Gatsby's American Dream - 8.7.05
Written by Joanne Vitale
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How did Gatsby’s American Dream get together?

We got together about 3 ½ - 4 years ago. We had all been bands around the Seattle area. Somehow we all just fell together and started playing.

What’s the scene like in Seattle?

It’s amazing. Being able to tour and travel around the country is amazing. You get to see all the other scenes and stuff. I still think after seeing everything that Seattle is still my favorite place. There are so many bands and artists. Everyone kind of knows each other. It’s a very supportive scene. We feel really, really fortunate to be apart of what’s going on in Seattle right now.

How did you guys come up with the name Gatsby’s American Dream?

It's a reference from the book The Great Gatsby. When Bobby came up with the name I think he just finished reading that book. And for what we wanted to accomplish was very similar to what the main character in the book wanted to do. We saw a lot of similarities.

How did you guys end up hooking up with Fearless Records?

We put out our first two records and we had been touring nonstop and then we put out our EP, In the Land of Lost Monsters. Then there was just some more touring and tried to focus on staying on the road. So after the EP came out they got in contact with us, we met up with them. They were really supportive of what we wanted to do.

So your new album, Volcano, just came out 2 months ago. How do you feel it turned out?

We’re completely stoked. We feel it turned out exactly what we wanted. We spent three months on the record. There was a lot of thought and time going into it to make it what we wanted. We are planning on being on the road as much as we can to support it. We’re stoked and the response has been really, really cool. Kids have been amazing. And this whole warped tour thing. We feel really fortunate to where we are right now.

Where did you guys come up with the album name?

When we were talking about coming up for the concept of the record and throwing out ideas in the beginning...There is a story (sorry I didn’t catch what he said the name was) of a city in Europe. There was a Volcano and they built a city below the volcano. Then it erupted and destroyed the city. They ended up rebuilding the entire city and the same thing happened years later.

How do you feel Volcano differs from your last release?

At the time Ribbons & Sugar came out it sounded a lot different than what was really big at the time. There were a lot of harder-emo bands that were popular. And then our record didn’t have any screaming it wasn’t in drop-beat tuning. So a lot of people either really, really like it – or really, really hated it. I think now, people are coming around and finding the things we do interesting. With Volcano we tried to take all the good things on the pervious records we have done and all the things that we thought would make Volcano really good. There are a lot of similarities on Volcano that there are in The Land Of Lost Monsters. When we were trying to coming up with what we wanted to achieve with Volcano, we wanted to take the best parts of each of our records and make the album the best interpretation of Gatsby and what we have done in the last few years.

So I heard you guys are shooting a video for “Theatre”. Have you already shot it? (It took me about a week to type this, so it is probably already done)

We are shooting the video in less than a week. We have a few more dates and then we come back to LA for three days and shoot the video and then we go home. We have never done a video. We’re going into it without any expectations. It's bizarre that we are doing a video and it will be put on TV. It’s all new to us. I’m trying to sit back and let it settle in. Jay Martin, the guy that actually directed The Plain White T’s video is doing it. He’s also done a Death Cab For Cutie video and A Burning Brides video. He’s really talented and we’re really excited.

What’s the concept of the video?

It all black and white and it going to be shot like it was an old handheld crank camera. It will end up looking kind of like an old vampire movie. It takes place in a cathedral. There a lot of special effects. We wanted something that was going to be very visually striking. We’re actually filming it in front of a green screen. We’re all big movie fans, so for us to be standing in front of a movie screen is so cool.

Where will everyone be able to check it out?

It will be on FUSE. I’m sure there will be a link on our website too.

Do you know when it will be available?

We go home for a few weeks and then we go out on tour with Emery and Gym Class Heroes. We are so excited about that tour! Emery is amazing and for Gym Class Heroes being a hip hop group it’s phenomenal. It’s going to be a really good tour. The video should probably be out by the time we start that tour, so about the beginning of September.

What are some of your influences?

We listen to a ton of different stuff. Nic listens to a lot of folk stuff like Wilco, and Bryan Adams. Bobby listens to a lot of Fiona Apple. Then we all grew up listening to like The Blood Brothers and so that’s a lot of the influence too.

So from my understanding on the Emery tour, you guys and Gym Class Heroes are alternating main support every other night, right?

Yeah, totally! I also think I’d like to have a more diverse tour like this one instead of everyone sounding the same.

You and Emery are both from Seattle, so are they good buddies of yours?

We played with Emery right when they moved to Seattle, years and years ago. We played with them once and I remember they just moved there and I heard they were from Seattle. And I went up to Toby and a few of the other guys, and they were like “Howdy, Y’all!” I couldn’t believe that they were from there. And then after I found out they were from South Carolina it all made sense. It’s really cool that they moved up there and got the Tooth and Nail deal and now they are doing their thing.

So you guys just got done doing Warped Tour for the first time, how was that?

I had never ever been to Warped Tour my entire life so I had no idea what to expect. And then the first day came around and I was looking around and it blew me away – how much goes into something like that. It was such a great experience though meeting all the bands and all the people. Being on Warped Tour is how we met Emery, and how we met Matchbook Romance who we are touring with in the fall. It was defiantly an experience and a lot of hard work and I don’t feel like we recovered from it. I defiantly think it was a worthwhile experience for sure.

What do you think the best part of being on the tour was?

Everybody was so nice and then getting to see different bands play all the time. Like I had no idea who Bedouin Soundclash was. They were one of my favorites to watch everyday. The Bled… Being around good people and good bands would be the best thing

What was the worst part?

Awww man… There were a lot of things that were like I have to do this again. I would have to say the heat. We did this streak of days that were Kansas City, Three dates in Texas, Las Cruces and Phoenix. It was so hot. The heat was probably the worst.

Were you guys in a van?

Our tour bus never showed up! We got to the first day and our tour bus was supposed to be there. And 9 o’clock came and it still wasn’t there yet. And then at one point we were like, we’ll just wait around and then when all the buses leave, the one left must be ours. We ended up doing the whole three weeks in the van. We’ve been through a lot worse.

So what other plans do you guys have after the Emery tour?

After the Emery tour we head out to the east coast and we have about 3 ½ weeks with Lovedrug, Armor For Sleep and Matchbook Romance. Were really looking forward to that. That should finish off the year and we’ll go home to take some time off and do a little demo-ing and start back up touring in the beginning of next year.

Do you have any other final comments?

Go pick up Volcano. And Bear VS. Shark’s Terrorhawk – That record is amazing. The new Circa Survive record is amazing. There are a lot of new records to go buy!