Pennsylvanian metalcore quintet August Burns Red will be returning to Australia this October to celebrate their 10 year anniversary of their third studio album ‘Constellations‘ as part of their worldwide tour. We chatted to bass guitarist Dustin Davidson ahead of the tour to discuss the shows as well as go back in time to the conception of “Constellations” and how the bands sound has evolved since then.
Andrew: Thanks for your time, really appreciated! We’re excited to see you back in Australia again.
Dustin: Oh man we’re so excited to come back.
Andrew: You have the world tour which I guess is the 10 years for Constellations, it’s been an amazing ride for you guys so far. How are you guys feeling about the anniversary?
Dustin: Feeling great! Honestly looking back 10 years ago, I never thought about a 10 year anniversary tour so to even be here for that and still be a band and be able to do that is just awesome.
Andrew: Yeah definitely. I had a look at the video you guys posted on your Facebook page and judging by the video, it seems like it was your idea to do this tour.
Dustin: [laughs] I don’t know if you saw the announcement we did for the Messengers tour, that was kind of a spin off of that one that we did there. The Messengers album cover was so dark with the candle and felt right to say that it’s been decided and so we gotta carry that theme through this. But yeah totally it was my idea [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] Well regardless of whoever came up with it, it’s fantastic to see it happening. I guess you’ll be playing all the songs from the album right? Like one of those start to finish deals?
Dustin: Yes sir playing it from start to finish.
Andrew: Is there any songs on the album that you had never played before or had you played every song through out the years?
Dustin: Actually there are a couple of songs that we’ve never played before as a band in that record. On reflecting on it, there are three songs – “Paradox” we’ve never played together, “Rationalist” and last song “Crusades” we’ve never played. Everything else we’ve played, some a lot more than others but those three songs have never been performed live before.
Andrew: OK so you’ve probably been rehearsing those ones more than the others I would assume then?
Dustin: Yeah you know, it’s interesting to go back and relearn some of these songs, especially the ones we haven’t played ever before because I mean I can’t remember the last time we played “Paradox”, it would of been at recording. That’s over 10 years ago but the stuff is not as complicated as some of the stuff that we’re playing today so it’s coming back fairly easily and then we’ll spend more time on those three songs to make sure they’re all tight. “Crusades” is probably going to be the hardest of it from those three because it’s so many different parts and stuff too but that’s exciting to play because I know they’re not new but it’s new to us, our finger tips and hands and stuff and vocals so that’s exciting.
Andrew: So aside from those songs, you will probably mix in some other songs, older stuff as well as the latest stuff “Phantom Anthem” which has been out a couple of years now. You still playing stuff from that album?
Dustin: Yeah we just did a tour in the States called the Dangerous tour which is one of the songs on that album so we’re still playing a lot of songs on that record. But when we do the Constellations world tour we’ll have to kinda…we have so many records, we’re going to be playing 12 songs from Constellations in a row and then we’ll come back out and play a couple of others. We haven’t talked about this yet as a band but it’s tough because, especially for Australia because we haven’t been to you guys in a while so it’s like, ‘What else do we play?’
Andrew: Yeah that’s right and I was trying to think, when was the last time you were down our way? It must be a few years now.
Dustin: Yeah man it’s been the end of 2015, November or December I think is when we were there last with Northlane on a really short tour. So yeah it was 2015.
Andrew: Well there you go, it’s been a few years then. Obviously you have a few songs to play along with some rarities from the Constellations album so setlists, especially with the inclusion of an entire album must be a very difficult process. How do you balance that out? Do you have a process of knowing which ones to play?
Dustin: Yeah so I feel like putting a setlist together for like the Dangerous tour which we just did, there are songs that we play all the time and one of those songs is on “Constellations”, “Whitewash” which is one of our most popular songs. I think if we didn’t play it, it would be, ‘Why the hell didn’t they play it?’ So that’s a song that always finds it’s way into the set amongst a couple of others but other than that, there’s so many albums and it’s like you play the singles because they are the most popular songs, the ones that were kept as music videos essentially. Do we need to play those or do we need to throw in a little bit of deep cuts? So really what I started doing recently is reflecting on past setlists, most recently I think because I haven’t been keeping track of it all but I can comb through my emails and type in say “The Dangerous tour” and see what songs we played on that and the tour before that and be like, ‘Alright we played this song and this one the last time, we should swap it out for something’ and interchange some of the deep cuts to keep the ones that people expect us to play. But dude it’s tough, it’s tough for such a large catalogue.
Andrew: Yeah definitely and the songs on “Constellations”, over that 10 year span and the ones that you have played regularly over those years, have those songs changed much at all as far as the way you play it or maybe added bits or have you kept it pretty much the same since the very beginning?
Dustin: Pretty much the same from the beginning. There’s little things, I’m sure Matt (Greiner, drums) would change some fills. Myself being the bass player I always leave room to improv stuff in our songs on stage no matter if it’s old or new, that’s just something I like doing to kinda keep my mind open and not play the same thing all the time. But other than that it’s really maybe some stops, we change some stops or do something here like a stop here or a pinch harmonic there but the structure doesn’t change in the songs like that.
Andrew: Yeah I guess every band has their own way of approaching it and the way you guys have created these really heavy, more complex stuff and even with the newest stuff on “Phantom Anthem” which I have to be honest when I heard that when it came out I was blown away by it and I think it’s one of best stuff you guys have come up with. I don’t known how you you guys are feeling about it now with some time gone past but there’s some great tracks on that album.
Dustin: Thank you, that means a lot. Yeah we are always stoked on the stuff that we write, if we weren’t we wouldn’t write them. I was telling my friend the other day that I’m my biggest fan, I’m writing this music for August Burns Red but I’m writing it for myself. I have to like it, it’s not like I’m going out of my way to do something that I’m not going to like.
Andrew: Yeah that’s right, you gotta write for yourself and hope that the fans out there love it. What kind of feedback have you been getting on “Phantom Anthem” so far?
Dustin: Very good feedback! The last tour we did was an awesome tour man, it was really good. The Dangerous tour that we talked about went down really well live and they are very fun to play. “King Of Sorrow”, the first song on the album is one of my favorite songs in my set right now, it’s really heavy and it’s a lot of fun to play live.
Andrew: We are definitely looking forward to seeing you down here and hearing these songs then. So we’ve touched on the 10 years of “Constellations”, I’m interested to know from your perspective on the evolution of the band and how you think the band has changed over the years musically. Do you feel you have kept the core signature sound or have you evolved into something quite different to what you first initially started with?
Dustin: Yeah I think there’s still elements in our modern material that are August Burns Red but I think “Constellations” was that first record of ours where we started thinking outside of the box. One song in particular that comes to mind is “Ocean Of Apathy” which I think I might say is my favorite song on that record, I love that song. JB (Brubaker, guitars) wrote that one and it has this kind of interesting interlude section and ever since then, we’ve kind of expanded on that sound whereas the rest of “Constellations” was very thrashy and just straight forward and heavy which was what “Messengers” was too. But I think “Constellations” was that first album that we really started seeing things differently and trying to progress because we didn’t want to write “Messengers” again and after “Constellations”, we didn’t write “Constellations” again because people would get bored of the same old thing. It’s OK to say that, ‘Oh well Constellations is good but Messengers is my favorite album’ but if we wrote that same album again, you’re just going to be bored with it eventually. So I just think we progressed in “Constellations” being kind of that first stepping stone where we started adding dynamics and use interlude things and really expanding on bringing in big ideas in songs than just a riff, a breakdown, a riff, a breakdown.
Andrew: With each album then are you finding it more difficult or easier to come up with more original material and having that balance of not repeating yourself and coming up with something fresh and new?
Dustin: Well I just finished a song today because I’ve been writing, in my time I try to take advantage of my time off and write. I just finished a song today and am pretty stoked on it, it’s very heavy. At times it is difficult, for me in particular. I wrote something the other day for the song I was telling you I just finished and I listened back to it and I was like, ‘Dude I’ve done this before, what can I do to make this different’. At first it was like this is the way the song is and I listen back to the whole thing and I’m like, ‘Ah this has been done, I need to change this, I need to do something different here’. So I’m kind of aware of that or if I send it to somebody and they’re like, ‘This reminds me of that’, which hasn’t happened, I’m usually not having that problem but with this song in particular like I said, I wrote one part that was like, ‘We’ve already done this, I need to get rid of that and change it’. Something about it is getting better at being able to rework something whereas back in the day if I’ve written something, it’s always like concrete. That’s the way it is, if you don’t like it, that’s all I hear. You have to do something else for me because I can’t change it. So that’s something that I’ve picked up on recently, is that I’ve been able to develop this ear to take something that was concrete, pull it out and swap it for something that’s eventually much better than the original that I had.
Andrew: So in saying that with the song that you were working on, after the Constellations run will you guys be writing new material and hitting the studio again for another album?
Dustin: Yeah we’re writing some songs right now so I suppose we’ll see because this touring is going to take up so much time so that’s why I’m trying to utilise these months off to kind of write, and JB is writing as well. So we will regroup and start talking about recording a new album, but we’re in the early stages right now so it’s going to be a while.
Andrew: Well we are looking forward to hearing “Constellations” in it’s entirety here in Australia and it’s going to be a fun time by the sounds of it. Thanks for your time Dustin, really appreciated and we will see you later in the year!
Dustin: Absolutely, thanks Andrew. Really looking forward to it!
AUGUST BURNS RED 10 YEARS OF CONSTELLATIONS AUSTRALIAN TOUR
SUPPORTED BY ALPHA WOLF
FRIDAY 11 OCTOBER: 170 RUSSELL, MELBOURNE (18+)
SATURDAY 12 OCTOBER: METRO THEATRE, SYDNEY (LICENSED ALL AGES)
SUNDAY 13 OCTOBER: CAMBRIDGE HOTEL, NEWCASTLE (18+)
MONDAY 14 OCTOBER: TRIFFID, BRISBANE (18+)
WEDNESDAY 16 OCTOBER: CAPITOL, PERTH (18+)
THURSDAY 17 OCTOBER: LION ARTS FACTORY, ADELAIDE (LICENSED ALL AGES)
Tickets on sale now at www.tickets.destroyalllines.com
