How long have you guys been around, and how did it all start?

Nick Brunson: Well the current line-up, or whatever, has been since ‘97.

Chris Mosely: No, six months. (*note* When Kelly Reeves split from the band)

Nick: Oh I meant six months (laughing). Whoops.

Chris: (laughing) yeah.

Nick: Well, the Haste as most people have known it, has been around for like seven years. That’s when I joined the band. Actually that’s my first show. (Nick points to a flyer on the wall.) That Mineral, Get Up Kids, and Haste show. (laughing) That was a good show.

Now that “The Mercury Lift” has been out for almost a year now, how has the overall response been?

Chris: I think it’s been pretty good. We not necessarily a band that does a whole lot of touring, but I would say our response has been good. The usual barometer for that whole deal is playing shows at home. From playing “The Mercury Lift” songs here in Birmingham, to having time to get used to the record, I think the response has been a lot better than we had imagined. There’s a lot of stuff that’s really different on that record than the previous stuff we’ve done, so we kind of wondered how that would come across. But the songs we thought would never work live, have turned out to be some of the ones that people sing along with. You find people liking parts of it that you wouldn’t have imagined, that could be a big crowd sing-a-long.

Do you keep up with how the record has been selling? Is that really important to you?

Chris: It’d be a lie to say we didn’t keep up.

Nick: It’s more of a vanity thing, rather than something we take really seriously. But it’s kind of cool to be able to say, “yeah we’ve only sold 2,000 records.”

(laughing)

Chris: The really interesting part is seeing how much it sells in certain cities.

Nick: yeah.

Chris: It’s cool to see it broken down like that. Not to walk around and say, “yeah we broke 10K today!” But it’s like so fucked up that we can do a certain number per week in New York City, that’s a higher number than we’ve ever sold in our hometown, and we haven’t played New York in months. But that aspect is the most fun about keeping up with record sales.

Nick: yeah, David Hasselhof keeps a fucking eye on Germany’s record sales.

(laughing)

Why does he do that?

Nick: He’s HUGE in Germany. (laughs)

I didn’t know that at all.

Nick: David Hasselhof? Fuck. When he plays in Germany, you can’t keep the Germans away. They’re all about it.

Does he play music?

Nick: Apparently so.

Chris: yeah.

(Laughs)

Okay. I had no idea.

Chris: yeah that car sings back to him. (laughs)

What car?

Chris: Kit! Knight-Rider?? Come on. Are you too young to remember Knight-Rider?

No I remember it, but I just didn’t know he sang to his car.

Chris: He didn’t. I just made that up.

All right. You guys toured heavily after “The Mercury Life” came out. How did the whole touring, to support that record, turn out?

Chris: The tours we good, and we toured with some really good bands. We were plagued with van troubles. That one tour with As I Lay Dying was ridiculous. We literally had to replace two transmissions and two rear-ends on our van. We ended up renting three different vehicles, and all this to do a five and a half week tour. After that, we left our van in Pennsylvania (to be repaired), and came home for a couple of days. Then we went back out with Stretch Arm Strong in a rented van, and stopped in Pennsylvania to pick our van up. But a hundred miles of from picking our van up, it breaks down again. So we just sold it to some guy we met at a gas station.

(laughing)

Chris: Didn’t we sell it for like $800?

Nick: I asked the woman at the gas station if she had a box we could have. She was like “yeah I might be able to find you one under here.” Then I said “I don’t suppose you want a van?” She said “Where is it?” I told her it was out in the parking lot and she said, “my brother buys those things,” so I said, “call your brother.”

Chris: We finished that and went back out again in that same rented vehicle to do the Hopesfall tour. Then we came out and still have no transportation. Aside from that, the tours have been good. It was awesome getting to around and play shows with Hopesfall, Bear Vs. Shark, and Hey Mercedes on that tour. We’re big fans of Bear Vs. Shark as people and as a band. Any chance we get to do something with those guys, we’ll do. We’ve always wanted to do stuff with Hopesfall. They’re awesome people. We got to be good buds with As I Lay Dying.

Nick: yeah those guys are awesome.

What about the tours where you get matched with bands that sound so completely different from your band? I mean As I Lay Dying sound nothing like you guys.

Chris: Oh yeah. You should have heard it the night it was us, As I Lay Dying, and The Hoods. Oh and Bleeding Through was there.

Nick: Oh yeah. That’s almost what’s cool about “The Mercury Lift”. I mean it can be a good thing or bad thing. We tend to get thrown on with a band like Bear Vs. Shark, one week, and the next week with Cannibal Corpse. (laughing). Well not literally, but it goes from one extreme to the other. But we can play anything because of the dynamics of “The Mercury Lift.”

Chris: The set we played on the As I Lay Dying tour was completely different than the set we played on the Hopesfall tour.

You guys have also toured with bands like Bury Your Dead and complete hardcore-mosh bands.

Chris: Those tours were good tours once again because of the people we were touring with. There were certain shows we played that were good shows for us, and there were a lot of shows were people really didn’t give a shit. But going back to looking at record sales, it’s funny coming off that tour. (*note* Bury Your Dead tour). There were certain towns that were absolute disasters. We couldn’t even give away stickers. But then we’d get home and look at the SoundScan reports, and nobody wanted to buy the record at the show, but they all snuck out and bought it later.

(laughing).

What? They didn’t want their friends to see them buying your record?

Nick: yeah, they wanted to put a Hatebreed slip over ours, so it would be more tough.

(laughing)

Chris: yeah, or they snuck off to Hot Topic and bought our record there. No, but it really was weird though. Key towns like that where we were just like, “my god that was a terrible show and how will we ever be able to show our faces there again?” But then we get the SoundScan reports and it says that we sold 40 records in that town for that particular month.

What are some of your favorite areas/cities to play?

Chris: New York is always awesome.

Nick: yeah.

Chris: I don’t understand how that’s happened, but I know a lot of it is from WSOU, because they’ve been very supportive of this new record. All the shows we’ve ever played in New York have been good. Let’s see. Where else?

Nick: Iowa is always good. Where was that club? It was the first time we played Iowa. There was that art show?

Chris: Oh yeah! We played upstairs.

Nick: Was that in Iowa City?

Chris: yeah.

Nick: yeah. That show was fucking awesome. They have always been good shows. And Boise! Isn’t Boise where we played at the botanical gardens?

Chris: No. That’s in...

Nick: That’s in Iowa, isn’t it?

Boise is in Idaho dude.

Nick: Oh.

(laughing)

Nick: Well nonetheless. (laughing). There’s a couple of places that are always good shows.

Chris: Oh Baltimore is always good.

Nick: yeah. Always really good. Philly is also been pretty good to us.

What about all the big festivals? Hellfest? New England Metal Fest?

Nick: New England is always a fucking blast. It’s always a good time. There’s always been a shit-load of people that watch us. It is run really effectively.

Chris: I think the beauty of that fest is that it is a true metal and hardcore fest. You got the guys that are strictly into metal and guys that are strictly into hardcore, but you’re also catching a lot of the in between folks. But if you play something like Hellfest, that’s strictly hardcore. But I think this band is more on the fringe. Not saying we’re completely metal or hardcore, but we fall more in between. With New England, we’ve always done really well there. Hellfest is always awesome to play just to say you’ve played Hellfest. There are so many good bands that play there. I don’t know if it’s us having some kind of complex, but there are so many cool bands there. We feel out of place, and we’re always “out-cooled”.

Nick: (laughing)

Chris: I don’t know if we’re just being retarded about it or what. But there are all these cool bands, and we’re not cool, so we have this chip on our shoulder that everyone thinks we suck. There’s always something at the end of the day at Hellfest that makes it work out. The first time we played there, we were like “god we were fucking horrible.” I mean it was run great, there were people there; none of the complaints. It was just something about it didn’t click right. We were like “we’ll never do this again.” But then we get home and a month later we start getting calls from lawyers, booking agents, and merchandising reps saying “hey I saw you at Hellfest and I thought it was good.” So we’ll start talking about things, and be like “wow.” So we played it again, and are like “now I see why we didn’t want to come back and play this,” but at the end of the day, when were counting the merch money we were like “oh my god, this is good.” It’s just weird vibe there, and I don’t think it has anything to do with the festival itself or the way it is run. Maybe we just have some complex, but it always seems kind of awkward and we’re like out of place.

Nick: yeah everybody is a lot cooler than we are.

Speaking of ‘out of place.’ I always thought it was weird you guys are on Century Media. So how has it been with that label after three records?

Nick: yeah we are kind of an oddball on that label. We’re not the typical Century band. But this is our third record and so we kind of have our own fan-base. I still think we might lose some people just because of the stigma of Century Media. Not that Century is doing anything wrong, but I think people expect a certain sound from Century Media, and we’re not that.

It seems like you’re pushed to a more metal crowd.

Nick: Definitely.

Chris: That’s absolutely how it was the first two records. The guy, that signed us, came from a background where he had been at Revelation and Caroline. So he moves to Century Media and they’re looking to kind of beef up the U.S. side of the label. So once he was over there he signed us, Shadows Fall, God Forbid and got Candiria on that one-off record. He got that guys in EyeHateGod to at least sit down and talk, and put out that one last thing of their’s. Granted Shadows Fall and God Forbid aren’t out of place on that label, but they’re not so typical of the Century Media sound. But he had a plan for down the road of kind of turning things around a little bit; focusing more on bands could have done a lot more, like Turmoil. Bands that were out of place on Century, but they were great bands. With the distro power and money that Century has, he was going to kind of utilize that. So you would look at Century Media Germany, and you would know what to expect, but then you would look at the U.S. side and would be a completely different identity. But, after he signed us, then God Forbid’s record and our record came out, and he ended up leaving Century. A new A&R guy came in that had never done A&R before. He was a great fucking dude, and he did everything he could for all of us. But it’s like the guy before had a five year plan in order, and he worked out eight months of it, and then it just kind of got dropped in the new guy’s lap. So once again we were back at square one, being the out of place band, after our first record had already been released.

Nick: For everything that is weird and not so good for us at Century, there is a lot that IS good for us with Century Media. They do have a good distribution, and some kind of money. They are a bigger label. A bigger indie label. We’ve gotten to do a lot of stuff because of Century. But I also think, through no fault of Century Media, that it’s hindered us a little bit. But at the same time, I think we’ve found a little niche at that label.

Chris: It’s like we always say: “You don’t go to Home Depot to buy lingerie.”

(laughing)

Chris: So why would you go to Century Media to buy a record from a indie-emo-hardcore crossover band? Whatever it is we play. I just think a lot of people don’t know where to look. I know I’m a fool for hearing a couple of bands that I really like, and, if I like two or three bands from one label, then I’m automatically going to check out everything else from their catalog. That’s why I’m a fucking sucker for Equal Vision. I don’t care what it is. The next Dolly Parton record could come out on Equal Vision and I’d go get it, because it’s on Equal Vision.

Nick: You know, this is completely off the subject, but did you know that Codeseven signed to Equal Vision?

Chris: There you go. That just proves my fucking point.

I heard that. Well, Century did a video for you guys that... (*note* a video has been completed for the song ‘Stutter’, and, at the time of this interview, has been submitted, but yet to be aired on MTV2).

Chris: That’s what I hear.

It’s done, but you don’t know where it is. But is it weird to have a real, professional video? I know you guys had that video for “Engine”, but it was just tour footage that was compiled.

Chris: You know what’s fucked up about that? That band The Used had video, that pretty much broke that record into the world, was put together from their tour footage. Our video (for “Engine”) had been done for about five months, Century put it on their home video, but we didn’t think there was much else we could do with it. Then all of a sudden that video from The Used comes out, and it blows that record up. So then MTV is interested in showing our video.

Because it’s the same concept?

Chris: I guess so. So we jumped in on the tail-end of that shit, when it was our idea first. (laughing)

Nick: yeah well then The Used can have a video about a guy going crazy, so our’s can be aired.

(laughing)

Chris: yeah having the real video is strange. I’m not going to lie; it’s cool as shit. But at the same time it’s something you can watch, and freak out on, and go show your mom. But when you sit down with your buddies and watch it...

Nick: All you do is get ragged on.

Chris: yeah! (laughing).

yeah, I know you got ragged on for that little alley scene.

Chris: yeah I did. I tried to get them to take that out. But they had to spend too much money getting my guns blurred out. The controversial, Christian hardcore, civil war rifles.

Nick: We can’t have any of that.

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