A Conversation with Four Year Strong’s Alan Day – HuffPost 1.23.12
Mike Ragogna: Alan, I would describe Four Year Strong’s sound as power-punk-pop…what do you think?
Alan Day: Yeah, that’s pretty accurate.
MR: And maybe a little bit indie?
AD: Yeah, there may be a little bit of that mixed in there.
MR: Four Year Strong’s In Some Way Shape Or Form is the band’s fourth album. How did this one come together?
AD: We came out with the first record in 2007 and then we waited so long – almost three years – to put our next record out. So, we knew from that experience that we didn’t want to wait that long. We were just dying to get this record out. We knew we wanted to do something a little bit different from stuff we’ve done in the past. We took a new approach to writing songs and that went better than ever. This record was a product of that.
MR: How did you guys write the music for this one?
AD: Well, in the past, we would concentrate mostly on the music – the chord progression, what the drums were doing, what the bass was doing – then write vocals on top of that. This time around, we realized that that approach really didn’t make much sense. (laughs) We thought we should start to write the songs as songs – with vocals, melody and lyrics hand-in-hand, so that they actually work together instead of just feeling thrown together. That’s what we did this time around and we loved it.
MR: So over the course of four albums – your first album counts as your first album, right?
AD: It’s Our Time is actually just a really old recording we did when I was about sixteen or seventeen. (laughs)
MR: Okay, from then until now, besides the songwriting, how have things changed for you guys over the span of these projects?
AD: We’ve changed just as much as anyone else would as long as we’ve been together. We’ve been a band for about ten years and I think people have gotten to see a lot of different sides of the band. So many things can change us, whether we’re listening to pop music a lot at the time or the experiences we’ve gone through as a band from touring to being in the studio. That just shows in our music. We weren’t trying to be a different band when we were making this record, we are just starting to evolve into newer people and a newer band.
MR: By the way, the last album has one of my favorite song titles, “It Must Suck To Be Four Year Strong Right Now.”
AD: (laughs) That was just a joke, really.
MR: And your fans are an integral part of the way you guys function as a band, isn’t that right?
AD: Absolutely.
MR: For instance, you guys offered the free download of the song “Fair Weather Fan,” which, I thought, was a great thing to do.
AD: Yeah. I mean, we’ve always thought that the fans were the most important thing about the band because if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be here. We’re not in an age now where we could just sit back and have a record label sell millions of copies of records and make money for us. We do this for the fans first. We tour all over the country and world all year so that we can give people our music. That’s what this is all about.
MR: You guys had a sort of mini-tour recently to back up the release of your single.
AD: We just finished up on the AP Tour around the States about a month ago. Our new record came out about halfway through the tour, so of course the tour was definitely in support of that new release, and we started playing, “Just Drive” and a few other new songs. It was going really well.
MR: You guys even had a few pre-album releases of songs such as “Stuck In The Middle” and “Falling For You,” though they weren’t released as singles, right?
AD: That’s right.
MR: Can you discuss the general theme behind this batch of songs?
AD: Sure. One of the things that we did on this record that we haven’t really done on previous records is that we touch on darker subjects. We always like to keep our songs pretty open to interpretation because what people latch onto in songs and lyrics is the fact that that they can relate them to their own lives and experiences, not just learning about a story that Dan O’Connor or I wrote, but being able to really latch onto it.
MR: Dan being the other vocalist and guitarist, and you also have Joe Weiss and Jake Massucco in the band. How do all of you interact with each other as a band?
AD: Oh, it’s a blast. We’re just a bunch of kids on the road having fun and playing music. It doesn’t get much better than that, right? (laughs)
MR: Right. (laughs) You mentioned before that some of these songs are a little darker, proof of that being “Security Of The Familiar, The Tranquility Of Repetition,” which is a quote from V For Vendetta. Was it someone’s favorite movie?
AD: I don’t know that it’s any of our favorite movies, we just sometimes name songs from movie quotes. It’s a thing we do.
MR: So was the song title, “Unbreakable” inspired by the movie?
AD: (laughs) No, that one was more lyrically inspired. That’s actually one of my favorites on the album.
MR: Did you guys intend for that to be a sort of sporting event anthem? It does kind of come off like that.
AD: Not really. I’m not even really that much of a sports fan. Joe is crazy about the Bruins, and Dan loves the Red Sox and the Patriots, Jake loves the Celtics, and I’m the odd man out. And I do like sports, I just grew up in a house that listened to music and didn’t watch sports. I kind of feel left out all the time.
MR: Are you just saying you’re not into sports because you’re secretly a Yankees fan?
AD: No. (laughs) I wish that I could be that ironic, but I’m not.
MR: You guys all grew up together in Worcester, Massachusetts. How did you first get together as a band?
AD: Well, the drummer Jake and I grew up together. We went to elementary school together and played in bands every year since the third grade or something. Then, when I was a freshman in High School, we started this band with Dan. We went through a couple of lineup changes at the beginning, but here we are.
MR: A small portion of the proceeds from your “It’s A Wonderful Gig Life Tour” are going to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, right? How did that come about?
AD: That’s right. We’ve always wanted to do something with a charity organization and Dan’s brother passed away of Leukemia in 2004, I believe. He’s always wanted to do something for that charity specifically, so we figured this would be a great opportunity to do that.
MR: There was the photo contest that you guys put together with the “Just Drive” video. Can you tell us about that?
AD: We had this thing on Instagram, which is an iPhone app and another form of social networking. It’s kind of like Twitter, only Twitter gives you 140 characters to say what you want to say and Instagram lets you post a picture instead, and a picture is worth a thousand words, so they say. We thought it was a cool way to get this cool, new social networking site and the band to work together in a new cool way. People like taking pictures and sharing them with the world and we figured that this was a cool way to do it.
MR: You guys also have a limited edition t-shirt designed in conjunction with Johnny Cupcakes Clothing.
AD: Yes, we do. We’ve known people that work there for quite a while now because they’re from Boston and we’re from Worcester. SJC Drums is from Massachusetts as well, so we all just kind of got together recently where we got an event together and all of Johnny Cupcakes, and SJC Drums people were there. So, we did a shirt with Johnny Cupcakes and SJC Drums did a kickdrum head with all of the logos on it. We just thought it was a cool way for these small town kids who actually had ideas and made them realities through time celebrate that.
MR: Where did the name “Four Year Strong” come from?
AD: Well, the actual story is not cool at all. I wish I could make something up to make it sound really interesting, but there isn’t. (laughs) There was a band called the Get Up Kids that we all really liked when we were freshman in High School, and one of their lyrics was “five years strong.” So, we thought we would be cool and just change it to Four Year Strong and make that the band’s name. That’s it. (laughs) Not an exciting story.
MR: What’s with those beards with you guys. Some kind of statement?
AD: No, we all just really like beards and we’ve had them a long time. We also all hate razors. I haven’t used a razor and shaving cream and shaved my face clean in maybe seven years?
MR: Do you have any advice that you would give to newer artists?
AD: My advice has always been to just get out there and show the world what you’ve got, you know? It’s so easy these days to create a website and record a record in Garage Band and just do it all from home. You can go on the Internet and get so many hits online and people will actually see you and hear your music. The best way, though, is to physically get out there and loose some money. Take money out of your pocket, invest in a tank of gas and go play a gig a couple of States away, even if it’s to nobody. Everyone I know that is huge and successful kind of started like that. That’s the nature of this business at the start. Eventually, once you’ve established yourself as an artist, you appreciate all of that so much more.
Transcribed By Evan Martin