Interviews: The Reason

Our own Ben Conoley recently spoke to Burlington, Ontario-based The Reason. The band recently released their third album, Things Couldn't Be Any Better on Smallman Records. The album is a huge departure from their previous work like Ravenna, and sees synth beats replacing screams and melody replacing breakdowns. Vocalist Adam White took some time to discuss how the band arrived at this point and what they hope for with the new album.

You can click Read More for the interview.

So
where are you now?

I
am in Burlington, chilling out, getting ready to go to practice

What
has the band been up to the last few years?

I just want to be able to do this and not have to work a shitty job when I am not on tour.

After
we did a tour with Strung out in 2005 we took time off, since then we've been
working on the record. It took a while to write it and get it to a point where
we could record it. The recording took three times as long as we thought it
would. Then When we fnished it in
August we found out it wouldn't be out until March. So we haven't really played
shows since then, we layed low and waited for this to come out and then we did
the Spill Canvas tour.

Things
Couldn't be Better is a drastic step away from your previous material. What has
the reaction to it been like?

The
response has been really good for the most part. I think the people who don't
like it aren't saying much. I think they don't like it, but it's not their
thing. Before, people would say "this sucks," but nobody said it
sucks this time. It's been good, we were worried for a bit, but people who like
our band seemed to have moved along with us. And that's the thing, people who
were into the more agressive stuff we were putting out, there's no way to
please them. Some dude comes on your Myspace page and says he's not into the
album, but then you go to his Myspace and his favorite band is Napalm Death, so
there's no way to please him.

You
began playing the songs for Things Couldn't Be Any Better on dates before the
album came out. How did they stand up?

Great,
we were doing half old songs and half new songs. We had also put some songs
online. It's hard to mosh to our new music, and we are used to moshing. Now
it's more dancing and hanging out. Still, people didn't have it and didn't know
the words. When we put out the record we did all new songs at the shows with
Mute Math. Nobody seems pissed about it. And when we do the Anberlin tour we
are going to play new stuff.

Do
you see Things… as a large departure from Ravenna?

Ravenna
was all over the place. It was a collection of songs we had written, not an
album. When it came time to do Ravenna we decided to take four new songs, take
some from the EP and redo them and then write three more. But this time around
we wanted to write a 12 song record where it all means the same thing but where
individual songs still stand on their own.

With
Ravenna, Smallman signed us and we weren't ready to do a full length. we were
proud of it then and it was the best we could do then. We were going through
luneup changes like crazy, we lost guys before the came out. But now everyone
wants to do the band and everyone wants to be in it. Jeremy wasn't on Ravenna
but he has been in the band since it came out.
How
do you think the band arrived at this point?

We
always had things we jammed with, but we would never let them become songs
because we would say, 'oh, that
was a reggae jam or a hip hop beat,' but it was fun to jam on or practice. But
they would make us super pumped, even more so than the songs we were writing.

This
time along we wanted to write what we wanted. Fuck it, if that's what makes it
into a song, then that's what the song is. So we went up to a cottage for a
week and hung out. We were taking a bunch of jams and putting them together. It
made us feel different than the stuff we were working on before. Everyone was
into it. We just said, 'Why don't we
just do this? we're more stokes on it.' With the absence of screaming, I just
don't want to scream anymore. This time around I'm not really pissed off about
anything. It's hard to scream about stuff that you're not pissed off about.

At
the same time, these songs, no matter how positive they are, they are the most
personal stuff I've ever done lyrically. Every time I sing them I am letting
stuff out. They aren't necessarily positive. There are some songs about
negative stuff, but not "Oh this fucking sucks." It's more like

"This sucks, but I am getting myself out of it." I've never been able
to write about songs that never happened. Some people can write about events
they weren't a part of. I can't do that - it has to be something that happened
ot me.

Some dude comes on your Myspace page and says he's not into the album, but then you go to his Myspace and his favorite band is Napalm Death, so there's no way to please him.

It
seems like the band has arrived at a pretty critical junction, as though if
you're going to break through it's going to be now. Do you feel that way?

Pretty
much. We don't think we could have done a better record. None of us have ever
been 100% happy with something we've done, but every part of this is the best
we can do. If we can do better, sweet, but if we dont… We didn't record 20
songs and have a bunch of b sides. We wrote every song to be a part of the
album. We knew the first song would be the first and the last would be the
last.

I
just want to be able to do this and not have to work a shitty job when I am not
on tour. We don't want to become the next Alexisonfire or Billy Talen, but if
it happens, that's wicked. The whole point is that things couldn't be better.
We are happy being in the band having this as a life focus. Some people go to
school for five years - this is our degree.