It’s been over a year since Alexisonfire’s last album, Old Crows/Young Cardinals, so I feel like it’s time that they released some new songs. Oh, wait. They have? Of course they have! It’s a new EP called Dog’s Blood. I caught up with Jordan to talk about releasing an EP instead of an LP, their current UK tour, his top 5 Alexisonfire songs and why we might be waiting a long time for a new record.
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LBE: You kicked the UK tour off in Cardiff on Nov 4th. How was the show for you?
Jordan: It was great! It’s great to be back in the UK. We were in mainland Europe for a week and a half or so then had a day off to take the ferry and to get to Cardiff. The first show was last night [Nov 4th] and it was unbelievable.
Your new release, Dog’s Blood, is an EP. You don’t really get too many established bands releasing EPs these days.
That’s true. The songs that we had left over from the recording of Old Crows/Young Cardinals didn’t really fit with the whole realm and sound of the record. We had three or four songs left over and we really liked them and didn’t want to throw them away and waste them. So we had a couple of days off in the summer and we booked some studio time and we just kinda went in and recorded four songs that we had. That’s pretty much it; it turned into Dog’s Blood. We were like, ‘hmmm this sounds pretty good, didn’t take very long and it’s been over a year since we released the full length [Old Crows/Young Cardinals]’.
Why didn’t you want to put them on another full length album?
We’ve always had an 11-song record and those four songs in particular didn’t really fit. They just sounded a bit heavier and weirder than the majority of our songs. It’s one of those things where it’s like we’re not going to wait because who knows how long it’s going to be before we record another album, we never know, right? So we thought we might as well just put it out now.
You decided to use a different producer, Jon Drew, for Dog’s Blood and not stick with your longtime producer, Julius Butty. Why is that?
There was no real reason. I’m sure his availability was…he’s a really busy guy, right? And, like I said, we didn’t really have a lot of time to do this so we knew Jon Drew, a guy from Toronto, who has produced for bands like Fucked Up and The Arkells. We liked the stuff that we’ve heard from him and he works close to home. It’s one of those things that’s a no-brainer. It’s just four quick songs, we had already worked all of the bugs out of them and I don’t think we really wanted to get them really over-produced. They are pretty raw sounding songs. We just threw into the studio; it was a really small studio, really neat though.
Where is the studio?
It’s in Kensington Market in Toronto. It’s in the middle of Chinatown. You would never know the studio was there – it’s in a back alley of this weird warehouse. When I first stepped foot in there I was like, “holy shit, I would have never known this was here!” It was really fun.
I take it you don’t usually record in this place in Kensington. Where do you normally go to record?
We’ve gone all over. With Crisis, we recorded in Mississauga at a place called Metalworks. A lot of bands have recorded there. Our latest record, Old Crows/Young Cardinals, we did in Vancouver at a place called…um….errm…what’s it called…..starts with an A….can’t remember right now. Ha! But really rad bands have recorded there too like AC/DC did Razor’s Edge there. It’s a renowned studio so we were really excited to go there.
Are the style of songs on Dog’s Blood a prelude for the new album or are they completely miscellaneous, off-the-wall recordings?
I have no idea what the next record will sound like. We never really know because we don’t think about what it’s going to sound like. We get into writing mode and then whatever comes out is what we get. I think the next record will probably be different from Dog’s Blood because everything we’ve done up until now has been different from the previous. I don’t think it will sound like Dog’s Blood.
Have you started thinking about the new record at all?
It’s a little too premature. We’re always thinking about it but we haven’t really talked about it in great detail yet. We’ve been out for quite a while now and we get home around Christmas time. We’ll probably take January off and then February we’ll probably start writing again. I’d like to say the new record would be out hopefully this time two years from now.
Fingers crossed! You joined the band after the original drummer, Jesse, left. How did you come to pick up the sticks for Alexisonfire?
I’ve known the guys for years. My old band and Alexis toured together years ago and we used to share buses on Warped Tour so we knew each other really well. When their drummer left, they knew that I was available because my band had just broken up so they just gave me a shout. I learned all the songs by playing along with my iPod. That was it. They came home from the Rise Against tour and we practiced every day for five days then we hit the road for eight weeks.
So it wasn’t difficult to join because you already had these pre-existing relationships?
We were good friends from before so it was really easy for both of us.
What would you say are your top 5 Alexisonfire songs to play live? You can’t say ‘all of them’ because I’m not having that! You’ve got to have a top 5.
My favourite right now is The Northern. There is something about it; it’s a lot of fun to play. It’s fairly simple in the drumming department; there is just something really heavy about it.
That’s number one nailed down – now for two, three, four and five!
In no particular order from now, because The Northern is probably number one, but in no particular order…we started playing some old songs lately. We play this one song, Keep It On Wax, we haven’t played it for quite a while. I forgot how much fun it was. I’m having a blast playing that one. I’d have to say another big one would be Charlie Sheen vs. Henry Rollins which we have also resurrected from the dead.
Have you sorted out the setlist for tonight? Does it change every time you go to a city?
Sometimes it changes, sometimes it doesn’t. It depends on the how the flow of the set is going. We’ll do a set then automatically we’ll be like, ‘oh there is a lull at this part’ so we’ll have to change everything over. The one that we’ve got, we’ve been playing for a couple of days now and it seems to be working pretty well. We’re still swapping things here and there but for the most part it stays the same.
Okay, so Keep It On Wax, Charlie Sheen vs. Henry Rollins…let’s see…probably Happiness by the Kilowatt as that is a really fun one to play. Another one is Rough Hands. I like playing Rough Hands a lot too. All the slow ones. Probably because they don’t exhaust me as much. I’m really lazy.
What do you think the future holds for Alexisonfire after this tour?
Who knows? We still love playing music together so we’ve got that going for us. We’re still buddies. I’m actually looking forward to some time off. It’s gonna be nice, it’s been a long time since we’ve had an extended holiday.
Have you got anything booked after the UK tour?
Yeah we do, we go on for about two weeks here and there. My other band is playing a few shows so even when I’m home I book shows so I’ve got a couple of shows there.
What’s your other band called?
It’s called Hunter. It’s really fast, metally, hardcore stuff. It’s fun. After that, Alexis starts up again and we fly to Vancouver and start a cross-Canada run which leads us up to December 19th. Then that’s it, we’re off for Christmas.
Anything can happen after that.
Anything can happen!
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