Interview by Rachel Jablonski
“Welcome to life on the road,” guitarist Dave Aguilera said to me during our second attempt at an interview. When you’re a band on the road in Canada, free time and phone service are not exactly convenient. Well, unless you want to pay $1.50 per minute on your cell phone that is. So when we were finally able to talk, briefly before his phone card ran out, Dave and I spoke about the band’s tour and popularity in Canada. The next day, with a fresh phone card, part two of the interview was more focused on the new album called Built by Blood and the incredible Bleed the Dream drummer, Scott Gottlieb, who tragically passed away April 10, 2005 after battling cancer.
Rachel: You’re on tour in Canada right now and I hear you’ve been getting quite a response. How did you gain so much exposure up there?
Dave: Um, we don’t know. [laugh] Warcon, our label, did a lot to get the word out through interviews and the local magazines and stuff like that. But the only thing we’ve ever really done up here was the Taste of Chaos tour, we played on the acoustic stage. So we didn’t know it would be this great for us, but it’s been awesome and the kids have been coming out.
Rachel: Awesome. What was their response to the acoustic set on Taste of Chaos? They have never seen you plugged in?
Dave: No, this is the first time all these kids have ever seen us electric and it’s been awesome. They’ve all been really digging it. I mean playing acoustic was super awesome too; it was something a little different. But this time around they are getting to see Bleed the Dream fully electric and the responses have been overwhelming.
Rachel: What was playing acoustic like for you?
Dave: It was cool. We pretty much put on the same show even though it was acoustic. We still rocked out and everything. For me, as a guitar player, the only thing really different on the Taste of Chaos was that my guitar wasn’t electric. We still had everything else the same, we still had electric bass and drums and everything. So it’s just been super cool to finally be able to play my electric guitar.
Rachel: Well you’re on Warped Tour this summer on every date. What do you expect to be different than last year?
Dave: The main difference is that last year we were still one of those bands that nobody really knew. We’ve toured ever since then nonstop so we’ve kinda made a little bit of a name for ourselves hopefully. We’re going to get to see a lot of those same people that we met last year plus more so the exposure for the band is going to be that much better. Our record’s out in stores now so kids are singing along to our music as opposed to last year when we were just this new band that people have kind of heard of in name, but had never heard us. So it’s going to be more fan based, it’s going to be cool.
Rachel: How long have you been touring straight then?
Dave: We’ve been touring ever since the first EP came out. That was in, I don’t even remember, like three years ago almost. We’ve pretty much toured since. The only time we didn’t tour was when we didn’t have a tour to go on so it’s been kind of nonstop for about two years.
Rachel: Are you guys exhausted?
Dave: It’s just life, this is our new life. We’ve become accustomed to it. We like being on the road. Sometimes it gets to you a little bit, but whenever that happens we just go home for a week or so and recharge ourselves. As soon as we’ve been home for about a week or so we start to miss the road again so we go back out. We’ve gotten to do a lot of cool things, like we’re doing this Canadian tour. We will do about eighteen dates in Canada and some of these shows are in places that some people have never even heard of. We’re getting to see a lot of stuff that no one gets to see usually.
Rachel: Are you headlining then? Who are you with?
Dave: Yeah, we’re headlining, it’s our own tour. It was kind of scary because we were like woah we’ve never toured Canada, this is our first time here, and we’re headlining. We took Stutterfly with us who are from British Columbia so the shows are just going to get better and better as we head that way because that’s where their following is from. We took Like Yesterday with us too.
Rachel: What are they like?
Dave: Stutterfly is definitely in the same genre as us, they’re like a Warped Tour style band. Like Yesterday is completely different. They’re more like an indie rock band. They’re kind of like Ours or Radiohead or something like that. So it definitely makes it interesting. And there’s a local band playing every show too. The phone might hang up because my calling card is running out, I’m sorry.
Rachel: Oh, ok. So Built by Blood is in stores. What was the main goal for this album? What were you trying to accomplish most?
Dave: Uhhhh… the phone is running out.
The phone goes dead. The calling card has run out. Enter the interview part two the following day.
Dave: Sorry about yesterday, welcome to life on the road.
Rachel: Yeah, no kidding. It’s cool. Well I think we stopped by talking about the new album, Built by Blood. What was your main goal? What were you trying to accomplish?
Dave: We weren’t really trying to accomplish anything, we were just trying to put an album out and hopefully take our song writing to a whole new level. On the earlier EPs we were rushed on some of the songs because we didn’t have as much time as we would have liked to record or the money to record. We did our first EP in five days and we did our second EP in three days. So this was the first time we really had time to spend on a record and really put everything into it, as far as having time to spend on tones and stuff like that. We were just trying to put out the best record we could. So we are happy with the way it turned out.
Rachel: Who produced the album?
Dave: Cameron Webb. He’s out of Orange County. Some of the stuff he has done is he’s worked with Motorhead, he’s worked with Social Distortion, and he’s done every record we’ve had. One of his bigger accomplishments is that he learned from Terry Date, which is like a big thing because he’s one of our all-time favorite producers. He interned for Terry Date for years, that’s how he got his start in the industry. He’s done all the Zebrahead records; he’s done a bunch of cool bands.
Rachel: The production is really good on your album.
Dave: Thank you, thank you. That was the main thing we were going for. We wanted a big sounding record. We didn’t want to go for that indie sound that’s out there right now, which is cool I’m totally into it and I love all those bands, but we just wanted a big record. We wanted a big rock record.
Rachel: Well I think you got it then. So you have two videos out now. Actually, you know what’s funny? In the video with the collection of photos there’s a picture I took in there.
Dave: Really?
Rachel: Yeah it’s pretty funny. I was watching the video and I’m like wait a minute I think I took that picture in Omaha. So I went to one of the show reviews I wrote up on you guys on my site and sure enough I did. It was kinda funny. [laugh]
Dave: Yeah, that’s a piece we made for our DVD. That’s funny you took the picture, that’s awesome. Thank you. Don’t feel bad, no one got credit for the DVD, not even us. [laugh] That’s why it’s called “No Apologies.” Scott edited the whole entire DVD in the last year. We had so many pictures and little film clips that we took or that other people took and sent in and we were like oh my god look at all this footage from the last two years. We had no idea who sent us what so we were like you know what let’s just not put anything written on the DVD and just have it all black and call it “No Apologies.” So that’s all it says. It doesn’t say anything inside.
Rachel: Well speaking of Scott. I’m really sorry about the band’s recent loss. I know it’s had to have been tough. I met Scott once and he is a great guy and it’s actually really hard for me to ask questions about him as much as I know it’s tough for you to answer. He was very cool and the most organized suitcase packer I have ever seen. [laugh] How are you guys doing? Are you doing all right?
Dave: Yeah, we’re just dealing with it. What else are you going to do, ya know. You have two choices you either sit at home and lay in bed and put the covers over the top of your head or you force yourself to get up every day and drink your coffee and move forward. You can’t move backwards in life and he wouldn’t want us to either. The more we keep chugging along and moving forward, the longer we keep his legacy alive. We continue to bring awareness to Scott and all the cool things he did in the world, the rad drumming he did on the record, and we owe a lot to him to have made this record as successful as we can. Not just for us, but for him also. And just to bring awareness, you know, because the more we talk about it the more we bring awareness about cancer and all of these horrible diseases. We need to help, we need everyone to come together and get a cure. I know we all talk about finding cures and stuff and it almost sounds cliché sometimes, but you can’t give up, you have to keep trying. We have a voice, we can be heard. We can say stuff and a million kids will hear it, ya know, so we owe it not just to Scott, but to all the other people out there that are suffering.
Rachel: I find it absolutely amazing that Scott put down the drums on the album. How did he do that?
Dave: I don’t know, I really don’t know. He just pulled something from inside that we all have, but some of us can harness in, some of us can’t. I have no idea where he got the drive to do it. It was just beyond energy, it was determination. It was insane. I can’t even explain to you how sick he was and somehow he did it. He didn’t do it for us; he didn’t do it for anyone other than himself. He was 100% determined that there was no way anyone was going to play drums on the record except for him. Who are we to stand in the way of that, ya know? At one point I was like please dude you don’t have to do this. He was basically just like f’ you dude I’m doing it get out of my way. So he did it and it was amazing.
Rachel: And then you guys recorded the other video together?
Dave: We did “Who’s Killing Who” and we did “Legends Die” and we filmed them both in the same day. We knew how sick Scott was and he knew how sick he was too. We didn’t want to have to do the second video without him so we just said screw it and powered through it. He was sicker this time and he just somehow did the videos. It’s pretty powerful stuff.
Rachel: Wow, what an amazing guy.
Dave: It’s just amazing when you find out how strong humans are. We all bitch and whine all the time about how I’m sick or I don’t feel good or I have a cold or whatever and it’s like he just pulled this from somewhere inside and powered through it. He had cancer and he had chemo in him and he had all sorts of drugs pumped inside of him, he was just out of it, but somehow he did it. It was amazing. He’s a great guy.
Rachel: That’s awesome. The song “Broken Wings” is a song about Scott?
Dave: Yeah, we wrote it as a dedication to him.
Rachel: What does the song mean to you? What did it mean to Scott?
Dave: We wrote that on a positive note. We wrote it when we first found out that he had cancer. We wrote it when we were on Matchbook Romance tour right after he got sick. It’s definitely more of a positive song than negative because it’s about him, it’s about us getting through all this and coming out on top and stuff. It’s a little rough to play, but we play it every night and remember him and we play it for all of you too. We know a lot of people out there have a lot of feelings for Scott so we play it for everyone else too, we owe it to everybody.
Rachel: It’s a good song. Did he ever say anything about it?
Dave: Yeah, he was stoked. We surprised him with it. It was the only song we’ve ever written without him because we write everything as a band. He had just gotten out of the hospital from his first chemo and stuff and we surprised him with it. We went over to his house and were like check it out dude and it was pretty awesome.
Rachel: Oh, that’s good. Well this is hard to transition from now, but…
Dave: Yeah, hey on a positive note he played all the drums for the album on the song that was written for him so that’s pretty cool.
Rachel: I’m happy he was able to do that.
Dave: Yeah.
Rachel: My friend Aaron Edmunds from D.C. is filling in for you as a drummer on Warped Tour, correct?
Dave: Yeah.
Rachel: What do you expect from him?
Dave: Just great drumming. The guy is amazing.
Rachel: Yeah, I love Aaron. He’s definitely a great drummer.
Dave: He’s like the sickest drummer.
Rachel: Then you’ll just kind of feel him out and see if he fits or…?
Dave: Um, we’re just telling everybody the same thing. You can’t really pick a member for your band until you sit down and write together. Playing songs that have already been written is like the easiest thing in the world. Everything we’re playing right now and will be on the Warped Tour is beats that Scott wrote. Aaron’s such an amazing drummer he’s going to be able to play everything that Scott wrote. We can’t say who’s going to be our next drummer until after the Warped Tour. We’re going to spend all summer working on new material for the next record. So hopefully after the summer we’ll have a little bit of time off and can start laying down some stuff with drums and doing a little preproduction and stuff. And that’s when we’ll find out who’s going to be our next drummer.
Rachel: You guys are on MySpace Music. What effect do you think MySpace has had on music in the past year? How do you use it to your advantage?
Dave: It’s been cool. MySpace is like the new PureVolume almost in a sense, except it has more pictures and people can interact because of the boards and all that stuff. It’s been cool. When you’re on the road you really don’t have that much time to go on there as much as we used to, but it’s still cool. Every chance we get we go on there and read the comments and stuff. It’s flattering and it’s cool that so many people are into the band. We definitely dig it. It’s impossible to read all the emails though. [laugh] There’s like 4,000 of them on there. It has definitely helped as far as exposure goes. They put us on the front page one time for like two weeks, on the featured artist thing, and that just blew it through the roof. That was amazing.
Rachel: Cool. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Dave: Thanks to everyone for buying the record. The sales the first two weeks have been amazing just because… I don’t know why. [laugh] We’re stoked. It’s been selling really well and just thanks to everyone. We’ll see you on the Warped Tour.
Rachel: Thank you very much Dave! Good luck to you guys. Hopefully I’ll see you on the Warped Tour too.
Dave: Sounds good. We’ll see you on the Warped.