worse. 

Ah yes… it could always be worse, ha ha. 

You just finished a Canadian tour with Alexisonfire, Saosin and The Bled. How did it all go? 

The tour went great! Alexisonfire are huge in Canada so the shows all went really well. There were lots of people and we rocked them all, ha ha. 

We got a chance to play a few new songs and people seemed to think they were pretty cool so it was a success all the way round! 

I've heard a lot of horror stories about close minded US audiences. Did the Canadian crowds respond well to such a diverse line up? 

That’s definitely true. The Canadian audiences are a bit more European than the Americans are. They are open to ideas such as socialized medicine and freedom of press… so the Canadians are usually more into what we have to say.  

Anti Flag have been on tour non stop since “For Blood And Empire” was released in March 2006. What have been some of the highlights, for you as an individual and as a band? 

Wow. That’s a really interesting question. 

I try my best, ha ha. 

Ha ha. Well, we’ve been really lucky and we’ve had some amazing people come into our lives. We’ve had some people come to our shows and talk before we play. 

Some people… we actually had Jim McDermott come and speak… he’s a congressman from the Seattle area. So that was another exciting thing! 

Things like that are exciting for me. Don’t get me wrong, rock shows are great but the exchange of ideas and being involved with people who are trying to make things better was the highlight for me.  

Your second record for RCA, “The Bright Lights Of America”, is scheduled for release early next year. Can you tell us a bit about the themes and issues you'll be tackling on this album? 

It’s a little bit different for us. I’m not sure if you’re aware of much that’s happened in our lives, but in January of this year number 2’s (bass player Chris) sister was murdered… and that definitely hit us in a profound way. 

It changed the way we were thinking about things and it influenced the things we wanted to talk about on the record. This record is more introspective and more personal than our other albums. 

We’ve been working on… we thought well, let’s give it a go and do it differently. We’ve made good punk records in the past so this time we were looking to add a bit more texture. We already know how to record bass and drums and guitars so let’s try something else.  

We got Tony Visconti to produce... he's done stuff for T-Rex and David Bowie, and he added some more texture to the songs. We rented a bunch of orchestral instruments too! It's amazing you know... you give someone $100 and they'll let you fuck up their timpani, ha ha. 

Ha ha. A bigger label usually affords a bigger budget for recording. Have you experimented with anything on your next album that you hadn't had the opportunity to previously? 

For sure! It wasn’t the budget that had the impact though. It was more a way of thinking for us… what we can do and what we haven’t done previously… what would be cool for the song, you know? 

We actually had a children’s choir come and sing on one of the songs… and by children’s choir I mean our nieces and nephews which is cool because it didn’t cost us anything, ha ha. 

We were just like, “what sounds creepy”? Kids singing is creepy… let’s do that! Ha ha 

You guys justified your signing to RCA by saying that they gave you complete control of your music and lyrics. Has the label kept up its end of the bargain as far as staying out of your affairs and letting you do what you want? 

Amazingly they have! I was actually just talking to someone about this over dinner… which is why I forgot to look at my phone, sorry about that. 

Anyway, my friend’s worked with a bunch of shitty record companies and we’re so lucky because the ones we’ve worked with over the year have been amazing. RCA has stayed out of our creative process and they haven’t tried to push us in any one direction. They’re an amazing label compared to some of the ones we’ve worked with. 

We’ve worked with Fat who were amazing and we have our own company… but RCA has been great up to this point. I’ll be the first to tell you when they’re acting like bastards though! Ha ha 

It's been almost two years since the transition from indie to major. Has there been a noticeable difference in the crowds at Anti Flag shows, not just as far as audience sizes but in their willingness to hear your point of view and better understand your message? 

You know what, you think the crowds would be less friendly to our ideas but I’d argue that they’re more accepting of our ideas. It might just be the era of history that we’re in right now, but when we were a younger band people didn’t know what we were about and they’d come to a show and want to beat us up because they didn’t like what we were talking about. 

Now it seems that the people at our shows have seen an ad for the band, or read an interview or their friends have told them what we’re about… they get it before they walk in. They may still be pissed when we talk about this issue or that issue, but they know what they’re getting before they come to the show. 

The “A Benefit For Victims Of Violent Crime” EP was released this year. The circumstances surrounding the record are obviously horrific but have you been happy with how the EP has been received? Are you able to tell us how much has been raised for the “Centre For Victims Of Violence And Crime”? 

Yeah man, it’s gone great! I don’t know how much has been raised because I’ve been on tour so I haven’t been watching it… but when I get home I’ll look at the books. Ha ha 

It’s been great though. Everyone we’ve talked to has been so supportive. Fortunately issues like this don’t have to a lot of people but a lot of people have had some kind of tragedy in their lives, so this is a way of talking about these things.  

It wasn’t necessarily about anyone else… it was a way for us to deal with the situation. In those situations you’re completely helpless so it let us say what we needed to. It makes us happy and we’re excited about making music and releasing records.  

Labels and bands who are involved in charity and fund raising are few and far between these days. Do you think more punk and hardcore bands need to take an active role in this area? 

No, ha ha. 

I don’t actually. I think that bands work their arses off all the time and there’s so many bands that we know who are struggling to make enough to pay their rent and eat. I think it’s expected of punk bands to be charitable and do everything for free and for a benefit, and it’s unfair. 

At the same time, we’re lucky enough to be in a position that I know I can eat tomorrow so I can use my… whatever it is I do, my work or my passion, to help other people! 

It’s not fair to say that because you’re a punk band you have to give your money to someone else. I’ve often though about this and I think we should do a punk show to benefit punk bands, ha ha. 

In a couple of weeks you guys will be making your third trip to Australia as part of the BigDay Out. A lot of bands treat this tour like a holiday because you have so many days off. Do you guys know much about the festival? 

I don’t know much about it but I know people have called it the big day off, ha ha. So yeah, I hear there’s a lot of days off so hopefully we can do something fun and cool. I haven’t really been thinking about it though to be honest. 

Is there anything to do in Melbourne? 

You should probably just drink a lot and go surfing, ha ha 

Well, I’m un-athletic and don’t drink so that weeds that out, ha ha. 

Last time we went to a wildlife park and saw some kangaroos… although most bands probably do that right? 

Pretty much, ha ha. 

Ha ha. It was fun and amazing but probably tragic for the kangaroos. You have no idea how uninterested the kangaroo looked with me trying to feed it. It was just like “stay away you jackass”. I’m sorry Mr Kangaroo, ha ha. 

Are there any other bands on the bill that you're keen to check out? 

I know Billy Bragg is doing some shows. We were lucky enough to drink with him a year and a half ago and he’s a hero of ours and we love his music.  

Obviously Rage Against The Machine will be there and Tom will be playing with his NightWatchmen stuff too.  

I think the days will be pretty packed between our rocking and seeing our other bands.  

Apart from the festival dates Anti Flag will also be opening the Rage Against The Machine side shows. Musically your bands are completely different so am I correct in assuming it's your shared interest in all things political that has ensured you're playing together? 

It’s friendship man. We’ve been friends with Tom for a number of years now and he’s been supportive of our bands. We obviously have some shared social views of the world but we’re definitely friends with them as well. 

Tom came out and did some shows with The Night Watchmen a few years ago with us, so I think they like us as a band and Tom likes us as people.  

I think it's safe to say the audience will be champing at the bit to see Rage, do you think you've got a fighting chance of winning them over? 

We’ll just tell them to fuck off, ha ha. We don’t care! 

I’ve been told I wasn’t cool my whole life so it has no impact on me. One thing we’ve learnt, and I’m not trying to blow my own horn here, but very people, regardless of whether or not they think my band sucks and they don’t care about the music, can just ignore us.  

I’ll just play drums and scream at them for fifteen or twenty minutes.  

You guys will also have your own club shows. Do you still have a say in the support acts?

Um, we do actually, but to be honest, I was not involved with that decision this time round. Number 2 usually figures that out. 

We’re working on another tour right now and deciding who’s going to be on the opening slots so yes, we do, but I just can’t remember right now.  

That's all we have time for mate, is there anything else you'd like to say? 

Just that we’re going to playing a couple of shows in Australia and that even if you don’t believe in our band or what we have to say, come to the show and it’s still a good time! 

We have a lot of ideas but it’s a lot of fun too! 

Hopefully people will come to the shows, ha ha. 

I’m sure they will…Thanks for your time.