Racket Photographer Adam I arrived on time at the House of Blues, I called Underoath’s tour manager to let him know I arrived, he then told us to meet him where the tour buses park. So we did, after 3 questions into the interview, the security guards decide to cut into our interview and tell us we can’t do it on their property. After relocating, it was a successful interview. P.S. HOUSE OF BLUES RULES’ SUCK.
Racket Jordan: Who are you and what do you do for Underoath?
Underoath Grant: Grant and I play bass.
Racket Jordan: Where’s the strangest place you have ever asked for forgiveness?
Underoath Grant: Strangest place I’ve ever asked for forgiveness?
Racket Jordan: Yeah [laughs]
Underoath Grant: Um that’s a weird question [laughs], I don’t know man, that’s weird.
Racket Jordan: [laughs]
Underoath Grant: Probably, yeah I don’t know. Somewhere weird I’m sure, I just can’t point it out right now.
Racket Jordan: [laughs] Fair enough. Next question.
Racket Jordan: How do you manage to maintain your religious beliefs while touring?
Underoath Grant: Well everyone in the band is on the same page and we all believe in the same thing so we try and encourage each other, and have bible studies and stuff like that.
Racket Jordan: That’s cool, can I join one your guy’s bible studies?
[There is along pause, I’m guessing he didn’t hear me ask if I could join one of the studies as he didn’t answer and waited for the next question and I was not about to repeat myself].
Racket Jordan: Do you like touring with bands that have the same religious beliefs or does it not matter?
[We are then interrupted by the House of Blues security guards who say we need to stop the interview on the property, because if my friend and I were to get hurt they would be liable for whatever happened, so Grant, Racket Adam and I walk off the property and go near a street where people continued to honk like assholes].
Racket Jordan: OK back to the question, do you like touring with bands that have the same religious beliefs, or does it not matter?
Underoath Grant: Um, honestly it does not matter, although it is cool when you’re touring with bands with the same beliefs, in the end, though, it doesn’t matter. We are having fun either way.
Racket Jordan: Alright, were you in a band before Underoath?
Underoath Grant: Yeah, but it was just like local stuff, we never really did anything.
Racket Jordan: Looking back to when you joined Underoath, did you think you guys were going to make it this big?
Underoath Grant: No, no not at all. No, no, uhh, probably when Chasing Safety came out when we were on Warped Tour and it started selling, it was just awesome and a blessing.
Racket Jordan: Yeah I’d say that’s definitely a blessing! [laughs]
Racket Jordan: What happened between Underoath and NOFX at Warped Tour last year?
Underoath Grant: Nothing really happened between us. Pretty much the singer for NOFX, Fat Mike doesn’t really I guess, he does not have the same beliefs as us and he likes to let everyone else know that. Basically he had a gimmick when on stage, but when we would see him back stage we would pass him and everything would be fine and we would talk to him, but it was never like yelling or arguing. It was just his gimmick on stage, kinda lame but whatever. It didn’t really bother me or anything.
Racket Jordan: Do you have any grudges held over NOFX?
Underoath Grant: No, I actually like NOFX!
Racket Jordan: Do you? I figured! Which set of guys is cooler: the Taking Back Sunday guys or the Armor For Sleep guys?
Underoath Grant: Ummmm, I would have to say Taking Back Sunday because we have toured with them more and we had a really good time with them on Taste of Chaos International, basically we were the bands no one knew who we were. But the Armor For Sleep guys are pretty cool too.
Racket Jordan: Do you have any stories involving crazy Asians?
Underoath Grant: crazy Asians?
Racket Jordan: Yeah, Asians fans are always crazy.
Underoath Grant: Umm, the only story isn’t all that crazy, but I play that Guitar Hero game, and I thought I was pretty good at it. I would do it on Warped Tour with kids I was really good and I beat the game and all that stuff, but I went to Japan and there’s like a complete Japanese version which is 3 buttons so it looks really easy, and I saw this kid in the arcade in Japan playing and it was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen, it was like, not a wrong note and fast speed.
Racket Jordan: [laughs] Dang. I can only play on medium and one song.
Underoath Grant: Yeah! But that kid blew me away.
Racket Jordan: What do you think of Aaron’s side project?
Underoath Grant: I think its cool. I think its definitely a big part of Aaron, he was always into the poppier kinda side of things and I know being in Underoath you can only go so far, cause we are still a heavy band. It’s cool that he is trying something else, I hope it does well. Actually I know it will do well, honestly.
Racket Jordan: Do you think it will ever interfere with Underoath?
Underoath Grant: I don’t think it will interfere, I think that it could get to a point where they have to be uhh……. nope [laughs], I don’t think it will interfere.
Racket Jordan: What’s one thing you regret doing in your life?
Underoath Grant: One thing I regret doing in my life, uhhh, hmm [laughs], I was gonna go see Glassjaw and I didn’t end up going. I was pretty mad about that.
Racket Jordan: Yeah that’s a big one.
Racket Jordan: Who did you listen to growing up?
Underoath Grant: Bands?
Racket Jordan: Yessir
Underoath Grant: Well in high school I was into the punk/ska scene, I wasn’t really into hardcore at all. I listened to Less Than Jake and like NOFX [laughs] and Christian band Five Iron Frenzy and then I got into the hardcore scene. Zao like broke it in for me and, uh, yeah that kind of stuff I guess.
Racket Jordan: What’s one good thing about the Bush administration?
Underoath Grant: [laughs] They are, whether its good or bad, they’re sticking to their guns as far as like…..
Racket Adam: LITERALLY!!!
Underoath Grant: [laughs] Yeah, their original plan to go into Iraq but how jacked up or screwed up it is, at least they’re still trying to do that. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not but the fact they said something and there still trying, I guess that’s good. Whether they should have done it in the first place, I’m not getting involved with that.
Racket Jordan: I’m guessing you’re not in support of the war?
Underoath Grant: I think its not that I’m not in support of the war, I’m not a supporter of some of the ways they handled stuff, but like I said I’m a dude in a band. I don’t make those kinds of decisions.
Racket Jordan: Who showers the least when on tour?
Underoath Grant: Probably Spencer. It used to be Tim, but we all gave him a hard time cause he smelled all the time, but Spencer can kind of get away without showering.
Racket Jordan: All right, last question. Did you guys have any other record label offers besides Tooth and Nail?
Underoath Grant: Umm kinda. Are you talking about when we resigned?
Racket Jordan: Yeah.
Underoath Grant: We talked to a couple major labels, like Vagrant (Ed. Note: Not a major label! – RacketBoss) a little bit but nothing serious. We kind of had it in our mind that we weren’t into the whole major label thing, it’s kinda scary. There’s some people on a label for like a day and get fired and whatever. Tooth and Nail has always been good to us. We like the way they support us and let us do what we wanna do and back us.
Racket Jordan: That’s always a good thing to have a label like that.
Underoath Grant: And honestly it doesn’t help being one of the bigger bands on the label too, so yeah.
Jordan Golladay