For a band that supposedly was on the verge of breaking up at this time last year, Crime In Stereo is doing pretty darn well. In fact, they seem to have undergone a complete 180. The band’s latest …Is Dead has been well received by new and old fans alike, new tours are in the works, and they’ve finally found a label to call home with Bridge Nine. It wasn’t surprising to find Alex Dunne (guitars) and Kristian Halbert (vocals) in very good spirits when Late Night Wallflower got a chance to talk to them after their set at Philly’s First Unitarian Church. No, really. It was at times difficult to transcribe the interview because of all the giggling.

I’m really into the new CD, I’ve been listening to it nonstop since I got it. I noticed it’s pretty different from your older stuff, and I just wanted to go through how that new sound came about, and what made you guys decide to follow that route.

Dunne: Well, there’s really no way to word this properly so I don’t sound like a complete douchebag. But, we love our fans. We love everybody that loves our band, even if they only like the first record or whatever. But anybody that has supported our band in any way, we love you. So let me put that out there.

Halbert: Hallelujah.

Dunne: Aside from that, we all kind of have this opinion like, “Fuck everybody.” And not literally like “Fuck the people who like our band,” you know, we’re very grateful. But as musicians, musically, we have a “fuck you” attitude. We don’t wanna do what people want us to do. We don’t wanna do what people think we’re going to do. Everytime we go to write songs or make a record, it’s really about personal growth. Unfortunately, we can’t take into account the opinions and judgements of every single person that likes our band. It was like “What kind of record can we make?” We thought we really stepped it up on The Troubled Stateside (Nitro), we thought that was some next-level shit. And thats where we were at, and it was time to do some more next-level shit.

Keep reading for more of Leah’s interview with Crime In Stereo after the jump.

Halbert: Also, when we went into it, I don’t think we thought it was going to be what it was when it was done. I never thought I could do some of the shit I did on there, and I know the other guys feel the same way.

Dunne: Yeah, we really pushed ourselves. As far as being musicians again, Kristian on Explosives [and the Will To Use Them] (Brightside) basically shouted his way throught the record. On Stateside, he learned to sing a little bit. Now it’s like, “Alright, lets see if you can be an awesome singer.” By the same token, the guitar tones on Stateside are the same throughout. We used the same amp, the same speakers. We had one guitar tone and went straight through the record. Every track sounds exactly the same, and we wanted to move on from that. So on Is Dead, we were using tiny little six inch speakers, old vox combo amps, vintage Fender jazz bass, basement amps, basically using a different guitar tone and different effects on every song. We understand that some kids get bummed out that it doesn’t sound like Stateside. It does bum us out a little bit that some kids who are hardcore with an HC, punks with an XX type of fan aren’t into the new sound as much. Again, we don’t make songs to appease people. Like what Kristian said, you never know what record you have when you’re done. It’s a process.

Halbert: A sweet process.

So recording itself went well?

Halbert: Recording itself is the most exciting, heartwrenching…it pulls at every string in your body. You’re miserable, then you’re laughing ten minutes later. You’re punching walls and screaming at yourself, and five minutes later you’re just chilling with the people. I mean, I’m not a musician. When we started this band, we really just wanted to be in a cool band and enjoy the music that we play. Through this band, I’ve kind of learned to become a musician. That’s what meant so much to me about Is Dead. I started off doing this thinking “I want to sing in a band.” And now I’m here, and it’s like “Hey, I can do this, and I can do it very well, better than I ever thought I could.” That was the end process. When that record was done, the first week, I drove around just listening to it. There were times driving around where I just got chills and that’s a good feeling.

Dunne: With Explosives, we would listen to the Gorilla Biscuits and Kid Dynamite. As a guitar player and a songwriter, we’d be like “Aw man, that’s so sick. How did they do that?” Not to put down Gorilla Biscuits and Kid Dynamite in any way, but as I grow as a musician, that shit doesn’t astound me anymore. I know how they did that now. Then you start listening to other stuff, and you’re like “Okay, well how did they do that?”

Halbert (in falsetto): LIFE!

Dunne: You can really only ask us like two questions in this thing because we’ll talk forever.

Is the name of the new CD any reference to the new sounds? Kinda like the old Crime In Stereo “Is Dead?”

Dunne: There’s multiple levels of meaning with that. At first, we kinda thought the band was going to have to break up. It was nothing personal, we all got along great, but between the financial burden and everything. We decided to do another record, but we didn’t think we were going to tour on it. But as we decided to really go ahead with this record, the title became kind of tongue in cheek.

You guys have switched labels a few times.

Dunne: We actually try to never make a record on the same label twice.

LNW: Really?

Dunne: Nah just kidding.

LNW: Oh. Well are you happy with Bridge Nine so far?

Dunne: That was actually one of the reasons why we thought we were gonna have to break up, because Nitro just…sucked. They weren’t doing much for us, and we weren’t really excited about putting another record on Nitro. Bridge Nine just kind of swooped in and said, “whatever you guys need, if you can get out of your Nitro contract, we’d love to take you.” They’ve always looked out for our best interest, and this is the first time we’ve been in a label situation where we’ve been really happy, and been excited about making records with them.

So there will be another Crime In Stereo record?

Dunne: There will definitively be a fourth Crime In Stereo record.

Halbert: Woo! (pause) I love how I’m just doing sound effects in this interview. I’m not even drunk or anything.

I’ll make sure to include them. Most of you guys have day jobs. How do you work around them with recording and touring?

Dunne: We all quit our jobs, and that’s it. We’re out on tour for a while now.

Do you know what your next tours are going to be?

Dunne: Right after this tour, we go out with Comeback Kid, then with this band A Day To Remember. After that, actually Against Me! is taking us on their tour to Australia. After that we go to the UK to do some headlining.

LNW: Is Dead has a very disinct production style. How do you guys reconcile that with the live show? Or do you just kinda go with whatever comes out?

Dunne: No, trust me, we’ve spent a lot of time and money trying to make sure we have every little thing to recreate certain sounds and Kristian can do his thing live.

Halbert: Singing robots, you know.

Dunne: We’re getting better at it.

I guess the last question would be, what is your favorite song off the record?

Halbert: Wow, that’s actually a really good question. Hmm, I think every time I listen to it I have a new favorite song. Man, I don’t know. I’m gonna have to maybe say, the first song, or maybe “Orbiter.”

Dunne: Yeah that’s a good one. I don’t have a favorite song. I have a least favorite song, and that would be “Choker.” But any of the other ten could be my favorite.

Well I think that’s it, unless you guys have anything else you’d like to talk about.

Dunne: I do! Okay. (to Halbert) Who would you like to see us on tour with in a year? And it has to be somewhat realistic. Like, U2 probably won’t have us.

Halbert: Damn. Okay…I don’t know. This is gonna take forever.

Dunne: Okay, I know. I would like to see the Crime in Stereo, Avail, Lifetime, Hot Water Music tour.

Halbert: Ohhhhh, man. That is deep.

Dunne: That could realistically happen. I mean except for the fact we haven’t earned it or anything.

Halbert: They would have to surgically remove the smile from my face.

Dunne: The thing is, that tour could really happen, except we would never get to be that opening band.

Who do you think would get your spot instead?

Halbert: Chiodos. (Dunne laughs hysterically)

Dunne: What would be your dream tour, Leah? What would your band sound like? And you have to put this in the interview.

Oh God. I have no idea.

Dunne: Evanescence?

No, no no. Maybe something along the lines of a female fronted Glassjaw? I don’t know.

Halbert: Hurry, I have to pee.

Alright, well that’s a good excuse to end the interview. Thanks guys.

Tags: Interview, crime in stereo, interview //