Four Year Strong just wrapped up their tour with Rise Against and Bad Religion, but PropertyOfZack was lucky enough to catch up with the guys right in the middle of their run of dates. Alan, Dan, Joe, Jake, and I discussed their tour, the absence of Josh Lyford, their new record, a possible release time, and much more. It’s one of the best we’ve done, so enjoy it!

For the record, could you state your name and role in Four Year Strong?

Alan: I’m Alan, and I sing and play guitar in Four Year Strong.

Dan: I’m Dan, and I sing and play guitar.

Joe: I’m Joe. I play bass.

Jake: I’m Jake. I play drums.



The band is currently out on tour with Rise Against and Bad Religion. How have the dates been going for you so far?

Dan: Awesome. They’ve been great.

Alan: Tons of fun.

Dan: The bands are awesome to tour with.

Joe: It’s one of my favorite tours that we’ve ever done.

Dan: Yeah, the kids are great. They always have a great time.

Alan: They seem to have an open mind about checking out the opening band, which is cool.



On one hand, this is one of the biggest tours Four Year Strong has ever done, but on the other, it’s also one of the strangest. How have the two mediums been mixing with each other?

Alan: It’s definitely different than what we’re used to.

Joe: People have been way more chill than I would have expected going into this tour and open minded with giving us a chance. I don’t know why, but I was expecting Bad Religion’s fans to not give us a shot.

Dan: It just seems like kids are showing up to have a good time, which is great, because that’s what we’re here for.

Alan: No one’s too cool to have a good time with the opening band.



What has your set been like?

Dan: Short [Laughs].

Joe: It ranges from Rise Or Die to new stuff that we haven’t put out yet.

POZ: Has the new song you guys have been playing been received well?

Dan: Kids seem to like it, so far.

Alan: And it’s fun to play because it’s not the same song that we’ve been playing for three years.



Did you guys have any trepidations of agreeing to this tour just because the fan base is so different even though the music is in the same realm?

Joe: Not really.

Alan: We wanted to do it the second we heard about it.

Joe: It seemed like an opportunity we couldn’t pass up.

Jake: We had the chance to play for some different people.

Dan: We’re always open to that. One thing this band has always done is tour with bands that a lot of people wouldn’t expect. Some of the first tours we did were with From First To Last. We’ve done a lot of tours where people have been like, “Oh, that’s weird that you’re on the bill.” Those are the tours where you usually make more fans. We love doing tours where we might not exactly fit what’s going on.

Joe: We have to work for it, which is nice.

Alan: If you think about it, it’s better to stand out sometimes. Maybe we’ll stand out because everyone hates us, but for the most part it seems to work out to be a different band on the bill because you don’t just blend in.

Dan: Plus to be one of three bands and the other two being Bad Religion and Rise Against is pretty awesome.

Alan: It’s just nice to have our name with their name.



This is your first run of dates without keyboardist Josh Lyford. How has it been without him up there?

Alan: It was definitely a little rough at first on all of us, and the fans I think. But we got used to it.

Dan: We’re still doing what we’ve always done, which is trying to put on a high energy show and trying to play as best as we can and just put on a great show. I think that’s what we’ve always done and that’s what we’re continuing to do. Yeah, there’s a void with people who have seem our band before that people are going to notice, but it doesn’t seem like kids are leaving the shows disappointed. That’s our main goal.



In the original statement, it was claimed that there were no hard feelings, but multiple statements were later made and things kind of got messy to say the least. Looking back, do you wish it was handled better?

Alan: Very happy with how everything was handled directly, like between the band with Josh. How can you expect anything to go right online though with everyone saying a million different things.

Dan: The thing that was more important to us was the relationship with Josh. Obviously we don’t want our fans to be super mad at us, but at the end of the day, we understand that a lot of people take music personally and all this other stuff, but at the end of the day, it’s the five of ours lives and the thing that mattered most to us was how it worked out between all of us.

Alan: Yeah, and it went pretty smoothly. It’s just an unfortunate situation; we didn’t want to have to really go through something like that and he didn’t either, but it was kind of a long time coming I think. Both sides saw it coming.



The move was made because the band didn’t have a true place for Josh anymore in terms of musical presence and you’re writing your new record. How is the writing for it?

Dan: It’s been going.

Alan: It’s still going.

Dan: Before we did this tour we recorded eight songs and we’re going to go back in after.

Alan: One of those eight is the one we’ve been playing live.

Dan: We’re going back in to finish everything up and we’re still writing songs now. It’s great. I think they’re some of the best songs we’ve ever written to date.

Jake: Absolutely.

Dan: And I think they’re songs that obviously we’re growing as musicians, but we’re also growing as people.

Joe: [Laughs] We’re not seventeen anymore.

Dan: Your music tastes change.

Alan: Your life changes.

Dan: Everything changes, so we’ve always said that since the day that this band started that we were going to write the music that we wanted to write and write the music that we wanted to hear.

Alan: And never write the same record twice. As much as the fans come in and say that they wished our new record sounded like our old record, if we released a record that sounded exactly like our old record, they’d say the old record was better. It’s an impossible situation so we just did the best we could and I think it’s fucking awesome.



How would you talk about the progress from Enemy Of The World?

Alan: The writing was completely different.

Dan: We changed the way that we write songs where up until this record we’ve always written music first and then gone with lyric and melody after that.

Alan: Like long after; we’d finish a song, the whole band will know how to play the thing.

Dan: We’ll fucking record the thing.

Alan: We’d record it and still not have any vocals written to it and then we’d slap them on top.

Dan: This time we went through and we wanted to write everything together like the main parts and the lyrics together and making sure everything matched.

POZ: Do you think that has helped make the record as good as it is?

Dan: Absolutely. I think just that in its own is going to make the record better because the songs…

Joe: They’re solid songs.

Alan: They feel like songs. I assume to our fans the old songs feel like songs, but as the writers of the songs, though we love the outcome of what we’ve done, sometimes it feels like we were slapping things together. It felt like parts smushed together instead of a solid song.



Enemy Of The World was just released a year ago, so what made you guys get back into the studio so quickly?

Joe: Partially because how long it was from Rise Or Die to Enemy. It was three years?

Jake: We didn’t want to do that again.

Alan: We’d rather be way ahead of the game then behind the game.

Joe: Especially in this day and age when you don’t go and buy a CD and listen to it for months. Now with iTunes and stuff you can find new stuff really quickly.

Dan: We also just had stuff that we wanted to write about and we had songs that we wanted to write. We were kind of itching to get back in and do another record.



The record really took the band to the next level. Were there expectations for it to be this big?

Dan: Everything that this band has ever done exceeds my expectations.

Alan: Absolutely. Obviously we hoped for the best. We don’t write something and say it’s a piece of crap, but we always hope for the best and we want to go wherever this band can take us naturally it far exceeds our expectations; I didn’t think that we’d be playing in Terminal 5 with Rise Against.

Dan: If the band ended tomorrow I’d b completely content.



How has it been being on a major label?

Alan: No different than being on an indie.

Dan: We’re still working with the same team of people that we’ve pretty much always worked with, just with a couple more and they’re all awesome. We’re getting the attention that we want and it’s great. They let us do our thing.

Alan: No complaints. I’ve always heard horror stories of being on a major label and trying to change you and there being all these rules.

Joe: We haven’t gotten any of that.



What kind of musical shift and progression should we expect on this record?

Dan: You know, we’re trying to expand more on just being a solid rock band and not falling into a genre crack.

Joe: Especially now with how everyone wants to categorize every little tiny variation.

Dan: We’re not a pop power hardcore band. We just want to be a rock band. I think on this next record that’s the foot that we’ve stepped forward with as far as our music goes and trying to make sure that with every record that we put out we’re trying to write the songs we want to write. But obviously we do this for a living and we’re trying to make songs that will appeal to as many people as possible too.

Alan: The music that we listened to has evolved and expanded and same with the things that we go through in life. We’re inspired by different things. Fuck, it’s a cool record.

Dan: We’re just trying to cut out the cheese. We’re just trying to go into the thing and have every song on this record say and mean something. I think that that’s the best thing you can do; that’s what rock exists for.

Alan: Something I’ve heard said about our new songs is that it sounds exactly like Four Year Strong, but just with different emotions to it It’s not the same exact face of what we’ve done.

Dan: It’s not as upbeat of a record.

Alan: It’s definitely a little darker. Not the whole thing, but there are different emotions in different songs. Each song has its own personality.

Dan: The other two records were recorded in nice sunny weather, but the first half of this record we recorded in the winter time and it was snowy and freezing cold. I think that comes out on the songs. Growing up I’ve always had my winter records and summer records. So far, the first half of this record feels like a winter record, but the next half we’re recording in the summer, so I think that it’s going to be very well-rounded.

Alan: It already is. Even the eight songs we have. There are so many different kinds of songs that we’ve written. There are some uplifting ones, some darker ones, angry ones, heavy ones, a lighter one that we’ve never done before. There are so many different ways of songwriting that we’ve always been intrigued by but have never had the guys to tackle because we’re this pop-punk band. At this point we’re like, fuck it. We’re having fun with it and we’re writing music that we enjoy listening to.



The band hit the studio with David Bendeth. How has it been with him?

Dan: He’s definitely somebody who has helped us expand a lot as a band. He’s refocused us a lot. A lot of bands say things about how he breaks you down and he rebuilds you, and it’s fucking true. This band already did half an album with him and we’ve come out of the studio as a different band.

Alan: Attitude wise. For a while it seemed like all of us were falling into the motions of playing a show and writing a song and getting on a bus, but since then we’re so much more excited to be doing what we’ve been doing and to write another song and to play another show. It just gave me a whole new perspective on what we’re doing by just realizing that if I looked at myself now when I was 14 years old I would’ve been like, “Yeah fucking right, I’m not doing that.” You’ve got to appreciate it.



When would you guys like to finish up the remaining songs?

Dan: I get married right after this tour and we go back four days after I get home.

Alan: It’ll be this summer. The hope is to have the record out in the fall.



Are you guys just going to continue to write until then?

Alan: The plan is to write as many songs as possible. We’ve written a few on this tour and we’re going to write a bunch when we’re home.



Four Year Strong were confirmed for its biggest tour yet with blink-182 and You Me At Six, but blink obviously rescheduled all of the dates until 2012. What does that mean for you guys in terms of touring the UK this summer?

Alan: We’ll be in the studio.

Jake: Just recording.

Joe: It’s the first time in six years that we’ve had the summer off.

Dan: This break that we have right now is the longest break that the band has taken since we recorded Rise Or Die, so we’re excited. Everybody is excited to see friends and family for a while.

Alan: That tour getting cancelled was a blessing and a curse. Obviously way more of a curse because we were so excited, but to look on the bright side, it opens up so much more time to finish our record. The worst thing you could do would be to rush a record and throw yourself in the studio being unprepared.



If you guys can be on that tour next year, will you?

Dan: Yeah, if we can. Fuck, it’s on our list.



The plan is to hit the road hard in the fall?

Alan: That’s the plan. Hopefully we’ll have our record out.



You guys were supposed to do a Giglife Asia tour with Set Your Goals, but it was cancelled. Could we see that get rescheduled?

Dan: There are a lot of overseas things that we’re working on. It’s going to be a big year for our band. There is going to be a lot of really cool stuff coming up.



Thanks so much for your time, is there anything else that we should be on the lookout for?

Dan: Come to shows and hear some new songs.

Alan: Don’t forget about us when we take this time off this summer.