Red - Jasen

Formed in Nashville, Tennessee over four years ago, Red made an immediate impact with its 2006 debut, End of Silence. The Grammy-nominated disc, featuring the radio hits “Breathe Into Me” (Top 10, Active Rock) and “Already Over” (Top 15, Active Rock), introduced the sonic layering, rich orchestration and visceral dynamics that became Red’s signature sound. The album steadily built momentum cracking the Billboard 200 a year after its release as sales steadily broke out to hundreds of thousands of copies sold. Not surprisingly, the album became a hit with other bands as well, leading to tours and shows with Papa Roach, Sevendust, Three Days Grace, Flyleaf, Buckcherry and Seether, among others. These opportunities contributed to the band’s impressive 500+ live show schedule between albums.

 

Chris-How’s your tour going so far with Trapt?
Jasen-Actually we start our tour with Trapt tomorrow.  Today is the last of the headline tour, with that being said we are looking forward to our dates with Trapt.  We got to play some radio festival last year with them. Besides that it is one of the first times playing together.  We are really excited.  The crowd will be similar, the fans will be similar. 

Chris- Yeah, you guys seem to be a similar type genre.  How did you guys form as a band?
Jasen- We met about five years ago.  We were working odd jobs, and matched them.  We were all indifferent bands growing up.  Actually we started out as friends before we formed a band together.  All of us had played different instruments and stuff like that.  We just started writing songs together and took it from there. 

Chris- How did you guys get signed on to your record label?
Jasen- We are on Essential under Sony/BMG.  We got signed to those guys.  We just started recording our own demos at home with the protools we had.  I was working at a recording studio at the time. I met a couple of producers while working there.   I just kind of took it to one of my friends there to ask his opinion.  He really liked it.  He ended up producing both records.  His name was Rob Graves. 

Chris- Why the title Innocence and Instinct?
Jasen- Well the first thing we didn’t want to do was write a concept album.  We definitely wanted a title that kind of summarized what the album was about musically and lyrically.  Going into the studio we wanted to take things that worked on the first record and kind of push them a little further.  Make the heavy stuff heavier, and make the poppy stuff catchier.  Those two kind of opposing sides, the heavy and the catchy.  We knew we were going into two different territories, and lyrically we wanted to do the same thing.  We kind of talked about darker things.  Innocence and Instinct kind of summarizes the duality that a lot of the songs are talking about.

Chris- Some of your songs on your new cd seem to talk about inner struggle.
Jasen- Yeah, absolutely

Chris- I also noticed a lot of piano, and string arrangements on the new cd.  How does that translate to a live show?
Jasen- We have keyboards, and piano and stuff we play live.  Everything you hear on the record you will hear live.  We play a lot of keyboards, synthesizers and stuff like that.  The same way Linkin Park plays with all their stuff or Evanescence plays with all their strings.  We kind of achieve it the same way.

Chris-  With all the different instruments/instrument sounds involved in your music it sounds different than your typical rock song, It almost brings a little more depth.  Was that intentional?  Or how did you guys think to involve all the other sounds?
Jasen- It was definitely intentional.  We want our songs to be deep and meaningful, and personal.  It was our desire to keep both the music and lyrics in the same type of depth. A lot of times when you have lyrics that are safe, they appeal to people but they don’t really connect.  Our whole point, to go a little deeper, a little more biographical, a little more personal, into deeper a territory with the hopes of connecting to people lyrically, so far that has worked for us.

Chris- You guys did a cover of the Duran Duran song ‘Ordinary World’.  What made you guys decide to cover that particular song?
Jasen- We had talked about doing different covers..  We tossed around a bunch of songs. It’s a song our producer came to us with.   It’s a song we are all fans of.  It’s a song that definitely challenged us.  It turned out really well.  It’s a song that we play live every night.  We are definitely glad it made the record.

Chris- I am a fan of Duran Duran, and I think it turned out really well.  I like how it sounds similar to the original, but it still has your take on it.
Jasen- That is what we wanted to do.  Keep similar to the original song, but give it a modern feel to it.  Make it seem like something that would be on a Red record.

Chris- Why the name Red for your band name?
Jasen- We wanted something that symbolized what the band stood for.  Red was a color that brought a lot to the table.  (Emotion, anger, passion, love, life and all those things)  Red seemed easy to remember.  We could definitely tie it to a bunch of things we talk about in our songs. 

Chris- How did you guys end up working with Richard Marx?  It seemed like an odd hookup. 
Jasen- Richard has been a fan of ours for awhile.  He had contacted our management, about working with one of the bands our management represents.  We had been kind of approached about what we thought of working with him.  He comes from a different style, but at the core he is mainly a writer which translates across.

Chris- With how the music industry is evolving, and a music being released via video games, do you guys have any plans on releasing any songs on rockband or guitar hero?
Jasen- That has been great exposure for a lot of bands, but that is out of our hands.  That would go through our publicist, our publishing company.  We would like to see that.

Chris- I’ve been hearing a lot of airplay from ‘Already Over’, and ‘Death of Me’ on the satellite radio station that I listen to on a regular basis.  I hear it on the station Octane.
Jasen- Yeah, Octane has been really good for us. 

Chris – Do you guys plan on releasing a different type of song for a ‘mix’ station?  The song ‘Start Again’ seems like more of a slower ballad like song. 
Jasen- Yeah, I think the second or third song will be ‘Start Again’.  We try to get the heavy rock song out of the gate right away.  There is definitely some softer catchy stuff that will see the light of day, after the rock single has run its course. 

Chris- I just thought it would be cool to try to get a broader range of listeners. 
Jasen- Oh yeah, absolutely. 

Chris- If you guys could collaborate with any other musician who would you want to collaborate with?
Jasen- There are a few different names we would like to work with,but the one that stands out is Corey Taylor, (I think he would be amazing to work with),

Chris- What are your plans after your tour with Trapt?
Jasen- I know we are doing a bunch of festivals coming up, as far as actual dates, I’m not sure.  We will definitely be doing the festival circuit.

Chris- What was it like working with Ben from Breaking Benjamin?
Jasen- It was great.  We are pretty good friends.  We stay in contact with them through the last couple of years and it was a great experience.  We both come from similar backgrounds, writing styles, so it was an easy fix.  We wrote a couple of songs together.  One of them ended up on the record.  ‘Shadows’.  We play it live.  So, I would say it worked out well. 

Chris- How do you guys put a song together?
Jasen- We get the whole thing together musically first.   We will all pitch ideas, we will all try different avenues.  That’s when we come together with some symmetry with what we end up with.

Chris- Thanks for all your time, and I look forward to seeing you guys play live with Trapt in Towson, MD.
Jasen- Thanks, it will be a great show!