We Interviewed Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

[UTG] James and Air just had the chance to sit down with The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus this weekend and the interview went so long we have to give it to you in chunks! Part one is below and part two will be coming next week!

UTG: So here we are in Grand Rapids, MI with a very special guest who is going to introduce himself.

RJA: Hello, my name is Ronnie Winters and I sing for the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

UTG: …And they are opening for Taking Back Sunday tonight only at the Orbit Room. They’ve been playing a bunch of one off dates as opposed to a tour and tonight just happens to be with TBS. How’s these shows been working out for you guys?

RJA: They’ve been going super sweet actually. Our new single, “You Better Pray,” has been out for awhile and we just saw the finished version of the video last night. I think it’s premiering on MTV2 on Monday and the snowball is rolling on the album release. You know, release a song, do a tour, and then the album comes out. A classic album cycle set up, you know?  This night is special because it’s TBS, and we’re huge fans of them. It’s cool when you get to randomly play with cool bands like this.

UTG: So why random spot dates and not a full RJA tour?

RJA: Good quesiton. Well, I lot of bands do a huge tour and we will probably do at least one of those, but when we aren’t doing one of those huge tours, we only like to go to towns where we definitely, actually know there are people who listen to our music. So we listen to our label, fans, and do a lot of online poling. Theres a site that polls and then sends that to our booking agent and they work on it. So we go where we’re wanted and towns where the radio stations are cool enough to play us.

UTG: So the new single and other material you’ve posted sounds a lot different than Don’t You Fake It.  Is this what we can expect from the new album as a whole?

RJA: I think anybody who really listened to our last album would say that everything that was on it sounded differently. “Face Down,” and, “Guardian Angel,” sound completely different. One’s kind of a hard punk rock song and the other is more of a Journey power ballad. If you listen to, “False Pretense,” to a song like, “In Fate’s Hands,” they’re nothing alike. If there’s anything we try to do is to not make the whole album sound the same until we decide to do that and that’s called a concept record. When we decide to do that, then they will sound the same. People will see the more right I am as time goes on and they hear the album. We didn’t want to rewrite, “Face Down,” 9 times because we already have to play it everyday, so why rewrite it? We don’t want to play the same thing and people don’t want to hear t he same thing on the radio all the time. That just sounds boring to us.  So, the point is, yes, we are innovative, we did change some things, but it’s all for the better. When we decide to to a concept record, yes there will be one solid, flowing song, but we’re not as good as Pink Floyd yet, but when we are, we will get to that point.

UTG: So how many songs did you write for this record?

RJA: Well there are 11 currently and we are still recording b-sides. They are coming out of nowhere, it’s awesome. With b-sides you don’t have to be as restricted. The producer we worked with, who was pretty huge even for us. So this time, we used a producer we never thought we could and he’s so great that we’re still writing. I eman, there will be a deluxe edition and everything as new songs are still coming. Any old fans know 7 of the songs on our last record were actually from our demo that we rerecorded. So this time, all our fans from the Southeast are super stoked because it’s all brand new. We’re really stoked for them to finally get some new music.

UTG: When is the release date for this album?

RJA: The tentative release date set by the label, I believe, is February 3rd. Usually it gets pushed back, butb they’re def. wanting to release it as soon as possible. The label is really pushing to get it out there, so yea, February 3rd.

[Stay tuned for part 2 coming next week!]
*Written By: James Shotwell* 

James Shotwell
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2 Responses to “We Interviewed Red Jumpsuit Apparatus”

  1. Hello, thanks for the good “We Interviewed Red Jumpsuit Apparatus [Part 1]” post. Would it be possible, that i can write a story about this post in our local newspaper? I would be really happy if i can do this and i will give you a link from a german blog too. Please answer. Greetings Goldpreise

  2. musichyper says:

    I find TRJA pretty unique, but being unique doesn’t always measure up. I really dislike this band. I’m not moved by anything they come up with. I wish they did something more for me other than having a cool name.
    I hyped The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus on Everhype.com and gave them 60% which I think is fairly accurate.

    http://www.everhype.com/hyper/mikeborgia?X=S2295

    If you get on there rate me a 5 and request friendship.