Conditions busted out an opening set list that raised the bar for the AP Tour’s stop at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit, MI. Under The Gun Review’s Melanie Hodgins was then fortunate enough to sit down with Conditions’ Alex Howard (guitar) and Brandon Roundtree (vocals) for an interview. Look below to learn about the band’s origin, the story behind their album, favorite live experiences, and much more. Fluorescent Youth is in stores now.

UTG: It was once said that your band name came from the quote: “The essential condition of life left the choice of passion and love,” are there any other titles or lyrics that have any substantial meaning either to individual members or the band as a whole?

Alex: Yeah, I mean we stand by everything we’ve written. Brandon is the lyricist so …

Brandon: As a whole we really pride ourselves in actually having a message with all of our songs. We don’t just write about partying, girls that have broke our hearts, or stuff like that, but we write about real life issues and draw inspiration from things that have actually happened in life. We like to think that all of our lyrics are real and all of our lyrics have meaning. That’s where we’re coming from.

UTG: Your album, Fluorescent Youth, dropped September 14. What would you like to say about the album for those that have yet to hear it?

Alex: Give us a chance, please!

Brandon: Please check it out, we’re so proud of it. It’s our first full length album. We couldn’t be happier with it and we hope that people can take something away from it.

UTG: What is your favorite song to play live?

Alex: Well, we pretty much agree.

Brandon: Mine is Natural Competition.

Alex: Yeah. I love playing all of them, that one is pretty good.

Brandon: Yeah, it’s just a really good energetic song that’s fun to play.

UTG: You’ve played tours such as: Vans Warped Tour, Taste Of Chaos, Bamboozle, South By South-West, and the AP Tour. Are there any others you’re aiming to add to this list or one you’d like to play again?

Brandon: Honestly, we’d love to play them all again and we’re trying to add overseas festivals to the list. We can’t wait to get back overseas like SoundWave in Australia, Reading and Leeds in the UK, Download in the UK. We’d love to be a part of that.

UTG: What can you tell us about your experience thus far on the AP Tour?

Alex: It’s been awesome. It’s been one of the biggest tours we’ve done so we’re playing to a wider and more different audience than we usually play to. All the bands, it’s kind of a more diverse line up but all the bands have been cool and treated us really well, we’re having a blast. We’re about halfway through now and we don’t want it to end. It’s going great.

Brandon: There’s tours that you do that are kind of awkward like the first day of school. You’re meeting new people and you’re wondering “Are these kids going to like me?” but right off the bat we got along with everybody. Right off the bat. So since day one this day has been incredible, it’s been nothing but fun. Ya know? It’s been like that every day. (We were sitting in the green room and Adam from D.R.U.G.S. lit smoke bombs and set them off during the interview and threw poppers at us.

UTG: What is the craziest tour story Conditions has?

Alex: Oh, that’s tough. People ask this kind of question a lot. I feel like we have so many but we can never just say one.

UTG: What about just on the AP tour?

Brandon: Well, lets start here. Me and Alex made a pact before we left for the tour that we were going to take two shots a day. No beer. Maximum amount of drinks were two a day. That lasted a second day. We’ve been getting hammered every day. What else? I don’t remember the night in Minneapolis, they treated us well. That was a great night. Literally, that’s all our stories, they’re either embarrassment on stage or just drinking stories.

UTG: What about fangirls? Do you have any crazy stories about those?

Brandon: Tonight! Tonight I had my shirt ripped off by the crowd. They ripped my shirt off. I’ve never had that happen to me before in my life. Thank you Detroit for that Rock ‘N’ Roll mile stone. I just tweeted that.

UTG: Are there any superstitions or pre-stage rituals you follow?

Brandon: Right there. A bottle of Jameson. It’ll warm you up. I take two shots of whiskey before I go on stage. I used to not do that but now I can’t go on stage without it. I just feel out of the zone, I don’t know.

UTG: How do you think your life would have played out if you hadn’t become a musician?

Brandon: Well my life, well I was really really really on the straight and narrow in high school. I was doing well. College and soccer were going to be my life. I played soccer all in high school and was being scouted to play in college. If I wasn’t in a band I would have done that and studied to be a chef. I would be a chef.
Alex: I went to college for a couple of years for advertising. I guess I’d be doing that. I don’t know. Just like ads in general. A company hires you to come up with an ad campaign for a commercial, billboard, print, or whatever. I was doing that. This is way more fun.

UTG: What can we expect from Conditions in 2011?

Alex: Touring our butts off.

Brandon: Yeah, touring the hell out of this year. A lot of writing. I guess we don’t plan on doing a new record until the turn of the new year. So in 2012 when we’re supposed to be all dead… but yeah, we’re just going to tour, tour, tour.

UTG: Are there any plans for a new music video in the near future?

Brandon: Maybe, I don’t know. We’re not sure yet. We’d love to do another one. We don’t know what song it would be or anything but maybe down the line as the year continues we will.

Alex: I hope so.

UTG: Is there anything else you’d like to say to your fans?

Alex: Thank you for the support and we hope to see you out on tour! Tonight was awesome.

Brandon: It was an honor to play at Detroit Rock City and yeah, just come out and say, ‘Hey’. Thank you guys so much.

Interview conducted and transcribed by: Melanie Hodgins

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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