In a month’s time, Say Anything will release their much anticipated new album ‘Anarchy, My Dear‘ via UNFD. They are also hotly tipped to return to our shores in the near future, so we got Sean Degan to catch up with main man Max Bemis to find out more about the new album and their plans for the future. Expand this post to take a read. The new album is out on March 16th, you can pre-order a signed copy [Here].
G’day Max, first off Thanks heaps for taking the time to chat to me
No problem at all, it’s my pleasure.
So what has been happening with Max Bemis?
Well right now I’ve been immersed in getting prepared for our new record (Anarchy, My Dear) to come out and for our tour to start. So I’ve been doing early rehearsing and I’m doing a lot of behind the scenes work with our label in terms of getting the album work done and getting the production started on our music video. And on a personal level I am doing a lot of hanging out with my wife as usual and trying to take it easy when I do get some free time. Things are great right now.
It’s been 3 years or so between albums. What have you and the band been doing in between drinks, so to speak?
Well we did a fair bit of touring for the self titled record and everything that entailed releasing a record on a major label including shooting music videos and doing all the promo work. And the just before we started writing our new record we decided, both us and the label, that is was time to stop working together. After that we spent, probably, the better part of a year trying to find the best home for Say Anything. Behind the scenes the band made a decision to shift gears and start making records with different goals. Longevity was the main goal for what we wanted for our career as opposed to wanting to be huge at any given time. That was a conscious shift and then we found the right label (Equal Vision) and over the course that time we finished writing the record and we’ve been waiting for it to come out to put everything together and now it is finally happening. We haven’t really stopped doing stuff over the last three years.
Your new album ‘Anarchy, My Dear’ is coming out here in late March. What is the meaning behind the title?
The exact phrase ‘Anarchy, My Dear’ comes off a song from the record, which is also called ‘Anarchy, My Dear’, in which I serenade the idea of Anarchy as if it’s a woman. But the entire record is written loosely around the idea of promoting anarchy and about my love for the spiritual idea of creating anarchy in your own life and in our society.
So it’s kind of a modern day punk rock theme?
Yeah. It’s punk rock but my experience with anarchy and my understanding for the term is both linked, firstly to the very broadest definition of it, which is basically no Government, no monarchy, no ruler. And then to a more loose, spiritual definition, I think a lot of people get caught up in the communist / punk rock / Sex Pistols image of the anarchy sign and people walking around basically in a uniform which basically says “I’m an anarchist”. But for me it’s more of a spiritual understanding of cutting down the lines that what we draw around ourselves. And what the society and government has drawn around us both literally and spiritually. I mean I live in America. It’s not like I’ve run away to some unoccupied island where I live in some kind of strange society by myself. It’s [anarchy] something I practice more in spirit, myself, with the decisions I make and what I think of myself.
We’ve already touched on lyrical content but what can fans expect musically from this album? Would you draw any comparisons to your older albums?
The Way that I like to explain it, is that it’s kind of a record we could’ve made after ‘Is A Real Boy’, If we had gone in a different direction. So, it has a root in our first record but I don’t see it as relating as closely to the last to as we made. It is kind of like an off shot of the first one.
Your wife Sherri, of the band Eisley makes an appearance on this new album, and also on the self titled album. Do you write songs with her in mind or do you finish it and hear that she would fit in?
I would say it’s a mixture. Sometimes we have a part that Coby (drummer) would sing but then we realised it would sound better with a girl singing. Cause Coby does all the other singing on the record. But there is a song called ‘Overbiter’ on the record where I wrote it with her in mind.
With Sherri being in Eisley and you in Say Anything how do find the time to keep a happy and communicative relationship?
We just communicate a lot. I know it’s normal in a relationship when you’re away from each other a lot where you’ll say “I’ll talk to you or see you later today” but we live in the type of situation where we can’t really live that way. You see a lot of people in our position who are in the creative profession torn apart because the claim that it’s because of the distance and having to work a lot. But Me and Sherri text each other and call each other as much as we possibly can. And then when he have the chance to go and visit each other on tour we do that and then when we’re at home we really spend most or all of our time with each other. Even with mundane things where people are like “you go to the supermarket and I’ll stay here”, we go together, almost no matter what. I mean that not how everyone has to live their life but when you’re in a position like ours where we’re both having to travel a lot I think it just takes a lot of commitment. And then just the fact that we’re really passionate about each other and our relationship helps.
I reached out to twitter for some fan questions and speaking of Sherri she told me to ask you to recommend some comics for your fans to read? Say for someone like me who doesn’t read comics… where should I start?
I hate that I’m always recommending the same ones cause I’m such a die hard fan that I believe that I shouldn’t recommend one I’m enjoying recently, I want to recommend something that I know a person who I picking up comics for the first time will like. So I would say, if you’re a really cerebral and intellectual person and you like to get in to kind of weird, spiritual, crazy like science fiction, there’s a book called The Invisibles, that is my favourite comic. It is this surreal, psychedelic comic that is honestly like a transformative experience reading. So I’d recommend for some people because it is very hard to understand, it pretty much requires multiple readings to really get the gist of it. And for some one that is just starting out who is more in to just being entertained with a great story there is a comic called ‘Y: The Last Man’ that is 11 volumes you can find on amazon or pretty much anywhere. It’s a great story. It’s comparable to Lost where you get super addicted. The writer of those comics actually worked on Lost as well.
My best mate Ben (who is the one who introduced me to your band) wants to know if there are any intention of re-releasing Menora / Majora or a compilation of B-sides and demos?
I think it will be a little more complicated then we think if we’re going to do an entire rarities collection, because we have a lot of stuff that we recorded while we were on RCA. It would probably be hard to get them to release them. So we’ll probably do that later. But within the next couple of years we’re going to do a re-release of ‘Baseball’ and ‘Menora / Majora’ together probably. Everything before we signed to RCA.
If someone was going to listen to Say Anything for the first time what would be the song you’d direct them to, if there is just one.
I might say the track ‘Say Anything’ from our new record. Maybe… It kind of encapsulates the feeling of all 4 of our records. It’s my twisted interpretation of a love song. I wouldn’t say any of the earlier stuff. Cause I think my voice has gotten a lot better. Hahaha.
You mentioned on twitter not too long ago that Australia will get to see Say Anything this year. Are there any more details on that?
It’s in the works but I’m seeing it as definitely leaning towards happening soon.
What are the chances of bring Eisley out with you on tour in Australia?
I would love to! I know they have to go in and make a new record soon. But if we could manage it I would absolutely love to bring them out.
What albums / bands are you listening to lately?
I’ve been listening to Surfer Blood quite a bit and I’ve been listening to Japandroids for the past couple of years kind of obsessively. I’ve been listening to The Clash a good deal lately too. And my wifes music always. Their new EP ‘Deep Space’ is amazing. It’s some of the best stuff they’ve done. I’m just so excited about the next record so much.
Dream tour?
Well I wouldn’t see these bands opening for us but I would probably say Green Day, Paul McCartney and Foo Fighters.
Anything you want to add?
I want people to hear our whole record and I would love if they could support us and buy it when it comes out.
It’s been an absolute honour talking to you and thank you for taking some time out to chat to me. And I, amongst a lot of others, am very excited to hear ‘Anarchy, My Dear, when it comes out.
Awesome man. Thank you.
——————————————————–
SAY ANYTHING – Anarchy My Dear
In stores March 16th via UNFD
You can pre-order a signed copy of the album now [Here].
01. Burn A Miracle
02. Say Anything
03. Night’s Song
04. Admit It Again
05. So Good
06. Sheep
07. Peace Out
08. Overbiter
09. Of Steel
10. Anarchy, My Dear
11. The Stephen Hawking
—————————————–
Premium, hand-numbered boxsets (limited to 2000) which contain: ‘Anarchy, My Dear‘ CD with bonus track “Here’s To You, Blue Eyes“, first pressing LP on transparent red vinyl, 3″ x 5″ flag, an exclusive stainless steel dog tag and exclusive 12″ x 12″ art print by Lee Crutchley available from [Here]
