ShockHound

WATCH: Our exclusive acoustic Shock Session with the Used



WATCH: Our exclusive interview with Bert and Quinn.

Interview by Courtney Lear

The Used is your classic rock band success story: Group of musicians feel restrained by the ideals of small-town life; musicians form band; band makes it big. Except the Used’s small town just happened to be 45 minutes south of the Mormon capital of the world, Salt Lake City, Utah.
    Resentment for their hyper-religious hometown resulted in a lot of pent up frustration for the Orem, UT outfit, which led to a lot of screaming — and inadvertently contributed to the rise of the musical genre known (for better or worse) as "screamo," which combined vulnerable lyrics with elements of hardcore, the latter exemplified by frontman Bert McCracken's larynx-shredding shrieks. But seven years into their career, the band is finding the "screamo" label as confining as the Mormon faith.
    McCracken and guitarist Quinn Allman recently sat down to talk to ShockHound about creating a new genre they've lovingly coined “grosspop,” their dark new album Artwork (which drops August 31), and eating babies.

SHOCKHOUND: The cover art for Artwork is very dark. Does that sum up the feel of the album?

BERT MCCRACKEN: In a big way. It’s the element of danger. I miss dangerous rock ‘n’ roll. When I was a kid, there was tons of cool shit that was dangerous. I just don’t see that anymore. We kind of wanted to bring that back, but in a big way it has to do with everything. Social influences on what art has become and what we think art should be. It’s overwhelming the amount of things that it can mean and does mean to me.

SHOCKHOUND: You told AP that the album is about coming to grips with hating yourself.

QUINN ALLMAN: Some of the songs are.

MCCRACKEN: Lyrically, this record is a little deeper, and a little darker, and maybe a little bit heavier with vulnerability and emotion, but I definitely wrote about the things that I always write about: love and happiness and sorrow and mortality and dysfunction and drugs. [Laughs]

SHOCKHOUND: So this is your fourth full-length release…

MCCRACKEN: Fifth. They didn’t count Shallow Believer as a full length, because we got kinda screwed by the label...there is 11 or 12 songs on it, but they’re all kind of B-sides. it’s just a digital download only.
 
ALLMAN: So it’s not even a record, so yeah, four.

SHOCKHOUND: This release has a really raw feel to it. Coming from your previous albums, where do you guys think you’re going with this one?

MCCRACKEN: We were tired as hell of screamo music and just being identified with that type of genre, because we’re really not a genre type of band. We’ve never really played a part in any one’s scene. We’re just from Utah and we love making music. I guess we set out to destroy a genre of music and create a new genre of music at the same time. Our idea was a genre called “grosspop.” The music is really what the Used has always been — very melodic and catchy and poppy in a way, but the music is just thrown away and dirty and gross, kind of letting the mistakes shine through.
 
ALLMAN: That’s kind of what we were from the beginning, that’s what it seemed to be, just a chaotic blend. Then it got formulized. I think we wanted to take it back to where it started with his words and my guitar.

 

SHOCKHOUND: Do you guys have studio rituals that you do to get in the zone or is it just a “Fuck it, we’re doin’ this live” mentality?

MCCRACKEN: Working with [producer] John Feldmann in the past had been very focused, and very appropriate, and deadlines and this and that. This record was more like, “Fuck you, I’m making a record.” I’m not going to go hunt down creativity. I don’t have to go hunt for these things that I can let come to me when I’m ready for them to come to me. I think [with] this record, we were able to do a lot more drugs, and drink a lot more, and smoke a lot more. [Laughs] But for real, there was a lot more freedom for us to experiment with more sounds and just different ideas. I feel like we wrote around the vocals more this record than we ever have. It was awesome. It was a lot of fun making this record.
 
ALLMAN: Everything, like he said, had been very hands-on in the studio, and this time we got to be picky and do what we wanted to do and it just evolved. We didn’t even know quite exactly what it was going to be, but we got to experiment.

SHOCKHOUND: Tell us a little bit about the meaning behind the new single “Blood on My Hands.”

MCCRACKEN: Everybody has a crunchy outside coating I guess. Everyone wears a mask, no matter who you are. I think it’s about the people we are on the inside. In a big way, I like to think of it as maybe you’re standing on the edge of a cliff with your best friend, but you know that you could just push him off at any second. There’s this craziness inside all of us like, “I really could just throw this baby off a cliff” or whatever or “I could jump,” but it’s also about keeping that part of you hidden away, and how that’s become appropriate in society to not be all the way honest. It’s ridiculous. It would be racist or sexist, and just breaking down what the biases are. Deep down I want to kill everyone.

SHOCKHOUND: You guys did a bitchin’ cover of Talking Heads' “Burning Down the House” for the Transformers soundtrack. How did that come about?
 
MCCRACKEN: Warner approached us about doing a song and they had a list of artists to choose from and they were pretty much all picked, everything was all picked out, so we got Talking Heads.
 
ALLMAN: It was like last on the list.

MCCRACKEN: I think it was like Talking Heads, or Danzig. We were like, I guess we’ll do Talking Heads. The band is really interesting. It’s always cool party music or weird art, it’s weird. They’re a weird band.

SHOCKHOUND What artists or bands are you fans of that you think your fans might be surprised about?
 
MCCRACKEN: There’s a new band with a couple of my friends in it and it’s kind of like a hippie, folky really rad rock band called Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.
 
ALLMAN: We saw them at South by Southwest and it was like one of the best shows we’ve ever seen.

MCCRACKEN: Inspirational. We were like little kids jumping around. It reminded me of like the only other fun time we’ve had at a show, when we went to Fugazi. We were just like little kids like, “This is awesome!” So you should check them out. They’re so fun, and weird and deep.

ALLMAN: You can’t not get into it.

 

SHOCKHOUND: Do you have any pre-show rituals to help you get pumped up before a show?

MCCRACKEN: Yeah, we always hug up and tell each other we love each other and get real gay and touch balls together. We do. We all hug up and we all give each other individual hugs and tell each other that we love each other. If you’re in kind of a bad mood, you know you’re not always excited to play a show when it’s 2 months in and you’re hungry and you’re sick and you have diarrhea. So it is good to kind of get love, and just to hear “I love you” and say “I love you” always feels good and switches up the mood a little bit.

SHOCKHOUND: Bert, you’ve gained a reputation for puking on stage. Is that just strain from singing? Can you do it on command? What’s the deal?

MCCRACKEN: No, I don’t puke on command or for fun, nor do I like to puke for fun. I mean, towards the beginning of our career I think we were a lot less composed and we just wanted to fucking flip out the whole time. It’s like running as fast as you can as hard as you can for as long as you can, while also trying to scream as hard as you can. You’ll probably puke. I don’t puke anymore.

ALLMAN: Gave it up.

MCCRACKEN: Gave that shit up long time ago, man.

SHOCKHOUND: You guys are pretty outspoken vegetarians…

MCCRACKEN: Hell no, none of that. I’ll eat a little baby. I’ll eat a baby anything.

ALLMAN: Yeah, I will too.

MCCRACKEN: Give me baby meat and I’ll eat it. I love flesh. I’ll cook a baby raw.

 

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