The A.K.A.s

February 20, 2004
The Metro
Chicago, IL

An Interview with Mike & Chris

Backstage at the Metro in Chicago is not much more than gray drywall covered walls, a table, and some third or fourth hand couches.  The lounge we walk through to the band’s dressing room is filled with boys in black hoodies, mostly adorning the FATA logo.  Lydia and I sat down with Mike and Chris from the AKAs in their dressing room and asked them some questions.  This is how it went down...

XROXX: Mike, you were the singer for the Brother’s Keeper.  Was anyone else involved in projects we may have heard of, or did you just find a bunch of guys and create the AKAs?
Mike: Well, we’re all friends form at least some realm.  Basically, when Brother’s Keeper broke up, I started another band.  Brother’s Keeper was form PA and I had moved to NYC, and had lived there for several years, and I was doing the band long distance.  It was just twice as much work for half of the results.  I met this kid Lucas and we became good friends, and kind of talked about doing a band together.  We decided to do it so I would have something more full time to do.  We played with some other people, but it wasn’t really working out, so we just started all over.  We just got like a whole new band.  Chad, our bass player, was someone I had met where I was working in NYC, and then Bob, our drummer.  He wasn’t the first drummer we played with.  He and I played in a band together like years ago.  So, he moved to NYC to play with us.  Then we had a keyboard player, a girl, Nina, but she recently decided to part ways.  So, I called Chris, who was a really good friend of mine.  We had played together for years.  He had a full time job, and all things going well for him, so I decided that I would ruin his life, so he could play in a band again.  (hahaha) It was an effortless transition because he and I and Bob had known each other for eight or more years.  This is his first tour with us, and we are really excited about it.

XROXX: (to Chris) Is this your first tour you have ever done?
Chris: No, no, no.  I’ve done a lot of tours before, in the stuff Mike and I had done before.  We’ve done numerous U.S. Tours, and we’d gone to Europe and all that stuff.  I think that’s what made the transition easy, like Mike said, because I’ve played with Mike before, I’ve toured before, so it wasn’t like they were taking on someone who'd never done any of this before.  I haven’t done it in three years, but I had been wanting to do it, so it was cool.

XROXX: Let’s talk about the CD.  Personally, I think it’s a hell of a disc.  It is sexy, catchy, and realistic.  What do you think are the ingredients that separate your sound from other bands?
Chris: I didn’t write the record, so I don’t know if I can really say much.
Mike: Basically, when we started the band, we wanted to do something different.  We all have very eclectic tastes, and are all different ages from different musical backgrounds.  Lucas is a classically trained, real deal, jazz guitar player.  I’m just like a fucking basically fucking talent less musician (hahaha).  I’m more action and idea motivated.  So, when we started writing, and then added the organ, we just decided we were not from the kind of school that a lot of the young bands that are playing today are.  I think that we just have a different perspective on things, so it comes out sounding different.  Mainly, my reason for doing a band is we wanted to talk about stuff.  I think the big thing that’s lacking from “punk” music now is there’s a real lack of message and content in general.  It doesn’t need to be some crazy political protest revolution in rock and roll, or anything like that.  We just wanted to do a band that was genre-less and have it be about cool shit that people should hear and be like “yeah, that is something important.”  That’s why I think we are different.  We are constantly reacting against what’s going on.  If things become saturates one way, that’s usually the thing we are talking shit about.  It makes us different.  It’s a blessing and a curse.  It’s always kind of above kid’s heads too.  Depending who we are playing with which is mostly everybody.  This tour is really cool because the bands are really diverse, but still, it’s not really a sound that we don’t necessarily fit into, but we enjoy that.  We’re always the different band on tour, we’re the different band on our label.  I think it’s cooler to be the surprise, than “it’s another fucking band with emo breakdowns and then a metal chug fucking parts.”
Chris: As far as what you said too about reacting against other bands and what's going on...  It’s not meant to be a “dis” toward that.  Because, I can guarantee you a year form now when we start to write a new record, we’re gonna react against our old record.  We listen to that now, and we’re like “oh man, that kind of sucks, we can do something way better than that.”
Mike: We’re not out to claim that we are the most original band.  We’re simply motivated to push the expectations of kids.

XROXX: How do you feel you are received by the crowd on this tour?
Chris: It’s varied a lot.  Mike and I talk about that all the time.  What tours are we gonna be better on?  Then, I came up with a list of bands we could play with.  It wasn’t necessarily band we sound like, but maybe ones we fit in with better.  (singer from Silverstein walks by room, and screams SILVERSTEIN! into the door).  In general, it’s gone pretty well, there’s been a couple of shows where we’ve been called fags and liberals, but for the most part, it’s ok.  I don’t think we really sound like any of the bands on this tour, but that helps us stand out, for better or for worse.
Mike: I think that it’s a break from what kids are expecting, so a lot of times, people are in shock of it.  We realize it is most kids first time hearing us, so we don’t expect a giant circle pit every time we play, but one of the cool things to see is kids smiling and bobbing their heads, like dancing dancing, rather than beating the fucking piss out of each other.  It’s just fun.  It’s fun to play.  Me, being the dude with the mic, I kind of enjoy being heckled, because it gives me an excuse to talk more shit.  We’ve definitely had shit thrown at us on this tour, in a funny, but ironic way.  We’ve been speaking out against Bush and in some towns like Norfolk, VA, there has been a negative reaction.  In NC, we had kids who wanted to fucking kill us.
Chris: It goes back and fourth, cause at that same show in Norfolk, we had people throwing things and calling us fags, but then right after the show a couple of marines came up to us and were like “We’re with you guys.”
Mike: I think the majority of people don’t sound off in that way.  People are at a show to see music.  They’re not gonna react either way usually.  It takes time to catch on.  We’re trying to be patient.  Especially in the U.S., the kind of music we play and the sound we have doesn’t already have a category for kids to put in so that they can identify with it.  We just keep playing with as many different kinds of bands, and through that process figure out what makes the most sense.  Take ten kids from each show and create our own niche.  However, that could never happen.

XROXX: (to Mike) You are a tattoo artist, and a designer on some of the All American Rejects materials.  How does your work fit in to your rock and roll life?
Mike: I've felt really lucky to have created the kind of rock and roll lifestyle where I can just do what I do.  I’ve worked really hard on design.  It’s cool to be able to lend a hand to people who want to make their vision a shirt or a record cover or a tattoo.  It’s an extension of being creative.  I’m psyched because most people fucking hate their job, and I’ve always been aware of what I wanted to do, and what made me happy.

XROXX: After a few minutes of convincing them that this was not a trick question, I got the boys’ three “it” discs of the moment.
Mike: Vaux, Manic Street Preachers - the Holy Bible, and Public Enemy - It takes a nation...
Chris: Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism, Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium, and Ryan Adams.

These guys were very laid back and very cool.  Thanks so much for allowing me to hang with you for a few and a special thanks to Benjie of Sleazy Rock Management for hooking all of this up and Fueled by Ramen for all their help as well.  We had a great time!!!

Jayne Star
jayne.star@XROXX.com