by Kenneth Morton

At the Warped Tour Kick Off Party which took place at the Key Club in April, we had a chance to speak with Craig Mabbitt, vocalist for Escape The Fate. We tackled a good amount of topics in just a few short minutes, including his short stint with The Word Alive, his thoughts on former Escape The Fate vocalist Ronnie Radke, and the upcoming Warped Tour season. Read on…

What advice would you give a band about to go on the Warped Tour for the very first time?
Make a lot of friends. Be open-minded. Be all-around friendly. Just walk in the room – act like you’re the life of the party – just introduce yourself – meet people – that’s the best thing. Going on the Warped Tour as a new band, you might be sharing a bus with somebody, which will be easier – or you might be in a van like I was – and it gets hard! It gets so hot and you’re driving 10 hours a night – you’re loading in at 8 in the morning by yourself. There’s nowhere to go – with crammed in the van with all your band members. A lot of people do say Warped Tour breaks bands up. If you’re touring in a van, just go in it with a mindset of that is the rumor that happens – we gotta be a band and we gotta know that this is a family and we can’t let Warped Tour tear us apart because we’re doing it in a van. Kevin makes sure that the bands are taken care of everyday. There’s showers available – there’s food available. Take advantage of what is available and open your eyes.

This War Is Ours! What was is yours and are you winning it?
This War is kind of what’s happening in our lives and what’s happening with our careers – what everybody is perceiving about Escape The Fate and what’s going on. It kind of seems like it’s a battle between us and the press sometimes – and a battle between us and supporters that don’t like the band anymore because of one member change. So it’s kind of like, “Well, that’s weird,” because we’re still in the studio making albums. And we just sold out a headlining tour, so I guess people do want to listen. So it’s kind of like This War Is Ours – and I think we’ve already won it by just releasing the album – period. Just releasing the album and selling records just proved to us that we’ve overcome it. We’re here now – and we’re not going anywhere.

What was it like working with Josh Todd of Buckcherry on the new album?
He’s actually a really cool guy – definitely professional. He’ll walk in super friendly and say, “Hey what’s up man?” And you’re like, “You’ve got some ideas on this song. Alright, go ahead and sing it.” He’ll bust it out and you’ll be like, “What the hell? How did you do that? It sounded perfect!” He’s very professional – very down to earth – a very cool guy. We’re gonna be working with him again pretty soon, so everybody should keeps their eyes out for that. It was great working with him. It was great working with John (Feldman the producer) – it was great working with everybody we worked with on that album.

Has Josh ever come up onstage and sang that song with you?
No, not yet. He’s never been in town. But he’s definitely planning to.

I heard there might be a tour with Escape The Fate and Buckcherry…
There might. There’s been talks about it. I know there’s some shows coming up in May with them – so anybody in New York go to those. Those should be fun. Everything is in the works, but right now we’re doing Warped Tour and trying to figure out what our plan is. We want to start going in and do the next record around wintertime next year – and we’re trying to schedule everything around that.

How close are you to having enough songs for a new record?
Well, this last tour we wrote six songs – and we’re just going to keep on writing until the winter comes. So we’re hoping to have like 24 songs at least.

What kind of stuff are you writing about lyrically these days?
Just more in-depth stuff. I’m just kind of making up stories that will kind of help people get through some stuff. Maybe it’s not a real situation – but it’s a situation that a bunch of people can relate to. I’m just going to try to touch on every subject, and just do what we did on this record. But I’m going try to make it more knowledgeable, instead of people thinking it’s about relationships between human beings every single song. It’s gonna be awesome! I’m fucking excited, cuz the songs we wrote so far – I’m really digging them.

Are you going to be releasing any of The Word Alive songs that you sang on?
I want to. I am planning on doing another side project. I mean, The Word Alive situation obviously sucks! We did that interview together and then I left on tour. They started getting offers – they wanted to get signed and they didn’t want to wait for me. That’s kind of a bum out for me. But yeah, they can’t use those songs – so I will.

How did you feel when you heard you were no longer in The Word Alive?
I was hurt and then I was like, you know what – screw these guys! It’s the same thing that happened with Bless The Fall. It was totally unexpected. I didn’t want to leave the band and this was so stupid. It just gets fans talking thinking I’m just quitting every band that I’m ever in. But I still support them. I still talk to them and stuff. Everybody is still cool. You just gotta let shit go sometimes – you can’t hold on to the past.

You must be a little relieved that you’re not doing so much now.
I’m the kind of guy that likes staying busy. That’s why I’m excited to start doing another side thing. Just this last tour, I goofed around – and me and the keyboard player of Attack Attack wrote a techno song that’s up on his page. It’s www.myspace.com/calebshomo - we goofed around and did a techno song – and I like it.

Ronnie Radke might be out of prison in 2010. How do you feel about that?
Good luck – hope he gets out sooner. I’d hate for him to be locked up too long. He definitely has drive and wants to continue his career. I mean the sooner he can do that, the better for him – and the better for his fans. Hopefully he’s cleaning up, acting good, and finding more out about himself and getting that drive – so when he comes out, he could just put his foot down and show people what he’s made of. That would be the perfect story. I definitely like the guy. It was either me finding another band and Escape The Fate quitting and not being a band at all anymore or having kids that like both bands – because we did the Black And Black Tour together. Why would we quit when we could do this? Let’s make this work! So that’s what we decided to do.

What do you think of Bless The Fall’s new singer?
I like him. That’s one of the albums I’m the most excited to come out actually. I was listening to the His Last Walk album on the way up here, and I was like, “Damn dude! This is fucking good! I’m stoked for the new record to come out!” I just listened to the instruments more and I was like, “Damn, they were good!” I’m happy they’re finally touring again. They’ve been waiting for a while.

Do you have any messages for fans here in Los Angeles and Orange County?
Thank you first and foremost for being fans and sticking with us. And second, we’ll be playing a festival in Long Beach with Story Of The Year in May. Check our Myspace for that. And we’ll see you on the Warped Tour.

Escape The Fate links

Escape The Fate on Myspace: The Official Myspace Page for Escape The Fate!
The Highwire Daze Home Page: Return to the Main Page!

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