Comeback Kid – Andrew Neufeld
Posted on October 26, 2008 at 9:05 pm by Luke
Only a few days after the unfortunate Montréal robbery I was able to chat with vocalist Andrew Neufeld of Winnipeg, Manitoba’s hardcore act Comeback Kid. It was evident that he was a tad distraught considering their van and trailer full of equipment was stolen, but at the same time his passion and commitment for hardcore audiences across his home country was enough to brighten his spirits during the last few days of the Though The Noise Tour!
WayTooLoud!: What got you started in music?
Andrew Neufeld: I’ve been doing music pretty much since I can remember, growing up with music all around me, my parents are musicians and my brothers are musicians. Just kind of something that’s always been around me since I was young. Just growing up, that’s definitely where I discovered music. Then getting a keyboard when I was eight or nine and fuckin’ around with the samples on the built in presets (Laughs) to probably the first band I started was like when I was thirteen, I got a guitar and learned how to play a power chord, the band was called Wedged!
WTL!: Wedged?
Andrew: Yeah, Wedged. Pretty bad. (Laughs)
WTL!: Did Wedged have anything released?
Andrew: We got a song on a compilation…
WTL!: Oh really, do you think it’s still available to find?
Andrew: Maybe…
WTL!: So you used to be in a band (Figure Four) with Jason Bailey from Grave Maker, how is it going with them on this tour?
Andrew: It’s awesome! Bailey is pretty much a best friend! That’s why we wanted them on the tour, they’re a cool band! It’s been kind of a crazy tour, don’t know if you’ve heard of the stuff that’s been going on? Grave Maker, I just decided “Oh, I’ll ride with you guys one night” and me and my friend Matt were recording with our other band in Vancouver, that’s where we started the tour, and I was riding with them just for the night and we rolled our van like four times! The van was totaled! My friend Matt was stuck underneath the van for an hour, thought he was gonna die, but he’s fine he just had his legs stuck underneath [the van] and his one leg was protecting his ribs. So their van and trailer was messed up so Bailey was riding with us, then the Grave Maker guys, Smallman Records helped them out and got a car and have just been riding along with other people. Then just the other day we got our van, trailer and equipment stolen in Montréal. The cool thing is that I haven’t missed one show yet! Everyone’s alive and everyone’s still playing music, so that’s cool!
WTL!: What exactly happened and what did they take?
Andrew: We drove through the night from Drummondville, Québec and we parked in the parking lot at the hotel at like 4:00 a.m. and came out the next morning and were like… “Where’s the van, ha ha ha!” Guess we’ll just call the towing company and there’d be an expensive bill, but we called them up and they said they didn’t have anything there. Then the guy who was in the parking lot came back and said [the van] wasn’t there at 6:00 a.m.
It must be something organized, they need a place to store these vans ‘cuz apparently a lot of stuff is getting stolen, like vehicles and stuff and no one really knows what’s going on.
WTL!: I’ve heard of stuff getting stolen in Montréal in the past.
Andrew: Yeah, [they took] everything, equipment, my bag, my clothes. But I got a few clothes so it’s okay. It’s not as bad for me as the other guys, the other guys had thousands of dollars worth of equipment stolen, without insurance!
WTL!: Tell me about the live DVD “Through The Noise”, it’s CBK’s first live effort, what was it like filming in Germany?
Andrew: It was cool! Originally that show wasn’t supposed to be the live CD version. Basically we just wanted to do a DVD and do a live show to go along with it, just like a documentary about the band. So a friend of ours did that, collected a lot of footage from over the years, all of our footage from touring, and other peoples footage and it just shows the band recording and member changes the band has had and shows different stages the band has had with every record.
The live show was cool, we actually tried to do a live audio recording in London [England], but that turned out like shit, so we ended up using the live recording from the live show [in Germany] that was on tape, that was filmed.
WTL!: It’s always nice to have something that you can play in your car or wherever too!
Andrew: Yeah, definitely!
WTL!: Was there anything different you had to do, or tried to do, since the show was being recorded?
Andrew: Not move around or not go off as much, not give the mic to the crowd as much. It’s the kind of thing, we had these crowd mic’s but couldn’t really pick them up too well ‘cuz when you’re mixing crowd mic’s in, you don’t get the same vibe as you do live because those mic’s pick up the sound from the main PA speakers so if you turned the crowd mic’s on super loud you hear lots of crowd conflicting feed back from the speakers. Like our guitar will be mic’ed and if you can hear the guitar through the speakers it just gets… That was just a huge issue ‘cuz to grab the full essence of a hardcore show, when you’re there, you hear the audience around you and hear people singing along, and you give the mic to the crowd and… it turned out pretty good I think though!
It’s always hard doing it live ‘cuz you sometimes worry about how you sound more than the actual pure, raw energy of the show, you know what I mean?
WTL!: Yeah, just going off and playing!
Andrew: Yeah, just a little bit more self-conscious I think. You wanna play and sound good!
That day we recorded I got some weird flu that was going around on the tour and I was puking my ass of the whole day. “Why do I have to have this thing on this day?!” But [the show] turned out really good, I’m happy with everything, the show actually made me feel better, got to sweat it out!
WTL!: What CBK songs do you enjoy playing live?
Andrew: “Wake The Dead”, kind of the obvious one ‘cuz it gets the most reaction, I enjoy playing “False Idols Fall”, “Defeated” and “Broadcasting…” is cool too. “All in a Year” too.
WTL!: What are the hardcore kids like across the ocean compared to back here in Canada or the States?
Andrew: I think there’s differences between everybody not just between oceans, even from here in London [Ontario] to Toronto to people in Vancouver to people in L.A. It’s a totally different vibe from people on the west coast to people on the east coast in the States, then a totally different vibe from Germany to Holland to Japan. You know, it depends on where bands are touring more frequently. It’s always nice to play other countries and cities where people are a little bit more hungry for the music, and not as spoiled. We kind of haven’t been touring North American lately, so this tour that we’re doing in Canada right now is pretty awesome, everyone is really excited but it’s because we’re not playing here like three times a year like a lot of other Canadian bands.
WTL!: Any up and coming bands we need to know about that you’ve encountered abroad?
Andrew: Yeah there are lots of bands! (Laughs)
There’s this band from Japan called FC FiVE, amazing, they’ve been doing it for a little while. Probably one of the best bands, another band from Japan, Enswick, really good! We’re going on a tour in Australia with a band called Carpathia, they’re taking us on tour there in a few months. Probably my favorite European band would be Cult of Luna, I think they’re pretty popular still.
WTL!: Tell me about the documentary “Our Distance”, why did you choose to document the band over the last decade and was it something you’ve always wanted to do?
Andrew: We were doing a European tour last November and our guitar player Jeremy [Hiebert] said it would be cool to just bring a friend and document the tour, and it went from a tour thing and snowballed from there. I don’t think we had enough footage just from the tour to show the band at a point in time, we just collected footage to make it worthwhile. We’ve been a band for a long time and Victory [Records] and Smallman [Records] agreed to do it with us, so it was probably our one shot to do something like that.
WTL!: Why release it now, why not wait for, say, another decade?
Andrew: Maybe we’ll do another one. (Laughs) It just made sense at the time and we weren’t making a new record anytime soon so… we were doing tours and just wanted to put something out, we’ve been in the band for a long time and we don’t have that much pressure to do a new record at the moment.
WTL!: “Broadcasting…” was CBK’s darkest album so far, do you have anything in store for the next record?
Andrew: It might be a little more thrashy, a little bit more heavy, I think I feel a lot more confident as a singer now, as the singer in Comeback Kid. I’ve sang in bands before but I used to play guitar in the band, but when you replace a vocalist you wanna make it sound like the same band! I just feel more comfortable with my own voice in this band. For the next record we’re just gonna take out time with it, it’ll probably be the same kind of shit that we always do, melodic but heavy, but I’m sure it’ll be a lot different at the same time. We’re always trying to do new things!
WTL!: How have vocal duties been working since Scott left? I know fans can be tough on a band whenever they change vocalists, it’s been a while now, does and it seem like everything’s fine, the fans have adapted?
Andrew: Yeah it seems like that! We actually had Scott [Wade] our old singer sing two songs with us last night in Toronto! People were really super pumped! We we’re kind of joking around, we don’t know if some of the young kids at the show really even knew what was going on. It depends if you were someone who followed the band but if not it’s hard to tell if you’re someone like “Oh, I’ve heard of Comeback Kid before” and was just checking out the show, just hanging out.
I feel fine doing the singing now, it’s been two and a half years so it seems like we’re doing the same things we were always doing. I think we’re on a different level than when Scott left the band.
WTL!: Who writes most of the songs, how does the writing process work for you guys?
Andrew: I write the lyrics and me and Jeremy pretty much come up with the riffs. Sometimes I’ll come up with a whole song or Jeremy will come up with the majority of a song, we just come together and hash it out. It’s nice ‘cuz if you’re stuck on ideas, to just be with other people and have someone else there to feed off of to finish the job.
WTL!: What do you like to write about, what’s inspires your lyrics?
Andrew: Just growing up and realizing certain things affect your life, just figuring out what exactly you want to be disassociated with and what you want to embrace in your life, just the reality of this world, just talk about whatever. I’m not super pumped about writing lyrics all the time, I think it’s important but I find it really challenging for me.
WTL!: “Broadcasting…” and “Wake The Dead” were recorded at the Blasting Room, how did you guys get hooked up with the Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore, and will the next record be recorded there?
Andrew: I don’t know where our next record will be recorded, but we hooked up with Bill Stevenson when we were on tour with Bane and Only Crime, and Bill Stevenson plays in Only Crime, as you probably know [as he points to my Only Crime shirt]. (Laughs) We were going to record with someone else and he heard the band and liked the band, he wanted to record us. He gave me a mixed CD of all the stuff he’s done before and I didn’t really know too much, I mean I knew the Descendents and Black Flag, but his whole studio operation is mostly pop-punk bands and stuff. I think we were one of the first hardcore bands he did, besides stuff like Suicide Machines or Rise Against, heavy stuff.
WTL!: How did you get hooked up as a guest vocalist on Grave Maker’s “Comfort In Concrete”?
Andrew: Bailey’s one of my best friends and we we’re in California and they recorded down there, just hanging out.
WTL!: The right place at the right time!
Andrew: Yeah, definitely!
(Laughs)
WTL!: Do you or anyone else have any other projects currently on the go, like jobs, other bands?
Andrew: I have a band we just did a record for called Sights and Sounds, we’re gonna put out a record on Smallman here in Canada around March or April. Casey [Hjelmberg - guitarist] has a band called Beekeeper that he’s been doing. Matt [Keil], our new bassist and Casey have had a band called Regret that they were doing even before Comeback Kid, they do stuff from time to time.
WTL!: How do you keep yourselves entertained on the road?
Andrew: We drive during the day and nap during the day and get to the show. Casey’s straight edge, I drink (Laughs). Sometimes I drink, sometimes I hang out with friends, play a show, kind of the same thing every day. Just hang out, watch movies in the van, listen to my iPod, write music.
WTL!: What have you been listening to lately?
Andrew: Today I listened to Dolly Parton’s Greatest Hits.
WTL!: Really?
(Laughs)
Andrew: Yeah I actually did, ‘cuz our merch girl, I asked her to get me really chill, girl country music, ‘cuz she’s into country; Dolly Parton has a few heart wrenchers… I listen to Maria Taylor, Azera, I listen to a band called Mew, been listening to Misery Signals a little bit, their new record’s pretty awesome!
It’s kind of hard ‘cuz the last couple weeks have been like a cluster-fuck for us since we had that accident, and the van. I haven’t had much personal time to do [any listening].
WTL!: Who would you like to tour with who’s feasible but not obvious?
Andrew: A band that we’ve toured with before that’s probably one of my favorite bands ever in hardcore is Madball, I’d like to tour with them again! We’ve never toured with Hatebreed before, I think it’d be neat to tour with them.
WTL!: Is there anywhere in the world you’d like to tour?
Andrew: I’d love to go to Brazil but we’re actually going there, we’re going to South America in a couple months! I’d like to go to Thailand, I’d like to play South Africa.
WTL!: Have you told any good lies about your band name or just plain lied about who you guys are?
Andrew: No. Well one time when me and Bailey played in Figure Four we we’re in some hotel in Idaho on some super long drive and we told some girls we were in Sum 41, they hung out with us in a hot tub, kind of random. They were probably star-struck, and we were younger and more immature at the time. (Laughs)
WTL!: Well thanks for doing this interview!
Andrew: Yeah, no problem! You should watch the rest of the show, the bands are pretty good!
WTL!: I will!
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