The Loud And Fast History of The Acacia Strain I Louder

Louder

Singer Vincent Bennett and guitarist Tom Smith Jr talk us through the two decade and 10 album long career of The Acacia Strain.

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC]

00:25 Started the band, we just wanted to be a band.

00:27 Like it was, we had no outlying goals, it was just playing music.

00:31 [MUSIC]

00:36 Local shows were like a thing.

00:39 For pretty much my entire teen years and into my 20s was there was a show every

00:44 single Sunday, we wanted to play music.

00:47 We didn't care what it sounded like,

00:48 we didn't really necessarily care if people liked it, we just wanted to play it.

00:51 The Internet wasn't really a thing, so regional music was big.

00:54 I took pride in being from where I was from,

00:59 because music there sounded like it was from there.

01:02 [MUSIC]

01:06 We were listening to At The Gates and Throwdown and Every Time I Die, and

01:10 we were listening to all of that and we were trying to take it all in at once.

01:13 I mean, our first record, if you listen to it, it's fucking terrible.

01:16 Like it's really not, we're searching for a sound and we just couldn't find it.

01:21 It translated at the time, but I don't think it aged well.

01:24 [MUSIC]

01:29 It was a sign of the times kind of record where everybody's trying to do like

01:34 crazy Dillinger stuff and we just wanted to do things that all of the bands

01:39 that surrounded us were kind of doing and we tried to do them all at the same time.

01:44 >> How about the follow up, 3750?

01:46 [MUSIC]

01:51 >> Honestly, still at that point, I don't think we knew what we were doing.

01:54 I really don't.

01:54 We just wanted to be heavy.

01:57 That was the big thing in 2004.

02:00 You just wanted people to march for your band.

02:02 You didn't care if they liked your music.

02:03 You just wanted people to hit each other.

02:06 >> Nobody leaves here without getting hurt.

02:07 [MUSIC]

02:19 >> A lot of people still ask us to play songs off that record.

02:22 I think we play Car Bomb every single tour, still.

02:26 Last tour we played it twice a set as a joke and people loved it.

02:31 >> So I think 3750 was the first kind of like hinting at where the band was going.

02:38 You could hear that the band and like production wise,

02:42 like everything was kind of all coming together in a very organic and slow way.

02:48 Like it was a very transitional record with like the sonics of the band and

02:52 the writing.

02:53 To me, the Dead Walk is like the baseline of the band.

02:56 >> Yeah. >> And 3750 and

02:58 Life is Very Long is like, those are just the baby steps leading up to those.

03:04 [MUSIC]

03:15 >> 2005 was a huge year for us.

03:18 When the Dead Walk came out, it kind of pushed us to the next level, I guess.

03:24 We started touring with hardcore bands where we were the metal band.

03:31 >> Yeah. >> And then we started touring with

03:32 metal bands where we were the hardcore band.

03:36 We just wanted to have fun.

03:37 We still just want to have fun.

03:38 There's no delusions that we're gonna be the next Metallica or anything like that.

03:41 >> 2006 was a weird year for us because we were playing for

03:45 three people every day.

03:47 No one gave a fuck.

03:48 Everyone's like, you should play more stuff off the Dead Walk, man.

03:50 Like I love that record.

03:51 I'm like, where the fuck were you when we were playing in front of three people?

03:54 [MUSIC]

04:04 >> I mean, how did that feel to kind of break into that Billboard Top 200 for

04:08 the first time?

04:09 >> It was crazy.

04:10 Like I had a lot of my friends and peers were like, this is your year.

04:14 When we recorded Continent, we kind of wanted to refine even further and

04:19 make it an even heavier record.

04:20 [MUSIC]

04:28 We kind of tried to have fun with it.

04:30 And when we were in the studio, we were recording all these videos and

04:33 trying to make people pay attention to us and putting stuff out on YouTube.

04:36 Because that was a thing that was finally available for bands.

04:40 >> Hey guys, I'm just doing vocals right now.

04:41 So if you wanna watch, we could hang out.

04:45 [SOUND] Baby, baby, I love you.

04:51 >> Stop, stop, stop.

04:52 What the fuck is that shit?

04:54 >> What?

04:55 >> You're not even singing on key.

04:57 >> What happened to your brutal?

04:58 >> That's fucking perfect.

04:59 >> Are you Celine Dion's little brother?

05:01 >> What the fuck?

05:02 >> Basically, it's not very exciting.

05:03 This album's gonna suck and you're not gonna buy it.

05:07 I love that, appreciate you watching.

05:09 >> Tom was what, 16, 15 years old when that record came out?

05:13 >> 15, I actually just realized that I still have one of my

05:16 Continent guitar picks from that tour that just says I was 15 when Continent came out.

05:20 [LAUGH]

05:22 [MUSIC]

05:30 I don't really see the merit in flooding social media with your brand.

05:35 I was at a band's manager's apartment.

05:39 This man woke up at 5 AM and just went on MySpace,

05:45 just adding people to that band's MySpace for four hours.

05:50 Just adding, just friend requesting for four hours.

05:53 You know how many people that is?

05:55 That was his job to do that.

05:58 And it was the first time I ever saw it.

05:59 I was like, what the fuck are you doing?

06:01 Like, go on tour.

06:03 [MUSIC]

06:11 >> Wormwood is sort of considered the definitive record by The Occupist Drain.

06:17 >> It's probably my favorite thing we've done as a band.

06:21 It's the first record that we have done where I don't mind going back and

06:27 playing those songs.

06:29 It was funny because the production on that record is, I think,

06:33 so good because we told Zeus that the label hated the production on Continent.

06:39 And he had to like, he was like, what the, why are you fucking, fuck this shit.

06:44 I'm gonna show them, I'll show them.

06:46 And he just like, he cranked it to 11 and really just like hyper focused.

06:50 [MUSIC]

06:58 >> Even ten years later, I'm still proud of what we did with Wormwood.

07:03 And I still love playing every song off the record.

07:07 And it's really sad that we can't do a ten year tour right now,

07:12 because that's what we had planned.

07:15 We were gonna do a whole ripper, and now we can't.

07:18 [MUSIC]

07:28 >> This is only more than 2012.

07:38 >> We can skip this one.

07:39 We can skip it.

07:39 >> What?

07:40 >> We don't have to talk about this one.

07:41 >> Okay, fine.

07:43 [MUSIC]

07:53 >> Peaking at number 31 on the Billboard 200,

07:58 Coma Witch, that is an insane achievement in any era.

08:05 >> That's the one achievement in this band that I have physical evidence of

08:10 doing something that mattered, I guess.

08:12 It was the worst, one of the worst experiences of my entire life.

08:16 I'm feverish, I'm sweating through a sleeping bag.

08:21 I'm stressed out because I can't record.

08:23 And then I get a phone call from my wife saying she wants a divorce.

08:27 So then all of this other shit is happening.

08:30 So I'm rethinking the lyrics for the record.

08:34 I'm rethinking, do I actually wanna do this ever again?

08:37 Like, it was a fucking, it was a nightmare.

08:40 It was a nightmare.

08:41 Everything just compounding on top of everything else.

08:46 But the outcome is, I think,

08:49 at the time, it was the most ambitious thing we'd ever done.

08:54 I feel like because I had such a terrible time,

09:00 we made such a atmospheric record.

09:04 [MUSIC]

09:14 The nerve of you to put a 28 minute long song in this genre of music is,

09:20 has anyone ever done that?

09:25 >> That record is the first one where I felt like I was almost watching a movie.

09:28 It really just laid this big playing field of,

09:32 here's this new sound that we've found, and we're gonna go crazy with it.

09:36 [MUSIC]

09:43 >> Grave Bloom to me kind of is a spiritual successor or

09:46 the sequel to Coma Witch, if you will, or an addendum to that record.

09:51 Whole record's about me just quitting the band.

09:53 Like me just saying goodbye and being like, I'm fucking, I'm walking away.

09:56 I'm quitting while we're ahead.

09:58 I was still having a hard time with my life.

10:01 I was going through a lot of changes and a lot of different shit.

10:04 I lived with my mom for 11 months while I was trying to buy a house.

10:09 And I was sick of being on the road.

10:11 And I hadn't even told my band until after,

10:14 I didn't even tell you guys until September.

10:17 Yeah, after the record was out, after Warped War was done.

10:21 And I was like, yeah, I got a job, I quit, I'm done.

10:25 You guys can continue on if you want to, I don't care, it's your band.

10:28 And they decided, no, we'll stop, we'll all be regular people too.

10:33 And then three months later, I was like, what the fuck am I doing?

10:37 And that's kind of when all of the more positive changes in my life started to

10:41 happen.

10:42 And it's because I saw what life would have been like without it.

10:47 [MUSIC]

10:57 You should talk about It Comes In Waves, which I know you guys have called an EP.

11:06 I call it a song.

11:07 Yeah, it's one song.

11:08 That album, that EP, that song, whatever you want to call it,

11:12 sounds so different from anything else you've ever done.

11:17 I think it's a brilliant EP.

11:19 Like you said, with Coma, Richie, Grave Bloom,

11:21 they kind of feel like brother and sister.

11:24 I feel like this EP maybe would be the start of the next chapter of what you guys go on

11:29 to do.

11:30 And I suppose we've got to it now, the new record.

11:32 [MUSIC]

11:42 But It Comes In Waves proved to us all that we can do something different.

11:48 We can do what we want.

11:49 We can do something that's atypical of Occasion Strain and people will still like it.

11:53 So just stepping over that threshold kind of changed what we think we're allowed, I

12:00 guess, allowed to do.

12:02 I'm getting older.

12:03 I don't listen to the same music I did when I started this band.

12:06 And neither do the people who listened to this band back then.

12:10 Everybody's got different musical opinions now and everybody's growing and listening

12:13 to more adult music or whatever you want to call it.

12:16 We're just changing with our fan base and we're changing with the times.

12:20 And you have to realize that like, it's not 2002 anymore.

12:24 It's not 2010 anymore.

12:25 2010 might feel like it was yesterday, but it was 10 years ago.

12:29 My intention with Slow D.K. was that if I was a kid who doubted the band and I was one

12:36 of those kids like, "Oh, they need DL.

12:38 This band isn't the same without DL."

12:41 That was my answer to it.

12:42 I'm going to challenge myself to take this sound and make it updated and fresh, but still

12:47 feel like home for the older fans.

12:49 I'm going to challenge myself to take this sound and make it updated and fresh, but still

12:50 feel like home for the older fans.

12:50 It feels like home.

12:55 It feels like home.

13:00 (music fades)

13:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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