Nate from Anberlin

How’s the record been received?
It’s been amazing so far, I think across the board it’s been the best response we’ve ever gotten from a new album. You can tell from the last couple of days it’s been out that people have been really digging it and it’s going really well.

In terms of best response you’ve ever had, New Surrender didn’t do too badly so you must be pretty happy with how Dark Is The Way, Light Is The Path is going.

Yeah for sure, I think that with every record we want to progress and we want people to like it more than the last one. New Surrender definitely did well and we knew we needed to follow that up by going to another level with every aspect of the new record.

You’ve said in other interviews that you feel this record is a bit darker, how so?

I think a lot of it had to do with really knowing what we wanted to do with the album, having a clear vision for it. With the last album a lot of things were different, it was the first record on a new label, in a new city with a new producer so I think we really psyched ourselves out and we ended up being not really ourselves. I don’t want to bash that record but it didn’t turn out the way we expected and it wasn’t really what we were going for. So with this record we wanted to write more mature, darker, heavier stuff. Having that vision and knowing what you want to do with a record is pretty important, or it is for us, and we think we got that across.

In that way would you say it’s probably a more honest album?

Oh for sure. I think it’s the most honest album we’ve done and I think it’s the closest album to who we are, as a band, as people. This is the closest we’ve come to sounding like Anberlin and who who we really are. It shows all of our musical tastes and everything we’re into, it shows us in every aspect.

You last Australian tour was for Soundwave in ’09 and that was the sixth time you’ve been over here, what sort of attraction does Australia hold for you?

Well our fanbase in Australia is the best anywhere. If you ask any of us we’d all say that. They’ve accepted us more than any place. We went there when our first album was out and we had an unbelievable response, people were stoked on us and it was just really cool, it’s definitely our favourite place to tour.

In terms of that how has the transition been, going from Tooth And Nail to a major label.

Uhm, it’s been really natural and smooth. A lot of times you hear stories about it being really rough and a stressful thing, but it was smooth and Universal are a great label, they’re really good people and it’s very personal, which we didn’t expect it would be, but yeah it’s really smooth.

In Australia, when a band comes off what is essentially a punk rock/indie label to a major there’s a fan backlash, have you noticed that?

Yeah we have a little bit, but I think you’re going to get that anywhere. Fans kind of make up in their mind how they feel about something, and we had people saying “Oh you guys sold out you went to a major” but that’s not the case at all. What does that even mean, sold out. I think that majors have a bad stigma and people automatically assume there’s someone controlling the band and deciding what they sound like, which is kinda stupid so there were some fans that were bummed on it, but with the new record we’ve showed that we are Amberlin and we write what we want to write and do what we want to do.

The first single is really great, the video is kind of bizarre though, was it fun to film?

Yeah it definitely was, we’ve never done a video like that. Every other video we’ve ever done we’ve been performing in it the whole time, playing our instrument so to throw up bb’s the whole time was kind of awesome.

Did you guys come up with the concept?

Yeah we came up with it along with the guys who shot it, they’ve done our last two videos, so we’re really close with them and we talked it out, decided the feel with them and went from there, just throwing ideas back and forth. We wanted to shoot it in super-high speed slow motion and we had a rough idea of what to do, and kind of went for it.

In your mind what’s the concept behind that?

Uhm, you know what? It’s not as deep as some people might hope (laughs). I could make something up if you want, but the main concept is you don’t really know what’s going on, and just show that the bb’s are what these people are made out of, that’s it. It’s not high art. We’ve had a concept for every other video so we just wanted to go from more of a visual aspect, something that will look cool, and let people decided for themselves what it is. Some people go looking for those super-deep meanings and that’s cool, we want that, but on our end it’s not as deep.

Well you guys have got a history of making stuff up don’t you.

Yeah we definitely do, we make up stuff about our name, about each other all the time, but it’s fun and it makes life interesting.

I shows you’ve got a sense of humour as well, because a lot of bands take themselves too seriously.

Yeah that’s the thing, I mean we take what we do seriously in a lot of ways, but in a lot of way we don’t. What we do is so much fun, and we do what we do because we love it, and if you have an underlining goal and a concept of what your band is about then that should be it, do what you love and have fun, and don’t try and control it too much. I see bands that are so careful, “Oh this is not cool we can’t do this” or whatever, and they’re taking the fun out of it. Just do what you want to do.

Yeah, and a lot of interviews with you tend to focus on the Christian aspect of the band, but it seems to me that they kind of forget about the music, like that Christian aspect is the be all and end all of what you do, but talking to you know that doesn’t come across.

Man, that’s what we’ve always been about. Our music is the most important thing and people love to get caught up that other side. I mean I will sit down and talk with someone if they want to ask me about my personal life, I’m fine with that but when it comes down to it, it is all about the music and how it makes you feel when you listen to it and if you love it or connect with it. People get hung up on so much of that other side like it determines if they’re going to listen to it or give it a shot. Like “ oh they’re this or whatever”, and that attitude is so dumb. Who cares, it doesn’t matter. If you like the music then listen to it, who cares what their personal life is. It definitely gets tiring when people are more caught up with that then they are about a record or anything else.

It’s funny that the people who would consider themselves really open minded are the quickest to block out a band because of their personal beliefs, even if that’s not really represented in the music at all.

Oh man it’s so true and that’s so funny, because people really do that, they’ll claim they’re open minded and then if they find out you’re Christian they will totally shut you out. At the same time though, people are going to brand you however they want, without letting the music decide. It just seems to backwards to me, you know what I mean? It has nothing to do with the music but people are really quick to put the focus on it before they’ve even heard you.

Looking forward to Soundwave this year, after doing it a couple of years ago?

Yeah, it’s one of our favourite tours.

Anyone you’re really stoked to be playing with?

Yeah we’re not sure we’d be able to hang out with them but really looking forward to seeing Queens Of The Stone Age.

Ha, why couldn’t you hang out with them?

Oh dude, they’d probably have security guards, wouldn’t they? I don’t know, we’ll see. It’s cool to be able to hang out backstage with so many bands you look up to, and we’ll see. Maybe we’ll hang out with Slayer, that would work.