An Interview with Gym Class Heroes

You guys have gained a lot of success while playing with a lot of rock bands. Was it hard to find an audience with that crowd?

Recently it hasn't been as much because a lot of the places we go are already familiar with us so they kind of know what they're getting into. When we first started touring, it was way harder to be opening up for Fall Out Boy and then you have a kid in the audience not sure what to expect and we come out with a band and he ends up looking at us like, "What is this?" At the same time, we go out and do Hip-hop shows. It's kind of strange because they might expect something else and then we bring out instruments. It's kind of like no matter what audience we have to fight for that audience.

Is your crowd these days mostly Hip-hop fans or rock fans?

It's all over the place, actually. When we're doing our own headlining shows, you'll look down and see a 15-year-old teeny bopper standing next to a hoodie-wearing Hip-hop back-packer. It's really all over the place and every once in a while you'll find a 40-year-old mom in there or two. You never really know.

You guys have been touring for a while now promoting your album "As Cruel As School Children." Do you have any plans to go back into the studio any time soon?

I think that we're going to be going towards the end of the year, maybe December or January. We're going to be writing and perhaps recording as well. I mean, there's nothing concrete, but I think those are the plans right now. It's going to be cool because we're going to have studio space on our next tour, the Fall Out Boy tour, on the bus so we can really get the ideas flowing.

Two of the three singles from this album featured Patrick Stump. Are you worried at all about people seeing you as riding the coattails of Fall Out Boy?

I guess for certain people it could be perceived that way. If you really go back and look at it, it really hasn't been that way and if you look at the entire album it definitely helps. No one's saying that Fall Out Boy hasn't helped us get to where we are. Lots of bands get help from someone else who believes in them, so I think that's cool, but the last thing you want [is] to be perceived as this is the Fall Out Boy band. It's kind of like a double-edged sword but I'm not too worried about it right now.

You guys are on Pete Wentz's label and you're the only Hip-hop group on it. Do you feel a bit out of place at all?

I don't think we feel out of place on it. I mean, it's another one of those things that there's never going to be a place that's like, this is Gym Class Heroes' place. We kind of make our own place no matter where we go. But we don't really feel out of place either because we know all the guys on the label. It's not like a strange "these guys are weird" kind of relationship. It's more like a family thing.

As a Hip-hop group, what is the advantage of using live instruments?

I think it makes it significantly more dynamic during the shows. As opposed to having someone up there who's just walking around with music, you can actually see us being a part of the music we wrote ourselves. It's also cool because kids come out to shows who are used to seeing a band. Rock kids can come out and be like, "This is still Hip-hop but in a different format than we're used to it." It can also open the doors for lots of people who normally wouldn't look at other types of music. It's the same with Hip-hop - we can come out and be like, "Hey, we got an MC out here - let's check this out," [or] "Oh look, we've got all sorts of other types of music going on also. Maybe I'll check that out." I think it really opens people's minds.

Your first breakout single, "Taxi Driver," was basically a list of rhyming band names. Was that song a tribute to your influences or just a fun thing to do?

I think the way it's usually explained is that the first, "I took cutie for a ride in my deathcab," Travis was just writing around in his journal. He was like, "Oh that's cool" and then he started thinking that there are tons of "scene" bands that have names that would really lend themselves to describing a story. He called up Matt and was like, "Oh I've got this line" and he went back and wrote another line and another line and that's how the whole song was done. I would say that there are a lot of bands in there that have been influences. I wouldn't say its necessarily a tribute song, but our influences are definitely in there. I think our influences are really really broad which is what makes our sound so all over the place. As much as Coheed and Cambria is an influence, so are Michael Jackson and Hall and Oats.

You guys are known for blending a lot of different genres. What is your writing process like and how has it changed since your early EPs?

Actually, I joined in 2004 after we signed with Decaydance and our bassist joined shortly after that. But from what I understand, the earlier songs and EPs the songs were basically written like, "Here's going to be our jazz song, here's going to be our rock song, here's going to be our Hip-hop song." As time progressed and things evolved, it became more of an organic process. If you listen to "As Cruel As School Children," it's not really quite a rock song but you might be listening to a song and hear a rock solo infused in there. I'd say the process is whatever makes a good song. If I come up with a song idea and share it and it's a good song, cool. If we're working with one of our producers and they have a cool beat and then we write over the beat, cool. If we like a song idea we're going to use it. We don't really have a set way where we say, "This is how it has to be done."

A lot of the songs on "As Cruel as School Children" are about hard parties and the girls that come with them. Are these personal accounts or fictional stories?

I think there's a little bit of both in there. Travis tends to write about experiences that he's had or observations that he's had through experiences. So even the stuff that might be fictional probably has some truth in it. Also, there's a couple of songs in there like "The Queen and I" that sound like, "Oh, this song's just about girls" but if you dig a bit deeper it's actually about something a little more messed up, like wanting something that's bad for you or alcohol problems. It's packaged in this way that might seem straight forward but it's actually kind of cool.

By www.udreview.com