Rising from a one-man fireside acoustic act to a front-runner of black shirt punk style, Against Me! sets its crosshairs on Tempe's Marquee Theatre this Sunday with Alkaline Trio. During a time when punk fans are more concerned about the hairstyles and tapered jeans than the music, The State Press opts to interview Against Me! drummer Warren Oakes as he touches on the tour and activism.
State Press: Tempe is lucky to get you fresh on the fourth show of this tour; where does it lead you eventually?
Warren Oakes: We're only doing the first leg of the tour; it's going to be five weeks long actually. We're hoping to see some sun for a while before heading back to Europe. Our tours go 10 months out of the year.
SP: As you look ahead, how are you going to stay sane through it all?
WO: It's one of those things you get adapted to. You get in a zone for touring, just going in circles making laps.
SP: Let's talk about the latest album, Searching for a Former Clarity. You guys have the unique ability to reconstruct your sound with almost every new album. How does this happen?
WO: [Our music] is really spontaneous. We don't say, "OK, we need two more rockers, a country song." Songs come as they do. Sometimes they stick, sometimes they don't. The one other thing we do is not make an effort not to repeat ourselves.
SP: Even though the band is a circus act of styles, do you think being on the label Fat Wreck Chords limits you to this punk niche?
WO: We listen to a lot of styles, so we play many different styles. No band is married to one genre.
SP: There's something to be said of activism on the album. What are some of the issues that you are most passionate about?
WO: We live a pretty nomadic existence, and the band removes a lot of the personal things that plague us. But the fact is, our country is actively bombing civilian populations. It's something you can go through a couple days and forget this is happening. I don't think you should lose sight of the position [the U.S. is] in right now as aggressors.
SP: I never thought I'd hear 'Condoleezza' bellowed in a song verse, but "From Her Lips to God's Ears (The Energizer)" makes it happen.
WO: Her name just has such a musicality to it. "Dick Cheney" doesn't really have the sound we were looking for.
Reach the reporter at Bradley.Butterfield@asu.edu.