Deadly Duo Rocking the Hub

Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Hollywood Undead will appear together Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at The Venue in Fargo. The tour has RJA supporting their second studio release, “Lonely Road,” and HU supporting their first major label release, “Swan Song.”  I had a chance to catch up with RJA’s lead singer, Ronnie Winter, and J Dog from HU, to discuss what is happening with their bands and what Fargo can expect from the show.
RED JUMPSUIT APPARATUS: OLD SCHOOL ROCK AND ROLL
High Plains Reader:  So Ronnie, what’s new with RJA?
Ronnie Winter:  Our new album, “Lonely Road,” came out in February and we’ve been touring nonstop since December, almost six months straight. We went everywhere; all over the east coast, the Philippines, Japan, Singapore, Australia, and back to the U.S. again. Now, for the first time since the album came out we’re heading out west.

I’d like to say we’re pretty big internationally; I wouldn’t say that we’re bigger but some people might say that.  It’s hard to tell because there’s just so many American rock ‘n’ roll bands that do well overseas, so it’s not just us. In the Philippines we were playing to 12,000 to 15,000 people a night, it was crazy. It’s one of those things where it’s such an awesome country and they just appreciate any band who gets over there and wants to put a show on. International tours are different. You don’t get to see those people all the time, so when you do go they’re really into it.
HPR:  I noticed this tour is about hitting smaller venues. How does that work compared to those big international shows you were just talking about?
RW:  We actually prefer smaller clubs. We’ve always been known for doing that. We’d rather play smaller rooms and sell out an entire tour than jump into a big situation and who knows what can happen. Not only is there more risk involved but there’s a lot less of what we like to call just “rock ‘n’ roll.” We don’t bring a lot of smoke and mirrors with our show. Instead, we like to get real close and play as loud as we can. Kind of “old school,” you know what I mean? So, our preference is definitely small clubs.  It’s where we grew up.  In our home town the biggest club that was out here fit 700 people, so it’s just what we’re used to.
HPR:  Can you share a little musical and personal history of RJA?
RW:  Like any other real band that wasn’t put together by a label we’ve had quite a few members. But Duke [Kitchens — lead guitar] and I started the band and our first drummer and first bass player quit before our very first show ever, so we never even played a show with the original line up. We knew then that people are going to come and go. I’m actually glad, and I don’t regret one day of it. I’m glad that we didn’t settle for one lineup that we weren’t necessarily happy with. Instead, we changed some people around and that’s just how it is. When Duke and I started this thing, we had actually had high school music theory together and we definitely had a vision from a long time ago. We knew you’re either with it or you’re not with it.
As far as our musical history, one of the coolest things about our band is we do not all listen to the same music, not even close. Our bass player, Joey [Westwood], he’s probably got the craziest taste. He’s into Sinatra, Dean Martin and just lounge singer old school stuff. I’m kind of into 70s and 80s rockers. I love Van Halen, Boston, Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon is still my favorite album) and Peter Gabriel. Duke, he’s really into underground stuff and he’s the guy that anytime before a new act blows up and gets popular Duke’s had the album for months.
HPR:  How do you describe your music?
RW:  If you really listen to any of our albums, the one thing we have done consistently from the beginning is that we do not rewrite the same songs. We’ve always been open about that with our fans and sometimes that’s worked out for us and sometimes it hasn’t. Either way, it doesn’t really matter because that’s what we decided to do a long time ago and we’re sticking to our guns.

As far as how I would describe it, I’m in the band and it’s hard for me to describe! We try as hard as we can to not fit into a genre. You can compare our first single “Face Down” off of our first major release to our first single, “You Better Pray,” on “Lonely Road,” they don’t sound the same whatsoever. This is the point of what we’re going for. We’re a rock ‘n’ roll band. We don’t just play one style of rock. We don’t only play punk, we don’t only play alternative, we don’t only play metal, we don’t only play acoustic folk, we don’t only play pop. We play all of it every album, and we’re five guys with five totally different tastes and nobody’s going to walk in there and tell everybody else “you have to play this this way.” When you have five different ideas shooting in for one album it ends up basically us being honest with our fans; this is what the five of us were able to agree on and yeah, it’s a little crazy but hey, makes for an interesting ride!
HPR:  How has RJA changed and evolved?
RW:  Even our critics will agree that we got older, plain and simple. As you get older, your priorities change and your life changes. I’m married now and Joey has a child. We aren’t 19 year old kids. When we first released our album a lot of people thought we were 17 or 18. They thought we were another Paramour type band in the age level but we’re not. We’ve never been that young; I didn’t even get signed until I was 22.

We’ve always been a mid-20’s rock band, we just look young.  We’re actually not compared to quite a bit of the younger bands out there. Instead, we’re five or six years older than most of them and we grew not only as friends but as musicians.
HPR:  What can fans expect from a RJA show?
RW:  For us, we just like to keep it as intimate as possible. I encourage every single person in the crowd to sing along and dance and clap and have a good time. It’s very much reminiscent of kind of the mid-90s punk movement where if you weren’t yelling at the top of your lungs to every lyric then you were a poser. Believe it or not that’s how it is at a RJA show; we’re not one of those bands that expects you to stand there and clap at the end. If you do that we’re going to get in your face and we’re going to make sure that you participate. Just don’t expect to be standing still because if you are we will single you out!
HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD: THIS AIN’T NO SWAN SONG
HPR:  Tell me about the band. You’re still relatively new, only one album out. What should we know about HU?
JD:  We’re just looking for a good time. We’ve all been together since we were kids, and we wanted to try something new because we were sick of playing house parties. We did our first song four years ago, and we put it on the Internet because that was like the only outlet we had, and it did a lot better than we expected it to do.

We’re all in LA (that’s where we’re from), and we all went to school together, and half of us even went to preschool together. Our parents know each other, and we’ve all literally known each other since we were kids.  That’s why we’ve been in so many bands together since we were 16.
HPR:  Did you expect HU to make it this far?
JD:  We wanted to! In our old bands we played the Whiskey, the Roy, everywhere on the Sunset Strip just hoping to get signed. If you’re in a band, hopefully that’s what you want… we did that forever, and it obviously didn’t work, so when this finally happened we were stoked.
HPR:  The Internet really worked in HU’s favor; YouTube, MySpace, etc.  Do you think this is the wave of the future for new bands to break out?
JD:  It’s really bizarre. I mean, from any band’s perspective you have to do the conventional thing, tour and do all that sort of stuff. But when it comes down to it, the Internet is both good and bad for bands. Good for new bands because they can get their music out there without having a record label and without going out and touring because they don’t have the money to do it.

But then it’s bad because it kills their album sales and they don’t make as much money. It’s a double edged sword. It’s also good because you can reach the fans you never would have before… we can go out and play in England to 300 kids who know all the words, and we’ve never been there before. Ten years ago that was unheard of; it never would have happened.
HPR:  What is Fargo going to see at a HU show?
JD:  That Funnyman is really heavy when he jumps in the crowd… and our normal show is like people don’t expect what they see. They think a bunch of guys are going to come out with an iPod and microphones and do their thing, but we have a drummer, we have guitar, keyboard, bass, a full-on live band that’s playing songs. People kind of go wow because it’s a full-on rock show with full production and they were expecting a DJ… and then Funnyman takes his shirt off and dances like a wild man…
HPR:  Tell me about Swan Song [name of HU’s first major label album released in 2008];
JD:  It was meant to be ironic because of all the shit we’ve dealt with. Our band was so all over the place that I thought it was going to be over before it even started. We signed this deal, which kind of got shelved and then our album wasn’t coming out. None of us knew what was going on, so we were like this could end at any second. This could be our last album even though it’s our first… there’s a whole analogy behind it.
HPR:  What’s next for HU?
JD:  Honestly, I just wish I could get laid. You think about it, and it should be a little bit easier. I get more girls at home than I do on the road. I don’t understand how that works. At home you’re just a civilian and no one gives a shit about your band. On the road girls throw themselves at you, but I just can’t get a piece of ass for the life of me.
HPR:  I’ll make sure to get that printed…
JD:  Yeah, say this guy is horny and he’s looking for some action…