Doing It For Real
With a little help from the World Wide Web, The Red Jumpsuit
Apparatus have been drilling their way into the music scene. They’ve been
number one on PureVolume for an extended amount of time and aren’t doing too
bad on the Myspace charts either – all this even before their debut album was
released. The album, “Don’t You Fake It,” just hit stores on July 18th
and is not disappointing fans. Band of the Day interviewed RJA’s bassist Joey Westwood when he hit
UBC’s Thunderbird Stadium for this year’s Warped Tour in a mind blowing…
1. Your album’s not out yet and you guys
are already blowing up. You’ve been number one on PureVolume for a long time
now. How do you feel about all that?
J: We’re totally stoked. Our CD actually dropped today, and we’re stoked about that too. When we found out we were first on PureVolume, we were like, “Wow. We’re in front of our favorite bands, the bands we still love. How did that happen?” It’s basically just from fans - keeping in touch with them and traveling/touring non-stop. It worked out pretty good, so we’re stoked.
Mattias: If you had anything to say to your PureVolume fans, what would you say to them?
J: PureVolume fans: It’s incredible. Hopefully everyone sees that we’re just five young guys and we’re not going out there trying to change the world. We’re just going out there to play our music, tour, or do whatever. Thank you for the support; we love it and we’re stoked about it.
2.The band originally started just for kicks. Why didn’t you
intend to play shows or record a CD? What made you change your mind?
J: Well when the band first started, everybody [also] had their own
bands and other side projects going on. We’re from a pretty small town, so once
Red Jumpsuit as a whole started actually playing music, people just found out
about it. Red Jumpsuit plays their first show and it’s awesome and people love
it. It was just like, “Well, Red Jumpsuit
will start playing shows from now on if people like it.” From then on, it was
just non-stop shows and touring.
Dave-os: What happened to your other bands?
J: Other bands? Everything kind of broke apart. It had to. We were all in different kinds of music. Me and the guitar player, Elias, were in a metal band. Then this came along and we were just like, “Yeah man, let’s do this. Let’s have some fun music and do what we want.” It worked out good and we’re loving it.
3. Yeah, you and Elias were in In Fate’s Hands. What exactly made
you move from metal and how was the transition?
J: Honestly, everybody in the band is a fan of all types of music. [For example,] Ronnie played drums for a metal band for a long time. We all love different kinds of music. We just happened to be playing that metal/hardcore music at the time, but we knew, with time, that we would just play what we wanted and this is the perfect example of that. We’re really just playing good, fun, rock music - just what we want. We’re not trying to rewrite music theory; we’re just having fun with it and that’s what we want to do. Everybody in the band loves it and we have fun with it.
4. Your music’s going to be on Madden
‘07. What’s your favorite video game?
J: Favorite video game…My favorite video game right now is probably Call of Duty 2. If it had to be a sports game though, it’d be Madden, but old-school Madden - like Sega Saturn Madden. Those were the good days.
5. Ideally, what would you want a red
jumpsuit apparatus to do?
J: What would I want a red jumpsuit apparatus to do? World peace. *laughs* It’s finally my chance to say that!
6. What’s the worst thing to be face
down in?
J: Probably in our drummer Jon Wilkes. To be face down
anywhere on his body probably wouldn’t be the greatest place, so I’ll have to
say Jon Wilkes. Sorry man. *laughs*
7.You had label troubles at first. How
did you finally get the attention of Virgin?
J: A lot of labels passed. A lot of the labels weren’t really fighting over us; they were just letting us know that they were interested and that they would have offers. Basically what it came down to was [the fact that] Virgin was a record company where we could be like, “This is who we are and this is what we want to do. If you’re down to support this and help us out, let’s do it. If not, then we can’t work this out.” It’s working out great though. Everybody works together fine. We made the right decision.
8. What’s something that you like to
fake?
J: Something I like to fake…I’ll probably
have to say…I try to fake being like…This is a good question! Let me think for
a second…What’s something I like to fake…I think I like to fake walking around
the Warped Tours trying to look cool. I don’t really smile; I keep a serious
face and just kind of have my pass showing to let people know that I’m
somebody. Then once I get back in the RV, it’s back to Xbox and being a stupid
nerd and being stupid with the rest of the guys. That’s a cool thing to fake, I
guess.
9. Who would win in a fight between a cat and an army of mice?
J: I’ll have to go with the army of mice, just because armies stick
together and they win. I don’t like cats too, so I’d be rooting for the mice
and they’d win.
Dave-os: Fuck pussies.
J: Fuck pussies.
10. Who would you like to see next on Band of the
Day?
J: Aw man. Great question, dude. There are so many bands.
Mattias: It’s always a tough one.
J: Band of the day…There’s a band on Warped Tour
called…I’m pretty sure it’s Protest the Hero - it could be Protect the Hero. I
walked by their set a few times in the middle of the day and every time I stop
and I’m like, “Who is this band? They’re different, they’re cool, they’re doing
their thing.” I watch them and it’s already happened three times: I’m like, “Oh
yeah, it’s that band” immediately. I say throw them out there. Give them a
chance; they sound awesome.
Mattias: They’re Canadian too.
J: Yeah, there you go. Canadian: even better.
Joey enjoyed the questions so much that he asked for another.
Here’s what spawned from that wholesome request…
BONUS: If you could start a feud with
any band right now, who’d you like to say “Fuck you” to?
J: I would have to say, but in a good way, Aiden. We’re really good
friends with them and we always fuck with each other and their tour manager’s
always fucking with us. So fuck you Aiden, but you’re great and we love you
guys.
A shout out to Joey for doing the interview; you sir, are more
than a kind gent. More interviews are coming up, including some more intriguing
Warped Tour bands.
Keep it real,
The BotD Team