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| ENGINE DOWN - Interview by Jennifer Long |
Keeley Davis [vocals, guitar]
Jonathan Fuller [guitar]
Cornbread Compton [drums]
Jason Wood (present at very end) [bass]
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| Can I have you guys introduce yourselves? |
JF: Uh yeah, this is Jonathan…ummm I play guitar.
CC: Hi my name is Cornbread and I play drums in Engine Down.
KD: My name’s Keeley Dixon Davis and I play geetar and vocalize.
CC: My name’s Jason Wood and I play bass in Engine Down.
AATM: Where is Jason?
KD: He’s comin’.
CC: I’m right here.
KD: [shouting] JASON!
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| All right, what influences your music and lyrics? |
KD: [mumbles something and we all laugh] No, on a serious note, influence is very important. I think, it’s more like we’re inspired I think our music. For me, I will write music when I have a shift in emotion. If I’m just kinda having a normal day and I watch a really a great movie or I hear a great song and it puts me in a mindset where I wanna create, then that’s...that is what I want to try to create for someone else to inspire them. So, a lot of times I’m inspired by what creates mood changes I guess atmosphereeeee Thank you.
CC: I would say the exact same thing prolly. [mumbles and laughter]
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| What keeps you going while on the road? |
JF: I dunno, I think that touring is enough of a momentum. I mean, I think that definitely when you have a good show where the energy in the room is good and you know like we definitely feed off of the crowd when we play. And so if it’s a good vibe then we have an awesome time. And, being able to have the opportunity to have that happen every night is amazing. So I think…and then during the day we hang out with friends and I mean touring itself is amazing. I would say that it doesn’t take much on tour to keep us going, because it sort of is its own reason to keep going. I mean, obviously when you have three or four horrible shows back to back and you’re in the middle of nowhere where you don’t know anybody, then that’s tough. Luckily that happens less and less, I guess, cause we have more and more friends everywhere and shows are getting better.
CC: Yeah, I agree with that we have friends, seeing friends...
AATM: You agree with everything don’t you?
CC: What’s that?
AATM: You agree with everything don’t you?
CC: Yeah, yeah, I agree with everything, yes. I agree! [laughter] We are all, like, really good friends, you know all four of us are really good friends. That itself makes it easier to go out and spend a plot of time with, you know, three other people. And, yes, its just a lot of fun. I think it shows, and being able to present what’s on your album live is just such a fun task.
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| Are there any interesting stories from the road? |
JF: There’s lots!
AATM: Any that you can tell?
JF: It’s hard to come up with ummmm I dunno.
AATM: I just heard one the other day where a band was driving along and they saw a deer in the road still kicking and stuff so they went and called the cops to have them come kill it or something. And the antlers were shattered everywhere and so they took some of the antlers and made it into necklaces and were wearing it. It was...
JF: Oo! That’s kind of intense!
AATM: ...kind of a weird road story to hear in the middle of a show.
JF: Umm...we’ve been fortunate enough never to get tickets on the road until a couple of days ago. Cornbread get a ticket from the po-lice. Got pulled over.
AATM: What’d you do?
JF: He just ran a stop sign. It was totally lame. It was a trap. She pulled us over and she was like "There have already been two accidents there today," and I was like "Well, obviously you need to make the stop sign bigger" [pause] DUMBASS! [laughter]
CC: Well we stayed in a haunted motel once and it was scary. I can’t really talk to you much about it cause I’m so freaked. We also...
KD: The haunted motel was great...
CC: umm what else?
KD: We’re also known to be a bad influence. When we support bands they often tell us we are a bad influence on them. And that’s all I have to say about that. Actually, if you wanna see or more hear more go to enginedown.com and click on ‘Tour Diary’ on the front page! Booyah!
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| What are some of the major differences, good and bad, between touring as an opening band and as a headliner? |
JF: It’s good um... Both of them are exciting. When you’re opening for another band, you’re playing for a bunch of people that haven’t necessarily heard you before so you get to show them what you do and luckily all the experiences that we’ve had opening for other bands it’s been positive and the crowd has been receptive. And then headlining, headlining…[hands tape recorder to Cornbread]
CC: Headlining…Oh man I was totally off in another world! I was just thinking about... Yeah headlining um...
JF: it’s good because you’re playing for people who are there to see you so, you know… they know your songs and it’s not... you sort of... you already know that the energy is gonna be good, you don’t have to convince them, I guess?
AATM: But you still put the same effort into it?
JF: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah definitely.
KD: Opening up is a little bit less stressful cause you kinda play, then you’re kinda like for the rest of the show you’re allowed to just kind of relax a little bit.. You’re allowed to relax a little bit so you’ll play, you’ll take your stuff off, you’ll pack it all up, you’ll be able to see the headliner knowing that all your stuff’s packed up, and you can just sit around and talk to people and you know where you’re...
JF: When you’re headlining you’re sitting around the whole time like
KD: Waiting, waiting.
JF: Aah! Aah! I’m nervous!
KD: Yeah, yeah.
JF: What if everybody leaves? Ahh ahh!
KD: Yeah, so that’s one reason… oh and I think when you’re opening up for a band, it’s more of a trailer of your band. You’re like “This is our band, check it out!” This is the first time and so things can... it’s fresh automatically. It’s a preview, you know, and when you’re headlining sometimes it’s nerve racking to try to keep it fresh for people who have seen you a bunch and trying to keep it [pause] make a good experience for everyone that’s just fans and so yeah… It’s a lot less mechanical. It’s like you’re trying to be flowing better and it might actually involve a little more of spontaneity which is always just scary as hell. It’s a bigger gamble on whether you’re gonna have a great show for yourself -- for me it is kind of.
JF: There’s a lot more at stake.
KD: Yeah, there’s more at stake totally, cause you’re watching everyone. They’re there to see you. They all leave, it’s over, you’re done for. Three strikes. [mumbles something that sounds like “It suuuucks. It suuuucks.” into the mic]
AATM: What is that all about?
KD: Nothing!! [laughter]
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| What is it that you want someone to walk away from your show with and what kind of impression do you want to leave? |
KD: To be inspired, I guess. To take them to a different place, kind of.
JF: Yeah, to be able to remove them from whatever’s going on outside of... to be able to fully, you know, like, immerse them in the music.
AATM: That only slightly helped when I was freezing to death at the last sow. Do you remember that?
JF: Wait, where was it?
AATM: The Beaumont Club... with Thursday
JF: Was it cold in there?
AATM: It was freezing cold where my friend and I were sitting. I went and complained to Keeley about it.
JF: It’s pretty cold in here, too.
AATM: It was a lot colder than this. We had the air conditioning vent on top of us.
JF: Yeah, well... hopefully... Right. Bring a sweater.
AATM: Thanks, thanks.
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| Have you had any fans do any crazy things for you? |
JF: Bands do crazy…
AATM: Fans.
JF: We got a couple of cases of very expensive wine from a fan a couple nights ago, which was awesome. Totally awesome.
CC: Yeah... mentions about flying to come see us play.
JF: We’ve had people fly to come see us play before, which is kind of crazy.
AATM: That is crazy.
KD: Tell about that… girl in Japan. American food? The one that brought us the French fries.
CC: That wasn’t in Japan though, was it? That was in Europe.
KD: No, it was in Japan.
CC: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The really quiet girl… she play drums?
KD: Yes, yes.
CC: We had a girl…
JF: We toured Japan.
CC: Yeah, when we were in Japan touring, there was a girl... Actually was she putting on the show and playing in one of the bands? I can’t remember, but she went out and bought all this food from like McDonald’s like eight things of French fries like [fakes an accent] “Here. American food! Yaa!” [laughter]
JF: That was awesome. We also have a couple of nutty fans in Philadelphia who always bring us, like, gag gifts and they are awesome. It’s these two young women who play in a band and they, like, I dunno how many times... one time it was a hand buzzer thing. Yeah, yeah. So that’s exciting.
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| OK. Has any of you ever played in a cover band? |
CC: [thinks for a moment] Well, not really, prolly not in a cover band.
JF: Right.
CC: I’ve covered songs on stage with people before.
JF: But not as strictly a cover band...
CC: Yeah, not strictly a cover band. Actually, all of us probably have in high school, like in our high school bands we all...like half covers, half Dinosaur, Jr. and other crap, you know. But, I mean, like...
JF: Cornbread played in a band called Union of the Snake that was basically a Dream Theater slash
CC: Guns n Roses
JF: Slash
CC: Queensryche, Def Leppardy kind of thing.
JF: Yeah, which was exciting. And they wrote their own songs, but their influences…
CC: They were basically covers.
JF: …were quite obvious, even in the way that they dressed. And for Halloween one year, I did... I played in a metal band that did a Merciful Fate cover, which was kind of fun.
CC: So, that’s it.
JF: That’s basically it. The first song Keeley and I ever played in front of people was... a Cure song called...
KD: “Just Like Heaven”
JF: “Just Like Heaven,” yeah.
CC: Oh, once I was in a bar for Christmas with some friends, and these people wanted us to play a song, so we played “Brick House” and then the people started freaking out dancing and then they wouldn’t let us get off stage until we played it again. [laughter] And we had this huge, huge football player singing the song cause he knew the lyrics and none of us knew it.
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| On that note, do you guys play any covers in your shows? |
JF: No, we never have. We’ve talked about how it would be fun to learn one and make it our own.
AATM: That’s what I was going to ask: if you would do one, what would you do?
JF: Oh, wow. I don’t know… I mean, there’s so many good songs.
CC: Duran Duran.
JF: umm Maybe a Duran Duran song [laughter] I don’t know.
CC: Yeah, no clue.
KD: Christina Aguilera?
JF: baaah
CC: Avril Lavigne!! Avril Lavigne.
KD: How the hell would you cover that song?
JF: [mimicking] “He was a skater boy. She said see you later boy.”
AATM: Sing about how you guys are in love with another guy?
JF: Yeah! Yeah, yeah.
KD: Hey, that’s what all my lyrics are about anyway! [laughter]
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| This one might be hard for you guys since you guys are all sitting together, but describe each member,including yourself, in three words. |
JF: So each individually describe everybody?
AATM: Each individually describe everybody.
CC: Pony! [laughter]
JF: OK, for me, Jonathan, Boom Box. Pony. Cornbread… three words…[sings into the mic]
KD: Short attention span.
JF: Yeah, three words for Cornbread: short attention span.
KD: Can’t back up van? [laughter]
JF: You can use the hyphen.
CC: And raisin fingers.
AATM: What?
CC: Raisin fingers.
JF: Umm... now Jason.
CC: Mayonnaise.
JF: Hunchback, mayonnaise [laughter]
CC: xtoothbrushx [laughter]
JF: Umm, let’s see, let’s see, let’s see.
CC: Keeley would be cereal.
JF: Diet Mountain Dew
CC: and spaz or something like that.
JF: What is it, Screech? Is that that guy’s name from Saved by the Bell?
CC: Yeah
AATM: Right
CC: Diet Screech
JF: Yeah, Diet Screech Cola
AATM: Keeley didn’t have any input in that.
KD: Oh, cause we all [stumbles on words]... share the same brain.
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| At the end of a tour do you guys pull pranks on other bands, or have them pulled on you? |
KD: I think we do it during tours. We just like to.. Cause you have to amuse yourself while you’re out. I don’t think w play pranks, I think we just straight up mess with them sometimes.
JF: The entire time
[the guys mumble things and Cornbread excuses himself to grab another beer]
JF: Jason has a lot of characters that he will become, so, it’s usually fun. He does that throughout the entire tour. I guess other bands sort of, like, they always, like, when Cursive left the Thursday tour, apparently the last show was a huge fiasco because they were putting ketchup and mustard all over each other while they were playing, and, like, throwing bread at each other.
KD: I don’t think I would like that.
JF: I guess we take when we’re on stage we’re a little too in our own world to, like, sort of, like, dork out with other people. It’s... it’s very much a little microcosm of us four when we play. Kind of like our thang.
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| This kind of goes back to your lovely scab [Keeley had fallen over something on stage a few days previous to the interview and had a long scab on his shin that he was showing to us earlier]. What is the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened while on stage? |
CC: I guess mine would be... I... I had... we played a show once… I think it was in Tennessee actually... but I had, there was an air conditioner above me and the front of the grill of the air conditioner fell on my head while we were playing [laughter]
AATM: Did it start leaking stuff on you?
CC: No, I didn’t leak, I don’t think.
AATM: Well, that’s good.
CC: That was on the [? I can’t understand him] tour.
JF: umm. Hmm. Hmm hmm
KD: That’s tough cause everything we do is planned out. You may think we’re being embarrassed, it’s all part of the act.
AATM: Even your scab?
KD: Oh, yeah.
JF: Like when you fall off the stage...
KD: I fall!
CC: Jason’s is he ate a bunch of those Wow chips and he had anal leakage while we were playing on stage.
AATM: Wow, that’s really embarrassing.
CC: I’m just joking [laughter] That’s not really true; you can’t print that. You can’t upload that, you can’t upload that.
JF: No uploading please! Yeah, I dunno. Nothin, nothing too crazy for me I don’t think.
Please note that I talked to Jonathan after the show and he told me it was OK to put the part that Cornbread said in the interview, complete with him saying to leave it out.
KD: I’ve never been embarrassed really. I mean, I’ve done a lot of things I was like “That sucked!” but I haven’t been embarrassed. I’ve definitely almost cut my head off…punctured my brain…
JF: Right, right, right.
KD: You know, but…
JF: When I watched the video of when we played Columbus Fest and all that friggin [laughter] This huge thing of spit goes flying out of my mouth . I got embarrassed watching that; I wasn’t embarrassed when it happened cause I didn’t know that it had happened, but watching it is disgusting.
CC: There’s, like, a two foot long strand of...
JF: blaughah! Yeah
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| What are your best and worst characteristics? |
KD: Are we each describing our own? Or the band? Wait, what?!
AATM: Either way.
JF: I’m too anal.
CC: I get messy sometimes.
JF: We call him Matt when he gets messy.
KD: I have really bad memory. I can’t remember anybody’s name.
AATM: But you remember faces. You remembered me.
KD: But that’s worse still. I’d rather be, like, “Huh?!?” than go “How’s it goin’ maaaan?!” [laughter]
AATM: I didn’t even expect you to remember me at all.
KD: I can remember faces. I can’t remember if I see you in a different city I saw you last time... I can’t... then it’s... I remember your face and I’m like “What, did I just see you on the street? Cause now I’m really screwed up!”
AATM: Do you remember that I had the cousin engaged to the guy named Keeley?
KD: Definitely no [laughter]
AATM: You don’t remember that? Cause you thought it was so cool there’s another guy named Keeley. [pause, Keeley looks blank] Wow!
JF: and it’s cool again!! That’s the beauty of [laughter] the short of no long term memory is it’s fun to find things out all over again!
KD: That’s how touring doesn’t get boring! [loves that he made a connection to an earlier question]
JF: Hey, what’s this place? This place is new and fun! What is this magical land? Omaha?
KD: Exactly.
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| What was your favorite Halloween costume as a kid? |
JF: I was a devil for, like, three years running and it was amazing!
AATM: Does that say anything about you?
JF: Not really.
CC: I was Indiana Jones two years in a row, and I had, like, fake stubble. I had my own whip and I had a hat like Indiana Jones and tan pants and a tan shirt like he did. Thank you.
KD: I was Spiderman one year, but then when my friend came over with her dragon costume I was so jealous that I took my Spiderman mask off and made a dragon out of long paper [continues over laughter] and so I had this Spiderman suit with a dragon head. I stapled the two together...
CC: [in a high voice] oh we can go out now! You look great!! [laughter]
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| One last question. What’s in your pockets right now? |
CC: [doesn’t look] Keys and change.
JF: [feels his pockets] I have a Canadian nickel, my keys, some dirty, dirty ear plugs, and my wallet.
KD: [stood up and dug in his pockets] I have bloody picks and coins and ear plugs.
JF: [in a weird voice] Wear your earplugs kids and if you’re going skateboardin, wear your helmet! And if you’re walking out on the street, wear your helmet and elbow pads, wrist guards, kids! Cup! Wear a cup kids! Don’t know when somebody’s gonna do Bangkok trick on you!
AATM: Even girls?
JF: [continues voice] Everybody now, c’mon!
[Jason enters the backstage area, and comments on how he wasn't invited to join us]
KD: Jason, what do you have in your pockets right now?
JF: Hey, Jason, what are… yeah, what’s in your pockets?
JW: [walks to stand where we are sitting] umm I have a lighter...
KD: Kids, don’t smoke, smokings bad for you and it only makes you look stupid.
JW: It does, it does. [takes things out of pockets, including two dollars the he neglects to mention] Forty one cents... [pats his jacket pockets] my cell phone, cigarettes...
JF: Three words to describe you.
JW: umm Confident, ambitious [laughter] lackadaisical. What’d be a good word to describe me? I’m very, sometimes I get really.. Sometimes the very smallest things make me really, really upset, like if, yeah, like if I go...
JF: Over acting
JW: Yeah
JF: Over reacting
JW: yeah, that’s one. I overreact a lot about small things. That’s not really one word...
JF: Dr. Woo Grooves
JW: Triumphant
JF: Moveable
JW: Totally moveable. Someone wanted to move me, they could move me.
JF: He’s pose-able
JW: Moveable, triumphant, and grandpa.
AATM: Grandpa?
JW: yeah, cause I get senile... I get mad about little things [laughter]... totally chill about the big things...
JF: [grandpa voice] Somebody moved my teef! [back to normal voice] Cool, thanks, Jennifer!
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| Thanks to Engine Down for the interview. Please check out their site. |
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