Evergreen Terrace
by: Rei Nishimoto
Posted on Sep 08, 2009 - 3:17 pm
Evergreen Terrace is one of the bands who have lived and breathed the road life and made a career out of it. For over a decade, they have played to countless fans of hardcore, punk and metal music, and have built their following through hard work and dedication. Starting in Jacksonville, Florida in 1999, they named the band after the Simpsons fictional street they live on. The band has built its sound around aggressive riffs and a strong blend of raw shouted lead vocals and melodic vocals during their choruses. Musically, they mix influences of hardcore, metal and punk that has helped them stand out amongst the scene. With the recent economic difficulties plaguing most people, the band still managed to push through. They overcame uncertainties within the band to create their latest release titled Almost Home. They parted ways with bassist Jason Southwell after their last record, and they recently lost drummer Kyle Mims due to a freak bicycle accident before their most recent tour on the Summer Slob Tour. Caleb James of Casey Jones filled in for the tour.
Guitarist Josh James spoke about the new record, touring with new members, touring, and their love for the Simpsons.
Where are you now?
Josh James: We’re on the last night of the Summer Slob Tour with The Acacia Strain, Cruel Hand and Unholy. We are in Hartford, Connecticut at the Webster Theater. We have a nice 15 hour drive home and have two days off and then we hop on a plane and head to Europe.
How’s the tour going so far?
JJ: It’s been good. There are a lot of tours going on right now and you can definitely see the effects of that. Kids don’t know what they want they want to do this summer. You have Warped Tour, 10 Bands For $10, Summer Slaughter Tour, and the Summer Slob Tour. You have a lot of things going on. The crowds have been good. It’s been a lot of fun. This tour’s definitely had a less serious vibe to it, all because of the theme of being a disgusting slob. It’s made for some interesting nights!
I heard about your drummer’s situation. How’s he doing?
JJ: He just got out of the hospital yesterday. About five days before we left for the tour, him and the guy playing bass for us, they were cruising around on beach cruisers around the neighborhood. Kyle had a brand new bike and the spokes just collapsed. He was about a block from his house and it threw him over the handle bars. It broke his clavicle in three different spots and crushed his elbow. He was rushed to the emergency room. They put a steel plate into his shoulder. Caleb [James] from Casey Jones is filling in on drums. We try to keep in touch with Kyle every day. A week and a half after his surgery, he started getting really sick and went to the emergency room. They found out he had a blood clot in his lung. So he was put in the hospital for a week under observation. He called me and said he just received the bill solely for the clavicle surgery. It was around $40,000! It’s definitely a hard time for him and hard time for the band. Things were looking good. We have a new record about to come out. We have a lot of great tours lined up for the next six months. Something unfortunate as this happens; everybody is trying to stay as positive as we can. We didn’t want to cancel any tours. We were lucky to get Caleb to play drums for us. Kyle’s going through physical therapy and will be back with us in a couple of months.
Caleb will be in long as he is needed then?
JJ: He’s going to do the European run with us right after this tour, which starts next week. After that, we’re doing five and a half weeks with Emmure. That takes us into October. The doctors told him that there is a high chance that he won’t be able to turn his hand so his palm faces up. He’s not sure how that will affect his drumming. He’s trying to stay focused and not let it get to him too much. He’s a tough guy when it comes to bringing him down on things. Hopefully that attitude will come through in a positive way.
Not to bum out the interview, but what was the biggest difference between the making of Almost Home versus past records? I read you used a producer this time around.
JJ: This recording process was completely different than anything else we have ever done. In the past we had gone to one studio. We’ve never had a producer. We were strictly working with the engineer at the studio. This time, we ended up tracking all of the music without a producer. We recorded that in a small studio called Martel Studios in Georgia. We tracked all the vocals, as well as Jason Suecof produced and engineered the record. He just did the new August Burns Red, Job For A Cowboy, Black Dahlia Murder, All That Remains, and Trivium. It was cool and weird at the same time. He didn’t do a whole lot with Craig’s [Chaney] vocals, which are the clean singing vocals. It was cool to have someone step in and looking at it with a completely different perspective. He had Craig try so many things he hadn’t thought of. Obviously we hope one day…we don’t oppose working with a producer. When we started writing the record as far as the songwriting, there was so much going on with the band. Just like any other band was felt it…the economy had a huge impact on us, the impact of the outlook of our personal future, what’s going on in the world, and what is and what is not important. Our bass player [Jason Southwell] of over ten years, he decided it was time for him to call it quits. There were a few months there where it was rocky for us. We didn’t know what the future was. We didn’t know if everybody wanted to do it or if it was worthwhile doing it. Ultimately me and Drew [Andrew Carey, vocals] and Craig and Kyle started writing the songs, everything we were experiencing emotionally and dealing with, everyone started pushing out stuff that was deeper than anything in the past. It seemed like the songs flowed better. I think when listeners hear it they will be able to understand. They will be able to understand and grasp the energy the record holds.
Does the title Almost Home tie into your dealings over the past few years?
JJ: We come up with a bunch of different titles. Then Almost Home was brought up. We tour so much that we’re constantly saying we’re almost home. We’re always thinking of taking a break. It seems like the break never comes. As soon as we come home, we start writing and record. In another sense, when we started the band, it was never the intension to release a record. It was to have some fun and never to go on tour or to make it our career. It seems like throughout those years, I don’t want to say we strayed away from having a good time and having a useful mindset. Reality does kick you in the ass sometimes. It’s hard to not get caught up in the bullshit and becoming an adult and dealing with the problems you deal with. All the things I was talking about earlier, like Jason quitting and the economy, it puts so much pressure on us. When it seemed like we came to our breaking point, where we almost split up, it was a breath of fresh air. It felt like it took us back to home ten years ago where we were. I don’t care if the record fails. I don’t care if the record sells a million copies. That would be great but nobody’s thinking about that. Within the last few records, you have labels and management and other bands and booking agents and all of this bullshit and pressure from all of these people that ‘this record can’t sell! It’s gonna be a success!’ That’s all you’re thinking about. We got to a point where it’s like ‘we don’t give a shit.’ Either it’s gonna do well or it’s not. We can’t control that. All we can do is write songs that we enjoy and other people will like them. It brought us back to the order of the band where we started off.
I noticed on past records many of your songs were inspired by pop culture such as Survivor to Fight Club, amongst others. Did those types of themes inspire the songs on Almost Home?
JJ: We’ve always taken things from pop culture and slid them into the band. There are definitely ideas for lyrics that we’ve gotten from books – tons of titles for songs and records have been from movies and books. A lot of times we’ll hear something funny in a movie and we’ll write a song and we’ll call the song whatever the funny line is in the movie or the clever line is in the book. We don’t really think of the title when we write the lyric. Somehow at the end, the lyrics match the title of the song on the record. There are definitely some pop culture references in Almost Home. There’s a song called ‘I’m A Bullet Proof Tiger’ that is a Kenny Rogers quote from the show Eastbound & Down. There’s nothing lyrically based. I think it was something on Wolfbiker. Everyone was getting into philosophy and the idea of gods and religions. I think reading a lot of those books and lyrics, you could see where we were reading or watching through those lyrics. On Almost Home, it’s heartfelt lyrics and though out lyrics. There’s nothing specifically based from a book or a movie that influenced us in the past.
What’s the deal with the bass player situation? Do you have fill ins for now?
JJ: We made a decision that me, Craig and Drew have been in the band for ten years. Kyle’s been in the band for five years. We wrote the record. Jason our old bass player didn’t really write anything musically. It’s not going to change the writing process or the sound our old bass player didn’t influence in the music. We thought it would be easier for us to instead of having a fifth official member, just having someone to play for tours…it’s one less person to deal with on the business end of things. Also it’s easier that way. We have our friend Chris [Andrews] who formerly played for this band Stretch Arm Strong. He’s playing bass for us now. He’s doing these tours with us for the rest of the year.
So you have two fill in guys for now?
JJ: It’s never happened before. Caleb the guy who’s playing drums for us, he usually does merch for us. We’re used to touring with him. We’re not used to touring with Chris. The first few shows were awkward for us because I’m looking on stage and I’m like ‘who the hell’s on stage with me?’ We’ve all gotten into the groove and I think this group of people have gotten extremely tight and have figured out how and what everybody does live.
I know you had a YouTube page with some video diaries. Are there any plans of doing more in the future?
JJ: That’s something I recently started doing last year. We toured the States so much…whenever I talk to my friends, nobody ever asks about tours from the States. They don’t care what you did in Idaho. Whenever you go to Europe or Australia or Japan, that’s when all of your friends ask ‘how was it? Was it crazy?’ I started making little documentaries whenever we go overseas, mostly to show our friends and family what it’s like over there. I try to film things here and there, and if there’s enough good or humorous footage, we’ll try to put it all together and give people something to watch. Most of them are short and entertaining.
You got the band name from the Simpsons. Now that the Simpsons hit the 20th anniversary mark themselves, does this give you any added motivation to keep the band going another decade?
JJ: The goal is to eventually convince Matt Groening to put us on the Simpsons. Once that happens, then I don’t really care what happens. We know we’ve fulfilled all that we could do. If you want to let Mister Matt know that we’re fully ready to have our episode and just to give us a call.
You’ll do a duet with Bart?
JJ: I’d like to really get down with Homer personally because my stepdad’s name is Homer, as well. He used to get really pissed off when I was a little kid. I used to call him Homer Simpson. He would get furious.
