I had the chance to talk with vocalist/guitarist Alan Day from Four Year Strong before their set in Orlando, FL. We talked about Alan’s favorite concert experience, upcoming music, and more. Four Year Strong released their latest “Go Down In History” via Pure Noise Records, you can check it out now.
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Q – Four Year Strong are currently on on tour with Comeback Kid, how has the tour been treating you so far?
Alan – The tour with Comeback Kid has been amazing, all of the bands have been great. We’ve got Heart To Heart, Handguns and Expire and the shows have been crazy. It’s been a lot of fun,
Q – I know you guys are a little over half way finished, but how have the crowds been like?
Alan – The crowds have been great. We’ve been surprised with a lot of the markets we’ve never done really well in. Like with North Carolina and South Carolina, and a lot of random cities that we don’t hit all that often, because we’ve never done very well there. But on this tour everywhere, the shows have been great.
Q – You released the “Go Down In History” EP back in July, how has the reception for it been so far?
Alan – It’s probably been the best release we’ve done in a long time. Because even our most popular record to date, arguably “Enemy Of The World”, when it came out no one seemed to care, and when we would play the newer songs people just wanted to hear the old ones. This is the first release we’ve ever done where people are really excited to hear the new songs live, and are generally some of the best songs of our set.
Q – You released the EP while on Warped Tour, do you think that effected the success behind it overall?
Alan – I thought it was great to be on Warped Tour when we released it, because it was the best way to get it to the most people at once. We got to sell them a couple weeks before they officially came out, they were only five bucks cause it’s just an EP, so people were buying them all day, which was great. We were playing one song from it on stage. But it was perfect, because when people were hearing it and hear that it was a new song, they’d go pick it up at our merch table and buy it, even though it wasn’t actually out yet. We couldn’t have asked for a better way to release it.
Q – I believe you guys filmed a music video for the title track while out on warped..?
Alan – Yes! We had a buddy come out for a few of the dates and just filmed the shows, and just threw it all together.
Q – Do you prefer doing music videos live, or actually planning them out?
Alan – I’ve done both that I like and don’t like. We’ve done live videos that went great, and we’ve done live some videos that weren’t so great. We’ve done real videos with acting, sets and all of that kind of stuff, some that are awesome, some that sucked. Well, maybe not “sucked”, but they weren’t as much fun. The “Tonight I feel Alive” video was probably the most legit video we ever did.
Q – “Go Down In History” was your first release through Pure Noise Records, how has it been working with them so far?
Alan – Amazing, it’s definitely one of the best labels we’ve ever been on. It’s literally like, if we want something we just call up Jake, the owner, and just say “Hey, we want to do this.”, and he’s always just like “Great, let’s do it.”. I was explaining to someone before how we were on major labels, which was cool, and you’d think that with major labels that there’s money to just do whatever you want…but really, because it’s a major label there’s so much red tape, people you have to go through to get things approved, and they don’t let you do anything because they don’t want to take risks, they don’t want to lose money. As apposed to a label like Pure Noise, who just want to make everything they do awesome, they just want to make it great. If we come up with a great idea then they’re gonna make it happen.
Q – It’s been about three and a half years since your last full length album was released, are there any current plans to release another?
Alan – Yeah, we’re in the process of making one now. We were in the studio in October, and we were done with around half, and we’re going back in February to finish up.
Q – It’s been almost a decade to the day since you released your first full length. Has that crossed your mind at all, and is it weird to think about?
Alan – It is very weird. I really don’t feel like I’m that old…actually that’s a lie, I feel physically like I’m sixty years old.
Q – It just doesn’t feel like it’s been ten years?
Alan – It really doesn’t. Wait, from which full length? Cause we released “It’s Our Time”, but I don’t count that, I was too young at that point. To me our first real record is “Rise Or Die Trying”. That came out in 2007, so it’s still got a couple years. But it doesn’t, it doesn’t feel like it’s been ten years since I graduated high school. It’s crazy,
Q – What’s the best concert you’ve ever attended that you didn’t play?
Alan – I went and saw Tom Petty, and that was amazing. Probably one of the most special I’ve ever seen was this band Bon Iver who is humongous now, but at the time wasn’t very big, He played in Cape Cod in Massachusetts which no one ever plays there, and my family has a house in Cape Cod about five minutes from where he played. So I just spent the weekend at the house and I went to this show, and it was the greatest, it was very intimate, it was around three hundred people in a seated room, and the sound was the best live sound I’ve ever heard in my life. It’s just one of those moments I’ll never experience again, it was very different from any show I’ve ever been too.
Q – What are some of your favorite music releases from 2014?
Alan – Definitely thew new Ryan Adams record, it’s really freaking good. Jenny Lewis, her new album “Voyager” is a great record. I don’t really listen to a whole lot of stuff that sounds like Four Year Strong at this point in my life, which might surprise some people (laughs). I just have such a bad memory, I can’t remember what came out exactly in 2014, but I know those.
Q – Coming up, what’s next for Four Year Strong after the tour finishes?
Alan – It’s mainly to finish up our new music and support it. We’ve got a UK tour booked for March, and we’ve got some touring plans for in the states after that, which we can’t talk about yet. Our schedule just keeps filling up.
Q – Thanks for taking the time to talk with us, are there any last words for fans of Four Year Strong?
Alan – Just keep a look out for our new album. Check out our social medias if that’s your thing. New music, tour dates, it’s all on the way.
