The Loud And Fast History of The Acacia Strain | Louder - video Dailymotion

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

00:00It feels like home.

00:07Started the band, we just wanted to be a band.

00:28We had no outlying goals, it was just playing music.

00:37Local shows were like a thing.

00:40For pretty much my entire teen years and into my 20s, there was a show every single Sunday.

00:46We wanted to play music. We didn't care what it sounded like.

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

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

00:55I took pride in being from where I was from, because music there sounded like it was from there.

01:07We were listening to At The Gates, and Throwdown, and Every Time I Die.

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

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

01:17We were searching for a sound, and we just couldn't find it.

01:22It was translated at the time, but I don't think it aged well.

01:30It was a sign of the times kind of record, where everybody was trying to do crazy Dillinger stuff.

01:37We just wanted to do things that all of the bands that surrounded us were kind of doing,

01:42and we tried to do them all at the same time.

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

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

01:54I really don't. We just wanted to be heavy.

01:57That was the big thing in 2004. You just wanted people to march for your band.

02:02You didn't care if they liked your music, you just wanted people to hit each other.

02:06Nobody leaves here without getting hurt.

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

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

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

02:32I think 3750 was the first hinting at where the band was going.

02:38You could hear that the band, production-wise, everything was all coming together in a very organic and slow way.

02:48It was a very transitional record with the sonics of the band and the writing.

02:53To me, the Deadwalk is the baseline of the band.

02:57And 3750 and Life Is Very Long, those are the baby steps leading up to those.

03:162005 was a huge year for us.

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

03:25We started touring with hardcore bands, where we were the metal band.

03:31And then we started touring with metal bands, where we were the hardcore band.

03:36We just wanted to have fun. We still just want to have fun.

03:39There's no delusions that we're going to be the next Metallica or anything like that.

03:422006 was a weird year for us.

03:45We were playing in front of three people every day. No one gave a fuck.

03:49Everyone's like, you should play more stuff off the Deadwalk, man. I love that record.

03:52I'm like, where the fuck were you when we were playing in front of three people?

04:06How did that feel to break into that Billboard Top 200 for the first time?

04:09It was crazy. A lot of my friends and peers were like, this is your year.

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

04:19and make it an even heavier record.

04:29We kind of tried to have fun with it.

04:31And when we were in the studio, we were recording all these videos

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

04:37because that was a thing that was finally available for bands.

04:40Hey guys, I'm just doing vocals right now, so if you want to watch, we could hang out.

04:51Stop, stop, stop. What the fuck is that shit?

04:54What?

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

04:57What happens if you're brutal?

04:58That's fucking perfect.

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

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

05:04This album is going to suck and you're not going to buy it.

05:07But I appreciate you watching.

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

05:1315. I actually just realized that I still have one of my Continent guitar picks from that tour

05:19that just says I was 15 when Continent came out.

05:22I can't take your fucking faces.

05:25Go on and off the front of this place.

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

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

05:39This man woke up at 5 a.m. and just went on MySpace,

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

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

05:53You know how many people that is?

05:54That was his job to do that.

05:57And it was the first time I ever saw it.

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

06:01Like, go on tour.

06:11Wyrmwood is sort of considered the definitive record by the Ocarina of Time.

06:17It's probably my favorite thing we've done.

06:20As a band.

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

06:29It's funny because the production on that record is, I think, so good

06:35because we told Zeus that the label hated the production on Continent.

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

06:44I'm going to show them. I'll show them.

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

06:59Even 10 years later, I'm still proud of what we did with Wyrmwood.

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

07:07And it's really sad that we can't do a 10 year tour right now

07:13because that's what we had planned.

07:15We were going to do a whole ripper.

07:17And now we can't.

07:35This is Only Mortal 2012.

07:37We can just skip this one.

07:39What?

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

07:42Okay, fine.

07:45Left upon itself

07:48There is no use to cry for help

07:54Peaking at number 31 on the Billboard 200.

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

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

08:10doing something that mattered, I guess.

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

08:16I'm like feverish.

08:18I'm sweating through a sleeping bag.

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

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

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

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

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

08:38Like it was a fucking, it was a nightmare.

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

08:45But the outcome is, I think at the time,

08:51it was the most ambitious thing we'd ever done.

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

08:58we made such a atmospheric record.

09:04The nerve of you to put a 28 minute long song in this genre of music is,

09:12has anyone ever done that?

09:14That record is the first one where I felt like I was almost watching a movie,

09:17you know, like it, it really just laid this big playing field of,

09:21here's, here's what I want to do,

09:24here's what I want to do, here's what I want to do,

09:26here's what I want to do, here's what I want to do.

09:28You know, like it, it really just laid this big playing field of,

09:32here's this new sound that we've found,

09:35and we're going to go crazy with it.

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

09:46or the sequel to Coma Witch, if you will,

09:49or an addendum to that record.

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

09:53Like me just saying goodbye and being like,

09:55I'm fucking, I'm walking away, I'm quitting while we're ahead.

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

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

10:04Like I lived with my mom for like 11 months

10:07while I was trying to buy a house,

10:09and I was sick of being on the road,

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

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

10:17Yeah.

10:18After the record was out, after Warped Tour was done,

10:21and I was like, yeah, I got a job,

10:23I quit, I'm done, you guys can continue on if you want to,

10:26I don't care, it's your band.

10:28And they decided, no, we'll stop,

10:31we'll all be regular people too.

10:33And then like three months later, I was like,

10:35what the fuck am I doing?

10:37And that's kind of when all of the more positive changes

10:40in my life started to happen.

10:43And it's because I saw what life would have been like without it.

10:54We should talk about It Comes In Waves,

10:57which I know you guys have called an EP.

10:59I call it a song.

11:00Yeah, it's one song.

11:01That album, that EP, that song,

11:03whatever you want to call it,

11:05sounds so different from anything else you've ever done.

11:10I think it's a brilliant EP.

11:12You know, like you said, with Coma Witch and Grave Bloom,

11:14they kind of feel like brother and sister.

11:16I think it's a brilliant album.

11:18I think it's a brilliant album.

11:20With Coma Witch and Grave Bloom,

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

11:24I feel like this EP maybe would be the start

11:27of the next chapter of what you guys go on to do.

11:30And I suppose we've got to another new record.

11:42But It Comes In Waves proves to us all

11:45that we can do something different.

11:48We can do what we want.

11:49We can do something that's atypical of Acacia Strain

11:51and people will still like it.

11:53So just stepping over that threshold

11:55kind of changed what we think we're allowed,

12:00I guess, allowed to do.

12:02I'm getting older.

12:03I don't listen to the same music I did

12:04when I started this band.

12:06And neither do the people

12:08who listened to this band back then.

12:10Everybody's got different musical opinions now

12:12and everybody's growing and listening to more adult music

12:14or whatever you want to call it.

12:16We're just changing with our fan base

12:19and we're changing with the times

12:20and you have to realize that like,

12:22it's not 2002 anymore.

12:24It's not 2010 anymore.

12:252010 might feel like it was yesterday,

12:27but it was 10 years ago.

12:29My intention with Slow D.K. was that

12:32if I was a kid who doubted the band

12:35and I was one of those kids like,

12:37oh, they need DL,

12:38this band isn't the same without DL,

12:40that was my answer to it.

12:42I'm going to challenge myself to take this sound

12:45and make it updated and fresh,

12:47but still feel like home for the older fans.

The Loud And Fast History of The Acacia Strain | Louder

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