Interview with: Norma Jean

Continuing a series of Warped Tour interviews at the Bonner Springs show on July 2, 2008, Bethany had the chance to talk to Christian metalcore group Norma Jean.  Below is their conversation:

Bethany, Popwreckoning: Hi. My name is Bethany. Can I get you guys to state your name and role in the band?
Norma Jean, Cory Brandan Putman: I’m Cory. I sing a lot.
NJ, Chris Day: I’m Chris and I play guitar a lot.
NJ, Chris Raines: I’m Chris and I play drums sometimes.
NJ, Jake Schultz: I’m Jake and I play bass.
NJ, Scottie Henry: I’m Scottie and I play guitar usually.
NJ/CP: What is this interview for?
PW: This is for popwreckoning.com. It’s a webzine.
NJ/CP: Popwreckoning. Ok. Cool.
PW: You guys have openly stated that you are committed to bringing a different sound on each of your albums. Why do you feel this is an important thing to do?
NJ/CP: We just have a lot of ideas. We have really, really good ideas and like to use them all. Next question, just kidding.
NJ/JS: Stagnant music is really boring.
NJ/CP: We just don’t want to do the same thing over and over. That’s too easy. We want to push ourselves and challenge ourselves. Our fans have caught on that that’s going to keep happening. So, it’s kind of cool how that’s working out.
PW: So of all your albums, which do you think has been the best received and why?
NJ/JS: Our last one.
NJ/CP: I would say the last has been received the best. I don’t know why. I think the newer one is better than that one. It’s heavier than Redeemer and has a lot more melody than Redeemer as well, so I think it balances itself out maybe.
PW: So you guys were on Ozzfest for a tour. How does that compare to Warped? Is it fairly similar or is one better than the other?
NJ/CD: They’re just totally two different tours. Ozzfest was primarily heavy bands only and Warped Tour has heavy bands and not heavy bands and dance bands and all kinds of music going on here, so it’s two totally different settings.
NJ/CP: Ozzfest is a lot more banging of the head. I want everybody to have a bangover.
PW: Do you prefer the fans for one of those tours? I’m sure the fans are different between Warped and Ozzfest.
NJ/CP: Yeah, they’re different. I don’t really have a preference. It doesn’t matter, they’re rowdy kids. If you come to a Norma Jean show, you kind of expect that.
PW: Rowdiness all the way? Ok. Well, rumor has it that you had to change your original name because it kept getting confused with Ludacris, do you really think that was an issue? It’s kind of like apples and oranges, right?
NJ/CR: We just didn’t like the name anymore, so we changed it.
NJ/JS: That kind of gave us an excuse to do it, though. The label wasn’t liking that we wanted to change it at first. So we were like, “Well, this guy got huge and it’s the same name, so let’s change.”
PW: Who are your favorite bands on this year’s tour that you’ve either made friends with or discovered through it?
NJ/CP: I like Every Time I Die, Against Me, Say Anything.
NJ/CR: Maylene
NJ/JS: MC Chris
NJ/CD: Is Pearl Jam on this tour? I’d say that would be pretty sweet.
PW: Has any really amusing thing happened so far this year on Warped or has it been pretty mild?
NJ/SH: Yeah, we saw a dog yesterday.
PW: Wow.
NJ/SH: Yeah, it was awesome. It was like a German shepard.
NJ/CR: There was a shed. I saw a Boxer in a shed.
NJ/SH: I didn’t see a Boxer.
NJ/CP: We beat up the guitarist from Katy Perry’s band.
(Pretty sure Putman was joking, but he delivered it so matter of fact dead pan, I must admit I had some doubts that he was lying.)
PW: Why would you beat him up?
NJ/CP: It was like, you know, that kid back in high school who picked on you? One of those guys and we felt like doing that back to somebody else so we picked him randomly. We’ll start some beef here with Katy Perry’s band.
PW: Is that true?
NJ/CP: We didn’t. (laughs)
PW: I’m going to go find Katy Perry’s guitarist and tell him you said you could take him in a fight.
NJ/CP: Ha. You could.
NJ/SH: Don’t do that. (teasing) This is all off the record. Next interview. Now we can start the interview. Are you recording this? No, you can print that all on your site.
PW: Finally, if you could take this space to talk about any issue right now, what would you talk about, what would you say to your fans? (Blank stares) Maybe a political view?
NJ/JS: We’d say our record is coming out August 5, so buy it.
NJ/CR: Listen to music. That’s about as political as we get right there.
NJ/CD: Vote for our new record. Vote for The Anti Mother.
PW: Well that’s all I have. Thanks you guys. Nice meeting you.
NJ/CD: You too.

Norma Jean: website | myspace

Warped Tour 2008 Rundown – Kansas City (Part One)

As a journalist, Warped Tour is something for which you have to train. With a set up structured to featured as many as 100 bands spread across as many as 10 stages, you simply have to have your ass in shape to maximize your ability to catch as many acts as possible. I often found myself running the entire length of Capitol Federal Sandstone Amphitheater to get shots of a band we had interviewed. While the bands themselves only play for up to 30 minutes, the schedule of 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. is unreal. Couple this with raging heat and limited resources for comfort, the day borders on over stimulation to the max. Furthermore, often times a band’s set will overlap other band’s, making it absolutely impossible to cover every act. The start of the day consists of picking and choosing which acts to cover and which acts will be shunned.

Below, I have listed the schedule of events from my Warped Tour and the notes taken throughout the day. While slightly informal, I hope you enjoy.

10:35 A.M. – Sign In, Set up Interview

After receiving credentials that allowed me to enter the venue, Bethany and I wandered back to the press room to check the list of bands that would be doing interviews throughout the day. After a long discussion of who we should pick, the Popwreckoning team narrowed it down to the following list: Beat Union, The Color Fred, Norma Jean, Cobra Starship, The Academy Is, Jack’s Mannequin, Story of the Year and We the Kings. We also learned that our interview with Gym Class Heroes had been canceled due to an incident the previous evening in St. Louis.

11:20 A.M. to 11:50 A.M. The Academy Is – Route 66 Stage

I saw these kids years ago opening for Midtown and Fall Out Boy on a Fueled by Ramen tour showcase. At the time I have to say that I left the venue relatively unimpressed by their performance. But the thing about music is that bands very seldom stay the same. Lineup changes and years of practice can make a fairly ignorable outfit become a pretty big deal on stage. With tight and catchy guitar riffs over very infectious vocals from the the band’s ridiculously charming front man, William Beckett, The Academy Is not only did a splendid job opening Kansas City’s Warped Tour, they bordered on being one of the best bands to watch. Those of you who were stuck in line or just decided to come late, you missed one hell of a set.

Grade: A-

11:50 A.M. to 12:20 P.M Story of the Year – Highway 1 Stage

No lie, Story of the Year is the hardest band I have ever photographed in my life. Their movements are extremely quick and their set consists of a ton of jumps and spins. Keeping them in your lens is no small feat. The band puts on a fairly entertaining show for those who like to watch a lot of stage antics. I must confess that I was less than impressed with their musicianship, however. There simply seemed to be a lot of dropped notes and vocals slightly to extremely out of key. To me, it is very important to be able to play first, move later, and not the other way around. I was extremely disappointed and ended up leaving this band’s set early to steal a hot dog from the press room.

Grade: D+

12:45 P.M. to 1:15 P.M. Beat Union – Hurley.com Stage

Beat Union was the first band of the day that I had seen that I would willingly classify as a “punk” band. Their sound reminded me of a mixture between The Clash and Elvis Costello. More than likely this familiarity had a lot to do with the group hailing from the United Kindom. With a slight feel of dirty rock surrounding them, this group seems to me to be the ideal band to catch in a dive bar like the now defunct CBGBs. Sadly, I only caught roughly a song and a half of what I imagine would have been an extremely entertaining set before having to rush over to snag an interview in the press room.

Grade: B+

1:15 P.M. to 1:45 P.M. The Maine – Smartpunk Stage

Combining the sounds of power pop and arena rock, The Maine has a pretty nice set up going for them. Hell, my biggest complaint from their set was nothing more than the fact that two members of the group were sporting the same shirt on stage. Tacky! Thankfully, we were covering Warped Tour and not “America’s Next Top Model.”

While I only got to see four songs by The Maine before sprinting across the venue to catch The Briggs’ first three songs, their set left me wanting to see a lot more of them. Their vocals are quite catchy and the band hangs on the hooks they have constructed. This is the type of band that gets stuck in your head for days. I will be doing my best to catch them in the future.

Grade: B

The Academy Is: website | myspace
Story of the Year: website | myspace
Beat Union: myspace
The Maine: myspace