On 6/3 I had the pleasure of sitting down with the very humble Chad Ruhlig (Vocals) right before Rise Records act For The Fallen Dreams took the stage at Epic Problem in Tampa, Fl. We take an in depth look into his lyrics, his passion, and his connection with fans.
Q – What’s the response been like for “Heavy Hearts?”
Chad – The response has been amazing man. At first, we were kinda like “Let’s see how this goes. We’re going to put everything we have into it.” We’ve been working on it for the past year now, and I think it came out well, I think a lot of people thought it was going to sound too much like the old record and I think a lot people were pleasantly surprised, and it had elements of every record we’ve done, it kind of showcased what the band is capable of doing. Especially, this being my first record back with the band I think we didn’t venture too crazy but it showed that we’re back to business and we’ve got a lot more records coming.
Q – What are some of the lyrical themes of “Heavy Hearts?”
Chad – The lyrical themes throughout the whole record are kind of different, every song is usually a personal experience of mine and I think that’s the best way to touch base with fans and for them to connect with you is so they know they’re kind of going through the same stuff, you can relate to them and there’s no better outlet for me then write about my experiences. I know some bands like to do concept albums and stuff like that but with me it’s always kind of been about touch with the fans better by writing about my own experiences so I think the record as a whole kind of hits on everything whether it be relationships or stressful times or anything like that and for me it touches all bases of life.
Q – How’s the tour going? How long have you been out, and what’s your favorite city to play in so far?
Chad – This tour we’ve been out for almost 4 weeks now. This is the Heavy Hearts tour, this is our first headlining tour since the record has been out. It’s been fucking awesome, the guys in Obey The Brave, Sylar, Reflections, and I The Breather have been really cool, we’ve got a great group of guys working for us, and just a great lineup for the shows. It’s been really great. The west coast is always awesome for us, Florida is going to be killer, the east coast is great. We don’t have too many dead markets, we have a great relationship with fans, we’ve been around for so long, touring since 2005 so we’ve been able to create an in-touch fan base over the years, so anywhere we go we usually have a decent fan base of kids who’ve been around since the beginning or new fans. But west coast and Florida are two of my favorites for sure.
Q – What’s next for For The Fallen Dreams after this tour?
Chad – After this one we have a run coming up in Europe. We’re doing a headliner over there for 2 weeks and we’re playing all the big Euro festivals over there. We’re doing Full Force with Rob Zombie, Behemoth, and that’s going to be killer. Then after that we’re shooting a video for another song, then we’re off for a few weeks and then we getting ready for rehearsal for another tour with The Amity Affliction, which is going to be in the fall.
Q – What are some of the goals you have for For The Fallen Dreams?
Chad – That’s a good question because we’ve already done so much as a band, we’ve already accomplished so much, we’ve got to see the world and put out 5 records, my third with the band, so we’ve already got to see and do some really cool things, but the ultimate goal is be able to connect with your fans over a long period of time and to have longevity as a band. There’s so many bands that have been doing the same thing like travelling and touring as much as we are and are putting in just as much hard work as we are and I think it’s really cool that we get the opportunity to do stuff like that. Longevity is one of the coolest things to me because you get to watch the bands last over time and now we’ve been doing this well over 10 years now and we can still play song we were playing 10 years ago which is insane. So that’s the ultimate goal, keep doing this for another 10 years.
Q – What do you guys listen to while on tour?
Chad – We kind of listen to a little bit of everything, when I’m up there with the ipod, I’m usually listening to something from the 90’s, some old Nu-Metal like Ill Nino, Soulfly all that stuff. If the other guys are driving they’ll be playing pop punk, but our tour manager drives the most, so he’s always playing Balance and Composure and Citizen, all mellow stuff so as soon as we’re done, we’re out like a light. I think I get more sleep on tour than I do at home.
Q – Any records you’re looking forward to this year?
Chad – Our buddies in The Color Morale are about to put out another record this year, they just finished recording so I’m super stoked to hear that. Garrett, their singer. is a good buddy of mine and he did a feature on our last record and he’s just killing it. Everything they’ve put out recently has just been golden, so I’m pretty excited to hear their new record.
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