Before We Get bored, Let's Be Inspired

Found this kind of interesting

http://www.change.org/petitions/include-body-modification-in-equal-opportunity-employment

Q&A with Chris Conley of Saves The Day

Chris Conley of Saves The Day phoned WMCX 88.9 FM for an exclusive interview to discuss the bands tour, music, plans & everything in between. Saves The Day are playing this Friday at Starland Ballroom with Senses Fail, Balance & Composure and Set It Free.

Q: You’re back on tour with Senses Fail, after years of not touring together, how does it feel to be reunited on tour again?

A: “I think it’s gonna be a blast I haven’t seen those guys in a little while so it’s definitely gonna be fun just to see each other again, and to hang out back stage and sharing the stage with them is going to be great, the hometown fans go nuts for both groups so I think the show’s gonna be off the hook.”

Q: Your show on friday is benefitting The Court Tavern in New Brunswick, does The Court Tavern hold any personal significance that makes this show more important to you?

A: “Yeah it does, I mean The Court Tavern is definitely a special venue. And it’s legendary i’d say in the scene for helping bands get off the ground in the early days of their career, and uh, just to be able to give back to them is an important thing for us, because you know without venues like that we never would have gotten where we’ve got and we’re lucky to be able to continue making music so it takes promoters and club owners that believe in bands to help get that started. So it’s a special thing to be able to give back.”

Q: So did you get your start in the New Brunswick music scene?

A: “Yeah some of the first shows we ever played were in New Brunswick, one of the old  venues, the Melody Bar, was an important one for us. And actually the first show we ever played as Saves The Day was at a college show for Rutgers in 1997 and then after that show we drove downtown to an underground venue in New Brunswick to play with a band called Ignite, that was the first day of live shows for Saves The Day. So our very first two gigs ever were in New Brunswick so it’ll be nice to come back home and be able to give back to one of the venues in that area, that’s so important.”

Q: How has the music scene you started in affect the way you develop your music now?

A: “I think the early days of the NJ scene were important for so many of the bands there was a really strong community vibe back then and this was before Myspace and emo rock stars. So it was just a more grounded scene, everyone was just doing it for the right reasons they just wanted to play music for their friends and a lot of the shows were only 5 or 10 people in a basement somewhere, so that was definitely crucial for our development. The comradery and the togetherness, and so it’s something that I hopes come back more strongly in the music scene over the next few years.”

Q: Do you think the music scene has been lacking that strong comradery?

A: “I’m sure there are pockets like that all over the place where bands still support each other but I think after a certain number of bands started to sell a lot of records you started to see bands entering the scene thinking first and foremost about fame and fortune, as opposed to getting into the scene for the right reasons, playing music and you know supporting your friends bands. So maybe theres been a girth of that within the past few years but it’s bound to come back, I think these things happen in waves.”

Q: How has being a father changed your view of the world and the music that you write?

A: “It’s definitely helped me be a better person. When I first found out that I was going to be a father I knew that I needed to somehow learn how to live with more peace in my heart so I could be a better role model and not teaching my daughter the wrong way to respond to the challenges of life. I think it’s helped me see the common thread in the family of humanity just knowing that we really are all here, caring about each other and wanting to get through the hard times together. As where I was a kid, it was sort of me against the world. Now that i’m older with a family I just want to embrace the world and try to help make it a better place […] You see some of the things you thought were important, are not important at all”

Q: In an industry that’s constantly changing, Saves The Day seems to keep moving forward. What keeps you moving forward as a band?

A: “I just really love music, I mean I never got into it to try to be successful and I think a lot of the bands that stay the same over the years just try to find a formula that works where they can consistently expect to have success with their music. And because i’m just doing it because I love music, i’m never trying to pin down any style. Just when i’m writing songs, not thinking about anything else other than what it sounds like on my guitar or what words are floating around my head or what melodies, and I think the reason it changes from year to year is because i’m constantly listening to new music and finding new sources of inspiration. You can only listen to those albums from when you were fifteen so many times. By the time you’re 20 you’re ready to listen to something else. Now that i’m in my 30’s you know i’m listening to different things. The music is just a reflection from all that growth.”

Q: As the only original member of Saves The Day, you’ve seen the band go through countless changes involving members. What was the biggest change that influenced where Saves The Day is now? What was the most difficult?

A: “Well I mean I think I got used to the changes early on, cause even when we recorded our first demo in 1997 by the time we recorded our album in the winter of that year we already had a new bass player and a new guitar player, and then when we went on the road in support of our first album we lost the bass player and got a new guitar player. By the time we made our second album we had another new bass player and another two new guitar players, and so I just got used to the changes right away. I knew that I was always going to write music and keep going and i’ve just been really lucky to find musicians that actually care about the songs. And now that i’ve got Claudio, Arun and Rodrigo I feel like I got these guys that love being in the band as much as I do and this is my favorite time to be in Saves The Day. And I think that this is my favorite change that ever happened. And really the hardest change was probably loosing the other original member Brian Newman, he was the only other original member of the band, besides me who started the band in 1997. And when he left in 2001 that was really hard, it was hard for me to see him go. I still miss him. I see him all the time when we play San Francisco cause he lives out there. And we’re still friends but i’ll always miss him being in the band cause it did feel like the band that we started together, the two of us, and that was the time for me to actually decide whether or not I wanted to keep Saves The Day going without Brian. And so now that i’ve been the only original member for more than 10 years I know that i’m not going to stop and I feel with the lineup now we can stay united as a group for the rest of the bands life together.”

If you want to hear to the rest of the interview you can listen to it at http://soundcloud.com/djnicolebettapromo/saves-the-day-interview-at

Chris now happily lives in California with his wife & daughter. He’s apart of the upcoming “Where’s The Band” tour in January & February and will be playing tomorrow night at Starland Ballroom with Senses Fail and Balance & Composure as apart of Red Bull Noise Complaint. The show is $16.50 in advance and $19 the day of.