What a rad band name. Seriously, we’re always thinking of banned names, but none approaches As Tall As Lions for goodness of band nomination domination. We crank called them on tour, and they weren’t cranky, except when we said they could all make it as solo acts. That crank call got us a rad interview with a rad band, with a rad band name. Not all of the interview made it into aStory Issue II, what did is here and so to is a little more that didn’t, rad, hey?
Hey Dan, where are you right now?
I am driving through the middle of absolute nowhere from Denver to Salt Lake City right now.
Yeah? What kind of vehicle are you guys touring in?
Um, it’s a 15-passenger van with a trailer. We took out the last two rows of benches and now we have a bed, so it’s a pretty interesting little contraption we have going.
You’ve stepped up from the station wagon, but not yet on the private jet. Congratulations.
Yeah. It’s pretty standard.
So how did you guys meet before you decided to get in a van together?
In high school, Sean, Cliff and I started this group, and then it trickled into college, but then the band dispersed to focus on some other things. But then a year later we picked up again and started playing again as As Tall As Lions.
So you’re saying college isn’t worth it.
Uh, well, no, we did college. We put out an EP as our first piece of music and we got some interest from some labels at that point, and by then we’d signed with Triple Crown and they kind of said, “We’ll sign you to our label, but you guys have to leave school and start touring.” And we’re like, “&*^% it! We’ll start touring.”
Was the band always the first option?
Exactly. It was something that I’d always wanted to do. The whole goal was always to get signed and to be able to make music all the time. But obviously when you’re 17 or 18, to tell your parents that’s what you want to do when they’re about to send you off to college, it doesn’t really go well.
That’s a tough sell.
Yeah, once we had labels interested, I think it made it a bit easier to explain to our parents that we were going to drop out of school and do it. But it was still a tough sell.
What did your parents say?
You know, by the end, after three years of going to school and complaining and doing it half-assed… I didn’t really have any direction in terms of education because I was always focusing on music. They understood it. Once they saw that we had contracts, they were supportive and happy we were doing something we were excited about. I know for my father, he had kind of gotten into something out of college, work-wise, that wasn’t exactly his passion. So when he saw that I had something, he was excited I’d found something I was passionate about.
Do you resent that you have to share credit with the other band members?
No, I don’t resent the guys at all. It’s an extremely collaborative effort. No.
Just checking. What’s the most satisfying part of your recent success?
Just the fact that we don’t have to work regular jobs. You’re in a band and you get to play a different city every night and hang out with awesome people. How do you gauge what’s the best part of it?
We’re not answering the question for you.
I can’t. There’re too many good parts of it.
When you’re on tour, is it redundant playing the same songs every night?
We do try to switch it up as often as possible. We’ll play a set for a few nights, we’ll switch it up. This tour especially, we’ve been switching it up every night and doing different songs and versions of songs. Like two nights ago, we did a dub version of one of the songs on our record just for fun. We have fun with it.
What gets you into a song-writing mood?
You know, that’s something I wish I had an answer for. It’s really tough. The problem for us is that every time we’ve written a record, it’s always been like, “Okay guys, this is the time to write the record.” And when you put that kind of pressure on yourselves, you tend to be self-defeating and overanalyze. Our writing process is always difficult, we spend months debating what kind of record we’re going to make. You just have to find that space where you’re not trying to write music. For this record, the only time we wrote the songs we’re really excited about is when we were just having fun and jamming, or not thinking about the pressure of writing a song.
If you could only sell one song to one commercial, what would you be shilling?
I have no clue. I’m going to come up with a terrible answer. Pass.
If all goes better than imagined, and the staircase only goes up, who do you want to open for you when you’re on top and why?
What kind of questions are you asking me, man? Pass.
We would’ve said The Beatles.
Nah. Why would you want a band that’s big already to open for you?
Because you’re even bigger than The Beatles when they’re opening for you, dude.
Tags: As Tall As Lions, Interview, Music
