Interview: Chiodos – Warped Tour 2007

S&S: What changes have been made from “All’s Well That Ends Well” to “Bone Palace Ballet?”
Derrick: I think there are some major changes and minor changes, obviously. I’d say a major change is definitely the sound overall of the entire record. The general sound of it is so much better. We have a lot of orchestrated parts on it. We had this guy Phil do a bunch of cello and violin for us. We have some horns on one song to give it more of a driving feel. I think it’s a lot more musical, and hopefully, it will stand out to a lot more people. Hopefully, musicians will appreciate it as well, like a Circa Survive thing. It seems like every band on this tour loves them, and they watch them, and the kids love them. We don’t really have the band support; we have the fan support. Other than that, the softer parts are softer and catchier, and the harder parts are heavier. That’s the major difference. There are obviously some songs where [you could say], “Oh, that sounds like Chiodos. I know that’s Chiodos.” There is a song or two that sounds like that to me.

S&S: Where was “Bone Palace Ballet” written and recorded, and how long did each process take?
Pat: Writing took maybe a total of three months. Half of it was done where we live at our practice space. The other half was done in the studio in Lexington. Actually recording it took a month and a half, maybe.
Derrick: It was very strange because for our first album, we went in there and recorded all of our songs right away. We had the whole record done. Like he said, [this time] we showed up with a half a record and then wrote a bunch more songs. As we wrote, we were also recording. So, we recorded about three tracks a day, and we would do little spurts of different tracks – at least for the drums because we were still writing songs. We would do a song or two, then we’d spend a couple days writing, then we’d do another group of three or four songs. It was cool because you just went with it. It definitely made the recording process a lot more fun for me, because I didn’t feel like I was sitting around doing nothing the whole time. We were pretty constantly busy. You had your time to chill and do whatever you want, and at night, they would obviously lock the studio.

S&S: What will be the first single off “Bone Palace Ballet,” and what can we expect to see in the video for it?
Pat: I don’t think we decided that yet.
Derrick: I don’t know what it will be, but I don’t think it will be the new song we released on our Myspace or the one we’ve been playing live. You never really know. I know it’s kind of been up in the air, but it’s not at that point where we need to desperately make a music video. It’s not like anyone plays our music videos anyway.

S&S: Who is your favorite band on Warped Tour this year?
Derrick: To watch or hang out with?

S&S: Either/or.
Derrick: That’s so hard. There are so many good bands. That’s like someone saying, “Pick your favorite band you listen to.” It’s hard to narrow it down. I’d say a few though are Scary Kids [Scaring Kids], My American Heart, Circa Survive, [and] Coheed is amazing. They are pretty much the main ones I usually catch if I do catch a band. My American Heart and Scary Kids are really fun to hang out with. Underoath have been hanging out a lot this year, too. That’s pretty interesting. Last year when we were on Warped Tour, we never saw them. They’re a really good band to check out. They put on a good show. I don’t know how they do it every day, but they do.
Pat: I’d say New Found Glory. I like to watch them.
Derrick: They take you back to your high school years because they play a bunch of old songs, and then they play a couple new songs. It’s a lot of variety of New Found Glory, so it makes it really fun.
Pat: Bayside are awesome.

S&S: What are some funny things that happen behind the scenes on Warped Tour?
Pat: A lot of people being wasted. That’s pretty entertaining, I’d say.
Derrick: There hasn’t been really anything that was too typically out of the normal for me, especially just seeing a bunch of drunk people on Warped Tour. You’re in a field in the middle of nowhere. It’s kind of natural. My friend Steve gets a little crazy and doesn’t know where he’s at, so it’s hilarious. They can’t roam very far.

S&S: Tell me about when you prank called your fans.
Pat: We were in the studio that has a phone there, so Matt posted a bulletin saying, “Send us your phone numbers.” So, we picked some out.
Derrick: They randomly picked out of all these numbers. They called people really late at night.

S&S: If you were to make a horror film starring the band, what would the plot be, and who would the characters be?
Pat: I’d really like to see us all as zombies – except for Matt because he’s so scared of zombies. So, we could just really go after him.
Derrick: Matt would be on the quest for the holy beer. We’d be the zombies trying to stop him from getting his holy beer. I think that’s what it would have to be.