Straight Up Random

Warped Tour ‘08: The Academy Is…

Interview with Adam Siska of The Academy Is…

You’ve been playing new songs on Warped Tour, how has the general reaction been?

Adam: I think it’s been great. Unfortunately today, we had to cut one of the songs because our singer William’s throat isn’t feeling to well, and some of the notes he hits in the chorus are very very high, and we don’t want him to sound like a 14 year old boy coming of age, but the songs have gone over great, and we’re really excited about it. We have a new record coming out in just a little over a month. It’s been fun to play new songs and to see people responding really well.

What is your new album like compared to your last two albums? 

A: It’s hard to say, you know, it’s weird.  I’d say this record is just as different from the last one as the last one was different from the first one. Which is what we wanted, we always want shock value in our records and I think we got that. I’d say on this record it was really coming back to our roots, remebering what it was, the reason why we started, the ambition that we felt, the wanting to break out of the town we were from to see the world. I think over the past five years of touring and everything, you sometimes lose sight of that. Everyday’s exactly the same, you wake up, you forget where you really began. Going home after the touring on the last record, spending some time at home, it reminds you where you come from and that’s what this record is about.

How’d you pick the name for the album title? Are you guys big fans of the movie Fast Times At Ridgemont High? 

A: Yea, I wouldn’t say that the album title is based on the movie by any means. It’s something that’s totally in it’s own realm. We kind of landed on that album title because, like I said, it’s about where we were when the band began and when the band started, William and I were in highschool, at a school called Barrington High, which is the name of the record. At that time we were huge music fans. That’s all I ever thought about was music, music, music, trying to start a band, and trying to get out of the town, and it happened. We’ve been blessed you know, I mean we get to tour, and we get to do this. This record was kind of like I said, going back to our roots,rediscovering where we were at the time it began;where we were was at Barrington High. It’s a little bit of a joke title in the sense that we say Fast Times At Barrington High, when it actuality the longest years of my life was spent in highschool. The record’s really about leaving highschool, and the past five years, and where we are now and where we were then and connecting the dots and bringing the two together, and realizing that we’re still the same people we were when we started. We couldn’t be happier to still be doing this. We’re really happy to have a new record coming out. I do love the movie let me add, especially the pool scene.  

What direction are you going for with the album cover?

 A: We wanted to go for something that really captured the title in itself, you know something about a highschool and the awkwardness of highschool romance, everyone’s still figuring out who they are let alone who they like and all those other things that they think matter at the time, but in actuality maybe won’t matter in a couple years. You know, there’s something really special about being young, being awkward and we were definitely those people and still are. The record cover - actually we just put it up yesterday, we released it to the internet. It’s a young couple, sitting on a couch, at what seems to be a party, and there’s a little bit of sexual tension between this young couple, which I’d say is about right for highschool. Me on the otherhand, I didn’t get any in highschool. I was worried about music, I wasn’t really woried about dating. I didn’t have my driver’s license, so how could I go on a date? 

You’re on the whole tour, how’s it been so far? 

A: It’s been awesome! We have a lot of old friends on the tour, we’ve made some new ones, and we’re just having a blast. It’s a really hot tour, it’s a lot of hardwork, and we’re definitely pretty tired at the end of these days. We’re really happy we get to play for a diverse crowd, play with some diverse bands, remind people who we are and put on a good show for them.

You’ve done Warped Tour before, so how is this time different from the last time?  

A: Well Miami, specifically, it rained last time and it rained today, so that’s kind of cool. The crowd was probably like three, four times bigger than it was last time, which is amazing.  Today, I’m sure a lot of people say this everyday, but today was hands down my favorite date of the whole tour so far. First it was San Francisco, then Salt Lake City passed up San Francisco, and Miami has passed them up. This time I think we learned kind of what we were doing on Warped Tour last year. We were kind of that young band that was a little bit awkward, and we didn’t really know what we were doing. This time we knew what we were in for. We knew that it’s a pretty hard tour, and we prepared mentally and emotionally for this tour and we’re having a lot of fun.  

So you guys have been busy writing and recording. Was it hard to get back into the swing of touring? 

A: Maybe physically, you know, the first couple shows it’s hard to get back up on a hot stage. Your body really hasn’t done that in a while, and it’s like we weren’t jogging or anything during our time off so it takes a couple of shows to get back to the physical aspect of playing. Honestly, we almost had six months off so by the time we were gonna play again, we couldn’t wait to get up on the stage and interact with our fans again. We missed that. It’s a big important part of my happiness so it’s good to have that back. 
 
Are there any bands that you think are going to be a “breakout band” after Warped Tour?
 
A: Totally. It seems like We The Kings has had a big crowd everyday. It seems like people are really excited about them, and we’re actually going on tour with them this Fall in the United States so it’ll be awesome. It’s We The Kings and some other bands opening. I expect big things from them. They’re really good people, and they got a good sound. Gym Class Heroes isn’t exactly an up and coming band. They’ve had a big succesful year, but I’ve heard their new record; it’s incredible. The new Jack’s Mannequin record is incredible. I’d like to say that we’re still an up and coming band and we have a new record coming out. Say Anything’s great. Really, there’s tons of great bands on the tour.  

Who do you like to see perform?

A: I can go through the list. It’s hard because we have busy days, but there’s certain bands that I’ll always try to see. Gym Class Heroes, Jack’s Mannequin, Against Me!, Everytime I Die, We The Kings,  Say Anything….I think that’s it. There’s a lot of bands. I always like to check stuff out. There’s Oreska band from Osaka, Japan, and they’re a Japanese ska band and they’re awesome! It’s a lot of fun. There’s a lot of cool stuff happening on this tour. It’s really fun.

Any collaborations between you and other bands this year?
 
A:  Yea. Actually, Alex, the bass player of Cobra Starship, had to leave for his father’s wedding last week so I played two shows for them. I played bass for two full shows of theirs. They’re a lot of fun, they’re a good band and I never actually realized exactly how good they were until I was a part of the band you know, you realize how talented the people your playing with are. We go out and we sing during part of Jack’s Mannequin song. We’ve had Travis from We The Kings come up and sing with us. There’s a lot of stuff like that happening. Yea, it’s been fun. Hopefully we can record a song with one of these bands on tour, and put it up on the internet. 
 
Can you give us one Straight Up Random fact about yourselves? 

A: Michael Guy Chislett can’t read, Mike Carden has flat feet, I have a unibrow, William Beckett sometime stutters, and The Butcher is good at everything.