HEAD 2 HEAD WITH GLASSJAW

Prior to their amazing November 22^nd show at the Trocadero, members of the up and coming band Glassjaw emerged from the backstage area looking battered and road weary, which doesn’t usually lend itself to a good interviewing environment.  Nonetheless, bassist Dave Allen led us to a baron section of the venue’s upstairs bar and let us fire away, graciously answering all of our questions.

Music Head (MH):  How’s the tour going?

Dave Allen (DA):  Tour’s going awesome.  All the bands are awesome.  Right now it’s American Nothing, Blood Brothers, Coheed and Cambria and Christiansen stayed on.  They were only going to do 4 or 5 days.  Then at the New York show, which was the last show, we worked it out and kept them on for the remaining 4 shows.

MH:  Was it the beginning of the tour when Daryl had the bout with Crohn's disease?

DA:  Prior to this tour, we went to Europe for two weeks to support the Lost Prophets.  We got there and played the first show in Paris and that night at three in the morning he hemorrhaged.  Which is basically when an ulcer on his intestines ruptures and starts bleeding.  He lost a ton of blood and had to get rushed to the hospital.  He spent eight days altogether (at the hospital) and so the whole thing got canceled.  We all flew home two or three days later.  He stayed there with our tour manager and Larry, our drummer.  Then he got back and we postponed the first week of this tour – Buffalo, New York, New Jersey, and these dates right now and moved them all to the end.  We started doing it.  He was fine for the first five shows and then on a day off, he’s really fatigued and what not and he started having more blood loss.  So rather than cancel, we did the following two or three shows with really, really mellow sets.  We did all our mellow songs. He barely moved around and he just made an apology before we played to everybody.  He (eventually) called his doctor and he told him if it happens again, if you're bleeding again, you’re going to have to fly home.  Which means we would have to cancel at least three or four shows and we probably would have stayed like we were but kept moving along and he just would have had to fly back if he ended up being okay although the whole thing might have been canceled again.

MH:  Obviously he’s doing better now, right?

DA:  He is fine right now.  Although he is heavily medicated.  He takes a ton of medication on a daily routine.  He’s got a whole schedule of pills and shit and steroids and medicine to combat side effects that he gets from other medicines he takes.  It’s a bit messy, but he’s got it under control.  What happened in Paris, it was the first time in like a year and a half.  Yeah, he’s been totally stable for over a year.

MH:  On a brighter note, are you guys happy with the success that has been heaped on you?

DA:  Yeah, we’re happy with it.  We couldn’t be any happier with it.  I consider just what we’re doing as success because we are just able to tour, we’re comfortable, we got a bus, we got a label that takes care of us, and we’re playing with good bands and stuff like that.  I don’t want it to come any faster than it is like bands that just form and skyrocket.

MH:  Is Warner Brothers treating you guys really well?

DA:  Yeah, they’ve been awesome.  You go from Roadrunner Records to Warner Brothers Records and it’s one end of the spectrum to the other.  It’s such a massive, massive contrast that you can’t even compare it.  They like us there.  They liked the band  They wanted the band.  They fought for the band.  We didn’t just get dumped off on their doorstep and they had to come deal with us.

MH:  How did you guys get hooked up with Vincent Gallo (Director of the video for Cosmopolitan Blood loss)?

DA:  Everyone in the band is such a fan of his.  Buffalo ’66 most notably.  He’s just visually dynamic as a character…his look…we were just in the Warner Brothers office discussing it with the guy in charge of the video and we were shooting these shitty ideas around and we just wanted something simple; let’s get a guy bowling or something like that.  Daryl and Beck had just watched Buffalo ’66 and they threw it on the table joking around.  It just so happens that Jeff, the guy from Warner Brothers, was friends with Vincent.  He made a phone call right then and there and put Vincent on the phone with Daryl and the idea just ended up materializing over the next two weeks.

On their recent success:  "I don’t want it to come any faster than it is like bands that just form and skyrocket."

MH:  I almost feel like you guys consider Ross Robinson (Producer of both the band’s albums) to be a sixth member of the band.  Is that somewhat true?

DA:  Yeah, I mean he’s one of the biggest parts of this band.  Recording with him…he’s a friend and a parent at the same time.  He’s therapeutic and he gets everything out of you in the studio.  Especially with getting us off Roadrunner.  If it weren’t for him the band would’ve broke up because the album Worship and Tribute wasn’t going to be recorded and given to Roadrunner.  It just wasn’t happening.  The last eight or nine months before signing to Warner Brothers the band was in complete limbo.  We weren’t playing shows.  Just in a really weird state thinking we were going to break up and everyone was going to go back to work and school because Roadrunner was just that miserable.  It took all the heart out of everything.  Ross just stepped in and got things under control and he made it happen.  He found us the right home and he’s gone far and above his duties as a producer.  He’s pure heart.

MH:  I wanted to touch on the negative press you guys, especially Daryl, received concerning the perceived misogynistic lyrics on Everything you Wanted to Know About Silence.  Was that warranted?  I always viewed it as something that you guys could get away with expressing on an album as opposed to outside of that context.

DA:  He’s (Daryl) definitely reflected upon it more now that he’s had time and he’s felt the backlash of what he did say.  The song Ape Dos Mil on the new record is kind of an apologetic stance on what he did say but he is definitely not misogynistic.  If he was talking about women as a whole then I’d be like 'yeah, I’d totally agree with that.'  He’s talking about one specific person and as far as his language, he was just letting it go and the really vulgar, vulgar words were what he was feeling at that particular time in his life.   Both with a bad relationship and the Crohn’s disease diagnosis.

MH:  Are you guys trying out any new material on this tour to gauge the fan’s receptiveness?

DA:  Nah, there’s nothing.  Since we started touring for this new record we’ve been playing almost everything off of Worship and Tribute.  It keeps it fresh for us instead of constantly playing the old stuff.

MH:  One final question.  What 3 albums do you consider to be indispensable?

DA:  The Bends by Radiohead, Grace by Jeff Buckley and something heavy.  Probably a Faith No More record.  Although I don’t know which one.  That would probably hold me over until I die…

So there you have it, warts and all.  Dave battling a wicked cold, their tour almost being cancelled and yet they went out later that evening and absolutely killed.  I think it is safe to say everyone left that night astounded at Glassjaw’s brilliance. -Wade Peters