“Artwork” Is Their Best Art Yet

Alternative rock band The Used will come through Fargo Friday, February 5, to play The Venue at The Hub, on tour in support of their fourth, and what bassist Jeph Howard considers their best, studio album to date, “Artwork.”
The Used have come a long way from their hometown of Orem, Utah, where, in their early days, they lived through homelessness and substance abuse. Along with being one of the most interviewed bands in the past two years (my observation), they are musicians who see music as an art form and who want their fans to have fun at their shows.
I asked Howard to provide a brief history of the band as well as where he feels they are now. “We’ve been a band for about ten years.” He said. “We’ve come a long ways, done a lot of records, been on tour a long time. We’ve had a lot of singles come out and here we are [laughs]. And now, we feel like we just created the best record that we’ve done up to today. We’re happy being on tour, we’re happy playing shows. We’re pretty upbeat right now, as far as the band goes, despite the downfall of the music industry.”
Most of the artists I have spoke to recently have the same opinion about the state of the music industry but none phrased it the way Howard did. He explained it, as well as how it has affected the band, like this: “It’s just weird. It’s hard dealing with labels – all of the labels are crumbling and it’s kind of a fight. It’s hard getting support sometimes. They’re trying to support themselves so it’s hard to get something at the same time.”
So, what does the industry want from artists right now? “I don’t really know yet,” said Howard, “but it’s all good. All that really matters is that music gets heard and music gets out there and good bands coming because they’re out there. I know there are good bands out there!”
“Artwork” is both a new beginning and a return to the band’s roots. Howard described it as “kind of a sing-a-long. To me, the more representation of this record is digging yourself into a hole as far as you can and not realizing how big of a hole you’re digging. You sort of look back up and you realize ‘I’m in a hole, I’m stuck, I just screwed myself over, I ruined myself and it’s my fault.’ Really to me, this record represents climbing out of that hole.Getting yourself out of the mess that you put yourself in. Musically this is by far the best record that we’ve ever done. It’s definitely darker but at the same time it’s more heavy, but heavy in a different way. It’s still screaming but it’s not like our normal screaming, it’s more background, which is better, it’s different. It’s less produced, more laid back as far as production goes, but at the same time this record was meant to sing along to. It’s made to come to shows and sing along and have a good time.”
The band went with producer Matt Squire, making this the first studio album not produced by John Feldman. They weren’t sure about using Squire, said Howard, and they “weren’t going to do it, we just didn’t want to. Nothing against him, we just weren’t into any of the bands he produced. But we met with him because we thought ‘We’ll meet with him, we’ll check it out.’ And our label was like ‘Try him on, just meet him.’ He actually turned out to be an amazing guy. It’s like he was one of us. He listened to the same kind of bands we did and he was in a band as a kid that our drummer loved. We started showing him our songs and showing him everything and he was like ‘Cool!’ We told him the direction we wanted to go and how we wanted to get there and how we wanted it produced…and he was down just to sit back and take it in and then he would give his advice…but he was very laid about the whole record, which was exactly what we wanted. It was really just him overseeing, in a way, which is perfect.”
People who know The Used are familiar with their personal histories and the struggles in their early years as they worked to gain recognition as a band. But Howard described the members now and what it is about them that not only made this album better but makes them so upbeat. “We’re all very different people. Dan [Whitesides] is my favorite drummer. Being able to play with him is amazing. He’s definitely changed our band musically, made it stronger and tighter. He’s brought it together more.
“Quinn [Allman] is sort of a mysterious genius. His guitar playing is amazing. Like every time he plays something it sounds like, ‘What is that? That’s an amazing rift. Why are why are we jamming it? Why aren’t we using it?’ And he’s like ‘Oh, I just thought of it.’ He always comes up with guitar lines that everybody is super excited about.
“Bert [McCracken – lead vocals] is kind of the same. He’s very up and down and you’re not really sure what he’s going to do. Very dramatic in a good way. At the same time, he just understands music and words and melody. He’ll joke around and make up his own songs all day about anything. There’ll be a song on the radio and he’ll just start singing some random melody that he made up with his own words to it and it will actually be more cool that the melody that’s on the song, just as a joke, but he just has that musical talent.”
And when I asked him to describe himself? “I’m that other guy, the nice guy, I don’t know. I play bass.” I explained that in my experience, bass players are always nice… “There you go,” he answered.
Howard also described how each of the band members is influenced differently. “Very different for each person,” he said. “A wide spectrum of all music. Really any artist that’s created, that can create, that is creating…that’s what art is. It’s fifty percent the artist and fifty percent the seer, I guess.”
“Everything is really an evolution in a way. Everything has to evolve, it has to. Music is the same thing as life in a way, it’s a representation of life. If you think of it like every record that we write, everybody in the band changes from time to time, year to year, so each song and each record is an evolution. This record that we just did, Artwork, is really the most evolved that’s been out.”
And finally, what are the band’s plans for the future? “More touring,” Howard laughed. “And we’re probably going to start writing again. We’re thinking about writing on this next tour because, why not?”

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If You Go

What: The Used
Where: The Venue at The Hub
When: Fri, Feb 5, 7:30 pm
How Much: $28, all ages