Senses Fail

During their stop in Calgary as part of the Taste Of Chaos tour in March, Mike Glita from Senses Fail was nice enough to sit down and talk with me for a little about some recent happenings with the band and some old rumors that were still floating about. I’d like to thank Mike for doing it, Indy for introducing us, and Fernando for getting it all set up. And of course, Jacey for driving me down to Calgary for the concert. Enjoy!

All pictures were taken from JunkedCamera.com.

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Bobby: Let’s start with the basics, you guys are pretty far into the Taste Of Chaos tour right now, how has that been going so far?

Mike: Pretty good, I can’t complain. It’s the biggest tour we’ve ever done. We’re out with a bunch of good friends, bunch of good bands, every night’s been awesome. Most people we’ve ever played for, it’s great.

Bobby: Are there any memorable moments so far?

Mike: I don’t know, I think all the Canadian shows have been really good. I don’t know, I think it’s cool to play for the most people we’ve ever done, that’s the biggest part of it. In Detroit we played for like twelve thousand or something like that. Every night’s been unreal, it’s awesome.

Bobby: On every date, there’s one local band that won a spot to play on the acoustic stage. Has there been a band that has really stuck out for you so far?

Mike: I think Nicky P, he’s pretty cool. I mean, all the bands are awesome on the local stage. There’s him, there’s Bleed The Dream, and Sophomore’s pretty cool too, and My American Heart. All those bands are cool.

Bobby: Alright, you guys just graduated from high school a couple years ago. Did you guys ever think that you would be playing in a humongous festival like this one as one of the headliners?

Mike: Ummm, no. I guess when you start a band you can’t really assume or think anything is really going to happen. You just kinda do what you do and things come along. But it’s pretty crazy. I never thought we’d be doing a tour this big. Just to have people know your songs is pretty cool, but to be able to do something like this, that’s pretty incredible.

Bobby: What’s it lie having Buddy’s mom direct your music videos?

Mike: Well, she did our first two and it was interesting. It was a lot more hands on where we could do what we wanted to do, you know what I mean? The last one we did was with somebody else, it was cool working with somebody else. That one’s not out yet.

Bobby: What song is it for?

Mike: “Rum Is For Drinking, Not For Burning.” We did it with this guy called Chris Mills, he did the Modest Mouse video and Interpol, and some other people.

Bobby: After filming the video for “A Bloody Romance”, the Drive-Thru Records DVD shows you guys drawing penises all over the house. Did the landlord ever catch you?

Mike: I don’t think so. It was kind of like a house that was owned by the town. Because it was an older house, some kind of property that was… Well, I don’t know what was up with the house, but it was a government property. But no, they made everybody clean it up before anything happened.

Bobby: You guys obviously have a good sense of humor like drawing penises on the walls or writing “Girls have vaginas” on your t-shirts during Warped Tour. Have you done anything like that recently?

Mike: Ummm, nope. I think everybody has calmed down a bunch since then. I think a lot of bands have the same sense of humor as us that we know. So it’s cool. You gotta have fun while you’re on tour sometimes, you know what I mean?

Bobby: Yeah, yeah. Okay, I know you’ve been asked this a million times before, and for that I’m sorry. But why was “Let It Enfold” delayed so long, and what was with all the drama of jumping from label to label?

Mike: We recorded it when we were on Drive-Thru and then Geffen had the option to pick us up because the way the Drive-Thru contract was, they could pick you up at any point. So they exercised that option and once that happened we had to wait through the winter time anyway just to get a release date. And they wanted us to do some things that we weren’t really down with, so they suggested that we possibly go to Vagrant. So then finally, after about a year, we had it all worked out and that’s what happened.

Bobby: So you guys recorded that CD quite along time ago, when do you think we’ll see a new album from you guys?

Mike: Probably… I don’t know. I’d say summer to fall 2006, something like that. We’ll probably be recording about this time next year.

Bobby: Why did you guys decide to re-release your ECA EP “Into The Depths Of Dreams”?

Mike: Because they only pressed a thousand copies so Drive-Thru wanted to re-release it and obviously have more copies so that more people could buy it. That’s what happened.

Bobby: Why did you decide to add the two new songs onto it?

Mike: They just figured we might as well add two new songs to make it so that its something new for people who already had it.

Bobby: I’ve heard rumors that Dan filled in on drums for Good Charlotte on one of the many late night TV shows. Is that true?

Mike: You are probably referring to Alkaline Trio, and that’s Derek of Alkaline Trio who did it.

Bobby: That was somebody who submitted that question to ask.

Mike: O yeah, but no, it was Derek from Alkaline Trio who filled in for Good Charlotte.

Bobby: I’ve also heard rumors that there’s a beef between you guys, well more specifically Buddy, and Jason Tate of Absolutepunk.net. Is that true? Or is that just people wanting to make fights again?

Mike: Oh no, I think it was just a whole bunch of miscommunication that happened a while back. Everything was cleared up and they’re cool with us. I think what happened was we did an interview where we actually plugged the website, but I think he read the interview wrong or he read something wrong where he thought we were saying something else. So it was just a bit of miscommunication.

Bobby: You guys were recently on the cover of Alternative Press Magazine, and that’s quite impressive for such a young band. How did that all get set up?

Mike: They pretty much asked us if we wanted to do it. That was something that I don’t think any of us ever thought would happen. I mean its crazy enough to be in a band but to see all of those bands on the front cover of that magazine; you don’t ever think that that would happen to your band. It was awesome to be able to do that. I think one of the biggest points of our careers so far is the band being able to be on the front cover of AP.

Bobby: Who came up with the concept of all dressing in suits for the photo?

Mike: We had some ideas that we were thinking about and figuring out how to shoot. Like first we were going to do some sort of diner thing and then we talked to the photographer and the photographer had his own ideas. So we just kind of mixed things up.

Bobby: Now onto a little bit more unusual questions that I like to ask. If you guys were stranded on a desert island, with no food and nothing to eat, which one of the band members would you eat to survive and why?

Mike: Umm, let’s see. Who would I eat to survive? I don’t know, I think Dan’s the biggest guy in the band. So if Dan’s the biggest guy in the band, he’ll have the most meat to eat. We gotta eat Dan!

Bobby: If you could be a member of the opposite sex for a day, what would you do and why?

Mike: If I could be a member of the opposite sex for one day? I guess I’d have to… Well, I wouldn’t go into any of the little girl’s locker rooms, that’s stupid. I don’t know, that’s a hard question. I’d probably just try to figure out what’s happening with girls and their minds. So I’d probably just talk to a bunch of girls and see what they say and then walk up to some guys and hit on them and see what happens. That kind of stuff.

Bobby: Could you tell us something about the band or one of it’s members that not many people know about? Like a little secret or something.

Mike: I don’t know. I don’t think there’s very many secrets about our band that people don’t know about. We don’t really have any secrets, I don’t know. Buddy was in a Japanese rap group video, but that was on our DVD. I don’t know. I don’t think there’s anything too crazy that people don’t know.

Bobby: Okay. What’s your opinion MP3s? Good, bad…?

Mike: I mean, as most people say, there’s good and bad sides of it. I think Buddy said it before. It helps the bands start out, you know what I mean? Its great for getting your name out when people don’t know you. And when you’re a huge band, people will still buy your CDs and it shouldn’t hurt you either, like Metallica or whatever. I think it can hurt the bands that are in the middle that are trying to get to that point. Bands that are selling a couple hundred thousand CDs and want to get bigger. But at the same time, if you have good music and a good CD, it won’t matter. For me, it’s more like a good way to sample something. Yeah, there are some people that download stuff, but like I don’t even really use MP3s anymore because I don’t really have a computer anymore. But if I did listen to MP3s, its just to hear what the CD sounds like. And if I like it, I buy it.

Bobby: If you could have one thing at this moment, anything at all, what would you have and why?

Mike: One thing at this moment. Good question…

Bobby: I know I’d like all the snow to be gone.

Mike: That would be a good thing! Right now, one thing I could have would be, yeah, to be warm outside.

Bobby: I guess that’s about it. Do you have any final thoughts to add?

Mike: Not really.

Bobby: Okay, thanks a lot for doing it.

Mike: Thank you.