Interviews: Circle Takes The Square

The author of the original interview with Circle Takes The Square which we cited last week has graciously offered to let us run the entire interview on Punknews.org. It was originally performed by Marco Braghieri from Italy and please visit his blog if you have a chance..

In the meantime, here is the entirety of his interview with guitarist/vocalist Drew Speziale who shares his thoughts on the band, touring and their much anticipated followup to 2004's critically lauded As the Roots Undo. You can click Read More for the interview.

I’ve
read what you wrote about your records being reflective of the changes that
have happened to you, is it something you always felt should have been ever
since you started CTTS or did it just end up being that way?
I think
what you're referring to is a statement one of us made regarding the slight
differences that are apparent from one recording to the next. again, I feel the
differences so far have been rather slight, but any evolution in our
songwriting betrays the fact that alot has happened in our lives between all
the previous recordings, especially in terms of personal growth. this
progression hasn't been something that we've intentionally persued, it just
kind of happens, especially since alot of time has passed between our recording
endeavors. I predict there will be a much more obvious sign of development,
slightly more drastic variations, and an uncompromised amount of shred in our
upcoming release, which we are working on now.
One of the things I noticed first
about As the Roots Undo, was its artwork and graphics, you must have put a lot
of work into it (since you have a design website too), what was the idea and is
it related to the lyrics in any way?

Yes, we are working on a new record. it will be full length, and epic. and when I say epic, I mean it.
If you notice the
artwork first, you aren't listening to the record at an apporpriately offensive
volume level! Yeah, a lot of homework assignments were sacrificed in
order to get the artwork and recording together for As the Roots Undo. it was
an epic journey completing that whole project, and a great learning experience.
the artwork highlights a couple of the repeated motifs in the lyrics, such as
birds, a tower, and decay as a natural process, to name a few. that said, i'm a
firm believer that even if you aren't exactly sure what the connections or
meanings are in the projects you take on at the time you are doing them,
hindsight will shed some light on the interrelations or relevance of those
endeavors to the events in your life at the time you took them on.
Do you
write the lyrics all together or not? Was it hard to put together all the
material that ended up in your full length?
Jay
(the drummer on As the Roots Undo) and I were in school when we were writing and
recording that record, so that was the main obstacle in getting it finished up.
our intention was to offer as complete a package as we could, including artwork
and album content, and we all worked hard to bring our concepts to fruition. we
couldn't have done any of it without the help of Anthony Stubelek, who recorded
and mixed the record. I wrote the lyrics for As the Roots Undo, Kathy's a great
editor, pointing out repetitive lines and whack rhymes.

Musically your band tends to mix
elements from different kinds of music, keeping an punk/hardcore root, is it
something you wish too keep on doingdo more in the future?
I think our
music is an outpouring of the styles of music that we listen to as well as
things that we want to hear. more emphasis on the latter, probably. but I think
our tastes have evolved in the last few years and i'm excited to see what
affect that has on our new songs. the most satisfying elements for me in the
past have been the more experimental aspects of Circle, and or intention is to
keep an open mind, musically, as we always have. we'll see what comes of it.
Looking back at As The Roots
Undo, are you satisfied with the overall outcome of the record? The recording
process was smooth or did you have some difficulties?
as I
mentioned before, the process involved alot of time sharing with school and
other activities, so that was a bit frustrating. but overall the recording went
smoothly and we definitely learned alot about what will expediate or make
easier our next recording experience, so that's a positive thing. overall, yes,
I'm definitely satisfied with the way it came out.
Looking back at your relationship
with Hyperrealist, Perpetual Motion Machine and Robotic Empire, are you happy
with the way things have been with your record labels?
The people
we've worked with on our previous records have all been passionate individuals
who want nothing more than to put out music that they sincerely believe in, and
that's a pretty amazing thing in my opinion. we are lucky to have met as many
incredible people as we have in the context of playing shows and touring in
ctts, which includes label folks, show promoters, audience members, etc. we are
truly appreciative of all of these people and their rolls in perpetuating an
independent music community.
Are you
already working on your next record? If so will it be a split 7’’, an EP or
another LP?
Yes, we are
working on a new record. it will be full length, and epic. and when I say epic,
I mean it.
Have you
been playing songs written after As the Roots Undo live? If so how has it been?
We played a
new song a few times on a recent tour. The song itself is a piece of a longer
song that will be on our upcoming record, so it wasn't totally finished… but
we just really wanted to play something new, so we went for it.
You’ve played an incredible
amount of shows in the last years, and and you’ve just finished another tour,
what kind of experience has it been as a whole?

Our last
tour was extremely long, nine plus weeks total, which spanned the entire USA
it included a lot of west coast shows, which was great, because we hadn't been
out west for a couple of years. it was exhausting and we're now ready to move
forward with writing and after so much touring we feel pretty justified in
taking some time off from being on the road. we have played alot of shows in
the last couple years, and the experience has been nothing short of amazing.
its gotten to the point where I feel a bit antsy after being in one place for
any substantial amount of time, so its safe to say we'll find ourselves making
tour plans yet again in the not so distant future.
Are you planningwishing to do a
full European tour?

Yes, its
extremely high on the list of priorities, actually. Once we get a substantial
portion of our next record arranged, we'll definitely be scheduling a Euro
tour. We can't wait.
Everything has been happening
quite fast since you formed the band in 2001, are you happy about the way
things are going? In which direction do you see your band going in the future?
Honestly, we're overwhelmed by the response that As the Roots Undo has generated. Its
been a long five years, but we couldn't be happier with what we've acheived and
path that brought us here. I don't know exactly what direction we're headed in
the future, but I do know that if there's such a thing as heaven, we're going
straight to hell.
Maximumfuckingshred!