Interview: Senses Fail - 19/04/09

Chris met up with Buddy Nielsen, from Senses Fail before their headline show at the Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms.

Buddy discussed the band's latest album; 'Life Is Not A Waiting Room', Brokencyde and the affects of being a spiritual person.

For the readers of Alter The Press! what's your name, and your role in the band?
My name's Buddy, and I'm the singer of Senses Fail.

You've just played the Groezrock festival in Belgium. How was that?
It was great, it was really good, it went really well. I think there was a lot of people watching us, and a good crowd reaction, so that was good. We had a good time!

As a band, you seem pretty media savvy, with blogs, twitter and myspace's etc. How important do you think it is for bands to embrace these new technologies?
I don't even know. It is important, but I don't know how much it is really going to matter, and help you get successful. It's something cool to do, and keeps people interested in what your doing as a band. I guess it also helps people to get to know you more.

Although now on Vagrant, you used to be on Drive Thru Records. It seems to be a regular occurrence for bands to break with the label in less than amicable terms. What do you make of all this?
They're not really a label anymore. Honestly, they're not. They cleaned up with Vagrant to put out the singer for The Early November's project, so Drive Thru and Vagrant put on the Ace Enders record. They don't have distribution, so they kinda have some people still with them, and they're still trying to figure out what to do, and what they're next move will be.

So you had no particularly bad experiences with the Label?
Nah, not any worse than I've had with anyone else in the music industry. I wouldn't say they're worse than anybody else, everybody is trying to make money, that's just how it is.

You've spoken out very publicly about the band Brokencyde. What caused the initial resentment?
Because they're terrible! It gives me a bad feeling when I look at them, when I hear them, or see them. So I wanted to talk about it.

Does it worry you that they aren't the only band of this type, and are almost held as the standard bearers of the genre?
Yeah, it sucks! It's terrible, it'll end soon, in a year and a half, or two years. The'yre not in it for the music, they don't give a shit. They don't know what it's like to be on tour for three months, and come home and not make money. Once that happens they'll quit, once they get that little bit older, and are like 'Hey? What are we doing? I dont care about being in this band, let's break up.'

How well do you think your newest record has been received? (Life Is Not A Waiting Room)
I don't know. i don't think a lot of people have heard it over here in the UK. I like it it, but I don't think it was the most adventurous think we could do. I think that's why our next record is going be a lot different. I still think it's a really good record, and I think the people that do get into get, relate to it very well, because to me, it's about a lot of things that everybody has been through. I like it, I worked my ass off on it!

The band name is derived from a Buddhist term. Would you consider yourself as spiritual?
Yes, definitely spiritual. I don't claim one religion, or another. I can say I believe in something, but I just don't know what, a little bit of everything really!

Would you say it benefits you being spiritual?
I don't know. I might not benefit me really, as if I had faith in just one thing, then I would have more of a backbone to fall back on when things don't go so well. I actually think it's harder to not be religious, as you don't have faith. You have to take on a different understanding of the world, other than something that's given to you, which is harder to do than just believe in something because it makes you feel good. That's why people do it, it gives them something to fall back on.

As a band on the road, do you find yourselves affected by the current economic climate?
Nah, we're definitely affected. People don't come to shows as much, people don't buy as much, all around it affects everything.

Do you have anymore plans to return to Europe, following this current stint of dates?
Yeah, we're trying to come back at the end of summer, after the Warped Tour, but I'm very vague at the moment.

Is that for the Reading/Leeds festivals?
Yeah, and some other European festivals.

Do you have anymore releases in the pipeline?
We have a new song for Guitar Hero coming out, and also a vinyl box set of all out records, and that's going to come out in the fall, so that's pretty much what's going on, and then we'll write another record.

What do you think the future holds for Senses Fail?
We're just going to keep doing what we're doing and try and refine what we're doing. Explore stuff a little bit more, and keep touring. That's what we do, we've been doing it for seven years, so we're gonna keep at it!

Chris Powers