Misery Signals - Karl Schubach
Posted on May 31, 2008 at 1:30 pm by admin
For those of you who may not know, Way Too Loud! is based in Canada, just like half of the band Misery Signals (or is it more like 3 out of 5 members)? I talked to vocalist Karl Schubach about the Misery Signals new album, and of course a few Canadian things as well.
Way Too Loud: What’s the meaning behind the title of your latest album, “Controller”?
Karl Schubach: Basically when we looked at it, we looked at all the songs looking for a theme in the lyrics, and it came down to an element of control in the songs, whether it was some person that you knew that had some sort of hold on you, or if you knew the bigger picture of things. Our guitar player writes some of the lyrics, and he even came into some environmental issues where some things are beyond our control, and that was the main theme we decided to go with, hence “Controller”!
WTL: Whenever I think of that album titled, I always think of those old-school NES controllers…
Karl: Believe me, there will be a shirt coming soon, if I have my way!
WTL: What’s the writing process like with you guys?
Karl: I don’t know how other bands do it really, but basically our guitar player and our drummer will get in separate rooms for a day or two and write a bunch of riffs, then bring them all together. Sometimes they flow together, sometimes they don’t. For the most part, those two will work out all the songs, then I just wait around until they get a couple done, and they say “here’s what we got” and I just put the words to it.
WTL: So you write most of the lyrics?
Karl: On this one. On the last record, “Mirrors”, I kind of came in at a weird time, and as soon as I joined, the label needed a record to come out really soon, so we split it 50/50 because we didn’t have enough time to sit down and write a whole album.
WTL: Do you have any way of working around writers block, or was that simply not a problem this time?
Karl: It was a huge problem this time around! I don’t know how exactly I worked around it to tell you the truth, but I’ll tell you what, one of the songs on the disc was kind of thrown together at the last minute. It was so last minute that we wrote the vocals in the studio on one night, and recorded them the next day, and just kind of went for it, and it actually turned out to be one of our favourite tracks.
WTL: I love the sound of that sometimes, the tension at the last minute.
Karl: It’s stressful, but there’s no greater feeling in the world than getting it all done, and just being able to relax after that. It’s hard!
WTL: What made you go with Devin Townsend this time?
Karl: Because we learned from our mistakes with the last record, and just from what the other guys had told me about working with Devin, the difference between that and what I experienced was night and day. His dedication, his overall commitment to making the best possible recording for the band and for himself as well. They were absolutely right. We went back to him, and to this day we’re still amazed at how it turned out, so we obviously made the right call.
WTL: What’s he like to work with, because I’ve heard he works people so hard, but the persona of his other bands has so much more humour.
Karl: You’ve just described both sides of Devin Townsend really. When I was working with him, it was like 24-hour a day comedy. In between takes on vocals he’ll say something that’ll have us both laughing for 5 minutes. I think it’s that relaxed kind of environment he brought the whole process. We’d laugh for 3 hours a day, and we’d play back a song and say “Whoa, we did all that today, and it sounds wicked?” The light hearted humour and everything made time fly, and I guess he had some sort of drive in that as well, because it didn’t seem like work at all.
WTL: Did you per chance say anything about his haircut?
Karl: He doesn’t have the hair anymore! The skullet is now no more! It was a shock at first when he showed up. The guys were holding bets whether or not he’d have the hair, and it’s reign of terror is over. I’ve seen pictures of it. I think he has the hair at home in a box, or so he claims.
WTL: What can we expect on controller that’s no cliche? Everyone wants to say they have the heaviest, most melodic, most diverse album ever.
Karl: You know, I’m not going to say it’s a step backwards to more of the “Of Malice and the Magnum Heart “ era, but we definitely took our time this time and going back to Devin, realizing what we did wrong on the last record, and thought what we could do this time around that would work to our favour, and what worked against us, so what you can expect from “Controller” is a blend of the two records, and the stuff that stood out from both of those records stuck together into this new one.
WTL: You’ve only had 2 members change in the lineup, so what do you attribute to keeping such a stable lineup?
Karl: Not being one of the original members, it’s kind of hard for me to say, but as Ryan put it, this is the second record in a row where we haven’t had a lineup change, which is rare to find in bands these days.
Band’s who tour, you’ll see them 3 months down the road and say “Yeah, we’ll hang out”, and 3 of the 5 members have changed since then is a common thing nowadays. By now, we’ve been spending 24 hours a day together in the last 2 years, and we all know what each person wants to achieve from all of this, we all know what we want to put into the songs musically, and I think holding on to these 5 guys has only strengthened us as a unit.
WTL: Are there any problems with members being in 2 countries, with border crossings, work visas, health care, and the confusion with bagged milk and toques.
Karl: Hey dude, you’re talking to a Canadian right now! The borders are hit and miss for every band. It’s not going to be easier or more difficult with members from other countries. The Canadians have work visas that are good for the whole year, while the Americans need work permits when they come in, but the border guards still can’t grasp how we know each other, which is a good questions really. We haven’t had any problems that all-American or all-Canadian bands don’t have. It’s all the same thing. It sucks.
WTL: I know when Canadians cross the border we can buy health insurance, what about the American members?
Karl: Basically our health care plan in this band is called “don’t get sick”, and “don’t get hurt”. I’ve got travel insurance which covers me in the states. I’ve had to use it a couple of times, like when I came down with bronchitis a year ago, and we had to take a week off, but as far as the Americans go, they’ve just got to behave themselves, because I don’t think either of them have any insurance. I love being from Canada!
WTL: I know Americans always scratch their head at bagged milk, but I’m guessing the guys in your band probably know all about that.
Karl: This is going to sound really bad, but is that just an Ontario thing? I’m from Saskatchewan man, and bagged milk isn’t really our deal over there either. I’ve seen it. It creeps me out! But, I think that might just be an eastern thing… I don’t know, I don’t drink milk.
WTL: What do you do for work, if you still do that between tours?
Karl: You’re under the assumption that we’re off tour sometimes! We’ve been at it for 2 and a half years straight now. Since I’ve joined the band it’s been tour, tour, tour, and maybe a week off here or there. Maybe. If we’re lucky.
WTL: So you guys are full time road-warriors.
Karl: The last time I was home was Christmas, and since the first week of January when I left we’ve been to Japan, Europe, the UK, full-US, and it’s only May. Thankfully we get the summer off. We’re going to take June and half of July off and wait until the record comes out. I don’t foresee any of getting a job though. We’ve been at this for too long, and we’re taking that as well deserved time off, but we at least make enough money to pay all the bills when we’re not on the road, so it’s pretty much all we need really.
WTL: Have you had to resort to eating anything crazy for dinner on the road, like beef jerky or peanut butter?
Karl: Not yet… you could survive on that if you want to try and save a little bit of money while your on the road, but you can only eat so much peanut butter and so much taco bell and so much dollar menu at McDonalds that you’ll eventually want to go and spend $10-$12 on a decent meal, like an Italian restaurant or something like that. It’s been done before, and I’ve heard of guys doing it, and I like to eat man, that doesn’t sit well with me!
WTL: Being from Canada personally, I had never tried White Castle until recently…
Karl: Oh… I tried it, once! Because I saw the movie, and we were recording in Cleveland, and we were out at a bar or whatever one night, and the only thing that was open was White Castle, and I just demanded to our bass player that this is a Canadian due trying White Castle for the first time, and he warned me! He warned me… he said “dude, you DO NOT want to do this…”, and I’m like “Ok, whatever”, I tried it. I think I was sick for about a week after that. It’s the worst. It is THE worst. I ate the whole thing. I had too! That was my one and only trip to White Castle, and we drove by one the other day, and I shuddered… Augh… A note to all the Canadians out there, do not, DO NOT bother… Bad times…
WTL: Who would you like to tour with who’s both feasible, but not obvious?
Karl: My life would be complete if we toured with Meshuggah! My life would b done. It could not get any better than that. All these other bands? Meshuggah. Before I joined this band, I was a kid going to all these shows seeing these other bands and just dreaming of doing this, and now all that these bands that I’ve looked up to and grown up listening to are all my friends now. Before I joined the band, we toured with The Dillinger Escape Plan, and I’d love to hang out with those dudes every night.
WTL: Have you ever lied about what your band name means?
Karl: I haven’t actually… Half the time when people ask us the name of the band and we say the name, I don’t know what it is, maybe the words are so close to something else, but every time, someone just hears it the wrong way. People will ask us our name, and we’ll say “Misery Signals”, and they’ll say “Mystery Symbols? What does that mean?” “Misery Sickness” is another good one, and at times like that, we don’t even bother correcting them, so these guys will probably go home from the concert and try to look up “Mystery Sickness” on MySpace or something like that. I’ve never had an opportunity to actually explain the name. However someone hears it, take it however you want.
WTL: I always have the problem of accidentally typing Misery Index…
Karl: The classic misery Signals/Misery Index debate. Actually we were on our European tour which we just got back from, and a show in Italy, and the promoter called our tour manager just to advance the show and get stuff set up, and he called to confirm advancing the Misery Index show, and our tour manager says “Uh…. did you advertise it as a Misery index show?”, and the promoter says “Well, yeah.”, and our tour manager says “You know you’re doing the Misery Signals show?”, and that became the big joke of the Italy date, fearing we’d show up with a bunch of kids expecting Misery Index. It happens a lot though. Even the singer from Between The Buried And Me said for everyone to put their hands together for Misery index, and he sort of caught himself in the middle, but we all just looked at him. So it’s not only you! Everybody does it! It’s cool!
WTL: Are there any parting words, perhaps about a certain band members interest in poker?
Karl: Actually, Kyle just won a whole $15 Canadian dollars in a poker game before we came here today, and all the As I Lay Dying and all the Evergreen Terrace dudes love playing poker, so we’ve gotten into more than a handful of card games on this tour already. It’s good! It gives us something to do after the show, or before the show.
WTL: And steal another bands money?
Karl: Absolutely! Like As I Lay Dying needs any more money. More of our money… Parting words, “Controller” comes out July 22nd across Canada, and we’ve got 2 tracks up on MySpace if you want to check that out. And we’re doing a video too, pretty quick, for a different song that’s not on MySpace, so everyone will get a good preview of it before it comes out.
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