The Universus

It might shock some of you, but this year marks 10 years since the release of Escape The Fate‘s record This War Is Ours. The first record with former Blessthefall frontman Craig Mabbitt at the reins, and therefore, the bands first steps into the bands new-found destiny.

This War Is Ours is now a legacy album, which means that should Escape The Fate pack it all up today, this record will continue to be spun for years and years to come. In a world obsessed with consuming singles and short-form media, the impact of this achievement can’t be overstated. In and amongst the 10-year Anniversary vibes, the band released their brand-new record I Am Human. Inspired and surrounded by This War Is Ours, the band’s latest record is an interesting mix of Escape The Fate of yesteryear, and Escape The Fate to come.

With the bands, Australian tour now in full swing, we caught up with Craig to discuss their latest effort, as well as the head trip of This War Is Ours being a decade old.





The Neversphere: I Am Human is now out. Congratulations! To kick things off, how has the new material gone down now that fans have had a chance to get their heads around it?



Craig Mabbitt: I think it’s going over really well. Our management and our label are really excited about the Spotify numbers ‘cos apparently, it’s all about streaming these days. So that seems to be going well; our video seems to be well accepted. We’re getting emails about how our single Broken Heart has entered the radio charts, and climbed three spots in the past two weeks. That’s exciting; we have high hopes to see how high that can go. In the mix of all that excitement we get to come out to Australia to celebrate 10 years of my first album with the band, in the country where I toured with the band for the first time; it’s all really, really cool, it’s nostalgic and exciting all at the same time.



The Neversphere: It must have been an interesting time writing a new album amid a 10 Year Anniversary. Did you find with all the 10 year talk in the air, This War Is Ours had a big impact on the outcome of I Am Human, or were you able to separate these milestones?



Craig: We did take a look back at the album because we knew that it’s time turning 10 was approaching. I think that did influence a lot of the songs on the new record; I think you can hear it in the pop-punkness of the majority of the tracks, we pulled that from This War Is Ours, for sure.



The Neversphere: Escape The Fate has always had this level of theatrics but it feels like you went even deeper into this with I Am Human. The energy and the flow of the record, it plays out just like a film would, with various acts. How deliberate of a move was this?



Craig: That definitely was a deliberation. The first half of the album is very pop-punk, very lovey-dovey. The opening track is Beautiful Tragic. ..It’s about remembering old times, where you’ve been and where you’ve come from. Then, the last half of the album is heavier and darker. It’s supposed to describe every emotion you feel as a human, which is why the title track falls right in the centre. It goes into the human thing, then this deep song about loss which is If Only. Then Recipe for Disaster comes after that, and you go into this cocoon of depression, then you come out thinking ‘Don’t fuck with me, no one can fuck with me – I’m a recipe for disaster. ‘ These are the motions that we kind of all go through.



The Neversphere: A lot of the language surrounding the album alluded to the fact that this record was about meeting the bands standards. This album was for you as artists, and the fan response, or any other response other than your own was secondary. How correct is my read on that?



Craig: This was always going to be the album that we put our foot down on, and think more about what we wanted to do. Obviously you still have record labels, and managers, and producers who are all going to have an opinion, and be a cook in the kitchen but at the end of the day, this was the first record in recent years that we were like ‘Nah, we’re going to do this.‘ We really want to continue exploring that direction; of just doing whatever the hell we want to do, despite what somebody else thinks we should do.

We all realised it’s been 10 years now, I can’t believe we’re still a band. We had to ask ourselves ‘Why did we get into this in the first place? Oh yeah, because we love making music.‘ When you’re a band working on your first record, or first song even, you’re not looking at online reviews of your past record. You don’t have a fan base that’s like ‘Dude, this is your best song’ or ‘Dude, this is your worst song’ You’re just writing for you and people connect with that. That’s exactly what our intention was with this.





The Neversphere: On to the 10-year anniversary, I want to throw a weird one at you. If you could sit down with the Craig from 10 years ago, as he was about to begin the This War Is Ours process, what advice would you give to him now that you have the benefit of hindsight?



Craig: I would tell him ‘Dude, stop overthinking. Don’t overreact – everything is going to work out, it’s going to be fine’. I’d tell him that your Blessthefall fans aren’t going to hate you for Ashley, ‘cos believe it or not, people are going to love that fucking song [Laughs]. I was so against that song when we first wrote it, I was thinking we can’t release this, this is horrendous. Now it’s one of my favourite songs to play live because it’s catchy as shit! At the end of the day, you think of the technicality, of the guitar work of a song…but at the end of the day, people just want something to bang their head to, something they can sing to.

We were just little kids. When you’re working on an album, you always want the best for that album. You’re not thinking of longevity. At the time, you just want to write music, you want to write the biggest song in the world, you want to be the biggest band in the world. But what if that happens and it lasts for 2 years? Then for the past 8 years I was bagging burritos at Taco Bell…that wouldn’t be too enjoyable. The fact that it had an impact, and let us travel the world to play music live…it had a lasting impression and continued to keep old fans and attract new fans over a decade, we’re very humbled by it.



The Neversphere: You’ll be hitting Australia for the anniversary tour with the brand new album, what’s the game plan for the shows?



Craig: We want to come out and to This War Is Ours front to back. Every night will be a little different. There’s always a few surprises that even we don’t plan on [Laughs]. But then after that we want to play some of the brand-new songs from the new album. Then maybe some fan favourites from all the other ones. It’s definitely a celebration of the past, and the beginning of Escape The Fate as far as me and This War Is Ours goes…

…It’s a celebration of the fact that we’re still here.





Escape The Fate 2018 ‘This War Is Ours’ 10th Anniversary Australian Tour

Monday, May 28

Amplifier Bar, Perth (18+)

Tickets: Destroy All Lines

Tuesday, May 29

Fowlers Live, Adelaide (Lic. AA)

Tickets: Destroy All Lines

Wednesday, May 30 — SOLD OUT

Corner Hotel, Melbourne (18+)

Tickets: Destroy All Lines

Thursday, May 31 — NEW SHOW

Max Watt’s, Melbourne (18+)

Tickets: Destroy All Lines

Friday, June 1

Manning Bar, Sydney (18+)

Tickets: Destroy All Lines

Saturday, June 2

Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle (18+)

Tickets: Destroy All Lines

Sunday, June 3

The Triffid, Brisbane (Lic. AA)

Tickets: Destroy All Lines