Interview With Jasen Rauch Of Red
January 28th, 2009 by Stephanie Stevens
First time I heard about RED I was sitting in a huge convention center in Providence, RI and this Nashville, TN band took the stage and created a dynamic, powerful twenty minute set that left the venue on the edge of their seats. From that day forth I have been able to learn more about the band by seeing them live, meeting them on occasions and connecting to their debut album.
Now once again the band has been able to transpose their thoughts, life’s memories of fear, compassion and positive nature into their sophomore album INNOCENCE & INSTINCT which comes out on February 10th, 2009.
I had a chance to get on the phone with guitarist Jasen Rauch to get the inner ideas and inspirations that produced the new album. A look back into the start of the band RED and how he agrees with me on a cover song shouldn’t be a single.
JUST SAW THE VIDEO FOR DEATH OF ME. I HAVE TO SAY YOU GOT A DIRECTOR WHO ACTUALLY SAW THE VISION OF THE SONG AND POTRAYED IT IN THE RIGHT WAY!
Well thank you, I think so. Usually we have all kinds of involvement in the storyline or script or something or at least we ok’d something but on this one we were extremely hands off so obviously we were a little tentative and anxious about putting it all in somebody’s hands. In all reality, we as a band just didn’t have any time with everything else going on. So I think luckily we got the lucky end of the stick on this one. I think the director nailed it and we are very proud of this video.
I WOULD OF PUT MONEY ON IT THAT YOU GUYS HAD FULL SAY CAUSE IT WAS SO PERFECT A VISION!
I know!! A lot of people said that about the video and I think, well I hope that is why it’s going to translate so well to people
WHO SHOT THE VIDEO?
It’s funny because every other video we shot we did them all in Los Angeles and this time we were actually on tour when we shot this. So we routed one day through and we shot it in Alabama with a smaller company. But beforehand, we kind of went to look at some of the other client lists and for us it seemed like surface value, that we as a band were extremely comfortable with these guys and it turned out for the better and they nailed it so. It was really cool they shut down a whole block downtown and we shot it all there.
YA THERE WAS A LOT ACTION SEQUENCES
Oh ya, that was the most exhausting video we have ever done. It was ridiculous. They had these trucks with the camera attached to them for those shots we had to chase around the block. It was awful
WELL DID THEY AT LEAST GIVE YOU SOME ENERGRY DRINKS?
Hey we came well stocked on that one. We didn’t leave home without it but there was a lot of drinking those going on.
SO NOW AFTER WATCHING THE VIDEO I SAW THAT HAYDEN YOUR DRUMMER IS NOT WITH YOU GUYS ANYMORE
Our drummer who is currently with us has been with us, RED the band for a year and a half. We were friends with him prior to that also but he came on board as a staff member, he was our drum tech. We had a accident in Nov of 2007 and during that accident our drummer Hayden he had some pre existing shoulder problems but nothing that big. It was a injury hung over from High School, well the accident pretty much worsened the injury to the point where he kept playing because we never stopped touring. So he wasn’t able to get in any physical therapy or for the doctor. to get in and do what was needed. Plus it started building up with scar tissue so at one point he had to take 6 weeks off to go into physical therapy so within that time Joe the current drummer filled in for him and at the end of that it was at the point where Hayden just had to say I really can’t do this. For his health and everything else he had to go home. So it was unfortunate
AW, I LOVED HIM
I know but you know it wasn’t an awful split. We are still friends and it was very hard because he is like a brother to us so it was a tough transition for us. But Joe actually played on the record due to Hayden’s shoulder injury. We tracked drums while Hayden was recovering for his shoulder. So when it came time to let Hayden go Joe knew all the parts so that’s what happened in a round about way.
PLUS A GOOD THING ABOUT JOE IS YOU CAN TRUST HIM BECAUSE HE HAS BEEN PART OF YOU FOR SO LONG.
Absolutely, for sure. The only difference is that Joe is obviously a member of the band but he is a hired member he is not a go to kind of guy as far as marketing as of now its just the four of us and some of that is cause we have been with Hayden for so long that to just swap him out didn’t seem right.
SO WHEN YOU START TOURING JOE WILL BE OUT THERE WITH YOU?
Yes, Joe is going to be for the time being a 3 man machine he techs for himself so he is going to be our guy for the time being and we head back out on the road on Feb 5th so it will be a good time.
LET’S GO BACK TO THE HIGHWAY CRASH IN 07. HOW MUCH DOES THAT AFFECT YOU GUYS ON A PERSONAL LEVEL AND WRITING THIS NEW ALBUM?
I think it affected us profoundly on a personal level. I mean anytime you have a experience like that. It was such a close call for all of us; we didn’t know how we all got out of that alive. We all had some pretty serious injuries but nothing life threatening thank God but kind of going down that road and staring at that face and confronting it is a pretty humbling experience for us. So personally, in the dynamics as friends with our wives, it really gave everything a sobering appreciation of where we were. As far as life, I don’t mean to be cliché but really coming out of it, it was really a big shake for us in a really good way. We kind of picked up right where we left off, we didn’t take any time off, maybe had to cancel one show.
DOESN’T THAT MAKE YOU THINK I KNOW IT’S YOUR PASSION AND CAREER BUT DON’T YOU STAND BACK AND SAY IS THIS REALLY WORTH IT?
Oh yea defiantly. But I think that is where it affected us in a positive light. It just made us put that much more into what we do and especially what we were writing for this record. It gave us this new sense of responsibility for what we were doing and a new sense of pride. We could carry our heads a little higher and know that this is a band that could of easily stopped and had a very good reason to stop but we consciously said we are not going to do that and we are going to press on and I think it ended up working.
YOU GUYS ARE TROOPERS ONE SHOW OFF AND THEN RIGHT BACK OUT
Yea it was hard; we went right back out and everyone still had their concussion and we got some drugs in us (legal of course)
DID THEY GIVE YOU A BUS AFTER THAT?
Yes the irony of it all was that we were on a bus prior to that and the only reason we were in a van was because our bus was in the shop that weekend so we had two shows we just had to do so we said okay everyone just pile back into the van. So that is why it was such a freak thing because it happened 20 miles from dropping the van off and never using it again. We had been in a bus for like 3 months
DID YOU GUYS HAVE PARTS OF THIS NEW RECORD ALREADY IN PROGRESS BACK IN 2007?
Yes, we were pretty much writing and demoing for about 18 months. So we came into the studio with about 50 songs so we had options of what could work. When it came time to go into the studio it was just a matter of weeding down what we didn’t like and sorting through all the crap and starting over. We were pretty prepared.
SO THIS RECORD YOU GUYS DIDN’T HAVE THAT PRESSURE OF 2ND RECORD QUICKNESSI just think the way we are built and I personally can say the way that I am wired is that my brain just isn’t normal. It just doesn’t shut off the creative process, its just constantly going for me. Plus it takes me a while to get to the place that I want and the emotional space I want to be in when I write. So it’s easier for me to constantly stay there and it defiantly has its costs and disadvantages of staying there but in the long run as far as the records or whatever project I am doing I think it really benefits in the long run to just kind of stay there.
TO CONTINUE WITH THE CRASH AND THE RECORD DO YOU THINK THE POSITIVE VIBE FROM THIS NEW DISC YOU GUYS GOT FROM THAT WHOLE INCIDENT?
I think so. Even with the philosophy behind the record we came up with the concept of the record before we had a lot of songs. So the ultimate goal was to have a vehicle where we could have dark songs be exclusively dark and even darker and then have lighter songs be catchier and lighter. I think on the first record we tried to squeeze all those dynamics into each song and this time we took a step back and said this song is just going to be pissed off or whatever. So I think the crash contributed to both those aspects. I think some of the darker things on the record we got inside those songs and were able to put a more personal view on it because everything was all hung out so loosely in front of us at that time and everything was so fragile it put a lot of perspective on what kind of crap we had to work on and where we had to stop doing this or that. Then on the other hand on the positive side like you talked about, there is a song on the record called NEVER BE THE SAME. Its core is really about a relationship but just the concept of going through an experience that you will never be the same but it changes you for the better. That song was born straight from the accident so
ANOTHER INSPIRATION I READ THAT HELPED YOU WITH THIS RECORD WAS THE CLASSIC BOOK DANTE’S INFERNO?
Yes
LETS BE HONEST HERE, DID YOU GUYS ACTUALLY READ THE BOOKS?
(HaHA) I actually believe it or not I read a lot of classic literature. I read all the time, classics that people would say that is ridiculous but hey that is me!! So yea for no other reason I try to balance my reading so I have my fiction and my fight clubs in my book shelf too but where I love and enjoy things are the more traditional deeper side. So it just kind of happened when we first had the idea of INNOCENCE & INSTINCT and going into these dark places and looking for resolution and redemption in those places that I was going back through, our producer and I, we both read a lot and we were both reading Divine Comedy. I know it sounds really nerdy and what not but yea I defiantly read that and what was appealing about it to me was it’s obviously a more religious based poem from that period. So there are a lot of those overtones too but there is just this amazing feeling of helplessness and feeling completely deserted and low that this poet is going through from his journey to hell that he is describing. Plus just the awful terrible things he is coming against but at the same time he is fighting this relationship he has with this woman that he loves and so there is all these amazing dynamics so it was just probable of how that communicated. I was able to look at that and see that it was creating this kind of beautifully dark imaginary for the things that were talked about and that happened 1600 years ago. So I think that is originally where it happened so as we dove more into the story we found some amazing illustrations and we approached things like that. So when all was said and done without being to conscious of a effort it became really as much as a visual representation of what the songs came from as a more in-depth deeper meaning that if your looking for its probably there One thing about that book though is it is told in old English and there are parts where you scratch your head about and you have to focus on what is going on but you can get pulled into the story of how dark things are and the creatures he comes against and the challenges he faces. Those things are really cool really real things that people can relate to.
FROM YOUR DEBUT RECORD, FROM THIS NEW RECORD, I HAVE TO SAY THAT YOU ALWAYS HAVE REALLY LAYERED AND HAD BIG SOUNDING ALBUMS, ESPECIALLY FOR A NEWER BAND OUT THERE. WHEN YOU GUSY WERE LOCAL DID YOU ALWAYS HAVE THAT SOUND OR WAS THIS SOMETHING YOU WANTED TO DO WHEN YOU GOT SIGNED?
Its funny you say that but first of all I guess the answer is we really didn’t do the whole local thing. Our process to everything was always a little reverse. I had mentioned that as far as the creative process its easier for me to just stay in that mindset so with that being said we were writing for along time, probably two years up until, I mean we were still working full time and doing our thing and practicing on the weekends but we purposely never really booked a lot of shows because from our experience and being from Nashville there is a lot of bands and musicians that come from different places. So a lot of those people hit the road pre maturely and ended up spending the next two years broke. So they are on the road trying to break them selves and in the process what they were doing was keeping those wheels turning and developing themselves creatively and trimming the fat and becoming a better band. So we just consciously made an effort to just do that at home so that did give us the advantage of spending more time and thought into production. As far as sonically we were writing everything on acoustic guitar so when it was all done we always said what do you think this song is going to sound like? I think that is where we got to focus where a lot of other bands don’t get to. Exactly what you said we knew a lot of new bands weren’t sounding like we were on record.
SO IF YOU STAYED PRETTY MUCH FOCUSING ON THAT PART HOW DID YOU AS A BAND MAINTAINS A FANBASE?
Well, we did a couple of shows and when I say a couple I think we did like 9 shows before we got signed over a span of two or three years. We kind of created a wet presence for ourselves through Myspace and things like that. As cliché as that sounds as well it was our only way to really connect with anyone so were able to put music up that we recorded and done but not necessarily tour because we were still working on other songs. So that is kind of how it started with a fan base and then we just hit the ground running. Pretty much before the record came out we went on tour and this past Dec. 08 is the first time really we came home. So we made up for the past with the ton of shows we played. In 06 we did about 180 shows then in 07 we did about 250 and last year around 220.
SO IT IS NICE TO BE HOME FOR A BIT?
Oh Yea it is great to be home.
ONE SONG THAT REALLY TURNED MY HEAD WAS START AGAIN. I LIKE THE MESSAGE TO THE SONG, THERE IS SINCERITY IN THE SONG WHICH IS NOT VERY COMMON WITH MEN THESE DAYS. WHAT IS YOUR WHOLE PERSPECTIVE OF THE SONG BEING A MARRIED MAN?
I think the influence of the song came from the opposite of regardless if you’re married or in a relationship or you’re in a relationship that has just broken. All those places are going to have error regardless of where you’re at. A healthy relationship is always going to have that dynamic to it, it’s just inevitable. You can have your best friend in the world and you’re going to end up disagreeing on something someday and so that is just a part of life. Every song we write, I’m glad you thought it was sincere because that is something that we really strive on because each song is burnt from a different thing, let it be an experience or something we have gone through so we want things to be personal and we want it to be kind of transparent and hang ourselves out there a little bit and make ourselves a little bit vulnerable so people can see that the integrity is there and that is when you connect with people. That’s when people say well they must have been through that. I think we have heard a lot of songs that deal with loss or about death and you sit back and go that was written from someone that has never lost a love one. That is something we never wanted to do and hopefully all the songs come across that way. But yea START AGAIN is defiantly talking about weather your married or just with someone, its easy especially for newlyweds to but heads about things and there is a lot of marriages in crisis, same thing with relationships. The original idea of the song was from a really good friend of ours that was married for years and the relationship had just gotten to a boiling point and a lot of baggage that wasn’t taken care of early on and it boiled over. So looking at this friend of ours that was just weeping and saying I’m a complete idiot, I would do anything to do this again and that helplessness was what we wanted to capture and that is something everyone can relate to cause we all experience it.
THE OTHER SONG I WANTED TO HIT UPON WAS SHADOWS THE SONG YOU CO WROTE WITH BEN FROM BREAKING BENJAMIN. I KNOW YOU TOURED WITH THEM A LOT. WAS THERE SOMETHING HE HAD WRITTEN IN THE PAST OR WAS IT JUST HIM ON A PERSONAL LEVEL THAT MADE YOU WANT TO WRITE WITH HIM?
Yea we did about 80 shows with him and we got to know the guys really well and Ben first off I think is a great writer and we have been a fan of his music and he was a big fan of ours. So we hit it off and he and I just started to write together it wasn’t like hey you want to write on my record and vice versa. I write on the side a lot with a lot of different people so it just started like that and it morphed into what became two songs that we did write with each other and one ended up on our record which was SHADOWS and one is still out there floating around. So the riff that starts that song was just really heavy and ballsy. It was something we kind of demo’d and we went through 5 versions of that song and the only thing that was ever the same was that riff so we kept asking is this too heavy, is this too progressive, but Ben loved the riff and had a chorus with something else that I never used so we said lets throw it on there. So this was after we had been touring together, so we were sending files back n forth to each other. So that is how the song really got written it wasn’t something I brought to the table and hammered into everyone it was a pretty natural organic thing that happen.
MAYBE THE OTHER SONG WILL HAPPEN TO LAND ON THE NEW BREAKING BEN ALBUM?
We will see. I’ll let him talk about his record because I know they are working on a new record so you never know.
I ALSO WANT TO SAY THANK YOU FOR COVERING A DURAN DURAN SONG
Aw well your welcome. I appreciate that. We kept that song under wraps because we knew if we told people even the label that we were doing a Duran Duran cover they would go uhhh, Hungry like a wolf? Rio? What is going on here!!! (laughing) but ORDINARY WORLD is such a cool great song and it was a later song in their collection and a lot of what people know of their catalog was prior to that. So at the point in their career when that came out they were maturing as a band and what they were talking about and knew more of what they wanted to say. I think that song just captures what we wanted and what we were talking about on the record. I think originally lyrically they wanted to go in a more political place then we were really wanting to head to but the new concept of this utopia and new world and why can’t things be better, that hit the nail on the head for us that is what we wanted. So it fit well and we really enjoyed the song and we are really proud of it.
JUST DON’T MAKE IT A SINGLE!
I KNOW!!! That is why we didn’t want to put it on the record. The reason we started arranging it was just for something we would do live. But the label pushed for it and we said that is fine put it on the record but just don’t make it a single. So the label just pretty much thought it should be on the record so I think we met in the middle. But I agree with you because obviously we have hesitance about being a band that breaks out from a cover song and then you’re known as that band. I mean that’s just not a game we want to play it’s a Duran Duran song!
TALKING ABOUT THE PRESS AND HOW IT PRECEIVES A BAND. EVERYWHERE I READ WHEN YOU FIRST CAME OUT IT WAS ALWAYS “THE GRAMMY NOMINATED” RED. I KNOW IT’S A HONOR BUT COME ON I THINK THAT SHOULD BE YOUR NEW NAME!!!
(LAUGHING) I thought they changed our name (laughing)
DO YOU THINK THE PRESS STRESSED IT SO MUCH THAT THEY LOST SIGHT IN WHO RED THE BAND REALLY WAS?
I think it was something for our publicist to have great data on and it came up in a lot of interviews. Its like you said its something we are extremely proud of and something we may never achieve again and a lot of bands like Pearl Jam has never won a Grammy so it is a big deal but at the same time we are a band and we are going to do what we do weather we are nominated for a Grammy or not. We didn’t feel too over-shadowed by it but again that is probably my perspective coming from being stuck in the middle of it. That comment totally makes sense
EVEN ON THIS NEW RECORD THEY STILL SNEAK IT IN, SO I JUST THOUGHT YOU MIGHTBE SICK OF IT BY NOW. BUT ANYWAY IS THERE ANYTHING YOU GUYS DO TO SET GOALS FOR THIS COMING YEAR AS BAND?
We do it day by day. We try to set the approach like we did on the first record. We wrote it not for a selfish for ourselves but we wrote it for the people and we wanted to connect with people or otherwise you wouldn’t write. This isn’t art for the sake of art. But also with that being said we wanted to write something that we were fans of also so when you do that it’s going to put yourself in the position where this is incredibly close to our hearts and its vulnerable honest project and we are going to put it out there and see what it does. The first record had a very positive reaction and we took a similar approach to this one. We don’t want to have any expectations we don’t want to set ourselves up for failure or set ourselves up for these big goals we can’t achieve
ALBUM HITS FEB 10TH
Yes
THE TOUR YOU’RE GOING OUT ON SOON WHO IS THAT WITH?
We are going to start with a headlining run. Reason being is because we spent about the majority of the last 18 months of touring out with packages as direct support or a slot where we are playing a short side 30 minutes or long side an hour so right out of the gates people that have seen us since the first album dropped in 06 really didn’t hear any new stuff cause we kept it under wraps. We just wanted to come out now and be able to offer something new and that translates big time to the live show. So, obviously new set, new material. I think the dynamic of the show is different. Different instruments being used a lot more piano stuff live and lot more stuff we weren’t able to do opening. So we wanted to get that out and offered to the fans and put our best foot forward first. I think it best represents us and creates an identity of the record. Not that anything has completely evolved but I think everything has sort of matured and we have had the opportunity to do that since we have played so many shows. Then after that run of shows we are going out with the band Trapt. We will be direct support on that tour so we will have about the same time frame so we will further have the opportunity to play longer sets and get some stuff in there
AND WITH JUST DOING THE VIDEO YOUR ENERGY LEVEL HAS ENHANCED FOR THELONG SETS (LAUGHING)
(Laughing) Ya we will see. We have been home for a while now so that will be the excuse now (laughing)
ANY LAST COMMENTS OR ANYTHING YOU WANNA LET YOUR FANS KNOW?
I think I can speak for everyone in the band by just saying the new record there is a sense of excitement for us just because we have had a lot of fans just been loyal to us for so long. They hung in there even when the momentum of the first record kept going so it kept us on the road. So the people that were there from day one were always there and always will be and always asking about new stuff. So we are proud to be at the place where we can have huge touring seasons behind us and being with a lot of big acts and big shows and be able to come out again and say this is what we worked on, this is where we grown and lets try this again. So we are extremely thankful to the fans and really excited about playing some new stuff for people.
http://www.myspace.com/dropofred
