Mind Equals Blown

Interview: Underoath

Spencer Chamberlain of Underoath took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to talk with MindEqualsBlown about The Cool Tour, Aaron Gillepsie’s departure and the new record.

Mind Equals Blown: We’re here with Spencer from Underoath.  Spencer, you guys are currently on the Cool Tour and there’s just an outrageous amount of bands here.  How’s the whole thing going with so many different groups here?

Spencer Chamberlain: It’s great man, it’s been a lot of fun.  The kids have been really cool, the bands are cool, the people…it’s good man.

MEB: We’ve heard you guys have been playing a new song on the tour.  How do you feel like the new song relates to the rest of the album?

SC: It’s a good mix, it’s really fast and heavy but there’s a really big chorus in it.  Basically we’re trying to show different elements that the album has.

MEB: When are we going to get our first taste of the album, maybe a single?

SC: Whatever’s standard, a couple weeks before the record comes out?  October sometime is what we’ve been told so far.

MEB: Everyone knows that Aaron’s no longer with the group and you’ve had a transition period since then.  What were the feelings of the band during the time he left?

SC: Both parties were stoked, you know.  He was happy to be doing his own thing and we were very happy to be doing what we wanted to do and moving forward.  Everything was better than ever.

MEB: So everything was kind of mutual?

SC: Yeah yeah, absolutely. He had brought it up not sure if he’d wanted to go on, we had brought it up actually if we’d wanted him to play with us anymore and it worked out.

MEB: It didn’t take you long to find Daniel Davidson, who’s already helping you write the new record. What was the process of finding him, how did he eventually start helping you guys?

SC: He’s just been a longtime friend of ours.  We’ve done lots of stuff with Norma Jean in the past and he’s been a good friend.  We were just throwing around ideas and said ‘well, he’s not playing anymore, maybe he’d do it’ and called him up.  He came down and started writing the record, and it’s been like that every since.

MEB: How’s the writing process for this record different from the last one?

SC: Um…I don’t know, it was different in a lot of ways just because there were so many more directions we could go without Aaron in the band.  The five of us had always wanted to go further and he didn’t want to do things we wanted to do; there were a lot of riffs there. So in a lot of ways, we could do whatever, you know?  We could go this direction or that direction.  It was a lot of fun.

MEB: Aaron was responsible for the clean singing normally.  Should we expect less clean singing on this record?

SC: No, there’s actually more singing on this record than the last.

MEB: Are you covering all that or is Tim doing it also?

SC: I do all of it on the new record.

MEB: For the live show, you two have been double teaming what he used to do.  How’s that been going?

SC: It’s fine. If anyone else could scream, [Tim] wouldn’t have to, but I’m the only one that can scream, so some of the older stuff that has parts on top of eachother, that’s when Tim would come in.

MEB: Where are you headed to after Cool Tour?

SC: We have a couple shows on the way home, then we pretty much wait for the record to come out.

MEB: We always try to find out what musicians are listening to.  What are a couple albums that you can’t put down right now?

SC: The newest Deftones album.  They’re one of my favorite bands of all-time.  I think their newest record is my favorite one.

MEB: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

SC: Keep an eye out for us.  New record’s coming out soon, and we’ll be out supporting it.