Interview with Schuylar Croom of He Is Legend

Type 3 Media: You’re up in Worcester today?

Schuylar Croom: Yeah, Worcester for sure. We’re in a mall right now because there are really only three things to see around the Palladium, and I’ve seen them a couple of different time before. I’m in no rush to get to the venue. Not that a very generic mall is any better, but I feel like there is a variety of food here.

T3M: Your new album It Hates You is coming out on July 21st. What’s different about this effort compared to what you’ve done in the past?

SC: The difference was that we were the ones calling the shots. It was a little more laid back and comfortable for us because we were in surroundings we were used and had our friends with us. We were just making a record that we wanted to hear. As opposed to being out of our element and in a city we’re not used to, we were in a place we love. North Carolina is our home. It was easier for us to work there.

T3M: Where did you record previously?

SC: When we recorded our EP, years and years ago, in Winston-Salem, that was a completely different experience all together. We were in the snow, in a basement… we were staying with a friend and he had a studio in his basement at his parents house. It wasn’t a glamorous studio situation. The second time we recorded with Adam Dutkiewicz in Springfield, MA. Equally as strange. It was the first time we had ever been in a real studio. There were high expectations. It was fun, and great. That record came out awesome.

For the next record it was like ‘time to go to California… You have X amount of time to write the songs then get out there and record.’ It was not ideal. It takes a little bit of the heart out of it.

T3M: How long did you spend in the studio for this album?

SC: I don’t actually know because it wasn’t like we were tallying up the time. It took three sessions to get all the backing tracks done. And then we added little things and fixed things here and there. You know, Chapel Hill is like home away from home for us. A lot of our friends are there. It’s just so welcoming, the music just comes, we don’t have to force it. It’s very relaxing.

Every other time when we’ve recorded there’s been a stretch when we’ve been in hotel with no refrigerator and we had to keep things cold in a cooler. Or you have to change hotels seven times to get one that’s right. Or you’re sleeping on some body’s floor and inconveniencing them.

Mitch is like the invisible member of our band, that just worked to our advantage.

T3M: What did you find was the biggest challenge?

SC: I don’t know if there were a lot of challenges. Our goal was to make a record. And that was accomplished because we did it in such a care-free way because we knew that we just love the sound that comes out of that studio, and we know that we would write a good record. We had to step back and say ‘let’s just focus on making music.’ It’s so easy to get like being a band on the road with being a band that makes records confused. We did it, and it’s awesome.

T3M: Is there a track that you’re the most proud of?

SC: You got to understand that in this day and age, the way music is, it’s easy for kids to download a single song, and never hear an entire album. The reason why artists make records in the first place, is as the whole. Nobody studies music any more. Nobody listens to full records, and it’s really easy to not do that because of the Internet. I look at this record as these twelve songs, because that’s what it is to us.

T3M: Too many albums only have a few good tracks.

SC: There’s too many distractions these days. Everyone and their mom has an iPhone they can watch a movie on while they’re riding the subway. It takes all the guesswork and the mystery out of music because you’ve heard a record a thousand times before it’s released. It works out to their advantage when you can just download it for free. They’re not putting their money into the bands they love. It’s like commercials. Music has turned into commercials, because it really is just the one song off the record that you like. When they put out a record in the 80′s it was huge thing with artwork and you could put it on your wall. It’s not like that anymore. It really is a button on the computer screen that gets you the song. I know I sound a bit jaded. ‘How do you work this damn machine!’ It’s not ideal for artists, it’s ideal for record companies, because it’s based in money. It’s an instant way to get that dollar, that you otherwise couldn’t get any other way. It’s kind of a sad day, because that’s how the music industry works these days and that’s how you get your music these days.

T3M: I think the people who check out It Hates You will be pleased that it’s a solid album from start to finish.

SC: I think so too. I’m in no way speaking against the Internet because it does lots of magical things for bands. But speaking only in terms of the music that you create and that you want to get out there, the fact that you can pick it apart on the Internet is a little whacked. I think that people buy our records to listen to it start to finish as loud as possible. Odds are that seventy-five percent of the albums purchased are going to be listened to on ear buds. It’s not a horrible thing, but we want it to be heard the way we would listen to it ourselves… which is loud.

T3M: You’re in the middle of a fifty-four date tour with Drop Dead Gorgeous, how’s it going so far?

SC: It’s going. It is definitely good being out here on the road and playing our music at shows.

T3M: It looks like you don’t get too many days off. Other than hanging out in malls, what do you like to do during your down time?

SC: We’re trying to have a blast. This tour is a little off for us. We just do touristy things. The other day we walked like nine miles to this really kick-ass restaurant in Chicago called Kuma’s Corner. They name all their burgers after heavy-metal bands. We spent our day just waking from one end of Chicago to the other. It was totally worth it. Heavy-metal cheeseburgers are not something you find all that often. Things like that.

We’ve got a grill strapped to the back of our trailer. We try to grill out as much as possible. Summer tour fun for us… very young crowds, but this ain’t our first rodeo. We don’t mind just sitting in the grass with our guitars. We’re getting to see a lot of places, and that kind of why you want to travel in the first place. You don’t get much time, so we try to go up early… we just seven hours to get to Worcester, and we’re like ‘what’s in Worcester? Dunkin Donuts and a cigar shop?’ I remember all those things, and I don’t need to go there right now. So we chose a mall parking lot because it’s a safe-haven for people who need to use the bathroom and eat Chinese food, and maybe buy flip-flops for a dollar. We’re regular dudes just trying to maintain as much sanity as we can.

T3M: How has the recent line-up changes affected your chemistry on stage, or has it?

SC: It hasn’t actually. When we formed in high school, way before He Is Legend was even an idea, it was just the four of us. And when Adam started writing second guitar parts, it was inevitable that we needed a second guitar player.

We were heading to SXSW, and Worth couldn’t do the show, so we said ‘let’s just do it as the four of us.’ Adam hold his own playing guitar by himself, and still sounding just as heavy as having two guitar players up there… it’s so cohesive. I think playing as a four-piece is better than we expected, and it actually sounds more raw, and more like us. That’s how we wrote the record… that’s how we practiced.. it’s always been the four of us. Even when Mitch was in the band, he never really came down to practice for shows. I thinks it’s great. I think it works out well. The kids are really enjoying it. It’s not like a dumbed down version of these songs.. it sounds more powerful.

T3M: Do people ever mistake Matt for Mike Patton?

SC: Yes, all the time. I’ve been telling Matt since I met him. Matt has a lot of good stories. Yesterday he was telling a story about how he was confused for Mike Patton at a gas station in New York City, and the guy gave him a free pack of cigarettes. Score, right?

T3M: What’s the story behind the bunnies?

SC: We had driven through the night to a mall. We were all very dirty and very tired. The mall was right across the street from the venue we were playing at. We got a text message about paying some photographer, that was going to come to one of the shows, to do promo pics. We were like ‘hell, we’re at a mall, right in front of a portrait studio, why don’t we go into this place?’ It was right around Easter, so there were all these toddlers taking pictures with these bunnies. We just walked in and were like ‘can you take pictures of us with the bunnies?’ and they were like ‘yeah.’ That’s where that came from.

T3M: It catches you a little off guard when you first see it.

SC: That why we did it I guess. It just came out of laziness… it’s a picture of us and there happened to be bunnies involved. They’re cute, right?

T3M: Bunnies are always cute, can’t argue with that.

SC: You’ve never seen an ugly bunny.

T3M: Any closing thoughts?

SC: Come to the show, buy the record, let’s hang out… that’s kind of all we want. We want to hear the record too… we’ll all listen to it together.

T3M: Comes out on July 21, you must be excited.

SC: I’m stoked man, ready to see what shakes loose.

www.heislegend.com
www.myspace.com/heislegend

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