Anti–Flag's Justin Sane recently sat down with our friends at ThePunkSite.com to discuss the band's upcoming full length, The Bright Lights of America. The band discussed the new elements they tried to introduce into their sound:

We had ideas of things we wanted to do before we made the record and working with Tony Visconti we knew we were working with somebody who would know how to execute those ideas. We wanted to bring some new elements to punk rock. We brought in cello players, we brought in brass players, we brought in a lot of orchestral instruments – you know, timpani drums, and tubular bells. We even have a children's choir on the record made out of our families' nieces and nephews. It's a very personal record in general. We wanted to expand in new ways and include new people in what we were doing. We felt like Tony Visconti was somebody who had experience with trying to do those things and would be able to help us supervise. What we tried to do too though was play as many instruments as we possibly could. So rather than bringing in players from the symphony to bang on the timpani, we wanted to play them ourselves. Again, because we've never done that before, we thought it would be helpful to have somebody who has.

The group is following up their major label debut, 2006's For Blood and Empire. In the interview Sane also discusses plans for another solo record to follow up Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Justice.