Forefathers of Emo-Core

In the ever shifting and seemingly arbitrary world of popular music, styles cycle in and out of popularity on a regular basis. As 2001 draws to a close, the resurgence of pop punk is definitely a point of fact. A similar trend occurred in the previous decade, with bands like Green Day and the Offspring becoming immensely popular. But the current crop of young punks are vastly different the those of the ‘90s, in that their music is equal parts emo and punk. Though this is a derisive issue to many “punk” and “emo” purists, the terms “emo-core” and “emo-punk” are now firmly ensconced on the hearts and minds of American teenagers. Bands like Saves the Day, Alkaline Trio and New Found Glory are among the most auspicious purveyors of this “new” style. Not coincidentally, these three bands were also the opening acts on the last Face to Face tour. This simple fact speaks volumes about the influential status of, and the remaining importance and popularity of Face to Face, who are, in many ways, responsible for the advent of this “new” style and have, in fact, been doing it for quite some time.
Since forming in 1991, Face to Face have had their fair share of tumult, but a few ex-members and a few ex-labels later they seemed to have hit their stride. After touring on their 2000 release, Reactionary (Vagrant), the band headed back to the studio and in just a week laid down the tracks for what would become Standards and Practices (Vagrant).  After a little time off, and the official departing of guitarist Chad Yaro, the remaining members of Face to Face, guitarist / vocalist Trever Keith, drummer Pete Parada and bassist Scott Shiflett, headed back into the studio and created what is to be their eighth full-length release. Written and recorded as a three-piece and tracked, for the most part, live, the new album should be just what Face to Face fans have come to expect; the unexpected.
As the driving force behind Face to Face, and consequentially, the entire emo-punk genre, Keith is unexpectedly modest about his role as an influential icon. In anticipation of their upcoming show at CSU Chico, the Synthesis recently spoke to Keith in the studio, where Face to Face were putting the finishing touches on their next release.

How’s the new album coming along?
Good. Really good.

Any idea when it’ll be done? Any dates set yet for release?
We’re finishing up today actually. We’re putting the last mix together right now. But it won’t be out for months, probably late February or early March.

Any working titles?
Yeah, it’s gonna be called How To Ruin Everything.

What can we expect, content wise? Anything new and different?
Well, what’s certainly different about it is the way that we chose to record it. Most records are made with 24-tracks or even more sometimes. We did this with only 16-tracks and we brought in the sound equipment so we could essentially record this album live in the studio. The drums, bass and guitar all happen at the same time, without any overdubs or anything. It’s got a really cool live feel - the guitars blend into the drum mics, etcetera, etcetera.

What inspired you guys to track it live?
It’s just a different way of recording that we hadn’t tried before and thought would be cool. We like to change it up with every record, keep it challenging and try something a little different. So we really stripped this one down and kept it ultra simple.

I’ve noticed on the last couple of records a little more production, in terms of processing and effects and such. So is this album kind of a step back towards the earlier records, which seemed a little more dry?
I don’t know. I think that ultimately the listener would have to decide on that. But in terms of whether we use reverb or effects or whatever, shit, there was reverb on pretty much every record that we’ve made, including Don’t Turn Away and Big Choice. There’s probably a more gross use of reverb on Big Choice, because it’s digital reverb, especially on the beginning of “It’s Not Over.” So I think we’ve gotten a little bit better at blending more natural sounds together. Some records end up sounding a little more polished than others.

That’s what I had meant. Reactionary, to me, sounded more polished, tighter on the corners - a little more “cut” than previous albums.
Yeah, it did have a pretty…I don’t know what you’d call it. It’s a weird thing. When people hear records, you’re gonna have certain number of people who think the record sounds too good, and a certain number of people who think that it doesn’t sound good enough. Especially with punk rock, if you spend more than five bucks on your album, you’re gonna get some raised eyebrows. I think ultimately that the production on a record should never get in the way of the music and the overall feeling that you are trying to convey. And this record, I think, does that better than any other record that we’ve made, in that it really just stands aside and lets the emotion just come through without the aid of any sort of additional production. I mean we’ve gotten to be a pretty tight live band. That’s definitely one of our strengths as a group and we really wanted to try to infuse some of that live energy into a studio album and I think that’s it worked really well.

So would you consider this a “punk” record?
We always considered ourselves a punk rock band. With the exception of one album, we’ve made pretty straight ahead punk rock records. And the other album we did definitely had a punk rock base, even if it was a little bit more rock oriented. But, there’s people out there who have lots of ideas of what punk rock [is] and what punk rock isn’t and we basically…

Don’t care?
Not really. We just do what we do and that’s all you really can be concerned with. If you get caught up trying to please this group of people and that group of people you end up just chasing your tail.

In a lot of ways, when I see bands like Alkaline Trio or Saves the Day, pretty much any of the newer punk bands, I see Face to Face as being sort of the forebearers to that style of punk.
In a way we are, and that’s interesting because there are bands that we drew our influences from that are still out there, bands like Bad Religion, Social Distortion, Fugazi. But I guess that we’ve now been around long enough too, that there’s bands younger than us that have come up and managed to gain headway in mainstream music. Even bands like Blink 182, Sum 41 and New Found Glory who were all openers for us at one time.

I would say that you guys are the Social D, or the Bad Religion of this generation. How does that make you feel?
I think it’s awesome. It’s a great honor to have that mantle, if that’s ultimately where this has gone. But I don’t really put myself on par with those other bands, so it’s kind of hard to believe. I don’t think that you can ever perceive yourself the way other people do.

The last time you played in Chico, it was without Chad Yaro. Will this next tour be as a three-piece or a four-piece?
Chad has left the group for good. This next album was recorded as a three-piece.

Was that weird or was it a pretty smooth transition?
Well, since it was never such a definite decision; Chad came to us and told us that he wanted to leave quite a while ago, but we’ve been able to work out lots of different agreements to kind of keep him in the band at least at some level. We tried to make it as easy as possible for him to stay in, and also be able to pursue some of the other things that wanted to do with his life. But at one point, it just became too much of a tug, and this really wasn’t what Chad wanted to do, so he’s left for good. But to answer your question more directly, since it’s been such a long transition, over a couple of years, it’s been a lot more natural. It wasn’t just like one day he left. So we got kind of used to playing shows as a three-piece and we wrote this entire album as a three-piece, so it made sense to record it [as one] too. And I don’t think that anyone who hears the new record will find anything lacking.

What is it about Face to Face that seems to make members want to come and go?
(laughing) I’m sure it would be easiest to trace it back to me. People from an outsider’s opinion look at the band and say “Who’s left? Well that guy must have been an asshole.” And I am an asshole at times, but you almost have to be [an asshole] in a band, and go through all of the things that we’ve gone through as people and as musicians and in this business to understand what it is that pulls bands apart.

So what are your plans for the next couple of months?
We don’t have any real definite plans. We’re starting to just formulate a plan for a national tour that will coincide with the record release, probably around mid-February.

Any final thoughts you want to share?
Jeez, I’m always really terrible at these.

But you write such wonderful lyrics, I would think that you would have all kinds of little knowledge nuggets lying about.
I would say to just draw any inspiration from the lyrics, because that’s where I put all of my thought. I’m really horrible on the spot.

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