Since 2008, Rockstar Energy Drink has brought metal fans with the most high energy shows of the summer. The Mayhem Festival has, in the past, included main stage acts such as Marilyn Manson, Slayer, Disturbed, and Slipknot, as well as side stage acts like Underoath, Job for a Cowboy, and Whitechapel. The Mayhem Festival has two side stages and one mainstage. This year, the side stage bands were Norma Jean, Winds of Plague, Shadows Fall, Chimaira, Hatebreed, 3 Inches of Blood, In This Moment, and Atreyu. This year’s main stage, started off with Five Finger Death Punch – who in the pervious year were on the side stage, Lamb of God, Rob Zombie, and headlined by Korn.

The night was filled with true metal fans and tons of mayhem. The side stages brought high energy and high hopes for the rest of the night. Despite the heat and humidity of an August day in Washington, DC, that did not stop fans from coming out to see the opening bands. As the day went on and the side stage acts had ended, Five Finger Death Punch brought an amazing performance, that had proven why they had been asked to join the main stage this year. Virginians, Lamb of God made the locals proud, playing hits such as “Redneck”, “Laid to Rest”, and “Hit the Wall”. Rob Zombie, which all the fans would say was probably the best of the night, came out from a robot and with flames and theatrics brought the crowd to it’s feet. Finally, ending the night was Korn, who covered a Metallica song and played their hit, “Twisted Transistor.” In my opinion, the band was not up to par with what many fans came to expect from Korn. Despite a bit of a letdown, Mayhem Festival brought the ruckus and uproar to Washington, DC, just like it has in past years.

PreachElectric: Could you introduce yourselves, please?
Joel Kanitz: I am Jo-el, and I sing.
Ryan Gose: My name’s Ryan and I play drums, and we play in a band called This Century.

PE: How has the tour been going so far?
Joel: Amazing!
Ryan: Splendid!
Joel: Splenda! It’s been awesome, nothing but good times, the best tour that we’ve ever been on, for sure, because… I mean, we’ve known The Maine for quite a while now, and Austin Gibbs, who’s also on the tour. So it doesn’t really feel like your normal tour where you have to meet the bands and try and become friends and lie and say you like the same bands as them, or secretly steal their catering…
Ryan: Yeah, we actually do like the same bands. And the fans are incredible. The Maine’s crowd is amazing, and they actually seem to like us and are they’re very receptive to our music.

PE: So do you think you’ve acquired a lot of new fans while you’ve been on this tour?
Both: Definitely.
Joel: I think a lot of these kids have heard of the band because The Maine have talked about us before, but they’ve never really taken the time to check us out. Now us being here playing shows for them… I think it kind of gives them that extra, you know, little nudge.
Ryan: Yeah, totally.

PE: Speaking of The Maine, they’ve recently released a new album, [Black & White]. What do you think of it?
Joel: I love it.
Ryan: I think it’s awesome.
Joel: I love it. I don’t want to say I like it better than their first one – I liked their first one – but this one it has a more mature sound. It’s more up my alley.  A lot of it has a classic rock feel, which is really cool.

PE: What have you been doing to keep busy on your days off?
Joel: We had a day off in Boston yesterday. We went clubbin’, you know. We learned a little bit about the people in Boston.
Ryan: We saw a man do 40 pushups in 25 seconds.
Joel: I bet this guy that he couldn’t do 40 one-handed pushups in under 30 seconds, and he was like, “All right, give me five bucks if I do it.” He did it so I had to give him five bucks. I remember saying like, “Dude you should fight someone. I bet you could fight anyone.”

PE: If you were a character in the movie Inception, what would your totem be?
Joel: I know exactly what mine would be.
Ryan: Mine would be… Why don’t you go first?
Joel: My totem would be my stuffed animal that I’ve had since I was a baby. And you know how they get beat up and kind of worn down? It just has this specific feel to it… Yeah, mine would probably be the stuffed animal.
Ryan: I just remembered, probably my favorite item of all time that I keep in my safe deposit box is a 1992 Pogs slammer. It was given to me by my great grandfather.
Joel: Passed down from generation to generation?
Ryan: Yeah.
Joel: They were big on Pogs during the Great Depression.
Ryan: It’s made out of platinum and I can’t let it leave me. That would be it. Yep, Pogs slammer.

PE: What’s one of the places you’ve always wanted to travel, or tour, even?
Joel: Australia. Sydney, Australia.
Ryan: Japan.
PE: Do you think you’ll get a chance to go there?
Joel: Yeah!
Ryan: Without a doubt.
Joel: I think we’re pretty determined to get there.
PE: Do you know of any fans that you have there?
Joel: Yeah, we have a good grip of Japan fans, and Australian fans, too, and New Zealand, I know.
Ryan: You can’t even hold them all in your hand.
Joel: Yeah, we definitely have fans in both countries.

PE: Do you have any guilty pleasure music, or music that you might be a little bit ashamed to admit to having on your iPod?
Joel: The song playing right now. (Indicates “Shake It” by Metro Station, and begins singing off-rhyhtm). Shake it, shake it, shake it!
(Both begin singing.)
Joel: Oh wow. I don’t even know if I have any guilty pleasure bands anymore. I’m pretty open about what I’m listening to. I used to have guilty pleasure bands like Nsync, but I mean, I jam Nsync every once in a while, a little Backstreet Boys. I appreciate a good pop song.
Ryan: Yeah, I don’t have anything that I think would be guilty pleasure music. I mean, I like a lot of different music.
Joel: You name it, I probably like it.
Ryan: Or hate it, actually.
Joel: Ryan’s really big on Bowling For Soup; he really likes that band.
Ryan: Yeah, the first time I heard that band…
Joel: Yeah, they’ve just got it all. They’ve got the sound, the look, everything.
Ryan: They’ve got the girls.
Joel: Yeah!
Ryan: Yeah. Who’s Bowling For Soup?
(Both laugh.)

PE: If you woke up one morning to find the world in an apocalyptic, zombie-infested state, what would you do?
Joel: Oh wow. Uhm…
Ryan: Plane to a deserted island. I would have to… I wouldn’t know how to fly a plane, so actually I would have to take a boat. But I figure if I can like… Oh, I would go to an island with a small population, so they…
Joel: How fast are these zombies that we’re talkin’ about? Like normal, your standard zombie that kinda walks slow? Oh, uh, well I mean, I guess if it was like, if I was like, walking around the city, you know, and all of a sudden I saw zombies, I think it would be by foot, and then I’d probably head home and try and figure out a game plan, with maybe helicopter somewhere?
Ryan: I’d pull a Bill Murray and uh, paint my face like a zombie, go golfing, just pretend like I’m a zombie when I walk around with them.
Joel: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Nice!

PE: You recently released a new single called “Hopeful Romantic.” Could you tell us a little bit about it?
Joel: Yes! We are hopeful romantics. We’re all just a bunch of hopeful romantics. But the story behind it is, uhm, it was a guitar riff that Sean had and like a little falsetto-y kind of melody, and then we kind of put it on the back burner for a little while. We went in to record – which, by the way, we probably wrote about 80 songs and threw ‘em all away – and we finally got to the studio and Hopeful Romantic, that riff, came back and we dug it, and our producer dug it and we decided to kind of work on that song and develop it and it became a really fun, quirky, flirty little song, and we’re really happy with the way it came out.

PE: You could say that the “scene,” for lack of a better term – whatever “scene” you would put yourself in –
Joel: (laughing) I would say, grindcore, metal, hip-hop, country…
PE: So, this music scene has blown up quite a bit in the past couple of years. How do you set yourselves apart and stay grounded?
Joel: We started out kind of a grassroots band. I mean it was more about musicianship over, you know, just what we look like and neon pants and stuff like that just wasn’t our thing. And we started out as a sort of jazzy band, so we still have a little bit of that element.
Ryan: We’re always trying to find new, interesting ways to present a song and Sean’s really big on trying new sounds and riffs, guitar riffs, and stuff, and it just kind of opens up…
Joel: Yeah, we’re constantly trying new, crazy ideas, even if they’re not good. We still try, and I think that kind of shines into the music. Hopefully that sets us apart. I’m not sure if it’s enough, but I hope it does.

PE: What social networking sites do you like/use the most to keep in touch with your fans?
Joel: I love Twitter. I LOVE Twitter. I am tweet crazy, honestly. I thought it was stupid at first, but…
Ryan: I recently started telling fans to come to a website I like to use called eHarmony. It’s a great way to meet people.
Joel: Ryan just goes on dates with all our fans.
Ryan: I’m big on Facebook, Formspring, and Twitter.
Joel: (laughing) Those are the three Fs! We do MySpace, too, just because you’ve got your music player on there, and it’s just something you can’t get anywhere else. Tumblr is another huge one. Reblogging and all that stuff is great. Our fans love to do that.
Ryan: We’re REALLY big on Yahoo.com.
Joel: We’re really big on MSN, the front page of MSN. We’re on there a lot. CNN, the news… (Laughing) We’re trying to figure out Facebook. We’re still new to the Facebook band thing.
Ryan: Oh, wait! Also, on tour, one thing we’re doing is, since we’re not home to look in our P.O. boxes for letters, we have a mailbox that we keep on our merch table where fans can give us letters.
Joel: Yeah, we have pieces of paper on our merch table and a pen, and they can just write up a letter right there, or they can write it ahead of time and drop it in the box and then we literally scan it and respond on Tumblr. And then people can actually read the hand-written letter and then read our response.

PE: If you were in charge for the lineup of your dream tour, which bands would it consist of?
Ryan: The Killers, Third Eye Blind, and us would be my dream tour.
Joel: I would love that. If it was John Mayer, The Killers, Third Eye Blind, and us… Oh my gosh, I could die happy.
Ryan: After the tour I’d probably kill myself because my life would just go downhill from there.
Joel: No, it would be awesome to just be on that tour. I’m surprised we didn’t say The Beatles. The Beatles would be awesome just to see the insanity that went on at their concerts.

PE: If you could pick any decade, aside from the current one, to live in, which would it be?
Joel: The 70s. Actually, no, I would say the 40s.
Ryan: Do I maintain my current knowledge? ‘Cause I’m gonna go back like, hundreds of years. I’m gonna be a king.
Joel: I wanna be a pharaoh. A pharaoh would be cool.
Ryan: I’m gonna say nineteen… nineteen… Actually, I like this decade.
Joel: I think that the 40s were cool, and then the 70s. 1944 era would be good, I think.
Ryan: Real smart, Joel.
Joel: What?
Ryan: World War II, man!
Joel: That’s why I wanna live there.
(Both laugh.)

PE: What are your plans for after this tour?
Joel: We’re probably gonna take a band hiatus and kind of just search for our inner peace.
Ryan: We’re gonna go to India and do some soul searching, but after that we’re gonna be going on a fall tour, which we’re gonna announce probably around the end of this tour. We’re gonna release another new song from our album, and the album.
Joel: Yeah, tour, record. Tour at the end of this year. We haven’t picked an official release date yet but it will be coming, I would say, in a couple months. Possible music video, maybe?
Ryan: There’s gonna be a ton of new stuff.
Joel: A lot of new stuff. And the India thing isn’t happening.
Ryan: Oh, really? It got cancelled? I’m bummed out.

PE: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Ryan: Oh yeah, interesting fact about the band: our guitar player Sean is petrified of birds. He is so scared of birds.
Joel: Yeah. He has this insane fear, he has an insane phobia of birds, which I don’t even know what that’s called.
Ryan: Birdaphobia.
Joel: I know there’s a different word, like…
Ryan: Birdphelia.
Joel: I don’t know, I can’t remember, a phobia of birds. So if fans could bring bird Beanie Babies, or bird sculptures, or stuffed animals or pictures to Sean -
Ryan: We’re trying to get him out of his fear.
Joel: Other than that, new record, new stuff. Check out our MySpace. Keep up with us, ‘cause we’re pumping out a lot of new stuff.

Keep up with This Century:
www.myspace.com/ThisCentury
www.twitter.com/ThisCentury
www.thiscenturyband.tumblr.com
www.thiscenturymailbox.tumblr.com

Interview and photos by Kaitlin Higgins

]]> http://www.preachelectric.net/2010/08/24/this-century-interview/feed/ 0 http://www.preachelectric.net/2010/08/07/goo-goo-dolls-something-for-the-rest-of-us-tour/ http://www.preachelectric.net/2010/08/07/goo-goo-dolls-something-for-the-rest-of-us-tour/#comments Sat, 07 Aug 2010 07:06:48 +0000 Sandra Sanchez http://www.preachelectric.net/?p=1379

Goo Goo Dolls on Tour!

 With a new album coming out at the end of the month, the Goo Goo Dolls embarked on the Something for the Rest of Us Tour, with support from Switchfoot and The Spill Canvas.

The Goo Goo Dolls, who have been together for 24 years, have been on this tour since April and in November will go on the UK leg of this tour. On August 3rd, the Goo Goo Dolls graced Pier Six Pavilion in Baltimore, MD for a large crowd and they did not disappoint. Even if you only know the Goo Goo Dolls from their hits such as, “Iris”, “Slide” “Broadway” or “Before It’s Too Late”, they are still a band that is worth seeing.
The show began with The Spill Canvas, who set the easy-going tone for the show. But it was Switchfoot that brought the energy early on, with lead singer Jonathan Foreman performing the first two songs in the middle of the crowd. Switchfoot played songs such as “Meant to Live”, “Mess of Me”, and “The Sound”. Finally after much anticipation, the sights and sounds of the Goo Goo Dolls brought the crowd to a joyous embrace of singing along and dancing. Goo Goo Dolls ended their set with “Iris”, their latest single, “Home”, and finally, “Broadway”, bringing the conclusion of their concert with an amazing high.
As the Goo Goo Dolls come to their 25th anniversary, there is no doubt that these boys are not a band to write off. The Goo Goo Dolls are still as energized as ever and will continue to rock on with many years to come.

Photos and Review by Sandra Sanchez

July 8, 2010 – Scream It Like You Mean It Tour in Sayreville, NJ

New Jersey brought out one hell of a crowd to kick off the Scream It Like You Mean It Tour! Starland Ballroom was completely packed; way more than usual. To match the amped up crowd, every band brought their A-game.  With special guest The Devil Wears Prada, the line-up for this tour couldn’t have been put together any better. An intense balance of screams, keys, breakdowns, and lyrics of understanding – these bands had what this generation of alternative/heavy music-lovers feed on. Specifically Dance Gavin Dance and We Came As Romans had the best performances of the night. Both had very high energy and constantly gave the crowd something to keep not only their ears, but eyes entertained. Definitely bands to add to your bucket-list of live performances to see in the future (multiple times at that).

June 20, 2010 & June 26, 2010 – Bamboozle Roadshow in Philadelphia & Long Island

With the lineups changing for every stop on the tour, it was pretty cool seeing the bands at different times in the day. Although most of the bands played the same set every night, Third Eye Blind changed it up which was awesome. Speaking of TEB, the lineup for this year’s Roadshow was a fun mix to listen to and enjoy. It brought out a wider range of ages and sent everyone back to those grade school days when Simple Plan’s “I’m Addicted” was on repeat and Good Charlotte’s album “The Chronicles of Life and Death” set sail. The best part about this lineup is the bands got the chance to play and make friends with bands that inspired themselves growing up. Based on tweets from Jack and Alex from All Time Low, this tour is something they will never forget.

That said, the general feel of the Bamboozle Roadshow was very upbeat and exciting but not to the intensity of the Bamboozle Right/Left or Warped Tour where you’re running to catch a band every 20-30 minutes. There are two stages, but once the side stage is finished, the main stage sets off. However, just like those bigger festivals, there’s a designated spot for merch, crazy lines for signings, overpriced water and food, and of course the amazing array of people. Everything just adds up to a sick tour to blog about for sure.

Stretching from hometown heroes in Michigan to a national touring act in just about four years, I See Stars has become a prominent band in the hardcore-electronica genre. They’ve toured with music heavy weights A Day To Remember, Dance Gavin Dance, and Asking Alexandria, headlined their own tour across the Northwest, and are currently on the 16th year of the Vans Warped Tour. I See Stars is, without a doubt, soaking in the success of their debut album 3D.

Still, getting to this point was no easy feat. The band dropped a number of demos as well as an EP, Green Light Go, prior to getting signed to Sumerian Records in 2008. “I think the biggest step that any band can take is to get signed with a booking agent,” keyboardist and vocalist Zach Johnson stressed to us. Since parting ways with the Agency Group, frontman, Devin Oliver, told Preach Electric the band is now working with Paradigm. “We’re excited to be working with them, they have faith in us and they’re amazing dudes.”  Devin also mentioned that a new album is definitely in the works. “We started tracking our record…with Matt Dalton who did our cover for Punk Goes Classic Rock… before Warped Tour, and we’re finishing it up when we get back home. We made sure every kick and every strum was perfect so that we can just do all the fun stuff when we get back – like mixing, mastering, adding production and just bringing it to life.”

Fans have been anticipating the new record, yearning to hear the first recordings with Christopher Moore as a vocalist;  however, he wont be featured on the upcoming album. His recent departure was made public through a Myspace blog titled “Real Talk” in which the band explained its new and oddly familiar lineup. Original vocalist and keyboardist Zach Johnson rejoined ISS after being apart from the band for almost two years. “It’s been a year and seven months since I’ve played a show. I’m just thankful, basically, because it’s what I love to do. I’m back full-time!”

The band is expected to take a much earned and long overdue break  from touring after finishing up with their album. With a solid line-up and a new record on the way, I See Stars doesn’t seem to be falling off of the top anytime soon.

Article by Kristin Allen

Photos by Ali Carcache

Resulting from the overwhelming success of their debut LP, Oracular Spectacular, MGMT’s newest follow up two years later graced “Most Anticipated Albums of 2010” lists across the internet. In this case, however, “anticipated” was defined as both extraordinarily excited, and, well, biting your nails in a nervous manner to see if the duo could top past infectious hits such as the greatly-known “Electric Feel” or “Kids”.

On March 9, 2010, the first single, “Flash Delirium”, off the upcoming Congratulations was released for free download. The turn-out, unfortunately, was not as warm as any one had hoped. The single disappointed MGMT fans and was dismissed almost immediately, leaving listeners praying for the album release to rekindle their faith in the band.
When April 13, 2010 rolled around, people everywhere got their hands on Congratulations, and while the album was still wish-washy to the ears of previous fans, MGMT placed #2 on the billboard charts, selling 66,000 copies in their first week, while Oracular Spectacular hardly sold 17,000 in it’s debut. Carved in stone at #1 was still the flippy-haired fairy Justin Bieber, who would take a blessing from God to beat out, so the success could be considered nearly monumental.
Congratulations is considered the making or breaking point in MGMT’s career – a risky stylistic departure from the drug-induced tunes produced two years earlier. MGMT’s sophomore creation is the love-child of something one might find in their grandparent’s vintage record collection, and the synthesizers straight from a rave in the heart of New York City. The album follows a more psychedelic, 50’s theme with tracks such as “Someone’s Missing,” in which Vanwyngarden starts slow and quietly, his vocals echoing in an almost spooky matter when finally the song breaks into a funky, toe-tapping outro. “It’s Working” opens Congratulations with a post-modern bass line and fluffy mood.
While there are certainly no Electric Feels or Time To Pretends on the new album, Congratulations hasn’t been a complete flop. It has raised MGMT to a new level of success, including headlining the two-day mega festival Bamboozle in East Rutherford, NJ on May 2, 2010.
At approximately 8:15 PM on May 2, the members of MGMT trickled onto the main stage before a sea of people. The quirky pair, Ben Goldwasser and Andrew Vanwyngarden, accompanied by their stage band, warmed up their instruments anxiously, and one could even go as far as to sense the feeling of a little boy on the first night of Hanukkah. While their musical styles may have changed, Vanwyngarden still sported a quaintly clashing fashion, clad in a mix of red-striped skinny pants and a light blue t-shirt.
Their most recent single, “Flash Delirium”, kicked off the night to a calm yet playful start as bodies moved in sync with the pit-pattering of the snare drum beats. The skill of MGMT’s live performance is almost too good to be true. The precision of Vanwyngarden’s vocals through out the night is baffling – almost identical to the studio vocals and a true breath of fresh-air after the auto-tune fest that occurred on the very same stage earlier that day.
The night pulled on, keeping up the theme of perfection with “Time to Pretend”, the mod-rock “Song For Dan Treacy”, “It’s Working”, and so on. The highlight of the set, of course, was when the catchy flute intro of “Electric Feel” blasting through the stadium, and every set of feet was suddenly floating from the pavement.
The show closed with a power-house performance of “Kids” that got everyone off their feet and dancing away the end Bamboozle 2010.
MGMT, with out a doubt, left everyone revved and ready for their upcoming tour, where you can catch them this summer.

Article by Emily Bevington

Photos by Ali Carcache

It seems as though all the really passionate artists are breaking up nowadays doesn’t it? After having been together for about seven years, Lydia (2003–present), has finally announced that they will be disbanding. Perhaps this was brought about sooner than intended by the departure of vocalist and keyboard player Mindy White. Or maybe this break up was in the works even before then, but Lydia has announced that after a fairly lengthy tour towards the end of this summer, they’ll no longer be together. Last week Lydia posted a note on Myspace officially announcing their future break up; this note was posted along with an unmastered version of a new song entitled “We Clean Up So Well”. The Lydia Finale: A Goodbye and Farewell Tour kicks off in July and it’s said that the tour will feature different special guests and performers every night of the tour. The band has also announced that they will be releasing a video for every song on their new album so it seems as though they’re not quite ready to say goodbye just yet and unfortunately, neither are we.

Having released only two full length albums and one self-released EP, Lydia’s existence certainly seemed short lived. In 2005 they released their first album This December; It’s One More and I’m Free and it picked up quite a lot of buzz from surrounding artists. After doing several tours and even doing runs on the Vans Warped Tour and the Zumiez Couch Tour, Lydia released Illuminate in March of 2008. Shortly after, they were slated to play the first annual Bamboozle Roadshow and also the Bamboozle festival itself that same year. Having witnessed their Bamboozle performance firsthand, it can be unquestionably said that Lydia may not have the liveliest performance, especially given the mellow demeanor of their music. However, that’s not to say they didn’t have one of the better performances at the festival that year, for they did, and regardless of whether or not you happen to be a fan of their music, it’s difficult to deny the fact that Lydia are a group of excellent performers.
Late that summer Lydia did a tour with the likes of The Dear Hunter, Eye Alaska and You, Me and Everyone We Know. For the majority of that fall it seemed as though Lydia had suddenly disappeared but out of nowhere, however, Lydia resurfaced and announced that they were to tour with musical aesthetes Copeland.  The group accomplished their first headliner, the Illuminate Yourself Tour, in February of 2009 after releasing a music video for their single “I Woke Up Near The Sea”. Later in 2009 they did a short west coast tour with Straylight Run.  Following that tour, the next time anyone heard of Lydia was this past March when they announced the departure of Mindy White.
So here we are, present day, surrounded by an overwhelming amount of news regarding this supremely talented group. They’ve announced that their new album should be released in June of this year; they’ve announced that they’re saying a final farewell this summer and they’ve announced that although the end is near, it’s not quite here yet. Maybe it’s not quite time for puns just yet but it’s with sincere dismay that I can say that the band I once loved is leaving and they’ll be greatly missed.

Review by Clarisse Hansard

Photos by Ali Carcache

April 7, 2010 – A Day To Remember, August Burns Red, Silverstein, Enter Shikari in Philadelphia

Toursick North America 2010′s Philadelphia stop was sold out, and you could definitely tell the crowd throughly enjoyed it. From the opening band to the headliner, the fans were going nuts and sweating since they walked through the doors. Enter Shikari got the crowd pretty hyped up and brought about an energetic vibe. Next Silverstein brought their usual screamo set leaving the crowd stoked for the last two bands. August Burns Red was simply incredible. Every member was clearly very talented in their own ways and put together, they created insanity. Finally, A Day To Remember’s set was outstanding; very visually appealing and their set was well though out switching up between new/old albums, playing “If It Means A Lot To You” second to last, and ending the set with bursts of smoke, confetti, and streamers everywhere.

On April 23rd, the booming voices of teenage boys and girls alike chanting “We want Chris!” pervaded through the TLA on South Street. As the lights dimmed over a stage clad in peace signs, shrill screams broke through the ballroom and a spotlight dropped on 19 year old Christofer Drew, better known as NeverShoutNever, from Joplin, Missouri. Drew opens the introduction of “Love is Our Weapon”, the first track on his debut full-length album What Is Love?, crooning a message of peace and unity to the sold-out venue.
However, behind all of the love, peace, and unity being preached lies the story of a regular teenager from Missouri, struggling to find himself and the love he sings about. At the early age of only 16, Drew dropped out of high school to pursue his talents in the music business. For Christofer Drew, doing what he loved meant breaking the hearts of his parents and brother, and growing through his final teen years on the road.

It all started with a Mac, a guitar, and a much needed release in Drew’s life. Soon he was pumping out music left and right, and finally released his first EP, Demo-schmemo, on February 9, 2008. His first fifteen minutes of fame didn’t come until five months later with the release of his first single “BigCityDreams” and a performance on TRL on July twenty-ninth. Girls across the country went crazy for the young song-writer, and not long after he was booking tours with artists such as Danger Radio, Hellogoodbye, and Ace Enders, but as black goes with white, hate grew strongly in opposition of the love for Christofer. From the very start Drew has made feel-good, happy-go-lucky music none the less pleasing to teenage girls of all ages. People have asked, however, where does all of the positivity bubble from despite all of the harsh judgment he is exposed to?
“Since I was about thirteen, I have always been a very heart broken person,” Drew admits in a Myspace blog post earlier this month. “I mostly only listened to melancholy or depressing tunage, although, as I started to get a couple more years on me, I started to develop a love for feel good music. I think in a sense it fills the void. I just want to create music that makes people feel. It doesn’t always have to be happy, but I always want there to be emotion behind the music.” Christofer Drew holds true to his claims even now on What is Love? with a variety of emotions conveyed from nostalgia (“The Past”), the beauty of having a crush (“Can’t Stand It”, “I Love You 5”) , to the darkness of a divorce (“What Is Love?”), however, never displaying any messages of hate even when the emotion he is provoking in some people is antipathy.
The young singer-song writer has heard it all from accusations of being gay, to being a “poser” of the hippie-like vibes he puts out to his fanbase. As of late the internet is populated with Youtube videos, facebook groups, and livejournal threads dedicated to the bashing of Drew and his music. A wide range of defamation plasters web pages with statements such as “When I log on to NeverShoutNever’s Myspace and see hundreds of fan girls post messages about how much they would love Christofer Drew’s dick in their mouth, the word poser just doesn’t cut it,” to much harsher claims accusing Drew of sleeping with underage girls. (“Christofer Drew is a fake who gets his jollies sittin’ around writing up laughable songs to entice 13 year old scene girls into his tight pants.”) Cruel teens have even gone as far as to say he is talentless, a phony, a “faggot.” (“I didn’t know 3 chord songs with stereotypical and recycled lyrics required a significant amount of talent. Go figure!”)
A more reasonable source of hate comes from Youtube channels where kids have posted videos titled “I Hate Chris Drew” and “Chris Drew is a Faggot”, as one would notice are usually videos of kids talking in circles about their empty hate for Drew, and are, ironically enough, usually dressed quite similar to the musician himself.
Christofer Drew, however, addresses the crude remarks in a fashion that is nothing less than mature and cool-headed. When asked up-front about rumors of his sexuality later on in the same Q&A blog, Drew responded casually stating “I am 100% straight. I have been called gay ever since I started playing music. I guess I do come off that way (high voice, tight clothes, girl hair). I assure you though that I love me some lady.” Christofer brushes the hate off and keeps his goal of spreading the love strong, addressing the haters as having a “thirst for the limelight”.

The harder negativity to cope with came from his family, however, when he first set out on his journey. “I got kicked out of my house for a little bit,” Drew has confessed online. In songs such as The Past (And I saw the look in my brother’s eyes/ When I told him I was leaving/He couldn’t help but despise me/He’s wanted out his whole life) and Damn Dog (Cause’ Dad, I called you my friend/My best friend at that/And I know that I’m a loud man/But give me another chance) he references his family’s distaste for his decisions. Most would agree with his mother’s pain, considering when he set out, Drew was a mere sixteen years old, playing to a fan base that were his peers. The independence has always been taken well, despite acquiring a chain smoking habit and a love of bare feet.

Avid supporters defend Christofer relentlessly, accusing each and every hater of either being sparked from jealousy or cynicism. When it boils down to it, though, there is always going to be hate to challenge the love, war to smother peace, and darkness to put out the light. Drew can be seen as somewhat of a hero to our music scene, tackling mountains of negative energy to spread love through even the toughest of storms – a public figure using his popularity to put the idea of total peace and unity into the youth of today’s head’s. Christofer Drew is determined, dammit, and won’t let anything stand in his way.
“I dropped out of high school. I’ve been a fuck-up to my parents for the last two years. If one thing that I’ve learned it’s that you have to live with selflessness instead of selfishness, because our society trains us to be so fucking selfish, guys. It’s not about you. It’s not about me. It’s about we. It’s about we together as one. We can do this, guys. Just live with love. Live in a harmony with everyone else. I love you guys so much, and I respect you guys so much.” Drew declares to the crowd after an emotional, tearful encore performance of “The Past” before walking off stage and concluding the night.

Despite the inner and surrounding struggle, Christofer Drew managed to come out on top, standing strong through a war of hate and negative messages, and his success proves the boy won’t be going anywhere for a long time. Expect more from Chris and check him out all summer at Warped Tour Twenty Ten!

Article by Emily Bevington

Photos by Ali Carcache