BRAND NEW

This interview was conducted with Garret Tierney, the bassist of Brand New on November 13th, 2003 at the House of Blues Sunset. Brand New’s sophomore album Deja Entendu has been rising on the charts and the band is currently headlining their tour with Hot Rod Circuit and Eisley.

LAPunk: All right we're here at the House of Blues Sunset. Can you just start off by stating your name and role in the band?

Brand New: Hello, my name is Garret and I play bass in the band.

LAPunk: Alright, lets talk about the new album Deja Entendu a little bit.

BN: Ok

LAPunk: I knew from the first time I heard the first song you guys posted on the website (Guernica).. I was just thinking this is gonna be amazing. Did the record live up to your guy’s expectations?

BN: umm yea it did. It was kinda like, I wouldn’t say last minute, but we went into the studio not really knowing what was gonna go on. And what was gonna come out of it but at the end, with all the blood sweat and tears that we put into it, it came out pretty good. We actually really enjoyed it. It was better than we actually expected.

LAPunk: The band's lyrics, between Your Favorite Weapon and Deja went through a little bit of a change…

BN: Alittle bit yeah, well I mean we’ve gone through umm a few years of change between both records so its pretty much this record has to do with more of touring and being on the road and what not. With the other one (YFW) Jesse and all of us had our whole lives for that record. So that’s pretty much what that was about and that was Deja Entendu, that’s pretty much the difference.

LAPunk: Was there any big influences or anything really that influenced the lyrics for this album?

BN: Lyrically, I’m not totally sure. Jesse wrote all the lyrics so I’m not sure who really influenced him. I mean we’ve picked up a lot of new bands listening wise. So I’m sure he definetly has a lot of new influences, that influenced him into writing these lyrics. We all still pretty much listen to like The Smiths and Morrissey and who else…Sigur Ros, stuff like that.

LAPunk: And what about the song writing? There’s been a pretty significant difference with that on the record too.

BN: Well compared to our first cd, we grew up on long island which is like a big hardcore slash, I hate the word, emo scene. We had our whole lives to write songs, ya know and just being on the road listening to different bands and just pretty much getting older, ya know. Our music taste changed, we weren’t really on Long Island anymore so we didn’t really get stuck in that whole “scene”. Being on tour with all different bands like Hot Rod Circuit, which is an amazing band, Eisley too. Bands like Dashboard and everyone that we’ve toured with just changed our whole perspective on music, broadened it a little bit and that’s what came out of it; Deja Entendu.

LAPunk: What’s your favorite song on this album?

BN: Umm, I don’t know. I don’t really have too many favorites, they’re all pretty good. I love playing all of them. They all have a different feel to them; some are slower, some are faster just depending on the type of mood I’m in. I love playing “Guernica”, “Transit” and what else do we have on there. I don’t even know, so many songs “Good to know…” I like a lot of them. I love the whole record.

LAPunk: Do you think that fans reacted to Deja Entendu the way that you expected them to?

BN: We were pretty skeptical on how they were gonna take it. But we figured ya know, if they loved our first one then, they would love whatever we put out. Being something like this, which is something totally different from our first CD, God knows what our next CD is gonna be like. So as long as they open their minds towards music I feel like we’ve changed for the good. I mean its not a huge change but just being on tour changes you and obviously time changes people too.

LAPunk: It definately does. Brand New has been, needless to say, blowing up since the release of this album.

BN: Blowin’ up eh?

LAPunk: I would say blowing up yea. Does it seem awkward or weird at all like being more mainstream, seeing your video on MTV, hearing your songs on the radio?

BN: No, I mean….there comes a point in time ya know. We’ve been doing this, we’ve been touring and playing in this band for a little over three years now. So its just like, we’ve all had our share of jobs ya know and this is our job now. So there comes a point in time when you need to think about the future. So I think its good. Were doing what we love to do and people keep on coming out to our shows, that’s awesome.

LAPunk: Yea it is.

BN: I mean its changed a little bit, but not that much. I still feel like nothings really changed me for the worse. Like I’m not conceded or I don’t think we're like Gods or anything. I talk to people all the time. I’ll go outside and if they want to talk to me then I’ll talk to them ya know. I don’t feel like I’m any different from anyone else. Although some people treat you like you’re a God, that I get wierded out sometimes.

LAPunk: You’re like "I’m just a normal person."

BN: Ya, I’m like "Please don’t do that!"

LAPunk: I’ve heard some rumors of some major label changes, is there anything you can tell us about that?

BN: Well we just signed to DreamWorks. We pretty much signed the papers not too long ago, so we're pretty much officially on DreamWorks right now. So hopefully that goes well. I mean it is a major label so its gonna be a little different than an indie label, but at the same time it’s the same thing but we have the money to back what we wanna do now. Which is awesome. Instead of being on an indie label and not really being able to do what we want record wise and time wise. Its totally weird, I’m still getting used to the whole major label thing.

LAPunk: It’ll be different I bet.

BN: It’ll be different but I think it’ll be for the best. We’ll get to do what we want. And DreamWorks is an awesome label too, they’re amazing.

LAPunk: You guys just shot the video for “Sic Gloria Transit” ….

BN: Yeah, it just actually came out on MTV2 or whatever online or some shit

LAPunk: Yeah, I tried to watch it today, but my computer was goin all crazy.

BN: Yeah, I actually highly enjoyed it. I think its gonna do really well.

LAPunk: Can you tell us any of the concepts?

BN: Well it has to do with like Jesse, he’s running through an alley or what not. He’s running away from something, he doesn’t know what. And he runs into a bar, its kinda like a mimicking thing. Once u see it you’ll understand what I’m talking about. It’s a little weird. I wasn’t really watching the whole thing when we were doing it. Videos are weird, its like sections and stuff is cut off.

LAPunk: Like bits and pieces here and there. Yeah.

BN: So you don’t really get to see the whole thing.

LAPunk: What are some of the artists that you guys are listening to? Or you’re listening to these days?

BN: Well I just picked up the new Coheed, I always love them. I listen to whatever: Grand Funk, Sigur Ros, Coheed, keep up on all of our friends new records and everything. That’s pretty much it, I’m open minded when it comes to music. I think that’s the best way to be.

LAPunk: What are some of your plans for the next year? I know you guys have a European tour after this tour.

BN: We have a European tour in mid January with Straylight Run and Moneen, I’m not sure if anyone else is on that tour or not but, that should be fun for like two weeks. Then we're coming home and I’m not really sure what were doing after that. Maybe hopefully like another spring US tour or something like that. But nothing in the works yet.

LAPunk: You should do the tour with Straylight Run over here.

BN: Yeah, hopefully in the spring time. I’d love to. I love all those guys.

LAPunk: Since I’m from Lapunk.com I just wanted to ask what you think about the LA area.

BN: What do I think about LA? Uh...

LAPunk: Well, having played other venues all over the country, how does playing in LA compare to everywhere else?

BN: Oh, when it comes down to playing those shows the kids are great. Everyone always has fun, I love playing LA... I just don’t like LA. I’m not that big of a fan of California. I have a brother and sister that live in San Diego, its nice down there but I don’t think I’d ever move out here though. Its not my thing.

LAPunk: Sticking to the east coast huh?

BN: Yeah, growing up in New York, it’s a lot different. Everyone’s way too nice here. But I always love coming out here 'cause playing shows is just amazing. People love ya, its cool.

LAPunk: Is there anything else that you wanna add?

BN: Not that I know of. This is my third interview of my life, so uhh...

LAPunk: Well ya did pretty good.

BN: Thank you, thank you.

LAPunk: Well thanks a lot then!

BN: Thanks you have fun out there tonight.

LAPunk: You too.

Interview by Katie Plourd