(This interview took place on May 28, 2002 outside the El-N-Gee Club)
Josh: I’m going to start with the first question,
which is going to be the shortest, stupidest question ever. Your name is
spelled with an “en” and I always see it spelled wrong on flyers or
sites. Do you get it when it’s spelled with an “an” or an “on”?
Brandon: Yes.
Josh: Does it piss you off as much that people can’t get it right?
Brandon: Yes. That’s our worst... We have nothing wrong with
christianity or anything like that, but when people see it spelled
“Christianson”, like Christian’s sons, they think they’re going to see a
religious band and we’re not religious per se. That’s not in our
music. And it’s very, very frustrating. Every time we tell anyone
the name of our band, they have to ask how to spell it.
Josh: It seems like the typical thing to do would be to go for the “an”.
Brandon: Right. Or the typical thing to do would be to change your
name. But I mean, we’re stuck with it and there’s bands like Hoobastank,
and those names are horrible. So we figure once we get our name on the
map, it won’t matter as much.
Josh: And then people will kind of stick with the “en”.
Brandon: Exactly.
Josh: And, now, since we throw that in there, hopefully people will
realize- EN.
Brandon: Yes, please, thank God.
Josh: I just wanted to know if it got to you as much as it got to me when I saw
it spelled wrong. I’d see it and be like, “Is that the same
band?... Yeah, it’s the same band... So why don’t they know how to spell
it? What’s wrong with you people?”. But, I’m really anal
about like, grammar and stuff any way.
Brandon: Oh yeah, well, everyone should be I think.
Josh: Ok, well, I just wanted to get that out of the way.
Brandon: Well, I’m glad that was the first one because we wanted to get that
out of the way as well.
Josh: Yeah, we just wanted to make the point and move on.
(At this point, someone asks us if we have an ecstacy or know where he can
“score some”. This is not the first time either of us has been asked by
this particular person on this evening.)
Josh: This is going to be kind of an elaborate question, so I’m going to
ask it and then I’m going to explain myself. I’m going to ask you
about Revelation. And if this was six months ago or eight months, I’d be
asking why you’d be leaving a label like Eulogy to go to Revelation, because at
that time Eulogy seemed to just be doing more and having a lot more bands that
were better. But, now, bands are kind of moving away from Eulogy and it’s
becoming less, in my opinion, where as Revelation is really picking up with
signing new bands and new releases. I mean, they put out Garrison, Will
Haven, Fall Silent, Curl Up and Die, and just some amazing music lately.
Plus they’re signing bands like Dag Nasty and you. But, I mean,
also just the whole thing with Revelation where bands have recently left as
well as one band who is still on Revelation and has made it very well known
that they want off. (We will not tell you their name, sorry).
Brandon: Well, I mean, bands that are under contract but want out, all
the bands that have left, all of that stuff, I think it’s because they’re not
reading the fine print in the contracts, for one. We talked to
Revelation before we signed with them because we wanted to get all of that
bullshit out of the way and clear up all of those problems. And it was
really cool because they really put emphasis on a relationship that was almost
brotherly or almost paternal between the band and the record label.
And they explained “that band”’s problems. But, I think they’re
great. They’re doing everything they can for us. They’re taking
care of us. The girl, Vick, that signed us, she’s awesome to us,
she’s like a sister to us. They’re great and we have no complaints
right now, at all. With Eulogy, I don’t know what the exact reason was
why we left. Honestly, I don’t think that they were into the music-
the new stuff- as much. I think they wanted us to be something more on
the emo side, or more heavy, maybe on the hardcore side. Just the bipolar
opposites.
Josh: Like Keepsake and Unearth. And you don’t fit into either of those,
you’re the in between.
Brandon: Right, exactly. And so they just let us go. They
knew that we were unhappy, so they let us find some where else and we ran into
Revelation.
Josh: It’s weird because the Movielife left Revelation to go to Drive
Thru, and for about a year before they even left you’d always read about them
on the Drive Thru site like, “This isn’t our band, but we love them”, so for a
while, I considered the Movielife to be a Drive Thru band, before they even
technically were. And they kind of have that sound too, where they
belong on Drive Thru. So it’s kind of fitting for them. But
then, with you, and your sound, well, I don’t know where I’d put you.
Brandon: Yeah, where do we belong?
Josh: There aren’t really bands that sound like you, so it’s not really
like, “Oh, you’re hardcore, go to Victory”. So I mean, as far as
just putting out rock records, I think Revelation is the place to go.
Brandon: Yes, definitely. They’ve got a great past. We
used to listen to a lot of their music. Texas is the Reason and all
those bands... That’s the only one I can think of right now.
Josh: I’m going to give you this question next because it’s probably the
second longest question for me to think about. There is actually a
lot of buzz around your band right now.
Brandon: Really?
Josh: Yeah, every where I go, it’s always “Christiansen...”.
Brandon: No shit! That’s awesome.
Josh: I’m going to give you a funny story about you. A while
back, you actually played here with Prevent Falls and those guys told me a lot
about how great you are and all of that. And there’s just this huge
buzz going on right now of how good you are, but how you’re also just one of
those bands that you have to see live. But this isn’t my story, and
that’s why this is the second longest question because there’s still a story
coming.
So, one of my friends who writes for NCA- Cynthia- went to see the Face to
Face, Midtown, Movielife, Thrice show in Ohio some where. It was her
first time hearing Thrice, so she was just blown away and she said she’d
inteview them had she had her tape recorder. And she knows the Movielife,
and so she was backstage most of the show. And she said that all the
other bands kept talking about the one band that opened, but she couldn’t
remember who it was. Everyone was saying how great they were and that
they were from Louisville, but she got there late and didn’t see them. So
I’m just talking to her like normal like, “Yeah, Christiansen just signed to
Revelation, it’s so awesome”, and almost immediately she was like,
“CHRISTIANSEN!! That was the band!”.
Brandon: That’s so awesome. That makes us feel so good.
We’ve been a band for the past four years, we’ve been touring for maybe three
and it’s been a lot of work starting off with no name behind you or record
label. We started out on our first tour with just a CD that one of our
good friends put out. When we finally get to a point that there’s a
buzz, it will hopefully onlyy get better.
Josh: But just what is it about the live show? I mean, is it
the guitar twirling, long hair and insanity or... ?
Brandon: We just go out there with the most energy we can provide the
audience and try to have fun. And just let the audience take it from
there. I mean, you can’t really pin it down to, yeah, we have long hair,
we move really fast, so obviously that’s the reason that people like us.
Josh: So it’s just like, it’s fun to watch.
Brandon: Yeah, exactly. We just try to keep the most positive
attitude we can when we just go on stage and play. And if that reflects
on other people, that’s great. That’s awesome.
Josh: We’re going to talk about your sound now. We’re going to talk
about your music and why it sounds the way that it does. People
don’t like music when they can’t pinpoint the sound to it.
Brandon: Yeah.
Josh: And that’s me.
(Brandon laughs)
Josh: It’s like, I can say it sounds kind of like this... But no.
And it’s annoying when you can’t quite find the words to describe it
exactly. So I’m going to put this into two little questions.
How do you tell people you sound- how do you describe it? And what makes
you sound the way that you do?
Brandon: When people ask us what we sound like the easiest way to do it
is to just say rock. That’s the easy way out, right?
It’s really hard because we don’t really have a genre that we fall in. We
take everything we listen to and mix it in this big boiling pot and spit out music,
and try to keep the originality with it up front and our influences in the back
so we’re not so easily classified and just put on the shelf with other
bands. I really don’t have an honest answer. Just please come see
us. That’s all I can tell you. A lot of our influences are
more classic rock like Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin, all that great stuff.
And then we’re influenced a lot by bands like that new band Pretty Girls Make
Graves. I really like them a lot. We’ve played a lot of shows with
them. But we love all sorts of music like C-Lo Green, Outkast, Ludicris,
everything... It doesn’t just narrow itself down to one specific type of
music.
Josh: So we’re still screwed. (laughing)
Brandon: Yeah. (laughing) Just come check us out. That’s
the best you can do, I guess.
Josh: I think people describe you as sounding like At-the-Drive-In.
Brandon: We get that a lot.
Josh: But I don’t look at it that way because I’m not particularly that
big a fan of At-the-Drive-In. I was never really that into them.
But I love your music. So I don’t see it really.
(I’m not sure what all this is about, I think it’s my Far theory, which isn’t
that great)
Josh: So, “Forensics Brothers and Sisters!” comes out July
2nd. See, you can’t forget that exclamation point. How did
that happen?
Brandon: Our drummer is obsessed with exclamation points in
general. The original idea for the name was “Forensic’s Brothers
and Sisters” , with the possessive. Then it got written and all changed around
to where the apostrophe was gone and the exclamation point was thrown on and
then all of a sudden it was already at the press. So I just went
with it.
Josh: You should have an exclamation point after your band name.
Brandon: Yeah, CHRISTIANSEN!
Josh: Where do you go from here?
Brandon: When we get back we have a week off, then we’re playing
Krazyfest. Then we have another week off. Then we’re heading
out with... Well, we were supposed to be heading out with Gameface and the
Stryder on the west coast, but I think that fell through. So we’re pretty
sure we’re going out with the band the Moth. It’s the drummer from
A Perfect Circle’s band. And then we get back in late July, and
from then until late August we do a southern east coast tour through Florida
and then we come back up this way with the Ghost and the Exit.
Then, after that I think we’re doing a full U.S. tour with Midtown.
Gabe from Midtown is our manager.
(This is when we both talk about our love of Gabe)
Brandon: So, for the future, that’s all we got right now. We’ll be
back.