American pop punk band Four Year Strong sat down with us to talk their new album, touring opportunities and more.
You’re about to release a new album called Some Of You Will Like This/Some Of You Wont’. It’s an unplugged and rarities album, why did you decide it was time to release that sort of record?
Honestly we’ve always joked about releasing an album of all of the slower, ballad-like songs that we’ve written over the years and calling it something stupid like “The Softer Side of Four Year Strong”, never thought we’d actually do it! But we’ve done a lot of acoustic performances over the years and have gotten good responses to them so we pretty much decided to mash the two together and do some acoustic old songs along with b-sides and rarities. But the the whole “acoustic” idea got a little crazy when we got into the studio and we just ended up giving each song its own personality, some songs don’t have any acoustic guitar at all! It was a lot of fun putting this album together and it felt like a good time in our career to do something like this, mostly because why the hell not? We wanted to do it and it was fun!
What else can you tell us about the album? When is it going to be released? Is this record a stopgap between Four Year Strong and your next record?
The album comes out on September 8th, I guess in a way it is a little bit of a time filler between albums, but it wasn’t made FOR that reason. We did it because we wanted to do it, and if it happens to hold people over until we release the next thing thats a plus. We have been talking a lot about new material, writing a few riffs, in the very early stages.
Do you have any singles planned for it? If so, what can you tell us about them, and when will they be out? Due to the nature of the record, we can understand if you aren’t planning on releasing any!
We do have some singles planned, just shot a video for one just the other day! The song is already out there in the internet world, but its called Nice To Know. Its an old song that we wrote in the In Some Way Shape Or Form writing sessions, and was actually recorded for the album and then got cut last second. We wanted to give the song a new vibe, even though no one ever heard the old vibe, but we had recorded it so many times between writing, demoing, and full on recording it previously that it felt like it needed a bit of a face lift. So we changed it up and re-recorded it and we all feel like its definitely the best version of the song.
Have you been writing any material for your next album proper? How is that going, and can you predict a release date for us? Can fans expect anything different this time around?
We have been starting to write, but more just talking about writing. We definitely don’t have a release date in mind, but we want it to be sooner rather than later, but we have to actually write songs first. I think its going to be a really heavy record. I can’t confirm that because it doesn’t exist yet, but we just did an acoustic record so we got the sappy stuff out of our system. Now its time for riffage.
Will you be touring to celebrate the release of SOYWLT/SOYW?
We’ve talked about doing some acoustic shows but don’t have any actual plans in place at the moment. Be on the lookout for dates just in case!
Why do you think people should come and see Four Year Strong play live, and what can fans expect from a gig? We actually attempted to see you at Slam Dunk Festival last year, but the building was too busy to get in!
I think people should come see us live because thats what we do. We play live music. Come see us do what we do best. We make records so you have something to see live. We write songs with the live show always in our minds. Thats what its all about. Don’t miss out.
You’re often classed as a pop-punk band, but we hear a hardcore sound in there too, with your music being kind of inbetween genres. How would you describe your sound, and what has influenced you most as a band?
I honestly hate describing our band. Its too hard, but if someone asks I usually just say punk rock. Thats what it all is right? We are influenced by so many genres and styles of music that it would actually be impossible to list everything, but I think thats what makes writing and being a musician fun – taking bits and pieces from this and that to create what is ultimately us in music form.
Who/what have you been listening to recently, and how have your music tastes changed since starting the band?
My music tastes have definitely changed a lot since starting the band. People may be surprised by this, but no one in FYS listens to ANY pop punk. Unless it came out before 2005, then its in our playlists, but we pretty much listen to everything else OTHER than pop punk. For instance, lately I’ve been listening to butt load of Ryan Adams, Andy Shauf, Torche, Haim, Hank Williams, Tame Impala, Smashing Pumpkins, a lot of movie scores by John Williams, Hans Zimmer, and Danny Elfman, and a whole lot more.
Any last words for the fans?
Definitely check out our new “acoustic” album, be on the look out for new music hopefully in the somewhat near future, and come see us on tour whenever we’re in your area. I love you. Goodbye.