Catching Up with Alex Erian from Obey the Brave

When I was a kid, my parents were pretty cool about the loud music coming from my room. I got into metal and hardcore at a young age, and my Mom and Dad pretty much ignored the screaming and breakdowns for the most part. They didn't like it, but it didn't bug them. That is, until the day I brought home a copy of The Ills of Modern Man by a Montreal band called Despised Icon. I specifically remember my Mother poking her head into my bedroom with a twisted, pained expression on her face and asking "What….the hell is that?"

From that day on, Despised was my go to band when I wanted to be left alone.

So of course, I was bummed out last year when they called it quits, and I waited patiently for one of their two brutal vocalists to turn up in another project. Three weeks ago, I got my wish when Alex Erian announced the birth of Obey the Brave, a project that had apparently been gestating for a while, but just recently went public (Check out the band's awesome video for the single "Live & Learn" on the Facebook page!)

I remember running into Alex a couple times as a youngster at shows and he was always friendly and quick to chat with fans or sign a few CD's, so of course I was honored when he agreed to give the Clock the distinction of publishing his first official interview as a member of Obey the Brave. After one cancellation and some ridiculously frustrating issues calling outside the U.S. (If you work for a student org, do not even bother asking the school for help on this issue) I finally purchased an international Skype account on my credit card and gave Alex a call at his Montreal home.

I thank Alex for his patience and for just being a rad dude in general, and make sure you keep your eyes peeled for some big announcements from Obey the Brave in the near future, and be sure to catch them at the Metal and Hardcore Fest at the Worcester Palladium in April!

BK: Alex, it's so good to get in touch with you dude, I went through hell to do this thing.

AR: Oh man, I'm sorry it's so complicated, where you at?

I'm in Central NH, just a few hours away, so it's kind of ridiculous. I had to download a Skype account just to talk to you.

Oh my God,  well thanks for taking the time.

OK, so for starters, I'm really stoked for Obey the Brave, I was a huge Despised fan, and I'm really excited to see you front and center this time. Is it weird being the only frontman now?

I don't know man, I miss Steve. I had a really good time singing with that dude. He and I are still boys, we actually just watched the SuperBowl together, although I fell asleep towards the end. As far as being the only singer, it's something new, something different; a new challenge. I've been having a good time so far and I'm really excited with how things are coming about.

Obey the Brave, I mean, I've only heard "Live & Learn," but it seems to be a little bit of a departure from what you're known for. It seems to be a little more hardcore than metal. Was that intentional, maybe dropping the metal a little bit this time?

I'll never drop metal. Long story short, I discovered metal in 1992, somebody showed me Cowboys From Hell by Pantera, I picked up a pair of drumsticks, quit all sports and started being a metalhead. So slowly, I got into Pantera and Sepultura and all those bands, and as the 90's progressed I got into heavier shit like Suffocation and Dying Fetus. I always drop those two names. Those two names are very responsible for a lot of my upbringing in terms of metal and death metal in general. So I would say my roots are in metal and death metal, but let's backtrack and say, maybe at the end of the 90's or around 2000, I started getting into bands like Biohazard, Madball, Bane, just to name a few. Those bands influenced me more on the hardcore side of things. Despised Icon was a blend of both scenes, although leaning more towards the death metal, and my previous bands were more death metal oriented as well. So when the time came to start a new band, I figured ‘Hey, let's not do another death metal band, let's not do another deathcore band.' You know, I've been there, done that so let's try something new and I'm really stoked on this decision. It is weird to play songs without any blast beats or growls, but it's definitely refreshing.

That's a good word for it, even just hearing "Live & Learn." The hardcore gang vocals and everything, it just sounds so fresh.

I mean, we had a whole bunch of gang vocals in Despised Icon. It's just something I wanted to include in the new band.

I've got this theory about you and your career that I like to bat around with my friends. I grew up in a border town, closer to Montreal than to any American cities, so that was where I went to a lot of shows. So I've seen you perform a bunch of times over the years. It seemed like you Despised, and with yourself, you guys were always a step ahead of the curve, like when Ills of Modern Man came out, it was just after that that the whole deathcore thing happened, right down to the way you dress. It seems like everybody went out and got a flat brim after that record. Does that bum you out at all?

I can't say it bums me out, I can acknowledge that, and I won't name any names, but bands have said to me "Dude, I used to listen to you guys back in high school." And there you are, opening up for them, but you know, we're all friends in the end. It's not a competition. I'm definitely proud of my friends, even if they did make it bigger than Despised Icon, who cares? It's all about music and that's what really counts. As far as trends, without being cocky or anything, I do get the feeling Despised Icon sort of, you know, helped start that deathcore movement. I don't know of too many bands other than Despised who were doing that stuff before us, aside from maybe some bands from your region like Deadwater Drowning with Nate Johnson and the Red Chord, but all that shit was really recent when we came out. I did notice a whole bunch of copy cats after that, but you know, whatever man. It's music, it's about having a good time. As far as wearing flat brim hats and all that, and, you know, hardcore kids being into Devourment and shit, that's definitely something that did not exist before Despised Icon, and I'm pretty sure I speak the truth on that. I don't know man, just look the way you want to, who cares? Play music you're passionate about and whatever you wear as far as apparel doesn't really matter. I'm 31 and I still don't have any tattoos. I guess that makes me not cool nowadays, but fuck it.

Alright, no more Despised questions. I know you're excited about Obey the Brave and that's what you wanna talk about, so tell me about the video shoot. It's really gritty. Where did you shoot it?

We shot it on a Montreal island, Verdun, it was all shot in the same location. There was a baseball field, and right next to it there was a hockey rink. The parts of town you see were right around the corner. It was really fun, and it only took a day. It was actually really cold, you can't tell, but in between takes I was wearing an extra winter jacket on top of my jacket, just because it was really cold. I think it started snowing a couple days later. As far as the director, I hit up a friend of mine named Jessy Fuchs, and he is just really amazing. I think we owe the success of Obey the Brave to that guy right now because he was able to translate our music into images and we're really excited with how it came out.

I think it looks great, and it's already hovering around 150,000 views. It looks like laying low really paid off  for you, there's a lot of anticipation surrounding this band.

It's weird man, I expected it do well, but not this quickly.  As far as laying low, definitely. It was such a long wait, man. It was only a year but it seemed so long. We've been working on this quite a lot and instead of just releasing a demo track we figured ‘All right, let's just write a whole record, jam a bunch, solidify ourselves as a unit and come up with a plan." I guess it came out how all you guys thought.

In the age of "write a few songs, make a demo on GarageBand and throw it online and make a Facebook page" you really went about this in a cool way. It was just like all of a sudden, Alex has a new band. You already have like 17,000 Facebook fans too.

And we announced our band 3 weeks ago today! It's kind of unsettling, but fuck it, cool.

Is there a label in the works?

We are talking to some. The amount of solicitation is kind of overwhelming. We are talking to a few labels, nothing is signed yet. But we are working on it. Big things to come.

You guys have some Canadian dates lined up. What are the plans beyond those dates in terms of touring?

Obviously we want things to pick up and to go well, but let's not be to hasty about it. We don't want to skip too many steps. We're starting out local. We've all been in bands in the past, but we need to solidify ourselves as Obey the Brave, so we're playing our first shows in 2 weeks, one of which is a hometown show in Montreal with Every Time I Die, Terror and Stray From the Path, and I'm really excited about that one. So for the time being, we're just gonna do a whole bunch of dates in Quebec and Ontario, and hopefully spread out to the rest of Canada and the U.S. by Summer. That's the plan.

You go back and forth between French and English very easily. Which is your native tongue?

I'm French, born and raised. I guess I've had a lot of practice with English through touring and growing up watching American television and movies. Instead of watching the French dubbed version, I'd watch the original and I slowly picked it up that way.

A lot of people in the States complain when someone speaks to them in a different language.

Haha, I'll tell you, up until a couple years ago I was still struggling with the "th" sound and that whole pronunciation.

I wanted to ask you about illegal downloading. Are you worried about the record leaking? Would that bum you out?

It's hard to say in this day and age. It's harder to name a record that has not leaked before its release date, unfortunately. I think at least kids are supportive in the sense that even if they do download the record, they'll go to the show, they'll buy a shirt. They'll figure out some way to support the band. It's not like it's just about money. I mean, it's not about money, it's just about getting by. We're all doing this for the love of it, for the passion of music, as cheesy as that sounds, but whatever. I'm 31 and here I am still doing bands and shit. I had an office job for a year, a great job; great people with whom I was working with, but I just felt like a fish out of water. I live for this. I love music, and fortunately enough kids seem to realize that for their favorite bands to survive they need to help them out a little bit. Whether that means buying a shirt or paying for a show. If you're that type of dude who downloads the record and then hogs the guest list and wants a free shirt, then fuck you man. Help us out.

I'm a CD man myself, have you thought at all about the formats you want to put this out on, or does that even matter anymore?

I'm just looking at my CD collection now, with over 1,000 CD's, and that's just what I kept. I call it the "Wall of Death." Obviously, CD format and occasionally I'm a big vinyl freak, but I do appreciate those as a collector's item. So if we have the chance to release the record, whenever it's done, in vinyl format, then we will do so. And hopefully this time around kids realize that it is a vinyl, and not a calendar, or a poster.

Oh man, has that happened to you before?

Oh yeah, plenty of times man. Kids see it on the merch table and they're like "How much for the calendar, man?" I'm like "Get away from me, just get away."

You've been in bands that have put a lot of time and effort into artwork, and it really bums me out to see that going by the wayside. Kids just have album covers as a thumbnail on their iPod. I grew up wanting to hold it and read the lyrics and all that.

I mean, my take on things is I grew up with cassettes. I'd buy a bunch of cassettes when I was a teenager. I know that makes me sound old and shit, but I just love owning that piece of art. It's physical, a CD, a cassette, there's a booklet. You put it in the player, you press play. There's something special abou that. Same thing for books, those are probably going to disappear soon. They'll get replaced by iPads and stuff like that. And whether it's the book industry, or the CD and music industry, those will become collector's items. So us bands and the labels out there are just going to have to think of a new way to make money so survive and keep on playing.

What are you gonna do? If kids won't buy the records, then they won't buy the records.

Yeah man, there's no stopping them. I can understand where they're coming from. They get excited about a whole bunch of bands and they want to discover a ton of music and they don't have the resources to buy their records so they download them. It's not like they actually want to steal from the bands, or their intentions are wrong or anything. I shouldn't be saying this, but It's not like none of us have ever done it before. We're all broke ass music fans, but whenever I do get the chance to support a band I always help them out and buy their records.

I was talking to Astronautalis recently and he told me something to the affect of buying a CD has become like casting a vote, you know? I buy this because I vote for this artist and I want them to be successful.

I never thought of it that way, but that does make sense.

I want to talk to you about where you're from a little bit. Montreal has always had a great extreme music scene. You were in Neuraxis, and you've taken out the Plasmarifle and Beneath the Massacre and a bunch of great bands. Who is in Quebec that we should be excited about?

As far as up and coming bands, I mean, I don't know. I just support my friends. I'm roommates with two of the dudes in Ion Dissonance, so obviously I've got love for them. I've toured a bunch with Beneath the Massacre, helped out that band getting started. They've got a new record dropping soon on Prosthetic. As far as new bands, not to talk shit on my own scene, but I get the feeling it's a little dry right now. Hopefully, it's just the calm before the storm and there are a whole bunch of bands getting ready to get their music out there. But if I were to just name a couple hardworking local bands out here, it would be for metalcore, End of Crisis, and for deathcore or whatever, Beheading of A King, and for hardcore Enforcer is here and they're doing shit right. That's about it man.

I'll leave you with this, this is one of my favorite questions to ask. People know you're a hip hop guy and you've worn Jedi Mind Tricks gear and stuff like that, so maybe outside of hip hop, what is an album that people familiar with your bands would be surprised to hear that you were into?

As far as hip hop, it's no lie, I love that kind of music. I can't say that Jedi Mind Tricks would be my favorite band, my favorite hip hop artist, or the one that I find the most inspirational, would be Jay-Z. Let me open my iTunes and find an answer.

Haha, OK.

I'm gonna split it down to three old school artists that I'm very fond of. For starters, Jimi Hendrix. Then Bob Marley and Marvin Gaye. All three of those dudes are responsible for me keeping my head in check. Just me, taking it easy, taking a deep breath and not getting overwhelmed by life or whatever negativity I'm faced with. Often, when something goes wrong, I try to just lay back, relax and put on a classic Bob Marley track and just chill the fuck out.

What a great answer, I did not expect to hear Marvin Gaye from you.

Well, I've got my Dad to thank for that one. I discovered a lot of music thanks to my Dad, whether it's Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin and all the classic rock and hard rock, or some of the Motown stuff and Marvin.

Thanks so much for chatting with me today.

Thanks for taking the time dude. I guess this is my first interview for Obey the Brave, so thanks a lot.