STRETCH ARM STRONG Interview with singer Chris Mc Lane  on June 23rd 2005 @ Rockfabrik / Ludwigsburg

It´s been the third day and third show in a row of your European Tour. I heard that the first show in Munich with SICK OF IT ALL  was sold out, same as PENNYWISE the other day. Today´s been a brilliant evening …okay there haven´t been that much people as expected…I know… the problem is there was another show, BLEEDING THROUGH and ZAO played in Karlsruhe, which is not that far away from here…that´s what I´ve heard. How is it to be back in Europe and did you expect that positive feedback?
It´s nice to be back in Europe. We were here about 7 months ago and we always really enjoy coming to Europe and the feedback on the new songs that we´ve been playing, the people seem to really like them and seem to be excited about, which is cool. And these new songs we haven´t been playing in the US yet, we´re playing them first in Europe, so it´s kinda cool for us.

What do you think is the difference about the audience in Europe and the States?
The kids in Europe I think are a lot more accepting, and kinda understanding on what bands are doing and they are very supportive. Well, in the States we get so many bands coming through and here´s so many bands for people go to see. It´s nice that in Europe the kids are so welcoming and so nice in general to us when we come back, it´s very nice.

The new album has been recorded, mixed and mastered now, the artwork is done. What can we expect of it? What issues does the album deal with? I mean the title “ Free at last” sounds like you finally got rid of something….
Yeah, well the record is done. It comes out September 13th and the title “ Free at last” is actually kinda all of us being finally free from whatever may or can strain us or can hold us down or confide us, and a lot of people deal with. And it can be anything from like drugs, religion to an abusive situation or a partner. You know finally when you break free and you remove that mask that you put on and that possess of security that so many people have, you know when that finally comes off, you´re left with you and you´re left with what you have left. And the record deals with some issues like we were in Europe, like I said back in October / Novemeber. There we got to tour Eastern Europe, we went to Serbia, we saw a lot of destruction that the US Forces had done there, parts of Poland and all these great kids, and all these great people that have a really bad impression of the United States based on the media. You know the people really hate our country. And the idea that we´re from that place, but we don´t always agree and support the politics of our country,  and the idea that“ Free at last” is…you know we are humans, people make mistakes, people do things I ain`t proud of but to finally come clean and…. come free to reinvate yourself and kinda change yourself is what the record deals with.

I think many people have seen you for a long time as a Christian Band, I think you always rejected labeling yourself a Christian band. Right. Is this also this “getting rid of religion”?
Well it´s not so much like a delievered attempt to get rid of anything. It´s more of like, you know, I mean for a lot of people religion is a great thing, and I grew up going to church, I have a familiy and I try to go when I`m home….we never wanted to be a christian band because we´re not a christian band. We got labeled this once. And you know “Free at last” has a specificially adressed anything in particular other than ripping of all these strains that can hold you by, you know: you and me and kids here at the show tonight. Kids everywhere. You know breaking the chains that really hold people. We all wear maskes that say we`re happy or this is okay, and this is, we follow this, and when that comes off then you´re left with the person. you maybe doesn´t agree with the group but the person that doesn´t fit in with the other, you know “acception of society”, when you´re left to deal with that. It can be a very refreshing thing. But it´s not very easy at first to do that.

But you follow that path?
We try, we try.

I think your lyrics have always been kinda deep, I mean you have been speaking really personally to others…
We try. Thank you. And I think because we write about things that are personal to us and people say we´re kinda political. But you are not very political when you talk about being positive and like being caring and other things. We never set out and try to write a song to be about …we never try to write these powerful lyrics where are these very inside politics, it´s just stuff that we deal with. It´s stuff that we see and stuff that we feel. And you know on this record a lot of stuff came from being on tour for so long and being in Eastern Europe. It´s been the first time we´ve ever been to Eastern Europe. And just seeing those people, and just how accepting and how awesome the shows were, like they were very excited for us to be there, and it didn´t matter we were from America, and it didn´t matter they were from Serbia, and it didn´t matter they were from Poland whatever…we were there because we shared a common bond. We couldn´t speak the same language, but we could agree and get along for 45 minutes. So it was just really great.

I found a quote on your band in the internet. It says that you´re a band who have always been about “sincerity and about five individuals who love each other”.
What do you think?
I think it´s true. In sincerity kinda like what I said earlier like the lyrics that we write about, the things we write about, the things that we experience. And we´re five white guys from suburbia. I mean we all come from middle class backgrounds, we come from loving parents, four of us are married, two of us have kids, and this is like my other life outside of  a normal life. I ´m with these guys when I am not with my familiy which can be hard. And I do love these guys, and I know what they´re gonna do and they know what I´m gonna do and it is really an amazing relationship which you can have with four other people that you spent a whole lotta your life with and …you know sincerity is invidual, it´s coming clean with how we feel, the things we say, we talk about stuff. We´re not touchy feeling like big hugs every day, but you `re doing this, I´m doing this... That´s just right. So we try to do that.


You worked with James Wisner who already did such bands as DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL, UNDEROATH and FURTHER SEEMS FOREVER, Ryan Greene (known from LAGWAGON and NOFX) mixed the album…how came this?
Actually it´s very strange. On our third record “Revolution Transmission” we recorded the record at home and we needed someone to mix and we´ve always been a fan of the stuff he has done like NOFX, LAGWAGON and PENNYWISE all this kinda stuff so we just gave him a call said “Hey man, we got x - amount of dollars, do you wanna try to do this can you do this? And he was like “Yeah.” So we flew out there, mixed records and were like “wow I kinda love this kinda project”. He doesn´t get to do stuff like these, more like pop punk you know, more EPITAPH, FAT WRECK RECORDS rooster. So when it came time to do this record James Wisner does the recording, but he doesn`t mix so we said well, I wonder if Ryan Greene can mix and we call him again. We flew to Arizona, and it was great. He is very into the project and it became very personal which was very very cool, `cause he can work with anybody. But he made this get to work with us. That was very cool.

Was there a specific situation where you knew that this album is gonna be different from the others?
Well, I don´t think. We knew that we weren´t happy with the writing on the last record so much the way it came out, and on this record we spent  a lot of time writing this record. We are on the road and we were writing songs with taking the accustic guitars, and writing songs in the van and then we got off the road in January were we stayed of the road until April writing the record. You know three or four nights a week doing rehearsals, writing songs and it was very intense. Like when you are in the studio for five weeks, and it was a very, very intense situation, that is proven to be one of the best records we have ever done and I´m sure everyone says that. But just the songs, and the vocals and the melodies and the fast parts and the breakdowns and you know where we were going. It is just a very powerful, rocking record and I can´t wait for it to come out. So I´m very excited. 

This is your first release of the new partnership with WE PUT OUT RECORDS. What was wrong with SOLID STATE?
Well, nothing was wrong with SOLID STATE. We had done three records, so we finished our contract with them. And we wanted to try something else. They were doing things in a different direction. We were done with it. You know we finished our agreement, everything´s fine and we are still in good terms with them. We just wanted to try something else, and our managment took our demos, and shoped them around. We were able to do the WE PUT OUT / EAST WEST Record Label, which is backed by a bigger label, that gave us money to get in the studio and record the record that we wanted to record. It has been very good conditions.

Can you tell me something about this European Tour?
It´s our seventh time in Europe, it´s the first time that we haven´t headlined and we´ re doing some of the biggest shows we´ve ever done. We´re doing.. it was PENNYWISE last night, SICK OF IT ALL tonight and then we do FURY FEST, PRESSURE FEST, WITH FULL FORCE and then we play with PENNYWISE in the UK, PENNYWISE back on the mainland, we play with TERROR for three shows, be back up with SICK OF IT ALL. It´s the first time we´ve ever done a real support tour and it´s been so big, like the shows have been great, very cool.

So the people can look forward seeing you.
Yeah, except they have to get there early, `cause we are playing earlier some nights, cause we´re not headlining.

Can you tell us at about what time you´re gonna play?
I think at the festivals we go on around three early in the afternoon on the second stages and in the rest of the shows we´re going on some around eight or nine with the club shows. Get there early!!!!

After Europe you will be home a few days and then hop on a 6 weeks headliner US tour, any other plans this year?
Yeah, we are home for six days and drive up to Seattle which is on the other side of the country. We do the co-headlining tour with HASTE THE DAY, from end of July to the very beginning of September. We will come home and take a little bit of a break and then we might doing support with some other bands I cannot confirm yet. So I don´t wanna say too early, but we´ll be touring to support the new record.

I´ve seen you last year at October Blast Festival in Trier. The kids have been dancing, singing along, jumping up and down. I think your music has a very positive outlet on the audience. How comes that? Are you positive people? We already talked a bit about this…but is there still a certain message behind STRETCH ARM STRONG?
Well you know,I´m a fan of brutal music and I´m a fan of  big break downs and moshparts and I love TERROR, I love SICK OF IT ALL, HATEBREED and MADBALL and all these bands. Yeah, and we write music that is a little more melodic and a little more sing song. It´s just because that we come from aspired people, I don´t like and I don´t support violence on the dancefloor. I mean I think  dancing is awesome, I like to dance. I like to watch people dance. I think dancing, a reason in the States,  is becoming more of the focus, and bands are like the soundtrack to what is going on the dancefloor, what I think really stinks. There is plenty of violence in the world and there is people fighting and bombing each other. We don´t need to do that at a club show, or at a festival. And I´m not into it. I don´t think it has a place and there´s always this people that come around and that´s what happens and I think it´s a real shame.

How would you describe yourself and the other bandmates? Why did you last so long as a band? What´s the secret?
I´ve been in the band now for 12 years. We all know each other very well, and we know like when each other is kinda like breaking pointed, like boiling point, you know what I mean? Like we know when someone´s getting to the edge and gets angry, like “Get away!” and we all know that´s the end of the day. Our goals are the same, we are on the same pages what we wanna be doing as a band and we have seperate lifes outside of the band that we can kinda go and retreat to. And we can stay focused, we can stay on tour, we can work together so well, simply because we know each other so well. We´ve been doing it for so long and I think the formula is we can talk to each other and we know what each person´s gotta do and it makes it easy to kinda predict and prepare for life together. You know it´s like a sister or brother, there´s times you wanna kill him, but the other time you love them and that´s what they do and that time you´re gonna do it and you just make it work.  

Any last words?
Our new record “FREE AT LAST” comes out on September 13th in the States. We´ll be on tour in Europe until the 17th of July and as always we appreciate the support and all the people that we met in Europe. Thank you Conny I appreciate the interview.

Interview by Cornelia Schmitt.