Alexisonfire

What can one say about Canada? We all know it's a country above the United States which, sadly and unfortunately, gets confused with America. It has a sensational snow season, the beautiful Niagara Falls, the Rocky Mountains and policemen with funny hats called 'Mounties'.

Disappointingly, Canada barely gets recognised for the solid and impressive music scene and abundance of great bands like Silverstein, Moneen and Protest The Hero, just to name a few. Then, of course, there is everybody's favourite Canadian screamo/post-hardcore export Alexisonfire.

"I don't know what it is about the music here lately. Canada has always kind of been under the radar for music. We have Neil Young, which is huge, then we have the unmentionables like Celine Dion and I don't want to talk about her," drummer Jordan Hastings laughs. "But I guess it could definitely be something in the water, Lake Ontario is pretty polluted, so maybe it's the kind of weird harmful water that has messed with everyone's left brain, I don't know."

Currently resting from a hectic month on the Vans Warped tour and only a week before heading off on tour yet again, Alexisonfire have just released their third full-length instalment in 'Crisis' - another step forward for the band.

"I actually just finished another interview about five minutes ago and then I was talking to my mum on the phone. That's kind of embarrassing; better have a few more beers at the pub tonight than usual."

Only days from playing the infamous Download Festival in the UK, then doing a tour of Canada with Everytime I Die, Cancer Bats and Attack In Black, it's a wonder Alexisonfire ever get any time to themselves.

"We always have crazy touring schedules, the UK is going to be awesome; we are playing the same day as Muse who are one of my favourite bands at the moment and we are also playing with Aiden who are pretty good friends of ours. It kind of sucks though because I just found out Pearl Jam are playing, but not on the same day as we are. I'm a big time closet Pearl Jam fan so I'm pretty sad I won't be able to check them out. It's funny, I always get given shit about being a Pearl Jam fan, because it's so 1994, but I love them."
As for the Canadian tour, it's probably the biggest one the band have ever done.

"The last time we toured Canada, we toured with The Used and we got to co-headline that. But this time it's just us headlining, so it's going to be amazing. The fact that Everytime I Die are on board with us as well is awesome, because we just finished the Vans Warped Tour with them and they are really rad guys so it's going to be a reunion in a way."

The latest release 'Crisis' was jointly produced by Doug Boehm (Saves The Day, The Vines) and Julius Butty who Alexisonfire have used before. Their efforts have combined to produce possibly the most anthem-driven and catchy Alexisonfire release yet. So how do they keep advancing with every release?

"I don't know how we keep progressing if we even do. We just start jamming songs while we are on tour and with each riff we have, we kind of go with the vibe of it. 'Crisis' probably took us five to six months to write so we did take our time with it. You have to remember that I am the newest member of the band, so I guess I would've had my own impact on certain things with the album. I don't think the previous drummer [Jesse Ingelevics] had much to say. It's pretty much the same thing, same approach just the slight difference of a new drummer."

"Julius was awesome as always, same with Doug. The engineer was Nick Blagona and he is a fucking legend of engineering, he's done everyone from Deep Purple to The Police. He's pretty old, like mid-'60s, but he's awesome, and he totally got into us, which was super-cool, especially since he's pretty old and tired."

I guess the question which is on everyone's lips is if we will be lucky enough to have Alexisonfire back in Australia.

"We want to tour every city including Perth, spend a good two weeks there, do some touristy stuff, drink beer and eat Hungry Jacks."


WILL OAKESHOTT

'Crisis' is out now through Shock.