Saves the Day

Depending on how long you’ve been familiar with New Jersey rock quartet Saves the Day, you’re either obsessed with the pubescent angst expelled via their first few records (Can’t Slow Down, Through Being Cool and Stay What You Are) or you’re of the legions of naysayers bemoaning the notion that they will never be what they once were. Both standpoints are pointedly flawed. Starting with 2003’s epic mainstream failure of In Reverie—an impressive collection of tunes that showcased vocalist/guitarist Chris Conley’s newfound nasal croon and an evolved songwriting sense—the band has had to confront an uber-critical fanbase, as well as the perpetual nosedive of the music industry as we know it. Conley, however, has taken it in stride, and along with the rest of the band (David Soloway on guitar, Manny Carrero on bass and newest addition Durijah Lang on drums) has persisted in crafting potent—and increasingly darker—songs, peppered still with provocative lyricism and heady thematic arrangements. It’d be easy to say that the band’s most recent release, Under the Boards, is another step away from what you’d expect an atypical Saves the Day album to sound like, if only there were an atypical Saves the Day album. 2006’s Sound the Alarm emerged as the first in a trilogy of three albums wherein Conley explores the demons within him, followed by the aforementioned Under the Boards, capped by the impending release later this year of Daybreak. The progression with which their output perseveres is a testament to their longevity, and as Conley explained to Synthesis, the therapeutic properties of broadening the scope has done nothing but skyrocket the band into an exciting new realm. We caught up with Conley in the midst of rehearsals for the band’s stead on the Bamboozle Road Show.

After so many tours, what do you do as a band to keep things fresh?
Well, for this tour we decided to work on over 70 songs to get them ready to have a master list that we can pick from every night so we can ensure that every night is totally unique. I think it will be a lot more spontaneous for us and I think it will be a lot more fun getting to pick 20 different songs every night as opposed to playing the same 20 songs every night. We’re having so much fun going through all these songs. I think it’s gonna make the show fun for the fans because every show will be completely different from the last. I think it’s gonna be one of the more exciting tours we’ve ever done.

Since you’ll have that large pool, is that going to leave your set open for audience requests?
Yeah, we’ll see actually. We did an acoustic tour last fall and we did an hour-long set and then took an hour of requests at the end of the show every night. We kinda got into doing that. Even the last electric show we played we had somebody ask for a song in the audience and we thought, “well, what the heck, let’s play that song.” We’re gonna have so many songs ready to play that it’s gonna be easier to play requests that people are hoping to hear. And it’ll be exciting because it’ll be unscripted.



Under the Boards was released late last year, which was another big step musically for the band. Do you feel like that was a result of the evolution of your songwriting, or the result of having Durijah joining up, or a combination of both?
Well, Durijah definitely added a really great musical element to the drums. Our former drummer Pete [Parada] was more of a punk rock drummer, and it really worked well on Sound the Alarm. Durijah’s a very musical guy and he’s very creative when he comes up with his parts. Simultaneously, the whole album had been written before he even joined the group and we were scheduled to record the record with Pete. Unfortunately stuff kind of went haywire and Pete wound up leaving the band only two weeks before a tour, which started last March. So we were kind of left in the lurch and we had this whole record that we were ready to record and we were really excited about it and we thought, “Oh my gosh, Pete just left the group; what are we gonna do with this great album?” Thankfully, Durijah was willing to come and he’s been such a great addition to the band. He’s so much fun to play music with, and we all get along well. It’s a good time for Saves The Day; we’re really happy to be making music.

Daybreak is the next scheduled release for the band. Can you explain the thematic evolution for this trilogy of albums, starting with Sound the Alarm to Daybreak? What is the common thread?
The common thread is just trying to survive hard times. Sound the Alarm is all about a private hell, which was inhabiting my soul. I was living in this black cloud of negativity. Because of my past, I had learned to assume that people were going to reject me just based on superficial things. I had this feeling people didn’t wanna give me a real shot and if I exposed my soul to them they would turn away. So I began to feel real anger and frustration. I didn’t feel like I belonged anywhere; I never felt like it was okay to be the way that I was. I was always fighting myself to try to be different so I could be more like what other people want me to be like. It really created the most negative space in my brain. I was a real mess to be around in the band. I couldn’t write any songs; I was constantly second-guessing myself. I kept assuming that the band hated my songs and I was clearly not in touch with reality. I was just living in my own world of negative assumptions about everything. It was a really dark place and so the band kinda went, “look dude, you gotta fix your head or we don’t wanna deal with you at all.” So I just had to start going to therapy and facing these dark voices from my past. So Sound the Alarm is the exploration of those dark places, and really just letting the darkness out—letting it live. I realized if I were to keep it inside and keep fighting myself I would just make things worse and worse for myself, and I would be miserable to be around. So I had to go to therapy and just face the darkness, the fear, the anxiety, the insecurities. Once I [went] to therapy, I realized all these things about myself that have been there my whole life and it was so scary to face these feelings and simultaneously I realized that I was destroying my relationships and was really pushing people away because I didn’t want to face the inevitable rejection that I assumed was coming my way. So Under the Boards is the album where my past hang-ups really start to affect my life and I watch my relationships falling apart and people that I really care about start to leave and I’m left all alone to either die or figure out what the hell’s wrong with me and pick up the pieces and put myself back together. Daybreak is going to be picking up the pieces and putting them back together. At the end of Under the Boards I’m completely isolated and it’s all by my own doing and I realize that I’m not gonna exit life, essentially. I’m gonna engage life and I wanna be the best person I can be and I’m not gonna live under this weight of yesterday. In a nutshell—long story…that’s obviously why it takes three albums to get to the heart of the matter.

Obviously, writing is very therapeutic too. Is that something you’re still going through?
Yeah, I’ve been telling people that it’s like my private therapy. That’s how I process things when life gets too hard. It’s definitely an ongoing process. I know after Daybreak it’s not as if all of our music is gonna be happy-go-lucky; life will continue to present challenges. But at the same time I know I have music to at least vent my feelings so they don’t just eat me alive.

In terms of songwriting, is it easier to write with a specific theme in mind, both musically and lyrically, than to write an album with snapshot themes song to song?
It is a little easier and at the same time it can get a little tricky trying to figure out the arc of the story and making sure each song fits in and connecting all the dots. It’s a challenge for me to make it work and I’m really excited about it.

Bookmark:

Comments down for maintenance.