Comprised of vocalist Jason Aalon Butler [ex-letlive.], drummer Aric Improta [Night Verses], and guitarist Stephen Harrison [ex-The Chariot], The Fever 333 are explicitly devoted to a revolutionary cause, delivering aggressive advocacy through a molotov cocktail of punk, hip-hop, and thrash. “Made An America” exhibits The Fever 333’s revolutionary activism, with a focus on community, charity, and change. We talk to Jason while the band was on the road before their upcoming appearance at this year’s Rock On The Range festival to discuss the new EP and the active cause that the band are advocating.
Andrew: So how’s things with you and the rest of the guys in the band? Are you on the road touring?
Jason: Yeah things are great, we are currently on some highway in America travelling through rural Pennsylvania. We just passed a prison and I just hope that it’s not one that is owned by Citycorp for profit, so things are good. I’m not in the prison so that’s good!
Andrew: Yeah exactly, you don’t want to be in there! What part of Pennsylvania? I used to live in that state actually.
Jason: Oh wow! We’re not far off from Stroudsburg right now.
Andrew: Oh Ok I’ve been around that area, nice! So you had the new EP come out and I have to get the title right as when I first saw the title I thought it was “Made IN America” but it’s actually “Made An America”. What was the story behind the title?
Jason: That one was really showing that the country as we know it now, America being a world power which has an effect all over the world, and for better or worse much of what happens here does affect the rest of the planet, so with the EP I was trying to explain that this country was built off of the backs of slaves, immigrants and the integrated process forcibly where people were taken from where they were from and taken over here and used for labor in the name of capitalism in this country where we built off the backs of others. But what I also think makes this country a beautiful thing is that we took the idea of integration and we tried to enhanced it, I don’t think we’ve really made the biggest accomplishment with that yet but I think that idea is an archetype. Made An America is an archetype for a lot of the rest of the world and understanding that in order to succeed we have to be OK with integration and have to acknowledge the things that brought us here, both good and bad. There is a lot of dark history through out the world and understanding that once we acknowledge that, we can move forward and change that.
Andrew: Is history something that you’re very interested in?
Jason: Yeah I’ve always been interested, I’ve always been curious as to how things happened and why. I think why is a big question for me when looking back in history and trying to figure out how we got here.
Andrew: Sure and obviously someone who has toured around the world as a musician, what do you see out in the world today that you think is maybe giving some people hope in the future of society?
Jason: I think music and art. Art is really showing or allows to think alternatively, we’re allowed to expand our minds and bend these parameters that have been placed within society through out the world. Art for me is one if the biggest catalysts for change, at least in my own tool box. That on top of watching the inclusion of women and the recognition of women through out the world, to me understanding the patriarchy has existed for I guess since the beginning of recorded time and that it’s actually been quite detrimental to our progress. So seeing the inclusion of women and the acknowledgement of women and the beautiful work of women is a huge thing and gives me hope in seeing change as well as people of color as well as this new idea of mental health and our awareness of these things which is playing a huge part in the decisions we make in society and politically. I don’t want to take up all of the time but those are a few things off the top of my head.
Andrew: It is amazing what music and art can do, it’s something that no matter where you are in the world that it does unite people in some way. Something that brings everyone together I guess.
Jason: Yeah I agree.
Andrew: So you got some shows coming up, I see you are playing Rock On The Range this year which is coming up shortly which is a big one, what else have you got going on at the moment?
Jason: We’ll be travelling around, putting on a few demonstrations through out the country right now mostly on the eastern seaboard but we hit the mid-west and those festivals as mentioned and then we make our way back to where we are from on the west and finish up over there. During that we’ll just really try and promote this message and idea, even if it’s not through a demonstration, we’ve got a few platforms like social media and other collaborations that we’re doing. So we’ll continue to do that and push that forward and really make sure that people understand the large contingent pieces of community charity and change that really service the foundation for this project.
Andrew: How has it been going so far? What kind of feedback have you got and how have people been responding to what you’ve been doing?
Jason: It’s been quite positive and I feel very lucky to be put in these positions where I’m able to speak my mind and speak about representation and offer these to people if they feel the same. But aso we’ve been in some places where these thoughts of freedom are quite challenging for people and we’ve had some negative reactions but I think that’s just as important as me sitting in front of people that are like- minded. I think it’s just as important to speak to people who do not think the same, I need to have a discourse. I can’t just speak in an echo chamber, I need to have an actual conversation. So I welcome it all and like I said I think it’s just as important to have a conversation with the opposition and be told by someone who don’t believe in what I’m saying in order to advance this conversation rather than an echo chamber.
Andrew: Yeah I think you’re right, it’s important to get out there and talk to people who maybe differ from your views of how things should be and how the world is. What has been some of the most difficult challenges that you have run into and maybe some of the surprising stuff that you have come across?
Jason: I just think there is sheer ignorance to what I’m saying or the statistics that I use because people think that I’m running off or fueled by biases but these are just facts, not opinions. These are things that did happen, these are numbers that I can show you, these are experiences that I have had in my life. So I’m not out here running off of emotion when I speak about these things, I’m talking about fucking facts so I think people have been denying those facts which is probably the craziest thing to me.
Andrew: Yeah it sounds good what you are doing, getting people to talk about the hard issues that are out there and I guess music is a great way to speak to people because as we mentioned before, music is universal and everyone can understand it. As far as the new EP, how has the response been with that? Have you been getting good feedback on the new songs?
Jason: Oh yeah man it’s been great! It’s amazing to have a body of work out so that people can learn and they can dive in and invest themselves in these songs and these messages and they sing them and they speak back to you, give their opinion or show you how much it means to them or show you that they agree or disagree! I love having a body of work for those reasons, so yeah it’s been great man. People have been fantastic, we’re very fortunate.
Andrew: And with the EP, will you be following it up at some stage with a full length album?
Jason: Yeah we will most certainly be releasing a full length album in the future. Everything we do is an effort to be impactful so I’ll continue to gauge the climate and figure out the proper time to release it so it’s impactful and there’s a meaning to every move we make and there has to be a reason for it. So yeah moving forward we will absolutely put out a full length album but as of right now we will continue the demonstrations, we will continue the message and continue the advocates of the movement that’s already been happening. This collective consciousness is shifting and we’re just really trying to be a part of that.
Andrew: Ok great well good luck on everything, great to see you out there doing what you do. We have a couple of people that will see you guys play at Rock On The Range this year and hopefully we will see you down under at some stage as well.
Jason: Amazing brother, I would love that, it would be awesome!
